A buddy has been trying
to find the ‘perfect’ solution
to her problem
for months now.

Perfect solutions
are no brainers.
They require no decisions.
It is easy to lead
when all solutions you have
to choose from
are ‘perfect.’
You can’t lose.

The thing is…
the perfect solution
is a myth.
Any solution provided
will have its pro’s and con’s.

Deciding the best solution
out of a selection of imperfect solutions
requires skill and confidence.

THAT is where leadership comes in.

Part of new product launches
is looking at what if scenarios.
What if the competitor
drops their price?
What if they launch
their competing product first?
What if the economy
tanks/improves/stays neutral?

These are things we can’t control.
I spend very little time on them.
What I do spend time on
is our reaction.
That we CAN control.

Lori Ann LaRocco
talks about this in her Forbes post.

“A great example is
Steve Sadove at Saks.
He said while he couldn’t control
the buying habits
of the consumer
during the height of the crisis,
the one thing he could control
was inventory.
He and his team
then took the necessary steps
to tackle that problem
through discounts and
also cut back on ordering
for the next season.”

Focus on what you can control.

I’ve been enjoying reading
the numerous predictions
about how iPad is going to eat Kindle’s lunch
on eReaders.

Why?

Because analysts are making
a classic new product launch mistake.
They are assuming that
the competition will do nothing
in reaction to the launch.

They’re assuming the competition
doesn’t drop prices
or launch an improved product
or… or… or…

That’s silly.
Of course, the competition
is going to react.
Of course, the iPad won’t be launching
under the current conditions.

That’s why there’s secrecy around launches,
why change has to be large,
why it helps if that change is ownable
by the launching company.

Assume your competition reacts
to your launch…
because they will.

Stephen Shapiro has studied
goal orientated behavior and creativity.

The results?

“The more creative the work,
the less motivation required
to hit peak levels of performance.
Studies reveal that creativity diminishes
when individuals are rewarded
(externally motivated)
for doing their work.
Why?
The desire to achieve the goal
overtakes the personal interest in the endeavor.
A myopic focus on the outcome
overshadows the intellectual stimulation
of the process.
As a result, risk taking becomes reduced
and creativity vanishes.”

That is why
often companies separate the creativity process
and action taking
(either with different people,
a lag in time between the two parts,
or by some other means).

We come up with ideas, simply ideas.
We test them using concept and idea screeners.
Eventually we take action.
But the two processes are separated.

This is what happens in the writing world too.
An established author will flesh out
several ideas,
pitch them,
and months later, write one or two or all of them.
There is a lag.

Being creative and taking action on the same day
usually means less than original solutions.

There is a great article on Forbes.com
on how to bootstrap your business.

One of the brilliant suggestions
is to locate your business
next door to your biggest customer.

“Joel Ronning leaned on
a $40,000 credit card loan
to launch Tech Squared,
supplier of computer parts.
He located his office
next to his principal vendor’s warehouse.
That way he could ship
the morning’s orders
on the same day
without having to carry loads of inventory.”

There are more benefits
to being next door to your biggest customer.
When I was working at one of the big Cola companies,
our can supplier had a location next to the plant
we tested all our R&D at.
We’d often call them in for consultation
on packaging
which, of course, gave them
a clear advantage when bidding for the new business.

Location IS important.
Leverage it as best you can.

There are some very thoughtful posts
out there in blogland
about how the U.S. is on the brink of disaster.

I’m not going to talk that gloom and doom.
Why?

Because I’ve never seen change
as a bad thing.
Yes, the rules of the game are changing.
Yes, those sticking to the old rules
will be hurt by this change.

But lets face it,
you and I are entrepreneurs.
We aren’t playing by the old rules.
We’re playing by the new rules
(and sometimes no rules at all).

We are small.
We are flexible.
We can play by one set of rules
this morning
and another set this evening.
Heck, we’ll play by any set of rules
allowing us to win.

And there WILL be winners,
likely as many winners as there are losers.
It is up to us
to decide which we’ll be.

A buddy wanted a change to happen.
There was resistance
(there always is).
The executive team said it wouldn’t work.
They didn’t want to allocate manpower to it.

So my buddy did it on her own time.
She didn’t do all of it.
It was too big of a project.
It would cost her
too much time and money.

What she did was
that part of the project
the powers to be
thought would fail.

The first try did fail.
So did the second.
She tweaked after each attempt.
Finally she had it consistently working.

THEN she presented it
to the executive team.
She got buy in for the entire project
and the rest is company history.

If your company is failure unfriendly,
if you can,
test high risk parts of your project
on your own time.

China Market Research Group
recently studies billionaires
to determine
what differentiates them
from non-billionaires.

There were 3 core differences.
One of them was
that billionaires look at opportunities
from different angles,
many more different angles
than the average person.

“They recognized
that everyone else believing
or doing something
didn’t make it right.
But being a contrarian
for the sake of being contrary
was no solution either.”

They thought critically
about problems
and as critically about the solutions.

Solutions… plural.
There is never only one.

When I had my first romance novel published,
I asked
what sales were expected from a first time author.
No one would give me an answer.

As a result,
I struggled for years
with a product that wasn’t working.
I wasn’t happy.
My publisher wasn’t happy.

I’m now playing with another genre.
I asked my new publisher
what level of sales was expected
from a new author.
She told me.
My sales are double that.
I know I have myself a winner.
I’m writing a sequel.

Benchmarks are important.
They let you know
if a product or marketing program or ???
is jiving with the prospect.
If the product doesn’t come close,
you know to concentrate on something else.
If a product blows the lights out,
you know to consider expanding the line.

Without benchmarks,
you’re wandering in the wilderness
and usually end up wasting everyone’s time and energy.

A brand new author,
wrapped up in the excitement
of her first book release,
used an incorrect term
when describing her publisher.
It upset the publisher
and upset many, many authors.

It didn’t upset me.
What upset me was the reaction.
The new author was named
and
people jumped all over her.

For making a mistake.

I didn’t
because I’ve made many, many mistakes.
I plan to continue making
many, many mistakes
and I would prefer that
no one sends me hateful emails
when I do.

Unless you’re an absolutely perfect person,
cut other people some slack
when they make mistakes.