Category: Corporate Games

When doing competitive analysis,
a business analyst’s best friend
is the public reporting requirements.

Private companies don’t have to report details
such as store openings or revenue growth to the public.
Subsidiaries of public companies
can also hide under the mother company’s umbrella.
Public companies, however, are required
to expose much of their normally proprietary information
to anyone with access to the financial reports.
In the internet age,
that means everyone,
including the competition.

Paul House,
outgoing CEO of doughnut company Tim Hortons,
talks about the challenges
with no longer being a subsidiary of a larger company
(Wendy’s).

“There’s more disclosure,
your competition knows more about you and
that’s certainly a disadvantage.”

In a Shoestring Branding post
on personal branding, 
readers are reminded to host blogs
on a special URL
(either in a sub-directory or sub-domain). 

Why? 

Because even when developing
a personal branding strategy,
there should be room for expansion. 

The average person
lives for 67 years.
That is twice as long as Microsoft
has been in existence. 
Does your plan reflect that?   

When I listen to business leaders,
one of the things I like to do is
count how many times they use
“we” and “our” in their presentations.  
“We” is used so often
that it has to be intentional. 

Why use “we”? 
“We” is inclusive. 
“We” immediately draws people into your team. 

When I sell,
whether a product to a customer or
myself to a potential employer,
I use “we” and “our.” 
I ask “when is our month end” or
“what do we need to accomplish with this product?” 

It immediately takes me from being outside to inside.   

A friend of mine,
very successful in her own field,
is married to an executive.
  
At his company parties,
she promotes her husband’s causes, 
hears the concerns of his major customers, 
evaluates the promotability of his employees,
and at the end of the night, 
presents her findings.  

She is an extension of her executive husband.  
She is also typical. 

When you meet the CEO’s spouse,
assume that she’s representing him.   
Assume that everything you say (good or bad)
will be relayed back to him. 

Because it will. 

Note: 
At her company parties,
their roles are reversed. 
Don’t underestimate executive husbands either.

If you plan on achieving something great
(and if you’re not,
why the hell are you reading this blog?),
then prepare to be rejected. 
It is part of the process. 

Who will reject you? 
Don’t worry,
there are plenty of people lining up for that pleasure…
customers, partners, employers, your Mother. 

One person should not be in that line-up,
however,
and that person is you. 
Don’t pre-reject yourself.  
That is not your job. 
Your job is to try and try and try again
until you get past the rejection. 

Elizabeth Gilbert’s advice
to aspiring writers puts it better. 
  
“Magazines, editors, agents –
they all employ young people making $22,000 a year
whose job it is to read through piles of manuscripts and
send you back letters telling you
that you aren’t good enough yet:
LET THEM DO IT.
Don’t pre-reject yourself.
That’s their job, not yours.
Your job is only to write your heart out,
and let destiny take care of the rest.” 

It is so easy to do “busy work.” 
Things that take time but
don’t really accomplish anything. 
It is my most frequent way to procrastinate. 

That is why goal setting is essential. 
If goals aren’t achieved,
then there hasn’t been any true effort. 

Mark Cuban puts it better…
“It would have been easy to judge effort
by how many hours a day passed
by while I was at work.
That’s the worst way to measure effort.
Effort is measured by setting goals
and getting results.”

Chief Restructuring Officers have a tough job. 
 
The companies hiring them are
in deep financial trouble and 
as turnaround specialist Randy Benson states
“People have to come to grips with the fact
that there isn’t enough to go around, and
they’re going to have to compromise.” 

How to reach this compromise?
 
Surprisingly the time pressures help.  
“Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging in the morning”
is Calin Rovinescu’s favorite saying and
nothing gets a decision made like a clock ticking. 

My favorite Warren Buffett quote is
“Somebody once said that
in looking for people to hire,
you look for three qualities: 
integrity, intelligence, and energy. 
And if they don’t have the first,
the other two will kill you. 

You think about it;
it’s true. 
If you hire somebody without the first, 
you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” 

I recently saw this in action.  
A friend went into business with
a highly intelligent, immensely energetic
yet ethically challenged partner.  
He thought the man’s brilliance
would offset his lack of scruples
and it worked…
for a while. 

Until the partner figured out
that stealing my friend’s identity
was much easier than building a business. 

When I started my career, 
older partners at the accounting firm
insisted that women wear skirts,
instead of pants suits. 
It was seen as more formal, respectful. 

Then I joined a manufacturing company. 
First day on the job,
a female manager complimented me on my skirt. 
Before I could say thank you,
she added “never wear it again.” 

Wearing a skirt or high heels meant
if there was inventory to be counted,
or a labor dispute with the line workers,
or a capital calculation requiring first hand observation, 
someone else would be chosen. 
I couldn’t do my job while wearing a skirt.  

Never let your sense of fashion
hurt your career.

A coworker came up to me last week
and announced “I got that rush check done.” 
Was the rush check for me? 
No. 
Did I have anything to do with this special request? 
No. 

Then why was she telling me this? 

Because she wanted acknowledgment and
in our group, I’m known for giving it. 
All she wanted was a “Wow, that’s great”
but she wanted it enough
to go out of her way to ask for it. 

Be free with acknowledgments.
Their powers don’t lessen with quantity. 

As Judith W. Umlas,
author of The Power Of Acknowledgment,
states
“Rarely given acknowledgements
have no more value than frequent ones.”