Project 1440

Profiles in Success - Entrepreneurial Competence Part 2

2009-06-24T20:05:00.001-04:00

Given the constraints of time, we couldn't pursue these additional traits with any degree of detail. What follows are the remaining characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. We will weave a more detailed description of each over the next two weeks as we discuss the ownership demands of each growth stage.

Planning Orientation - what are the components?

Information Seeking
Goal Setting
Systematic Planning and Monitoring

Information Seeking - what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

personally seeks information from clients, suppliers, and competitors
does personal research on how to provide a product of service
consults experts for business or technical data

Goal Setting - what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

sets goals and objectives that are personally meaningful and challenging
articulates clear and specific long range goals
sets measurable short term objectives

Systematic Planning and Monitoring - what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

plans by breaking large tasks down into time-constrained sub-tasks
revises plans in light of feedback on performance or changing circumstances
keeps financial records and uses them to make business decisions

Influence Choices - what are the components?

Persuasion and Networking
Independence and Self-Confidence

Persuasion and Networking - what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

uses deliberate strategies to influence or persuade others
uses key people as agents to accomplish own objectives
acts to develop and maintain business contacts

Independence and Self-Confidence - what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

seeks autonomy from rules or control of others
sticks with own judgment in the face of opposition or early lack of successful
expresses confidence in own ability to complete a difficult task or meet a challenge

Given this exercise of digging deep into our knowledge base, we will design a quick survey for anyone interested in assessing where they stand on the competencies. Look for a post on this topic in the next few days.

Profiles in Success - Entrepreneurial Competence

2009-06-24T14:04:00.000-04:00

Good Day, this is rutter radio – your guide to fast and sustainable business growth. It is 0600 eastern or -4 GMT on 24JUN09 and the show is about Profiles for Success – Entrepreneurial Competence.

I am William Eastman, your host and Managing Partner for US Operations at Applied KnowledgeLabs, the show is hosted from our Atlantic Regional Office located in Richmond, Virginia.

You can join the conversation by clicking chat now link on our program page or call in at 347.215.7471.

The majority of our focus is on trainable skills because why discuss things you cannot change? However we would be guilty of malpractice if we didn't address the characteristics or traits of successful entrepreneurs.

But first some background. I had the opportunity to work with the United Nations Development Programmes in the 1990's. One of their initiatives was a program called Empretec, helping small business thrive and secure financing for growth. While engaged in one of our business development incubators, I had a blinding flash of the obvious – entrepreneurship is a calling and we have more in common with each other than our own families.

As part of the process, we had screen hundreds of applicants for just 30 positions. That was my introduction into the research on the traits and personal characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. What follows are those traits of success.

Achievement Motivated
Planning Orientation
Influence Choices

Our show is only 30 minutes in duration, so I will cover just the Achievement Cluster and check out our Chief Growth Officer blog for the remainder of the information.

Achievement Motivated – what are the components?

Opportunity Seeking & Initiative
Risk Taking
Demand for Efficiency and Quality
Persistence
Commitment to the Work Contract

Opportunity Seeking & Initiative – what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

does things before being asked or forced by events
acts to extend the business into new areas, products, and/or services
seizes unusual opportunities to start a new business, obtain financing, equipment, land, work space or assistance

Risk Taking – what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

deliberately calculates risks and evaluates alternatives
takes action to reduce risks or control outcomes
places self in situations involving a challenge or moderate risk

Demand for Efficiency and Quality – what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

finds ways to do things better, faster, different, or cheaper
acts to do things that meet or exceed standards of excellence
develops or uses procedures to ensure work is completed on time or that work meets agreed upon standards of quality

Persistence – what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

takes action in the face of a significant obstacle
takes repeated actions or switches to an alternative approach to meet a challenge or overcome an obstacle
takes personal responsibility for the performance necessary to achieve goals and objectives

Commitment to the Work Contract – what are the behaviors you would see as evidence?

strives to keep customers satisfied and places long term good will over short term gain
pitches in with workers or in their place to get the job done
makes a personal sacrifice or expands extraordinary effort to complete a job

Well, we have just a few minutes left, so lets review.

Go to our blog and review the list. Be honest with yourself, how many of these behaviors do you exhibit daily? over the space of a week? and how well do you perform it?

We will loop back around on this list over the next week when we discuss the demands of ownership/leadership by each growth stage.

Thanx for listening, check out our support materials. The transcript of today's show will be available in the afternoon.

This is William Eastman, your host at rutter radio, have a great business day.

Laws of Business and Gravity

2009-06-24T11:16:00.001-04:00

the rutter Program Notes – 23JUN09 0600 (-4UTC)

This is the rutter radio live on BlogTalkRadio, I am William Eastman, Managing Partner for US Operations at Applied KnowledgeLabs.

Today's show is the first in a series of 8 shows based upon our upcoming book - the code4growth – the revolution of business ownership.

You talk with us directly by clicking “chat now” or dial in at 347.215.7471.

Yesterday we briefly covered today's agenda, the Laws of Business. Like the Laws of Physics, there are business rules that are universal and violated at your own risk.

3 major Laws of Business

Systems
Cycles
Control

Systems: treating/improving one part of the business doesn't mean a fix for all, a company's performance is the sum of the parts – a sum of it's processes.

Cycles: all living objects are influenced by the cycle of birth, growth, decline, and death; companies are nothing more than social networks organized for economic purposes and live under the same rules.

Control: the issue is not whether to control or not control, it is about what to control; all systems require methods of control to survive and thrive.

Systems (and Processes)

Financial – end of period measures used to evaluate past performance, and real-time measures that link decisions to current performance.
Strategy – creation and enhancement of brand through a yearly plan, and aligning the organization to achieve the plan objectives.
Sales – acquisition of new accounts, and growth within existing accounts and reestablishing relationships with former customers.
Production – production of products and/or execution of services, and development of new products and services.
Relationships – bringing in new players (employees, partners, suppliers), and managing the performance of existing relationships.

Cycles

Dream2Plan – identification of competitive advantage in a targeted market, selection of a business model to exploit competitive advantage, creation of brand identity, build first product/service, quick to market.
Go-Live – create brand identity, reduce risks of purchasing from new company through executive selling, find marquee accounts, create sufficient and predictable cash flow.
Next Act – reevaluate competitive advantage, business model, and brand identity; create growth plan, determine capacity improvements, allocate budget, upgrade operations.
Big Fast – scrutinize costs, accounts receivable, quality defects, and service complaints; focus on maximizing efficiencies.
Stable – eliminate unnecessary costs, upgrade policies and procedures, maximize all margins; decide on the future – sell, reinvent, or decline?
Reinvent – unlock innovation within the company; team employees with customers, suppliers, and subject matter experts to upgrade/create new products and services and/or upgrade internal processes.

Control by Stage

Direct Supervision – only the owner can transform the dream/business idea into reality, owner as the hub of a wheel, active engagement in all aspects of the startup.
Direct Supervision – owner directly supervises core processes – sales and financials, owner is engaged in the sales process either as lead salesperson or used strategically by sales force to build relationships.
Process – owner creates intermediate management/supervision, focuses this group on creating best practices for all processes to optimize resources.
Results – owner focuses on metrics identified in strategic plan and manages next level through results against goal.
Team Work – bringing together subject matter experts and stakeholders to innovate all essential aspects of the business.

This seems like allot of information, but it really isn't. If you read between the lines, each growth stage has it's own situational and specific demands on the business owner and executives. That is why our approach is take it one at a time and simply a winning Growth2Capacity plan.

Remember to checkout tomorrows broadcast on the characteristics of successful entrepreneurship. I will recount our experiences with building businesses around the world.

BlogTalkRadio

2009-06-22T10:03:00.001-04:00

AKLabs is happy to announce it's latest knowledge service to our readers, clients, and partners - BlogTalkRadio. We are adding to audio our media platform, click on the link above and check it out. Currently we broadcasting live @0600 USEastern (-4 UCT) to test out the service and our platform. You can tune in live or download the mp3 for listening at your convenience.

Here is our scheduled programming for the next two weeks:

22JUN09 - Intro to the rutter: rutter: likely from French routier and Dutch ruiter, meaning "something that finds a way", A guide who leads the way through a difficult or unknown course. Bring onboard your own CGO4Hire (Chief Growth Officer), gain the insights to grow your business from zero to a billion.
23JUN09 - Laws of Business and Gravity: This is first in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; what are the laws of business that operate with the effectiveness of gravity.
24JUN09 - Profiles of Success - Entrepreneurial Competence: This is second in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.
25JUN09 - Turning Your Dream Into a Winning Plan: This is third in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; Growth Stage I - Dream2Plan.
26JUN09 - Cash is King: This is fourth in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; go-live - starting fast and making money, sell-sell-sell.
29JUN09 - After Catching Your Breath, What Now? What Next? This is fifth in a series of 8 shows based on eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; stage III - you have survived and proved both the business idea and your ability to manage the chaos, what is next beside catching your breath.
30JUN09 - Big Fast - Growing2Capacity: This is sixth in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; stage IV, time to repay your investment - making the business finally produce results for customers, employees, and yourself.
1JUL09 - Your Future - Sell, Decline, or Reinvent: This is seventh in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; stage V - reaching your first plateau and rethinking the end game - do you sell, sit on your laurels, or go for it again?
2JUL09 - Path to Market Dominance: This is last in a series of 8 shows based upon eastman's upcoming book - the code - on how you can manage business growth; stage VI - reinvention of the business and taking the path to market leadership or domination.
3JUL09 - Rules of the Road - Fast Growth and Your Business: What are the best practices of fast and sustainable growth companies? How did they defy the odds? Most business experts conform to a theory of "thirds": Of all the new business startups, 1/3 eventually turn a profit, 1/3 break even, and 1/3 never leave a negative earnings scenario. Only 2/3 of all small business startups survive the first two years and less than half make it to four years. Only 1 in 400 make it from their first reinvention to a billion in revenue.

Bring onboard your own CGO4Hire (Chief Growth Officer), gain the insights to grow your business from zero to a billion.

Open Source Principles - Web 2.0

2009-03-04T14:50:00.005-05:00

"give your service away from free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc., then offer premium added services or an enhanced version of your service to the customer base".... known as Collective User Value

"users self-select along multiple personal dimensions, categories of preference, utility, social interest, and experience. Pay-per-click, click-to-call, web analytics, and click streams making it easier to reach individual online clusters directly with targeted or complimentary offers"

I was just reviewed a couple of books on the success and future of web 2.0. What struck me is this represents an excellent example of an open source philosophy and business model.

What if you built a company around core accounts (customers) and suppliers using a similar model? Wouldn't this guarantee a superior offer when compared to competitors and couldn't you create an organization that is genetically the lowest cost producer?

The Open Source Corporation - 2

2009-03-02T20:50:00.003-05:00

Scene Two

It is 10 years ago and I am doing productivity improvements at Delphi Automotive Systems working the rules of “lean manufacturing.” To most people in the business it represents one of the numerous variations on total quality management of Deming, Jarrand, and et.al. Ed Northern EVP of Manufacturing at Delphi had just arrived from General Electric and Jack Welch to deal with Delphi’s imminent separation from the General Motors family to operate independently as the world’s largest tier one supplier. The problem with lean at Delphi was the numerous in-house and outsourced suppliers in Canada, United States, and Mexico. The challenge: how to integrate geographically dispersed operations when half are not under your control!

Scene Three

It is 8 years ago and we are negotiating (our consulting business unit – Blanchard Solutions Group) a large, multiyear license of our intellectual property to the largest electrical contracting company in the United States. How do we price our multi-million dollar library? Can they customize it? And who owns it? How do we continuously improve the content and materials when the authors are resistant to change (and have a legitimate issue around quality and integrity of their brand) and unmovable when sharing royalties?

Scene Four

7 years ago at a fast growing bio-pharmaceutical company starts outsourcing non-core operations to keep it focused on FDA approvals and help the balance sheet by reducing overhead. We (I) become their outsourced Human Resource department. The net effect is we find it harder to affect strategy then when our relationship was as an external resource. They become more circumspect about sharing information or listening to ideas. BTW, we were hired for our expertise and track record for ensuring human resources is a key component of competitive advantage.

These situations are real and ongoing to those of us working as OD consultants, handled client to client, situation by situation. However, I was observing a pattern that was at first indiscernible and only revealed over time. The details brought into view the challenge of an outsourced yet integrated operation.

A business where a collection of businesses, each focused on respective core competence, fully integrated in an “open source” environment, providing incredible value by offering a complete and unique value proposition – high product quality, incredible buying and servicing experience, and at an industry-leading price.

Project 1440, the year Gutenberg created the printing press and revolutionized the value proposition for knowledge, is our guild of information>knowledge>insight providers seeking to change the consulting industry.

Interested?

The Open Source Corporation

2009-03-02T20:47:00.002-05:00

I write this with much trepidation. Unlike the typical business book that tries to describe what is – mine is much more ambitious – what will be. I do not purport or practice any type of mysticism, a glance into the future. My claim is far more modest (and dangerous); after 30 years in the consulting business – my intuition has been right most times. I have forecasted in conversations with clients and colleagues the rational extension of current trends. We have all done this only to be disappointed by our own inaction – “I could have done that.”

The difference here is the lack of theory. Oh, I will support every idea and opinion with facts, but the book is not written for you; it is written for me and is the script for an essential component of our startup – the open source knowledge guild. I will relate the good, the bad, and the ugly as I build one of the first true open source corporation. I can only hope you learn as much as I do.

Scene One
The idea first came to me when reading a story on Linus Tovards – the kernel that grew the fruit known as Linux. I read his story of building software that openly shares the operating code and therefore it’s intellectual property. What a departure from the history of software development at Microsoft and Apple. Both organizations jealously guarded their “codex” to preserve intellectual property rights. Although Microsoft did share it with carefully selected partners, Apple did not and the outcome in this tightly controlled market is Microsoft 92 – Apple 8.

However, what Tovards was suggesting was radically different – intellectual property rights replaced by the public commons. The question I asked myself as a businessman and confirmed capitalist – how do they make money?