For most Oil and Gas (O&G) service companies, marketing works like this. You put money into it, and if it works, you get some leads. Marketing is an ongoing expense. Stop spending, and you stop getting results.
Sales work much the same way. The biggest difference is it is primarily composed of people. If customers are spending somewhere and you want more sales, you either motivate your sales team a little more or hire additional sales people.
There are two common types of sales people everyone talks about - hunters and farmers. Hunters bring in new clients, and farmers get the most from existing customers. These are active sales functions.
We often overlook the third type.
Order-takers respond to requests from purchasers in the buying stage. They may already be clients who trust you or you may be selling a commodity. Order-takers don’t have to add much value to a transaction to make it happen. The key here is that we often confuse order-taking with farming.
Orders that come in without the extra effort required for hunting or farming are a bit like passive income. They are assets you’ve created through earlier sales efforts, goodwill, relationships, and delivering on your value. As long as you maintain them, the business keeps coming. Not every business is in this position.
Most service companies have at least a basic website. You might also have company literature and some product brochures online and in print. These are minimalistic assets and, generally, provide little return. Most times they just reinforce the credibility of the sales teams.
Some of you may have tried generating regular online content, such as blogs or videos. You may be somewhat active in social media. The same applies to one-time SEO optimization projects. Again, results are sporadic and drop off when the activity stops.
The same goes for advertising, public relations (PR), and events. You spend, then awareness and some leads happen. You stop spending, and the results end.
These tactics either produce low-yielding assets or act as recurring expenses.
In the last post, I talked about ideal clients, personas, and understanding the buyer’s journey. When you shift your marketing from broad to highly targeted educational pieces, you increase the likelihood of creating ongoing engagement with a prospect.
These educational pieces are valuable enough that prospects are willing to exchange some basic contact information for them. They could include eBooks, white papers, case studies, checklists, etc.
Then you provide free content via blogs or video blogs that drive traffic to your website. A call to action offers your educational pieces in exchange for contact information.
You then promote your content and educational pieces via social media, your email lists, etc. Ultimately, you are going to drive traffic through search as well.
The end game is to automate the response process using an integrated marketing tool and email campaigns. The key is, this is not a generic newsletter or random content. The content is highly targeted based on the persona and how they’ve interacted with your marketing assets. They will want to consume this content because they are interested.
You now have a marketing factory that generates qualified leads. If you stopped putting resources into it, you would still generate leads. Just like a real factory, you have to spend time maintaining and improving it.
It becomes a growing asset.
At its final stage of elegance, the marketing and sales automation and teams work seamlessly together.
As prospects interact with your marketing assets, they start accumulating points. When they hit a trigger, your sales team can reach out to them directly to assist them through the rest of the buying process.
The sales team can see every interaction with the marketing tools within their CRM. So, that first call is not cold. It is well informed and ready to be helpful.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” ~ Unknown (often incorrectly attributed to Albert Einstein)
This meme is only true if nothing external is impacting your business. The other reality is, in a changing world, you SHOULD expect a change in results if you keep doing the same thing over and over. In most cases, that change is not good for your business. Your competitors will replace you.
I don’t want to give the impression that pulling off a full-fledged, integrated marketing and sales system is easy or trivial. But, it is now within the budget of most small to medium service companies.
Now you know what is possible. What will you do next?
Sunwapta Solutions is a Benefactor member with the Oilfield Hub. This article was originally published in the December edition of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: To Win, Understand Your Buyers Better Than Anyone Else STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: to-win-understand-your-buyers-better-than-anyone-else CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2017/02/to-win-understand-your-buyers-better-than-anyone-else.html DATE: 02/22/2017 03:33:44 PM ----- BODY:Ultimately buyers are responsible for making wise purchases. However, they usually need help. That is your opportunity to understand them and their buying journey.
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When buyers don’t know how to differentiate their vendors or the solutions they provide, they focus on price.
It is easy to blame vendors for not making things clear in their marketing and sales literature. How many buyers know what questions to ask a supplier, so the important differences are evident?
To get the results you want, purchasers need to define their real buying criteria. When you buy for the wrong reasons or can’t implement effectively, you won’t get the maximum value from those products or services.
This gap raises an opportunity for vendors.
Shrewd vendors make sure they make it easy for prospects and customers to buy from them. They help them get to the root of what matters and then align the proper product or service to the specific need.
They do this by meeting the prospects where they are in the buyer’s journey and helping them through the process. They help clients get maximum value from their purchases. They aren’t just order-takers.
Customers find you because you know the buyers better than anyone else.
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The earlier you can become involved in the buyer’s journey, the more likely you are to start adding value and guiding the process. I use the word guiding intentionally. You might have some influence, yet the client makes the final decision. As well, guides have the best interests of the customer in mind.
It is important to note that a prospect may not reach out to you early in the journey. The buying journey is also not linear. In fact, it can be quite complicated. The buyer controls the process more than ever, so meeting them where they are is a smart marketing and sales strategy.
So let’s look the three stages from a high level (definitions from HubSpot).
The buyer is aware they are experiencing some problems or symptoms. At this point, they aren’t even sure what the underlying problem or opportunity is. They are looking at possibilities.
In my experience, the majority of business-to-business companies don’t market to the awareness stage at all. Most of the rest don’t have a conversion strategy for that content. Only 3-10% of your possible customers are currently in active buying mode or close to it. At that point, prospects have already been talking to your competitors. Ignoring the awareness stage leaves 90% of your ideal clients out of your day-to-day marketing.
Your marketing would address the awareness stage through content aimed at helping pin down the problem. You would not promote your specific products, solutions, or company at this time. You are providing education at a broader industry or solution category level. You might create a short eBook about evaluating common production problems with wells in a particular type of formation. This stage of the journey is excellent for building trust because you are not actively selling anything, yet you are adding value.
If they reach out to the sales team for assistance, remember that they are looking for help figuring out the scope of the problem. Jumping to a solution too soon will do one of two things:
At this stage, marketing and sales should focus on helping the prospect get clear about their problem and what the benefits will be to solving it.
The buyer is now clear on what the problem is, and they are looking to see how they could solve it. Note that they still aren’t looking for a particular solution. This step is more about the available approaches and options.
Your marketing content should now focus on categories of solutions. You might write a whitepaper comparing the relative success and costs of re-stimulating wells using several conventional and non-conventional approaches.
You are helping the buyer pick the right type of solution for their problem, even if it isn’t you. Filtering out the prospects that will not buy is just as important. Long maybes drain valuable resources on the way to no.
The buyer has now picked a specific type of solution and is evaluating the best combination of vendor, product, and service. If you were involved in the previous stages either through your marketing automation and assets or via contact with your sales team, you have a leg up on the competition.
You have already established trust. And if your earlier materials were educational and helpful, they helped determine the buying criteria.
Your content for the decision stage is more about your specific solutions and your company. Buyers are choosing between several similar solutions so now you can talk about your specific solutions and products.
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Most companies don’t set the buying criteria all that well. They buy and pay for features they will never use. They evaluate proposals on the wrong things.
We see this often in the marketing space in dealing with small and mid-sized companies. The business owner looks at price, who else has bought your services, what features they will get, and if they get a good vibe from sample sites. They might even get a few team members involved. But because they are not clear what business results they want, they are committing to the luck of the draw.
There are a lot of other factors that go into attracting your ideal client including targeting specific decision makers and influencers. Creating great content that gets results is both an art and science.
Making your marketing and sales work well together takes effort and consistency.
When you understand who you want to attract and support those people through the entire buying process, you are more likely to avoid the race to the pricing bottom.
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Sunwapta Solutions is a Benefactor member with the Oilfield Hub. This article was originally published in the December edition of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Ultimately buyers are responsible for making wise purchases. However, they usually need help. That is your opportunity to understand them and their buying journey. ----- KEYWORDS: Buyers Journey, Marketing, Value, Buyer, Vendor, Awareness Stage, Consideration Stage, Decision Stage, ROI, Results, Customer, Marketing Strategy, Client ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 3 Times You Really Need a Good Financial Model STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 3-times-you-really-need-a-good-financial-model CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2017/02/3-times-you-really-need-a-good-financial-model.html DATE: 02/09/2017 07:37:00 AM ----- BODY:Running out of cash is the biggest risk a growing business faces. There are three instances when the risk is much higher.
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We’ve been in business for over 16 years. I’ve been studying what makes businesses successful (or not) for much of that time. These are the lessons I’ve picked up.
You have a much better chance of survival if you can anticipate problems with your business strategy, planning, and operations. Unfortunately, many business owners rely on very simple projections and assumptions when planning. Guessing leads to poor decisions based on overly optimistic or inaccurate numbers.
A sound financial model can help you:
Here are three scenarios where you really should have a good financial model.
Most start-up planning is pure fantasy. You have no track record, so you make a bunch of assumptions and forecast your financials for 3-5 years or more. You might use some business planning software to fill in the numbers and perform some of the calculations for you.
A much better approach is for someone who knows the realities of your business and can set up a better model based on what other companies like yours have done. This model can incorporate industry benchmarks as well. For a realistic model, the inputs need to consider the management team’s strengths, your market, your offerings, and your ability to penetrate the market and gain enough market share to become profitable.
If you are a start-up in new, unexplored territory, use a model based on well-chosen comparison companies.
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Make sure your model contains results for your:
Many people ignore the “what if we are wildly successful?” scenario and therefore, are oblivious to the risks of unplanned, high-growth early in the business.
As a start-up, the model is still mostly speculation but building the model, or having one built for you, forces you to understand your business a lot better. This knowledge is invaluable to a budding entrepreneur.
A lot can go wrong very quickly during high growth. In general, you are adding a lot of new customers, employees, products, and services very quickly. With this many moving parts, there are a lot of fires to put out. You may miss the early signs of bigger problems thinking they are just growing pains.
If your bills (including payroll and rent) come due before you have the cash in the bank to pay them, you can become insolvent. This crisis can occur even if you are profitable on paper.
Additional volatility can happen if:
When you are opening a new location, starting a new line of business, or launching new products or services, it is essential that you understand the impact and risks.
If you have been in business for a while, you will either raise some capital or decide to finance the change out of existing cash and profits. It helps to think of an initiative like this as operating a start-up within your more mature business.
If you are also growing quickly, you have several considerations to factor in at the same time.
If you are a spreadsheet whiz and have enough financial and business experience you might be able to build this model yourself. If you are a mere mortal, you are probably better off having a professional involved. Don’t delegate and disappear though. You need to be involved.
Also, consider the impact of the various areas of your business and the current talent available in your organization. For instance, you might have big sales targets, but you might not have a lot of marketing or sales experience in your current team. Hiring and training take time.
It never hurts to get another set of eyes or three on your business plan and model. This input isn’t to derail you, but to make sure you have all the major factors in front of you. Just keep in mind that even a great model is not the real world.
Then you need to execute. Things will change. But with a good financial model and continuous tracking, you will be in a position to make better decisions.
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----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Running out of cash is the biggest risk a growing business faces. There are three instances when the risk is much higher. ----- KEYWORDS: Business, Financial Model, Business Planning, Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Start-up, High Growth ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla786@gmail.com IP: 68.145.99.4 URL: DATE: 02/09/2017 08:44:25 AM We often hear a business owner is wearing different hats one being of a CFO. That responsibility includes ensuring the business survives all challenges especially having adequate cash flow to operate the company. This was a good read, to see not only ways to avert a disaster but also observe changes in business that necessitate this tracking and measuring. Nice!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Ohler EMAIL: Dan@ESOPBuilders.com IP: 72.143.233.193 URL: http://www.ESOPBuilders.com DATE: 03/07/2017 03:48:14 PM Great article, Doug. From my own experiences I know that many entrepreneurs (myself included) get into business to do what we love to do. Unfortunately, we may miss the critical pieces you've shared. We may not bother to step into the finance manager's position, or the marketing manager's position or the operations manager's position. We can't be good at all three. It seems the only way sustainable growth can happen is to partner or hire people in those areas where the entrepreneur is weak. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/07/2017 03:55:45 PM Thanks Dan. Sometimes we are able to perform multiple roles, but really shouldn't. We don't have enough time to be masters of everything. Great delegation is the Achilles heal of many entrepreneurs. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: No Clients, Chickens or Eggs, and the Walking Dead STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: no-clients-chickens-or-eggs-and-the-walking-dead CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2017/01/no-clients-chickens-or-eggs-and-the-walking-dead.html DATE: 01/31/2017 07:48:00 AM ----- BODY:
I always find it sad to hear about an entrepreneur on the verge of losing their business.
I’ve been there. When you’ve put years into something, the feeling of loss can be devastating.
A nearby engineering firm used to employ close to 10 people. Last time we talked to them, they were down to two clients and two employees; part-time. They don’t even have a website. When times were good, they sold on the strength of their network and referrals. Now the owner was willing to spend some money on marketing to try to reach new opportunities.
They just found out they might lose one of their last clients.
The owner was despondent.
He needs clients desperately but is in the position of having no cash to pay for marketing or sales. He said, “It is a chicken and egg situation.”
In reality, it is a “We don’t have a chicken or an egg situation.”
The market has neither chickens nor eggs. The entrepreneur is relying totally on luck and external factors to turn things around. Other than hustle and hope they have nothing.
They are the walking dead.
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Obviously, you want to spend on marketing and sales before you get into this situation. However, when you are losing money, the tendency is to cut back to last a bit longer. This approach is natural but is also flawed.
The answer is not always spending on marketing (or sales) though.
I’ve seen totally dead real estate markets. Nothing was moving.
If no one is buying, you don’t have a viable market for your product or service. Your only choice is to find a viable market or find a different thing to sell.
Only when you’ve solved that problem does it make sense to spend on marketing.
Either way, you have to move fast. Walking just won’t do.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: If you are on the verge of losing your business should you invest money you don't have on marketing? I always find it sad to hear about an entrepreneur on the verge of losing their business. I’ve been there. When you’ve put years into something, the feeling of loss can be devastating. ----- KEYWORDS: Marketing, Marketing Budget, Finding Clients, Online Marketing ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Nasty Politics: 5 Emerging Trends to Watch in Marketing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: nasty-politics-5-emerging-trends-to-watch-in-marketing CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2017/01/nasty-politics-5-emerging-trends-to-watch-in-marketing.html DATE: 01/09/2017 03:56:44 PM ----- BODY:—
After one of the most bitterly fought primaries and general elections, the only thing I can predict with some certainty is that volatility is going to continue politically and we are going to feel the impact on business here in Alberta.
What I am seeing are some trends around branding, media, communications and marketing that we should all find disturbing. They play to our natural instincts and are therefore dangerous to critical thinking. They manipulate us into reacting instead of leading.
I happen to believe that “how you win” matters. There are a few times when that is not true. We are side-lining decency in our quest to win at all costs.
So how are the trends impacting us?
Fake news sites are popping up across the Internet. The cost of setting up a site is relatively small so just about anyone can do it. Some are state-sponsored propaganda engines. Some are conspiracy theory sites maintained by one obsessed person. Some are even trying to be legitimate but have no ability to verify facts. All have an agenda or motive.
The situation is made worse by the declining profitability of the established media companies. They just don’t have enough people and resources to investigate all the facts of every breaking story or to even cover all the stories.
Then you throw into the mix that one celebrity presidential candidate dominated the news by throwing out false, outrageous, and polarizing information multiple times every day. You have a situation when even well-intended media outlets can’t keep up.
With so much news out there, it becomes hard for people to filter out what is legitimate or not, so we fall back on our gut feelings about it. Repetition also fools our brains into creating reality. If it supports our beliefs, we are more inclined to treat it as real or at least partly true.
The way our brains are hardwired to process information creates this bias. We are bombarded with far more information than we can consciously process. So we develop patterns and shortcuts to filter in the stuff we think is important and filter out the stuff we aren’t concerned with or don’t believe.
Another trend during this polarizing election was people blocking others with opposing viewpoints and spending more time in discussions with groups who have similar views. Unlike the local community center where you had to put up with some oddballs, you can now filter, so you only see and react to people just like you.
Online trolling ranges from intentionally disrupting conversations to cyber-bullying, and everything in between. With this election, it became more common for people to troll others online. This trolling has become dangerous with people receiving a mix of racism, sexist slurs, threats of bodily harm and even death threats. Trolls don’t have to be local.
You can hire trolls in third world countries on the cheap. When you add that to the natural troll population, things get quickly out of hand.
What is becoming apparent is that the various interests have hired people to look for public, opposing conversations and then go and disrupt or discredit those opinions. This tactic is not very hard. You can search on most social media platforms for trending conversations. You post a bunch of canned content and draw the participants into a nasty debate. The reasonable people leave the conversation. No one wins but the troll.
Trolls organized by special interests amplify the propaganda machine because they coordinate the attacks.
Initially, the internet was seen as a way of enhancing the sharing of knowledge and opening up communication. It was going to transform the world for the better.
I also see another trend, the amplification of our base emotions.
Since we are wired for survival, fear and the fear of others outside of our tribe is one of our primary drivers for safety.
The most potent news and propaganda play on our base emotions. When added to all of the other trends you can see very quick upswings of viral content driven by anger, rage, and hate, rather than by facts and optimism.
This manipulation happens on all sides of the political spectrum.
When the economy is struggling we need inspiration and leadership, not more fear and hate.
I think we as marketers, communicators, and leaders can do better. Some lessons we can apply from the five trends include:
Above all, remember that manipulating emotions and creating a large aggressive base seldom works out well in the long run. Mobs are fickle.
Sunwapta Solutions is a Benefactor member with the Oilfield Hub. This article was originally published in the December edition of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: US election, politics, marketing, politics in marketing, fake news, trolls, marketing psychology, nasty politics, emerging trends in marketing ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David Cleland EMAIL: dcleland@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: DATE: 01/23/2017 12:11:37 PM It looks like you can add 'Alternative facts' to that list. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/23/2017 12:15:28 PM Unfortunately, you appear to be correct on that score. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Mystery in Marketing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-mystery-in-marketing CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/12/the-mystery-in-marketing.html DATE: 12/06/2016 10:00:00 AM ----- BODY:This month’s theme (Oilfield Pulse) is about conspiracy theories. This theme immediately got me reminiscing about the X-Files television series. It is possible, that somewhere behind all the woes we are facing as a province and industry, there is cigarette smoking man who is somehow in on it.
Or, maybe the truth is more mundane.
It could be that we still don’t have those pipelines because people don’t want them in their backyard for an abstract benefit like increased royalties going into Federal coffers. It could also be that, when times are good, we didn’t have to be all that efficient to make money. Or, it could be that we drove up the cost of labour in good times, and now with languishing oil prices, costs are still too high.
Having run a web development company for over 16 years, I do know there were times when we could not afford to hire local software developers. People who were getting paid $55K in Winnipeg could get paid $85K plus here in Calgary while good developers cost well over $100K after some local experience. At the time, oil and gas companies would gladly pay those rates to snatch them away. This single industry focus hampered diversification of the Alberta economy.
Still, it might be possible the radical environmentalists are infiltrating our governments at the highest level. It is entirely possible billionaire investors have disrupted things here so their investments elsewhere can produce bigger returns. Anything is possible, but the supporting intelligence data is way above my pay grade. I can only generate unproven theories.
The X-Files would have been just another cop show without the underlying theme of alien mystery and suspense.
And, that is how most companies brand themselves. They are rather dull.
This is what we do. This is who our senior management team is. We’ve been around for a long time. This is what we sell. We have the best people or service. Here is our catalogue.
Essentially, we are just like everyone else.
If your brand is boring, it makes it hard for your marketing to consistently deliver value. It makes it more difficult for your sales team to sell on anything but price and product.
He had a distinct personality. He was a quiet, brooding, problem solver who is also a bit of a rebel and willing to work outside of the rules.
What is your brand personality?
Groupon used to write all of their special deals in a fun and humorous style. They still do for some clients, but as they grew, they lost some of that brand personality to keep costs down.
In the book “Fascinate: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist” by Sally Hogshead, she talks about the seven archetypes or languages of fascination. Her model gives brand strategists and marketers another model or set of patterns to make it easier to pinpoint and customize a strategy for your business.
For example, mystique is the language of mystery, listening, and observation. It fits very well with the conspiracy theory theme this month. It includes creating curiosity, withholding some information, asking questions before giving answers, and building the mythology.
If you use mystique or mystery in a single marketing campaign, that is more of a tactic. To get the bigger benefit of a brand strategy, it needs to be implemented consistently over time. Even when you vary from the core briefly, the underlying strategy must be present in some recognizable way. You attract clients, because you are fascinating (and useful) to them.
This is why your brand also needs to be authentic. It is very difficult to live a brand over time that is inconsistent with who you are and what you stand for.
Your overall brand message, including your value proposition and your differentiation, become embedded in everything marketing and sales does. You understand your ideal clients. You develop your personas for each of those clients. Then, you consistently talk to those personas in the voice of your brand personality.
Most small and mid-sized businesses don’t have the luxury of having full-time brand managers, so it is critical your marketing company or team understands how to wrap brand strategy into the marketing strategy and then consistently implement it.
It is also essential that you step back and look at your marketing periodically to see if it is drifting from the strategy. This drift can happen easily as you get creative to catch your market’s attention and otherwise focus on shorter-term tactics.
Over time, it is the ability to bring together strategy, innovation, creativity, measurement, and consistently following a proven process that will increase your chance of marketing and overall business success.
Originally published in the November edition of the Oilfield Pulse
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fear, the Sounds of Silence, and Some Marketing Strategies STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: fear-the-sounds-of-silence-and-some-marketing-strategies CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/11/fear-the-sounds-of-silence-and-some-marketing-strategies.html DATE: 11/03/2016 10:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
Like many people, I’ve been following the U.S. election. It has become nasty and full of hate. The Internet, the media, and social media are amplifying the effect.
A year ago, we watched the Conservative Party try a few of those fear based tricks in the federal election. They ended up losing. Instead of the positives (we are all still here), much of the remembered legacy will be based on their leadership and communication styles.
Part of this is because we are wired pay attention to negatives much more strongly than positives. The old part of our brains (amygdala) keeps us alive by looking for threats. The problem is, most situations are no longer a matter of life and death, but our brains treat emotional stress just as seriously as a close grizzly bear encounter.
Over the past few months, I’ve heard of some businesses closing their doors, and many of those surviving are struggling or have downsized significantly.
The last thing Albertans need right now is more fear and stress.
Part of being in a democracy is the acceptance that the people chose the current government. So, the rest of the population lives with it while exercising their right to complain. Then, you get another shot when their terms end. I see no upside in attacking the people in the current ruling parties or devolving into the nastiness south of the border.
The NDP in Alberta got elected on a platform. Whether you see it as good or bad, they are implementing the key elements of that platform. We won’t see the full impact until 2017 and beyond.
The problem is that they envisioned most of the platform before the full effects of the economic downturn hit. The NDP party itself is made up of relatively inexperienced members due to the hold the PC party held for decades. Then, there was the distraction of the federal election. So, it took them some time to get the basics going.
But, it is now over a year later. I’ve been watching the news, and I see a critical problem.
Silence!
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
~ Paul Simon
We aren’t getting much information on what the NDP government (or the Liberals federally) is doing over the near-term to help boost the Alberta economy. Albertans don’t want EI. They want jobs and the ability to create viable businesses.
All great leaders and marketers know one thing: in the absence of information and communication people will make up stuff.
Social media, the Internet, and the media will amplify those rumours. Conspiracy theories will be quietly voiced and then gain momentum. Facts don’t matter as much if emotions are involved.
I was talking to a service business that has been around for over 20 years. They moved locations recently. One of their competitors started telling their clients that they had gone out of business. Those customers were worried. The competitor may have even genuinely believed it.
In bad times, it is important that you communicate more than normal. Communication includes your internal team and all of your external stakeholders and clients.
But, you don’t want to communicate for the sake of communicating. You want it to be relevant to the audience.
When things get tight, many businesses start to look for new products and services to jumpstart sales. They start trying to be everything to everyone. This approach usually backfires.
Unless you are Walmart, or otherwise have the scale to sell everything but the kitchen sink to thrive as a small or mid-sized business, you must stand for something.
It seems a bit counter-intuitive, like you are being cornered. You are not a politician. Being cornered like this is usually good for business.
More and more, people are looking for specialization and expertise. They are looking for solutions. If you have one thing that stands out, that is the best strategy. Most effective marketers will pare it down to one to three key areas of focus. You can offer your other solutions once you have increased the trust.
Some questions you can ask to help you narrow your focus:
The last four questions determine if your offering is viable right now. It is critical you lead with what opens the doors and can keep your doors open.
Once you narrow your offerings down and get selective about your ideal clients, you can use that focus to get a lot more mileage out of your marketing and sales budgets.
The other upside is that word of mouth is much stronger when you are the perceived expert in something. People start finding you.
Coincidentally, that this also the key hallmark of great inbound marketing. It amplifies the impact of you being the expert in one or a few key areas. More of the buying process is in your prospect’s hands than ever before. So, you put out great content that helps buyers through their journey of:
The goal is to make your business that trusted supplier. When they are ready to buy, you are the first choice. And, they feel great, because they found YOU.
People want to hear from you when you are helping them achieve their goals.
What are the biggest problems facing your clients right now? What are the significant challenges facing Albertans right now?
Solve those problems, and you will do well.
Originally published in the October edition of the Oilfield Pulse
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: Like many people, I’ve been following the U.S. election. It has become nasty and full of hate. The Internet, the media, and social media are amplifying the effect. A year ago, we watched the Conservative Party try a few... ----- KEYWORDS: marketing, business, economy, fear tactics, politics, alberta, ndp, government, Paul Simon, communication, marketing solutions ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Hidden Costs of Failing to Innovate in Sales STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-hidden-costs-of-failing-to-innovate-in-sales CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/10/the-hidden-costs-of-failing-to-innovate-in-sales.html DATE: 10/06/2016 03:00:00 PM ----- BODY:If you are trying to survive and even thrive at today’s oil prices, these two functions are the key to competing and staying profitable.
“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”
~ Peter F. Drucker
Innovation can be disruptive, or it can propel you forward depending on which side you are on.
Innovation is more than just a technical or engineering function. Improvement also means doing things differently today than you did in the past. Essentially, you are getting out of the, “This is the way it works in our industry,” mindset. Every industry eventually comes to a point of innovate or die.
Marketing, in this definition is the broader, “Getting your product and services into the hands of a customer.” It includes both sales and marketing.
What are you doing to innovate how you market and sell your products and services?
It requires a significant amount of money to hire, train, manage, motivate, and compensate a great sales team. If you’ve set up your sales compensation correctly, they are bringing in the profitable revenue your business needs to grow. The top producers on your sales team should be the highest, or among the highest, paid people in your company. You want to retain them. Finding the right balance between the cost of sales and the revenue you generate is tricky.
Let’s look at sales styles and how they fit into your business.
Many sales people are more order takers than actively providing a significant value to customers. You have a catalog of products. A client phones, and you help them find the right part, give a price, and then take the order. The amount of value added by the sales person is not very high.
In other industries, such as travel and banking, order takers have been replaced by online tools and automation.
The primary difference between order takers and relationship sellers is the latter builds and maintains relationships with prospects and existing customers. The idea is people buy more from those they know, like, and trust. There are components of both hunting and farming involved, but the value added by the sales person is mostly in the relationship.
The problem is loyalty based solely on the relationship is not very sticky. A lot of factors outside of your control can shift them to another supplier.
Consultative sales occur when you start helping customers find solutions to problems. They are coming to you because they get a better solution than they could on their own. This approach raises the level of expertise required from the sales team.
Challenger sales take it one step further. They engage in the bigger questions like, “Why are you doing things that way in the first place?” Because of the nature of the business problems, they tend to engage customers at higher levels. Since it means challenging the basis of the business model or, “Way things are done here,” challengers need that level of buy-in.
Appointments are often easier to obtain because executives and decision-makers look forward to what they might learn and apply to their business, whether or not they are in buying mode.
The challenger sales style doesn’t preclude consultative or relationship selling. They add the most value by challenging the status quo. Astute leaders learn to appreciate that out of the box thinking.
Hiring and training people to use the wrong approach to a business scenario will cost you more for less return.
What is the Return on Investment (ROI) for your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system?
Most businesses have no clue. This question forces you to look at your tools mindset. If you see a CRM and the time entering data into it as an expense or necessary evil, you are doing it wrong.
A well implemented CRM tool should be seen as an investment by the company and the sales team. When your sales team can see a positive link between using the tool and the size of their commissions, the data you will capture will be ten times more powerful.
When you use marketing and sales together wisely, you can lift the performance of the entire organization significantly.
The role of strategic marketing is to both bring in qualified leads and to support the sales process, which leads to more sales revenue. There is a lot more to it than holding or attending events, providing brochures and presentation decks to sales teams, having a website, and dabbling in social media.
Inbound marketing uses the premise that providing high quality and useful content will drive leads to you rather than you having to fight for attention. It is a permission based model; therefore, the resistance to purchasing decreases significantly. When it is done right, the sale can be partially or even 100% complete by the time they talk to a sales representative.
It is also a customer life cycle methodology from lead capture through to post-purchase support and creating raving fans. Inbound marketing is most powerful for companies that move up the value chain to being perceived as experts. They solve customer problems, consult, provide integrated solutions, or challenge the client to think differently.
Outbound and other traditional marketing approaches don’t go away, but you do get a new stream of better qualified and thus more profitable leads. The sales teams appreciate that.
You already should have an investment in a CRM. What if:
If you lift your sales team’s average performance by even 5-10 percent, that could translate into millions in new revenue without adding additional headcount.
As the world around us and our competitors continue to innovate and disrupt the status quo, we all need to be innovating and thinking strategically about our businesses. That doesn’t just apply to your products and services. It affects all your business functions. If you want to thrive, it must also include how you market and sell.
Originally published in the September edition of the Oilfield Pulse
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: What are you doing to innovate how you market and sell your products and services? If you are trying to survive and even thrive at today’s oil prices, these two functions are the key to competing and staying profitable. ----- KEYWORDS: marketing, innovation, sales, smarketing, inbound marketing, CRM, ROI, Challenger Sales, Sales Teams, outbound marketing ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Foreign-Biz: How Does Your Value Stack Up In A New Market? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: foreign-biz-how-does-your-value-stack-up-in-a-new-market CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/09/foreign-biz-how-does-your-value-stack-up-in-a-new-market.html DATE: 09/06/2016 10:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
Remember Target expanding into Canada back in 2013? They had deep pockets and resources. Then after a series of missteps, they pulled out roughly two years later, incurring financial losses in the billions.
Target Canada made a lot of mistakes starting with an overly enthusiastic management team who didn’t believe it could fail. Entrenched and established competitors saw them coming and made competitive improvements ahead of Target’s launch. They didn’t bother to understand the market and how it differed from the US. They rushed to build out their supply chain and distribution systems. They implemented new technology. They didn’t test and build on success before the bigger push. Their culture was not one where anyone on the team could pull the cord and stop implementation without fear. They went full out and failed.
Ultimately, they had a poor strategy, plan, and then failed on execution. You can’t always just work harder and push through. Deep pockets and years of experience do not guarantee success in a new market.
I always recommend that you fall back to the basics before you spend a lot of time on the advanced strategies and implementation details. It may seem obvious, but if the basics are not taken care of, the foundation is weak and the strategy much more likely to fail.
That means looking at the three pillars of value:
There are two components to this question.
Value is in the eyes of the client. Delivering value in a new market is not just providing what you do in your existing market. You need to consider the needs of the new market, which may have a different competitive landscape and expectations. Your reputation is critical in penetrating a new market, and if you mess up, you probably won’t be able to rely on a lot of goodwill.
You also have an existing customer base and market. It will take a lot of resources, including the management team, to do the work of getting work and delivering in a new market. Are you likely to impact service, delivery, or reputation for existing clients? Do you have a plan in place to mitigate this?
What happens if you are highly successful in the new market or your current market turns around? Can you grow fast? Are you prepared to throttle back growth to keep it manageable?
A primary cause of failure is growing faster than the business or culture can handle.
Your brand is what your target market thinks your value proposition or brand promise is and how well they believe you accomplish it.
For Target, the hype was bigger than the reality. They had great name recognition. While some Canadians had visited the chain in the U.S., the biggest problem was the perceived brand expectations far exceeded the customer experience when they opened.
You can’t just add water, employees, mix, and bake an instant company culture. They also had supply chain and distribution problems they didn’t iron out before scaling. When people are highly disappointed, they don’t quickly come back.
Some questions to get you going:
Opening in a new market is a bit like “crossing the chasm”. You need those local early-adopters to give you credibility and make the leap to the bigger market. Of course, you need to deliver on your promises to achieve that.
Generating awareness and qualified leads are the roles of marketing and sales.
In your home market, you may have a deep network of people who can refer business to you. So, you may have gotten into the habit of not doing much in the way of marketing other than what your sales team is doing and a website.
When you enter a new market, they either don’t know who you are or they aren’t aware you are there. So, the game changes, and you need to do things differently or have a lot of time.
You have choices to make around:
A market opportunity assessment can give you a better understanding of the obstacles you face, including your competitive landscape, the expectations of the local market, how open they are to new entrants, etc.
Target blew the launch. They missed an opportunity to come clean and admit they messed up bad. Instead, they doubled down with their existing brand message. With a good marketing story, they could have had a more successful re-launch.
Target went into Canada with deep pockets, experienced executives, and a strong brand. They still failed. There is a powerful lesson there.
When perceived value, communicated value, and delivered value are in balance, it becomes far easier to enter a new market and achieve sustainable growth. If you are not there now, you need a concrete strategy and plan to help you get there.
Originally published in the July-August edition of the Oilfield Pulse.
Image Credits (modified): Top – Flickr/ Winnipeg_Spotter
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: Business, Target Canada, Target, Expansion, Market ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve White EMAIL: srwhite1111@gmail.com IP: 45.23.30.183 URL: DATE: 09/08/2016 05:53:27 PM Great article. Thank you. I'll be sharing soon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/08/2016 06:06:39 PM Glad you enjoyed it Steve. Thanks for sharing. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Hidden Traps When Manipulating Fear, Hate and Hope STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-hidden-traps-when-manipulating-fear-hate-and-hope CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/08/the-hidden-traps-when-manipulating-fear-hate-and-hope.html DATE: 08/23/2016 08:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
“Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.” ~ Darth Vader
Marketers have been peddling fear for years. Politicians and their campaigns have become adept at marketing and selling fear.
Fear sells.
One problem with attracting people to your cause or your business through fear is that fear must be sustained. But, when people are fearful too much time they either give up hope or become angry. Marketers channel that sustained fear into a target. Something to hate provides that focus. So anger becomes hate. Hate of whatever imagined or real that made you fearful.
We want customers so we use fear and anger to motivate them to switch to us. The trouble is that anxious people seldom make great long-term clients.
You’ve trained those people to be afraid and angry when they don’t get what they want. Now if you make the slightest misstep, they are your fearful and angry customers. If you used a lot of fear to acquire them, you probably can’t make them happy enough to forget the initial apprehension. Since you trained them to leave, they are also easier for your competitors to poach.
When they leave, they will be angry and add you to the list of companies they hate.
Hope by itself is not as powerful as fear. People seldom enter happy relationships out of fear. Anticipation almost always offers better long-term relationships. The hope of friendship, connection and love are enticing.
To make hope a motivator, it needs contrast. People seldom move from where they are to a new place unless the new situation looks way better. Contrast is enhanced when you make the old place look less appealing while also making the new location look better.
The problem is that we often contrast hope with fear. “You’ll be stuck in this horrible situation unless you buy into my offering.”
What if you significantly build up the anticipation of the solution? The contrast increases and you have created raving fans. You are pulling people away from one thing and towards another.
Until you threaten to take hope away.
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Now you are back to fear. Fear they won’t get to the place of hope you were offering. Fear leads to anger and anger to hate. Fanatics will do anything to make their vision happen and avoid going back. Mob mentality will erase any natural restraint and they become unpredictable and uncontrollable?
The cause doesn’t matter. Whether the solution is right or wrong doesn’t matter. Whether you have good or bad motives doesn’t matter.
There is a fine line between motivation and manipulation. Between building people up and destruction. Between peaceful change, conflict and revolution.
Once you use excessive fear, when you use the brightness of hope with fear, you create something that takes on a life of its own. Like a raging wildfire.
When you are playing with fire, you have to take ownership of not just the desired results, but the unintended consequences of the destructive forces.
Whether you are attracting people to a product, service or idea, you are in the business of sales and marketing. The power is yours to use for good or evil.
Understand the consequences, own them and then choose wisely.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Images (Modified) – Middle Pixabay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Are You Riding The Trends Or Being A Trendsetter? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: are-you-riding-the-trends-or-being-a-trendsetter CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/07/are-you-riding-the-trends-or-being-a-trendsetter.html DATE: 07/07/2016 09:59:31 AM ----- BODY:
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Earlier today I was reading the Calgary Metro (Monday, June 6, 2016). The story “Albertans see it half-empty” quoted the results of a poll of Albertans that stated:
Is it going to rain on August 15th?
The trend is for a warm, dry summer. August is usually pretty decent in Alberta. I might bet a few dollars on the outcome. But I certainly wouldn’t risk it all. There are lots of thunderstorms in this region that throw the trends off. It all depends on where the jet stream ends up and the amount of moisture in the air on that day. What everyone thinks, matters less than what happens.
Personally, I think we are stuck in a longer-term oversupply trend. There is plenty of demand but with shale reserves in play in North America and around the world, and other market forces, the game has shifted.
None of that will matter to the trendsetters.
“A rising tide lifts all boats.” ~ John F. Kennedy
JFK was the famous person who said it, but he didn’t invent it or even say it first. He was applying it to the idea that if the overall trend was upwards, then everyone would rise and benefit from the trend.
That, in a nutshell, is the economic theory most believe about the Oil and Gas industry.
Of course, there are less obvious aspects to the analogy:
And the biggest flaw of which we need to be aware?
Some ships rise much faster than the tide and some ships much slower.
If a trend is big enough, just about any business can make a go of it during the rise. If the overall market increases 50% and your business grows by 30% over that time, you are lagging the market.
Constrained growth isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You may not have the capital, systems, or people to grow that fast. If you grow too fast, you can implode, especially when the trend turns. Or you may want to focus on the profitable contracts, build reserves, and be prepared for the inevitable downturn.
It is what happens during the downturn that determines whether you have a robust company or not. If you preserve relative market share (as a percentage) during the retraction you are winning against most of your competitors. When the trend rises again, you start from a higher position and climb higher again during each cycle until you become a market leader.
The first to rise are those who are market leaders. The tier 2 companies grow next as the market leaders reach peak capacity and can’t fill all the demand and prices increase. If the trend is sustained, tier 3 companies get a shot at the work and benefit from the healthy margins even if they are relatively inefficient.
But during the downturn, the lagging laggards (tier 3) lose work first. Then the level 2 companies shed work. The market leaders maintain or grow market share in the downturn. They may be losing overall revenue, but they retain a good percentage of what remains.
All three models can make business owners money. The biggest mistake leaders make is that they don’t understand what type of business they really are, so they use the wrong strategies at the wrong time.
Whether it is growing faster than the market, shrinking less quickly than the market, or both, market leaders tend to grow progressively quicker than most of their competitors.
As mentioned in last month’s article, the keys to thriving, sustainable growth are:
The market sees you as a leader and respects that. Never underestimate the power of being the best. (Biggest is not always the best.)
There are always a few companies who play the game a little better strategically. They find new markets and can exploit them because they have the resources. They are innovative not only with products and services but in how they run their businesses. They tell their stories better than anyone else. They can sometimes disrupt an industry. I’ve heard quite a few stories about companies currently doing well in the downturn and they always have at least one of these strategies in play.
Unless the market suddenly changes, these are the companies that will lead us out of our current economic downturn.
You don’t have to be big to be a trendsetter. But you have to act like one and shake things up enough that people believe things are turning around… until they are.
Originally published in the June edition of the Oilfield Pulse
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Many men have lost their place in the bigger story. We bought into one narrative that has not worked out and are now struggling to find a new one as the world rapidly shifts underneath us. Some are looking for a hero, and some are seeking to become one again. We all have a story to write.
Steve Jobs learned from his past failures and mastered storytelling by the time he was at Pixar and Apple. The politicians generating seemingly unexpected grassroots support in the US elections have done so as well.
Great marketing and leadership are about connecting your audience to the story.
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Every great story has one or more heroes and at least one villain, the protagonist and the antagonist.
Who is the central character? When executed well, we connect with the struggles of the hero of the story. The hero does not have to be a hero at all in the traditional sense. They don’t even have to win in the end.
Without a villain, there is no struggle. The villain doesn’t have to human. The villain’s role is to oppose the hero. The champion must overcome the bad-guy.
The most satisfying stories show the hero overcoming the challenge and defeating the villain. Tragedies end with hero either winning and succumbing or just plain losing. Comedies can go either way and still work.
If the hero is built to be just like you, you start to believe that you could be the hero. You may share some common experiences. Relatability is why the underdog characters are so popular.
You can cement the connection by sharing a common villain.
Often, the hero will have a guide. Someone who can help them become stars.
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Leadership through fear only tends to work as long as the leader or the “system” is watching. Pain avoidance generates only enough effort to avoid the pain. Further, the leader is unknowingly cast into the role of villain. Even though this model is old and reviled, we tend to fall back on it far too often.
Heroic leadership (or leadership by example) casts the leader as a hero who will throw themselves into the breach and inspire the team to follow. A leader can’t always be there. Sometimes the leader isn’t even the best person at providing a solution. This is the model of success most men are taught to follow, even though the toll on heroes is often death; physically and spiritually.
When leaders bring the team into the story, they start to inspire. The seeds of inspiration may come from the visionary, but if the story is well-crafted, each person adds to the story and discovers a hidden seed themselves.
At its highest level, the story puts the people on the team as the heroes. The leader becomes a guide and is mostly responsible for keeping the story focused. They encourage everyone to develop their talents and grow to be heroes. The leader doesn’t have to be there or jump into the breach for every problem.
The most popular stories tend to have a simple theme. Destroy the one ring and banish Sauron. Survive a plane crash and get rescued. Win the championship. The path through the story can be complex, but you should be able to summarize the main goal easily. Simplicity allows us to connect the purpose emotionally and keep the story going.
Most consultants and businesses portray themselves as the heroes of the story. We have a proven track record of solving this problem for our customers.
Sometimes you need a hero.
What happens when you shift your marketing story away from facts? Shift away from features and benefits alone? Have less focus on yourself?
Thanks to the Internet we hear a lot about other people and their struggles and triumphs. We have books, television, and movies. More stories of others are not what men are craving.
So what happens when you make your potential customer the hero of the story?
Even better, what happens when you can help make their hero story come true?
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: advice, business, business advice, business success, changing roles, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, everyday heroes, happiness, leadership, manhood, marketing, masculinity, Steve Jobs, Storytelling, success, Work ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Bold Will Master the 3 Aspects of Value for Growth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-bold-will-master-the-3-aspects-of-value-for-growth CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/06/the-bold-will-master-the-3-aspects-of-value-for-growth.html DATE: 06/14/2016 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:“I’ve never been much of a fighter, apologies for what you’re about to see” ~ Ser Davos, Game of Thrones
What is the normal price of oil?
When looking at this chart, it is evident that, just like the weather, there is no normal. We can talk about average and mean, but things are only average on rare occasions. We can also look at minimums, maximums, and percentiles and the corresponding booms and busts.
If you know your fixed and variable costs in producing a barrel of oil, you can determine what price you need to make a profit and thus be viable longer-term.
If that number comes out to say $65 per barrel, you can then look at the historical results and see what percentage of time oil has been above that figure. If the future is like the past, that proportion of time is when you will be making money. The remaining time you will be losing money. It is best to have a margin of safety.
It all boils down to one thing. The lower your total costs the more likely you are to be profitable more often.
As a producer, you can trim costs internally or encourage service companies and other suppliers to drive their prices lower.
In the race to lower costs, you have two choices as a service company:
If you choose to compete on price, you are subject to the same market forces as any commodity, which are supply, demand, and speculation. You can then use a similar analysis as above to determine when you will be profitable and when you will likely be breaking even or even losing money. Your ability to manage costs and the going market rates determines your profit.
Competing on value requires three aspects to be in balance:
If these three aspects of value are not in balance, you will end up competing on price or lose market share (or both).
If you are not working on increasing the value you provide to your customers, you can bet some of your competitors are. The companies that can deliver the best quality and experience consistently tend to outperform their competitors significantly both in revenue and profitability.
Each business is different, but the common elements are:
Not every company can innovate on products, but most can innovate on delivery. Innovation can be game changing or incremental. Small changes are usually less risky and can compound for significant impact.
There are several ways your target market can hear about your ability to deliver value:
If you can’t deliver quality consistently, eventually the market will hear about it, and you value will be depressed or non-existent. Restaurants go under quickly when customers start getting disgruntled because of poor quality and service.
The market can also form an inaccurate and detrimental picture of your brand for a variety of reasons. You need to manage your brand actively.
In the past, many companies got away with very little marketing sophistication. During a hot market, sales are relatively easy, and salespeople become order-takers and relationship builders.
In a down market, activity and sales are low, so why bother chasing them in a tight market? You fall back on the excuse that no one is buying, you trim costs, and you wait it out.
You are ignoring two risks:
Companies that merely follow the market tend to lag the market and their competitors. In a hot market, you do well but not as well as your competitors. Your competitors know the secret of building in a down market. That primes them to jump on a rising market much faster and grow with fewer issues.
In any market, you should be investing some marketing dollars to maintaining your brand with existing clients and your overall target market. You are priming the pump for when the market rebounds as well as ensuring your competitors don’t poach your customers.
If you are thinking strategically, you will also invest some marketing budget to position your company as a trusted alternative if any of your competitors stumble. Most companies keep a short A-List of suppliers and a few B-Listers. The buy from the A-List first and only use the B-List if required. They never get to the C-List, but they may use them to force prices down.
If you have the option of entering a new market, either geographically or in another vertical, you will need to commit funds to marketing. The industry baseline is you should budget at least 10% of your target revenue for acquiring customers. This budget is a mix of marketing, PR, and sales. In a tight or highly competitive market, that percentage could increase significantly.
If you want to sell your products and services at a premium based on value instead of cost, you need to keep working on the three aspects of value:
In a down market, you have more time to tackle this, but you may have lost your in-house expertise or it may be something new. Outsourcing and working with specialists could get you up and running at a fraction of the cost of building out a full-time internal team. Plus, you get a deeper set of skills.
The bold create the future instead of waiting for it to happen.
Originally published in the May edition of the Oilfield Pulse
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Attempting to Control Disasters in a Random World STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: attempting-to-control-disasters-in-a-random-world CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/05/attempting-to-control-disasters-in-a-random-world.html DATE: 05/31/2016 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
This past Saturday (in April 2016), a neighbor was cutting their long grass with a lawn tractor. It has been a dry winter and spring here, and the parched grass caught fire under the mower. The young man sat on the tractor trying to swat the growing flames out with a rag.
Another neighbor saw the predicament and ran out there with a fire extinguisher to assist. By then the grass fire was too big to put out, so they abandoned the effort as the flames consumed the lawn tractor.
Sitting in my house and oblivious to the unfolding situation, I heard a passing siren and thought nothing of it. The fire department is always down the highway to the latest grass fire this time of year. Then a fire department pickup truck drove into our driveway and across our front yard.
That got my attention.
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We were lucky. The wind was light, and it was not blowing in its usual westerly direction.
Slowing its advance significantly, the field the fire pushed into was grazed short by a couple of retired horses. This allowed time for the fire department to arrive and quickly gain control of the fire. The only casualty was the lawn tractor.
Seemingly random factors all contributed to a fortunate outcome.
Yet for other people on the same day, events did not play out so well.
Often there are little warning signs that we’ve learned to ignore. That tightness in the chest that feels like indigestion. The sirens you hear all the time passing down the road. The extremely dry conditions that are just right for a grass fire.
In business, this could be an employee whose behavior changes. You shrug it off because you don’t want to pry. Then a few months later, you have to deal with a major problem.
It could also be a slowdown in work coming from a significant client. It might be just a bump, or it could signify they are not happy with your performance. If you ignore it, you could lose them.
In the case of the grass fire, it happened in a location that was not easily visible from the house because of the attached garage. Also, the wind was blowing the smoke away from our house. That delay in feedback could have been dangerous. You don’t know what you don’t know.
When we are in the middle of a situation, we often can’t see the real problem. Observer’s bias kicks in, and we see everything through our mind’s filter. If that interpretation is wrong, we make poor choices.
Most small businesses don’t measure very much. If they do measure, they are either looking backward at a point in time or watching vanity metrics. Getting your financial results from your bookkeeper tells you what happened in the past. Monitoring your follower count on Twitter or likes on your Facebook page doesn’t reveal anything terribly useful.
The key is to set up some measures that can act as a tripwire and give you advance warning of problems. Dropping numbers of sales meetings could indicate that your future sales and revenue are going to drop. Knowing this allows you to try and shift the outcome.
Most men I know feel part of what defines them is the role of protector. That could be people, property, or even your business.
Don’t mess with it!
For some of us, this manifests as a desire to impose order and control on a situation. For others, this means taking action. When we can’t, we feel helpless. Like when a loved one gets cancer. You are forced to give up control to the experts. That energy has to go somewhere, with predictably unpredictable results.
When you are an entrepreneur, the business, your employees and your success, all seem like they are yours to protect. The stress can be short-term, or chronic if the firm has ongoing problems.
You can attempt to anticipate, prevent, and plan for common disasters or problems. You can install smoke detectors to give your family a warning. But real disasters have an element of randomness to them. Most families will never practice fleeing an actual burning house.
Instead, you can provide training and skills to deal with common scenarios. Then you can use those skills to improvise during a real problem. The skills give you more confidence and options because you don’t have to spend time figuring out what to do on the spot.
Disasters in business aren’t usually life threatening. Who will run payroll if your accounting person suddenly gets sick? If a salesperson suddenly quits, how will you transfer the long-term relationships with prospects and clients to someone else? Having those conversations and doing a little planning can make the impending disaster a non-event.
Whether you work in business or own one, we are all firefighters. Some men see themselves as heroic and some behave as martyrs.
Sometimes the fires are too big. Sometimes you need help. Sometimes you need the fire department big time. The advent of 911 has made accessing emergency responders simpler.
In your business, who would your emergency responders be? Can you set up some relationships, build some knowledge of your organization, and establish that trust ahead of time? What can you change, so the problems don’t recur? Outsourcing a few functions where you don’t have bench depth might also be an option.
A lot of men I know pride themselves on being problem solvers, protectors, and not needing to rely on anyone else to solve problems. If it wasn’t for the safety of my observer’s bias, I might be guilty of that too at times.
You might even be really good at handling disasters. Even though the ongoing stress is a killer, being needed and important like that can be addicting.
Still, we might be better off with fewer disasters in the first place. If we plan, fix, and delegate correctly, we can save ourselves for those few random disasters where we are truly needed.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: michelle EMAIL: wei_shufang@hotmail.com IP: 173.79.41.70 URL: DATE: 06/15/2016 12:44:36 PM Never know you are such a great writer! Amazing! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/15/2016 02:31:14 PM Thanks Michelle, hope you are doing well. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Having Momentum Behind Money and Ego Can Suck Out Your Life STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: how-having-momentum-behind-money-and-ego-can-suck-out-your-life CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/05/how-having-momentum-behind-money-and-ego-can-suck-out-your-life.html DATE: 05/24/2016 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
I know more than a few men who’ve started what they thought was the perfect business for themselves. Once momentum kicks in it can get hard to change direction. The biggest trap ends up being the one we make in our heads.
One example is the expert industry. There are variations, but the formula is pretty straight forward. You start some combination of writing, coach, consulting and speaking about a topic or two where you can add value to people.
The formula is simple, but the implementation requires persistence, skill and a lot of work. A lot of people don’t make it.
So when it starts taking off, you end up telling people about it. Success tends to grow. Writing, speaking, consulting and traveling the world seem pretty awesome to many people. You hear nothing but envy from your fans. And those fans convert to even more clients.
Then the novelty started to wear off. Airports, planes, trains and automobiles are not the same as the destination. You are spending more and more time away from the reasons you started the business. Your schedule is starting to be set a year in advance.
You are making more money now. And your fans are piling up. So you bite the bullet and keep at it with the hope that you will come to enjoy it as much as everyone thinks you should.
You have momentum.
Newton’s First Law: An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
You are making good money, and you can see the path to even more clearly. When you start making more money, you tend to elevate your lifestyle and expectations. If you were struggling with money in the past, this one is particularly tough.
No matter how well you start to leverage your time or how much you charge, there is one person at the center of the business. You.
So you delegate what you can and keep moving.
Here ego is your sense of self and self-worth. Part of selling the expert business (or any business) is selling the success story. When your success story is relatable to other people and their personal success, you have a very compelling brand story.
You can’t always be happy doing everything that needs to get done in business. But when the core of your business is built around doing something that is not authentic, it will start to wear on you. This is true even if you believe the story.
Our pride and desire to make others happy can trap us from seeing this truth.
If you are heading on the path of your dreams, that is great. Congratulations. If you aren’t, the point to understand is that you always have the choice to change direction.
I was heading down that road. This could have been my life as well. I could see the path and parts of it excited me. Except I know deep down, it isn’t all for me.
The best thing about knowing a lot of others in the industry is that you get to hear not just the good, but some of the negative.
I like to travel, but not all the time. As an introvert, I prefer not to go alone. Plus I have my other interests that require some routine and regular commitment. Had I not acknowledged that I would have pursued the paths of others, rather than my own. I am not saying I won’t travel for business, just that excessive travel would wear on me.
I also realized again that I thrive more doing work that is longer-term results focused. So I decided to restructure that path to be more project-based and the type of work I can do with a team. My goal is to build a business that can operate with or without me. One where I can have some flexibility and I can focus more on those things I enjoy and where I am strong.
This may not be your path. That is fine.
Just realize that the choice for your path is yours.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Image Credit (modified) – Pixabay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: advice, business, business advice, career, choice, ego, entrepreneur, expert, Expert Culture, happiness, men, money, Newton, small business owner, success, teams, Work ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Finding Balance On The Road To Competitive Advantage STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: finding-balance-on-the-road-to-competitive-advantage CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/05/finding-balance-on-the-road-to-competitive-advantage.html DATE: 05/16/2016 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
I don’t usually mention this, but I initially studied to be an engineer before circumstances sent me off on a different path. Maybe that training causes me to notice things or maybe seeing patterns is just a part of me.
Quite a few years ago, I observed something about Calgary road designs. It seems like every major intersection project was an opportunity to try something different.
A prime example is the Deerfoot Trail. Sometimes when exiting, you do so before the overpass and sometimes after. Sometimes, it depends on whether you are heading East or West. Sometimes, you have to follow a convoluted route when traveling in certain directions only. The same variances apply when entering the Deerfoot from an intersecting artery.
The differences don’t just impact the cost of the construction project and ongoing maintenance. It works out fine if you know the area but can be quite confusing for drivers not familiar with the route. I am not aware of any statistics on accidents caused by the confusion factor, but I am sure there must have been a few over the years. To understand, you just have to be a passenger giving directions to someone not familiar with the roads.
The oil and gas industry has similarities.
Businesses are usually striving to create a competitive advantage or become more efficient to increase profit. The exception to this is when the demand is so high there is no real incentive to become overly profitable as a percentage. Instead, companies focus on increasing revenue to increase total profit as a dollar amount.
In any industry, there is a balance between innovation, customization, and the tendency towards cost and standardization. The rule of thumb should be when the benefits from innovation and customization exceed the costs of standardization, go with innovation.
Three factors tilt the balance towards customization even when it breaks that rule of thumb.
To get more standardization, lots of groups of people need to come together and agree what the standards are. This requires a champion, consensus, and an incentive to make it happen. The bigger companies might be able to enforce standards within their sphere of influence, but that still requires changes in the way things get done.
Each organization has its way of doing business. People move between organizations typically within a region. So, the way things are done here becomes the way things are done there as well.
The above two factors combine over time to create momentum that is very hard to shift. It might not even be in everyone’s best interest to change, which further creates resistance.
You have a resource like oil. You have an end product like gasoline, which is a commodity. The more efficiently you can get oil into the product form the more profit you can make even in down markets.
But, due to the momentum of customization and innovation in the past, the supporting industries would have to shift as well. Engineering firms, on-demand manufacturers, and the supporting trades would have to move from a model of customization to one of standardization. This step tends to drive the value chain towards cost and efficiencies. Standards and efficiencies benefit from scale. So, that would lead to a shift in the players and industry consolidation.
But, standardization also has another price.
When things are overly standardized, you lose the ability to innovate quickly. The momentum is hard to shift as agreement is then required to make a change. Some innovators will disrupt the standards anyway. Then, all bets are off.
Momentum and the way things are done here mean most service companies continues to sell the way they have done so for decades by using relationships and who they know.
Hires are often made by the size and perceived usefulness of the personal database the person brings with them. The problem is relationships also leave with the loss of the key employee.
As the industry goes through a generational shift now and over the next 10-15 years, we are starting to see more people willing to try something new. The impact of globalization will also continue to disrupt local businesses as downward prices come into play. Relationships are still important, but how they work will shift.
The companies that will thrive in the future will understand they need to look at innovation and competitive advantage. Your edge doesn’t do you much good if no one knows about it.
Communicating your message is where strong brand and marketing strategies come into play. You get clear on who your best clients are and why they buy from you. When you are bidding on a project or a custom product, they consciously or subconsciously want you to win, because that trust is there. Existing customers buy more from you. And, when that competitor of yours messes up or goes under, you are the preferred alternative.
It is far better to compete on value than price. That means innovating across your entire business. It means standing out from the herd.
It might even mean going in a different direction than everyone else.
Originally published in the April edition of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: Innovation, Standardization, Business, Business Strategy, Marketing, Tightrope, Balance, Competition, Competitive Edge, Industry, Customization ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tamera Horan EMAIL: pauldavide20@gmail.com IP: 49.148.84.227 URL: DATE: 05/23/2016 02:42:57 PM Creative writing - I am thankful for the specifics - Does someone know where my assistant could possibly acquire a sample AK Employment App form to fill in ? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Secret to Great Leadership is Letting Others Win STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-secret-to-great-leadership-is-letting-others-win CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/05/the-secret-to-great-leadership-is-letting-others-win.html DATE: 05/09/2016 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
Most entrepreneurs are competitive by nature. Being a competitive man isn’t a bad thing.
Sometimes, we watch some men take competition to the extreme. Every interaction is a death match to prove they are winners, and everyone else is a loser. I watched a documentary about well-known billionaire developer who always had to win, even against other accomplished businessmen. In making deals, even when he lost, or it was a tie, they learned to tell him he won so that they could move on. He had to make sure everyone knew that he won, and everyone else had lost or he could not be happy.
When viewed at this extreme, the myth that being competitive makes you an evil person causes some people to pretend they are not.
There is a very simple test:
If you answered yes, you are keeping score in some way. Money may not be the only end-game for you, but you know when you are accomplishing what you want to. You win when you achieve the goal or mission on a regular basis.
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Good people who are competitive can have a bigger positive impact. Usually, dysfunctional people who are competitive have a magnified destructive effect.
As entrepreneurs and leaders, we are told to hire people smarter than us. Smarter doesn’t mean IQ. It means you hire people who add something to the mix or have talents and skills you don’t. IQ may or may not be part of the equation.
If they are high performers, they could outshine you.
Competitive people may be motivated to try harder to stake out a win. The new hotshot sales guy just pulled in a $500,000 deal, but I’ve done $1 million deals.
Some friendly internal competition is good. It pushes your A players to excel.
You can often spot the dysfunctional or narcissistic leader by how they always claim some part of a win as their own, even when seeming to praise someone else. Have you heard statements like this before?
If you are the CEO or owner of the company, everyone knows it. There is no need to reinforce that information when praising good performance.
The key to embracing strong leadership is to redefine how you win.
Because of our familiarity with sports and other team accomplishments, it is relatively easy for many leaders to transition to this level. “We won” is not so hard because you are part of the team.
The trick is to be self-aware here and look at your role and language in the mirror. Can you only celebrate the win if you are the quarterback or pitcher?
Creating team wins, where you are not involved, should be your ultimate goal. That is the state where you achieve freedom from the job of running a business, to being a successful business builder.
You win when the team is winning, with or without you.
This level takes a little more confidence in your self-worth and more importantly, the ability to focus on the big win instead of the little ones. When you are going for the Stanley Cup, not for most goals scored on your team, you no longer care who on the team scores.
At the highest levels, most competitors are focused more on improving themselves and their team than continuously ranking themselves against others. In most things, you get better playing against people better than you. Without significant competition, you would become complacent and weak.
When you master this level, you can genuinely embrace the wins of people on your team, your clients, your vendors and even your competition.
To win the bigger game, you need to encourage both team and individual wins.
Many people enjoy or even need some personal recognition for what they do. Competitive people are often in this camp as well. Others are motivated just knowing they’ve won and are fine with being out of the public eye.
“You can have anything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” ~ Zig Ziglar
The competitive people to be wary of are the ones who are never really concerned about anyone else getting what they want. They never strive for win-win, they go for win-lose every time.
Which leaders, entrepreneurs, or business people do you know out there who never talk about anyone else winning? Or if they do talk about the success of others, it somehow relates back to them?
Walk away.
If you can’t or won’t leave, be sure that you know what motivates them. Make sure you win even when they think you lost. Remember, dysfunctional or narcissistic leaders will throw anyone under the bus to feed that monster when it suits them, and they won’t feel bad about it either.
I prefer to define my wins from the bigger view, the one that comes from serving and building others up. A rising tide lifts all boats. It is not only the right thing to do; it is a profitable way to do business.
Winning is this way satisfies my competitive nature just fine.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo Credits (modified) – Pixabay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: advice, business, business teamwork, competition, competitive, Dysfunctional Entrepreneur, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Great Teams, leadership, manhood, mission, narcissism, passion, seeking recognition, success, winning and losing, Work, Zig Ziglar ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Be Careful What You Ask For On the Internet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: be-careful-what-you-ask-for-on-the-internet CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/05/be-careful-what-you-ask-for-on-the-internet.html DATE: 05/02/2016 09:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
What happens when you are building an expensive new polar research vessel, and you want to generate some visibility for the project? Why of course, you hold a public naming contest on the Internet.
This is exactly what the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) did.
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The new ship, to be commissioned in 2019, will be capable of breaking through a meter of ice and will be equipped with advanced scientific and research capabilities. The estimated cost is of £ 200,000,000 which is the equivalent of $289 million US, or $367 million Canadian.
The Internet and especially social media are well-known places to engage the wisdom of the people in intelligent conversation. Like gravity, groupthink is a very powerful force.
Just like gravity, the hive mind of the Internet tends to pull us all down.
“Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” ~ Forrest Gump
The winning entry, “RRS Boaty McBoatface” with 124,109 votes, was by far the most popular choice, beating out its nearest competitor by over three to one. James Hand, the BBC radio presenter who submitted the name for fun, voted for fourth place entry RRS David Attenborough because his entry was just a joke. But once the name went viral, it took on a life of its own.
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This isn’t the first online poll that got sidetracked from its purpose. In fact, it was pretty tame compared to some other examples where completely inappropriate entries created havoc.
Participants in your contest, poll or request for public input will come from a diverse population with equally mixed motivations. Here are five to consider.
A certain percentage of people think they are funny (guilty). They also believe that the Internet is a good place to share some of that humor. So they lie in wait for an opportunity to pounce on unsuspecting conversation threads. Eventually, they get bored, and they leave with their plunder of recognition, likes, and smiley faces. The passengers and crew are left wondering what has just happened to the original topic.
Although this might be a British humour nuance thing I am missing, Boaty McBoatface seems more silly than genuinely funny. I didn’t scan all 7034 entries, but a few other entries like RRS It’s Bloody Cold Here, RRS Ice Ice Baby, RRS Thanks For All The Fish, and RRS Big Metal Floaty Thingy-Thing, show how creative those Ice Pirates can be.
What is funny, in an odd way, is that people started voting en masse, all 19,000 tonnes of it, for Boaty McBoatface.
It starts out as a bit of a joke or someone making a point. Then it takes off. The rebellion sparks and the people start rioting. In this case, they vote for something silly to show up the Empire. Take that, Imperial Storm Troopers! We’re not playing by your rules.
We are rebels. We briefly spit in the face of danger from the safety of our remote devices. We are voting for Boaty McBoatface then going back to our regularly scheduled lives.
This group usually spontaneously jumps on the bandwagon and has no real organization or goal behind it other than fun and rebellion. Momentum is everything to viral.
Hijackers want to steal your audience’s attention to get their message out. Sometimes they are protesting whatever you are trying to accomplish but often it is not directly related. It could be just a few people or a whole organization. Where a rebellion is spontaneous, this group is looking to further their agenda long-term.
There weren’t any obvious examples of hijacking in the name the ship contest.
While the other groups may have noble or at least harmless motives, trolls and the other scum of the earth are there to hurt. They come from a place of bullying and hate. Some of the scariest tend to be men.
This contest seems to be absent this dynamic as well. Other polls where it went wrong ended up with Nazi-themed entries.
In most cases, if you are polling or soliciting feedback on a topic that people find engaging, you will get a certain percentage of responses that are on topic and fit the general nature of what you are trying to accomplish.
RRS Henry Worsley, RRS David Attenborough, and RRS Katherine Giles were relatively popular, and all have something to do with polar exploration and science.
RRS Poppy-Mai, an entry inspired by an infant diagnosed with terminal cancer who caught the public’s heart, is an example of a well-intended and caring public input. Had it come in first place, instead of second place, officials would have had a very tough choice on whether to bow to public opinion or chose a name that worked better for the intended purpose of the vessel.
If you are going to conduct a public naming contest, or otherwise solicit input on the Internet, you need to think it through ahead of time. This one ended up creating a lot of engagement, but not everyone thinks it was a public relations success.
The NERC team clearly stated that the entry that received the most votes would not necessarily end up being the chosen name. They reserved the right to make the final decision.
You also want to consider the following:
It’s your ship. If you don’t steer it, someone else will take the helm.
You might end up with the one chocolate in the box that you don’t want.
The new ship -- currently under construction on Merseyside, England -- is set to cost £200 million ($290 million). Its full name will be the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough, in honor of the world famous naturalist and broadcaster, who will turn 90 on May 8. The ship's remotely operated undersea vehicle will be called 'Boaty McBoatface'.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Image Credit (modified) – Name Our Ship – NERC Website (top) and Pixabay (bottom)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: advice, business, Comedy, exploration, forrest gump, internet, internet comments, Internet Trolls, marketing, masculinity, online bullying, pirates, polar, polls, public relations, science, small business, social media, social media abuse, Work ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Being Self-Aware Enough to Know Your Value is the Path to Creating Exceptional Value STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: being-self-aware-enough-to-know-your-value-is-the-path-to-creating-exceptional-value CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/04/being-self-aware-enough-to-know-your-value-is-the-path-to-creating-exceptional-value.html DATE: 04/11/2016 12:00:00 PM ----- BODY:—
When I think of personal greatness, I don’t mean the narcissistic “look at me, look how great I am” of an adult child clamoring for constant approval. A little limelight is good for the soul. Tying your sense of self-worth to the approval of others makes you a slave to their opinions.
Because we are inside looking out, we often don’t see the ways we are capable of impacting the world. Or the ways even our small acts can ripple through the world.
Personal greatness is the combination of talents, passion, and creativity that you bring to the world. It is what you are capable of at your best. Your best is a double edged sword, wielded for good or evil.
Good men learn enough self-awareness to stay more or less on a positive path.
Corey Jahnke (pharmacist, author, and Zen leadership guide) posted a YouTube video the other day by Derek Sivers titled “Obvious to you. Amazing to Others.” (see bottom of post). Thanks to that video, I realized that true self-awareness is not limited to self. Self is only the first level of understanding.
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True self-awareness begins with being able to separate who you want to be, from who you are right now objectively. You can see your strengths and your weaknesses. The trap is that many of us tend to observe few of our strengths and instead focus on the weaknesses as we imagine them compared to others.
This phenomenon led to the thriving self-help industry where we try to improve those things we perceive as weaknesses. Self-improvement is a good thing in balance, but can lead to unhappiness and inaction when it is practiced excessively.
If you play first violin in the orchestra, you have a way of measuring that particular talent. But many our talents are not quite so obvious, or we may not have fully developed them. What are those things you can do with relative ease but don’t think are special?
The second level of self-awareness comes from understanding and embracing the knowledge that other people do not think like you do. We tend to accept this only at a superficial level: people are like me with small differences. This belief leads to a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
It also leads to you underestimating your own talents.
You might think that:
You would be wrong.
The differences between you and other people are your talents. Some abilities are learned, and some are inherent to who you are.
Once you learn to spot the things you can do, that others can’t or won’t do, you have the basis for a path to your individual success. Sometimes success is a personal thing. Sometimes it is something that allows you generate income.
The key to using your unique combination of talents in your business or work is to look for those opportunities to create value and serve others. Serving others does not imply a servant relationship; it means doing something they value. If you can intersect your own interests and passion into the equation, you have a winner.
If the passion isn’t there, it will be harder to sustain your energy. If you can’t find the hunger, maybe you don’t see your talents as serving anyone. There are three options in this case:
Maybe what you like to do isn’t really a strength or talent.
The final level of true self-awareness is to know your strengths and what you need from others. Then surround yourself with people where your strengths add to each other. Include not just the obvious skills but the parts you need to support the rest of you like your creativity, spirituality, etc.
You can spend more time on what you are great at when you create a win-win within your support community.
You are not a leech attaching to and using others only to discard then when they are no longer needed. If the others are self-aware, they will also choose you for your talents and value. And that is the final piece.
Fully conscious people want to be around other fully self-aware people. Those are the people who will appreciate you and your talents the most.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Image Credit (Modified) – Pixabay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: achieving happiness, adding value, advice, authentic leadership, business, business advice, business leadership, Derek Sivers, Dysfunctional Entrepreneur, happiness, hidden talents, leadership, manhood, perceived value, relationships, self-awareness, success, talents, teams, Work ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Going High to Access Alberta’s Ocean STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: going-high-to-access-albertas-ocean CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/04/going-high-to-access-albertas-ocean.html DATE: 04/05/2016 12:08:54 PM ----- BODY:—
Alberta wasn’t always landlocked. Anywhere from 600 million years ago until 85 million years ago, give or take some rounding errors, the salt water of the ocean covered Alberta by varying degrees.
Then for 2 million years, Alberta went through about 80 glacial cycles. The last ice age finished about 10,000 years ago, bringing us to relatively modern times.
The federal government got elected partially on a platform of tightening up the approval process around big projects that have or could have an environmental impact. It is not entirely clear how this will evolve around process or what the outcome will be from any particular pipeline application. The government has its mandate from the people of Canada. A majority here means around 40% of voters less the ones who voted just for the legalization of marijuana. To be fair, some of the supporters of the other parties also wanted more focus on the environment and legalized marijuana as well, but had to vote for the party package, not the pieces.
Like any product, consumption of oil is demand driven. Suppliers produce what consumers want. It may seem obvious to people in the industry, that if people are going to consume oil, they could be consuming our oil. Well managed pipelines are a lot safer than road, rail or tanker, especially when you look at the volume of product shipped.
For the affected people of Alberta and Saskatchewan, waiting another couple of years to hear if any of the pipelines will be approved may seem like the waxing and waning of the ice ages or watching a glacier move. Watching paint dry is less painful by comparison.
The option of waiting for the seas to rise enough so we can get direct access to markets might take too long. We don’t have another 85 million years to turn things around.
The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world’s population.
We could start talking about our oil like they do for the microbreweries; our pale lager, honey brown and our dark. Pumping a few million barrels per day of GuinnessTM through Quebec might be a lot easier to sell to the public.
Every year on St Patrick’s Day, some of the pubs add green colouring to the beer. Green beer is still beer, but some people seem to like it. It would take a lot of dye to make GuinnessTM green, and most of the people I know would string you up for trying. Don’t mess with the good stuff.
Green oil is a bit like that.
You can produce it more efficiently and with fewer emissions, but it is up to the consumer to decide whether colouring it green makes them happy. Speaking of happy:
“Ounce for ounce, our oil produces less CO2 than pot when burned. Weed makes you feel high. Oil gets you there.” ~ Unknown
It could be true. Maybe it is. I know a lot of smart people who could make it true. This could be huge. Let’s make Alberta great again.
Other provinces don’t need to build a wall to keep out our oil and play havoc with the industry. They just need to delay things and ask for a bigger piece of the pie long enough.
Alberta is an entrepreneurial and innovative place. If we can’t go through our neighbouring provinces or the US, we need to go around. Grab the bull by the horns. Stare destiny in the eyes and go big.
Since we are landlocked, that means under or over. Since a precedent exists for who owns what is under the ground, we are pretty much limited to going over. There are no rules in space.
So we build a pipeline over the problematic jurisdictions and direct to the customers. At first, it seems impossible but in Alberta a lot of things people thought were impossible have been happening lately. Put enough pressure inside a hose and you can make it stand straight up. The Coriolis effect will make it head east. We just need a few stations in space to stop it from wobbling excessively and keep the pressure up. Gravity will bring the oil back down.
The side benefit is that Alberta then enters the space business alongside Elon Musk and SpaceX. If we can get oil into space and back safely, we can lock up the space travel and cargo business. We have the advantage of lots of fuel locally available.
We probably won’t get that far along, though. Once the other provinces, the federal government and other nations see what we are up to they will probably let us have our land-based pipelines.
After all, they don’t want us to be too great.
While this article is a little early for April 1st, it does cover a few things of import. The big takeaways for your business are:
This article was originally published in the March 2016 issue of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Stuck? Begin With the Start in Mind STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: stuck-begin-with-the-start-in-mind CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Working on the Business CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/03/stuck-begin-with-the-start-in-mind.html DATE: 03/28/2016 11:45:00 AM ----- BODY:—
As an entrepreneur, I can imagine, in great detail, a lot of possible things I could do or build. I’ve run into plenty of others in the same boat. Ideas are rarely in shortage.
Call it chasing the squirrel or the shiny blue ball syndrome.
The solution in most cases is to learn to say “no” or “not right now” so that you can focus on a few things from start to finish. Steve Jobs did this when he came back to Apple in 1997, axing 70% of the hardware and software products they were then producing.
Strong execution is usually more important than a lot of great ideas.
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“Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind.”
~ Stephen Covey – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
This habit is based on the premise that if you know what you want and can create it in your mind, you can then create it in the real world. Knowing the destination allows you to work backwards to the path to get there. Since men are known to focus on solutions, this habit can work well for us.
Sometimes the result is exactly like you imagined it and sometimes the destination has some flexibility.
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Occasionally, I only have a vague sense of what the end looks like. Or which of many destinations to pursue.
Often you hear that real leaders make quick decisions and move on. A wrong decision is better than none at all. This is true in certain circumstances. But, making bad decisions is easy. Hiding a bad habit inside a good one doesn’t make it good. So we need something better.
Researchers and scientists face this dilemma all the time.
So do creative and innovative entrepreneurs.
Since a solution focus fails us in this circumstance; if you don’t know what the end solution looks like, how do you start?
Here are a few of the ways you can begin when you are not sure about the end or the solution.
This is not an exercise in making lists; this is an exercise in making ‘what ifs?’
This isn’t about possible ends. It is about possible beginnings. Remember that if you knew the end, you could use Habit 2 and work backwards.
Get creative. Write every idea down. Get input from your team, your advisors and your customers.
Sort, chew on and digest the list.
Pick something and begin.
Try stuff. See if it works for you, your clients, or for your team.
Unlike science experiments in school, the instructions aren’t in front of you. Be prepared to throw away false starts up front. Or come back to them later if the next step becomes unclear.
Try a few different things. Learn.
You can save some time avoiding the obvious things people have already attempted by reading or research. It is not necessary to find out if tongues stick to frozen metal. Plenty of others have tried that already.
Sometimes, the goal of the first attempt is only observing what happens.
Then when you begin to know something about the parameters involved you can start to measure to establish the rules and influence the outcomes.
For example, in figuring out what marketing message might work you can use A/B split testing to see which message results in the response you want. You can also vary the message AND the medium to find out where each message performs the best.
As children, we are fine with failure. By the time we reach manhood, we’ve learned to fear it. Maybe it is because we are metaphorically taller and have a fear of falling from our lofty heights.
You know you will fail. So celebrate the failures and what you learn from them.
At least now you know what doesn’t work. You are now free to try other possibilities.
Innovation and creativity require putting yourself and your business on the path to failure. Do it often enough, and your products and services become a lot better. Then you win.
Men have plenty of intuition, but often we’ve been conditioned to put it aside.
When you don’t have the end clearly in mind, you don’t know for sure if you are on the right path.
So you have to pick something and run with it for a while. If you’ve done your homework as much as you can along the way, you can rely on your gut feelings to pick one of the options and go yet a little further.
Few people gain additional insight by standing still and not learning something new. But as you start moving, new options and clarity will be presented.
At that point, the end may reveal itself.
On the other hand, sometimes the end doesn’t become apparent until you’ve reached it. That happened to me on a winding dead-end highway (brakes = good thing) and more than once in the creative process.
So if you know the end, terrific. We understand how to work with that.
Otherwise, you need to begin with the start in mind, and keep starting until the path to an end appears.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Image Credit (Modified) – Pixabay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Manage Your Brand: Win the Hearts of Customers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: manage-your-brand-win-the-hearts-of-customers CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/03/manage-your-brand-win-the-hearts-of-customers.html DATE: 03/21/2016 12:00:00 PM ----- BODY:—
People buy Apple products, because Apple has a powerful brand that connects to their ideal customer.
Consumers can see the connection to the iPhone in their hand or the MacBook Pro in their lap along with the company itself.
It doesn’t matter if the products are manufactured offshore by companies and people they don’t know exist. It doesn’t matter if the components in the phones are fabricated by other companies most of us have never heard of. It doesn’t matter if the raw materials in the device include plastics derived from oil.
It especially doesn’t matter if Apple makes enormous amounts of profit. What matters is how consumers perceive the value they receive from Apple. That is their brand. Apple fans are fanatically loyal. Brilliantly managing their brand has been the key to Apple’s success in the last decade.
Contrast that with the oil and gas industry.
I head to the pumps to buy gas, because I need it to run my car. Gasoline is pretty much gasoline. There might be a difference between Shell’s Nitrogen Enriched Cleaning System and Petro-Canada’s SuperClean Ultra 94. However, unless you are a high-end car buff or a chemist, you are more likely to choose a gas station based on the points you will collect and the lowest price.
If you are driving a pickup truck, SUV, or other gas hungry vehicle, you may be paying anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per month to feed it. The car company gets the brand recognition. The perceived value of ownership is associated with the vehicle and not the fuel.
Natural gas is even more devoid of branding. It comes into your house via a pipe. You choose the billing company based on the price they offer and whether or not they made you angry in the past. The emotional disconnect between the producers and the consumers is huge.
For the longest time, people ignored the oil and gas industry. We need it. They provide it.
At first, the prices fluctuated mostly based on supply and demand. A few big players had a lot of influence over supply. Then, the commodity markets got more sophisticated, and now investors and speculators are making money on that part too.
The public perception is I need it, it is a commodity, the government is overtaxing it, and the big companies are gouging me in good and bad times. So, who is ultimately communicating the value and benefits to the public for the oil and gas industry?
Building on that evil, rich company theme, it was not very hard for environmental groups to continue to paint the industry in a bad light. Spills and other environmental issues handed them the stories they needed on a silver platter.
At first, no one paid much attention to the environmental groups. Then, pollution and global warming started to gain widespread attention, and people begin to care. So, the industry fights back against the environmental groups and lobbyists. The perceived value includes the negative aspects of your product or service.
In the absence of strong brand management, it becomes much easier for an outsider, such as these environmental groups and lobbyists, to influence the perception of value with your market.
Alternative energy sources are becoming viable. Remember Netflix and the demise of video rental chains? That happened pretty fast.
Tesla and others are starting to sell quite a few electric cars. It doesn’t really matter if the electricity powering these cars comes from electricity utility companies. It doesn’t really matter If generating and distributing electricity is not that efficient due to losses during transmission (a bit like the fuel truck spilling 40% of its load on the way to the pumps). It certainly doesn’t matter if electricity is still mostly generated by non-renewable sources like nuclear, coal, and natural gas. The consumer is buying the car and the story.
Sure, the infrastructure and investment by consumers in existing vehicles is vast, and there are still issues with electric vehicles to be solved. The key fact is people will soon have at least the perception of viable choices. The changes will happen slowly until they happen fast.
Those are some of the trends. That is the power of branding. I don’t have a crystal ball to say exactly what is next, and I surely can’t fix the brand perception of the entire oil and gas industry. But, I can relate the lesson back to what you can do.
If you are an entrepreneur, the owner of a business, or hired to run a business, you need to understand brand management or someone else will manage it for you.
Article originally published in the February 2016 issue of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Why Having an Opinion Isn’t the Same as Thinking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: why-having-an-opinion-isnt-the-same-as-thinking CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/03/why-having-an-opinion-isnt-the-same-as-thinking.html DATE: 03/14/2016 10:30:00 AM ----- BODY:—
I’ve been challenging some commonly held beliefs (or memes) for a while. Often this conversation is in my head. Sometimes it is with clients and their beliefs about how their industry works. (I may even talk to myself when no one is around, but I am not aware of any proof.)
I was recently reading a new book by Randy Gage called “Mad Genius: A Manifesto for Entrepreneurs.”
Part of the premise of the book is to challenge commonly held beliefs or what Randy calls critical thinking. Critical thinking is not criticizing or complaining. It is the ability to ask questions that when answered, uncover insight you can then use to generate massive success in your business or organization.
Freshly inspired by the book, I decided to look at a quote (meme) I’ve seen floating around a lot lately.
Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.
The rest of this article is about questions. Some are serious and some not. I’ll leave it to you to provide answers and maybe challenge your first responses.
Is the lion a metaphor for being brave or being a predator? How does that impact the meaning?
Are you a lion? Does that make everyone else sheep?
If we follow this advice can we all be lions? Do we need sheep for contrast?
Lions don’t just ignore the opinions of sheep; they eat them. How does this translate to people?
Is it easier to be brave when nothing is trying to eat you?
Lions eat meat, what happens to the lion if a vegetarian tries to convert it into a sheep?
Do you care about what the other lions think?
What if the other lions don’t like your ideas or business plans?
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Where did the first sheep originate?
Who tries to raise sheep near lions? Why?
Shouldn’t it be lions don’t care about the opinions of the gazelle? Or the wildebeest?
Where does the shepherd fit into this metaphor?
What about those brilliant herding dogs that do all the hard work?
Do sheep have opinions?
How do we know what lions really think about sheep?
From the definition of flock:
“A group of people under the leadership of one person, especially the members of a church.”
Does being part of a flock make you a sheep?
Why are there no sheeps?
Is a middle manager a lion in training or the head sheep?
If a lion doesn’t care about the feelings and opinions of others, does this make it a narcissist?
What if you are running for president and treat people as sheep, does that make you a lion?
If those politicians are lions, why do they care so much about what everything thinks about them?
Could they be sheep in lion’s clothing and afraid the world might find out?
Do you think of your customers as sheep? How does that impact your ability to get market feedback?
Are there really two classes of people (lions and sheep): those who take and those who get fleeced?
Are people a mix of both lion and sheep?
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What happens when the sheep get together and overthrow the lion?
Do people in democracies realize they have the power to do this at any time?
If sheep buy guns, does that make them lions?
Lions often get hurt hunting. When this happens, they can die. Do the sheep care?
How do black sheep fit in?
Can you be a lion about some things and sheepish at other times?
If you are watching a show everyone else is watching, can you still be a lion? What if it is the Game of Thrones?
If you are a lion, should you worry about dragons?
If you have to follow orders are you a lion or sheep?
If warriors are like lions, why do the world’s leaders treat the military like sheep?
How can you make your clients and customers feel like lions?
What if you are the most dominant lion in the region, and some dude lures you out of your home and kills you for sport?
Is it individual or group pride that makes lions so aloof from opinion?
Why is the accompanying picture with the quote always of the male lion when the females do most of the hunting?
What if we invent Artificial Intelligence (AI), and it decides we are the sheep? Why would AI need sheep?
If AI is real, should we drop the artificial part?
What if the quote has auto-correct applied and the lions ignore the onions of sheep?
Does anyone care about what the lion says or is it more about the lion does?
Eventually, lions will lose and die. Is being the lone dominant male lion really so great?
If I ignore the opinions of sheep, will I miss some good ideas or useful feedback?
Do lions ignore opinions they don’t like or all opinions?
Are sex and food the only motivators for a male lion?
Are lions and sheep a good metaphor for groups of people?
Of course, maybe I am just over thinking this. What do you think? Leave a comment.
I was pretending to care. I don’t really.
How does that make you feel?
We could do this all day.
Today I am a lion and your opinion doesn’t matter.
Then again, maybe caring too much about what others think is bad, but caring enough to be a contributing part of humanity is good?
Maybe I should care after all.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo Credits (Modified): Top – Flickr/ Anita Ritenour and Middle – Flickr/ Peter Eckersley
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Partnering Starts with Brand and Trust STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: brand-and-trust CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/03/brand-and-trust.html DATE: 03/07/2016 04:19:34 PM ----- BODY:—
Over our last 15 plus years in business and consulting, I’ve run into many cases of small businesses attempting to work together to deliver better client value, win larger projects, and share marketing and sales costs.
This is one example of what it often looks like:
What ends up happening is:
At the end of the day, everyone ends up with a bad experience and no longer believes such a structure could work for them. Yet, it can work well if you follow some guidelines.
Your brand is how your target market perceives the value you provide as an organization. The key here is you can influence your brand, but it is ultimately the word on the street that matters.
Your target market includes your past, present, and possible future clients. For most businesses, most of your target market has not had any direct experience with you. When prospects consider purchasing from you, they then attempt to validate your brand promise. This often starts off with looking at your marketing and maybe a meeting with one of your salespeople. If there is a disconnect between what they see and what they expect, they won’t proceed. In a relatively small and highly connected industry such as oil and gas, the other approach is to ask someone you already trust for a recommendation.
If you partner with companies that have a drastically different brand reputation, at best, you will come out on the average, and at worst, you will all be perceived at the level of the lesser partner.
A few of the things to consider:
You may believe in the companies you partner with, but if the market doesn’t, you will have to fix that or find other partners.
You probably won’t partner or collaborate with an organization where trust doesn’t exist when the relationship starts. But it doesn’t stop there. You have to work actively on and reinforce that trust. This normally means being willing to go first on providing leads and work to others in the group. If you are always looking for win-win arrangements, then eventually others will naturally reciprocate. If they don’t, you have not chosen your partners well or you need to structure the agreement differently. Fortunately, you can measure the results of trust in business.
This is where you will likely generate success or failure in collaboration assuming you have addressed the other two first.
This comes down to figuring out and documenting:
This will flow out of the first part, but don’t leave success to chance.
The best way for everyone to take things seriously is for there to be skin in the game. This could mean monthly fees that go into group marketing and sales. It could also mean a minimum commitment for joint marketing and sales efforts, or it could be revenue targets.
Track and measure how things are going. This will allow you to adjust things to optimize for additional wins. Ultimately, if the relationship is not working and it can’t be fixed, it needs to dissolve.
Put in a process for keeping the relationships working well. Think about all the people from the working level to the most senior.
Doing all the work to partner, collaborate, and cooperate extensively is not an insignificant undertaking and still relies on other parties to succeed. There is another way to get most of the benefits while putting the risk more into your hands. You become the lead in the marketing, sales, and delivery, and you subcontract to the partner vendors you trust to deliver those results. You still need to vet and manage the brand, trust, and collaboration, but you retain more control and can more easily change up who you partner with if they fail to deliver.
We are currently moving forward with this model. It allows us to add depth for clients who want to manage their perceived value from end to end including brand, marketing, sales, and the ability to deliver value to their clients. As we build further trust, we can always consider the other options.
Here are the two key questions to consider:
Article originally published in the January 2016 issue of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Stop Hoping For a Hero to Save You STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: stop-hoping-for-a-hero-to-save-you CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/03/stop-hoping-for-a-hero-to-save-you.html DATE: 03/01/2016 11:55:16 AM ----- BODY:—
We love our heroes.
In the movies, sometimes they start out as hero material, and sometimes they are reluctant heroes; forced into the role.
In sports, our heroes range from the all-star lineup of the favored team to the quarterback on the opposing side who leads the underdog team in a playoff run.
We want our Presidents and Prime Ministers to keep us safe, build a healthy economy, and heroically fix all our problems for us.
We want a few key employees to solve our business problems.
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Every entrepreneur (or leader) trying to create something big has probably fallen into this trap at some point.
Can’t get sales going? Snatch a superstar salesperson.
Need to build your software dream? Snag the hot developer.
Tired of managing the day-to-day operations? Hire a leader who has been there before.
I don’t want to understate the power of hiring great talent. The right high performers, when applied to the right problems, can outperform average by an order of magnitude or more.
But life and business are not movie scripts.
You can’t predict with certainty who the next hero will be, and therein lies the rub.
What is the real problem you need to solve?
If no one wants your product or service, dropping sales revenue won’t be fixed by another great salesperson. Whether it is a competitive disruption or a delivery problem, better salespeople alone will not solve the issue.
Getting clients or customers depends on three things being in alignment:
The real problem could be anywhere. Be clear on the scope of the problem you want to solve.
Once you are clear on the problem, you can look for the solution.
Does it require a high performer or can you improve your systems, processes and the training of your existing teams? A high performing burger flipper may not make a big difference for your organization.
You need to be clear not only on the skills required to solve the problem, as well as traits including personality, leadership style, ability to work with others and cultural fit.
High performers can often learn new skills or adjust to new situations, but their underlying traits are usually set and much more difficult to change. Many people will use what worked for them in the past to solve today’s problems. They may not have the same impact on yours.
Just look at Marissa Mayer. She was a high performer at Google and yet at Yahoo, is unable to turn the company around.
High performers will not be happy in the wrong role either. You don’t hire a Navy Seal to run a day care.
Remember to select the right person for the right problem.
Understand and know the difference between delegating and abdicating.
Delegation implies trust. Avoid micromanagement, especially of a high performer. But at the end of the day, you need to be clear about what the problem is and the expected results.
Accountability sets the stage for supporting the high performer. There is nothing worse than hiring an athlete and not even telling them which game they will be playing or how to know if they win. A key sign of an average performer is someone who will try to wiggle out of any quantifiable expectations.
Of course a superhero is expected to be above average, but the expectations need to be believable to everyone involved, even if the path is unclear.
Sometimes you hire someone to be the hero and despite seemingly doing everything right, they still fail.
Sometimes the person is a mismatch for the business, role, or problem. Sometimes it is the reverse.
The baritone may be a great singer, but if the role requires a soprano, there is nothing you can do to change the result.
A business has an obligation remain viable and successful, not just for the owner and shareholders, but for the employees and clients. In the end it doesn’t matter which party failed, it only matters that you admit it, cut your losses, and move forward. Everyone tends to benefit over the long-term.
We tend to think we can pick and hire a hero as if they are wearing Superman costumes.
More often than not we need to create an environment that encourages the creation of high performers.
I’ve had average performers who suddenly became much better when the person whose shadow they were living under moved on.
Significant challenges will find you. Sure you can try to be the hero all the time, but your business will struggle to evolve.
If you create an organization where people can thrive, you may be surprised who else will grow into the role of hero.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo: Pixabay
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How To Put Success Back Into Your Forecast STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: how-to-put-success-back-into-your-forecast CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Oilfield Pulse CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/02/how-to-put-success-back-into-your-forecast.html DATE: 02/26/2016 01:38:20 PM ----- BODY:—
Some people have access to more data, but unless you’ve invented the time machine, your guess about the future might be just as good as theirs.
(Update: Since this article was originally published in December 2015, the price of oil has dropped below $30 US per barrel and the royalty review results have been announced. Those events make the rest of the article more relevant than ever.)
I was just reading that oil prices dropped below $37 per barrel. We have a carbon tax coming in 2018, along with caps on the oil sands, and there is a royalty review pending as well. We still really don’t know what is happening at the federal level either.
In one analysis, the global manufacturing numbers are slipping, which indicates a global recession and decreased demand. In another analysis, oil prices are going down to $20 per barrel. Others are saying $30. It also might go back to $60 later in the year.
This is certainly not business as usual for Alberta. The only thing I know for certain is no one knows for certain. What if something good happens?
It is extremely important to deal with the current situation and survive. It is important to plan for the negative scenarios.
We’ve been in business for over 15 years. We’ve been through some rough cycles. We’ve had some close calls. We are currently seeing harder times as well, and many local businesses we are going in to work with are struggling.
What I’ve learned is you still need to plan for success.
Knowing why you are doing what you are doing can help you get through the rough patches.
Just as importantly, holding your vision of success allows you to see opportunities you might miss with a different mindset. You should start to look for ways to succeed rather than ways to avoid failure.
Some companies are actively pursuing mergers and acquisitions. They are acquiring the potential to grow a lot faster in the future, expanding their offerings, and removing competitors.
Your best strategy might be different. The point is to have one.
I was talking to a couple of executives the other day, and I was curious about what they think about the drive for low cost right now. They were both emphatic about the need to focus on value rather than price. They’ve seen far too many cases where low prices meant low values. Poor quality or delivery impacts other areas of the projects, and the overall costs go up.
Your brand is NOT the company logo on golf shirts, hats, and coffee mugs. Your brand is what your prospects and clients think and say your value proposition is.
Are you communicating, living, and breathing your value proposition on a daily basis? That is the only way to move from newcomer to trusted vendor. Someone else will falter or fail and give you an opportunity based on relationship, trust, and the ability to deliver on your value. A strong brand reduces perceived risk.
Someone can always be a little cheaper. Competing on value instead of price is almost always a better position to be in.
You have a vision and have built a solid brand. When an upturn in the economy comes, or you hit on another opportunity, can you execute on it? Can you double or triple your size in a few months? What about 10x in a year? Can you grow rapidly without running out of cash or damaging your brand reputation?
That is the real trick and where so many businesses struggle to grow.
To be ready, you have to have a solid core. This is something you should be working on all the time and includes:
Then you need a growth plan that specifies at a high level how you will add capacity across all areas of delivery, marketing, and sales.
Don’t forget the financial model. When your revenue is growing rapidly, running out of money is not something you want to experience. Success is within your grasp, but instead, you are left with failure if this problem occurs.
I always tell people a plan does not mean every detail right now. A plan is a guide that can be filled in and modified as you go. Stay lean and agile in your planning where possible.
“Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation.” ~Peter F. Drucker
Essentially, marketing is everything from your brand to your sales. If you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business.
Innovation is everything you do to add value to your clients. If you don’t constantly innovate and improve, at least some your competitors will, and you won’t have sales.
Get these things right, and 2016 might end up much better than forecasted. At least you will be ready either way.
Article originally published in the December 2015 issue of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: George Rafael EMAIL: ggr@gilmoreassociates.ca IP: 137.186.52.157 URL: http://www.gilmoreassociates.ca DATE: 02/29/2016 02:50:55 PM Nice going Doug. Pretty well sums it up. But it's also time to do things differently. Have to when the same no longer works. When times are good, there is no interest in efficiency improvement. When times are difficult, there is no supposed money for improvement projects. So part of the forecast may be a need to reflect the consequence of efficiency improvements. That will create a target which will cause commitment and something that can be measured. Not doing so just exemplifies the lack of leadership and sound business management. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/29/2016 03:39:02 PM Hi George, Thanks for the comment and sharing your wisdom. I fully agree with the idea that businesses need to keep reinventing themselves and innovating to stay relevant and efficient. Cheers, Doug ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Survive To Thrive STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: survive-to-thrive CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/02/survive-to-thrive.html DATE: 02/04/2016 10:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
Sunwapta Solutions Inc. has been in business for over 15 years. Suffice it to say, we’ve been through a few economic cycles during that time ranging from the dotcom bust, 9/11, the 2008 world banking crisis, and now the current slump in oil prices.
Of course, your business might run into problems for reasons other than the overall economy or trends.
Losing a big client, a key team member, or a strategic move that didn’t quite work out can also put a big dent in your growth plans. Sometimes, growing too fast during good times can cause you to outgrow your cash flow.
Ultimately, being an entrepreneur means taking some calculated risks in the hope for better than average returns later.
So what can you do when external factors or a misstep causes you to stumble?
Over our last 15 years, we’ve faced a lot of problems. I like to think we’ve also accumulated some wisdom as well.
Whether you are contracting, trying to survive, or growing, here are three lessons you can apply right now.
How do you create value, and who will appreciate that value and pay for it?
Especially in tough times, you need to increase the amount of value you provide to your clients. This does not always mean lowering your prices or giving away the farm. Since part of the value consideration is perceived value, you can add value in many ways. Quality and consistency are two. You can also create strong, value-add relationships with your customers.
Two other factors in your value proposition are whether people believe you are the best choice and will they get the results you are promising. If the risk is too great compared to the perceived value, a prospect will not buy.
Understanding your market and knowing who to focus your efforts on attracting is critical. Not only must they appreciate your entire value proposition, they must also be able to pay.
When things were slowing down for us, I fell back to a quote from “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann:
Debra Davenport: “What if you need a lot of money fast?”
Pindar: “Then find a way to add a lot of value fast.”
Getting more customers is the number one problem most businesses say they have.
Training and coaching do not always work well, because many clients need help with the implementation due to lack of time or in-house skills. To create more value fast, we’ve expanded our offerings to include both longer-term support and done-for-you options around marketing and sales.
We are going to be doing the same things for our other core solutions along with diversifying out of the local market.
Every small to mid-sized business tends to have about 7-10 core functions or areas of impact that define the success of the business. Marketing, sales, operations, and finance are some common ones.
Understanding your business model and defining those functions is critical for ensuring success during periods of sudden contractions or high growth.
It is essential to make time to work on each of the core functions on a regular basis. This includes understanding your processes and systems, incremental improvements, and looking for opportunities for innovation.
Developing your people and maintaining your core values and culture should also be part of your core.
Each of those core functions must also tie into your overall business strategy to ensure it all works together.
Business owners and the people in the business are often too close to the problems to see solutions. Sometimes, we are not even aware we have problems.
The Internet has made it possible to research and learn just about any topic. Distractions like this are dangerous for an already overloaded entrepreneur. We try to wear too many hats.
We started working with external coaches several years ago. The outside perspective, insights, and accountability have made a world of difference. I don’t ever want to go it alone again.
But, it only works if you are willing to do your part and implement the changes.
Group coaching, masterminds, and mentors are also other great options.
Over my 15 years in business and in consultation with other consultants, coaches, and trainers, one of the biggest pieces of advice I have is to focus on the basics and core at all times.
Article originally published in the October 2015 issue of the Oilfield Pulse.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Real Person Behind the Facades of Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-real-person-behind-the-facades-of-success CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/01/the-real-person-behind-the-facades-of-success.html DATE: 01/28/2016 10:00:00 PM ----- BODY:—
“I’ve always wanted to be a brooding, deep, dark artist, but I can never keep that facade going for more than 15 minutes.” ~ Bryan Callen
When I first started in business, we would meet other entrepreneurs all the time. The ones with some experience appeared to be highly confident and flawless. They talked about how great business was, and would offer advice on how to achieve success.
Even some of the other starting business owners sounded like they knew more than us.
I started wondering when we would have everything figured out like they did.
Sure a few said they had no idea what they were doing, and relied on competent staff for success. But, it felt like a facade of humility.
Then I started noticing the cracks in the armor.
People would say business is great, and then in a month or two, they were closing shop. Or you would hear from someone else that they were struggling to find clients. Or two business partners were having a major disagreement. Or a myriad of other hidden truths.
Here is a little secret of being an entrepreneur that isn’t always talked about openly. We make a lot of mistakes and don’t always know what we are doing.
When you think about it, it is perfectly normal. Entrepreneurs are building something new, and the world is constantly changing. You are dealing with people. If that doesn’t lead to new and unknown situations, you are a pretty rare example.
People tend to adopt personas based on how they see themselves and the roles they play. Even people who are relatively free spirits do this.
Most people tend to separate their professional lives from their private lives. At work, they are tough and professional. At home, they are trying to be a caring spouse and playful father. Men tend to have the added burden of following the societal rules of manhood.
As an entrepreneur and leader, part of the role is to appear confident and unruffled by challenges that crop up. So even though we are screaming with panic inside, we are calm on the exterior. Further complicating matters, is the audience we are addressing. We have business partners, other senior team leaders, the rest of the organization, clients and vendors.
These facades seem to be a part of how we work as humans. Understanding how they can work against you is important.
There are three entrepreneurial facades I’ve observed. Only one is sustainable.
“Even though photographers are only shooting the outside, beauty is more about who you are as a person – the life you lead – not your facade.” ~ Nigel Barker
I see this one a lot with business owners who chose something that they ended up hating, or they’ve gotten bored with what they do after many years.
They tell the world, and even themselves, a story about how much they love what they are doing.
Let’s be real, we often have to do some things that we don’t enjoy. I don’t enjoy letting people go or repetitive tasks. Sometimes it needs to be done.
But when there is a significant disconnect with what you say you feel and what you feel, people can sense it. More importantly, it slowly eats at you.
This facade is often adopted by professionals and consultants who are sought out for their expertise. It is also pretty common among entrepreneurs.
A certain amount of confidence is necessary.
The problems start when it is no longer close to your authentic self.
You are introverted and try to play the raging extrovert to compensate. You make mistakes but deny you made them or pass the blame to someone else to maintain your illusion of perfection but inside you know you are faking it.
You adopt the persona of your best authentic self.
But some days, you aren’t your best self. Sometimes you are depressed. Sometimes you have to deal with personal issues. Some days you just don’t know how to move forward.
Your business, your employees, and your clients need you. So you put on the facade so you can serve them, and ultimately yourself, the way they expect.
The difference here is that this is a temporary front you adopt to focus your attention on others.
The trick to avoid changing it to one of the other types of facade is not to deny that there is a problem or disconnect but to deal with it. You may need to keep it to a select trusted confidant, or you may be able to be a little vulnerable with your some of your team or even close clients.
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Clients want to deal with people who are authentic and relatable. But, the reality is they have their own issues and usually don’t want to become involved in yours. When things are not going as expected, employees need a calming influence from their leaders.
So sometimes you just have to.
Because your best, authentic-self is pretty good, but it is not perfect.
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo credits (modified): Flickr/Alessandra
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 3 Ways To Be Happier Than A Fly In Your Soup STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 3-ways-to-be-happier-than-a-fly-in-your-soup CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2016/01/3-ways-to-be-happier-than-a-fly-in-your-soup.html DATE: 01/07/2016 10:00:00 AM ----- BODY:—
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman
Sunday evening I was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a good book on my Kindle, and eating my supper.
I was suddenly distracted by the buzzing of a fly and the smacking thunk it made hitting the window at high speed, over and over. I quickly decided that my book and soup were a higher priority than the fly, which could be dealt with after. A good book should not be ignored.
About 60 seconds later it hit the light fixture above the kitchen table, stunned itself, bounced off my face and fell upside down in my organic butternut squash soup with freshly grated two-year-old, aged cheddar.
I peered curiously at the upside-down fly struggling in my soup, wings held fast by the liquid’s surface tension. Then I did what seemed to be the only logical thing at the time.
With no waiter around to offer rescue or advice, I grabbed the live fly out of the soup, opened the door and tossed it outside.
You are probably thinking the benefits of eating organic soup are wasted if a fly was doing a winged backstroke in it without first taking a shower. Me too. So I returned to the table and scooped out the portion of organic butternut squash soup that had previously captured the fly.
Even though the fly had mistakenly come into the house seeking opportunity and riches, it had decided that outside is where it would rather be. It was determined to get there, even risking its own welfare to reach the goal. I had missed understanding it’s intentions because it was annoying me, and I was focused elsewhere. If I had assisted the fly in achieving its ambitions earlier, it would not have landed in my soup in the first place. Ignored problems are like that.
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During a moment of reflection today on a call with my business coach, I revisited what makes me come alive at work in my business; helping other business owners thrive. I want more of that.
Most people probably won’t have the luxury of spending every waking moment following their passion. But at least you can get charged up knowing that what you are doing will lead to that moment on a regular basis.
Choosing a business model that always makes you wish you were elsewhere is like being that fly. You are either always hitting your head on the window or drowning in your soup. That doesn’t even make a fly happy.
When you are drowning you probably won’t appreciate the virtues of organic ingredients make your business healthier, or the addition of cheese that would make it a little more enjoyable.
If your prospects and clients sense that you hate where you are, even at a subconscious level, you will probably struggle to keep them happy. And if your dissatisfaction annoys them as much as that fly did me you’ll likely find yourself being thrown outside, or worse.
There is almost nothing more disheartening than thinking you want to be in your business (or career), getting it going, doing it for a few years and then feeling stuck for eternity. Even worse, you will continue to tell everyone but a few trusted friends that all is great, and you’ve never been happier.
Then you start to believe it.
The disconnection between your illusion of success and who you really are creates tension. That leads to stress and other effects that add up over time.
The chances of someone rescuing you from your soup are very low.
So have the courage to admit you made a mistake and take some action to fix it.
There are two possible positive courses of action: change your business so you can find the passion again, or get out of it. Any other choice leaves you drowning in soup.
If you have invested a lot of time or money in your business and it has some potential, figuring out how you can bring back the spark is a good place to start. Look at what you have a talent for and what you enjoy doing (they may be different) and intersect those with what adds the most value to clients via the business.
Can you restructure, refocus or delegate so you can do more of those things? Can you find a different way of doing things that would be more enjoyable? (Most people miss the second option.) Can you be happy that doing this work allows you to support another purpose?
If not, can you hire someone to run things or sell the business so you can focus elsewhere?
There is a reason many intelligent, successful people work with coaches and other advisers. It isn’t because they can’t figure things out. It is because they can get where they want a lot faster and cleaner.
When you are drowning in your business, you often don’t have the unbiased perspective or insight to see the problem or get out of it. You may be too attached to the current way of doing things.
Do it yourself is especially enticing for coaches and consultants like myself. But helping others is different than helping yourself.
You may be surprised what a little creativity, innovation or help can do for you.
The right people on your team will tell you like it is and hold you accountable for taking action.
◊♦◊
So stop drowning in your business or work. Stop banging your head against the window and look for the door.
And find someone to hold it open for you.
What do you need to change to be happier than a fly in your soup?
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo Credits (Modified): Top – Flickr/Orin Zebest, Cartoon – Flickr/studio tdes and Flickr/studio tdes
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Trying to Avoid Failure By Never Starting is a Dead-end Road STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: trying-to-avoid-failure-by-never-starting-is-a-dead-end-road CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/12/trying-to-avoid-failure-by-never-starting-is-a-dead-end-road.html DATE: 12/14/2015 02:19:00 PM ----- BODY:—
“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.” ~ Buddha
We often get in our own way when pursuing success.
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of people starting businesses because they have lost their job or fear they will lose it in the future. Some people are just tired of doing the same work for 20 plus years and want a change.
They have announced to the world, or at least a few close people, that they are launching a business, “I am an entrepreneur.”
A lot of these people, who happen to be mostly men in their mid-careers, get stuck in starting.
There are enough reasons that are out of our control for businesses to fail. We don’t need to be adding ourselves to the list of reasons.
We are all human, and so we do it anyway.
What does getting stuck in starting look like?
These are just three of the many ways you may be getting stuck in starting.
“I will start when I am certain I will succeed.”
So you spend a lot of time researching. Then you spend more time organizing the research and trying to make some sense of it. If the decision is not obvious, you either do more research or abandon the idea and pursue another. Or you wait for the perfect timing.
Since there are no guarantees in life or business, this cycle can go on forever.
This is related to looking for guarantees, but instead of continuing to research and plan out the first idea you have a whole bunch of business ideas to pursue.
Deep down, you know you need to pick something but first you need to gather enough information to make a decision.
Now the research project is enormous. In fact, sometimes you can become so overwhelmed you don’t even have the energy to do the research. So motivation and overwhelm become the repeating cycle.
This manifests in two ways. You will start when:
Of course, the problem is that until you start, you truly don’t know what skills you are missing or what your market wants.
In Calgary, the professions I see this with are engineers, software developers, information technologists, and accountants. I am sure there are others just as affected.
Most of the people I’ve seen in this trap tend to be analytical and process-driven. Some of this is how you are wired and see the world, and some of it is personality.
It starts with research and trying to make sense of the information. Then many of you need to organize the information to make further sense of it. A subset will then take all of that and devise systems to remove further risk.
These are all really good traits and extremely important.
The problem is that you are not getting past being stuck.
“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” ~ Mark Twain
Business owners need to make decisions and move forward. You can’t create or innovate without it.
Most importantly you need to find paying clients and get to the point where you prove your business is viable before you run out of money.
If you never start, you will never prove it in the real world, and you will eventually run out of money.
You aren’t avoiding failure by not starting. Not starting means you won’t succeed either. This is an insidious route to failing through abandoning your dreams.
The good news is there are five tools you can use to become unstuck.
Well thought-out decisions are important. Do your research. Put a firm limit or deadline when it will be done. Then you need to stick to it.
Sticking to deadlines may not be your thing. Find or hire someone you trust to hold you accountable for your commitments.
If you gather information and just can’t seem to make that decision, find or hire a person or group of people to help you decide. Once the decision is made, you need to stick with it and move forward.
One reason you may be stuck is that the prize of being an entrepreneur or what you sell doesn’t light a fire in you. The intersection of passion, purpose, talent and market need is powerful. You will need that motivation to get through the rough spots, like starting.
If you have the passion, you can partner with someone who complements your skills and talent. Don’t make the mistake of partnering with your clone. You will still have gaps and double the problems. If you don’t want to partner, hire out the work you don’t like or struggle with.
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What are you doing to get unstuck in your start-up, job, or existing business?
This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo Credits (Modified) – Top Flickr/Marcin Wichary
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: An Introvert’s Guide To Personal Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: an-introverts-guide-to-personal-success CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/11/an-introverts-guide-to-personal-success.html DATE: 11/13/2015 10:46:46 AM ----- BODY:—
I remember coming out of high school straight into the military as a shy and introverted officer in training. I was so quiet a lot of people thought I would quit. I didn’t.
After studying electrical engineering for five years, I went off to serve another seven years in the Air Force. By the time I got out of the military, I had lost some of my speaking nervousness. Part of that was because of the varied experiences of leading others. A larger part of that was taking someone’s advice to join a local Toastmasters Club.
I think I’ve always pushed myself, but public speaking was right up there on the fear scale, just shy of death. After a few years, I got better at it but it wasn’t until much later I became more comfortable, to the point I am seeking out opportunities to speak.
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Over the past year, I’ve been working with accountants, engineers and technical people who want to get into business. Many of them are quite high on the introversion scale, and a few are fairly shy about getting in front of people. Some also have English as a second language and are worried about being able to communicate their message effectively.
They all had a few things in common. For starters, they wanted to succeed in their new ventures as entrepreneurs, and they all knew that getting clients was essential to that success.
The only aspect that varied was the definition of success.
For some, it was a second income to give them financial freedom. Others have more lofty goals.
They define what success looks like.
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Before the military experiences, before the Toastmaster’s training, before I developed the self-awareness to connect the dots, I didn’t know how to define success or achieve it. I just knew how I felt and where I wanted to be. I blindly pushed through the discomfort, but not always in a healthy way.
It took me a lot of years to figure things out and to realize:
There may be no limits to what you can achieve, but there are some tricks I’ve learned that might help you to reach for your dreams with less struggling.
The leadership stereotypes are in our face every day. It is tempting to buy into them. You need to think fast on your feet, have a strong opinion about everything and be a communication dynamo. You must command the stage like the high energy giants in the speaking circuit.
So you believe that success requires you to learn to be something else; extroverted and outgoing and bouncing with energy.
But that is a lie.
There are plenty of introverts starting and successfully running businesses, succeeding in leadership positions and effectively performing on the stage.
You don’t need to live a lie and then deal with the stress and burnout out of not being authentic.
I’ve had numerous people tell me they have no story to tell. Typically they mean their life is not as exciting as they imagine other people’s lives to be. I used to think the same way about mine until I ran into some great teachers.
Your story — whether personal, career, or business, is probably more interesting than you think. It may not become a Hollywood blockbuster, but chances are your story will resonate with someone who is like you, wants to be like you, or has something in common with you.
Our authentic selves are the biggest gift we have to share. If you can get the basics right, who we are as individuals and our culture as a group will differentiate you a crowded marketplace more than many other factors.
Telling our story can be difficult for an introvert.
In general, introverts don’t like to talk about fluff. Some don’t like to talk about themselves much either because that puts the attention on them.
If you get an introvert talking about something deeper and within their expertise, just watch the passion and engagement show through.
That is the one of the best tricks.
Focusing on your expertise and passion makes speaking in public a little easier. Once you don’t have to worry about your content, you can practice your skills and become more comfortable over time, if you choose.
Extroverts are not natural public speakers either. In fact, many are terrified of it. It is a learnable skill for anyone.
But as an introvert, do remember to take the time to recharge afterward.
Introverts tend to listen more intently before venturing an opinion. When you combine that with the desire to have deeper conversations, you have the potential of creating stronger connections and relationships.
This is one reason introverts can do well at sales. They tend to add more insight.
In networking, it is always good to focus on the other person first and foremost. Focusing on the other person can take your mind off yourself and your nervousness. Come prepared with a list of a few good conversation starters for the event. A few good connections are always better than a lot of superficial ones.
Introverts can thrive online and through the written word. When you are online, you have the luxury of not having to respond immediately. You can think through your response before posting. In the right venue, you can have some pretty deep conversations and build relationships further.
The bonus is that when you meet in the physical world, the awkward part is out of the way. Building a few online relationships before attending a new event can make the whole thing a lot more pleasant.
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When I first run into a new entrepreneur who is introverted and maybe a little shy it is tempting to fall back on the limiting stereotypes.
I force myself to remember, there are no limits, only different paths and possibilities.
My goal is to try to help people find their own path to success, faster and a little easier.
How can you find your authentic path to success?
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This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.
Photo Credits (Modified): Top – Flickr/Sarah Joy
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Distractions That Will Cause Your Business To Crash STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-distractions-that-will-cause-your-business-to-crash CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/10/the-distractions-that-will-cause-your-business-to-crash.html DATE: 10/19/2015 12:16:00 PM ----- BODY:—
We tend to wrap a lot of who we are up in what we do. For many of us in business, life has gotten more competitive, busy, and stressful, so we don’t need to be sabotaging ourselves on top of it all.
As an entrepreneur, leader and business consultant I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of great things get done and also a lot of nothing much happening and disasters in the mix.
Once you know what to look for, the results were often predictable.
Sarah worked for a lot of years in a corporate environment in process management ultimately getting chopped a couple of years ago in a downsizing round of layoffs. I met her a few months ago to hear her business plans and see where we could work together or help each other out.
Sarah owns a small business training company focused on start-ups and told us she has at least 100 killer ideas for other businesses. When we pressed, she still hadn’t actively launched the current business and was waiting for some life events to pass before really getting into it.
Robert considers himself a serial entrepreneur. If an opportunity comes up, he is quick to jump on it and start a new venture. He has somewhere between eight and ten businesses underway. I can’t remember the exact number because it changes constantly. I can’t even remember what most of them are. But Robert is convinced that being a serial entrepreneur like Richard Branson is the formula to riches.
Dan is the owner of a new business training and consulting company. He believes in getting things done. The more things, the better. So he is launching three new training courses, getting certified by two new coaching programs and targeting three different markets all in the next two months. Dan doesn’t have a marketing list, engine or even a fleshed out network yet. But that won’t stop him because Dan is about taking action.
Pat is an overloaded project manager with great intentions. Deep down, he wants all the projects to be successful, but as soon as one project derails, he has to focus all his effort on that project to get it back on track. Unfortunately, with complex projects and large teams, projects go off track on a regular basis. So Pat is always reacting even though he would like to be more proactive.
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Some the problems are straightforward. So we’ll tackle those first and then get to the underlying and often hidden issues. These are some of the standard problems:
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Problems with self-image, self-worth and fear are the three biggest underlying emotional drivers of the distracted business driver’s mind.
We take a lot of our meaning and purpose from what we do. While entrepreneurs tend to be far more optimistic about our chances of success, we also have “I can’t let myself fail” attitude.
Deep down we know the numbers are statistically against us, and that fear could paralyze us. Instead, we push through that fear into action, lots of it.
Except:
How are you at trying to drive your business while distracted? What is the real reason? Solve that, and your business, venture, or project will likely move forward a lot faster.
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This article originally appeared on “The Good Men Project”.
Photo Credits (Modified): Flickr/Andrew Huff
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: What Happens At Work Doesn’t Stay At Work: That Can Be Good STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: what-happens-at-work-doesnt-stay-at-work-that-can-be-good CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/10/what-happens-at-work-doesnt-stay-at-work-that-can-be-good.html DATE: 10/09/2015 01:14:00 PM ----- BODY:—
What can happen when people feel disconnected from others and lack a sense of purpose or significance?
If you are aware of events making the news recently, it turns out things can get pretty ugly at the extreme.
The average full-time employee spends one-third of their weekly hours either at work, traveling to and from work, or preparing for work. If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, those hours could be even higher.
It is surprising to see people who think that they can compartmentalize their lives; further trapping men in the man box trap. The work me. The family me. Me with friends, etc.
What happens in one part of your life tends to spill over into other areas of your life; especially stress, frustration, and anger?
As business owner or leader, we can’t personally take on all of the world’s problems no matter how big our social conscience. But we can still make a difference.
We can start to realize that our businesses are a mini-version of the world and society. They have people in them, they interact with other people, they have a culture, and they impact lives outside of work both directly and indirectly.
Even if you are a hard-core “business is no place for the soft stuff” type of leader, you might want to consider the impact of that belief on your business in terms you can understand. It costs you money.
These are some ways disengaged employees cost your business money:
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If we look at the simple model of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs we see that every level above the first is impacted if it is lacking in the workplace.
You may think meeting part of the hierarchy is not your business’s responsibility. But if people are not currently getting those needs met elsewhere, it will impact their performance in your business in ways you may or may not even notice.
As humans we are wired for our personal survival to try to fit into the groups we spend time with. Our needs vary from connections (belonging) at the lower end to a purpose or meaning at the higher-end.
You may hire someone who is currently well balanced and stable in most aspects of their life. However, their personal situation could change. How well you understand this, and how well you respond, matters.
You are not expected to solve problems outside of work, but awareness of how it impacts your team, and the team’s performance is critical.
Marcus Buckingham in “First Break All The Rules” talks about 12 needs of employees in a progressive hierarchy of four camps. What is interesting is that 50 percent of these needs speak to our inherent desire to connect and feel that what we do has meaning.
A few samples include:
People come in a lot of shapes, sizes and personality types. For years, extroverted behaviors have been encouraged in the workplace, especially on the leadership side. It is now a lot better understood that introverted people can thrive throughout an organization as long as you recognize the difference in styles.
It is important to understand that shy people can be introverted or extroverted and that people can fall in a spectrum of introversion to extroversion.
So being quiet at work does not mean employees are not engaged or connected and vice versa. Introverts just connect in different ways.
The last thing you want to do with an already engaged introvert is to continually point out that they are not like all the extroverts. Quiet is okay.
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Here are some of the ways you can increase the sense of personal connection and shared purpose in business.
If you have ever been with a group of people where you just didn’t fit, you can understand the importance of understanding the culture of an organization and growing it consciously. Part of the culture stems from common beliefs or core values.
A lot of leaders understand about hiring for fit. But letting people go who no longer match on fit is also important.
What is the mission, vision, and purpose of the organization? How do they deliver value or serve customers? How does what is important to an employee overlap with what is important in the business?
The more you can align these things, the more engagement and discretionary effort you will get. Sometimes, the alignment is not long-term but that can be okay. Values and purpose alignment translates directly to the bottom line.
The first few weeks and months will likely determine the next few years of performance and connection with the organization. The sooner employees know what is expected and can connect with other people, the more likely they will stick around and get up to top performance faster. Many businesses, even big ones, leave this to chance.
People don’t naturally know how to lead. A few people learn from observation and experience and the luck of having a good manager. Most are left to figure it out, or not.
A good mix of training and mentoring can make a huge difference in organizational performance. Leaders can also learn to mentor their team members.
Most teams perform at a higher level if there is good diversity, and even well-managed tension. The keys are having respect and showing empathy for other people, styles, and approaches. These skills are partly learned as well as something that requires some emotional maturity and self-awareness.
If you have to let people go because of issues or because they no longer fit, if you do so with respect and empathy, you will be modeling these things to your organization.
Bake all of this into your company culture, leader, systems and processes so it doesn’t get left to chance. The key is to ensure that the strategy, goals and plans of the business are implemented consistently and that people are held accountable while doing this.
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Having an engaged and connected workforce is not only good for employees; it almost always translates into the bottom line of the organization. Businesses that get it right outperform competitors by a significant percentage.
A lot of leaders still have a picture in their mind of the tough, decisive executive who is expected to make the quick and hard decisions. Then you go home and put on another mask of loving parent or spouse. When you aren’t authentic to yourself, the stress builds, and it impacts your long-term health. You have the same needs as your employees do.
People don’t compartmentalize their lives very well. Building a business where the leaders and the entire team are engaged, connected, and sharing a common objective spills over into all aspects of life and society.
How can you make that a good thing?
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Photo Credits (Modified): Top Flickr/Nguyen Hung Vu, Maslow Flickr/BetterBizIdeas
This post originally appeared in The Good Men Project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Want Real Change? The Shift Begins in the Middle STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: want-real-change-the-shift-begins-in-the-middle CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/10/want-real-change-the-shift-begins-in-the-middle.html DATE: 10/02/2015 06:49:00 AM ----- BODY:—
The longer you hang out online, the more you realize that society seems to be getting more polarized on just about every issue. Politicians are getting compared to Hitler or Stalin. Vague statements, with little basis in fact, are made to back up an argument. People react to posts that are not even true because, you know, it fits my beliefs.
And the polarized sides are getting more vocal.
Part of this is the way social media sites are designed. For instance, the more interest you show in a topic or viewpoint, the more Facebook will show you related articles. You might not even be aware it is happening.
You start believing that lots of people believe what you believe. And it encourages you to be vocal as well.
Or you start to believe the way to convert people to your viewpoint is to bash your opponents directly. Or to craft a brilliant argument to convince people to switch viewpoints because you are right, and they are wrong.
Here is the thing.
It doesn’t work.
In “The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec Wisdom for the Modern World”, don Miguel Ruiz Jr. talks about the levels of attachment people have to their beliefs and viewpoints ranging from none to fanatical. At the highest level, people would willingly die to defend their beliefs.
Your personal experience probably tells you that shifting someone with deeply held beliefs is very difficult or downright impossible. It might not even be possible to have a conversation that doesn’t end in an argument.
Whether you are promoting a cause, launching a new product or service or trying to shift the culture of an organization, how do you convince a large group of people to actually shift towards the change?
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The first thing you have to realize is that there is an entire spectrum of people in a large group. To simplify things, we will break it into three groups.
If you are writing or speaking to the people who are already your fans or who already support your viewpoint, you will get a lot of agreement and support but you probably won’t shift many minds.
This vocal group tends to be about 10-20 percent of people (i.e. the 80/20 rule applies). The really strong believers tend to be about four percent of a large group (20 percent of the 20 percent.)
If you are writing or speaking to the people who believe your vision is dead wrong, you probably won’t convince anyone to switch. However, your fans will jump on it. The resulting friction can be either scary or addicting.
This group follows the 10-20 percent and four percent breakdowns as well.
If you could convince an influential opponent to switch, that could be powerful. But again, that is akin to winning a lottery, and they might just get denounced by their former group.
People in the middle make up the group that goes from pretty sure I am against it to pretty sure I am for it. They are not fanatically attached to the idea so CAN be moved.
This group makes up about 60-80 percent of the target group. They also tend to be both less vocal and ignore more fanatical viewpoints.
The middle is not one unified mass of people either.
Just like in “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore, there are those who are the early majority and the late majority; those who prefer the status quo and will resist change.
If we think of the entire distribution of viewpoints resembling the bell curve distribution in this book we gain an insight.
The middle is really big.
If we can move the middle, we can shift the entire curve in the direction of our cause.
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It is very tempting to shout at the opposition and rip their arguments to shreds either using logic or if that fails, politely appealing to their Neanderthal ancestry or worthiness as humans. Ring any bells?
Talking to the believers and getting them riled up or getting their ongoing support may be desirable and necessary at times but, they already are on your side, so the lasting shifts are small. You are teaching them to yell at the opposition or at best talk to other believers.
Talking to the middle is not the same as talking to the extremes. You need to accept and relate to the fact that they don’t care as much as you do (right now), and they may even be leaning towards the opposing view.
So stop telling and start showing.
Since the middle does not respond well to fanatics you want to think about the little things they can do that will help right now? What small changes can you make in perception, attitude or acceptance of an alternative view?
You are entitled to your beliefs. So is everyone else.
Generalizations rarely help.
Most people have a whole spectrum of beliefs. Stop seeing other people as binary thinkers; they are neither black nor white on most topics.
Assume they are coming from a place of underlying good (unless you know for sure they aren’t) and come from a place of acknowledging that. Your methods may differ but a lot of times, the desired outcome is often the same.
If you can show people how their beliefs and your beliefs overlap, partially or fully, you can create an opportunity for real connection and communication.
What are some (non-extreme) examples of what people did that worked and supported your cause. Stories and examples give people something concrete relate to and shift their thinking to “I could do that too.”
Moving the beliefs or views of a large group of people can happen overnight if the issue is big enough or relates to strong crowd behavior. Unfortunately, fear and “fear that generates hate” are often the instant motivators. Most times using fear backfires, creates more damage than good, or only lasts until there is another distraction.
When we take a strategic view, we can apply what Gary Vaynerchuk says in his YouTube video “One Is Greater Than Zero.)
One person at a time. One small group at a time. Go deep rather than wide. Do the hard work rather than hoping for a miracle.
One small idea. One small shift.
Then show your believers how to shift the middle. This allows you to multiply the one on one changes.
Eventually, you reach a tipping point, and it starts to spread on its own. The early majority starts to move and then the late majority (the people who prefer the status quo) follow.
This kind of change is happening all around us.
Even some of the people at the extremes get pulled along with the majority over time because the new normal changes the base acceptable standards.
Let’s face it. You probably won’t move everyone, but you probably don’t need to either.
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If you are launching a new product or service that will change the world, these can be powerful tools to start the shift you need to have your company take off.
If you are part of an organization that is trying to do some good in the world, you need to get your fans going and then start shifting the early majority. Trying to go too wide too soon may spread your efforts too thin to have an impact.
If you are trying to dramatically shift the culture of an organization, you need to take a strategic, longer-term approach unless you are prepared to replace a lot of people in short order.
And if you are just trying to impact one person, right now, don’t try to change them. Show them how they will get what they want, or what small thing they could do, by talking to them where they are now.
Shift minds rather than changing them.
Until you reach the tipping point, and what was the change becomes the new normal.
How are you going to shift minds?
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Photo Credits (Modified): Top – Flikr/Canadian Film Centre, Crossing the Chasm – Flikr/Ron Mader
This post originally appeared in The Good Men Project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Tremendous Life Radio Guest - 4 June 2015 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: tremendous-life-radio-guest-4-june-2015 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/06/tremendous-life-radio-guest-4-june-2015.html DATE: 06/08/2015 01:12:02 PM ----- BODY:Tremendous Life Radio, hosted by Todd Weaver, is an interview format show that brings people to the show on a variety of topics from business to personal development. Guests range from the currently famous to up and coming writers, speakers and entrepreneurs. Todd has been able to get some pretty impressive and varied people onto the show.
While I am still gobsmacked (I've wanted to use that Aussie expression in a post for a long time) to be in the line-up, I can only embrace the Law of Receptivity (from The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann) and accept with gratitude my participation. I also take solace in the fact that I didn't "actually" say "um" or "right" too many times or trip going up the stairs to the stage.
Tremendous Life Radio has a interesting take on interviewing guests. Todd focuses on the person and the backstory that made them who they are today. So the interview is more about the person behind the book, business or speaker. Todd really has the ability to ask questions that make you think, which is a good thing.
So yes, you get to hear about my early life which I assure you seemed relatively exciting and fraught with adventure and peril, having lived through it personally. Of course, our past shapes who we are and I am no exception so that all gets tied back into the now and Manifast.
I hope you enjoy the interview and get a few pearls you can use for your business. Click on the image below or this link to go to the Tremendous Life Radio site and listen to the archived audio.
You can also listen to the recording on iTunes.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Marketing Your Business: Being Unique Or Useful STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: marketing-your-business-being-unique-or-useful CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/06/marketing-your-business-being-unique-or-useful.html DATE: 06/01/2015 06:15:16 PM ----- BODY:I've met a lot of really interesting entrepreneurs and business owners over the years. Almost every single one of them had either a passion for serving that made them stand out or a product or service offering that had great value.
In marketing people often refer to their unique selling proposition or selling point (USP).
The definition of unique is:
"Being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else." ~ Google
Here is the thing.
Unless you have the cure for cancer, chances are people have other options for what you do. So in the race for unique we try to be clever and add some THING that makes us unique. The problem is, that thing seldom matters to your clients.
And if it is nothing but a feature you are open to imitation.
Of course, you and the people in your business are unique. But unless you are a celebrity that is unlikely to be a good marketing strategy.
Unless...
Unless you wrap your core values, your culture, your offering, your brand and the essence of what you do in a way that differentiates you. But not to anyone.
Your ideal clients.
The ones that will appreciate those differences because the perceived value is high. The ones you can maintain a relationship with.
So we go for differentiation.
Then in our marketing we try to talk to everyone in the same way everyone else does. Here are our products and services. We are great because we've been in business for 20 years and have lots of clients.
This wastes that differentiation.
Because only our ideal clients would appreciate it (not everyone).
So focus on what makes your business great to your ideal clients. Communicate it. Live it. Improve it.
Become better at doing what makes you great and you will attract more of them.
Stop trying to be unique and be useful.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Campbell EMAIL: garycampbell@gogivercoach.com IP: 24.49.14.225 URL: http://www.impact2lead.com DATE: 06/07/2015 07:50:06 PM Doug, excellent and straightforward advice. Nothing like treating your clients in a useful, purposeful manner that allows them to give you their definition of differentiation. Nice work here! Gary ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 5 Things to Work on to Protect Your Business Before a Crisis Hits STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 5-things-to-work-on-to-protect-your-business-before-a-crisis-hits CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/05/5-things-to-work-on-to-protect-your-business-before-a-crisis-hits.html DATE: 05/04/2015 05:15:42 PM ----- BODY:
In this post on I talk about what you need to do to set your business up so that it can survive a personal crisis on your end. The good news is that doing this today will also make your business much better for you NOW.
Read the article at Entrepreneur "5 Things to Work on to Protect Your Business Before a Crisis Hits"
(Note: This post reached number 8 on the most popular list.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Letting Go When Your Plans Go Sideways STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: letting-go-when-your-plans-go-sideways CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/04/letting-go-when-your-plans-go-sideways.html DATE: 04/21/2015 01:14:50 PM ----- BODY:Sometimes lessons come from places you don’t expect and still impact you many years later.
About 22 years ago, I was 28 and taking horse riding lessons. I rode English and if you are familiar with the style, the saddle is quite small compared to Western. I mention that because it becomes somewhat relevant later in this story.
I think I ended up in that style in the first place because the school I initially took lessons at only taught English. As it turns out, in addition to dressage the English style involves jumping. Specifically it involves you being on the horse while it jumps over things. That part is actually pretty exciting.
One fine fall morning I was riding a mischievous gelding. Barlow was a “school horse.” School horses are provided by the riding facility and get ridden by a lot of different people. Some of them like to play games with inexperienced riders. If Barlow could he would nip you and he liked to throw in a kick at the arena wall every once in a while.
I liked him for some reason. Maybe it was the extra challenge. He never did manage to land a bite; but he did keep me alert.
I was still a little groggy as it was a Saturday morning. I tend to be a night owl so it takes me a little while to really wake up on a normal day, and in this case I had stayed up late on the Friday night prior watching movies. The arena was only a 10 minute drive so I basically got up, ate and went straight there; maximizing my sleep time.
It was still early in the group lesson and we were doing some warmup exercises over low fences and poles lying on the ground. I was just getting into the swing of things.
In hindsight I was probably not fully grounded, my seat slightly off, for a brief moment. It was the same moment that another horse got startled. Horses being herd creatures, they all assume imminent attack and panic instantly as a group. Barlow kicked the wall and dogged right, then left, while accelerating into a canter.
I didn’t move left at the same speed he did.
Sensing I was falling and balanced slightly forward, I did the natural thing. I grabbed the horse’s neck.
However, I was too far gone, and started to go over the side with Barlow still speeding up.
Rather than letting go and falling to the side (the proper thing to do at that point) I grabbed on tighter.
As my body moved downwards in an arc, my grip remained constant and now I was hanging off the front of the horse with my legs hanging between his front legs and parallel to his chest.
At this point, I absolutely knew it was too late to let go.
Time slows down in these situations.
Letting go now would mean falling underneath a fast-moving horse with a better than decent chance of getting trampled. Most horses won’t intentionally try to step on you but a bouncing body under four steel-shod hooves is not good odds for the rider.
So I stubbornly hung on, while the horse galloped across the arena, now freaked out that a rider was dangling beneath his vulnerable underside; horses don’t like that. The powerful chest muscles driving his front legs and his panic-strained breathing are still crystal clear in my mind. You don’t get to see things from this perspective very often. And so we continued.
Until he reached the far arena wall.
Barlow stopped very quickly.
He lowered his head and I slid off his neck still in that sitting position with my legs parallel to the ground. I slid a couple of feet in the stadium dirt before hitting the wall hard enough to cause dust to fall from the arena wall and make me really take notice.
I was now sitting on the ground with my back against the wall. Barlow had his face about 12 inches from mine and he was breathing hard; I could feel and smell his breath. A cloud of dust was hanging around us. I found I still had the reins in my hand somehow. I hope the look in his eyes was mixture of concern and surprise.
I think I sarcastically said “Thanks” to the horse as the instructor came running to see if one of her students had just been killed or maimed. I’m pretty sure Barlow was just as surprised as I was.
After determining that I could still feel all my body parts, I stood up.
After walking it off for a bit, the instructor made me get back on the horse.
Technically, she really just insisted that it would be better for me if I did. Very convincingly insisted. I trusted her. So I got on.
Then I finished the class.
And yes, I was a bit sore the next day, but otherwise relatively unscathed; mind and body.
I learned a few things back then that apply even more today.
Sometimes it is better to let go when your plans go sideways. Holding onto something that isn’t working often does more harm than good.
This happens a lot in business and life. We have time, energy, emotion and money sunk into a project so we figure that investing more is the only way through.
We often have an overdeveloped fear of falling or failing. Both are seldom permanent. Yet as adults, we spend so much effort trying to avoid mistakes at all costs.
Wisdom and detachment allows us to evaluate the situation and let go. Sometimes it is better to take a small loss now rather than risking it all later.
Let go and fall soft.
Sometimes you are too far into a situation to let go without getting killed or losing everything. At this point you need to hold on tight and do whatever it takes to come out the other side unscathed.
While it is usually better to set limits ahead of time so you don’t get into this situation, you may have missed that opportunity or let emotions cloud your judgement.
If the alternative is bankruptcy, or losing your business or a major client, sometimes you need to do what is necessary to see it through.
Of course, crossing ethical boundaries makes the win a loss, so don’t go that far.
Failure is seldom permanent.
As strange as it seems, getting back on the horse as soon as possible is the best thing you can do. It is not always easy. But if you wait, your brain will program falling (or failing) as a catastrophic event and you will experience extreme fear the next time you think about going for a ride.
The same happens when things go wrong in life or business.
You finally get your big musical performance opportunity and you choke during your solo. Finish the piece. It happens to the best so keep things in perspective and try again. The best have just failed a lot more than the average person.
If you get rejected by a nasty prospect while cold calling, the worst thing you can do is quit right then. Always quit on a positive or at least a neutral footing.
I have made some big mistakes in business. So far they haven’t cost me everything. Actually, the fear is usually worse than the reality of “everything.” It is the fear that keeps you from trying in the first place or after failure.
I am pretty sure if I did lose “everything” I would figure out how to start again. Get back in the saddle.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: Horse, riding, falling, getting back on horse, business, success, failure, tenacity, story ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brenda EMAIL: mckeefreelance@gmail.com IP: 68.41.237.51 URL: http://www.shadowshorttales.wordpress.com DATE: 04/21/2015 09:01:05 PM Great story with relevant and inspiring life lessons! Thank you Doug Wagner. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Brenda EMAIL: mckeefreelance@gmail.com IP: 68.41.237.51 URL: http://www.shadowshorttales.wordpress.com DATE: 04/21/2015 09:01:06 PM Great story with relevant and inspiring life lessons! Thank you Doug Wagner. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/22/2015 11:07:42 AM Thank YOU Brenda. Happy you found the post valuable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: D. Shannon EMAIL: spectrumconsulting@shaw.ca IP: 70.75.176.28 URL: http://www.luminosodesign.com DATE: 04/23/2015 05:19:43 PM A great story and a true model for LIFE... its always going to throw something new, difficult, challenging or even frightening at you... remember to exhale!!! super well written ... THANKS! D. Shannon www.luminosodesign.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/23/2015 05:22:05 PM Thanks D. Shannon. It applies to so many parts of life indeed. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: When Peter's Problem Robs His Business To Pay Paul STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: when-peters-problem-robs-his-business-to-pay-paul CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Working on the Business CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/04/when-peters-problem-robs-his-business-to-pay-paul.html DATE: 04/06/2015 12:35:07 PM ----- BODY:Is your business set up to support you during challenging personal times or will it become an additional burden out of neglect; robbing you of income when you need it most and even potentially everything you've invested in it?
My name is Peter. Today I don’t feel like working.
Yet there are a hundred things screaming for my attention.
I should be able to focus but I can’t. My mind is elsewhere, outside of the business and its demands.
It is caught up in the pain of an impending personal crisis and I feel completely powerless to change it.
I am crying, yet no tears are visible. This is not a place I allow myself to cry. Not because I am a man, but because if I start, I might not stop. The business is my last refuge from the reality of my personal challenges.
I seek a way out that I can accept.
I've almost always been able to come up with alternative solutions to problems. That is what being an entrepreneur is about. If you don’t like the answer, you come up with another solution. Be creative. Innovate. Solve and move on.
This is different. This time nothing comes to me and so the pain of helplessness washes over me. It isn’t my business and I am not in charge.
At times the pain manifests as anger and irritability.
This has been going on for several months now and the business is starting to suffer for it.
I know this intellectually but in my heart I find it hard to care. Guilt is not a powerful motivator when compared to pain and the resulting apathy and detachment needed to cope.
I haven’t shared the details with my team. I just can’t. That would feel like failure; like admitting that the outcome and loss are inevitable. Is it pride or fear?
They know something is up. You would have to be blind not to. I can sense a few people are getting nervous. Another item to add to the growing list.
What if I just walked away from everything? Is escape even possible?
Yet that only changes the location. Running away has other complications. I would have to live with that choice. The pain would still be there to greet me every morning.
After a few waves of chest crushing anxiety I manage to calm my mind enough to work on one of those 100 things. It is not the most important but at least I am moving forward again.
And after that I tackle something else until the day has expired only to be repeated tomorrow.
Once in a while I get that old “I can conquer anything” feeling back but it is much more elusive these days than it once was.
I know I can’t go on like this yet losing the business on top of everything else going on outside is just something I can’t handle. Yet I don’t know what to do.
So I try to survive.
I have seen, heard and read about countless variations of stories like Peter’s.
Today it is Peter. But “Peter” could be one of your key employees. Peter could be me.
Peter could be you. In the future or right now.
We can’t prepare for every disaster or problem that life will throw at us. Yet we can prepare things so it is easier to survive and even continue to thrive when adversity hits.
On the personal front things that help include: having a solid network of friends and family, purchasing health and disability insurance, eating healthy, staying fit, etc.
On the business side there are three things you need to put in place in good times so you can survive and even thrive when things aren’t so good.
Whether you have 500 employees or only 20, you need to start attracting and developing leaders. In fact, along with working on your business that is really one of your primary roles.
Building a solid leadership team means that they can not only survive without you there, but they can keep the strategic initiatives and operations running just fine.
The goal is to have a business that runs fine without you and hopefully, even better with you there.
The key here is that you have to step up as a leader and that is often the hardest part. That means training, delegation, accountability, setting standards and working on the business consistently.
If someone in your business did not show up for 6 months, would the business be in trouble? Would clients get consistent value, service and products? Would all the bills get paid? Would sales still happen?
If not, you have a key dependency.
The first one you have to break is the one involving yourself. Let’s face it, if you are there you can probably solve most of the other key person losses but you… you are probably so entwined in everything it would really hurt the business.
The first system you need to put in place is the one that forces you and your team to work on the business, develop leaders and create a high performing team on regular basis.
This is the part that many business owners need help with. How far you need to go in formalizing processes and systems depends on a lot of factors including your culture, your industry and how big and complex your business has gotten.
Then put the processes and systems in place that make your business rock solid. This includes the ones that give you solid marketing, sales, raving clients, motivated and happy employees and more consistent revenue and profit.
Since life challenges are pretty much a given, make sure you can take the space you need to deal with them by doing the work in advance.
If you are in the middle of it, don’t be afraid to get some help. The price might be much higher if you don’t.
(This post originally appeared on The Good Men Project.)
Most entrepreneurs and business owners can pick and set goals. The problem is that without a concrete plan, the likelihood of achieving that strategy is greatly reduced.
"However, the bridge between setting a goal and realizing that goal is the ability to support your vision with a strategic plan. That means devising the plan, focusing on the plan, and executing the plan. And this is where most strategies turn to mush." ~ Doug Wagner on Entrepreneur.com
You need to get from vision to implementation.
Yet so many...
Read my recent article on Entrepreneur.com "5 Reasons Why Your Strategy Is 'ThisClose' to Failing.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Unleashing Your Creative Mind STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: unleashing-your-creative-mind CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/03/unleashing-your-creative-mind.html DATE: 03/11/2015 11:53:40 AM ----- BODY:Sometimes we set goals based on realistic but incremental accomplishments.
Do more of the same except a little faster.
Add 100 subscribers to our newsletter this month. This means hundreds of personal touch points; in person, on the phone or by email.
What if you change the goal to 500? Or 1000? Or 5000?
You won’t get there incrementally.
You have to innovate or get creative up front.
What would you have to do differently to get to the much bigger goal?
Learn some new skills. Engage your entire team. Bring in some help.
What if the amount of work is nearly same over time? What if it was actually less?
Would you choose safe or innovative?
Same effort: more or less. Much bigger results.
What are you choosing right now?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Squeezing Out The Creative Juices STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: squeezing-out-the-creative-juices CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/02/squeezing-out-the-creative-juices.html DATE: 02/18/2015 03:06:11 PM ----- BODY:“Sometimes we try too hard and it is like squeezing an uncut orange, the juices go everywhere.”
I've written about forcing creativity before. But I turned it around and it was actually creative at that time. It doesn't always happen that easily.
Today I was chatting with my accountability partner Barbara Abramson about focus and scattered thoughts when we both wanted to be consistently writing great articles.
Sometimes our thoughts are just scattered. Unless you have practice at calming the mind, trying too hard to focus just makes you feel guilty about not focusing; which further diffuses the ability to focus.
You end up wound up tighter and tighter in elastic bands and the pressure to produce can lead to… look a squirrel. I think I will go chase it instead of doing what was making me stressed out. That.
The trick here becomes taking away the pressure. Poke a little hole and let the creativity come out just a little until the pressure goes down.
When you have a few successes, you start to think that everything you do should be successful.
“I have the Midas touch; everything turns to gold instantly.”
Except it doesn't.
The pressure of trying to create gold every time stifles creativity.
Success breeds pressure rather than success.
You have to create your art without too much attachment to the end result. Some will be bad, some will be good and some will be great.
If you create enough art, you will create lots of great work over time.
It is a bit like going to the gym once a month. You just don’t get the benefits you would going on a regular basis.
If you exercise your creativity on a regular or daily basis it becomes easier to create when you need it. The creative muscles just have more strength and flexibility.
Also beware of the fitness plateau. You may improve quickly and then seem to plateau for a while. This may cause you to quit or stop working at it consistently. You may lose faith in the process.
Switch it up a bit. Create something that uses some of those talents but in different ways. Or maybe something totally off-the-wall; dance instead of paint.
When you come back to the original art you will have more skills and perspectives you can employ.
A lot of creative agencies rely on groups to be creative on a schedule. If someone is off on a particular day others can step up. Creativity can then influence more creativity for everyone.
Sometimes when you are working alone, you feel like YOU have to come up with all the brilliant ideas. When you don’t the pressure mounts and... creative juice everywhere but not where you needed it.
Have some people local or online that you can be creative with and get creative around. Find a few people who can hold you accountable for practicing your art.
That is what just happened with Barbara Abramson and me. She had written: “my orange is dried up and hard” in response to my opening oranges statement and I had stated that “I too was unfocused”. The discussion stimulated us enough to both write articles; her's is here.
Remember when you were doing something just for the enjoyment of it. Then you made it into WORK. The joy left.
Sure you have to think of paying the bills. If you can you should take on some projects just because you enjoy them. Celebrate the results of creation for yourself, not just what others say about it.
Set boundaries around that or you will get into a mindset where you don’t ever think about what others want or need and are willing to pay for.
Once you are getting good at something and you aren't treating it like work, you don’t have to try so hard.
You can get into a state of flow much easier. I know a writer I am learning from, Kimanzi Constable, who can pound out 8 articles for numerous publications in a single day; on a schedule.
I can’t. Yet.
That isn't something you can get to until you practice to the point of getting into flow when you need to.
Over time and with practice you will be able to squeeze out the creative energy and more consistently hit and fill the pitcher.
Even so, there will be bad days, bad ideas and bad pieces of art.
Keep working at it. The great stuff is in there.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Campbell EMAIL: garycampbell@gogivercoach.com IP: 24.49.14.225 URL: http://www.impact2lead.com DATE: 02/23/2015 07:30:52 PM Doug, great post! I have run into some of that lack of creativity of late so this is great food for thought. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Reflections: Knowing Your Perfect Clients STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: reflections-and-knowing-your-perfect-clients CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/01/reflections-and-knowing-your-perfect-clients.html DATE: 01/26/2015 07:14:00 AM ----- BODY:Who knows your clients best today?
Your marketing team has likely defined the ideal client or target market. If they are good they’ve also built out avatars of what those clients look like. Online or offline they are generating leads for sales.
If you have a social media presence you might know who your followers are. If you are good at it you might be engaging well online and gaining further market insights; maybe even some customer feedback.
Your sales team is likely in front of or talking to prospects a good portion of the day. If they are doing their jobs and some of the prospects convert then they were there when your new clients first bought from you.
If customers or clients buy from you more than once your sales team might be building relationships with those clients. Or you may assign client relationship managers to handle that piece.
If you have to deal with irate customers, returns or other support you have some sort of customer service or technical support function.
All of these groups put together give you some insight into your prospects and customers.
When you are looking at getting more clients, delivering more value to those clients or creating new products and services; these groups might be a good place to start for gathering insight.
Some of the groups that are often overlooked are the frontline and support teams… the people who provide the product or service to the client. Sometimes they interact with your clients in profound ways. Sometimes they interact in subtle ways.
Are you encouraging and training them to capture and share insights?
What do your software developers see? What does the cleaning staff at hotels think? What does the accounting or billing department observe?
Do you know the types of clients the delivery team likes to work with? The ones that they will go out of their way to please? The ones who are nice to the folks in accounts receivable chasing down overdue invoices?
If they get great service and your team likes to help them it stands to reason those people might also be your raving fans.
Your ideal clients may not be the ones that marketing originally defined. They may not be the ones sales typically sells stuff to. They may not be who you thought they were at all.
They may be people or businesses that value your stuff way more. They may be the ones who are more profitable because of it.
If you knew your clients so well that you cannot only define the ideal client, but the perfect client; perhaps marketing and sales could function a lot more efficiently.
Here is the thing. Everyone is in sales and marketing. Everything works better when you are serving your perfect customers because you deliver the most value.
Your perfect clients are a reflection of you, your systems and the company you have built.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Inspiration Unpacked: The Business of Purpose and Desire STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: inspiration-unpacked-the-business-of-purpose-and-desire CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/01/inspiration-unpacked-the-business-of-purpose-and-desire.html DATE: 01/20/2015 07:57:14 PM ----- BODY:
Doug Wagner takes on the three seemingly simple requirements for getting what you want.
There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” ~Napoleon Hill
While on the surface it seems simple; this is one of my favorite quotes because it brings so many great concepts together.
As the pace of the world speeds up, we are bombarded by distractions. In order to achieve success at a business or personal level it helps if you can blast through the noise and come back to your place of laser like focus.
Read the rest of the post on The Good Men Project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 80/20 David and Goliath: The Power of Ideal Clients STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 8020-david-and-goliath-the-power-of-ideal-clients CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/01/8020-david-and-goliath-the-power-of-ideal-clients.html DATE: 01/15/2015 06:43:00 AM ----- BODY:
How we feel about our achievements is relative to how we measure ourselves. How we perform in the future, is impacted by how we feel about the results of the measurement.
If you graduate at the top of your high school class you might feel pretty good about that. So you head off to university thinking you were the smartest person in school. But the university you choose is fed by hundreds or many thousands of high schools; all with people who are also academically accomplished.
So you go from the little pond, to the big pond.
Now let’s say you go to a prestigious university like Harvard with higher than average entrance requirements. You are now with the brightest of the bright.
This is the premise of one of the examples in “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell.
Now to be sure, it is not just raw intelligence that matters. Everyone tends to have talents of some sort that are their natural and become their developed advantages. So some of the people arriving for Harvard may be smarter and some may have had more preparation or practice; or both.
Everyone in a prestigious school doesn’t get the same grade. Some will struggle and some will be at the top of the class. There will still be a bottom 20% and a top 20%.
Remember that the people in the bottom of the class at Harvard were near the top of their classes in high school because of the tough entrance requirements.
Yet, the bottom performers at Harvard may feel just as bad about their performance, or worse, than the bottom performers at a school with easier entrance requirements. They still drop out or switch to something easier. Losing still hurts. Maybe it is even harder to take when you are used to being on top.
Here is the other thing.
The people who perform at the top 20% of their class at Harvard have more confidence and go on to greater future academic and other success than their peers. So do the top 20% of people who graduate from tier 2 schools.
Who you measure yourself against is extremely important. And so is your attitude about that measurement.
Most of us measure ourselves relative to our peers, not the bigger population as a whole.
If you are entering a bigger tougher pond, it is much harder to be the big fish.
Here is my theory about how this is the 80/20 rule at play. Keep in mind; the exact percentages don’t matter as much as the concepts.
As I mentioned in my prior post, The 80/20 Go-Giver, the 80/20 rule is generally fractal.
For our purposes that just means if I take the top 20% of a group, the performance curves will still be the same shape for that smaller group. I can again break out the next top 20% who achieve 80% of the results. You can keep going as long as the sample size is big enough.
In the Harvard example we see that top schools are probably recruiting from the top 20% of university applicants which is around 40% of high school graduates or the equivalent about the top 8% academically of high school graduates. They don’t select them all but it is an elite selection pool.
Even people in the bottom of the class at Harvard were likely from this pool.
Yet if they are in the bottom of the class their beliefs in themselves are lowered and they don’t perform as high as the people in the top 20% graduating from a university with lower entrance requirements.
The school you go to plays a role in success. But, where you place relative to your class and how you feel about your place in that group has a big impact on your future success.
Applying this to your business, two factors come into play:
When you are starting and building your business (or professional) credibility you ideally want to go back to being the big fish in the little pond.
This will mean you are not comparing yourself to the industry giants who can offer lots of different solutions to lots of different clients and have big brand name recognition.
Who will benefit the most from what you do? Who will get the most value and be most likely to talk about it?
Being the big fish will likely boost your own sense of worth and achievement. It will certainly boost your prospects sense of you. Both of these lead to greater early success.
They give you the amazing social proof and testimonials you need to get out of the little pond if you want or to truly serve the little pond well if that is where you want to stay. You don't want to be in the bottom 20% at Harvard you want to be in the top 20% in your school.
Don’t think top 20% to start. That is likely still too broad even in B2B.
Go fractal:
How specific about your niche would you have to get?
How would you target that group?
Ultimately you can market a lot more heavily into a small niche than a large market for the same budget.
After you reach critical mass in your target market you can branch out. However, because you are an authority in one area of expertise you can use that to jump to related areas or markets.
As you grow you can become a bigger fish in a bigger pond over time.
Who is your perfect client right now? Find their pond.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Crossing The Bridge To Value STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: crossing-the-bridge-to-value CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/01/crossing-the-bridge-to-value.html DATE: 01/07/2015 02:23:53 PM ----- BODY:In this guest post by Certified Go-Giver Coach and Business Growth Authority Doug Wagner, you’ll learn how to move the selling process from non-productive to very productive…through a simple crossing of the bridge of value. Powerful!!
Enjoy Doug’s wisdom! – Bob Burg
I was conducting some sales training over a period of 3 days this past fall and observed something happening repeatedly during the practice sessions. When I reflected on my own observations of sales meetings from both sides — as client and as trainer — I realized that this mistake was more prevalent than I thought.
Read the rest of the post on The Go-Giver Way.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: In Search of Your Business Excellence STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: in-search-of-your-business-excellence CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2015/01/in-search-of-your-business-excellence.html DATE: 01/05/2015 11:14:29 AM ----- BODY:We all know that we are competing for business in a competitive world. We claim our people are our advantage. Or our product. Or some other magical ingredient.
Yet it is my experience that there are usually a number of factors that come together into a system of excellence rather than a single thing. High performing systems are composed of many parts including the people in them.
So what does that look like?
As a business owner or entrepreneur you will probably hold three completely separate roles at points in time:
Sure you may wear many more hats but if you dig under the covers, you can probably put them all under these three categories.
As the business builder or entrepreneur you will design, plan and implement the growth of your business… working on the business. This includes everything from product and service creation to the systems required to find and serve your clients.
As soon as you throw more than one person into the picture, you will need to communicate the vision, goals and work to others and then hold them accountable for achieving it. It isn’t just all just vision and action from the front; there is a big management component as well.
As some level you will also be doing the work. Sales, marketing, providing products and services to clients, administration, finance.
Of course you can hire employees to do all three roles as well, but as the entrepreneur, you are ultimately responsible for them all. To really grow a business you need to be focused on the first two.
What are you doing to ensure that the key roles are being performed to excellence?
Looking outward, what is it that makes your clients or customers buy from you? What problem do you solve or value do you add that they are willing to part with time and money for? Who are your ideal clients and how do you attract and retain them?
If you want to attract and retain the best employees it is not really that much different than clients. You need to understand what your ideal employees look like. You need to ensure they have the talents, training and skills to perform their role in the organization to excellence. But it is their alignment with your mission, values and culture that will really set you apart. You always need to be searching for great talent and creating a great business will help draw them to you.
Build great products or provide top notch service and clients may find you through word of mouth. Certainly companies like Apple started with the product focus. Interestingly enough, they rarely asked their customers what they wanted. It sometimes works like that for innovative companies. But they did understand their customers enough to build things they would want. So don’t lose sight of the customer.
What are you doing to ensure your products and services are excellent? That you are building a company where employees can provide excellent experiences for clients? One where your clients and employees are raving about you?
I don’t mean just the owner, although they are included.
I mean you the reader. You. Everyone in an organization from the entrepreneur to the receptionist.
High performing organizations require high performing team members.
What are you doing to be excellent?
If you are like over 90% of employees, once you graduated from high school or university, you stopped actively learning; unless someone forced you to.
Why do you think most regulated or managed professions require continuing education? They know the profession and people in it will stagnate without continuous learning.
Most employees continue learning only through what their employer provides either formally or on the job. Before you prepare for your next job, make sure you are already doing the current one well.
Remember that you can hire for that learning drive but as an employer you can help create a learning and continuous improvement environment.
Can you imagine hockey players getting to the NHL and ending their training and improvement? If you want to stand out in business or on the job, the easiest path to excellence it to continue learning and to continue practicing your skills.
But not just any skills.
The ones that matter most to your clients, to your team, your organization, and to yourself. The ones where you add the most value because they are needed, you are good at them and you have enough passion and talent to continue to do them well.
Once you have mastered your role you can train others to do it as well. Make yourself redundant and worthy of moving up. Or stay where you are and just get better if that is your choice.
Excellence starts with you and flows into your organization and then back to you.
Every person and part of a system plays to the system’s overall performance.
It starts with YOU.
So what do you personally do to perform at the level of excellence?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Holding Your Vision: Don't Let Emotions Derail Your Plan STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: holding-your-vision-dont-let-emotions-derail-your-plan CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/12/holding-your-vision-dont-let-emotions-derail-your-plan.html DATE: 12/18/2014 06:45:00 AM ----- BODY:Visionary business leaders and entrepreneurs are attracted to ideas. We get excited by them in fact. They idea of accomplishing something amazing or new can keep us motivated when most other people will quit.
At least until something distracts us and we have a new passion of the day.
Or until a crisis comes along that forces us off our path.
Distractions, whether from a crisis or from new ideas, are generated by our emotional side and then justified by our logic.
We lose track of which came first.
In the video "Influence and Success Insight: Your Emotions Supporting Your Logic", Bob Burg talks about getting our logic in order first, and then using emotion to support the logic.
Pro Tip: Don't confuse emotions with intuition.
We've been talking a lot in the last few weeks about mission, vision and setting goals including in "The True Cost Of Not Having A Clear Business Plan".
In business you can use your emotions to support your logic by:
This is how you get lasting success in your business.
Here's Bob' video.
How are you making your emotions work for you?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Giving 110%: Walking the Edge Or Holding Back? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: giving-100-walking-the-edge-or-holding-back CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/11/giving-100-walking-the-edge-or-holding-back.html DATE: 11/26/2014 07:15:00 AM ----- BODY:
I hear a lot of people saying I gave 100%. Some can even apparently give more then everything they have, 110% or 120%.
Physics, economics, logic and math aside, how do you know you are giving it your all?
Is it time spent? Are you spending every waking moment dedicated to achieve your goal. Is this effective?
Are you going until you collapse into exhaustion? Are you sprinting or running the marathon?
Or maybe you are dedicated to learning everything you can about the subject and succeeding because everyday you out think your competition. At the end of the day your brain is wiped because you can't think any more.
Do you willingly share or use all the information that is available to you or do you hold some of it back to protect your turf; knowledge is power.
Maybe you are pouring all your passion into your project. At the end of the day you have nothing left emotionally.
Which 100% are you giving? Sure there are probably other measures. When looking at these measures, can you really say you are giving 100% day in and day out.
Is that even sustainable? Really?
If you are not making mistakes, if you are not occasionally willing to look foolish, are you really walking the edge... giving it 100%?
Or are you playing it safe because you are holding something back. Protecting your image. Keeping the illusion intact.
What are you holding back? Is that keeping you from the success you want?
Here's The Thing
You can't give 100% all the time. You don't need to.
But you can give the 100% that matters; when it matters most.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: Give 100 percent, business, success, effort, results ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: When Your Business Plan Derails STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: when-your-business-plan-derails CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/11/when-your-business-plan-derails.html DATE: 11/23/2014 12:12:54 AM ----- BODY:I was at the office a little late the other night. My plan was to catch the 9:00 p.m. train and head home, relax a bit, and then get a good sleep.
Sometimes plans get derailed.
I got to the train platform and heard the announcement, “Trains are not running in the downtown core. Shuttle buses will be available for passengers at the orange 201/202 stops.”
Crap! I had thought the earlier accident with a pedestrian was cleared. Great. Now what do I do?
Gather more information to make a better decision.
So I did the only reasonable thing, I checked Twitter for more information.
Unfortunately, the last tweet was that the normal call center was closed and the Twitter guy was off duty and only emergency tweets would be responded to. Ummm this IS an emergency people!
I needed to make a quick choice. 25 minute (I walk fast) walk across and out of the downtown core to the Stampede station, or catch a shuttle? It was dark, cold, and some of the walk is not through great parts of downtown so I elected for the shuttle.
But where was the shuttle?
I looked around the platform for a sign or something, but oddly enough, even though needing to switch to a shuttle from the train station is a fairly regular occurrence, there are no obvious signs on the platform saying where one could catch the shuttle. I also noticed that a lot of people were just standing on the platform not sure what to do. I suspected that a lot of the people were coming off of building cleaning shifts and English was not their first language.
But I can’t do anything about that, and I still don’t know where the shuttles are.
Sometimes you don’t have enough information and you just need to start moving.
So after checking Twitter again I saw that the Twitter guy had stuck around after all. This problem was due to a brand new incident. Something happened with a train and it was blocking the tracks. Thanks @CalgaryTransit *RP .
I still didn’t know where the shuttles were, and standing around was not helping, so I just started moving towards my goal. Home, and my mid-point goal, the Stampede station.
I passed a bus that was picking up passengers. I asked what was going on with the shuttles and he was surprised to hear there was another incident – it was the second or third that day. He directed me to a shuttle location.
So I went there.
Not a lot of people waiting, which seemed odd.
But more started showing up.
After about 10 minutes in the cold windy night air (thanking my choice for a parka) one of the guys tried the number for schedule updates. The code was invalid. Ominous, but guessing it was because shuttles are temporary beasts.
You can see down 9th avenue for a long ways. Eventually a bus came, but it was not the shuttle and not going where we needed. He didn’t know anything that would help.
Time invested in waiting. How long can it take for the shuttles to start running? Should I wait or walk? I started wondering how we would know if the trains started running again as the shuttles are several blocks from the lines and there are no public announcements.
Nothing on Twitter.
After 20 minutes of waiting I realized I could have been at the Stampede station by now.
Sometimes after investing resources into a plan, you get stubborn and stick to the plan even when you shouldn’t.
I decided to hedge my bet and walk to the next shuttle stop which would be closer, and if a bus came I would be able to see it (I hoped.)
As I was passing one of the streets where I could see the line for the LRT (train) I saw a train go by. What?
So that’s why no shuttles, the trains are running again and the people waiting for shuttles will be there all night; lost souls with chilling blood.
Revise the plan on a best guess.
But when I got to the LRT station, the announcement came on that trains were not running and shuttles would be available. I guess the train going by was a freak of nature.
I checked Twitter – nothing new. I decided to start walking again.
It took another 15 minutes to get to the Stampede station. As I was getting close, I realized the NHL hockey game had just finished and the streets were packed with fans trying to go home.
With messed up trains.
When things go wrong it’s often compound with other events to make the situation worse.
I got near the platform and checked Twitter. Still not running.
Then I saw a train on the northbound track pull up, load, and turn around to go south.
After fighting through the crowds (I was one of the few who wanted to go south) I got to the platform.
An announcement came on saying trains were not running in downtown and that trains would be heading back south.
So when a northbound train pulled up and I managed to get on I thought I had lucked out. All the passengers were looking at each other, trying to reassure ourselves the train was going south. Of course, it would be just like the prior one.
Then the doors locked and we sat for a few minutes.
I checked Twitter: “Listen for announcements from the driver as some trains are now heading north”.
Why is the driver not making any announcement? Why is it silent?
Sometimes you make wrong choices.
Then the train started heading north.
OMG!
Not all advice is good; sometimes it is better to trust your gut.
One passenger tried to reassure everyone that the train had to go toward downtown to turn around. I knew deep in the pit of my stomach he was wrong.
We switch sides on the track and the passenger who was reassuring said “see”. But we kept going. So the passenger said, “We have to go to downtown to turnaround.”
Well we did go back downtown, on the wrong side of the tracks. We switched back to the proper side after the first station.
But we didn’t turn around.
Sometimes progress is wiped out and you end up back where you started. This hurts.
So I did the only reasonable thing I could do after spending over an hour getting out of downtown only to be taken back downtown to almost where I had started.
I got upset.
Not raging mad, pick a fight upset – just really frustrated by the lack of information and the sense that nothing was in my control anymore and my goal was never going to be reached. Ranting upset.
Sometimes you will lose it. Sometimes you feel like quitting.
Why on earth was the train driver not telling us anything? The train PA was busted.
I focussed back on the goal again. I found out that some trains were running so I crossed the road and caught the next one.
Keeping your goal and purpose foremost in your mind can keep you focussed.
It took a long time to get out of downtown as they were down to a single track. I found out the next day that the train had hit a switch wrong and derailed.
But that came later, that night I was tired, foot sore and frustrated. I just wanted to get to the destination; the goal.
Home. Bed. Sleep.
I finally got to the end of the line, met my ride and made it home. Well over 2 hours for what is normally a 45 minute commute. It was late and I was tired.
Sometimes you forget to enjoy the journey.
So I didn’t appreciate achieving the goal. I knew I wasn’t going to get enough rest, and the frustrations I met along the way sucked the joy out of the journey.
Sometimes you forget that despite the struggle you won.
It wasn’t until later the next day that I realized that this experience held a powerful set of parallels to successfully running a business.
Things always come up to derail your business plans. It is important to keep the vision and goals in mind and be flexible on the details of the plan. There will be setbacks.
And remember to celebrate making it home alive; reaching your goal even if it wasn’t a huge thing and even if the journey was not like you expected.
Always remember to celebrate the wins, even if you forget to do it at the time.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/24/2014 10:37:19 AM I should mention that despite all the inconvenience of service disruption, the employees of Calgary Transit were doing the best they could and I appreciate the work they do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alex EMAIL: acameron@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: DATE: 11/24/2014 11:10:38 AM It was a bad day for Calgary Transit. Three service disruptions in one day. I happened to be travelling during both of the other outages and wound up walking to Stampede during the second one. All in all I do commend Calgary Transit. They do a good job of getting alternate arrangements up as quickly as possible. As you experienced sometimes it can be confusing on where to go. But overall I think they do a good job of keeping things going and keeping people informed. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 3 Entrepreneurial Skills I Learned From Basic Officer Training STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 3-entrepreneurial-skills-i-learned-from-basic-officer-training CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/11/3-entrepreneurial-skills-i-learned-from-basic-officer-training.html DATE: 11/03/2014 05:42:00 PM ----- BODY:"He never guessed that following his father’s wishes would set him up for the life he loved best – being an entrepreneur."
My high school graduation experience culminated in me losing my long hair and getting paid to get screamed at all summer.
To be honest, I didn’t choose the military on my own.
Basic training was a culture shock. There are plenty of movies that show what it is like. You don’t get to eat popcorn when you are in it.
My father told me that he wasn’t paying for my university and I would have to get a job. Since he was an officer in the military he suggested I apply for the Regular Officer Training Program where you get your education paid for in exchange for four years of service. Despite being an honor student it never occurred to me that he might have been bluffing. That is a wisdom trait I learned later.
It also never occurred to me to flunk out on the tests to get in. So I humored him and applied and did all the entry tests.
Then I got accepted.
So it was off to Basic Officer Training...
Read the rest of my article on The Good Men Project (business section): 3 Entrepreneurial Skills I Learned From Basic Officer Training.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Stop Jumping To Solutions – Why Listening Like a Man Is Killing Your Sales STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: stop-jumping-to-solutions-why-listening-like-a-man-is-killing-your-sales CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/10/stop-jumping-to-solutions-why-listening-like-a-man-is-killing-your-sales.html DATE: 10/28/2014 03:47:00 PM ----- BODY:"8 Keys to breaking this habit and improving your sales (and your love life)."
Sometimes plans don’t unfold as you intended.
An explosion, an underground fire, and a five-day power outage in Calgary recently conspired to alter events for me. Rather than following my intended schedule, I got a chance to conduct some off-site sales training for a couple of days.
And I learned something about yet another male stereotype. We were doing some group role playing around asking better questions, listening, and probing deeper.
The goal was to find out all of the potential issues before starting to formulate any solutions...
Read the rest of my post here on The Good Men Project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Big Chicken Strategy Will Grow Your Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-big-chicken-strategy-will-grow-your-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/10/the-big-chicken-strategy-will-grow-your-business.html DATE: 10/16/2014 07:24:00 AM ----- BODY:Chickens are much bigger today than they were 60 years ago.
At first you might think chicken farmers cheated with growth hormones or that they were genetically modified in a lab. That was my initial guess.
According to this study published in the Poultry Science Journal, even after adjusting for chemical cheating, chickens got this this way mostly through selective breeding, a fast reproduction cycle, and genes that reinforce selective breeding.
Farmers only let the biggest hens and roosters produce chicks. When you have 2 or more batches a year, in 60 years you have 120 cycles of selective improvement. This strategy has been used by breeders for centuries but in the last 60 years, the process has been perfected.
The effects of compounding small improvements over time leads to big changes in growth.
As well, every once in a while you get a significant jump or new strain of bird.
But this is not about the ethics of chicken farming or even chicken farming. It is not about the benefits of organic or vegan choices. Nor is it about how to best cook a chicken. Or even the fact there is a poultry journal.
This is definitely not about the Chicken Dance.
This about how you can use this strategy to grow your business.
So here are the 9 secrets to this strategy:
Over time your business will produce bigger chickens that generate more profit.
Even if you don’t sell chickens at all.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 172.9.42.38 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 10/16/2014 09:31:11 AM Interesting and effective analogy Doug...great list. Perhaps it would be improved by adding 'long-term success requires a long-term strategy'. All too often in business the temptation is to take the shortcut for quick 'success'. Using hormones in chickens does make them bigger but with negative impact. The same can be seen in countless businesses that are become a 'flash in the pan'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/16/2014 04:20:23 PM Great points Bill. Definitely agree that long-term success requires a long-term strategy. So tempting to cheat but in most cases it comes back. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sorry, I Prefer the Dishonest Feedback STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: sorry-i-prefer-the-dishonest-feedback CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: The Good Men Project CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/10/sorry-i-prefer-the-dishonest-feedback.html DATE: 10/05/2014 12:42:00 PM ----- BODY:"Be careful what you ask for. Some folks are way too happy to dish it out!"
Feedback is a funny thing. We want validation but some part of us keeps reaching for all of the feedback, good or bad. Does it really help?
My latest article on The Good Men Project.
"Most of us crave feedback and validation of ourselves, our work and our art. We seek it out either by overtly asking, or through self-deprecation, and we always hope the response will be..."
Sorry, I Prefer the Dishonest Feedback
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 5 Reasons You Need to Have a Red Ferrari To Sell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 5-reasons-you-need-to-have-a-red-ferrari-to-sell CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/09/5-reasons-you-need-to-have-a-red-ferrari-to-sell.html DATE: 09/29/2014 12:13:00 PM ----- BODY:"Because stereotypes and sloppy thinking can be the death of any salesman."
My latest post on The Good Men Project. Two very common sales mistakes are fed by the way our brains latch onto stereotypes.
Learn how to use it to your sales advantage instead.
5 Reasons You Need to Have a Red Ferrari To Sell
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Leading When You Really Just Want to Cry STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: leading-when-you-really-just-want-to-cry CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/09/leading-when-you-really-just-want-to-cry.html DATE: 09/23/2014 07:23:34 PM ----- BODY:
"Business owner Doug Wagner didn’t expect to learn 3 important lessons of leadership from grieving the loss of his best friend. But that’s exactly what happened."
My latest business article on the Good Men Project. Brought back some tough emotions but the leadership lessons are too important not to share.
Leading When You Really Just Want to Cry
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Free Agents: Creating Culture Consciously STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: free-agents-creating-culture-consciously CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/09/free-agents-creating-culture-consciously.html DATE: 09/09/2014 11:53:56 AM ----- BODY:Last week I was presenting the first of our newly launched Manifast Now webinar series and the topic was “7 Reasons 90% of Strategic Plans Never Get Implemented (And What To Do About It)”.
A really good question was asked about getting people engaged in the business culture when they are not employees.
Essentially, the question came from a person running a real estate brokerage where the agents are considered “independent”. She wants to build an above average brokerage firm with a strong culture. Some of the issues include getting people to show up for the regular meetings and follow other guidelines when they are not employees; they are independent (or free) agents.
These days, a lot of organizations utilize contractors, outsourcing and groups of relatively independent groups of people who are not under the same type of relationship as employees; so this question is not unique to real estate.
The first thing you have to decide is how important to you building a strong culture is.
The reason I say this is that building a strong culture in the way you want takes a lot of commitment to making potentially hard decisions. If you’re happy where you are it is your choice to stay.
The power of a strong culture aligned with mission and vision is extremely powerful. When it is working very well it translates into a strong brand in the market and can even allow you to rapidly grow or scale your business while maintaining the integrity of that brand. Brands with a strong culture and purpose also outperform their competitors.
So there are good reasons for building a strong culture.
The first thing you need to do is define your values and culture:
What would it mean to your business if you could achieve this?
Here is the secret.
There is no real difference in the standards for employees versus “free agents” for any single portion of your core business.
Outsourcing your call center? You have to hold them to the same standard as you would your employees.
Sub-contracting your installation services? You have to hold them to the same standards you would your employees.
Independent agents at your brokerage? You have to hold them to the same standards you would if you had them as employees.
Select, train and remove based on your standards.
Be very selective on which parts of your business you can relax your standards on. This does not mean sloppy or shoddy; it just means that the provider can have a different culture and still work with you. But where culture match is critical you must not bend.
“Compliance Will Never Take You Where Commitment Can Go” ~ Dondi Scumaci
Again, this is the same advice for employees and free agents; you will get better results if you use culture as a tool to align and motivate rather than to punish.
People have a choice where to work and where to associate. So you need to think of them as your clients and attract the ones who fit your culture and not work with those that don’t.
The only real difference is with employees you have more potential control over where their bodies are. In all cases much of the discretionary effort is the mental game and hence the focus on commitment.
Select your free agents well and make sure the obligations are clear on both sides before they start. This includes stating the core value, culture and other “the way things work here” considerations.
If the rewards of working with your organization are higher than the obligations they will see value and commit.
Deliver value.
Remove the free agents that no longer fit your values, culture and mission. Yes. This is why culture is hard. Most companies won’t do this.
If you have built enough value, if there is continuous work on improving as professionals, and if there is enough focus on serving the end clients extremely well; you will attract the right agents and the right clients.
Agents make their money by being out with clients and selling homes. Brokerages make their money by supporting this activity.
If they are not out selling then they better be doing something so they can perform better in the future.
Don’t have big meetings to repeat information. Don’t have big meetings to pass on information that they could get in an email. Figure out ways to help them make more money. Use technology to make it more efficient.
If you meet as a group be clear what you want to accomplish and make sure they know how it benefits them. Don’t just meet because it is that time.
Looking at it is another way, what if you thought of your employees and free agents as clients? How would that change your game?
And speaking of clients…
Let’s face it. You are interacting with clients and customers all the time. That rubs off.
Select your clients well so you are not ruining your culture. The clients who match your culture well will be much better served and you will be much happier not having to fight the outside influences.
You will attract more of them.
Strategies, tools and insights you can use to create business success right now. Subscribe to Manifast Now and receive the eNewsletter and we'll let you know about upcoming webinars and other opportunities to boot.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: You Can Run the Business, But You Can’t Hide STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: you-can-run-the-business-but-you-cant-hide CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/09/you-can-run-the-business-but-you-cant-hide.html DATE: 09/07/2014 04:31:28 PM ----- BODY:"Is the moral fiber of corporate executives really on a rapid decline? Or are we just privy to more of the details, and therefore in a place of power to impact the outcomes?"
It is getting harder for companies to brush bad behavior under the carpet when their top executives mess up. This has both good and some dark implications on where things could go for businesses and society as a whole.
My latest article for The Good Men Project: "You Can Run the Business, But You Can’t Hide".
Read, share and let me know what you think about the topic.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 3 Key Business Lessons From DIY Projects STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 3-key-business-lessons-from-diy-projects CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/08/3-key-business-lessons-from-diy-projects.html DATE: 08/08/2014 10:01:26 AM ----- BODY:At our last house I built a big cedar pergola on our wooden (untreated spruce) 2x4 deck we inherited. I made the pergola only using screws and bolts (no nails) in case I ever needed to repair it. Just prior I had stained the deck with 5 year deck stain. I figured it would last at least 3 years.
I was wrong.
It started peeling after a single winter.
So every two years I was faced with repainting the deck. This is a non-trivial exercise.
To make matters worse, the 2x4s were subject to rotting as they aged and cracked. Replacing 2x4s was also getting annoying.
So I decided to put on a vinyl waterproof decking surface.
Essentially you lay down plywood, coat the vinyl deck and plywood with glue and then put down the fabric. To keep it all waterproof you need to have a contiguous sealed surface or water will go underneath and rot the plywood and deck.
This meant I needed to remove the pergola I had built as the option of working around it would be painful and non-waterproof. By then I had mature clematis vines growing up the trellis and the structure weighed well over 1000 pounds. So this was not going to be a trivial exercise.
One option was to get 6 strong friends together at once and lift the structure off the deck and onto the grass, put in the decking and then get them all together again to put it back. That still didn’t account for the trellis and vines, the sloped back yard or what would happen if one person slipped.
Besides I had moved recently and getting together 4 guys once had been a big stretch never mind 6 on two separate occasions.
So I sat on the deck and thought for a bit.
And then I came up with a plan.
I built a couple of frames to lean the trellis on so the vines would survive and not break.
The structure had 6 pillars. So I made six sets of stilts.
I screwed on a cross beam at the bottom and used a car jack to raise one side of the pergola and then attach the stilts. For safely I also attached a few ropes to the top of the pergola as the structure was not designed for a lot of sideways stress and the pillars were 8 feet tall (9.5 feet with stilts). If you understand the principles of levers you understand what could go wrong. Of course you have to accommodate the lift and its impact on tilt, but you can slowly adjust the ropes as you raise it.
After raising one side, I raised the other and now had the pergola standing on stilts with the trellis safely away from the deck.
Because there were six pillars, I could remove two sets of stilts and work underneath the raised pergola.
It took a bit of planning but I could move the stilts around, put down the plywood and then roll out sheets of vinyl deck surface (half the deck at a time).
After creating a waterproof deck, I reversed the process and sealed the holes used to attach the pergola to the deck.
Mission accomplished. Waterproof deck with cedar pergola.
No more scraping and re-painting every year or two.
(Then we moved but that is another story.)
Observations:
Why this approach is bad in business:
Bonus: Know when to use the right tools (like Manifast).
What have you learned from DIY projects?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: Feldman.Sean@gmail.com IP: 79.180.37.17 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 08/08/2014 11:49:43 AM Personally I learned that time invested into doing something I'm better at pays for hiring someone else good at what I'm not :) Trying to do everything yourself in software is known as "not invented here" syndrome. Do admit I get this bug from time to time :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/08/2014 11:54:39 AM Hi Sean. Everyone suffers from it periodically; especially if you are a person who likes to learn new things or figure things out. It definely applies to business and in business it all comes down to cost versus benefit. Thanks. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Brilliant Leadership and the Tragic Song of a Sinking Ship STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: brilliant-leadership-and-the-tragic-song-of-a-sinking-ship CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/07/brilliant-leadership-and-the-tragic-song-of-a-sinking-ship.html DATE: 07/28/2014 09:52:58 AM ----- BODY:I happen to play fiddle and sing in a couple of Celtic bands. There is a strong maritime tradition in many of the songs and a lot of them seem to be about ships reaching a tragic end.
But ships didn’t just head out for fun back in those days. They were generally there for the purpose of commerce (or navy).
Leadership requirements are at their peak when the ship is in peril. This is no different for your business.
So imagine back in the days of rowed shipping. This is before powered travel. Even sails were not all that effective; mostly for running with the wind. Often times, you needed the crew to row.
Now imagine your ship has hit a bit of a rough spot and developed some serious leaks. If everyone on the ship is bailing, the ship is no longer sinking, but it is not going anywhere either.
If everyone is rowing, the ship will sink in a few hours. The nearest land is at least half a day away.
The average tactical leader will focus on the problem. The ship is sinking. If everyone rows, we will drown. If everyone bails we will stay afloat.
So they bail and hope another ship passes by to rescue them before their food and energy run out; and pray that the leaking doesn’t get worse.
If they are rescued they survive but rescue is not guaranteed.
The strong tactical leader will get out the map, look at where the nearest land is, decide what the optimum balance of bailers and rowers are and start moving towards land.
If they make it they survive but the ship and cargo may be lost.
The strategic leader will look at the map, consider the currents and winds, find the right balance of rowers and bailers, and head to a port where they can still salvage or sell the goods. There is a certain amount of additional risk with the longer route, but they calculate the odds and are comfortable that they are in their favor.
If they make it they not only survive, but come out ahead.
The interesting part about all of the prior scenarios is they could all still fail. The leaking could get worse. Their calculations could be off. A mermaid could lure them to their watery graves.
The purely tactical leader is seen as courageous; win or lose.
The strategic leader is seen as reckless if they fail; or courageous AND brilliant if they succeed.
Yet they are still only as brilliant as the last single win.
The truly brilliant strategic leader owns a lot of ships and attempts to hire captains who are good strategic leaders or strong tactical leaders. Since they have lots of ships the loss of any one ship, while making a great song, does not end the overall enterprise.
Ships out of port are always either at risk of sinking (or are actually sinking) are you focusing tactically or strategically?
I would rather not be the subject of a song prematurely.
So are you sailing a ship or building a business?
A little sea shanty on what you need to do to leave the ocean to celebrate my 500th post. Sung by Doug Wagner and Greg Black.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 07/28/2014 04:14:48 PM Huge Congrats on your 500th post. A terrific post and a fantastic milestone to have reached! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/28/2014 04:26:29 PM Thanks Bob, it seems like it took a long time to get to that number. Especially the last 10 posts. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Managing Business Risk in the Dark Ages of Social Media STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: managing-business-risk-in-the-dark-ages-of-social-media CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/07/managing-business-risk-in-the-dark-ages-of-social-media.html DATE: 07/15/2014 10:01:58 AM ----- BODY:
Back in the dark ages, villagers and townspeople would often react to a rumor and then take action swiftly to bring justice upon the presumed guilty party without waiting for the authorities to resolve it. The more emotionally attached people were to the crime, the less real or confirmed information they needed to follow the crowd and exact revenge.
Unfortunately two things were often true:
Of course mob justice is also easily manipulated by both dishonest citizens and the ruling authorities. Plant a few pieces of misinformation and suddenly a mob is taking care of a situation you could never enforce under cooler emotions.
Then we moved into modern times and enacted laws that presume innocence until guilt is proven and a system where at least theoretically, cooler heads would hear and judge a case.
Not perfect and still subject to some abuse but at least fewer mistakes were made and you had a chance at reason.
Now with social media and the Internet, large groups of people are reacting to real and fake information extremely quickly. Unlike before though, this is not a village or a town. Reaction can come from large groups of people around the world.
Unfortunately, the crowds have forgotten three important things we built into our society offline:
Yes we have retreated back to the dark ages of mob justice.
Think you are above it all?
Have you ever:
We are humans and we react to stories that touch us with emotion.
The more a story touches on an emotional trigger for you, the easier it is to manipulate your reaction.
So we need to take a moment and let the emotions go so we can be objective. Ask questions. Not everything you read, see or hear is real. This is just going get harder to discern as editing tools get better (think Planet of the Apes and The Hobbit) and in the hands of more people.
While this is probably a stretch to assume everyone will pause to check the facts and respond carefully; even a few extra calmer minds can sometimes diffuse the mob effect.
Things move quickly online.
At one time brands worried mostly about irate customers complaining online and other people not buying their product or services because of it.
Now you have to worry about a few other things including:
So business gets more complex.
Fortunately, a lot of this can be mitigated by:
The better your brand is perceived when nothing bad is happening, the better you will likely fare and easier it will be to repair things if something goes wrong.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla786@gmail.com IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: DATE: 07/15/2014 01:42:52 PM In one study 49% of executives surveyed said that they feel that the use of social media could damage company reputation, yet in that same study “only 1 in 3 companies addressed those concerns” (source: PRNewswire). This one study alone indicates that social media poses a substantial risk to the organization but the risk itself is not being adequately addressed. Good points raised in your post to do exactly that, Doug. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/15/2014 02:14:32 PM Thanks Al. People mostly think about the impact and how they will deal with it. I also hope my post is getting people to think about how the risk is evolving and how mob justice works and in reality, we are still much the same "humans" we've been for centuries. The rules we create to make civilization function well also shape how civilized we think and act. Same is true online. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The 80/20 Go-Giver STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-8020-go-giver CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/05/the-8020-go-giver.html DATE: 05/19/2014 10:10:30 PM ----- BODY:My latest guest post on The Go-Giver Way...
"In this guest post by Certified Go-Giver Coach, Doug Wagner, the very wise and successful entrepreneur takes inspiration from a book by Perry Marshall. Here, he looks at the famous “Pareto Principle” (a/k/a, “the 80/20 rule”), applying it to The Go-Giver and one’s overall business success.
Enjoy Doug’s wisdom! – Bob Burg"
Read the post here, "The 80/20 Go-Giver"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Core Values: What Matters Here STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: your-core-values-what-matters-here CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/05/your-core-values-what-matters-here.html DATE: 05/15/2014 06:57:59 PM ----- BODY:Our company is in the process of further defining its core values. At times we have been the shoe makers children and put all our effort into our clients and not enough into ourselves; going barefoot.
This is a big mistake so we are making working on the business part of our business.
A lot of things may be important to you and your organization but certain things define you, say what you stand for, and what you won't tolerate.
Sometimes you are not quite where you want to be. No time like the present to start moving there.
This an evolutionary process. You define what you think they are and then test them over time to make sure people understand them and they truly are the most important values you have.
These are our core values as defined in our Manifast software tool.
The biggest issue is communications and clarity. These statements all mean something clear to me. However, to another person, they may be interpreted differently.
In Manifast we allow you to expand on these in your Company Culture.
To come up with your core values you can:
Of course the business owners have the final say. Just be prepared to educate, reinforce and if required, let people who don't get behind them find a place where they will be happier.
The key with core values is how they translate into business practices.
Number 2, "Deliver more in value than we take in payment" is actually Law 1 from "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann. I chose to use it as is rather than rewrite it. For further clarification, I can make reading the book mandatory.
The thing about business is it is personal. Do what works for you and your organization. No need to reinvent the wheel. Save innovation for where it matters; you only have so much time.
So translating number 2 (Law 1) into practice means that we evaluate every product and service to maximize the value we are delivering. Of course we also have to make a healthy profit. But that is part of the book as well.
Focusing on number 3 is how we can leverage delivering value. It is another concept from a great book, "Be The Best At What Matters Most" by Joe Calloway.
It also permeates through our entire marketing, sales and client experience stack. I would argue it also means the same for internal services such as finance and administration. Take it one step further and it means every employee should be focused on delivering more in value than they take in pay (and other overhead costs).
Don't be afraid of making mistakes in this process.
You will.
But you can change things and move on. Improve.
Be afraid about being wishy-washy on what matters in your business; your core values included.
Being clear always makes it easier over the long term.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 166.137.100.46 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/16/2014 06:31:09 AM This is awesome Doug! Terrific reminder and 'how to' suggestions rock. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/16/2014 10:23:13 AM Thanks Bill! So important to know what you stand for. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Campbell EMAIL: garycampbell@gogivercoach.com IP: 24.49.14.225 URL: http://gogivercoach.com/garycampbell/ DATE: 05/18/2014 07:53:50 PM Doug, well done! We went through this exercise at our health center a few years back and it was amazing how much sincere feel came from the brainstorming sessions which ultimately led to the values we live by and to each day. Looks like you guys have it right. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/18/2014 11:44:11 PM Thanks Gary. I love hearing examples of how organizations have put this in practice in real world. Excellent. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Business: It’s an Art, No It’s a Science STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: business-its-an-art-no-its-a-science CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/05/business-its-an-art-no-its-a-science.html DATE: 05/09/2014 07:32:00 AM ----- BODY:Most people identify strongly with one camp or the other.
I always trust my instincts or intuition first and foremost.
Or I measure and test everything and always go on logic.
The artist has an idea and implements it and uses emotion and subjective feedback to validate that they are right based on their belief system.
The scientist has a hunch and then will devise experiments to prove their theory through measurable evidence.
The scientist appears to be less intuitive because they have trained themselves (or it comes naturally) to take their emotions out of the equation so they can find the truth.
The thing is, both start from the same place.
The creative idea. The hunch. The connecting of dots. Passion.
Intuition.
The biggest difference is how they prove their points.
Your business needs to find a balance between both.
As branding expert Bill Ellis pointed out in one of his posts, The Beatles were highly successful not just because they were artistically creative, but because they also experimented and adjusted what they were bringing to their fans over time as the market and industry evolved; applying a little bit of science.
You can write really good marketing or sales copy that resonates with you on artistic level. But by applying a little science and actually doing some A/B testing, you can actually find out which ideas perform better in the real world.
The difference can be astounding.
The key is you can play to your natural talents and pair up with people who fill in the blanks.
In pretty much all the cases I’ve seen, the most successful people and businesses have found a good balance between art and science… between intuition, passion, subjective feedback and scientific feedback.
Get the two working together well and watch your business grow.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 108.162.216.153 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/09/2014 08:45:06 AM Terrific post Doug. I love the recognition of similar starting points followed by different methods of proving a concept. So true. p.s. I'm honored to be mentioned and appreciate you referencing my blog. Thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 108.162.216.239 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/09/2014 09:57:44 AM Thanks Bill. I suspect it is true because both functions are part of us as humans. Your posts are a very unique view into different aspects of branding and I always learn something. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.199.15 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 05/09/2014 10:13:18 PM Like software development it is both. Science for its patterns, rules, and calculations. At for its beauty, creativity, and originality. One that can combine both is mastering it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.CarlyAlyssaThorne.com DATE: 05/10/2014 12:06:19 PM Great post... Because what we have to understand that whether we identify with one camp or the other our business needs to be a balance of BOTH AND... and to reach others we have to be able to communicate in both and languages... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/10/2014 02:18:46 PM Hi Sean. Yes software development is both even though many would see it as purely science. There are formulas for how to do certain things in code but putting those togther into something useful is an art. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/10/2014 02:20:19 PM Thanks Carly, what I found interesting was that both camps start from the same place; intuition. This is not a surprise really since we are all people and have both capacitie within us. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Habits Determine Your Level of Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: your-habits-determine-your-level-of-success CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/05/your-habits-determine-your-level-of-success.html DATE: 05/02/2014 10:35:05 AM ----- BODY:Your habits determine your potential for success and also your tendency towards failure.
Driving happens to be a great example of how habits determine your future success and even safety. Do you cheat on corners when no one is around or watching? Drive in the middle of the road? Roll through stop signs when turning right like it is a merge lane?
You are probably pretty safe when you are fully engaged and present.
What happens when you are distracted by something major happening in your life? Or just zoned out and on autopilot?
You know what I mean. You’ve been driving so often on the same route you barely remember the drive home.
This is when your habits can kill you. You don’t see the danger until it is too late and you are in the wrong lane or pulling out in front of an oncoming car.
The exact same things can happen in your business when you get into bad habits and are plugging away on auto-pilot.
So how do you prevent this situation?
Determine what good habits are and practice them at all times.
How you perform when no one is watching is just as important as when everyone is watching.
Then put a number of processes in place so that the habits are reinforced and that you are actively present in all aspects of your business:
What are you doing to build the right habits into your organization?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Francis EMAIL: IP: 199.27.128.127 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/6p019b01482b1b970c DATE: 05/02/2014 11:34:26 AM I love this post Doug.. The idea of doing everything as if someone is watching is most likely against human tendencies. That same principle is one that I can relate with. My Christian learning has reinforced me with this, but that's another story... Recently at a mutuaI friends Marketing Bootcamp, I re-learned that how I do one thing is how I do everything. He encouraged the Attendees to jump to the front of the room, grab the mike, and sing a karaoke song. Since I knew what he was getting at, I threw my hand up. After the next break I belted out the Frank Sinatra version of "My Way" and guess what? I have no regrets doing that ;^) So I am resolved todo one very important dimension for my business, and that includes your excellent list in your post. Thank You very much Doug, for everything you do. Bob Francis ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 108.162.216.119 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/02/2014 11:43:22 AM Thanks Bob, it was fun to hear your rendition of My Way. Good luck with your action list. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 108.162.221.27 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/02/2014 11:45:46 AM Doug, Great insights and suggestions. Glad you sang karaoke in front of the group but urge you to continue to dance like nobody is watching. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 108.162.216.239 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/02/2014 11:48:17 AM Hi Bill, I sing and dance like nobody is watching, even if they are. Thanks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 173.245.50.151 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/02/2014 11:48:31 AM Actually as I re-read the post, I realize it was Bob that sang - but I have no doubt you would have been first in line had you been there. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 108.162.216.239 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/02/2014 11:51:04 AM I was there but since I already perform in a few Celtic music groups I let some of the other participants share in the joy of going for it on stage. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shiva EMAIL: Shivaskondapalli@gmail.com IP: 108.162.245.118 URL: DATE: 05/02/2014 03:31:18 PM "Always be coaching and developing your team and as you grow, raise up more leaders." Hi Doug, Wondering how different is this from identifying mentors and mentees in the team for mutual growth and hence to grow the team in terms of efficiency. Or, is mentoring a old fad!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 108.162.216.239 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/02/2014 05:12:27 PM Hi Shiva, coaching and mentoring are related. Within an organization I look at coaching your team as something that happens between the leader and the team member. Mentoring is usually something more between peers or with someone else that you don't report directly to. Both are very effective when implemented correctly and not an old fad. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Reluctant Entrepreneur (Pushed From Safety) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-reluctant-entrepreneur-push-from-safety CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/04/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-push-from-safety.html DATE: 04/02/2014 07:35:00 AM ----- BODY:I feel a strong compulsion to step into my potential and see where it goes. It is like the Universe is pushing and shoving me in a certain direction. There is a mix of excitement and fear in my mind.
Sometimes I resist. Maybe I can stay with things they way they are.
Yet the push comes again. Sometimes urgent, sometimes gently caressing my mind.
Who is the Universe to tell ME what to do? I have free will don't I?
What if it is wrong? What if I leave my current place of safety and it doesn't work out?
What if I stay?
A few people are encouraging me. What do they see? Are they in league with the Universe?
Many people are telling me it won't work. Nobody wants it. Others are already doing it. It can't be done.
Do they have no faith in me? Do they not understand the game?
Many people choose to live with "enough". Be happy where you are. Money does not buy happiness. Success is not worth the price.
The treacherous dichotomy. This OR that.
Yet the push keeps coming back. Ever more persistent.
You CAN enjoy life AND have success. Step into your potential and see where it goes.
At times my mind races from the possibilities. Sometimes it cowers in fear.
Most times I show none of this to others; brave.
Yet it is not success or money I deep down crave. It is the people, the game and who I can learn to be.
Let me rest. Let me sleep. Why so urgent?
The Universe doesn't answer.
And then I realized.
The push is inside me.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla786@gmail.com IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: DATE: 04/02/2014 03:24:23 PM Reminded me of this quote: "Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough." -- Og Mandino ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/02/2014 04:29:07 PM Thanks for sharing that quote Al. Determination comes after the push. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 172.9.42.38 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 04/03/2014 09:22:22 AM Ironic isn't it....that the drive we have is strengthened by our willingness to RECEIVE what the Universe plans for us. Nice post Doug. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/03/2014 11:53:52 AM What is truly ironic is that we receive what we have planned for the universe, from the universe, according to its plan for us. Thanks Bill. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 14 Things You Can “Do” To Receive Openly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 14-things-you-can-do-to-receive-openly CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/03/14-things-you-can-do-to-receive-openly.html DATE: 03/31/2014 10:42:00 AM ----- BODY:My latest guest post on The Go-Giver Way...
In this post by Certified Go-Giver Coach, successful entrepreneur, and creator of the Manifast Business Success System™, Doug Wagner, he closes out the “Law of Receptivity” theme for March with 14 (plus one) powerful ways to be effectively…receptive!
Enjoy Doug’s wisdom. – Bob Burg
You can find it here, 14 Things You Can "Do" to Receive Openly.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 20 Business & Leadership Lessons From Border Collies STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 20-business-leadership-lessons-from-border-collies CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/03/20-business-leadership-lessons-from-border-collies.html DATE: 03/26/2014 07:40:00 AM ----- BODY:This is a guest post from the new “Opposite Success” creative project which was initiated by a close friend of mine. Outlook is often a choice. Opposite Success is an alternative view on the standard success formula and loosely based on the hope that people can laugh themselves through the inevitable periods of struggle and into success (whatever that means) and happiness.
You can find more on Facebook (like Opposite Success) and Twitter (follow @OppositeSuccess).
Sometimes it is uncanny how much alike we can be with our furry family members. Sometimes we should be more like them… and sometimes not.
The 20 best lessons on business, leadership and life that I learned from my border collies:
Bonus Lesson: If there is nothing worthwhile to do, go to sleep until life improves.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Little Successes Can Lead to Moon Walking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: little-successes-can-lead-to-moon-walking CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/02/little-successes-can-lead-to-moon-walking.html DATE: 02/20/2014 07:36:58 AM ----- BODY:You can successfully put on your socks in the morning.
You can successfully walk on the moon.
Both are successes.
Walking on the moon is made up of lots of little successes like putting on your socks.
And taking the first steps. And the next ones. Until one day...
Not trivial but lots of little successes require fewer big leaps and giant steps.
They compound.
Often big leaps to success requires the potential for great failure.
Little success may only require little failures. Lots of them. Learn and improve. Try.
Recovery from failure is not as difficult when the fall is shorter.
It might take longer. Or it might actually be faster.
But you may still get to the moon.
There could be more than one way to YOUR dream as well.
Leap or step. Giant is the result.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.234.122 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 02/20/2014 08:33:42 AM Love where you've taken our "try" discussion. It's all context isn't it? Certainly, once those rocket blasters hit, it's "do or die" but a lot of trial and error, and try and fail, went into that moment. And there will be a lot more trial and error, and do or die, moments before moon fall. You've just inspired the next Daily Dose of Dynamite by the way. Watch for it :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Barbara EMAIL: BarbaraAbramson04@gmail.com IP: 98.85.94.86 URL: DATE: 02/20/2014 10:06:49 AM How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Big tasks can be very overwhelming and then nothing gets accomplishes. When you divide it into pieces and parts, it is more "digestible" and rewarding as you get a feeling of accomplishment sooner. Great post! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/20/2014 10:49:10 AM Hi Dixie, indeed it is taking the discussion a bit further. There are probably always do or die moments. But in reality our lives are filled with them but we are so used to dealing with them, they don't seem big. Think close call in traffic. Happens all the time. One day the moon will be like that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/20/2014 02:02:04 PM Thanks Barb, the metaphor is correct even if eating an elephant is not your actual goal. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.234.122 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 02/20/2014 09:04:02 PM Close call in traffic - been training for that since I could walk :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Scaling the Walls of Authenticity STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: scaling-the-walls-of-authenticity CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/02/scaling-the-walls-of-authenticity.html DATE: 02/18/2014 10:31:54 AM ----- BODY:My guest post for The Go-Giver Way as introduced by Bob Burg:
"Today’s guest post is once again from Certified Go-Giver Coach, successful entrepreneur, and creator of the Manifast Business Success System™, Doug Wagner. Here, he shows us exactly how a business can tap into authenticity; the type that helps everyone to shine, individually and as a team.
Enjoy Doug’s wisdom!" – Bob Burg
I hope you enjoy "Scaling the Walls of Authenticity"!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Change Your Focus to Client Value STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: change-your-focus-to-client-value CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/02/change-your-focus-to-client-value.html DATE: 02/11/2014 07:26:00 AM ----- BODY:Maybe you just lost a big client or didn’t win a big proposal. Maybe you are just getting going in your business.
What is the first reaction when you have a cash flow shortage in your business?
If you are like 99% of people your first reaction is “I need more money, fast. How do I quickly get more money?”
You’ve now shifted the focus to you.
Not your client.
I recently caught myself thinking something like this. “How do I make another $10,000 dollars per month?”
If you go to try and sell something in this frame of mind, it will probably not go well. People can smell it.
If I am your client I want you thinking about me. Not you. Me!
“Pindar: If you need money... add value. If you need a lot of money, add a lot of value.
Debra Davenport: What if you need a lot of money fast?
Pindar: Then find a way to add a lot of value fast!” ~ The Go-Giver
By shifting your focus to your clients and what you can do for them you are accomplishing two things simultaneously:
This is not a fake out. You genuinely need to focus on them and creating value.
The question then becomes more like one of this, “How do I create enough value for my client that they would be ecstatic paying $10,000 for the service or product?”
But there is a potential multiplier at play here if you shift the question. As Randy Gage says, not a bad question, but a better question is: “How do I create enough value for my clients that they would be ecstatic paying $10,000 for the service or product?”
(One extra “s” makes all the difference.)
Then: “How do I reach those clients and communicate the value?”
So is it:
It all depends on how much value you can create and how well you can communicate that value to your ideal clients.
Now you have options.
Value is a lot easier to create, sell and deliver when you focus on it and your clients first.
The money will come. It always follows value delivery; as long as you are open to receiving it.
It may look like I was focusing on the money first in the examples. The money is just my way of establishing the scale of the value that needs to be created. It is also part of a definiteness of purpose mindset. Be specific.
This is exactly the approach I am using in creating our new Manifast - Business Intensive programs; working from client value creation first.
How can you use this idea to create new value for your clients? Comments welcome.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 172.9.42.38 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 02/12/2014 08:16:01 AM Doug - I couldn't agree with you more. Providing value is the basis for a successful business - but more so a successful life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/12/2014 10:17:56 AM Yes Bill, providing value leads to a successful life; especially if you can align value with your authentic core. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Campbell EMAIL: garycampbell@gogivercoach.com IP: 24.49.14.225 URL: http://gogivercoach.com/garycampbell/ DATE: 02/15/2014 06:16:04 AM Doug, very true and something I have really shifted my mindset to more recently. I am not sure anything has really changed in my approach but I sure do focus on it now and your post highlights what Go-Givers do. Add more value and more value will come. I am sure you see it in your world. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Why "Eat This, It Is Good For You!" Doesn't Work in Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: why-eat-this-it-is-good-for-you-doesnt-work-in-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/02/why-eat-this-it-is-good-for-you-doesnt-work-in-business.html DATE: 02/06/2014 02:56:23 PM ----- BODY:There are things we should be doing in life and business. Sometimes you can try too hard to get someone to do something; even if you know it is good for them.
When I was young, I remember my mother cooking up liver for us. Fortunately, it was not often.
She would put a seemingly gigantic piece on each of our plates and tell us how good it was for us. After making a few attempts to stomach the tiniest pieces, we would break out the ketchup.
I know, how yummy is that?
By now the liver is stone cold and whatever you call that flavour, is getting stronger.
My sister and I were still sitting at the table staring at our plates well after mom and dad finished theirs.
Then the warning, "You can't leave the table until you finish your supper."
After a few more half-hearted attempts to swallow a fork full of ketchup with a tiny morsel of liver in it we would just sit and stare at the plates. Poke, poke at the liver. Then stare at each other with that look of "why is she doing this to us?". Then stare at the wall or ceiling.
Mom always caved after about 2 hours.
We walked away hungry and without the benefits of eating something good for us. She walked away frustrated.
The liver just walked away.
After several years of hoping we would "acquire" a taste for liver she started cooking the kids something else when she had a craving for "something good for you".
Later in life I learned what livers and kidneys do. I have never looked back on my stomach's decision as a child with any regret.
Some of the lessons you can apply to your business, marketing and sales:
If you can master getting people the benefits without as much or any discomfort you might have a winner.
Remember that most of your customers will have the choice to leave the table or stay. (Does it even work with kids?)
How can you apply these lessons to your coaching, consulting or other "good for you" service business?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 24.114.26.189 URL: DATE: 02/06/2014 05:48:09 PM Really enjoyed reading this one. Real life examples always designate the strongest way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 172.9.42.38 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 02/07/2014 10:07:40 AM Great advice Doug. As a coach I now feel like ketchup for my client's liver. That's a new thought. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/07/2014 10:32:39 AM Thanks Sean, I agree, stories are compelling. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/07/2014 10:34:54 AM Thanks Bill. As a coach or adviser we are trying to help clients do what is right for them. Sometimes that means picking clients that like liver, sometimes that means adding a little ketchip and sometimes it means that we help them find an alternative way of getting there that does not involve liver at all. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.234.122 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 02/10/2014 12:38:49 PM "There's always more than one way..." So right! And when we, as parents, bosses, coaches, consultants, friends, or even SELF motivators, insist on serving liver we're going to have leftovers. Nailed it again! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/10/2014 08:31:16 PM Thank you Dixie! Finding other ways is the ultimate challenge. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Influence: In You We Trust STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: influence-in-you-we-trust CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/01/influence-in-you-we-trust.html DATE: 01/24/2014 11:07:21 AM ----- BODY:I wrote a guest post for The Go-Giver Way about trust, influence and brand. Here is the introduction.
In this guest post, Certified Go-Giver Coach and hugely successful entrepreneur, Doug Wagner shares an excellent insight into how trust is the key to influence, and how both go a long way to your successful brand.
Enjoy Doug’s wisdom! – Bob Burg
Have a read and leave a comment here "Influence: In You We Trust".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Key to Putting the "Action" Into Accountability STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-key-to-putting-the-action-into-accountability CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/01/the-key-to-putting-the-action-into-accountability.html DATE: 01/15/2014 03:03:26 PM ----- BODY:You've set some goals. You've taken a little action. Maybe you've delegated some of the action steps.
If you are in the top 20% you've also put a little bit of accountability in place.
For yourself.
For your team.
The problem with most people is they easily lose focus and chase other things, leaving their goals unfulfilled while keeping themselves very busy.
The illusion of unfocussed activity leading to success.
I am fortunate enough to have a great accountability partner. We are both being coached by the same person so we can relate on multiple levels.
This is the approach we are moving towards.
Accountabilitate (verb) is defined by Google as:
To enable accountability through action of the person holding someone accountable. To get results through holding someone accountable.
But how do you actually do that?
Whether you are a leader, manager, coach, mentor or the person wanting to be accountabilitated; the process is similar.
With Supportive Accountability!
What were your goals last period? "X and Y and Z"
How did you do? "I made a small dent in Y. Didn't get to X and Z. I (went off tangent and) did M (Squirrel!)".
Great job. Woohoo on M! That is awesome. (Squirrel!) Tell me about M. How can we do M as well?
What are your goals this week? "A and B and C and X,Y, Z"
With Active Challenger Accountability!
Active Review:
Active Outcome Setting
The Action Part
The goal here is not to beat the other person up.
The goal is to help them keep their desired outcomes and results forefront in their minds so they actually get done. The miracle parts of this are twofold:
Eventually self-accountability will become a habit as well.
Keep in mind that the whole accountability meeting might only take 15 minutes once a week. The follow up updates are short.
The idea behind accoutabilitating someone is to help them achieve their goals.
The point is it needs to be an active not passive process. Put just a little more effort into the process and the results can be transformational.
Go from holding someone accountable into accountabilitating them.
Find people to accountabilitate you. Hire a good coach. Use a tool if it will help you and your team.
Then Manifast your dream business!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dynamitedixie EMAIL: IP: 71.85.228.60 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/dynamitedixie DATE: 01/16/2014 09:13:34 AM What a fantastic breakdown of the successful approach you and Barb have worked out. (And I LOVE your verb!) You two working together has been so powerful and I see it in my sessions with both of you. THIS is why I love coaching coaches - and you two are awesome coaches as well as amazing people! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/16/2014 10:40:28 AM Aw, thanks Dixie. It has truly been transformational working with both of you. I think what really makes accountability work is being open to receiving; to being accoutabilitated. P.S. It is a new word for everyone. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Dynamic Duo: Unrestrained Budgets and Accurate Forecasting STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-dynamic-duo-unrestrained-budget-and-accurate-forecasting CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2014/01/the-dynamic-duo-unrestrained-budget-and-accurate-forecasting.html DATE: 01/09/2014 07:14:00 AM ----- BODY:Most people hate following budgets and think forecasting is for psychics. I used to think this and did both of these exercises because I had to, not because I was enthusiastic.
For a visionary entrepreneur this feels like it is like putting a box around you. How can you Manifast your vision if you are constrained from spending when you want to?
How many of you use a budget to plan your home spending? I would guess that less than 10% of people actually rigidly follow a budget and half those are doing so because they are forced to.
Budgets limit your spending, right?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
That is only true if your income is fixed.
In business your goal is to increase your income. Dramatically!
In business your budget is your plan for funding the increase in your income AND determining how much profit you will make.
Profit is the part you can keep or reinvest to fund more growth.
Your budget is your financial plan that goes with the rest of your business plan.
Now this is the best part... your budget drives how much growth you want in your income and profit.
When you think "Definiteness in Purpose" this is where you get specific. The more specific you are and the more you focus on achieve your numbers, the better chance you have of succeeding.
Remember, your budget drives how much you want to grow.
It does not need to be restrained. It is as big as your goals and dreams.
You just need to consistently make more than you spend. Grow your revenue and manage your expenses relative to the growth.
Want to spend more? Make more. Invest in the growth.
Unlike a home budget, income is a bigger variable in a business.
Thus unrestrained budgeting.
The important part of the budget ends up in your measuring system or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In Manifast we keep track of your numbers in monthly and yearly buckets. We track three numbers:
Variance is Actual minus Budget. A lot of people use this number but it doesn't tell you anything new and is historical so we don't focus on it. You can only focus on so many things.
KPIs are a mix of forward looking and rear view mirror measures that are important to your business and cover all aspects of your business. Picking the right ones is a whole other subject.
How many people do we need next month to provide great service to our clients? Will we be able to pay our expense? Do we need to put more into marketing or sales?
The budget is the plan. But plans don't go according to plan.
Forecasting is your ability to adjust your plan on the fly. It allows you to make better decisions more quickly and with less guessing.
It is a skill that requires practice. Lots of practice.
It should involve your entire team. Why on earth would you take all the responsibility for everything on your shoulders? Your team is closer to the action.
But the purpose of forecasting is not really to just predict the future.
The real purpose of forecasting is to predict the future so you can change it.
Like time travelling or science fiction. But real world stuff.
The best companies do this well.
Your unbeatable team of unrestrained budget and accurate forecasting.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 01/10/2014 08:43:25 AM Great post Doug. When in the corporate world we incorporated two approaches to budgeting. The first was what we called a 'ground up' approach - essentially zero based budgeting. That included our "stretch" objectives. Secondly we used a 'top down' budget - one which was generated by our financial group and was tied to very strict budget forecasting. The result was similar to what you've identified as it allowed us to be financially responsible - yes, as marketers :) - but also identify opportunity to grow business and profits. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gary Campbell EMAIL: garycampbell@gogivercoach.com IP: 24.49.14.225 URL: http://gogivercoach.com/garycampbell/ DATE: 01/12/2014 08:34:13 AM Doug, excellent viewpoint on budget setting. Most budget setting experiences do center around cost containment. Nice to see a focus on budgets as a tool to drive growth. Way to go! Gary ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/12/2014 08:46:11 PM Thanks Bill. Ground up and top down are two common methods in larger organizations. In smaller businesses, many do not even really employ budgetting because they think it is for the big guys because of the perceived complexity. Balance of growth and responsibility. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/12/2014 08:50:54 PM Thanks Gary! Once I changed my perspective on budgeting I saw it as an exciting business tool. So vital for small businesses to start doing this and not so constraining as they believe. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The "First Time" Secret to Business Profit STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-first-time-secret-to-business-profit CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/12/the-first-time-secret-to-business-profit.html DATE: 12/16/2013 07:42:00 AM ----- BODY:So many companies spend so much time and money fixing problems.
Often it is self-inflicted. Sometimes things just happen.
They spend a fortune on marketing and sales to convince customers they are better than their competition.
Yet the simple truth is, the profit is in doing things right the first time.
Having to redo a job costs money. Looking at the profitability of 90% of businesses, they don't have a lot of room to be wasting money.
In my recent post on the shipping company, they made numerous visits to not pick up some furniture that needed to be returned to a vendor. Then after finally picking it up, another driver re-delivered it the next day. You add in the cost of the call center people and supervisors I would guess they lost money on the deal before it even headed back to the depot.
Similarly our Internet connection was being upgraded this past week and the company had to make numerous visits onsite with a technician plus the remote technical staff. A few errors were made that made the outages a lot more painful for us and the provider.
Customers want doing business with you to go smoothly. If you are dealing with small or mid-sized business owners time is often more important than the costs especially for smaller transactions.
In case of the shipping company, our staff spent a few hours on the phone plus time preparing the packages and dealing with the shipper.
In the case of the Internet upgrade, our technical staff spent several hours helping the provider troubleshoot plus reconfiguring our equipment.
When I look at the costs to our company for both exercises, the cost of doing business with these vendors far exceeds the benefits received.
The Internet upgrade was somewhat of a necessity. It doesn't mean we are happy with how it worked out. We are certainly not out there being Walking Personal Ambassadors (The Go-GIver) for them. It could have been different.
A lot of companies spend a ton of money on marketing and sales to acquire new customers.
Yet almost every business owner will agree that it is cheaper to keep and sell to an existing customer than acquire a new one.
In our rush to optimize profitability, many companies go too far and reduce service and thus quality to the bare minimum.
With the Internet and social media the horror stories are out there for everyone to see.
And companies spend another fortune on minimizing the damage caused by the backlash and another fortune convincing people there is no problem.
Maybe some of that money should be pumped back into doing it right the first time.
But you say to me "That didn't work so well for Zappos!".
It actually worked extremely well! They understood.
That is where the profits are, doing it right the first time and ensuring raving customer loyalty that people talk about.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 12/16/2013 09:16:02 AM Doug, I could not agree more with this post. Doing it right the first time....what a great principle. In my business this lack of 'doing it right the first time' becomes quite evident in the branding efforts of individuals and companies/products. All too often I'll hear "We'll launch this way and get to our brand later." That doesn't work at all as your brand exists whether or not you choose to realize it. Great post. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 173.183.136.111 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/16/2013 11:19:02 AM Thanks Bill! Funny after all this time that businesses still believe they decide what their brand is. Once perception is set it is hard to change it. That being said, there is still some room for experimentation and market testing. The key is to be absolutely clear on expectations. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Consistent Excellence Doesn't Just Happen STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: consistent-excellence-doesnt-just-happen CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/12/consistent-excellence-doesnt-just-happen.html DATE: 12/10/2013 11:46:32 AM ----- BODY:Consistent excellence doesn't just happen. Someone planned for it, it is measured and there is accountability.
In my last post, I talked about processes that were not working.
This is about the opposite.
I was at the Minute Lube on McLeod Trail here in Calgary. The lineups were a little long and after I got into the service bay I had to use the facilities. This is a typical assembly line oil change place staffed mostly by young men.
You go into the washroom and close the door.
The decor is very homey and modern. The washroom is spotless including the toilet seat.
You open the door. Yes, I am still in a garage staffed by young men.
I asked. They check and clean the washroom every 20 minutes.
Unlike the messy department store washrooms where they say they do it every hour but it is obvious they don't really, they actually do it.
And they don't put up a sign saying we care.
They just care.
I told him I was impressed.
They don't leave it to chance. They don't check once in a while. They check every 20 minutes.
They created a system and now they are working the system.
A business is already a system composed of sub-systems and processes. They are either good or bad. They either serve you or they don't. The mistake is assuming that you don't have any already and they can just be glued on later.
What are you doing to ensure your customers get an excellent end-to-end experience? I hope you are putting in great systems.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 12/11/2013 07:31:47 AM Great insight Doug. Thank you. Process and systems are indeed key but what truly drives this type of consistent excellence is having cleanliness (in this case) as a core value - then having all employees buy into that commitment. If that's achieved, systems and processes ensure the standards are met or exceeded. If they are not they systems/processes will not deliver. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/11/2013 10:26:12 AM Bill you are entirely correct. Your core values drive which systems you need to achieve those values. As well, you hiring system must make sure you only hire people who will support your core values. Full circle. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Francis EMAIL: alixandbob@gmail.com IP: 70.65.76.71 URL: http://safeguardbycousins.com DATE: 12/11/2013 03:00:06 PM Again, thank you Doug. This time for pointing out the importance of the core values. Something so simple as maintaining a clean bathroom is such a strong statement. Putting myself, as an entrepreneur, into my desired customer's shoes, I will use those businesses which support my standards. A clean bathroom is everybody's standard! Your manifast tool lays out the "full circle" in an intelligent way with core values as one of the main drivers. These blog stories are very complementary to that tool. Great! Glad I'm taking the training and reading your blog. Good job. Bob ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/11/2013 05:09:56 PM Thanks Bob. So happy you find Manifast and my blog helpful. Yes, the Manifast tool helps businesses do this all correctly without getting bogged down in business theory. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Shipping Zed to Zees: Customer Service Run Amok STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: shipping-zed-to-zees-customer-service-run-amok CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/12/shipping-zed-to-zees-customer-service-run-amok.html DATE: 12/09/2013 12:26:22 PM ----- BODY:I was placing an order for some furniture from Staples Canada for our office. As I do occasionally, I add things to my shopping cart that I might be interested in (so I can find them faster) and then clean it up before placing the order.
In this case I got distracted and then it was almost time to head out the door. So I pressed checkout without stopping to think. I accidentally ordered two different items instead of two of the same; one I didn’t even want.
No worries, I will just cancel the order or change it.
“We are sorry; your order has been submitted and can no longer be changed. Please call our customer service center.”
Did that. They are closed until tomorrow.
So I e-mailed customer service. No reply as of the next day so I phoned back.
Customer service was great. They would cancel the order for me and I should just place the order again for what I really wanted.
Perfect.
Two days later I got a reply to the e-mail I sent.
The order is in transit via a third party shipping company and cannot be cancelled. When it comes just call us and we will arrange for it to be sent back.
Now I have two orders coming, one of which is wrong.
When the wrong one arrived we did that and they sent the shipping information via e-mail.
Not perfect but nothing to get upset over, right?
Called "DOWN" (fake name) for pickup.
(I won’t name them but if you mix red, yellow and blue you will get the color of their trucks.)
Attempt 1: Driver showed up the next day without a cart. Apparently that is our fault for not telling them to require a cart. Our guys offered to carry them to the truck but he said it was 3 blocks away. Odd, I had seen it in the alley two buildings down earlier.
As well, there was something about the paperwork being wrong but one of my team members had dealt with DOWN during this visit so I got the information second-hand.
We would have to call in for pickup again and specify a cart was required.
We assumed that the guy just had not seen the shipping label we had printed from Staples and taped to both furniture items.
Attempt 2: Driver showed up with a cart. Was emphatic that the paperwork was wrong and there was nothing he could do. Sort it out with Staples.
Called Staples and they were surprised as they do this all the time. They connected with DOWN and arranged the next pickup and specified cart plus a waybill would be included.
Attempt 3: Snow day. The original driver was away and the replacement showed up much later than normal.
No cart. No waybill.
He looked at the pick-up order and sure enough, both requirements were listed. He apologized.
It was not his truck and the cart was locked up and he didn’t know where the waybills were. He could take them and do the paperwork at the warehouse, but again, he doesn’t have a cart and he is running late.
He said no need to call in and he will leave a note for the original driver to come back tomorrow.
The next day I got a voice mail from DOWN that they had attempted to deliver a package from Amazon to my building and because it was an apartment building, they were unable to get buzzed up.
They left their phone number twice.
And the 18 digit alphanumeric tracking number once.
After listening to the message 18 times I thought I had the number right.
I felt like I was on the Amazing Race.
So I called them back.
Press 1, press 2, press… none of the options match… quick decide… best guess… 2.
To server you better please enter your tracking number.
The alphanumeric tracking number. You have to read it. What is the likelihood of getting it right on first try?
"One, Zed, Six, Double-U, nine…"
Pause. Computer voice…
“We are sorry, that number is not in our system. The tracking numbers normally start with One Zee”
Brief aha moment..
"One, Zee, Six, Double-U, nine…"
(Really, the computer only knows the American version of the alphabet?)
“Your package was unable to be delivered because no one was there to pick it up”.
I now have no more information than before and still no books coming.
Press 1 or 2 for things that don’t match what you want.
I pressed 3.
We are sorry that is not a valid choice.
I pressed 3.
“We are connecting you with a real person.”
"Yes!"
We were unable to get into your apartment building.
I assured them we were in an office building.
They told me they had no way of knowing until they got there.
That surprised me.
I would have thought they would know every building in town by now. Google does.
We've been getting packages here for 11 years without this coming up.
Apparently it was because Amazon had not included our company name on the package. DOWN fixed that.
The Next Day: Our DOWN driver delivered the Amazon package. He asked one of my team if we had sorted out that other issue yet but didn't offer to take the furniture.
I was not there. Probably a good thing in hindsight. Really.
Attempt 4: Phone call… “Running late, be there after 3.”
No show.
Attempt 5: No show.
How does this story end?
We have no idea. We are into week 3 and they are looking into it and will get back to us.
Note that Staples had in fact provided all of the required information the first time.
Update (9 Dec 2013): They are coming again today. We are taking bets. (Another no show).
Update (11 Dec 2013): After two additional visits, they picked up the furniture. No cart and no waybill but we did help the driver load. Hopefully this is the end of this story.
Update (12 Dec 2013): DOWN tried to deliver one of the packages we just got rid of, back to us. We refused delivery. Apparently they didn't take the old label off and the new waybill was only on one package.
The point of this story is not to bash DOWN (even if you figured out who they are).
It is that...
Joe Calloway is entirely correct. Very few companies do the basics very well. Excel at what matters most and you will win.
Even against the big “DOWN”s driving a mix of red, blue and yellow trucks, who have apparently forgotten how to pick up packages.
And to have some fun. Tragedy or humour; same events:
Once you are absolutely clear on your business vision, you need to make sure that everyone who can help you get there knows what it is.
The classic mistake is most business owners only review the strategy with their team on a periodic basis; maybe even only quarterly or annually.
In my last post on "Definiteness of Purpose: Holding the Vision" I talked about why having a vision is important to an entrepreneur in keeping focus and avoiding distractions.
Now you need to get the power of the team behind the vision.
Napoleon Hill in "Think and Grow Rich" defines a Master Mind as:
“Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”
Most people today call it a Mastermind (one word). Hill specifically says Master Mind for a reason. The focus in on the Minds coming together for a common purpose.
Everyone needs to know what that purpose is for it to work.
Everyone needs to be constantly focused on what the end goal is when they are doing the work of trying to move towards it.
You can't really over-communicate the vision.
The primary role of a leadership team is to ensure everyone knows where they are heading; the vision.
Every day. Every week. Every month.
Until everyone is thinking about getting there and how their work matters.
After that clarity their ideal role is to get out of the way and support the team in getting to the destination.
Of course, it rarely works out quite so simply so the next step is to show the way.
Help people on the team understand how everything they do either moves the business closer or further from the vision.
Show them how what they do is accomplishing the vision.
Even if they are not directly involved in executing the strategy, what they do matters for the vision.
If your vision is to have 10,000 customers for your product or service... the people serving today's customers matter. If they serve them well, scaling your business becomes so much easier.
When making any major business decision, come back to the vision as a team:
When the leaders are sick of talking about the vision... that is about the right amount of repetition. But unlike the flu, you don't get over it.
Keep repeating.
When the team can mimic not only the words but the delivery you know you've hit the sweet spot.
The thing is, people have a tendency to drift.
Drifting causes us to lose focus on our goals and never really achieve them.
The solution?
Definiteness of Team Purpose: Communicate the Vision.
How often are you communicating your business vision?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Francis EMAIL: IP: 70.65.76.71 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/6p019b01482b1b970c DATE: 12/02/2013 08:58:47 AM Great post Doug, This message really inspires me. Back in the late 80's, the words "vision" and "mission" and "team" were, in my world, just words revisited, just as you mentioned - once or twice per year. There was a nice poster on some highly travelled hallways and kitchen areas, but it was kind of "soul-less" and rarely talked about. I am very encouraged by your use of language to reinforce the intentions of the vision, i.e., it MUST be known and in my word, "felt", by everyone in the business for it to move forward in a concerted effort. Also, the Manifast tool you have developed is largely based upon the vision of the company (please correct me if that is inaccurate). Again, I am very glad to be participating in the "Master Mind" that the CIBN has invested in with your company. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/02/2013 11:16:30 AM Hi Bob, so glad you enjoyed the post and thanks for your wonderful feedback on it and our Manifast business success tool and coaching. I've seen the same thing so many times. A corporate vision statement that inspires no one and talks about creating shareholder value. Vision should be about the impact you are going to make for clients (value). Inspire and communicate. Cheers. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 12/02/2013 10:45:39 PM In one of the "Master Mind" I am attending, there is a successful business woman who owns a company of just one.For now. She is wearing a few hats in her business, ohh yes! She shared with me : "One thing that I find lacking in working as a "solopreneur" is the sense of sharing a vision, of working toward something together with other people, of sharing the difficult moments and challenges, but more importantly of sharing the joy that come with success." Sharing a vision over and over can do wonders for a team and should not be taken for granted. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/02/2013 10:51:26 PM Hi Al, very true. For those who have chosen to go it alone it is still critical that you form a "Master Mind" and share that vision with the members so you can get that power of many working for you. This could be a mentor, peers, or a paid coach or consultant or better, a combination. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Beth Davis EMAIL: bethdavis@goldstarclubs.com IP: 72.213.181.70 URL: http://www.goldstarclubs.com DATE: 12/03/2013 08:45:56 PM Great insight. Thanks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/03/2013 10:46:08 PM Thanks Beth! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: skipprichard1 EMAIL: skip@skipprichard.com IP: 173.88.76.142 URL: http://www.skipprichard.com DATE: 12/07/2013 03:26:13 PM Especially appreciate the repetition ad nausea recommendation. I've learned this the hard way, though it is still not my natural tendency. When you think "I said this already, no need to say it again" say it again anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/07/2013 05:37:42 PM Hi Skip, I think that level of repetition is not natural for most people, hence the tendency to not do it. The problem is that as the team gets bigger, more repetition is required. Thanks for the comment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 216.13.209.75 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman/ DATE: 12/09/2013 10:18:21 AM +1 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/09/2013 10:19:53 AM Tks Sean. Amazing brevity. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Scaling Your Business Impact STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: scaling-your-business-impact CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/11/scaling-your-business-impact.html DATE: 11/29/2013 01:34:33 PM ----- BODY:
I recently wrote a guest post for The Go-Giver Way about how to scale your business in addition to creating value.
"In this post, Certified Go-Giver Coach and very successful business owner, Doug Wagner, brings up a terrific point when it comes to any successful and profitable business: it’s not only about creating value, it’s also about expanding that value in order to touch more lives. But, how do you do that? He suggests there are five key areas.
Enjoy Doug’s post! – Bob Burg"
You can read "Scaling Your Business Impact" here.
Be sure to check out the other great posts there.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Definiteness of Purpose: Holding the Vision STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: definiteness-of-purpose-holding-the-vision CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/11/definiteness-of-purpose-holding-the-vision.html DATE: 11/25/2013 07:30:00 AM ----- BODY:
In today’s fast paced, ever changing and distraction filled world the misguided perception is that the spoils in business go to the companies and management teams who can change direction the fastest; and most often.
As entrepreneurs, many of us are by our very nature attracted to new things and solving new problems.
Once an idea has been with us for a little while and we need to get down to the nitty gritty work part, the excitement wears off a little bit.
Then there are some setbacks or issues and things get a little less fun (mild understatement).
Boom, off to the next new exciting thing and fun returns for a while.
Unfortunately, the market doesn’t pay "you" to have fun. Your fun is optional.
It pays you to create value for others and to consistently solve problems or provide happiness and fun for others.
Relentless self-discipline and focus is required for real success.
"PhD or Pig-headed Discipline" as coined by Chet Holmes in the Ultimate Sales Machine.
As I had written in my prior post "Definiteness of Purpose: Key to Personal Success" this discipline requires definiteness of purpose.
The end result must be crystal clear.
In Manifast this is your business vision.
Your business vision is the story of what success will look, feel and taste like in 3, 5 or 10 years. It is a moving window and the more precise and definite it is, the more likely you are to hit it.
If you continuously change the vision you will likely accomplish nothing meaningful and expend a lot of resources with little to show for it.
Holding the vision allows you as the visionary entrepreneur to hold your course steady and avoid the temptation to chase every shiny ball or squirrel.
Save your creativity and adaptability for solutions to get you to your vision.
This is one of the most important secrets for business success.
The ability to execute is far more powerful than the ability to have ideas that don’t get executed well. As Napoleon Hill states, plans have a habit of improving if the definiteness of purpose is clear and strong.
If something major changes in the market that may impact your ability to achieve the vision, by all means review it and update it immediately.
But only a really important change.
Otherwise have the discipline to leave it alone for a good period of time.
Quarterly or annually review the vision to see if it still makes sense. Then update it reflect your new version of success (remember it is a moving window).
Use goals to make your vision real and concrete over the shorter-term. We are now learning that timeframes 90 days or less are an optimal time for holding a team’s attention. Use this to your advantage to break up work.
Definiteness of purpose... hold your business vision steady so your team can execute it.
It may not be as attractive initially but the rewards are much more glamorous when you succeed.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Entrepreneurs Must Push Through To "Yes" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: entrepreneurs-must-push-through-to-yes CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/11/entrepreneurs-must-push-through-to-yes.html DATE: 11/18/2013 11:59:53 AM ----- BODY:As an entrepreneur you are often creating something new in addition to wearing the sales hat.
I recently read a great blog post by Bob Burg, "The Biggest Problem With No Isn’t The No". I was typing an epic comment when I realized, this is pretty much a blog post.
As an entrepreneur creating something brand new, "No" has two meanings.
"No, I don't want what you are selling".
The no in sales is hard enough. And no, I mean yes, I need to read Go for No (on the list).
If it has been sold by someone in any quantity it can probably be sold again and there will be enough yeses in your future. You can dig deep and push through.
What is a tad harder is when "they", well-meaning people, add in something to the effect of "no I don't want it and by the way, I don't think anyone else would want it (because I don't), maybe you should go do something safer like knitting".
(I added the knitting piece for effect though truth be told you use pointy needles to knit and this proves everything has risk, even staying home and knitting.)
As an entrepreneur you think you are right and you need to prove it as soon as you can; one way or the other before you run out of cash and/or energy.
And the thing is "they" could be right.
That is why it hurts.
Not all new things catch on and if it is too out there people don't even know they need it. If it is disruptive many people will avoid and fear it. People may want it but not be willing to pay enough to make it worth your while.
96% of businesses are not around in 10 years. Only 5% ever have annual revenues exceeding $1 million.
The fear is grounded in some reality. (Shameless plug: Which is why we built Manifast.)
Or "they" could be wrong.
Maybe they will still be using their buggy whip long after the automobile has replaced their preferred mode of transportation.
Or maybe they are somewhat right and you will prove them wrong through your perseverance and ability to re-frame your solution. Maybe your story, technique or target market needs tweaking.
Maybe a Plan B is called for.
That is what makes being a creative entrepreneur such a roller coaster.
Well that and a hundred other things.
We all want to believe our little child is beautiful and smart.
Just like us.
So "no" really hurts. It is not for the faint of heart.
Yet as entrepreneurs we must push through to "yes" anyways.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 11/18/2013 12:48:55 PM Great insight Doug - spot on. I once heard that the buggy whip manufacturers went out of business not because of the automobile but because they didn't realize they were in the accelerator business. So happy to see the success of Manifast - I can't see you or Al doing much knitting. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/18/2013 12:57:37 PM Thanks Bill. I like that idea of the accelerator business. Product managers versus branding; what business are you really in. I can't imagine either of us knitting either. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 11/18/2013 05:31:30 PM You right Bill, only knitting I can see is knitting for success. By virtue of being an entrepreneur, one is a savvy risk taker. Taking the vision process one step further than just an ‘idea’, comes naturally to these business men and women. They are known for not taking “no” for an answer and often come up with a solution rather than ponder on the problem. Doug, this blog post has made me want to look for and re-read Alice Wheaton's "say NO to me!!" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/18/2013 05:38:26 PM Hi Al. You sure you are staying off your rocker? LOL. I had forgotten about Alice Wheaton's book about cold calling. She broke a few barriers for you. Go for No looks to be the next logical conclusion in selling after prospecting. Looking forward to it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: twitter.com/GoforNo EMAIL: IP: 142.196.166.155 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/6p0120a596316c970b DATE: 11/18/2013 06:42:17 PM What a thoughtful post Doug! So cool you were inspired by Bob Burg to write this, well done! ;) Hoping you enjoy Go for No! once you read it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/18/2013 06:49:39 PM Thanks for that feedback Go for No. Lots of cool thing happen when you are open to them. I am sure I will enjoy the book. The Bob Burg is never wrong about a good book! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Comparing Value in 2 Very Different Business Models STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: comparing-value-in-2-very-different-business-models CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/11/comparing-value-in-2-very-different-business-models.html DATE: 11/15/2013 01:38:24 PM ----- BODY:I recently spent $900 each on two totally different purchases and it got me thinking about the value relative to payment. Essentially both complied with Law of Value (The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann) but for seemingly different reasons.
The first purchase was three big dump truck loads of gravel; roughly 30 cubic yards for our 200 yard long driveway. It was ¾ inch crush which means it had to be what is the word for it? Yes… crushed. Then the gravel had to be screened so that no stone was bigger than ¾ of an inch. Well that is not entirely true, no stone that cannot fit through the ¾ inch opening is permitted (some can be long and skinny).
The gravel had to be loaded on a truck and the driver had to deliver it and spread it on our driveway.
Three times.
I used this company based on a referral from a neighbor. I had absolutely no complaints and would be happy to use them again.
I went to the dentist and had my teeth cleaned and got a filling for a cavity. The cleaning was first and performed by a dental hygienist. Then I was moved to another room and chair and had the filling done by a dentist and a dental assistant.
I chose this dentist based on a referral. We happened to know one of the dental assistants who work there.
At first stab many of you might be thinking yeah but the dentist makes more money. Or that running a dental practice is better because it is less industrial.
I have no idea how much the owners of the gravel company make. I assume it is enough to justify staying in business for over 25 years. The dental practice is newer.
But consider that as a dentist you have to look in people’s mouths all day and they are not really happy to be seeing you. Dentists are apparently a fairly depressed group of people.
I walked away from the dentist with a sore mouth.
There was no discomfort or pain involved with the gravel.
I would actually rather get more gravel than visit the dentist again.
The real lesson here is that value is created in many different ways. Yet in a free market, competitive situation, the Law of Value must always apply or there will be no customers.
The question is not what business you are in but how you deliver value, how it is communicated and how it is perceived.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 216.13.209.75 URL: DATE: 11/15/2013 03:00:34 PM And now you have rock solid teeth :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/15/2013 03:08:45 PM And a driveway with clean and healthy gums. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 11/15/2013 07:02:31 PM Great post. LOVED the summation contained in the last two paragraphs! So, so true! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/15/2013 07:23:42 PM Thanks Bob, when I started writing this I thought there would be a big lesson about one model over the other and was a tad surprised that both are equally valid when you look at it from a value perspective. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Definiteness of Purpose: Key to Personal Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: definiteness-of-purpose-personal-success CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/10/definiteness-of-purpose-personal-success.html DATE: 10/28/2013 07:45:24 AM ----- BODY:Many people I talk to inside and outside of business are looking for that elusive thing called success. Success is not defined solely by how much money you make. It is usually related to the pursuit of personal happiness, fulfillment and security.
Even people who appear to be focused on money usually have an underlying motive for something beyond the money. They might not know what it is, but it is almost always there.
In "The Go-Giver", Bob Burg and John David Mann show us The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success. It is an excellent framework for achieving success and applies to business and life in general.
The first step in achieving anything is knowing what the end-goal looks like. In this case it means knowing what personal success looks like to you.
If you are not clear on what success looks like you can spend years trying to achieve success only to find out that you didn't enjoy the journey and hate the destination.
The first step in determining the end goal is being clear what is important to you. Not what other people tell you is important. What you believe is important.
This means looking at all the areas of your life and deciding how you want to spend your time. What are your priorities around things like: money, family and friends, health and fitness, spiritual, and anything else you consider important?
What is the gap between where you are now and where you would like to be?
What does your vision of personal success look like? Is your vision of success pushing you to grow or are you coasting? Achieving goals that are currently just out of reach leads to Stratospheric Success. What are some goals you can set today to get there?
I won’t trivialize this. Many people have no idea what makes them happy longer-term so seek instant gratification instead. They make decisions in the present that lead to more heartache in the future. It takes a lot of maturity to understand what you really want longer term.
If your goal is to survive you will just survive. If your goal is to go through life and just seize any opportunities that come up how will you know if those opportunities will lead to happiness or success?
In "Outwitting the Devil", Napoleon Hill calls this drifting.
Moving through life without a major purpose puts you in reach of the Devil.
"Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you'll have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire." ~ Napoleon Hill
Following through on achieving your plan consistently and without constantly reversing your decisions leads to definiteness of purpose. This is what leads to personal success.
I always like to emphasize this. Striving and achieving new things can lead to happiness. One day when “something is true” I will finally be happy. The destination rarely leads to long-term happiness. It may never happen or when you get there it may be fleeting.
Remember to enjoy the journey. Be grateful for the good things you have now and take time to create new experiences along the way.
Personal success is a journey.
Definiteness of purpose keeps you on the path.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: In The Game of Business, You Profit or You Die STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: in-the-game-of-business-you-profit-or-you-die CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/10/in-the-game-of-business-you-profit-or-you-die.html DATE: 10/17/2013 04:30:16 PM ----- BODY:“When you play the game of thrones you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones
Something similar is true in business, you either earn a
profit or your business will eventually die. There is no middle ground.
The difference is that there can be multiple profitable businesses in the same market.
And if your business dies, you don't need to perish with it. In fact, you can try again.
Any business that becomes sustainably profitable generates happy owners and the motive to build and run businesses in the first place. Business creates products, services and jobs. The flow of money stimulates more business.
And while many businesses leaders dream of conquering an entire market, the natural state is generally for there to be healthy competition. It is good for the customers and it keeps businesses innovating.
The dream state where you can raise prices and keep your customers through your monopoly generally leads to new competition or innovative displacement. Someone will dethrone you.
Even if your goal is to grow a business and sell it, you are not immune from seeking a profit. Your product becomes your business. Your buyer is the customer. The buyer must perceive they can profit from purchasing the business. All while you keep the people using your product or service happy.
A profitable business is generally easier to sell.
Again, entrepreneurs playing the game of business need to win often enough and big enough to make the risk, stress and work worth it.
Profit is essential to winning the Game of Business. There is no middle ground.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 10/18/2013 12:51:29 PM When we hear a business is making a profit, some of us equate profit to something evil. In fact profit allows growth and innovation. It is necessary evil then? Heck, even charities should be making a profit. We tend to make the businesses feel guilty for making a coin. Not talking about a business ripping us off! But a decent profit to enable expansion, increase resources etc. The truth is if business owners don't make profits, then there's something wrong with what they are doing, and they ought to go out of business. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/18/2013 01:06:59 PM Hi Al, you are are the right path however, you may still be perpetrating two myths. Profit is not a necessary evil. It is not even evil. Profit and by extension, the money implied are just tools of people. Profit is necessary to a business (or even a not for profit to survive) and justify the the risk the entrepreneur took in creating the business. In a free market, you have a choice to buy or not. Therefore, it is impossible (except through fraud which is illegal) to rip customers off. You will only pay what you feel is fair trade for the value you received or you will walk away. Complaining and a feeling of entitlement don't negate the fact that you chose to acquire something. In a free market, businesses and their shareholders should not have to justify profit as once it gets high enough, competitors will step in. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Raising the Bar: Average and Meaner Performance STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: raising-the-bar-for-average-and-mean-performance CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/09/raising-the-bar-for-average-and-mean-performance.html DATE: 10/01/2013 08:42:09 AM ----- BODY:Did you know that something like 90% of drivers think they are above average drivers? Almost half of them are wrong.
50% of doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class? Does that scare you?
Many, maybe even most, business owners think they have above average employees... that their employees are their competitive advantage.
Average: Add up the individual measures of each sample and divide by the total sample size.
Mean: The value for which half the sample is above or below.
It is quite likely that the average and mean are not the same numbers.
When you are looking at the entire sample of drivers and rating them on driving skill, exactly half are above and below the middle or mean.
We tend to overrate our own skills when the scale is something subjective and everyone must have a bases skill just to do it successfully; in this case remaining alive.
We do this in hiring too.
In the case of doctors, there is a bit of a difference though. To get into medical school there are some requirements and standards in place. Things like already having a pre-med degree and minimum grade levels. Then you have to complete medical school and your internship.
So you have to qualify. Then meet the standards of the program. Then do the practice and put in your time.
So even the bottom half of the class is actually pretty good by the time they get through.
The mean is shifted upwards compared to the general comparison population.
Except for a few that somehow make it through but should not have of course. There are often exceptions in every group.
Most businesses actually try to hire based on the mathematical averages and means. But so is everyone else. So at most you are slightly above average using this approach. The reason is that the hiring process itself is not very reliable. Some say not much better than 50/50.
The trick is to raise the bar at all stages.
In hiring you must always:
Then after they are on board and ongoing forever and ever:
It is the second step that most companies miss.
The performance of your team will still vary. But your mean will be above the industry mean. You will even have a few turkeys at times. Recognize and deal with it.
And over time if you don't do those things regularly, you will end up at average no matter how well you started out.
So set the bar high, and keep it high by having a culture of continuous education, training, coaching and mentoring. Strive for excellence.
That is how you rasie the bar and create an above average or a higher-performing mean organization.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Learn, Teach and Preach STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: learn-teach-and-preach CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/09/learn-teach-and-preach.html DATE: 09/27/2013 12:10:41 PM ----- BODY:There is a distinct difference between these three ways of imparting knowledge and inspiring people to take action both inside and out of your business. Yet, they are frequently misused.
In reality, preaching is best accomplished by teaching or allowing people to learn.
Someone who has mastered learning will seek out and challenge teachers to further their understanding.
You can't challenge preachers.
Allowing people to learn has some risk. They may come to a conclusion you don't like.
Maybe your conclusion is wrong.
Don't be lazy and preach when you need to teach. You will build a culture of yes people and annoy learners.
Oh, and you can't teach someone who is unwilling to learn.
To create a business culture that thrives in today's fast paced and competitive world you probably need learners and teachers.
Seek to inspire people instead of having them merely comply.
Be clear on which method you are using and why.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 09/27/2013 02:01:35 PM The idiom, "practice what you preach" which means you yourself should do the things you advise other people to do. The tone implies the content being preached is not fully embraced. Touch of skepticism. Now try using the phrase 'practice what you teach' and suddenly there is approval, belief, acceptance etc. Good blog Doug. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/27/2013 02:38:09 PM Hi Al, A similar one is "do as I say, not as I do". Either way, the disconnect between what you say and what you do erodes credibility. Too often people preach to convince someone of their belief rather than teach or let them learn. This is taking a shortcut. Thanks. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 3 Reasons to Try: The Secret of Business Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 3-reasons-to-try-the-secret-of-business-success CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/09/3-reasons-to-try-the-secret-of-business-success.html DATE: 09/17/2013 08:13:06 AM ----- BODY:One of my favorite quotes is from a well-known fictional movie character:
"Do or do not, there is no try." ~ Yoda
This seems to imply that merely trying things will not be successful. There are certainly a lot of success gurus out there that tell you to avoid "trying" and just "do it".
In reality there are many shades of try (is it 50?) and the trick is to know when to use the right one.
Apparently using the force to lift a fighter out of a swamp requires that you really believe you can do it. It is also an all or nothing effort. You either get the fighter out of the swamp or it remains in the swamp.
Being an entrepreneur who intends on building the next multi-million or billion dollar company from scratch also pretty much takes an all-in for as long as it takes mindset. Anything less significantly decreases your chances of success. This is because there almost certainly will be rough patches and if you are not all in mentally, you will likely quit when you reach them.
There are things that require a fairly large commitment just to find out if you like it or are any good at it.
Learning the fiddle is like that. It is hard.
I took group lessons with 16 adults starting. Half the class came to the weekly class without putting any meaningful time practicing. They didn't get any better than when they started. Only 6 people made it to the end of the course and of the 6 only 2 people are still playing; myself included.
Just giving it a fair try means all in for a period of time; otherwise don't bother. You need to get good enough to evaluate if it is really for you. You can't make that decision properly if you sound absolutely awful through total lack of effort. Don't start.
Launching a new product or service or an existing one into a new market is like that as well.
You need to be all in for a reasonable amount of time or customers will not take you seriously but you also need to be able to reduce risk by knowing when it is not working.
When the cost of trying is small relative to the potential payoff, sometimes it pays off big to experiment.
With marketing this might be A/B testing a landing page.
With a new product or service you may be unsure who your ideal client is and elect to run limited trial in two markets to see which one catches on.
And Thomas Edison tried a LOT of options (no it was not exactly 1000 like the mythology) to perfect the light bulb. Sticky notes is another.
Experimenting leads to learning and wisdom. And options.
If no one tried anything they weren't certain about or willing to go all in for, a lot of things we take for granted would not be here today.
Be clear on the reasons you are trying and which method is appropriate to your situation. You don't have to bet the company or your future on everything.
On the other hand, there is definitely a time to be all in, at least for a period of time. Never committing to anything was called drifting by Napoleon Hill in "Outwitting the Devil". Being a drifter leads to a lack of success.
Knowing when to use which is the real secret of business success.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa Settle EMAIL: lisa.settle@telcare.co.uk IP: 81.140.76.230 URL: http://www.telcare.co.uk DATE: 09/18/2013 04:55:39 AM Great blog Doug, and thanks too to Yoda, he is such a wise little Jedi:) I'm going to be very aware of the word 'try' now and will be catching myself out when I use it. I've just put a note up on my desk "STOP the TRYING and just DO IT" By the way like the new website. Lisa ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Corey Jahnke EMAIL: corey@successequalsvalue.com IP: 68.190.130.125 URL: http://www.simplymonkeys.com DATE: 09/18/2013 09:16:13 AM Excellent work Doug! I think Brian Tracy says that the average number of times a person tries to reach a goal is less than one because many people talk themselves out of trying at all. Your common sense approach here takes much of the ominousness out of the equation!! May the force be with you always! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/18/2013 10:46:38 AM Thanks Lisa. There is nothing wrong with trying. Striving is how we learn best and grow. Of course proscrastination is a different beast. More about being conscious about how we are trying. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/18/2013 10:50:52 AM Thanks Corey, glad you liked it. My experience just with the group of people who start something but quit if it is not easy for them seems to support Brian Tracy's premise. And it doesn't include those who never even started. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: My Goal is to Have A Goal Some Day (Really!) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: my-goal-is-to-have-a-goal-some-day-really CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/09/my-goal-is-to-have-a-goal-some-day-really.html DATE: 09/09/2013 12:23:50 PM ----- BODY:
I just came across a Tweet in my stream that went something like:
"My goal is to become an aspiring writer."
An aspiring writer is someone who hopes to be a writer one day. So the goal is to become someone who hopes to be a writer.
I am all for trying new things out to see what I like to do.
I would suggest though, that if your goal is to try to try... you probably won't.
"My goal is to become a successful writer."
Dream bigger!
(Please leave a comment with your own examples.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 09/09/2013 01:32:53 PM A mistake of word usage? Sure. But, you saw a much deeper and profound message in there, Doug. Great job! Funny, it brings an example to mind from an episode of Seinfeld (this isn't exactly the same thing but it reminded me of it): The Seinfeld episode was when George shared with Jerry that his dream had always been to "pretend to be an architect." Not to be an architect, but to pretend to be an architect. LOL ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/09/2013 01:48:36 PM LOL. Thanks Bob. Yes I always liked Seinfeld. Very well could be a mistake on word usage. Sort of suggests yet another goal for an aspiring writer though. How we state our goals is extremely important. The stronger and more concrete, the more likely they are to be achieved. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 09/09/2013 04:26:27 PM Typo or not, it is a warning for all of us to look out for the kind of tone and language we are using when aiming to accomplish a task. "I will try to" often leads to failure because it makes failure an option you can take. Opportunity to come up with excuses. It implies that once the conditions change, I am no longer responsible for the outcome. We are not saying that not using the word "try" implies guaranteed success but it surely implies certainty of action. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 09/09/2013 08:36:30 PM Some days my goal is to try. Simply that - to put effort and experimentation into something I may or may not want to do. I'm a big fan of effort and experimentation in harness together - sometimes it's the best path to magic. (or explosions) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/09/2013 08:44:58 PM Al, thanks for your comment. Trying things out is fine at times. But to succeed at some things you need to be all in. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/09/2013 08:46:55 PM Hi Dixie, and if your goal is to try or experiment that is fine. I think you are leading into my next post so I will say no more. #msytique ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Turn Business Mistakes into Business Lessons STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: turn-business-mistakes-into-business-lessons CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/09/turn-business-mistakes-into-business-lessons.html DATE: 09/04/2013 11:53:25 AM ----- BODY:In business and in life you have a choice in how you frame failure.
"How much did that mistake cost you?" or "How much did that lesson cost you?"
Back in university one of our electrical engineering professors told us a story about a mistake when he was a young engineer working for a big company that built transformers.
The professor and another young engineer were tasked with stress testing one of those really big transformers.
Apparently, one of the calculations they performed was a wee bit off and when they applied too much voltage to the transformer it blew up along with a good portion of the test facility it was in.
No one was hurt.
Young engineers. Recently hired. $100,000 in damages (that would be 5x as much today).
They thought they were unemployed engineers.
They met soon after with their boss and told him how they were sorry and expected that they were done.
He asked them one question: "What did you learn?"
They explained.
The boss then said, "No, you are not fired. I just spent $100,000 training you."
You either make mistakes in business or your make investments in learning. The distinction is very important.
As your business grows mistakes become more costly.
If your business has not made any mistakes, it is not doing anything or you are lying.
Mistakes don't just have direct costs. They have costs around lost opportunities; the things you should have done but didn't because you were busy doing something else.
Some cultures blame. Some even start figuring out who to blame before failure even happens. They almost guarantee failure or at least lack of definitive success.
Don't be that business.
Failure and mistakes are part of business. There is almost always something YOU can do to improve.
Being unwilling to learn or change is the real tragedy.
Have you built a learning organization? A learning organization is not about formal training (though that can be a part of it); it is about embedding constant analysis and improvement into the culture so that it is always getting better. Smarter and better able to handle tomorrow's curve balls.
And the lessons are not just the numbers of business.
The lessons are about the people as well. Try to build people up and keep the relationships strong even if business requirements entail changes in the team.
If you are going to pay big dollars for you business mistakes you might as well learn something from them.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 09/04/2013 01:31:46 PM Two comments regarding this educational post: 1.Good leaders should provide a conducive learning environment, effective learning processes and best practices, and leadership behavior that provides reinforcement. 2. It is said, it took Thomas Edison 1,000 tries to invent the light bulb. In other words, he failed say 999 times before he reached success. (Not surprising, considering that he was working on his invention in the dark!) 999 mistakes or an investment ? ROI is shining on us now!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/04/2013 01:52:09 PM Thanks Al, Yes it is important for leaders and managers to show the way and build the learning culture. The Edison statement is a bit of folklore. It make have been thousands or hundreds. The point is he kept trying. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Thorns and Your Ideal Customer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: thorns-and-your-ideal-customer CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/08/thorns-and-your-ideal-customer.html DATE: 08/30/2013 12:59:05 PM ----- BODY:I stopped by one of our Sea Buckthorn bushes the other night for a snack. The berries are small and a little tart but packed with nutrition.
The bush is characterized by big sharp spikes, generally 1-2 inches long (2-5 cm). They make it difficult to get the fruit but you can as long as you are patient and careful.
It occurred to me.
I am not the bush's ideal client!
The ideal client are the little birds that clean off the bush in a few hours. They spread the seeds further and the spikes or thorns don't affect them much at all.
There are a quick set of lessons here:
The shortest path to achieving your business goals may not be to aim directly at the destination.
“Always aim for the Moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”
― W. Clement Stone
The meaning of this is that if you aim big, even if you miss you will still achieve great things.
But what if you actually want to hit the moon?
Aiming your spaceship at the moon is not the shortest and fastest way to get to the moon. In fact, by the time you even see the moon that is where it was 1.3 seconds ago.
If you blast off from Earth at a reasonable clip and aim at the moon you will need to adjust course frequently because it is moving. The Earth is rotating. The moon is revolving around the Earth. Both are moving through space.
Eventually your course corrections would leave you chasing the moon.
Depending on how fast you are moving you could expend a lot of extra time and energy catching it. If you are going too slow you may never catch it.
Instead of aiming at the moon and correcting course, aim where the moon will be.
That is the shortest and fastest path to the moon.
If your target is static, aiming at it and moving towards it is a great strategy.
If it is moving, a more effective strategy is to try to anticipate where it will be.
I used to have one border collie that was an expert at predicting where the frisbee would be. The other one tries to go where it is. The first one had a much higher catch rate.
Many businesses try to see what their competitors are doing and catch them. Sometimes they will try to get a little ahead. But if you have lots of competitors and they are moving, catching them can take a lot of time and energy.
At best you are as good as them.
Instead focus on learning everything about your customers. Where are they going? What are their biggest concerns? What changes are coming up for them? Etc.
Then, let your competitors chase you. They will spend more energy than you and their costs will be higher.
That is the shortest path to catching customers.
Actually, if you do that right, they will chase and catch you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 08/23/2013 06:14:29 AM What a great post... Chasing is SUCH A waster of energy... Love it ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Illusions at Work and Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: illusions-at-work-and-business CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/08/illusions-at-work-and-business.html DATE: 08/07/2013 02:31:33 PM ----- BODY:What you see as reality is not what I see. It is not just me or you.
It is everyone.
Everything you see, touch, smell, feel, hear or otherwise interact with is a construct and interpretation by your brain including the filters of your beliefs and world views.
The illusion of reality.
Once you understand this and that everyone sees and interprets the world differently it becomes a lot easier to get along with others, sell your products and services, and create a successful business.
I recently finished reading "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach. I enjoyed the story, the banter of master and student, and the lessons you can take away.
And by the way, everything written here could be wrong.
Time is a human construct that we have all (or most) agree to follow. Enough people observe it and agree how it works and we assume it to be true. But is it really?
Time has three components:
The future has not yet happened and might not. It is potentially influenced by what people want for their futures and what they do in the present.
The present is subject to interpretation. Two people can see the same event and interpret and remember it differently; often extremely so.
The past? Ever have a lively discussion about who did what a year ago with someone? Ever see witness statements from an accident 30 minutes ago? Recorded history can't be misinterpreted, tweaked or faked? Photoshop? CGI? History books? Say no more.
Humans invented the concept of money. It is a pretty handy concept that removes the necessity of bartering. It works as long as we believe it has value.
If that belief is broken, money has no value at all. We've already seen examples of this.
According to Harry Browne (The Secret of Selling Anything) people are already motivated to increase their happiness. When making a purchase they will determine if what they are getting brings more happiness or value than what they are giving up.
In a free market where both sides are free to choose, an exchange will only take place if both parties profit in some way.
Everyone sees value and profit differently and that is why it works.
If I have 100 cars and you have money, you profit by giving me money for one of my cars and I profit by getting the money and using it to get something else I want.
So with all of these illusions of reality going on, how does one function and er, profit?
By making sure that your understanding of their understanding overlap enough that you can exchange value.
Huh?
You need to ask lots of questions and receive lots of confirmation that their motive for buying and your solutions match.
But after you think you have understanding and even agreement... realize that too is an illusion.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 08/07/2013 03:38:04 PM Sooo LOVE This... I teach the Multi-Sensory experience about perception and the Illusion in the same way... Just LOVE this POST soooo much thank You for writing it. I use my flower photography a lot teach perception and however single person sees the same flower differently no different than the telephone game. Brilliant. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/07/2013 05:40:45 PM Hi Carly, I so enjoy your photography. You are right, everyone sees even a picture differently. Thanks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mitch P. EMAIL: lil_mitch28@hotmail.com IP: 47.54.38.161 URL: DATE: 08/08/2013 01:32:40 PM Hi Doug, Past experiences have taught me what I feel to be a most important Life Law: "There is no reality. There is only your perception of reality. Everything is an illusion." To really understand this we need to recognize the difference between sensation and perception. Sensation, is what we feel when our sense organs are stimulated by the events in life, "everything we see, touch, smell, feel or hear.."(Doug Wagner). Perception is how we organize and interpret those sensations and the level of meaning we give them. Because we are unique individuals, our perceptions are unique. And only when we can embrace and accept everyone else's unique perceptions, can we create better illusions in the nature of our relationships, friendships and business alliances. I agree with you. Time is an illusion. Money is an illusion. And my unique perception is that "We are all the great magicians of our own lives and, as such, we have a choice in the illusions we create. From our illusions we create our reality. And our own reality can be magical if we so choose it to be." ~ Mitch P Thank you for letting me share my thoughts and thank you for sharing your insights through your blogs. I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy reading each of them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/08/2013 02:17:57 PM Hi Mitch P. Thanks for stoppping by and sharing your view on illusions, reality, perception and sensation. Very deep thinking and appreciate you adding to the conversation and building a better illusion for us all! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 3 Ways You May Be Stealing Success From Your Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 3-ways-you-may-be-stealing-success-from-your-business CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/07/3-ways-you-may-be-stealing-success-from-your-business.html DATE: 07/30/2013 11:09:43 AM ----- BODY:When we spend time doing things that don’t add value and pretending it is work we are stealing. The only question is from whom?
The Law of Value states:
“Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”
Bob Burg and John David Mann – The Go-Giver
As an employee you are paid to deliver value to your employer that far surpasses the amount of money you take in payment. The more value you deliver through what you do, the more you are worth to your current or future employer.
When we look at profit per employee we see a wide variance. Negative numbers are really bad. They are not sustainable. Walmart has small margins and lots of employees. They make $3K in profit per employee. Apple makes a whopping $600K of profit per employee.
It should be obvious but the companies that can pay and treat their employees the best are the ones with the highest profit per employee. It is truly a win-win.
The biggest things you can do as an employee is be clear on how you deliver value to the organization. It does not matter what other people get paid if you are under-delivering yourself; you are a below average performer. If you don’t know, ask! This is one of the most important career success questions there is.
On average, employees waste 2 hours per day goofing off. Online activities are the worst culprit but the list includes:
It is not just about the time you take to do these things. When you interrupt work that you need to concentrate on it can take another 5-30 minutes to be fully engaged again.
Leave these things to your breaks and stay focused the rest of the day.
Larry Winget sums it up in his video (one of my favorites) that really brings it home.
If you are not delivering the full value that the client is expecting or you promised you are cheating your customers. Give your customers your full attention and best work. All of the points that applied above apply here.
If you are a business owner and you not performing at your peak potential, you are cheating yourself, your shareholders, your family, your customers and your employees. You are also an employee in the business (so guess what?).
Leadership is by example so if you are not focussed on your business who will be?
After you take care of yourself you need to make sure your organization is focussed on the same thing for your customers and your employees.
This quote (via Steve Penny Eanes) sums it up in all three cases.
"Economic disaster begins with a philosophy of doing less and wanting more." -- Jim Rohn
In a competitive world (and it is) if you don’t constantly strive to deliver maximum value you will eventually be replaced.
The market ultimately decides where value exists. You can only decide to create as much value as you can.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 07/30/2013 01:53:07 PM You forgot that you are ultimately cheating your SELF. Because when we are not serving, not providing the value that we have contracted to provide - we are not building self worth and the voice of what Richard Bach calls our "highest right" - that self that always wants us to strive for the expression of our best self - that voice will tell us we have devalued ourselves, not only in the eyes of others, but in the eyes of our own spirit. And nothing your employer or customer can say could be worse than that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 07/30/2013 01:54:57 PM Well, I shouldn't say you FORGOT it, because you mentioned the career/business loss to your self. But I believe it goes far deeper than that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/30/2013 01:56:14 PM So very true Dixie. I alluded to it a bit but you have so eloquently stated it. Ultimately you are cheating yourself in all cases. Thanks. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Underperforming in Sales: Check Your Beliefs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: underperforming-in-sales-check-your-beliefs CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/07/underperforming-in-sales-check-your-beliefs.html DATE: 07/22/2013 02:08:19 PM ----- BODY:Are your beliefs holding you back in sales?
If you don't believe you can sell until...
You won't!
Just like anything else you choose to do, it is extremely difficult to exceed your own expectations.
Sales starts with attitude.
If you are the only one selling, your business will die or at the very least, you will starve.
Blame is for people who want to be in the bottom or at best average.
For every thing that you claim has to be better or perfect I can find (many) examples of people and companies who don't do it that like that and yet succeed anyways.
I know people who sell products and services that don't exist yet let alone have perfect marketing and sales materials.
But they can sell because they believe what they have provides value.
They even sell when visiting the dentist.
Sales is not about convincing people to buy something of no value to them. If your product and/or service is good and it serves your customers you have an obligation to put the two together.
Authenticity goes a long, long way.
Be yourself. Make lots of connections. Network. Genuinely help your prospects whether or not they buy.
Be human. With humans.
Be in it for the long haul. Keep connecting. Keep matching problems to solutions; even if you don't have that solution.
Show your passion. Let it come through.
Sure having better tools usually helps.
The air nail gun outperforms a hammer (except if you end up in the emergency room due to a careless trigger finger). But a hammer still gets the job done. Even a rock can become a hammer in a pinch.
Tools are tools. They help.
People are what really matters.
That is what top performers do. They don't wait for things to get perfect.
They start with a rock, buy a hammer and then make things better as they go. Tweak, test and repeat.
They participate in creating solutions. Not just pointing out problems. Solutions.
It all starts with your mental game. Your attitude.
You have to believe you are helping people in some way to fulfill a need or want. Things are better or they are happier or both.
You have to believe you can sell. That you WILL sell.
No excuses or negativity allowed. Your customers and everyone in your company depends on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 07/23/2013 11:43:22 AM Sales is about having right tools and ammunition but it is more than that. It is truly about how much you believe in what you sell and couple it with 'attitude' and stuff start happening!! WOULD YOU BE YOUR OWN CUSTOMER? Great post Doug. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/23/2013 11:51:48 AM Thanks Al. You have to believe that what you sell provides value. After that it is all about the right attitude and connecting the right people to the right solutions. I liked your story from Facebook. A shoe salesperson was sent to open up a new territory on a Pacific island. After a week, he sent a telegram to the home office: “Whoever came up with this idea ought to be shot at dawn—they don’t wear shoes here.” The company sent a second salesperson to the same island. She sent a telegram, too; it read, “Whoever came up with this idea is a genius—they all need shoes.” ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: IP: 64.134.163.84 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/gillaspie DATE: 07/23/2013 03:47:20 PM So many great points here I hardly know where to start a comment. So I'll just start with GREAT POST!!! Selling, I think, begins with self. Being confident in your abilities to the point you don't have to think about them which allows you to focus on the other person. Being happy with yourself enough that a "no" can't make you think less of yourself. Being true enough to yourself that you would never even TRY to sell something you would never buy. Investing in yourself to become an even greater version of the wonderful person you are. And being honest enough with yourself that you acknowledge when you aren't being all of those things. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/24/2013 11:12:56 AM Thanks Dixie! Excellent points on who you need to be to be selling. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Naveed EMAIL: naveed.sorush@yahoo.com IP: 216.220.51.211 URL: http://www.accruent.com DATE: 07/29/2013 11:14:21 AM Great points made Doug. Based on my experience, I have seen companies with just a MVP type product and they are already selling to some HUGE clients, then as they get feedback from real paying customers, they keep fixing the bugs and building on that. They are doing great. On the other hand, there is the unfortunate case of a fairly good technical team building the "ultimate fancy software", and yet no serious customers are looking at buying. A HUGE part of it is sales team, they just cannot sell, but part of it is also to ask yourself: Is your fancy software addressing customers' pain point(s) that is not addressed by others? If not, then I don't care how fancy, fast, great looking, flawless, ... is your software, and how great your sales team is, your product it is not needed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/29/2013 02:40:32 PM Thanks Naveed. You've made some valid points about other things that can go wrong in many cases. This post was all about sales attitude and I think your first point speaks to that well. Attitude creates luck. Interesting that the company you linked to has made some acquisitions including a local software company last year. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 07/29/2013 02:55:22 PM I think, if I can stick my $0.02 worth in here, it is that too often we confuse ability to match need to solution with the idea that something isn't of value. It isn't necessary to address pain points that aren't addressed by other solutions - nearly ALL problems have multiple solutions - but it is necessary for the sales team to understand how to HEAR the pain points and match their solution to that problem. Especially in software (I was involved in designing, selling, and training medical management software for some time)you have to move the prospect from seeing something new they'll have to set up, implement, learn, etc... and move them to seeing how they will be served by using the product. No one can do that but the sales team - and if they don't have the confidence in themselves or the product they just won't be able to create that bridge between the prospect's pain and their solution. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/29/2013 02:58:43 PM Excellent points Dixie. Your 2 cents is worth a lot more than that. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Strategic Drivers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: strategic-drivers CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/07/strategic-drivers.html DATE: 07/19/2013 08:19:20 AM ----- BODY:Watching how people drive can tell you a lot about how people think. My hypothesis is that people tend to predominantly think a certain way across multiple areas of their lives.
I am not talking about the ages old good versus bad driver. Most people consider themselves to be above average drivers and statistics say half of them are wrong.
This observation first hit me on the long drive from Calgary to Edmonton watching someone else drive. Much of the highway is two lanes in either direction and the speed limit is mostly 110 km/hour. The challenge is to maintain a constant speed so you don't have to move on and off of cruise control too often. This also assumes that you are trying to follow the keep right except to pass rule and not driving either aggressively fast or overly slow compared to most traffic.
These are the people who react to what is happening. They only seem to notice they are moving faster than the vehicle ahead of them once they get close. At that point that jump off of cruise and start making decisions about what to do next.
They check the mirror and wait for an opening. Once they pass the vehicle they move back into the right lane, set cruise control and repeat.
The strategic driver is planning into the future. They are aware of what is in front of them and start trying to project when they will catch up to the vehicle in front of them so they can be ready and start looking for openings in advance.
The people with really advanced skill in this area are also aware of vehicles approaching from behind in both lanes. They combine what is happening in front with what is happening behind and plan out tactical responses to the possibilities way in advance. When they finally get to the point where they need to decide they pick from the previous plans and execute them based on current data. They rarely have to make major adjustments to speed unless traffic is really heavy.
Both of these levels of strategic drivers need to build spatial models and projections. It is only the level of awareness and projections that change.
Strategic drivers will not fare well in situations where the data is changing rapidly. Heavy stop and go traffic requires more tactical driving.
So there is a balance required between the two styles.
Your business is the same. There are times for tactics and times for strategy. Both skills are required.
Which way do you tend to drive?
Which way do you tend to run your business?
Are the two the same?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 07/19/2013 10:26:43 AM Very interesting perspective Doug. Regardless of any direct correlation the styles you describe are certainly applicable in both areas. You always make me think. Thanks ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/19/2013 11:44:54 AM Thanks Bill. I am not "sure" the two are directly correlated but both do reveal how people think by default and when striving. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 07/19/2013 08:42:02 PM Fun Post, great analogy and very true, in terms of it applying to business as well. There are time for both. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/19/2013 10:41:38 PM Thanks Carly. Knowing when to do each is critical. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Everyone Is In Customer Service - Just Do It! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: everyone-is-in-customer-service-just-do-it CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/07/everyone-is-in-customer-service-just-do-it.html DATE: 07/11/2013 06:00:10 PM ----- BODY:We've all heard it.
"Everyone in your company or organization who interacts with a customer or provides a product or service to a customer is in customer service."
The same is true for marketing. Or branding.
If you extend this to include everyone inside your organization who could impact the reputation of your organization; you pretty much include everyone.
Zappos starts everyone out in their call center. I read that WestJet expects employees and spouses flying for free or on discounts to help clean the plane.
Recently, our PenForms client support person was away for a few days. It happened to be just before the deadline for filing federal pension returns. This meant that the customers needed help fast.
One of our developers and I covered this function off. We even got a lot of positive feedback about the support we gave.
But this post is not about patting ourselves on the back. It is about what you can do for your organization.
There were two huge benefits:
When you are in management or roles like product or software development it is easy to lose touch with the real needs of the customer. Some people even start getting annoyed by those pesky customers who keep interrupting my day.
By connecting directly with customers you are able to reaffirm your reason for being in business:
To serve the people we call customers or clients!
Without customers you don't have a business.
It serves your organization well for EVERYONE to be in touch with that.
The other benefit is huge. The people who directly interact with the customers every day have certain tools, processes and ways of doing things. They often rely on other people in other departments to fulfill client requirements.
When outsiders to the role step in to help there are several powerful questions to be asked:
You can't get this information sitting in a boardroom. You have to experience it firsthand.
You have to embrace it as an organization.
Don't just say the words. Go do it!
Have people in every area of your organization see what it means to interact with customers directly.
Everyone.
You might not be able to train everyone to actually do all of the work, but they should at least see it firsthand. Participate where they can.
And not just once. On a regular basis.
Just do it! You will be better for it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Attitude Matters STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dont-sweat-the-small-stuff-attitude-matters CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/07/dont-sweat-the-small-stuff-attitude-matters.html DATE: 07/03/2013 11:48:33 AM ----- BODY:Yesterday could have been a bad day.
I lost all of the contacts on my iPhone. I got distracted while connecting the phone to my computer to restore from backup and missed cancelling the automatic Sync and backup process.
I went to restore the contacts and the only options were backups from a few minutes ago with the corrupted data.
Not good.
Brief Rant: Seriously Apple, you should allow me to set how long I want to keep backups for (at least a week); I have lots of hard drive space. People don't always notice the problem right away and aren't technically savvy enough to understand your product limitations. I didn't until after the fact. As well I should be able to pick what I want to restore, not overwrite everything from the last backup.
This is basic backup and restore 101.
Our landlord installed a water feature in our office this spring. Let's call it the weeping ceiling.
Apparently the air conditioning unit did not properly deal with condensation and flooded the mechanical room. The floors being concrete soaked up a lot of the water. Our ceiling started weeping and the ceiling tiles came crashing down. Our carpets were soaked.
This happened over the long weekend and was our surprise for a second time when we returned on Tuesday.
Fortunately, we didn't have anything important there right now.
Still, this could have been really bad day. But I stopped to think for a bit.
The worst thing you can do is assume things can't get worse.
They can.
All I had to do was think about the people who lost their lives, homes or businesses during the Calgary or High River flooding.
All I had to do was think of my wonderful friend in the UK who is suffering from chronic pain; her skin so sensitive it hurts to touch it. She has an amazingly positive attitude throughout it all.
I took a deep breath, and let the anger and frustration go.
These are small things.
They need to be be dealt with. But they don't need to ruin my day.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
Don't take life too seriously.
The picture says it all.
So it ended up being a pretty good day. Tomorow will be excellent.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.199.15 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/03/2013 03:20:41 PM Very good post :) Loved "...nobody gets out alive anyways" :D ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/03/2013 03:47:45 PM Thanks Sean. I liked that part of the sign as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 07/03/2013 06:21:33 PM True Indeed Doug, when things go South, I think of the things I am blessed with, and remember all those who are in a lot worse shape than I in the moment. Attitude in any given crisis is either going to make the crisis more pleasant or horrific to deal with. The great thing is we have a CHOICE in what attitude we are going to use. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/03/2013 06:27:00 PM Thanks Carly, you are so right about choosing attitude. Hard to do sometimes but one of the few things we really have say in about the world. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Linda Ryan EMAIL: coachlindaryan@gmail.com IP: 174.44.189.141 URL: http://www.coachlindaryan.com DATE: 07/03/2013 08:08:22 PM Love this post Doug~right up my alley (do you use that expression in Canada? It means I really like it!) It's so true that thinking about how things could be worse~especially when it seems like they couldn't get any worse~really re-frames our situation and let's us see it from a much better perspective. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/03/2013 08:14:19 PM Hi Linda. Thanks for the great feedback. Yes we have alleys here and the same expression. Guessing it is from bowling, which we also have. LOL. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Flood of Knowledge Workers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: the-flood-of-knowledge-workers CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/06/the-flood-of-knowledge-workers.html DATE: 06/27/2013 01:17:36 PM ----- BODY:I work in Calgary. On the evening of June 20th, 2013 and into the weekend, Calgary flooded. Many low lying areas along the Elbow and Bow rivers received a lot of damage. 10's of thousands of people were evacuated in less than 24 hours.
On the 25th of June I decided to take the shuttle bus downtown to our office building (which fortunately was undamaged and had power). The Calgary Transit light rail tracks were damaged on the south line.
As I was passing through some of the areas that were hard hit and watching the repair crews I was struck by some of the obvious thoughts:
I also had another more far reaching thought.
I realized that I could not fix Calgary myself.
I know what you are thinking... no one can. But that is exactly the point. What I do for a living does not have much to do with the underlying infrastructure we rely on and none of us know enough to fix it all.
Aside from the general clean-up crews, there are thousands of people working, with very specialized skills, hands-on, to get things done.
The people who keep things that we take for granted working. The gazillion interrelated little pieces.
There is a lot of hoopla in business about the death of the industrial age and the movement to the knowledge age (and beyond). The jobs and money are and will continue to move to those people who can work with information and data to create knowledge and value.
Over the last century, people have moved from farming into the cities to find work. Farms have become more automated with larger areas and bigger equipment.
Today, how many city slickers could farm 1000 acres? 10,000 acres? Some might struggle with even a small hand tilled garden plot. The myriad of skills require to farm commercially is vast. A lot of our food is imported as well.
Yes, we take our food for granted. But farming is not going away, it has just matured.
After seeing all those specialized workers in one place; I can only imagine how many more I could not see.
All the people looking after things... hands-on.
I saw a science fiction movie about a group of refugees who relied on machinery to keep things running that was built to last 400 years. After 400 years the machinery started failing and no one knew how to fix it.
We are now interdependent globally for many things.
I recently read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. It was written in the 1950s at the height of the industrial age when communism was a big threat. But it is really not so far off in one respect, the people who can create, build and maintain the industrial complex are essential to surviving at our current level of civilization.
As more people become knowledge workers, fewer of us will be involved in farming, the industrial complex, or building out the infrastructure.
Yet these are still essential components of the modern world. For instance, are you ready to give up eating?
Knowledge is not the same as the practical ability to apply knowledge using your training, skills and talents.
With the advance of technology, predictive technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) it could just be that knowledge workers in their current form may actually be the least essential job category in the not too distant future.
The flood of knowledge workers may just recede.
The ability to adapt. And even more important; the ability to SEE the NEED to adapt.
Gratitude: I am truly grateful for the people doing the hard work of putting Calgary and the rest of southern Alberta back together. Thanks!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Entrepreneurial Time Estimating Learned From My Father STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: entrepreneurial-time-estimating-learned-from-my-father CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/06/entrepreneurial-time-estimating-learned-from-my-father.html DATE: 06/17/2013 12:55:45 PM ----- BODY:With Father's Day just past I was reflecting on what I learned from my own father. Actually, I learned it from observation because I am pretty sure he was not intentionally passing on his wisdom.
If fact, like most entrepreneurs of the visionary bent, he was extremely optimistic in estimating effort for new ventures.
It usually went something like this.
"Doug, I am replacing the stairs on the deck and could use some help for an hour or so."
Now if he said I need you to mow the lawn, I would have known precisely how long it would take because I've done that task a gazillion times before.
But in the case of a task we haven't ever done before like building a new product, adding a brand new feature, or building sales momentum we are pretty much guessing.
Sure we delude ourselves into believing we have estimated accurately.
Remove old stairs = 30 minutes. Attach new stairs = 30 minutes. Misc tasks = "or so".
But realistically, our time estimates are significantly impacted by when we "want" it to be done. Hence the optimistic view.
The trick I learned from many years of observation was a simple formula.
Actual time = Double the estimate then go to the next higher unit of time
So that hour?
1 hour * 2 = 2 hours. Next highest time unit is a day.
Actual time = 2 days.
And that is precisely how long it took to fix the deck.
It works surprisingly well for many situations where you are doing something brand new, creative or requiring a large team. Of course you can use experience to help guide your estimates but just realize; plumbing is not that same as pouring concrete.
The point here is not the precise formula (though it is a good starting point) but the fact that we very significantly underestimate the work required including learning, rework, trips to seek advice from a professional, missing hardware, painting, etc.
If you realize it is bigger than you think, you may not decide to proceed with it. Or if you do you will take it much more seriously and put the effort into it that is required for success.
And the next time he needed me for an hour or two? There went the weekend.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 06/17/2013 02:44:33 PM Very true Doug, we need to think on more realistic terms instead of dream terms when we start new projects when it comes to estimating time. I would rather estimate that it takes longer and have extra time on the backend then to have estimated less time and be in a pressure cooker and stressed and when are in Stress mode we go to flight or flee mode which produces less quality work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 06/17/2013 02:53:01 PM How many times have we been asked to prepare a quote for our client and our estimates have been blown out of proportion once the actual hours spent is presented to us ? Words like planning fallacy and wishful thinking come to my mind and the next time we are asked to quote, we improve only marginally: planners focus on the most optimistic scenario for the task, rather than using their full experience of how much time similar tasks require. Thanks for sharing this blog as we are now applying this to 'guesstimating' our sales campaigns and we could learn a thing or two from your Dad! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/17/2013 04:07:50 PM Hi Carly, you are so right. And we often forget all of the other things that are happening to keep us busy. Effort versus calendar time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/17/2013 04:10:22 PM Very valid Al. The idea isn't to slow down and take longer than necessary but what is actually necessary. As Grant Cardone said, make the goal 10x bigger and then put in 10x the effort you think it will take. Your results must might surprise you. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Using Your Super-Powers for Market Feedback STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: super-powers-and-market-feedback CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/06/super-powers-and-market-feedback.html DATE: 06/11/2013 01:30:17 PM ----- BODY:I was looking for wording on a new motto for myself the other day. So I asked some people on social media (Twitter) for feedback on:
"If you can't be funny, at least be odd."
After listening to feedback from my friends around the world on Twitter, I changed it to:
"If you can't be funny, at least be different."
After thinking about it, even the Monty Python crew used to say "and now for something completely different", even though some of their stuff was... well, odd.
I am even thinking of embedding this one in our company's core values as a reminder to have fun and stand out.
Actually, I am pretty sure I will.
Yes this is a very simple example but it does highlight something very significant that was not there even 5 years ago.
You have an amazing and relatively new ability to find and engage with people around the world who share the same interests as you. You can:
This not to say other traditional methods are dead. But this does open the door to smaller businesses to have the reach of the giants.
Just remember to do it as a conversation. You care about them and they care about you. It takes time and work to engage regularly, but not nearly as much work and money as it did in the past.
So how are you using your new super-powers?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 12 Success Attributes for an Ideal Coaching Client STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: 12-success-attributes-for-an-ideal-coaching-client CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/06/12-success-attributes-for-an-ideal-coaching-client.html DATE: 06/06/2013 02:02:19 PM ----- BODY:I was thinking about what an ideal coaching client would look like. Then I realized that the attributes of the ideal coaching client are that exact same attributes for:
Yes, coaches want to work with clients who REALLY want to win, take action and apply what they learn.
Here is the list in relative ascending order of maturity and importance. How are you rating?
Know they can always improve in some critical area. What worked yesterday may no longer work today.
You can't get better if you think you already know everything or think your way is the only way.
Dedicated to lifelong and continuous learning in one or more areas of their life. This may be reading, training or by doing.
Know that perfection is not possible but strive to get better through practice so they can perform at their peak.
Knowing, learning and practicing are great starts. Having the drive to be better keeps you going.
Yes, it is true! In fact you most certainly are on a regular basis. This is the first step in being truly open to coaching. Admit you can learn from almost every situation.
You are ok with the fact you might be wrong and are open to other people's views. This doesn't mean you have no opinion or are a spineless jelly fish. It means that you can listen objectively to someone else's opinion without needing to prove them wrong. You can find value in even contrary opinions. You don't attach your self-worth to being right.
There is more than one way to do most things.
You have developed the ability to objectively (within reason) view how good you really are at what you do and where you are. Neither the negative voice nor the overly optimistic voice dominate when you are in this mode. Beware though, self-reflection is always tinted by the glass of your beliefs.
You have two ears. The sounds reach your brain and are recognized as words. But are you really listening and understanding or are you in the process of building your case, defense, argument, excuses, etc. This is not destructive criticism from haters. This is the stuff that comes with the opportunity to improve. If you have mastered the first 6 in the list this one will be easier.
Do you need to learn and experience everything yourself? Do you have a not invented here mentality? To truly excel you must be able to learn from others. This includes learning ideas and processes that you may not initially fully agree with. The tools allow you to be better at what you do.
Do you have to do it yourself to ensure it is done right? Your way? To really excel you need to trust people to do the things they are talented at. If you can't delegate well you cannot lead or grow a business.
You have an opinion. You were heard. You may or may not be right. When a decision is made do you then become part of the team and throw your full support behind the initiative or do you set it up to fail through backroom criticism, passive aggressive behavior, etc.?
If you want people to support you, you have to support others. Go first.
So you can hear constructive criticism. You are wanting to achieve the top levels of performance and success. You seek out feedback. Coworkers. Customers. Mentors. Coaches. Any valid source that will potentially help you improve.
Then you take action. You incorporate all of the theory, valid feedback, learning and practice into your life and apply it regularly.
Nothing is worse than coaching a client who listens, agrees and then... does nothing different.
Coaches want to help people actually get results.
How are you doing on these? Are there any other attributes for an ideal coaching client? Leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 06/06/2013 10:45:23 PM What a fantastic criteria list for "coachability." You should know, you're one of the most coachable clients I've ever worked with. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/06/2013 11:12:46 PM Since arguing would prove you wrong and not serve me either I will leave this at "Thank you Dixie!". LOL Appreciate you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 06/07/2013 11:16:40 AM Never argue with the judge when they're giving you a 10! (and I'm entitled to give my clients 10s) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 06/07/2013 03:14:59 PM Very True Doug, great post on pointers on the connections between coaching and Success in any areas of our life. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/07/2013 05:32:45 PM Thanks Carly. I started out writing about what coachability looked like and realized that all top performers need to be able to do those things well. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Suffering For Your Art (or Work or Business) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: suffering-for-your-art-or-work-or-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/05/suffering-for-your-art-or-work-or-business.html DATE: 05/28/2013 02:16:02 PM ----- BODY:I know quite a few artists.
Musicians. Dancers. Writers. Painters. Creative types.
In the broader sense of art that Seth Godin uses I know far more artists. People making a big difference in the world by pouring themselves wholeheartedly into what they do. Creating art.
Some artists suffer from pain (ranging from clinical, sensitivity,
to heartbreak) and practice their art as a release. It brings them respite, joy
and gives meaning to their world.
Some artists are struggling through the hard work of both mastering their craft and finding enough people who appreciate it.
I don’t think that it is suffering as much as it is being willing to sacrifice some things now for later potential gains.
It is a choice you willingly make. This choice applies to anything you want to do to your full potential.
Some artists believe you have to suffer to practice your art. They do it because they must; they are compelled. They bask in the suffering. Victimhood. I did not sell out, I am a real artist.
Why?
Why would you choose to make your life about suffering? Do you believe you have no free will? No right to joy? If your art brings you no joy, why do you do it?
I don’t personally know any artists like that. I avoid people who “want” to suffer.
Every artist I choose to be around (even those currently suffering) has the internal hope that things will be better in the future. That they will make a difference. That people will appreciate their art.
The choice is not constrained to “be financially successful OR be an artist”. YOU chose to put the OR in there.
Check your premise.
You can be an artist AND be successful.
Success can include financial rewards as well as all the aspects of success you define. It is your success.
AND you can enjoy the journey to success.
No suffering is required. Your choice.
Bonus: The Secret to an Artist’s Success
If you don’t want your art to remain a personal hobby, read The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. You must follow the Five Laws just like everyone else.
Your art doesn’t demand it.
You should.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 05/28/2013 05:55:11 PM WOW - Terrific, Great ....... LOGICAL post! I love it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/28/2013 06:27:33 PM Thanks Bob. Tried for mix of logical and passionate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jean Kuhn EMAIL: Jkkuhn@aol.com IP: 64.53.234.202 URL: DATE: 05/29/2013 07:36:09 PM Love it, and wish I had written it first. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/29/2013 11:05:49 PM Thanks Jean. I must have been reading your mind. LOL. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Embrace Optimistic Pessimism for Business Greatness STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: embrace-optimistic-pessimism-for-business-greatness CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/05/embrace-optimistic-pessimism-for-business-greatness.html DATE: 05/21/2013 11:02:47 PM ----- BODY:For a while I thought I was a bit of a pessimist. When I am presented with new things or risk I immediately think of all the things that can go wrong.
But then I realized that I also dream fairly big. I always have.
And continue to do things despite the fear or risk. Try to figure out how to get past all the things that can go wrong. Rewrite the rules if required.
Because I understand the risk, and choose to do it anyways, I don’t tend to quit when things go a bit sideways. I knew what I was getting into.
I did this getting our first dog as an adult. I really liked border collies. If you do the research there are a lot of horror stories of all that pent up energy, instinct and focus gone wrong. Think eating your car or ripping apart a wooden fence.
I got not one, but two. I was prepared and it was great.
I was prepared for both the upside and downside.
It might be the pessimistic side of me but I think that blind optimism is dangerous:
Don’t make me channel Larry Winget again! Things don't always work out by putting on a happy front.
Too much optimism leads you to take foolish risks.
Pessimism keeps us alive and reduces risk.
Too much pessimism paralyzes us and keeps us from greatness.
Bob Burg asked in his latest post:
“Is anything of importance ever actually accomplished or “created” by a pessimist?”
If you believe people are either optimists or pessimists then the answer is no.
But is it black or white?
Most people are a mix of the two extremes.
Your mind determines how see things. Optimism and pessimism can vary based on your mood, state of mind and your faith in your abilities.
I am very pessimistic about my chances of surviving extreme heli-skiing for example. I am quite optimistic that I will find something to eat for supper.
In the book “Decisive” (by Chip Heath and Dan Heath), the authors talk about how to make better decisions.
Neither pure optimism or pure pessimism lead to better decisions.
They recommend a balance of both. They call it “Bookending the Future”.
Pre-Mortem:
Pre-Parade:
These are the two extremes of pessimism and optimism; the bookends.
Reality will likely be somewhere in between.
Anticipating problems helps us deal with them when they occur.
Truly great decision making requires the ability is to be able to consciously move between optimism and pessimism.
The optimism gives you the dream. The pessimism gives you the ability to reduce the risk and make better decisions.
So the answer to Bob’s question:
Optimists tempered by pessimism are the most likely to do and create important and worthwhile things in the world.
Courage is the bridge between knowing what can go wrong and chasing the dream anyways.
An optimistic pessimist is required for business greatness.
P.S. Where are you on the scale? Leave a comment below.
P.P.S. Please subscribe to my blog via e-mail by entering your name and e-mail address on the left side of the page.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 05/22/2013 08:40:49 AM Balance... thanks for offering it. But I'm going to ask that we rethink the label "pessimist." Just as "blind optimism" is different than having an optimistic outlook and attitude, so is preparedness different than having a pessimistic outlook and attitude. Like you, when I ask "what would happen if I did this?" I try to be comprehensive in my answer. I try to examine all the contingencies. But it's the outcomes I FOCUS on and the belief that I can achieve the desired outcome - my EXPECTATIONS - that make me an optimist. And part of my optimism is knowing what I am willing to put into making it so. As you know I firmly believe that you can be anything you want, succeed at anything you want and make money at anything you love. But it is not an automatic result. It requires intense inner examination and self awareness to know what you REALLY want (most people "fail" because they didn't really contribute the energy and creativity to getting what they wanted because they weren't self aware enough to know what and WHY.) And it requires outer work which is where the energy and creativity, the plan and the action , come in. So I appreciate what you are saying, but I do not see it as pessimism - only intelligent design :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/22/2013 11:48:42 AM Hi Dixie, thanks for sharing your viewpoint on this. My feeling is that we are actually pretty close on the deeper meaning of it all if I read you right. I chose to use these words because I didn't want people to do a superficial "what could go wrong?" exercise but really get into it. The default or dominant view you have makes you an overall pessimist or optimist; not your temporary frame on a particular subject.. Just like some of the best actors can actually "become" the characters they are playing, I like the idea of temporarily adopting the pessimistic viewpoint with the goal of being prepared by not only knowing the facts, but "feeling" them. Personally, that makes me want to make them NOT happen even more than mere facts. But just like it it good to know what could go wrong, you also have to be prepared for what could go really right. Are you really prepared for success? Most people ignore that piece. I hope I got this part right from what I know of you and your book... when you say you can do anything (i.e. flying) what you are suggesting is that we reframe success to capture the essense of the goal or success for you (i.e. piloting an airplane) and make it achievable with the hard work. BTW, "can't" just makes me want to do it more too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 05/22/2013 12:12:03 PM Doug, great post. I had posted a response earlier but it didn't "take" so I'll try and remember the basics of what I wrote. I very much enjoyed your post. I don't personally equate the word "optimist" with delusional or naive (as you expertly alluded to, one reason they can be optimistic is because they've considered various aspects of the "thing" and are prepared). Yet, I got the feeling on my blog post that some of the commentors thought I did. I take full responsibility for not communicating as clearly as I should have. Rather, I see the key to both an optimist and a pessimist as being their general focus. In my opinion, an optimist generally focuses on the positive (why it can happen) side of an equation and a pessimist on the negative (why it cannot happen) side of an equation. Coming from those two vantage points obviously provides different perspectives. This is why - as I mentioned in my post - pessimists can bring important value to the situation; often in communicating a perspective that keeps the optimist from making a bad mistake. I'm very grateful for some of the pessimists in my life. And, as you expertly pointed out, when you can be some of both it enables you to be even more effective. In terms of my question regarding pessimists and accomplishment, it seems to me that - by the very nature of the focus - while pessimists can certainly have a part in the success of an optimist's project, they don't usually "create the thing" itself. Of course...I could very well be wrong. Again, great information and wisdom that you shared with us! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/22/2013 12:36:56 PM Bob, since this is my blog and I almost always reply to comments, I can't let you have the last, last word. Almost everything involving human behavior can be proven wrong and someone is likely to do just that. :-) I think we are pretty much in agreement, optimistics tend to create and the pessimistic view helps them succeed; whether that is an outsider or a well trained mind. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 71.85.224.166 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 05/23/2013 03:51:04 PM I agree that channeling the "inner pessimist" is appropriate or even vital in some situations. It reminds me of one of the few slogans I remember from print advertising - for a perfume but I"m not sure which one. It said "The secret to being a woman is knowing when NOT to be a lady." So the secret to being an entrepreneur is knowing when NOT to be an optimist? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/23/2013 03:57:04 PM Love the example Dixie. :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Don’t Grow, Only to Pop Your Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dont-grow-only-to-pop-your-business CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/05/dont-grow-only-to-pop-your-business.html DATE: 05/16/2013 07:55:59 AM ----- BODY:I recently heard about yet another local business that seemed to be doing really well a few years ago but recently shut its doors.
It wasn’t the economy. It wasn’t incompetence in their craft.
The service they offered is still in demand. In fact, they were riding a big wave created by other big fish.
They didn’t have to invent a market.
Ultimately, the owner could not figure out how to successfully grow or scale their business.
Burn out.
Or the realization they could make similar money by themselves with much less hassle.
This is the artisan trap.
As Les McKeown (Predictable Success) says, it is a bad idea to cycle between being the visionary and the person delivering the product or service (operator). This is why companies with more than one founder are generally more successful.
When you are busy working in the business you are not working on the business.
Cycling between too many roles gets none of them done as effectively as required.
And the separated visionary and operators roles are essential to growing a business (just as the processor role is essential to scaling it).
I don’t judge these business owners.
I’ll tell you a secret. I’ve done this. In fact, just like most other small business owners, I am still doing it more than I want to. You probably are too.
When you are working in a business that relies on the amazing or unique talents of its founders; you have inherently built a business that is hard to grow or scale.
But isn’t that why you got into business? So you could apply your skills?
The problem is no one else can do it as well as you can.
So you have to stay involved in everything.
You end up with a model that can only grow to a certain extent; limited by your abilities, personality and sheer willpower.
This is why many expert businesses intentionally stay small. So they can work their craft. Stay in their sweet spot.
To grow you have to either find other people who can do what you can do as well as you can. (This is actually pretty hard.)
Or,
You find a way to teach others to do what you can do.
Even better, simplify and systematize what you do so it is even easier to teach.
You can grow that.
But it is still limited to the influence and abilities of the owner(s).
If you can develop leaders who can develop other leaders you can scale.
Scaling can become self-propelling.
And if you are not really ready for scaling… it is like popping popcorn with no lid on the pot.
Pop. Pop. Boom.
If you try to grow the business further than the owner(s) has personally grown it will either pop (implode) or shrink back down to its natural state.
Which result occurs depends on a number of factors including:
And some luck.
(This happened to us too.)
Continue to simplify and systematize. Using Manifast to help us stay on track.
Teach, mentor and coach.
Get help. Help others do this.
Grow then scale.
What are you doing to get your business to grow without popping? Leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Hats Off To Randy Gage And Mystique STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: hats-off-to-randy-gage-and-mystique CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/05/hats-off-to-randy-gage-and-mystique.html DATE: 05/07/2013 11:29:30 AM ----- BODY:Randy Gage recently announced he is disappearing from public life.
"Effective today, I’ll stop posting to my Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel and blog, and am going to disappear from the public stage."
I have recently been thinking about Sally Hogshead's book "Fascinate" and how I could apply it to my message.
My primary trigger happens to be Mystique. So the rest of his message was fascinating to read.
Now back to Randy...
He doesn't tell us what he is doing next; just a lot of possibilities.
And a big problem:
"The exponentially increasing speed of change and technology development will make the next decade the most chaotic one in human history. We are going to have to find answers to the most perplexing questions humankind has ever had to face."
and the rest of the Mystique:
"For humankind to survive these challenges, it will require a whole new level of thinking. I’m not at that level of thinking yet, but I’m committed to getting there. And that is the reason for the adventure I’m about to embark on."
Randy could sit on the beach and sip margaritas the whole time on vacation. He won't though. I believe he is too curious and too much of a life-long learner.
One thing is for sure, you can bet that when he returns his audience will be eagerly awaiting what he has learned.
And his value will have gone up... exponentially.
A brilliant use of Mystique.
Hats off to Randy Gage!
How are you using mystique or the other 6 triggers? Leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 96.35.204.123 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 05/07/2013 08:07:19 PM Ah - we were just talking about Randy's journey in my mastermind meeting in relation to another of our favorite topics; is it mindset or is it strategy? Randy, I believe, is a perfect example of having a plan based on his philosophy or mindset, but knowing how to spin that into a strategy that will add value and make money. And his mystique is a little part of both the mindset AND the strategy :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/07/2013 08:34:52 PM Dixie, that is why I loved the move so much. It was both authentic AND strategic in its execution. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: I Think You Have An Attitude Problem STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: i-think-you-have-an-attitude-problem CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/05/i-think-you-have-an-attitude-problem.html DATE: 05/02/2013 02:01:54 PM ----- BODY:Your attitude is the most powerful force in your arsenal to give you the life you want. The good news is that for most people, attitude can be influenced and even controlled by... you.
"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." Zig Ziglar
If you are not happy in your job or role chances are your attitude is the cause.
If you are waiting around for someone to motivate you, chances are your attitude is the problem.
If everything that is not right in your life is someone else's fault, you are playing the victim and that is... your attitude.
If you can't seem to attract or keep enough money to live life at the level you would like; yup another attitude issue.
If you are quick to anger when your children do anything wrong, it is not your children who are busted, you have an attitude problem.
You don't control the world. You control your attitude.
Or it controls you.
Like a stallion is controlled by a mare in heat.
Your choice.
Do you seriously think that great leaders go around and personally motivate the masses? Change bad attitudes to good ones? All day and every day?
It doesn't scale.
It is exhausting.
They do not go looking for people with bad attitudes and try to forcibly convert them. (That is a different occupation.)
Great leaders attract people who have a the right attitude and share the same or similar view of the future.
They speak to the parts that exist already even if they are underdeveloped.
And encourage and enhance those. And give those people the opportunity to grow. Nudge and guide the promising ones. Help develop other leaders.
And cast off those that don't or won't fit.
It is not a surprise to either party.
It isn't cruel. Forcing people to change to suit "your" beliefs is.
After all, to change "You've gotta wanna"!
This scales.
But the inner work is yours and yours alone.
You need to show up with the right attitude.
If you don't believe that... I think you have an attitude problem.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 05/03/2013 05:11:45 AM WOW - Powerful, Powerful! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/6p017eea92fbf8970d DATE: 05/03/2013 11:42:29 AM Attitude is everything ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/03/2013 11:47:06 AM Thank you brother Bob. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 05/03/2013 11:50:45 AM Hi Carly, not sure if it is everything but I agree it is certainly right up there. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: PhD Essential for Business Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: phd-essential-for-business-success CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/phd-essential-for-business-success.html DATE: 04/23/2013 10:54:55 AM ----- BODY:After well over 12 years in business I have noticed that one key ingredient is absolutely essential to business success.
In fact, every single time we've run into problems (and I assure you we are not perfect either) I can trace it back to this cause.
Focusing your business on the things that matter most does not happen by accident.
Ensuring that your company stays on course to execute on its vision is not a once a year event.
Ensuring adherence to your core values and culture is not a part-time job.
Delivering your value promise to your customers each and every time is not something you can leave to chance.
Pig-Headed Discipline (PhD) (Chet Holmes coined this in "The Ultimate Sales Machine") is not learned in a fancy college or university.
It is not some archaic management technique used to beat employees into compliance.
It is all about deciding what matter most and then doing that... when you would rather be doing something else.
It is about focus, determination and persistence to achieve your goals no matter what. Pushing through when things are difficult. Not listening to the non-believers.
It is required to lose weight and keep it off. It is required to stay fit and eat healthy. It is required for everything you want to excel at.
And it works best when the whole team is involved.
Actually this is essential.
Trying to have a sizable business that is hugely successful but is directed only by a few people at the top will not work. Or it won't when the boss is not watching.
It is best to:
Leadership is there to keep the team on the target. To be the lighthouse. This includes reinforcing the message until they are tired of hearing it themselves.
If fact, Joe Calloway in "Be The Best At What Matters Most" suggests that: if your people are starting to recite and mimic your delivery of the message, you are doing it right.
This does not mean it has to be boring (or boaring). Find your own style and what works for you.
Almost everyone is capable of it but not everyone will step up to getting their PhD.
Actually most won't.
Most people will do what they feel like doing. Or what keeps them busy.
But it won't be the most important work.
That is fine. As long as you and your business graduate you will be head and shoulders above your competition.
Add some passion about where you are heading into the mix with the discipline and determination... and being Pig-Headed will be whole lot easier.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Hatching Dragons (and Businesses) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: hatching-dragons-and-businesses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/hatching-dragons-and-businesses.html DATE: 04/18/2013 10:43:10 AM ----- BODY:What if you could figure out how to hatch a dragon?
It would be a cool and magical moment.
As soon as you create, the real challenges begin.
Dragons are dragons by nature. They are notoriously independent. And hungry.
So the most important questions?
Why did you hatch a dragon?
Might be good to have a plan for this BEFORE you hatch the dragon. Or not... if you like gambling.
Creating a new business, product or service is only the beginning; no matter how difficult or easy it was.
The ongoing challenge is keeping it alive and dealing with all of the other stuff.
The big long-term questions.
The strategy beyond hatching the dragon.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Trust is the Real Success Accelerator STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: trust-is-the-real-success-accelerator CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/trust-is-the-real-success-accelerator.html DATE: 04/16/2013 08:14:24 AM ----- BODY:“All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know like and trust.” Bob Burg and John David Mann – The Go-Giver
At first glance the Go-Giver is a book about sales.
I agree. Following The 5 Laws will help you sell more.
The Laws apply to life and business as well.
Because they are largely about being human, building relationships and putting the interests of others first while being open to receiving.
We are focused on Joe and how his story relates to us.
But there is another huge set of lessons in the book aren’t so obvious even though they are in plain sight.
In The Go-Giver, one of the main characters is Pindar. He has achieved Stratospheric Success.
As we go through the story, Pindar introduces Joe to a number of guests. These guests are in fact Joe’s teachers or mentors.
And there was:
The two extra stories within the story:
These are the higher level lessons.
Just as you need to receive along with giving, you need to trust others as well as have others trust you.
It is the foundation of selling.
It is also the foundation of the next level of success; stratospheric success.
The highest levels of success demand you trust and work with others.
You can make a great living working as an independent. You can even build up some decent passive income streams. You can contract out some of the work you don’t want to do.
But to scale your success and build something that can outlast you, you need to work with others.
Create situations where one plus one is much greater than 2.
To do that you need to trust others. And they need to trust that you have their best interests at heart as well.
Win. Win.
The highest level of giving begins when you start to see people with potential and mentor and guide them.
You finally get there when you can trust and invest in others and help them achieve “their” own success.
You don’t always win. You don’t always get it right. There can be some disappointments.
But by betting on people you know, like and trust… the chances of getting it right are much higher.
In fact, much higher than investing in the cold-hearted stock market.
By trusting each other, Pindar and his friends made each other a lot of money (and great friendships).
By developing and trusting others (Rachel, Joe and Neil), they ensure that they would continue to both help others and benefit themselves.
Give and recieve. Trust and be trust worthy.
This is the ultimate key to stratospheric success.
And my favorite part of The Go-GIver.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 04/16/2013 08:38:10 AM Amazing article, Doug, filled with wisdom and the best commentary I've ever read, both on lessons from The Go-Giver and the benefits of trust, both in terms of earning it and and giving it. Absolutely terrific. Please know how honored I am to have read it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 96.35.204.123 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 04/16/2013 08:51:32 AM Trust is the ultimate "currency" isn't it? Misjudgments in money cost a little, misjudgments in trust cost so much more. What a beautiful way to illustrate the importance of being worth that risk, and able to make that investment! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/16/2013 11:44:50 AM Bob, I am truly feeling honored by your comment. Thank you. I started out with a slightly different lesson and then I realized it was all about learning to trust. Not surface trust but the deep trust required for more meaningful relationships. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/16/2013 12:01:05 PM Dixie, thank you. Trust is a funny thing. When it is broken it can feel like betrayal. But what happens if we are sufficiently successful and open that any one betrayal of trust cannot hurt us. Pindar said to Joe that you cannot waste my time, you don't have the power. The same can apply to trust and how you interpret its breaking. I am not there yet but it seems like a good place. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jean EMAIL: jkkuhn@aol.com IP: 64.53.234.202 URL: DATE: 04/16/2013 03:46:30 PM Trust is such a big deal. I recently referred my carpet guy to my neighbor and friend. She was redoing her entire house over 2000 sq ft of carpeting. Almost $15000 worth of carpeting They came to install, and the guy who measured left off 2 rooms. She had her entire dining room in her kitchen right before Easter. And the carpet was out of stock till after Easter. I called my guy, and told him I trusted him, and I felt really let down by referring him to someone who trusted me. Long story short, I don't know where he got the carpet from, but he had it installed on the Friday before Easter so she could host her family and not have to move all of that furniture and dishes twice. Had he not completed her house, I would not have never referred him again. Human error, yes they happen, but it's how you handle it that matters. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/16/2013 03:53:39 PM So true Jean. The trust you are talking about is the kind that makes you want to buy or refer someone. Very important as well. This also relates to my other recent post "Focus on What Matter Most" which it sounds like the carpet company should read. Wonderful that you had the interest in making your referral work and didn't just make it and disappear. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jayne Cox EMAIL: jayne@jaynemcox.com IP: 81.129.110.4 URL: http://www.jaynemcox.com DATE: 04/17/2013 01:12:39 AM Give and receive...trust and be trust worthy... this is wonderful Doug! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/17/2013 11:28:38 AM Thank you Jayne. You do so much to inspire abundance and help others in the process. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Focus on What Matters Most STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: focus-on-what-matters-most CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/focus-on-what-matters-most.html DATE: 04/12/2013 11:47:37 AM ----- BODY:Too many businesses get distracted and lose focus from what is important.
I am currently reading "Be The Best At What Matters Most" by Joe Calloway.
Great book. Well worth the read. Buy it.
But reading the book won't help you.
Applying the ideas to your business will help you immensely.
I started by asking two questions about our own Manifast brand:
Manifast is a combination of business coaching (and consulting) using an online tool to help entire business teams "work on the business".
What matters most to businesses and business owners?
What do we need to do well?
We hadn't truly embraced the last point until we went through this exercise.
We are a training company.
Embracing it.
What is interesting is that for almost every company out there, to become a great company that can grow and scale you have to become essentially a training company at least internally. Developing your people, reinforcing your culture... you can't afford to leave it all to chance and hope to become great.
And don't forget education based marketing, a well-trained sales force, etc.
How you train is up to you, but...
I bet you are a training company as well.
We've also been a custom software development company for over 12 years. Over 150,000 employees in some of the biggest and most known companies worldwide have used online software tools developed by our team.
When I look back at what matters most it comes down to the basics yet again:
The key is not to build what the client wants but what the clients needs.
(Quite a bit like coaching actually.)
I challenge you to take this idea and apply them right away to your situation; your business.
What matters most to you and your customers? Keep the list small. Refine it.
Focus on that and do it really well.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Forget What You Know: It Is Really All about the Client STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: forget-what-you-know-it-is-really-all-about-the-client CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/forget-what-you-know-it-is-really-all-about-the-client.html DATE: 04/08/2013 11:42:33 AM ----- BODY:What if we take this literally?
After thinking about “Endless Referrals” by Bob Burg a couple of thoughts popped into my head.
Could I train an effective marketing and sales team to generate leads and conduct initial sales calls with just a vague sense of what our products and services do?
Would this be effective at breaking the “it’s all about us” cycle of client abuse?
I was actually surprised by the answer.
Yes, I could.
And it just might be.
Have you ever been invited to a networking event and told to bring a big stack of business cards?
Collecting large numbers of business cards is not good networking.
Giving out large numbers of cards is not good networking.
Great networking is all about the people you are meeting. You put the focus on them by asking lots of good questions. Putting their interests first. Connecting people together.
If you are really good at it, you only have to know what you sell at a very high level.
“We help business owners Manifast their dream businesses.”
Then back to them.
Train my team to ask great questions and avoid talking about us. Check.
You’ve been invited to meet a prospect or client. Off you go with your company, product and services information for a presentation.
Wait.
“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” ~ Zig Ziglar
So what DO they want?
What do you know about your client’s business?
You are dealing with a person. What do you know about them?
You can add more questions but the point is that before you talk about what you can do for them, you need to know what they want.
Otherwise you are talking to the 10% or less who might be buying your stuff today or in the near future.
You are relying on them to make the connections between what you stuff does and what they need.
And maybe, just maybe, they don’t need what you are selling right now.
Maybe they need something else.
Maybe you can still help them get it.
Who will they remember? You will know more about your customers than anyone else.
Train my team to ask really good questions and listen to the answers. Check.
I don’t actually recommend that your marketing and sales team not know what you do or sell. Of course they need to be experts.
But the biggest thing they need to be experts at is figuring out what clients want.
Listening.
Then showing them how they can get it.
But it would not hurt to “forget” about you and your stuff and focus on the client when needed.
Actually it would really help.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Be Different, But Not Too Much! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: be-different-but-not-too-much CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/be-different-but-not-too-much.html DATE: 04/04/2013 11:56:33 PM ----- BODY:Sometimes even the experts have a hard time with embracing good business wisdom and instead go with the herd by default.
We are told to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Be different from them in some discernible way.
Yet when you are too different some interesting things start to happen.
The experts tell you to be more like your competitors. And "everyone" becomes an expert.
See the problem is that our brains want to match new patterns with what we already know so we can make sense of the information. Put your product or service into categories it already understands.
If you are too different the brain doesn't know what to do so it discards the extras and tries to match on only a part of the information; often not to your business advantage.
This happens even to the experts; they are human too.
Everyone is doing "X" with their websites right now. You should be more like them.
Your office needs to be "Y".
You need to dress like "Z".
If everyone is zigging it must be safe. But sometimes zagging is smarter.
We are told to shoot for the stars. If you miss you might end up on the moon.
Actually the odds of randomly hitting the moon are pretty low, not good odds at all... but I digress, it is just an analogy.
The experts will tell you you you are safer driving to the coast or flying to Europe (well now that it is relatively safe). The moon is for NASA, or the Google owners... the pros and the rich.
There are no more big winners in the world. Everything has already been done. Go narrow and tackle a very small niche really well. Be comfortable.
Better to play it safe and survive then aim for the stars and miss.
The funny thing is, creating art requires you to be different. To stand out from the crowd.
You need to understand the art of others where it applies. Always learn and make your art better.
Lesson: One small compromise to reality (without caving in on your dream) is to play to people's inherent desire to fit you to a pattern. Appear to conform is some small way until they are in. Then surprise them with the art when they can appreciate it and learn.
We need big, bold and different.
Not always. Not for everything. Not for everyone. Not all art is popular or makes money.
And that is the beauty of Art.
It is for those who appreciate it.
Not for the critics. Not for the experts.
The noise is a merely a distraction while you learn to make Great Art.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pete Evans EMAIL: pete@altumv.com IP: 89.187.81.3 URL: http://www.altum-v.com DATE: 04/06/2013 04:00:49 AM Doug, Thanks for sharing this with us. Your blog posting is so true. There are so many experts out there today who are actually holding other people back. I encourage people to be bold and aim high. When you are bold and you aim high, then you get amazing and outstanding results. Pete ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/06/2013 11:42:54 AM Thanks Pete. I think some of it comes from trying to apply a formula to success. Formulas sometimes give the illusion of predictability. Except there is no formula to success. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dynamitedixie EMAIL: IP: 96.35.204.123 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/dynamitedixie DATE: 04/08/2013 07:36:01 PM I always enjoy your posts, my friend. But this one... this one I devoured then read again to savor. And when I came to the end, both times, I had tears. Yes, "The noise is a merely a distraction while you learn to make Great Art." Not while you MAKE the art, necessarily - but while.you.LEARN! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 04/08/2013 10:47:27 PM Thanks Dixie. When I read this comment I had tears as well (of appreciation). Your Art is becoming powerful stuff and those who can truly see it, can see its value. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Blow Up The Walls That Hold You Back STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: blow-up-the-walls-that-hold-you-back CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/04/blow-up-the-walls-that-hold-you-back.html DATE: 04/02/2013 05:15:57 PM ----- BODY:We all have them, the thoughts and beliefs that limit our potential to achieve our dreams. These are the bricks that we use to build walls in our mind; the ones that limit what we can and can’t do.
The thing is most of them were put there by ourselves.
Back when I was just out of high school and in basic officer training (Canadian Air Force) I was quite shy and introverted. I jumped into an environment that requires anything but. Besides the nightmares the biggest things I learned is that I am capable of a lot more I than I thought and I don’t quit. I guess they saw the potential in that because they kept me.
After that experience I also realized how easily most people quit.
As I read “Just Blow It Up” by Dixie Gillaspie, I felt like Dixie was talking to me. In fact I felt as if I had been hit by a virtual two by four in the virtual noggin. As much as I believe I can do just about anything I set my mind to, the topics and questions in the book made me rethink it all and come to a deeper understanding of how I built my walls.
I know Dixie as a Master Go-Giver Coach, a Coach and as a
friend. So I know that after the tough parts of discovery, Dixie was not
leaving us in the lurch. Ultimately the goal was to move us forward.
The book is divided into four parts with each part progressing from how Dixie got into this, to how your bricks are built, to the walls they form and ultimately how to remove those walls.
Just the right balance of stories and humor to keep it entertaining, allow us to connect, and at the same time, enough theory and tools to not only dig into what makes up your own brick walls, but ultimately blow them up.
For instance, growing up I would never have contemplated starting my own school (John David Mann actually did it). The snippets from the Dynamite Dialogs were priceless, intimate and real. You will have to get the book for the scoop but Bob Burg, Bill Ellis and Richard Bach made some appearance among others.
While this is predominantly a book about personal growth and mindset, the exact same principles can be applied to your business as well (for your entire team).
Blow up your brick walls, embrace your full potential, decide on your destination, and then Manifast your dreams.
I know that whenever someone tells me I can’t or I am not good enough to do something I get stubborn and “I can too, just watch me!”
The key is to do it because you also "want to".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dynamitedixie EMAIL: IP: 96.35.204.123 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/dynamitedixie DATE: 04/02/2013 06:10:35 PM It's the quiet stubborn ones who don't get credit for their explosions. You've blown up some BIG walls and you're still at it. So proud to have you as a client - and happy to have you as a friend! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 04/02/2013 07:57:38 PM Thanks Dixie. Probably best someone else gets the credit for "blowing up" walls. As long as they are down and dreams are reached. Yes, with the amazing people I am meeting the walls will keep coming down. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Scheme or a Viable Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: scheme-or CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/scheme-or.html DATE: 03/28/2013 12:09:23 PM ----- BODY:The key attributes of a viable long-term business are:
If all three of these are not true you don't have a viable business. If you can sustain it indefinitely you have a long-term viable business.
If point 1 is not true you are running a scheme. Tricking your clients into buying. At best incompetent or selling junk. At worst, a fraud or a thief.
If you are trying to build a business to ultimately cash out your customer becomes the investors who will buy it.
If you know that all three points are not true or likely to be true in the future you are selling a non-viable business.
You are delivering less to your customer (the investor) than you are taking in payment. This isn't hard to understand.
If you hide this fact, legal or not... you are running a scheme.
The world needs less schemes and more viable businesses.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Human Emotions Are A Key Part Of Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: human-emotions-are-part-of-business CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/human-emotions-are-part-of-business.html DATE: 03/26/2013 12:18:16 PM ----- BODY:Your strongest memories are tied to your strongest emotional experiences. How you will initially respond to events in the present is tied to those memories.
This is not just about your childhood. These memories are being formed today.
At work. In your business. By everyone on your team.
Back when I was going to school in rural Manitoba they still used "the strap". I got the strap 3 times from grade 1 until grade 4.
By today's standards, what I did to get the strap would seem trivial. Kids do those things all the time now. Back then, kids that finished their assignments quickly and then got bored needed to be controlled lest chaos ensued and anarchy rule.
I don't judge the teachers or principals. They did what was considered normal then. What was done to them.
The point is that all these years later I can vividly remember those incidents.
And wonder how avoiding the strap influenced the rest of my life at some level.
Positives
Events in the past that have a strong positive emotion are also remembered well.
This is because we are programmed by how our brain works to survive and thrive. That is to avoid danger and seek out rewards.
Negatives outweigh positives. (Remember the 10x rule?)
If we didn't survive then you couldn't get the reward anyways.
This kept us out of the mousetrap. At least it did for the ones who passed on their genes.
Your reward might not be rewarding to me at all.
A big awards gala complete with public recognition, acceptance speeches and a trip to a big professional convention might terrify me.
Then again, it may be highly motivating.
It depends on which emotions come to the surface.
Are they neutral? Big waste.
Are they strongly negative? Highly damaging.
Are they highly positive? Bingo! Everyone wins.
There is no easy path to creating a great business culture. There is no easy path to great leadership and management. There is no easy path to employee engagement and retention. All of these pieces must be aligned.
It takes work.
You need to know your people as individuals.
Know what motivates them. Know how they best take correction. Care about them as individuals.
Tie their personal goals and motivations to the organizational vision.
Rewards and recognition don't have to be expensive. They just have to strike the right chord. Maximize the impact for your limited resources.
Human emotions are inseparable from business. You can pretend otherwise.
Or...
Consciously choose to match the person's emotional response to the outcome you actually want to achieve.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 03/27/2013 09:27:15 AM Very true Doug...not just with employees and co-workers. More importantly with customers and prospects. An emotional connection is involved with EVERY interaction with ourselves, our companies etc. Understanding this truth is a core focus of a fearless brand. Bill ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/27/2013 10:49:08 AM So true Bill. I intentionally focused on internal only for this post. The impact of the emotions you create for customers is a whole other topic but if you have the right culture and frame of mind in your company, serving your customers becomes so much easier. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie Gillaspie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 96.35.204.123 URL: http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/ DATE: 03/28/2013 08:39:04 PM This is such a vital aspect of leadership - to recognize the individual experiences and conditioning and not to LABEL it, but to respect and work with it. True at micro and macro level. And remembering it isn't necessary to KNOW their past, but to know that they have one and show compassion even for what we cannot understand. One of your best posts yet! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/28/2013 11:06:14 PM Thanks Dixie. Understanding and compassion are so important all the time leaders and especially when you have to make those tough decisions. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Business Owner's Dilemma STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-business-owners-dilemma CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/the-business-owners-dilemma.html DATE: 03/22/2013 12:22:17 PM ----- BODY:Your business is a tool to get your products and services in the hands of clients or customers in exchange for payment.
Hopefully you've also tied it to a great mission or purpose.
You need to have all of the following in place:
The dilemma for every business owner is allocating scarce resources in the proper balance.
Get it right and your business can take off. If the balance is off...
You and everyone else will be drawn to what you like to do. Or the problems (if you don't avoid them). Or where you get the most buzz.
What is is not getting done?
Resources are always limited.
And the scarcest resource is normally you!
Allocate yourself wisely.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The 3 Sales Books You Need Most STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-3-sales-books-you-need-most CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/the-3-sales-books-you-need-most.html DATE: 03/18/2013 11:30:45 PM ----- BODY:We recently hired a Sales and Marketing professional so I asked myself, "What are the 3 sales books that influenced me the most in the last year or two?"
So here it is, the three books (well actually it is 5) that will form the core of our initial Sales training program.
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann and the 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success should form the foundation of a company's way of thinking. The 5 Laws cover everything from creating value to receiving a sale. This is not just about sales. Everyone in your organization should understand them.
Go-Givers Sell More and Endless Referrals are two books that flesh out the details of how to put it into practice and are also highly recommended.
Disregard one of the Laws at your own peril.
Disclosure: The Go-Giver resonated with me so much that I decided to become a Certified Go-Giver Coach. None of the book links are affiliate links. I only recommend what I believe in.
Written by the late Chet Holmes, The Ultimate Sales Machine is worth the cost of the book just for the part on Core Stories. Pig Headed Discipline (PhD), Dream 100 Clients and the rest of the focus on how to build out a sales machine are priceless.
Don't try to become Chet or follow his exact methodology. Adapt the materials for your own style but realize you need to do the hard work and have the PhD to make your sales organization and business world class. You have to build the machine (processes, systems, training, coaching and other best practices) to ensure predictability of your team.
Selling with Noble Purpose by Lisa Earle McLeod applies the same key messages in "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek to your sales team. It also gives you a whole lot of tools to implement it. Your purpose needs to serve the customer not yourself, management or shareholders. It ties in nicely to the previous two book recommendations and brings it all home.
Let me be clear, this is not a a touchy feely HR thing. Sales teams (actually entire organizations) that tie their work to a purpose, (strong) mission or "why" outperform those that don't by a very significant margin.
In case I am not being clear enough for the nuts and bolts types; this translates to more revenue and more profit.
How you put it together:
I am sure I will be adding to the list over time, but this is a great starting point for any sized organization looking to build a world class sales team.
What books have most influenced your sales team building and success?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 03/19/2013 09:23:14 AM Great suggestions Doug. I've read three of the five - care to guess which ones? :)The other two are now 'on the list' given your recommendation and overview. Appreciate the insights and best to you and your new hire! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/19/2013 10:48:03 AM Thanks Bill. I would always guess "Calvin and Hobbes" but that is not a choice in this case. Glad you will be reading them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 03/19/2013 12:17:15 PM Three out of five for me too -- BUT not same as the 3 Bill has read.My goal is to bring that score soon to 5 out of 5. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/19/2013 12:19:21 PM Excellent Al. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa Earle McLeod EMAIL: Lisa@McLeodandMore.com IP: 166.205.55.32 URL: http://Www.McLeodandMore.com DATE: 03/20/2013 05:34:53 AM Thanks, honored to be included, and very glad you cited "nuts and bolts" practicality ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/20/2013 11:00:33 AM My pleasure Lisa. I am especially found of books that reinforce my belief that coming back to mission or purpose not only bring joy and meaning to our work but is rewarding financially. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Complexity of Simplicity STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-complexity-of-simplicity CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/the-complexity-of-simplicity.html DATE: 03/15/2013 10:41:59 AM ----- BODY:Sometimes simple is simple. Sometimes making things appear simple is complex.
Things should be as simple for your clients as possible. They already have enough challenges without your products and services adding to them.
Our Example
We recently built a complex web-based tool for a customer. We designed one of the features to be super powerful.
But that required 12 plus different buttons to control that power. We were going to have to write a small user manual to explain how to use it.
It felt wrong.
So we redesigned it.
It now has three buttons and no user manual is required. The small bit of functionality we took away will never be missed. We had added complexity for no real value.
Creating perceived simplicity is elegant and takes work.
Real work. Real understanding.
Saying no to some things.
Taking on the complexity yourself and hiding it from the client if you have to.
Discipline.
What are you doing to change the complex into simple?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 03/15/2013 11:59:20 AM So true, over complicating Repels, not attracts customers... it leads to frustration and then ultimately people give up... The aim is to ATTRACT with Grace, Ease, and Joy if You will to make things as easy as we portray them with tools that are not complex yet easy to understand and do... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/15/2013 12:25:14 PM Well stated Carly. People want things to be simpler and easier or at least help in getting through the complexity. If we can add grace, ease and joy then we are definitely heading in the right direction. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 5 Questions to Avoid The Cost of NOT Thinking STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-cost-of-not-thinking CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/the-cost-of-not-thinking.html DATE: 03/12/2013 12:04:31 PM ----- BODY:I recently came across two distinct examples of corporate wastage that could have been prevented fairly easily.
Two companies leaving money on the table and not even adding any extra value by doing so.
Actually they are eroding perceived value AND wasting money. Two cardinal sins of business.
The thing is, the solutions are obvious.
I opened up a big bubble wrap envelope today. Inside were four more bubble wrap envelopes.
Inside each bubble wrap envelope was a cardboard sleeve.
Inside each sleeve was a tiny label for a plaque (the plaque was actually sent separately). The cardboard sleeve had detailed instructions on how to peel the tape off the label and stick it on the plaque.
Seriously.
Costs:
When a customer sees wastage they are reminded they ultimately paid for that wastage; even if you have contracted out distribution.
Someone always pays for wastage.
Boxing Paper Towels
I recently ordered some office supplies including six, 6 packs of paper towels.
6 medium sized boxes arrived.
I thought they had tripled the order.
I opened the first box and in it was a 6 pack of paper towels with the extra space filled with bubble wrap. Apparently paper towels are fragile.
The rest of the boxes were the same with the remaining small office items mixed in.
The guy making the delivery was shaking his head as well. He had to bring them all up to the office.
This is the 2nd time this has happened so it is not a freak occurrence.
I repacked one box with three 6-packs of paper towels and a little room left over for office supplies. I could have packed everything in 2 medium boxes and maybe one small box for the toner.
Costs:
In both cases these companies expended more resources than required delivering the same (or less) value to the customer. Perception was also damaged.
5 Questions to ask in customer fulfillment:
How are you setting up your business to maximize the value delivered to customers while minimizing costs? You can't ignore either as they drive the lifeblood of your business; profit.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Start with Value STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: start-with-value CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/start-with-value.html DATE: 03/07/2013 12:32:10 PM ----- BODY:There are a number of times in business where you are tempted to jump to a solution without really considering your customers first.
This is a big mistake.
Recently we were trying to figure out where to position ourselves for pricing of some of our products and services.
The obvious first step is to look at what your direct and indirect competitors are doing and use that as a baseline. You can then pick the low, mid or high point and go from there. They must know what they are doing, right?
Wrong.
You will end up competing on features and price alone. A commodity.
Start with Value.
We’ve hired a Sales and Marketing professional. Prior to this it was just me and one of my business partners doing the selling.
The obvious first step is to train that person on our product and services and then set some sales activity targets. If they are experts on our products and services they can sell them better to our customers and the targets will keep them focussed on selling.
Wrong.
Your sales and marketing will end up being focused on you, your company’s needs and your products… not the customer.
Start with value.
Starting with value shifts your focus to your customer:
How do you start with value?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 03/07/2013 01:49:43 PM Great post... Great tips... Great Job ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/07/2013 01:51:40 PM Thanks Carly, happy you enjoyed it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dubaitara EMAIL: IP: 86.96.229.68 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/dubaitara DATE: 03/07/2013 08:28:06 PM Love this post Doug - great points, great questions, great approach. Thanks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/07/2013 10:56:13 PM Thank you Tara, I always appreciate your feedback. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mary Silva EMAIL: msilva@gogivercoach.com IP: 173.54.27.78 URL: DATE: 03/08/2013 10:18:44 AM Great post! Well said, Doug. I can never be reminded enough about the risk of becoming a commodity! Thanks so much. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/08/2013 10:20:31 AM Thanks Mary. I don't think ANY of us can become complacent about becoming a commodity. Things are moving so fast. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: “Hire People Smarter Than You” Is Dumb STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: hire-people-smarter-than-you-is-dumb CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/03/hire-people-smarter-than-you-is-dumb.html DATE: 03/04/2013 11:10:17 AM ----- BODY:There is a common piece of wisdom that is basically, “If you really want to grow your business you need to hire people who are smarter than you”.
While well intentioned this advice is potentially the worst advice you could apply to your business.
It limits the discussion to intelligence and narrows your thinking.
What if you are really, really smart? Who would you hire
then?
And if you are not all that smart you can safely hire anyone.
Do really smart people outperform less smart people in all roles?
How will you determine smart?
What about all those people with less than stellar smarts who achieved great things?
Are really smart people always highly motivated? Honest? Hard working? Meticulous?
Happy?
Are we talking book smarts, practical smarts or social smarts?
Are we ignoring wisdom? Empathy? Persistence?
You get it.
Far better advice is to hire the best person for the role. The best fit.
And don’t be lazy figuring out what “best” is or in looking for the right match.
Don't be afraid to hire people who are better than you at what needs to get done. Hey, they might even be smarter. But raw intelligence is not the only valuable talent.
Know when they don't need to be better than you at something; you will pay more for best.
Remember fit and attitude count for a lot. You can train and develop skills to make people better.
People in the "best fit" are generally happier in their work.
Consider:
Hire for best fit. That is the smart thing to do.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kathryn Booth EMAIL: kb@bigbusinesszoo.com IP: 66.165.17.227 URL: http://kathrynbooth.com DATE: 03/04/2013 06:14:19 PM That saying has always bothered me a lot. I am in favor of hiring people who are distinctly "smarter" in specialized areas, but creating a team built of these legendary creatures could be a disaster. I use the word legendary due to having experience hiring "experts" who talked a good talk, but ended up being legends in their own mind - all hat, no cattle. You also run the risk if you work with people more motivated, qualified and actually smarter that they will not be interested in longer term thinking and acting due to other things they have in the works, headhunters or entrepreneurial dreams they aren't telling you about. Solid advice! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 03/04/2013 06:21:16 PM Thanks Kathryn. Sounds like you've run into some interesting characters. Definitely better to find people who can get the work done rather than talk. Of course this is not to say don't ever hire smart people but rather to really take the time to understand the qualities you are really looking for. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: "You" Are The Limit on Business Growth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: you-are-the-limit-on-business-growth CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/02/you-are-the-limit-on-business-growth.html DATE: 02/24/2013 11:23:03 PM ----- BODY:As a founder, your business will grow only as much as you can handle.
Grow more than that and your business will either shrink back to the size you can handle (if you are lucky) or implode (if you run out of money).
There are two ways to continue to grow the business:
Neither are easy.
It was true for Steve Jobs and it is true for you.
The thing is, good help is out there and available. There are plenty of others to learn from.
If you are willing. If you are not too proud.
That is the first test of growing your business and yourself.
Knowing when to bring in help.
Not just workers. People who might out-shine you.
Real help.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Pursuing "Happiness" is Overrated STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: pursuing-happiness-is-overrated CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/02/pursuing-happiness-is-overrated.html DATE: 02/19/2013 12:46:56 PM ----- BODY:As people move out of survival and safety mode and up the Maslov pyramid, they generally start pursuing "happiness" as a goal.
I'll be happy when....
But is our obsession with happiness causing us to be unhappy? Is it even the right goal? Do happy business owners and employees perform better in the market?
Happiness as a destination is the wrong way to look at it.
If we never know unhappiness we would never do anything different or change.
Try doing one thing that makes you happy. Don't stop. Don't take a break. Continue doing that one thing for the rest of your life. Even if you love free-falling (skydiving) doing that 24/7 without a break will likely become tedious.
If you like singing a song, repeat that song over and over. After a few thousand times in a row you will likely start getting a little antsy; if someone else doesn't ask you to stop much sooner.
Get a puzzle. Put it together. Take it a apart and put it together. Repeat. You cringing yet?
The tension of unhappiness causes us to do something to change. To seek survival, safety, belonging and then happiness.... to create.
If Steve Jobs was always happy would Apple exist today?
When people see a different possibility for the future, they are not totally happy with the way it is. That tension helps drive the pursuit of the vision and goal.
What happens when you get there?
You expand your goal, create the next thing or risk becoming irrelevant. Losing your edge.
Success is one of the biggest risks in business. What got you there will not keep you there.
Happiness is a state of mind. Yet it is fleeting.
Even the most positive people will be unhappy at times. It comes with being human.
Happiness is the state of mind you can achieve when you are coming out of unhappiness. The contrast makes it real and noticeable.
The Yin and Yang.
Directly focus on happiness and you likely won't be. It is best observed in the rear-view mirror.
Positive people know how to head back to happiness faster; that it is largely a choice.
You can just be.
What makes you unhappy about your business? What makes your customers unhappy?
Fix it and make everyone happy. For a while anyways. Repeat.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Welcoming Big Changes in Your Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: welcoming-big-changes-in-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/02/welcoming-big-changes-in-business.html DATE: 02/12/2013 01:24:29 PM ----- BODY:Many businesses are reacting to change when they absolutely have to. They are not anticipating changes and moving ahead of their competitors.
Tactical thinking rather than strategic.
This will continue to be true.
In Crossing the Chasm (Geoffrey Moore) the curve for adopting new technology (and ideas) is a bell curve. The Innovators and Early Adopters are a small group. Even the entire group of the Early Majority only brings the adoption rate up to 50%.
This is great news for strategic thinking business owners because disruption can let you jump ahead of your competitors.
I needed a root canal and crown for my tooth. That is a pretty routine procedure.
What is not routine is that the dentist now has a milling machine on site and can make crowns while you wait.
No sending a mold off to the dental lab. No more waiting up to a week. One visit and it is done.
You can now buy 3D printers. You put in the specifications and out comes a 3 dimensional block of material that looks exactly like the drawing.
Manufacturing jobs have been moving offshore for years. The primary reason is simple, labor is cheaper in developing countries than here; even when you factor in shipping costs.
What happens when things are automated so much that people aren't really involved on the factory floor? Labor costs are tiny compared to the rest.
Offshore can come back and offshore loses the cost advantage.
What happens when offshore can be replicated nearby each major population center?
On demand. Customized. Built when you need it. Built just like you want it.
Custom fit clothes. Delivered to your door minutes after ordering just like a pizza is today.
The possibilities are endless.
Randy Gage in "Risky is the New Safe" is entirely right.
Fortunes will be lost and fortunes will be made.
Hint: Companies that can get their entire teams thinking and acting strategically will be the ones making the fortunes.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Myth of Life Sucking Managers Versus Inspiring Leaders STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: life-sucking-managers-and-inspiring-leaders CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/02/life-sucking-managers-and-inspiring-leaders.html DATE: 02/05/2013 09:02:49 PM ----- BODY:I’ve noticed a trend lately in many articles and posts online to cast management as a bit of a negative beast from the past and leadership as the enlightened path to the future.
“Don’t be a manager… be a leader.”
Compliance versus commitment.
There was a similar trend for people in sales a while back as the profession was cast with a negative spin; “call yourself anything but a salesperson”.
But is this really justified or even necessary? Is it actually harmful?
I believe we are we comparing leadership done right with management done wrong. We are looking at what “is” in many organizations rather than what should be. Holding onto patterns of the past.
Whether intentional or not; language, perceptions and attitude matter.
Maybe we are complicating things.
Comparing apples and oranges.
Some definitions I found (Google and Dictionary.com):
Leadership (noun)
Lead (verb)
Management (Noun)
Manage (verb):
These definitions actually have a lot of similarities and they certainly don’t show either role to be inherently better or worse. Certainly the horse being led by a rope does not imply commitment from the horse.
Both management and leadership can describe the top ranks of an organization.
One of the early books that had a big impact on my understanding of the importance of great managers was: ”First, Break All the Rules” by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. They offer the following:
“Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs, and motivation of each person… release each person’s unique talents into performance.”
“Great leaders by contrast look outward… the competition, out at the future, out at alternative routes forward. They focus on broad patterns… then press home their advantage… must be visionaries, strategic thinkers, activators….”
“Talented employees need great managers. The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders… but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor.”
Managers are not leaders in waiting.
They are an essential part of an organization and great managers definitely inspire top performance from teams without using the stick.
Of course, one person is never 100% of either. People have talents that are a mix of the two sides.
They are somewhere in the middle.
However, one talent is usually more dominant.
In the “Ultimate Sales Machine”, Chet Holmes states that from his experience 90% of executives are predominantly tactical thinkers, 9% think strategically and only 1% of them have the rare ability to do both well.
This would imply that 90% are really acting more as management and not leadership, despite the titles.
Les McEown (Predictable Success and The Synergist) relates another useful natural pattern within corporate teams:
People are a mix but usually have a dominant style.
All four types must be present in a team or organization for long-term success and they transcend leadership, management, follower roles.
This means that both leaders and managers can be a mix of these four types.
If all four types are not represented and operating well together you will never achieve what Les calls “Predictable Success” or what we call “Manifasting your dream business”.
You have to be clear what your organizational objectives are. You have to look at the culture and the culture out in the greater society.
What worked yesterday may no longer work today. Things change.
Understand enough of the patterns to overlay the mix required for success in your organization. This diversity and match-up is critical to organizational success.
However you slice it and whatever you call it; “managers” are an essential role in any organization and should be cherished, encouraged and developed into greatness. Let’s lose the rhetoric.
"A rose by any other name is still a rose."
Ultimately, the key is to know:
And by all means, develop great managers, leaders and team members along the way.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.199.15 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 02/05/2013 11:45:11 PM Indeed. Good post. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 02/06/2013 10:36:15 AM Thanks Sean, I am sure you are continuously working on being one of the great managers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Easy Path or the Hard Road STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: taking-the-easy-path-or-the-hard-road CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/01/taking-the-easy-path-or-the-hard-road.html DATE: 01/28/2013 10:51:27 PM ----- BODY:In business and life we are often faced with choices: the seemingly easy path and the hard road.
There are times when the easy path is the right choice. No need to complicate life for things that don't really matter.
A lot the time though, the easy path only seems easier and often is only easier over the short-term.
Yet, most people will take the easy path anyways. Brush things under the rug. Don't deal with problems. Put things off.
The easy path is easier right now. That is all that matters.
After-all, maybe the consequences will never materialize.
The hard road is... "harder". No surprise there.
It requires tougher decisions. Hard work.
It usually requires giving up something else.
It often requires the hardest thing of all; personal change.
High achievers generally learn to embrace the harder road and even enjoy it; celebrating greater meaning and success through bigger victories.
The hard road in business is almost always the more strategic route as well since it is usually focused on the bigger win over the shorter-term tactics.
It leads to the top.
Many people tend to take the easy path whenever possible.
Let's cut ourselves some slack though, we are wired to look for the easy or safe route and to follow the crowd.
Ultimately, your choices will affect where your business (and life) end up.
To make real gains you often need to be willing to do what everyone is not willing to do. Aim for the longer-term benefit and sacrifice the short-term. Be willing to change and improve. To stick with it.
Not always. When required. You need to push. Be uncomfortable.
To take the hard road.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carly Alyssa Thorne EMAIL: carlyathorne@gmail.com IP: 107.196.197.37 URL: http://www.carlyalyssathorne.com DATE: 01/30/2013 06:05:06 PM Absolutely Everyday we have a Choice... Great Post ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/30/2013 06:45:59 PM Thank you Carly. Always appreciate feedback. I am constantly reminding myself to think through the decision I am making to make sure I am not taking the easy path when the hard road is required. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Power of Passion in Business Goals STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-power-of-passion-in-goal-setting CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/01/the-power-of-passion-in-goal-setting.html DATE: 01/23/2013 10:39:18 AM ----- BODY:Most businesses I've come across write goals that are devoid of any passion.
A typical vision or long-term business goal.
This is pretty clear so most businesses stop there.
A Better Version
By 2016, we are going to help 5000 business owners and their teams create dream businesses that enrich the lives of everyone they touch. We will deliver so much value through our tools, coaching and training that our customers will gladly pay us $20 million and act as personal walking ambassadors (raving fans); allowing us to reach even more dream business builders in the future.
Same destination. Different style.
I think the second version provides not only more passion but a LOT more guidance to the team. The act of making powerful adjectives and adverbs come into reality is powerful tool.
Why aren't you adding passion to your business vision and goal setting?
Do it now. The world needs passionate companies who are making a difference.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 01/23/2013 12:33:25 PM Right on the money Doug. Great concept delivered effectively and succinctly. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Coachjulie EMAIL: IP: 96.18.188.115 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/coachjulie DATE: 01/23/2013 01:21:30 PM We had a vision board & goal setting session last night and without a doubt, those goals that are attached to our passion were unanimously the common theme of the evening. I printed out these thoughts by Ralph Marston to share with the group: "You are creative, informed, innovative, and skilled at finding a workable way forward. In your passion to make a difference is a continuous source of positive energy. Each moment is a moment in which you can work to make more progress. Every thought, every action is an opportunity to add momentum to your efforts. Time, resources and possibilities are available to you right now. And now is your moment to make the most of them. With your authentic intention, persistently applied, you can. When you make the commitment, you will." ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/23/2013 02:19:52 PM That is awesome Julie. Thanks for sharing all of those great thoughts as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/23/2013 02:25:03 PM Thanks Bill. So important to tie your why or passion to the goal. It is not that really that hard but adds so much power. I think some people think business has be analytical and profcessional. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Caution: Business Owner Acting As Stairs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: caution-business-owner-acting-as-stairs CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/01/caution-business-owner-acting-as-stairs.html DATE: 01/21/2013 12:08:58 PM ----- BODY:Are you trying to remove all risk from your business?
I saw this sign by some escalators that were out of order the other day.
It got me to thinking:
The fact that this sign is even required shows how much of the business world has become about reducing risk and liability and not creating new value.
A business is all about providing value to customers through products and services.
The most successful companies are creating and innovating in their markets; not playing it safe.
As Randy Gage's book says: "Risky is the New Safe".
Essentially, playing it safe is not actually playing it safe because the world is changing faster and faster.
If your business is all about protecting what you have and relying on what you did in the past you have a problem.
You are no longer moving forward. You've become complacent.
Stairs don't move either.
Don't be a business owner acting as stairs.
The biggest rewards come to businesses that are taking calculated risks. The ones delivering more value today than they did yesterday.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 01/21/2013 12:31:19 PM Love it Doug! Great take away from what appeared to be a 'simple sign'. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/21/2013 12:46:03 PM Thanks Bill. I think there are lessons everywhere if one looks and is open to receiving. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 10 Steps to Your Most Important Work STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: your-most-important-work CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/01/your-most-important-work.html DATE: 01/17/2013 03:54:53 PM ----- BODY:Every minute you are not working on “Your Most Important Work” means you are not working at your full potential!
For most entrepreneurs and business owners, the day is filled with things that need to get done.
The busy work.
If you are using lists to track your pending work it may actually look something like this.
Lists are a great first step for getting things done and not
forgetting things.
But they are overwhelming.
They are also potentially incomplete. The strategic stuff you need to do might not even make the list or be lost somewhere in the pile.
Buried in the noise.
Checking off items on your list may become your primary goal rather than results.
But what if you are not working on the right stuff?
Spend 5-10 minutes every day planning and repeat the steps every day for the next 3 months. Get your entire team doing this. Consider using a tool to improve execution and visibility.
You will be moving closer to your goals and dreams faster than you ever thought possible.
Focusing on your most important work allows you to "Manifast" your full potential. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nash_jen EMAIL: IP: 98.211.42.32 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/nashjen DATE: 01/18/2013 12:40:39 AM Great post, Doug! So many people get bogged down in the how (tactics) that they forget the what (strategy). As a result, they ping pong throughout the day and don't make much, if any, forward progress. I think both successes and failures should be celebrated so to speak because we can learn so much from them. Last, focusing on high value tasks is very important. Duties should be assigned appropriately. I had a talk this week with an entrepreneur who was struggling to justify paying someone to do certain tasks when she didn't have the money in hand first. I told her that if she spent the time closing deals, etc. instead of order fulfillment of whatever she could more than pay for the person. The math only works if you replace low value tasks with high value ones. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/18/2013 02:07:49 PM Thank you Jennifer. That has been my experience and observation as well. The failures are part of the reflection I mentioned but I never thought of celebrating them... maybe for what they teach. The chicken and egg of hiring someone to get benefit without being sure you can afford it is a normal dilemma. I think unless you have faith, or better, have seen it work it is a hard one to accept even though it makes sense. Thanks for your wisdom. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Amy Wells EMAIL: amywells63@yahoo.com IP: 72.177.193.136 URL: DATE: 01/18/2013 07:44:47 PM Doug, This is really good. I was getting bogged down with the 'daily to do', until I came up with an open and close list for my team. They began to cover all the 'to do' and I am now free to create more business, so I can hire more people to do the increased to do's. LOL Great post. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa Settle EMAIL: Lisa.settle@telcare.co.uk IP: 82.69.126.151 URL: http://www.telcare.co.uk DATE: 01/19/2013 12:00:32 PM Enjoyed this blog Doug. Reminded me how easy it is to get snowed under without knowing it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/19/2013 12:03:02 PM Thanks Amy. Love the story about how you are able to work on your business and hire more To-Do-ers. Awesome. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/19/2013 12:04:04 PM Glad you enjoyed it Lisa. Speaking of snow, did you get any today out your way? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Science of Business Intuition: 4 Steps STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-science-of-business-intuition CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/01/the-science-of-business-intuition.html DATE: 01/11/2013 01:23:05 PM ----- BODY:Business leaders must often go with their gut in making timely decisions.
But that begs the questions:
Many small business owners lack the required knowledge, experience or information to trust their intuition effectively. At the same time they often "believe" their intuition is serving them well.
Intuition is largely driven by the intersection of your subconscious brain and your conscious thoughts.
Your brain stores vast amounts of information and experiences as well as the corresponding emotions, etc. that go with them.
When you need to make a decision quickly without enough conclusive information, your brain matches up its experiences and information to find a pattern that will help right now.
Not enough information and your brain will go with the closest emotions.
So the more time you take to gain experience and knowledge in the areas of business that matter, the better "your gut" will work.
This means you need to act more like a scientist in four steps:
Make your business intuition more effective by backing it up with science.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 01/11/2013 01:52:24 PM Always something new to learn in your posts. Future post on ' subconscious brain and your conscious thoughts' would be most welcome as we seldom explore those faculties and honestly, very few of us even know where to start looking to see how our brain triggers certain actions ( business implementations included )based on the brain wiring. So much to learn still..... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 01/11/2013 02:03:06 PM I really like understanding how the brain works. I am certainly not an expert. I will be reading another book by Daniel Pink soon (To Sell is Human) and once I refresh by own knowledge I may take you up. Glad you find them helpful. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Essential: Ensure Your Business is Prepared STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: essential-ensure-your-business-is-prepared CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2013/01/essential-ensure-your-business-is-prepared.html DATE: 01/03/2013 07:24:35 PM ----- BODY:The impact of not being prepared for unusual situations can cripple or destroy your business.
I went out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve. We made reservation and were seated at 5pm.
After taking our order the waitress informed us that things were really busy and it would take an hour for the food to come out of the kitchen. Looking around things didn't seem to be any busier than normal.
We happened to be close enough to hear the servers taking phone orders. Take-out orders were pouring in like crazy. They were telling people that the wait time was 90 minutes.
Every time the server was talking to someone she was telling them we are so busy with a frazzled and a little panic in her voice.
A take-out customer came in early to pick up food. The frazzled server told him "You are too early. 90 minutes means 90 minutes. Your food is not ready and we are swamped. You are 30 minutes early. Come back in 30 minutes."
It took us just a little over 60 minutes to get our food. One family with young children waited even longer.
What could they have done different?
They should have some basic performance standards in place.
In reality the main problem was a lot of very large take-out orders.
I would consider in restaurant orders to be higher priority than take-out. Waiting overly long in a restaurant seems more painful than when you are waiting at home and it is even worse if you have young children.
Let's say 40 minutes is the maximum wait for in-restaurant food orders.
Assuming they were operating at full production this means that some take-out orders would be pushed out a bit to adjust the queue.
What if you called take out customers 10-15 minutes before their food is ready (when you start actually cooking it)? Then you could tell them the wait will be 1.5 to 2 hours and we will call you when your order is almost ready and add a bit of slack.
Now you don't have customers waiting at your restaurant for take out orders that are not ready either.
And when the queue gets too full? Turn away customers.
I know this is hard.
But better 40 happy customers than 60 unhappy customers.
Finally, I would make sure all my staff know what the performance standards are and what to do when things get outside of those boundaries.
I would also make sure they are trained in what to say when things are not quite right so they are not reacting in a panicked way.
Then you need to monitor and mentor that as well.
Will this preparation solve every potential future problem?
No, but the cost of not doing anything could ultimately be your business (and sanity) and well trained staff are better able to handle all emergencies, not just the ones you can foresee.
What are you doing to ensure your business is prepared?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Look Back at 2012: Celebrate Your Business Wins STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: look-back-at-2012-celebrate-your-business-wins CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/12/look-back-at-2012-celebrate-your-business-wins.html DATE: 12/30/2012 09:56:34 PM ----- BODY:Reflecting on 2012 I realized we tend to look back at the challenges and problems we faced and focus our forward momentum on "improving" things for the future.
It is easy to lose sight of the good parts.
As we are climbing the mountains of our business (or personal) goals it is important to stop often and look back.
Repeat what you did right.
Quickly fix but don't dwell on the issues. Train your mind to look for more of the things you are doing right in the future. Do them more.
This will allow you to achieve amazing goals in the future.
And most of all enjoy your present. You only come this way once so enjoy the climb.
All the best in 2013!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dynamitedixie@gmail.com IP: 96.35.204.123 URL: http://dixiedynamiteblogging.com/ DATE: 12/31/2012 06:22:07 PM Ah, celebrations. They do make a wonderful view! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 01/02/2013 12:43:57 PM When I was reading this blog during the holidays, I recalled what Seth Godin has been reminding us of so many times? What did we ship last year ? "A lot". We need to feel good of our team accomplishment. Next question is what are we going to ship this year ? "A lot more" is what is buzzing in my mind. Happy 2013! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Serendipity and Defining the Ideal Customer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: serendipity-and-defining-the-ideal-customer CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/12/serendipity-and-defining-the-ideal-customer.html DATE: 12/19/2012 12:06:53 AM ----- BODY:Having the discipline to define and focus on your ideal customer at the exclusion of all distractions is a skill that eludes many business owners.
We naturally want to say “everyone” can use our product or service. After all, what if we exclude someone and they want what we have?
Marketing to “everyone” is very expensive and the message usually becomes so vague it doesn’t really catch anyone’s attention.
You need a story that resonates to a group of people, your ideal customer. So you need to be clear who that is.
We started out with the idea Manifast was for any small or mid-sized business or any coach or adviser serving that market.
But that is not a very tight definition.
Les McKeown defines the stages of a business in “Predictable Success” as:
You can’t skip a step to Predictable Success. You can only minimize the time and pain passing through White Water.
After much thought, agonizing, and discussion with my business partners and the members of my Mastermind group (with Blast Thru Coach Dixie Gillaspie), we realized that our ideal client is:
One entering, already in, or wanting to get through "White Water" to the ideal balance of innovation and processes, or as Les calls it “Predictable Success”.
We call it "Manifasting your dream business!"
An innocent question out of the blue by business owner and Coach Barbara Abramson was something like, “So what does Sunwapta mean? Why Sunwapta?”
It turns out that the name we picked over 12 years ago for our company means “Turbulent Waters” in a local aboriginal dialect. It is the name of a water fall, river and glacier.
So it turns out our product helps our ideal client get through “turbulent waters”.
And we set that course 12 years ago.
It took 12 years to learn what we needed to learn and develop the skills and abilities AND the product to make it happen.
Who is your ideal client? How did you come to that conclusion? Please leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christie M Ellis EMAIL: IP: 70.171.192.99 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/christiem DATE: 12/19/2012 10:07:49 AM Great post Doug! You are so right, we tend to want to think broad to make everyone happy. The cool thing is when you focus on who your ideal customer is then anyone outside of that sphere, if you will, who wants what you serve, will find you anyway. I look forward to hearing all about the Manifest! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/20/2012 11:45:33 PM Thanks Christie. Yes, that is the beauty and you get to stop trying to make "everyone" happy which is a recipe for unhappiness. Look forward to showing the gang Manifast. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 01/16/2013 05:04:59 PM This is so educational as it just enriches the way you answer prospects when they ask us what Sunwapta means and where did we get the name from. This response results in a core story that is juicy and at same time leading to "why Manifast ?". I tried it today and it worked. I will be sharing this blog a lot. Love it ! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: You Get What You Measure: Choose Wisely STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: you-get-what-you-measure-careful-what-you-measure CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/12/you-get-what-you-measure-careful-what-you-measure.html DATE: 12/11/2012 11:52:52 PM ----- BODY:I am sure you’ve heard the expressions:
In many ways in business you get what you measure.
What if you are measuring and focussing on the wrong thing?
Unfortunately, you will get that too.
Say you are running a customer support or call center.
People call in or complete a support request online and the job at hand is to resolve customer problems.
Since call centers are expensive and generally are after sales costs, the usual goal is to have as many customers served by as few people as possible.
This is the cost center approach.
So you measure how many calls each employee can handle each day (maximize) and the time spent on each call (minimize). These are not necessarily “bad” numbers to track by any stretch.
Then you start offering employees incentives and penalize those who are below standard.
Everyone starts playing the numbers game to win. Good stuff right?
Employees hurry each customer through their problem with the goal of closing them fast. Not only that but they may start avoiding taking the calls they know will take too long to resolve from the queue, leaving them for someone else. The kid’s college education is at stake after all.
The “good ones” hurry customers to a closed call. The “less effective ones” may spend too much time on the calls handling more difficult issues even though the customer may be happy.
But are customers actually having their issues resolved? Are they happy? Are they going to buy from you again? Will they recommend your company to their friends?
You can’t tell from these measurements.
So you add a satisfaction metric or two to the equation.
Fast, Low-Cost AND Happy.
Next!
But can you really get everything you want on the cheap just by mandating it?
Zappos is known for legendary customer service. Delivering WOW.
In fact, according to the book “Delivering Happiness”, they don’t evaluate employee performance on call length or volume at all. Employees are free to spend as long as required to make a customer happy. The record is 6 hours.
They put the focus on the relationship and making the customer happy.
And they don’t spend much on Marketing as a company.
They don’t need to cover up poor service and support with expensive marketing to bring in new customers.
So they get extremely happy customers AND repeat business and referrals.
Good profitable business.
Be careful what you measure and evaluate employee performance on. You will get what you focus on; but at what cost?
The key is to align your metrics with your overall business strategy: mission, core values, culture and vision.
Personally, I prefer team based performance targets for most business objectives. This encourages people to work together better as a team and for team members to align their skills where it best serves the team.
With a sports team the overall goal is to win games and ultimately the championship.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying accept poor individual performance or pay everyone the same. Athletes on professional sports teams never all perform the same roles nor do they get paid the same. But they can all win at the same time.
I am saying set team goals and reward people for their real contribution; not one metric for everyone.
You get what you measure (and focus on). Choose wisely.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.182 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 12/12/2012 10:27:06 AM Terrific insights and analogies Doug. Similar to the concept "We are what we think". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 12/12/2012 12:11:06 PM Bill, you are entirely correct. Organizationally we encourage "group think" by clear goals and metrics; knowing what game you are playing and how to win. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: "Learning" the Fiddle (How Hard Can It Be?) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: learning-the-fiddle-how-hard-can-it-be CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/learning-the-fiddle-how-hard-can-it-be.html DATE: 11/30/2012 12:01:19 AM ----- BODY:What are you doing to learn something new?
Your future success and even mental health likely depends on it. (I'll come back to this.)
Bob Burg asked me to share about my background as a musician and so I wrapped it up in a blog post with some other things.
A little more than 8 years ago I took up playing the fiddle. I was just shy of 40 when I did it and had been running our business for about 4 years at the time (and apparently didn't have enough to do).
I had been enjoying some Maritime music groups and they often had fiddlers in them. Then I started listening to Natalie MacMaster, a well known Cape Breton fiddler.
I saw a course being offered through Continuing Education so I signed up. "How hard can it be" became my mantra.
Our instructor was a fiddler named Tracy with an amazing sense of humour.
She asked everyone in the room what instruments and musical talents they had from before. I played the trumpet in school and the guitar on and off since high school.
She then informed us that "none of that will help you in the slightest. The violin is nothing like any of those things."
She was right. And it actually was pretty hard.
It took a lot of practice just to get to the point where I could play with others and even more to get to the point where I sounded decent.
I now play in two local Celtic bands (fiddle, guitar, step-dance and singing) to keep me motivated.
Malcolm Gladwell talks about mastery taking 10,000 hours of focused practice.
I am probably less than 30% of the way to that number. There are 10 year-olds that are much closer than I am to mastery. Doing the math, at my present rate of learning it will take another 20 years to get there.
But that doesn't matter.
It is the journey of learning that matters.
For me, nothing relaxes me more after a busy day of being an entrepreneur than spending an hour or two playing music; by myself or with others. I am also an introvert so this is my recharging cycle.
And there is another huge benefit.
Evidence is now showing that keeping the mind actively building new neural networks will help prevent the onset of dementia.
Consuming entertainment (television) does not build these pathways. You need to be actively striving to learn.
Out of the 16 people in that beginner class, only 2 or 3 kept playing after the course was over. Half didn't even finish the course. I would be willing to bet that I am the only one left playing out of the original group.
Funny thing is, I have seen these numbers play out in almost every aspect of life.
The 1% is the 1% for a reason.
Getting good at something takes work. It takes practice and commitment. Most people get good at one or two things and coast. Often for their entire lives.
Learning to learn is the key.
This is true for business as well.
So find something new you want or need to do (or get much better at something you already know). Learn how to do it. Stick with it until you are really good at it.
Actively learning new things is your best route to success and strong mental health.
And that is part of what enables people to achieve their full potential.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Secret: Employees Don't Need To Know That (or Do They?) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: secret-employees-dont-need-to-know-that CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/secret-employees-dont-need-to-know-that.html DATE: 11/27/2012 11:06:12 PM ----- BODY:There seems to be a fair number of businesses that believe the key to their success is knowledge... tightly held knowledge.
Secrets.
Such important secrets that not even employees need to know.
They want to hire great employees and grow their businesses. They want their business to run without them so they can:
The key to this is delegation.
So they delegate pieces to a few key managers. Not too much.
Just enough so they can do their jobs.
The managers delegate work to their team and follow the lead. Only what they need to know.
The justifications at all levels include:
You are setting your employees up to fail. The culture is one of information hoarding and not one of teamwork.
Proper delegation involves accountability and responsibility.
People want and need to know why they are doing what they do. How it impacts the organization as a whole.
That they have meaning.
In the void of real information people make stuff up. Rumour and plain inaccuracies are prevalent. They make decisions on false assumptions whether you want them to or not.
How can they make great decisions; the same ones (or better) than you would make? How can they act responsibly?
First you need to ensure you know what your mission, core values, culture, vision and key business goals are. Then you need to hire people who fit and believe.
Then the leadership team needs to make a mind shift.
Share as much information as you can. If you are withholding information ask why?
Is it because you are scared? Is it because they won't understand? Does it "really" need to be a secret?
Really?
The reality is there are not really a lot of real secrets that need to be held that closely.
Don't be lazy.
Train your team to understand. Train them to make decisions according to how things are done here.
Invest.
It is extra work up front that pays dividends in the future.
The more transparency the more you can trust your team. You have more eyes looking out for the business. The more people who care about success.
The less chance of a bad apple causing problems.
Only then can your business scale and run without you.
And that is the real job of an entrepreneur; building a business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Big Dreams Are Accomplished By Great Teams STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: big-dreams-are-accomplished-by-great-teams CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/big-dreams-are-accomplished-by-great-teams.html DATE: 11/19/2012 11:54:19 PM ----- BODY:I have to warn you up front, I was watching Larry Winget videos on YouTube prior to writing this post. Here goes.
I recently read a tweet that said something like:
"If you are working for someone you are fulfilling their dreams and not yours."
This is the classic I made it doing X, if you do X just like me you will succeed too expert advice that is being oversold.
What a load of crap. If you are working for someone and are not accomplishing any of your goals or moving forward towards them in some way "it your own damn fault". Further, just because someone else makes money doing something does not mean copying them will make you similar amounts of money or even lead to happiness.
It likely won't work for you because you are not them. You need to find your own path.
You don't need to do X.
Yes, all you need to do is align your why with the people you are working with.
Simple stuff really.
First you need to know what motivates you. What do you believe in? What are your real goals? Not the path, but the actual destination.
If your goal is to win the Grey Cup or Superbowl good luck doing that by yourself. You will need a team. You will need to work for and with coaches and a general manager. Not willing to do this? Then winning the championship is not really your goal.
Once you know your why (purpose) you can find the right team.
The one that shares your why. Or the one that helps get you closer longer-term.
You may need to play football in high school and college first. You may need to do well in school to get the scholarship to get into college. As Larry said at the Go-Giver Retreat last April, you do the stuff you don't like doing so you can do the stuff you want to do.
Aligning your goals with a team means everyone wins.
Some of the biggest accomplishments in the world happen when people align their why.
It is never just one person at the top dictating the big plan and a bunch of robots or zombies mindlessly doing the work. Certainly not one where people mindlessly mimic others or just show up to earn a pay cheque.
To accomplish great things you need a great team. Period.
One with their why aligned (at least for today). One where people can contribute the best their talents have to offer. Where everyone is achieving at their full potential.
One with a strong culture that supports the why.
Even if you are at the top you must serve (lead) your team so the team can achieve their why.
Because big dreams are most often accomplished by great teams.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 216.13.209.75 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 11/20/2012 07:06:48 AM People first, it is always true. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/20/2012 02:21:33 PM Sean, you are so right. Thanks for the comment. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Do or Die Trying: A Strategy That Needs Help STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: do-or-die-trying CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/do-or-die-trying.html DATE: 11/12/2012 11:24:51 PM ----- BODY:Is that your business strategy? Set a course and go... until you do or die?
That can certainly be exciting... for a while. In some rare cases it can even be essential.
But it is usually not the best path. At least not one to Manifast your dream business!
As Yoda said:
"Do or do not, there is no try."
So in case you had doubt, dying has no value.
I define business strategy as something like:
"A forward looking vision (destination) and plan (path) that takes into consideration what you think is going to happen in the future to give you an advantage in the market and mitigate the inherent risks while having a strong likelihood of success."
Business is all about balancing potential risk and success. Too much risk and you are gambling. Too little and the gains might be too small.
Mission is the overriding purpose, the why. Vision is the destination.
Goals are the major steps along the path. Achieving goals requires additional planning and execution.
Don't mistake setting a target, calling it a goal and then thinking you have a a great strategy. We are going to double revenue is not a strategy. You need to address all of the pieces in the definition.
You can shift your goals and even vision without losing your purpose (mission or why).
Every strategy has assumptions. Your belief system or "frame" has assumptions built into it. It is the frame of your target customer that ultimately matters.
The better you understand your assumptions (including yourself), the better you can test them during execution to see if they hold true.
If one or more assumptions prove to not hold true, you will need to either abandon or adjust the goal (or vision).
The sooner the better.
You don't want to wait until 2 years and 99% of your capital is gone to do this.
Adjusting your goal or vision because of invalid assumptions is often called a pivot. Best to do this well before you run out of capital.
Even if it is just your sweat equity, your time has real value. You only get so many tries.
What are your critical assumptions? How will you validate that they are true?
Even if your assumptions pretty much hold up, your path to get from point A to point B might be invalid. Or inefficient.
Define what success looks like.
Then define intermediate checkpoints.
What should success look like 2 months into a one year goal? It may not be linear but there should be some early indicators you might be heading in the right direction.
When you get to 2 months you either met or didn't meet those checkpoint measurements.
If you did, then great. Plan. Set some more checkpoints. Repeat until you are certain the goal and plan are valid.
If you didn't, revisit the goal, the plan and the assumptions.
What can you do different? Can you get help?
Decide. Innovate, pivot or abandon.
Don't take this wrong. This is not a quitter strategy.
Neither is this about playing it so safe that nothing great can happen.
Passion, faith and vision can take you far.
Adding lean, agile and adaptive to strategy can make the process a lot easier and increase the chances of making it to the vision.
And if it really is do or die; at least you did everything you could to help your business live.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: "Start with Why": So Why Manifast? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: start-with-why-so-why-manifast CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/start-with-why-so-why-manifast.html DATE: 11/08/2012 12:32:56 AM ----- BODY:One of the books I am reading right is "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek.
This is not the first book I've read on the importance of knowing your purpose or having a mission.
The book talks about "why" as opposed to "what" and "how". The businesses that create the most loyalty and avoid being commodities do this right.
"Inspire" rather than "Manipulate". When people are aligned with your "why" they will pay a premium or suffer inconvenience to stay with you. The rest need to manipulate their customers into buying.
Lots of great stuff here but rather than talk theory... why not start with "Why"?
Why not!
(Ok, just kidding.)
Putting such complex thoughts and feelings to paper is actually not that easy.
I believe that greatness is created from head and heart. Some might argue that your body plays a role in many instances. True. But without thought and passion your body will probably not accomplish much.
So why do some people rise to their full potential and many don't? This is a topic that fascinates me. What makes people tick?
So last year we set our company mission to be:
"Help people achieve success at their full potential."
This captures it a bit. But it still doesn't fully explain the why.
Canada and our little sparsely populated neighbour to the south of us matured and grew as nations by thriving on the pioneer spirit. That drive for building and innovation built some very prosperous companies with new products and services.
Success is the enemy of future success.
As we've matured and prospered we've begun to feel entitled to it as a society. Entitlement is dangerous thinking.
The economy and everything else has become and will continue to become more global. Other nations are rising up to prosperity right now and others will be doing this same in the future. This is the ebb and flow of civilization throughout time.
This is a good thing.
I believe the pie is as big as we want it to be. There is no requirement for one region of the world to "have not" so another can "have".
Think about it this way. If more people have the money to buy your products, you can rise up further as well.
I believe the bar can be raised for everyone.
It is changing the way we learn. It is changing the way we socialize and interact. In "Risky is the New Safe" by Randy Gage he talks about a whole host of ways things are going to change; already are.
Maybe I am naive but I still believe technology can be harnessed to bring out the best in us (at least for those who want it).
Government does not create jobs. At least not ones that generate an exchange of value that is self-sustaining.
Businesses create jobs. Entrepreneurs create businesses. Until we can colonize the stars, this is still one frontier that pioneers worldwide can thrive in. Creating new products and services that drive value out into the market.
So helping businesses succeed helps create jobs. It builds the economy and a better world.
But not just any jobs.
Jobs where owners and employees can achieve success at their full potential (our mission).
Where people can:
"Manifast their dream business".
Because it inspires us to look for ways to help businesses not only thrive and grow, but become places where people can aspire to their full potential.
Admittedly this is a rather large challenge. But "we" don't have to solve it all.
You see the wonderful part about this is that others will solve parts of it as well. Because our way forward involves tapping into and supporting others who are inspired to believe the same things.
Not everyone.
The people and organizations that share our "why" (or we share theirs). The ones that are inspired by similar beliefs and goals.
"The Go-Giver" and the Certified Go-Giver Coaching program is like that. You can give to the Go-Giver community at the same time they are giving back to you; because everyone shares the same "why". Everyone grows. You are not constrained from but actually encouraged to achieve your own dreams.
And this strengthens the overall community.
So Why Manifast?
Because all of the above (and more) plus it is something to challenge our heads and inspire our hearts... and dreams should be big.
What is your why?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The 3 Sacred Rules of Leadership Trust (If they are so Easy...) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: if-leadership-is-so-easy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/if-leadership-is-so-easy.html DATE: 11/05/2012 11:52:40 PM ----- BODY:You can't build a great business unless you can get everyone behind the mission, sharing the core values and building a strong culture.
Part and parcel of that is strong leadership. There is no one leadership style that guarantees success or failure but there are some basic rules of leadership that guarantee a lack of trust and inspiration if broken.
Praise in public, criticize in private.
Praise should be in the order of 10x the amount of criticism. Praise has to be genuine and assumes that you and your team are competent.
If you have a clear mission, clear core values and a well defined culture; you can trust your team to make better decisions and less criticism is required.
Understand the difference between coaching or mentoring your team members and the requirement for actual correction. Most times the former should be the focus.
Violation of deviation from mission or core values is non-negotiable.
Make it clear how the team succeeds or wins. Tie it to the why. Celebrate the small victories to compound them.
When things go well, publicly pass on the credit to the team.
Great leaders realize that when success happens it is because of the team. Publicly and authentically recognize the contributions of the team. Don't be one of those leaders who takes all the credit.
Just like in "The Go-Giver" you don't give to get, you give because it is the right way to do it. You give to give.
This is another one of those cases where genuinely giving away the credit actually leaves you open to receive more. You build team loyalty and because your teams always get results, you will be given credit where credit is due.
This also goes part in parcel with training your replacement. The best leaders also make themselves redundant so they CAN move on; not be stuck in their current level.
When things go wrong, accept the blame on behalf of the team.
This means "the buck stops here" NOT "my people messed up and I will find the perpetrator".
You are in it as a team.
Publicly the team and thus you as the leader take fall responsibility and do what is necessary to make the situation right. Something like, "We messed up, I take responsibility and we will fix it for you."
You can deal with your team appropriately (see basic leadership) behind the scenes.
Coach. Mentor. Change processes. Train. Correct (if necessary).
If you don't know what to do to fix it within your team ask for coaching, mentoring, assistance, etc. (do it in a way that does not violate this rule).
The outside world should never see it.
Most importantly your team should never be hung out to dry.
Great leaders succeed because they tend to and nurture great teams. Companies that focus on inspiring and treating employees well tend to have much happier customers.
Happier customers lead to many more customers.
This translates directly to the bottom line.
Never forget these rules of leadership.
If these leadership rules are so easy, why isn't everyone doing it right?
Therein lies your opportunity.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Dog and Pony - Re-framing Abundance and Receptivity STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-dog-and-pony-re-framing-abundance-and-receptivity CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/11/a-dog-and-pony-re-framing-abundance-and-receptivity.html DATE: 11/01/2012 10:59:08 PM ----- BODY:I was thinking about manifestation, receptivity and abundance a lot the other day; especially from a personal and business success perspective.
Part of it was my own learning and observation, part of it was triggered by comments during our Wednesday coaching call... but it was my own dog who really put it all together for me.
Our dog Kaylee was visiting a friend's house. They happen to have kids. Kids tend to leave lots of toys laying around.
She entered the house not knowing what to expect. She had never been there before.
As she ran around exploring and checking out all the things on the floor she found a small stuffed toy pony. She decided it was the best thing in the house.
After a bit they noticed Kaylee had found this toy. By then it was a bit soggy and one eye had fallen off.
The host decided Kaylee could keep the toy.
For the next day she carried it around our house and it was her new favorite toy. She washed it and gently chewed on it. None of her old toys had the same appeal.
I took a picture and was just going to post it on Facebook. Then it hit me.
Dogs know how to receive.
Kaylee - Watching me approach the stuffed pony
Dogs and young children keep it simple. They know how to receive.
Is this true in your personal life? In your business?
I realized that human adults have a tendency to complicate things in business. Is it easy for people who would really relate to your why (your ideal customers) to find you and buy your product and services?
Really?
How could you make it easier?
Success today could be as simple as finding a cool new toy that brings you joy. It is likely fleeting. That stuffed pony has already started falling apart. What will bring you joy tomorrow? P.S. I don't recommend just taking things, dogs have a different frame than your hosts.
What does success mean to you? I would suggest that few people really know this answer for themselves.
A big reason is that there are two parts of your brain at play. One part apparently thinks in terms of feelings but not words. Other part thinks in terms of logic and words. The two parts don't speak the same language so it is not surprising we can't put into words (very easily) what will make us happy. We only have a vague sense.
Apparently this is even worse for most guys (what are you feeling?).
So we have to guess based on the past and what we anticipate for the future.
The clearer we are about what generally makes us happy, the more likely we will know the prize pony when we see it.
Sometimes you need to be fairly specific. Sometimes you can be a little more general.
Kaylee was not looking for a stuffed pony. She was looking for something fun.
If you are too specific and operating only out of your logical mind you can miss the opportunities that may arise to be successful in other ways.
Are you unintentionally setting mental roadblocks that keep you from taking opportunities? I know I do that when I am feeling overwhelmed by the busy-ness of today. Are you afraid of getting help from others?
If Kaylee had not been able to keep the toy she would have moved on quickly. Often people become too attached to a thing or idea from the past.
Move on. There are other opportunities.
This is especially true when what you want involves someone specific doing something for you. Or even worse, someone else having to lose in order for you to win. You can't make other people do anything.
If you decide the only way for you to be happy is to get the lead role in a particular play, somebody is going to lose. If you are open to getting the lead in any play, options open up. If your goal is to become a world class actor or actress even more options can open up.
If you decide that the only way for your business to succeed is to get bought out by Google; you are setting yourself up for failure rather than leaving things open for success.
This is not to say you should not set goals or plan.
Be open to changing the plan.
There are usually many paths to get from where you are to where you need to be. Keep the end in mind but be flexible in the how and what.
You don't always get what you want, but you might get what you need (if you are open to receiving).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Linda Ryan EMAIL: Coachlindaryan@gmail.com IP: 174.226.133.156 URL: http://Www.coachlindaryan.com DATE: 11/02/2012 05:54:35 AM Great post making great points, Doug. Beautiful dog! We can learn so much from them :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christie M Ellis EMAIL: IP: 70.171.192.99 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/christiem DATE: 11/02/2012 08:19:52 AM What a great post Doug...and Kaylee is beautiful!! I love how dogs can teach us so much about business :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 75.92.226.249 URL: http://dixiedynamiteblogging.com/ DATE: 11/02/2012 08:24:55 AM What great observations! "she wasn't looking for a stuffed pony" but because she was "open" to finding joy in whatever form it presented itself she found it IN a stuffed pony. And because she is "open" she'll quickly find it in something else. Perhaps the best trait we can learn from kids and animals - they have so many options for finding joy! And that is success. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Barbara Abramson EMAIL: Barb.BurgConsultant@gmail.com IP: 98.85.138.132 URL: http://www.sanfordcarpet.com DATE: 11/02/2012 11:08:22 AM Great post Doug. Not only was Kaylee open to joy and found her pony - you also were open to more than just a cute picture of her and a blog post blossomed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/02/2012 01:49:42 PM Linda, yes we can learn so much from our dogs (and everything else in our lives) if we can only see it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/02/2012 01:50:47 PM Hi Christie, I love trying to see things outside of business and see how there can be a corresponding lesson inside of business. Life is life and business is part of that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/02/2012 01:52:42 PM Dixie, yes that is the most powerful lesson from the post. Too often we tie our happiness to a very specific outcome and miss all of the other opportunities. Thanks for your always insightful thoughts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 11/02/2012 01:54:19 PM Barb, you are completely right. Being open allows wonderful things to happen as does doing the preparation to make sure can take advantage of the opportunities. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Expending Energy in all the Right Places STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: expending-energy-in-all-the-right-places CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/10/expending-energy-in-all-the-right-places.html DATE: 10/30/2012 11:30:58 PM ----- BODY:Recently, I have been revisiting where my time is actually going. Everyone should do this periodically.
It is especially important for entrepreneurs, business owners and self-employed people.
I did a detailed review of where I actually spent my time over the last 12 months with additional focus on where it was trending.
Not surprising that the trend was drifting from where I wanted to be.
Common wisdom is that you should do the work that adds the most value to the organization.
This time around I also considered what I should be doing at a deeper level.
What work gives me energy? What drains it?
I took the Kolbe A assessment and reviewed the results and interpretation with my coach. The Kolbe A is interesting in that it tells you how you will naturally work when you are striving; given the opportunity to do work your natural way.
I also decided that I was not going to make incremental changes. In order for me to be inspired to change it had to be a dramatic goal... one worthy and inspiring enough to capture my attention.
Where I spend the majority of my time and effort at our company has to meet four criteria:
The last one is important. Many business owners focus primarily on doing work that is satisfying only to find out they are critical in too much of the work that goes on. If you don't want to do this one you need to partner with someone who will.
Let's be realistic. Not everything that I need to get done will meet these criteria.
As long as the majority of energy and effort I am expending meet this criteria, I will be meeting my goal.
And just knowing that my target is a big, high impact improvement will help motivate me to make it happen. I also plan to review where my time and energy go more frequently in the future... I will need to shake things up to keep motivated. These are both part of my natural makeup, yours may differ.
Now that I understand myself a little better it makes sense.
Take time to reflect and adjust your course periodically. You owe it to yourself and your business.
How often do you review where your time and energy is going? What is your natural balance?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 10/31/2012 06:10:53 AM WOW - you did it again, my friend and brother. Extremely wise, extremely helpful information. Thank you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: pastortomsims EMAIL: IP: 67.187.232.79 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/pastortomsims DATE: 10/31/2012 06:54:12 AM This is a powerful coaching question and I will use it more in my own coaching: "What work gives me energy? What drains it?" These are built-in clues and truthful sources for feedback. Thanks for writing this! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 10/31/2012 12:10:09 PM I took the test as well ( and I recommend it highly!) but it is one thing to be handed an analysis of your scores and ratings, but it is a totally positive experience when you share these findings and have a heart to heart talk with your team or mentor or partner. THAT discussion between you and I was most valuable to me. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/31/2012 12:49:35 PM Bob, thanks for that wonderful feedback. Appreciate you my friend. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/31/2012 12:54:20 PM Hi Pastor Tom. So important to look at doing the work that gives you energy and doing work in a way that brings out your natural best. Happy you can use this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/31/2012 12:56:14 PM Al, it is always a pleasure working together to grow into our full potential and build our business. What are you going to do and doing it are so much more important than more information in our busy lives. Glad I could help. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Culture Doesn't Grow in a Petri Dish STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: your-culture-doesnt-grow-in-a-petri-dish- CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/10/your-culture-doesnt-grow-in-a-petri-dish-.html DATE: 10/21/2012 10:38:53 PM ----- BODY:Your brand is how people outside your company perceive your company, products and services.
You don't control your brand. After all, you don't control people or what they think.
It used to be that you could buy a brand image if you had enough money to spend on advertising.
This is becoming more difficult if not impossible; especially for the smaller players.
You can influence your brand.
Image courtesy of moomsabuy | FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Your company culture is determined by your values, behavior and consistency on how you deliver on your promise as a company. The way things are done here. Or not.
You have one whether you created it intentionally or it just happened.
It starts with you and your employees. It impacts your customers, potential customers, suppliers, partners... everyone who interacts with your organization.
It is the single biggest factor in determining your brand.
It is nearly impossible to separate your culture from your brand in today's online and connected world.
The biggest chance you have of creating a powerful brand of your choice?
Create a company culture of your choice.
Define your mission. Define your core values. Write a vision of what your culture should look like. This is what it would be like to work in your organization (think 5 senses), what it would be like to interact with your organizations, expand on your core values, etc. Flesh out your corporate vision.
You want to paint a vivid picture of what it all looks like.
Don't try to create a Zappos culture. You aren't Tony Hsieh. Neither are you Apple or Steve Jobs.
Be authentic.
Adapt don't adopt ideas from others. Embrace the parts of you and your organization that make sense for your culture and brand. Highlight them.
But don't deny the rest of you.
People can smell a fraud.
You've defined it. It is authentic.
Defend it.
Hire the right people. People with values that are aligned. People who can get behind your mission, values, culture and vision.
Reinforce your values and culture regularly. Make sure employees and key stakeholders understand how their own goals and value align with the organization... how they will win when the organization wins.
Be prepared to jettison those who don't fit.
A single bad apple will spoil the rest. Cultural poison.
Your culture has to be baked into your business.
Your hiring processes. Your leadership and management development. All of your business processes and systems. Your work environment.
Bake it in everywhere you can.
Make sure there are no gaps in the alignment with your strategy. It must be part of it.
Your culture is not grown in a Petri dish in a lab somewhere.
You build it (or not) every day through conscious choice and effort.
Your company and brand depends on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Value > Payment > Cost: It's the Law STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: value-payment-cost-its-the-law CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/10/value-payment-cost-its-the-law.html DATE: 10/10/2012 11:28:44 PM ----- BODY:There is a basic economic reality to business. Every great and successful business follows it.
Your business must follow it as well; or eventually perish.
It is the Law.
In "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann, state the "The Law of Value" as:
"Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment."
Like beauty, value is in the eye of the beholder.
Value is perceived.
It can include the raw cost of producing something... materials and labor. If that part is appreciated.
But unless someone wants what you are selling (think hockey or baseball cards), you cannot realize a payment equal to your perception of value. After all, it is their perception that matters.
So value includes the intangibles. How it makes you feel. The experience. A sense of belonging or caring. The soft stuff.
In many cases the soft stuff far exceeds the cost of producing it (pennies).
In order for someone to give you money for something, they must want it more than they want the money.
The bigger the gap, the more likely they will perceive value for payment to be good. The more likely others will buy what you have.
This is the desire, want and need.
Value >> Payment = Good
In commerce these days this is usually money. In older times you bartered: 4 chickens, a blanket and a bushel of potatoes for a cow (no idea how big a bushel is but is sound more old times).
Getting paid in business is good.
This is your income.
But it is not the entire picture.
How much does it cost you to produce the product or service you sold? (The thing that had value to someone and for which they gave you payment in return.)
This is where businesses can innovate.
How much value can you produce for as little cost as possible? What can you add to your current offering to increase value?
In many cases the intangible value or soft stuff can cost you very little. You can increase the value with relatively little extra cost.
How much does it cost to smile? How much does it cost to take a little time and build a connection? You get it.
Payment (income) - Cost = Profit
Profit is even better than revenue. You can have lots of revenue and still close your business if you don't have profits.
Profits allow you grow. They allow you to create more jobs for more people. Profits reward the business owner(s) for taking the risk and working hard. When you spend your profits other businesses benefit. It makes for a thriving economy. It is not dirty at all. It is good.
Profit is good!
If you focus first and foremost on delivering value, you are focused on the customer. By focusing on the customer first instead of the money, you will naturally add the intangible soft stuff. It becomes second nature.
If you are focused on the money first you will scrimp on the soft stuff. And people can smell it; the lack of caring.
The bigger the gap between value and cost, the more you can take in payment.
The customer wins. They get far more in value they you take in payment.
Your business wins. You take far more in payment than it costs you to provide the product or service.
Everybody wins in a fair transaction. Beautiful.
Being a Go-Giver is not charity. It is a business methodology that works.
If you are not in business to turn a profit; get out now. A fool and their money are soon parted.
Go-Givers are not fools either. It's the Law. Don't break it.
The Law of Value.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 10/11/2012 05:19:36 AM WOW - Powerful, Powerful Wisdom you shared with us, Doug. Thank you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Glen Little EMAIL: IP: 74.115.199.227 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/glenlittle DATE: 10/11/2012 07:33:14 AM Great example of how Doug can see and explain the big picture! This is a big reason why our team has been able to succeed for over 12 years now. It's been good, and I look forward to the ventures ahead with you, Doug! Glen, co-founder of Sunwapta Solutions ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/11/2012 01:25:33 PM Thanks Bob. Learning from one of the best helps. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/11/2012 01:26:59 PM Glen, thanks so much for those words. We all bring our talents to what we do and you are no exception. Having two great business partners has made the journey infinitely better. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 10/30/2012 04:32:25 PM This one blog says a lot about 'The Go-Giver' message and how you have really taken the subject to heart. You certainly have earned the certified Go-Giver coach title and we see you living this message as well in your day to day business and personal activities. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Know, Like and "Trust?" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: know-like-and-trust CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/10/know-like-and-trust.html DATE: 10/03/2012 11:29:04 PM ----- BODY:In "The Go Giver", Bob Burg and John David Mann wrote:
"All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust."
The words equal, know and like could have a lengthy discussion in and of themselves when it comes to the nuances of meaning, business, people and sales.
But I want to zero in on trust.
I recently had a coaching call with the amazing Dixie Gillaspie where she reminded me that trust has a special meaning in business sales. So like most powerful lessons, I think and then write (or talk) about them to make sure the lesson sinks in.
Trust is the third and final step in know, like and trust and the big reason many people fail to translate all of their hard work into sales; the lifeblood of any business.
The trust you are building is not having someone trust you with their beer (or chocolate donut). Nor is it the trust of looking after their children. Nor it is trust with their wallet or secrets.
All of those things are great and can also be in place. Having prospects and customers as friends is wonderful. But business is not the same as having lots of friends.
Those friends may never buy from you.
The trust that is important in business is that you (or your business) are going to deliver on your promise of value; consistently, professionally and with excellence.
Know precisely what value you are delivering and do whatever it takes to show people you can deliver it.
Build trust.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 75.92.226.249 URL: http://dixiedynamiteblogging.com/ DATE: 10/04/2012 10:28:56 AM As usual I learned more about what I know by reading what you've taken away from our conversation :) You've nailed it, I know plenty of people I trust as PEOPLE, but I don't trust all of them as EXPERTS in their field. So even though I'd love to see them succeed, I can't bring myself to do business with them or refer to them. The sad thing is, they may be more credible than they appear, but because they're focused on being "buddies" their credibility isn't coming across. "Business is not the same as having lots of friends." So true, but so happy that business can lead to great friendships. I value yours! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 10/04/2012 11:51:20 AM Wow, thanks Dixie. It was such a powerful lesson I felt the need to share it. Knowing something (theory) and really understanding and then doing something about it (mastery) are two different things. Something that we also need to instil acrosss our entire team. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Accountability Starts at the Top STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: accountability-starts-at-the-top CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/09/accountability-starts-at-the-top.html DATE: 09/23/2012 11:24:06 PM ----- BODY:In my last post I talked about finding a business coach (or adviser or consultant).
Once you seriously commit to the process of having a coach something happens.
Have you ever heard how people will hire a maid or clearing service and then just before they arrive, they clean the house from top to bottom because "I don't want them to think I am a slob".
Well just the act of hiring a coach works something like that if you are serious. You immediately start thinking about the things that you want to improve and do better because "someone" will be looking.
Who are you accountable to for your results as a business owner?
Many small and mid-sized business owners are the shareholder, the sole Director and the top executive in the business. It is actually quite hard to be accountable to yourself; very few people can pull it off consistently well because our minds are easily distracted.
Michael Gerber of "The E-Myth" likened it to having a madman as a boss.
Even if you have a multiple shareholders, partners and/or more than one Director, the guidance and accountability might be lacking or of the wrong type.
Or maybe you need another perspective.
Yes, you need to be accountable for yourself. Whatever your reason, a huge benefit in having a coach is that external accountability.
If you take your coaching partnership seriously, it immediately changes performance just from that benefit alone.
You (hopefully) hold your employees accountable. Do the same for yourself.
Accountability starts at the top.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jane Boyd EMAIL: IP: 50.92.28.158 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/janeboyd DATE: 09/23/2012 11:49:47 PM Hi Doug - Accountability very much starts with ourselves. This can be hard to do alone. Having a coach in place or an informal group of colleagues that you trust can go a long way toward helping with this. Getting a perspective from the outside can help on so many levels. Thanks for writing about the work you are doing in this area. I know you are going to find your experience to be beneficial. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/24/2012 04:39:30 PM Hi Jane, thanks for the wonderful comments. I certainly agree with you, accountability starts with yourself. I even tweaked my post to make that clear. P.S. I am also looking forward to the experience and journey. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Finding a Business Coach (or Consultant) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: finding-a-business-coach-or-consultant CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/09/finding-a-business-coach-or-consultant.html DATE: 09/17/2012 11:23:52 PM ----- BODY:For many of our early years in business I have to admit I did not really believe in hiring a business coach or consultant.
I think it was a mix of:
When we finally did break down and enthusiastically hire a marketing and sales coach (consultant) we had a pretty iffy experience. Sure the guy was pretty decent in his field.
The problem was he was more concerned about maximizing the revenue from us and not enough on maximizing the value to us in exchange. He just didn't seem to really care about what we did nor did he really increase our performance.
In essence, he was not a Go-Giver.
This ultimately jaded our (my view) of the industry for some time.
We started building a software product aimed at helping small and mid-sized businesses succeed. In essence part of the tool's purpose is to coach and educate business owners and entrepreneurs.
This led to us starting to work with the business coaches, advisors and consultants out there; after all we are essentially serving the same market and our product ties in nicely with what they are doing.
However, this time is was different.
I had read The Go-Giver (by Bob Burg and John David Mann). I realized that his book encapsulated exactly what I wanted business and selling to be like and was already gravitating to. The book sped up the understanding and direction.
After the clarity something interesting happened. I started noticing and being attracted to the people who were either natural Go-Givers or had read the book and were also attracted to that way of doing business (and living)... sometimes by accident.
If fact I decided to become a Certified Go-Giver Coach myself.
Because I now see the value in hiring a business coach again.
Note: I use coach loosely here to encompass the entire group of business advisors for brevity.
You have a coach to reach your maximum potential as an individual, team or business.
Just like sports there are a few important criteria I now use in selecting a coach:
A business coach may or may not need specific industry or professional expertise to make these things happen for you and your business. For example, a great sports coach did not necessarily perform at the top of the sport, their talent is inherently coaching. So be careful how and why you choose.
But it is not all on the coach. The people receiving the coaching have some obligations to make it work. These include:
Great coaches don't want to waste their time and get their satisfaction from seeing people they work work achieve their full potential in one or more areas.
Ultimately hiring a coach (advisor, consultant or trainer) should be considered an investment and partnership. It takes some time to see the real value so you need to persist.
If the match is right and you both do your part, you should be able to reach your goals faster and with more satisfaction than doing it on your own. And this is why I am am part of the Go-Giver Coach family and why I am now working with one or more coaches myself.
The above process is exactly how I chose my most recent coach (and I am guessing why she accepted me into her program).
In essence you should be able to Manifast your dream business faster and more effectively.
Let's hear your thoughts on selecting and working with a coach in the comments.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 75.92.226.249 URL: http://dixiedynamiteblogging.com/ DATE: 09/18/2012 09:32:36 AM "An investment and a partnership..." right on the money! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 09/18/2012 01:09:51 PM Terrific, Terrific Post, Doug! You have a way of very logically putting together the exact "essence of a thing." Thank you! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 09/18/2012 03:55:44 PM Dixie: Thank you so much. You are one of the ones doing it right; a great coach and example. Bob: Your feedback and encouragement are so very appreciated. Means a lot. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Margaret Collins EMAIL: margaretcollins197@ymail.com IP: 125.212.46.227 URL: http://www.chrisducker.com/business-consultant-coach/ DATE: 01/16/2013 02:27:05 AM Thank you for posting an informative article about finding a business consultant. It gives me ideas to consider in choosing a business consultant. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Irrelevant Entrepreneur STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-irrelevant-entrepreneur CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/09/the-irrelevant-entrepreneur.html DATE: 09/11/2012 11:41:22 PM ----- BODY:In my last post (What the Flu Taught Me About Business) I talked about why it is necessary to think like an entrepreneur and make yourself unnecessary to your business's success (at least for a period of time).
Many aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners will be tempted to take a very dangerous shortcut.
It goes something like this. "I can't handle all of the work I have to do" or "I don't like doing these parts of the work." The really forward thinking (i.e. brilliant strategic) ones will go "I create more value doing X than Y so I will delegate Y".
So they hire someone to do some aspect of the business and go "Welcome to my company, your job is to do ________".
Then you let out of sigh of relief and go back to doing the work you love and/or has the most value to your organization.
You are an amazing business genius. Congrats!
Until something happens.
Customers are not quite happy. Something is not being done quite like you really wanted. Other employees are mumbling. The key employee is becoming frustrated.
But you are so very happy to not be doing that work; so you ignore the little problems.
Besides you are a brilliant strategic business genius. Everything is under control. Think happy thoughts and it will all work out. You have bigger fish to fry. Busy.
Then the little problems become bigger problems.
Maybe the person you were relying on quits. Worse, they are taking all of the knowledge about how they do their work and all of their contacts with them. And you are too busy to step back into the role; if you even know how anymore.
Unlike keyboard shortcuts, business shortcuts (the easy path) often turn into more work over the long term.
Delegating and disappearing is not working on the business. There is no easy path.
Working on the business is an investment into the future of the business.
When you expand your team (hire or outsource) you need to take care of some essentials:
You see, building a business involves not only making it so you don't have to be there.
You have to make it so the whole thing runs without ANY one key person.
And you have to realize that working on your business includes developing your people. As you grow you have to make sure your business is structured and built so the culture of the business is to develop your people.
A perpetual motion machine.
Don't take the shortcut and become the irrelevant entrepreneur. It will come back to haunt you and may prove fatal to your business.
It isn't easy. But building a great business can be done. Get help via a coach, consultant, tools and self learning.
What are you doing to set up your people for success?
I'd love to hear your story, please leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: What The Flu Taught Me About Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: what-the-flu-taught-me-about-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/09/what-the-flu-taught-me-about-business.html DATE: 09/09/2012 11:06:47 PM ----- BODY:The flu means fever, headaches, body aches, sore throat, upset stomach, bloating... (I won't go into all the details, you get it).
Usually the having the flu means it is very difficult to work, often for several days. And even when you can finally think straight, it often means another few days at home to avoid passing it on to coworkers or clients.
Even Clowns Can See Better Days
What happens to the work you normally do when you are sick?
What is the impact on your business if you can't work?
In my case, there was some important work that had to get done even though I was sick. Fortunately my bout of the flu was not too severe and I could work from home.
But that is not the point.
What if I was too sick to work for a week? For two weeks? Heaven forbid, even longer?
What would the impact be on the business short and longer-term?
This is the acid test for an entrepreneur.
I define an entrepreneur as someone whose focus is building a business. Not building a product. Not providing a service. Not serving customers. All those things are part of the business but not your primary role.
Building a business.
One that eventually runs with or without you.
Whether you want to show up in it is irrelevant.
You are not really a successful entrepreneur until it "could" run successfully without you.
Tough definition? You bet.
But we need to be tough about this if you want to build your dream business. Your dream has to happen even if you can't show up for a while. You need to be able to take breaks without "working while on vacation".
You need to work on your business.
You need to define and document all of the key processes and systems. How do you consistently deliver excellent value to happy customers?
You need to train all of your staff to do this without you there.
For more complex processes and systems you need to define the rules so others can make decisions that serve your best customers and your business. You need to train and mentor them to do so consistently to the standards you have.
Excellence. Built into the very fabric of your business and company culture.
Don't know where to start, use a tool and services like Manifast.
Having the flu unexpectedly is a perfect test.
You don't actually have to get sick to run this test. Just ask the question:
"What if I unexpectedly could not do any work today? All week? All month?"
Now go fix those things that would hurt your business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Selling Without A Plan - Do You Have One? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: selling-without-a-plan-do-you-have-one CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/08/selling-without-a-plan-do-you-have-one.html DATE: 08/20/2012 10:56:19 PM ----- BODY:Today I was part of no less than two discussions around closing and why it doesn't always happen. The similarities with my own recent experiences caused me to consider things a little deeper. I've been making these very mistakes at times.
You've got them seeing Snoopy. Now what?
By big event I mean a product demo, major sales call, public speaking, a seminar, a teleseminar, a webinar or any other event where you are bringing people in to feed your sales pipeline.
In many cases you are very focused on the big event itself: doing a great job, delivering value and making sure the participants have fun. So much so that you forget to think of what is next.
If you've done a great job, you've built all of this "know, like and trust" and then you let it slip through the cracks.
The worst part is that many of those participants actually want more and are disappointed there is nothing next.
Carrie Wilkerson (The Barefoot Executive) likens this to the first date. You have an amazing time with your date. At the end of the date you part and never set up the second date, leaving it to chance.
Have you ever thought to yourself, if I can just get them in for (step 1) a demo or sales presentation?
You end up get exactly what our goal was. A demo or sales presentation; and nothing more.
If your goal does not have a step 2 clearly defined it can end there. We tend to manifest what our goals are.
Now if you have a great product or service and you determine the person has a genuine need you are potentially doing both of you a disservice.
Before heading into any potential sales situation, you need to map out your ideal sales process steps.
Hopefully you have a value ladder that goes all the way from what you deliver when building the relationship, all the way through to your high value items.
Now life, relationships and sales rarely go according to plan. You want to be able to adapt to the situation you are actually in and be authentic, etc.
Don't follow the process like a robot. Some people may even want to jump right to the top of the ladder. Some may not be ready to even take the first step.
Having a plan actually gives you confidence and that leads to a relaxed and genuine interaction. You are not totally winging it.
What is is you plan to accomplish in the current stage of the plan? What value are you delivering?
How will you communicate the next value steps in a way that allows those who are interested to make the obvious next step? Make sure you know what the next step is. Then make it clear to your audience during the Big Event and follow-up after.
Don't leave your date wondering if you are ever going to call again. Set a specific time and place for next one. Unless of course you don't want another date (or customer).
Oh, and be open to receiving as well.
Please share your experiences in the comments. I'd enjoy hearing from you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dinah EMAIL: dinah@dinahliversidge.com IP: 2.102.198.42 URL: http://www.dinahliversidge.com DATE: 08/20/2012 11:36:31 PM Great blog Doug, I often find it is when there is no plan in place that self-doubt does the most damage. The voice of doubt inside has excuses not to follow up "they'd have called me if they liked it" or "they never came back to me" are comments I often hear from clients. Having the plan in place and putting follow-ups in our schedule, like appointments, is a great way of overcoming these limiting self-doubts. Dinah ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 08/21/2012 10:25:35 AM What an awesome article, Doug. Should be put somewhere where it can be reviewed before every event and presentation!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/21/2012 10:42:19 AM Thanks Dinah. Excellent points, putting in a plan for success helps so much with the self-doubt. Plus success breeds success. Far better habit in my opinion. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/21/2012 10:43:23 AM Thanks so much Bob. I know I am putting it in my checklist of things to always do. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ChristieEllis EMAIL: IP: 70.171.192.99 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/christieellis DATE: 08/22/2012 02:54:14 PM I could have used this blog last week Doug, I would have been a lot better off :) Thank you for such a great post! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/22/2012 11:15:17 PM Thanks Christie. There are many times I could have used this as well. Will try to remember always in the future. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kerry George EMAIL: IP: 24.222.168.149 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/georgekerry DATE: 08/02/2013 11:44:36 AM This is a good article Doug. We always teach our sales staff to do a solid close, but if that is a no-go then book a meeting from the meeting. The next meeting is the next step whether you are at a networking event, doing a presentation, or doing a follow-up. It may take more than 7 touches to get the sale so next contact is the next step. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/02/2013 07:21:20 PM Thanks Kerry! Exactly, always know what you want your audience to do next and make it clear. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Finding "Your One True Purpose" (For Now) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: finding-your-one-true-purpose-for-now CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/08/finding-your-one-true-purpose-for-now.html DATE: 08/15/2012 06:35:04 PM ----- BODY:Marry talent and passion and you have found your life calling.
Do what you love and nothing can stop you. Eternal happiness will be yours.
This is what some believe. What some have told me.
Your one true purpose.
I don't know about you, but my passion for things changes over time.
Sometimes I am really passionate about something at the outset but lose interest over time. Other times I have had lukewarm enthusiasm for something at the start and passion has built over time.
Passion is also a choice that is influenced by others in your life. Were you ever part of a band or sports team (etc.) that you really, really connected with? Sometimes after the group dissolves or moves on, you just can't get back that feeling and move on too.
What if you acccomplish your purpose?
I have dozens of things that I can do that I enjoy. My passion for the things I do is constantly evolving and changing.
You determine that your passion and talent is to be an Olympic runner. You train and work hard and move yourself up in the rankings. Then one month before the Olympics, you tear your Achilles tendon. What if you can't run anymore?
Is your purpose in life gone?
Age changes things as well. Certain activities require the body of youth for top performance and injuries accumulate.
Is life over at 30? 40?
Are you mixing up the concept of innate talent versus skills and knowledge? The impact of learning and intense practice?
He/she was meant to be a violinist. What if the violin did not exist?
Is it really too late to start?
A big piece that many miss is this equation:
Talent + Passion + Value to Others = Valid Business
Actually, people have to be willing to pay for the value and the degree of market saturation will also impact your business opportunities, but let's keep it simple.
Watch it though, some things you are passionate about are better left for non-business. The act of commercializing them can ruin them for you. It comes back to the why.
Passion is a state of mind. Some people find it easy to be passionate about many things. Some people, very little.
Most people can choose passion just as you can choose to be happy. You don't have to be passionate about everything that needs to get done. Maybe you are passionate about a piece or the result.
The "why" matters too.
Family. Faith. Long-term goals. Happiness. Acceptance. Love.
Personally, I prefer to look at purpose as transitory. How long does it last? Totally up to you.
But that is ok.
We are meant to change, grow and evolve.
Work and business do not have provide it all. Balance is different for different people.
One true purpose?
I don't know.
But there is absolutely nothing stopping you from choosing to do something with passion and every ounce of effort. Today. With the assumption it will last.
Mix passion with talent and a need or strong desire in the world and you may have a great business opportunity. You can have purpose.
Be open to letting it evolve over time.
Your ultimate true purpose is your choice. You are not limited to one.
What are yours?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa Settle EMAIL: Lisa.settle@telcare.co.uk IP: 82.69.126.151 URL: http://Www.telcare.co.uk DATE: 08/16/2012 12:52:26 AM Enjoyed this blog Doug, it's got me thinking! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/16/2012 08:56:44 AM Thanks Lisa. Topic made me think as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dynamitedixie EMAIL: IP: 75.92.226.249 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/dynamitedixie DATE: 08/16/2012 01:42:05 PM Ah - you're on one of my favorite topics now. The Passion-Purpose-Presence connection! And so right, we limit ourselves when we accept the idea that we have ONE big purpose and, until we uncover it, everything else is secondary. (Although I do find that most people have a theme in what "what lights their fire.") You make a beautiful case - could not agree more! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/16/2012 01:56:59 PM Hi Dixie. Guessing the theme of what light their fire relates to true talents and who you are. Thanks for the comment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jayne Cox EMAIL: jayne@jaynemcox.com IP: 86.139.155.118 URL: http://jaynemcox.com/ DATE: 08/20/2012 11:02:09 AM We're evolving Doug and I love what we can be open for and discover by embracing the process. Every day their is a possible opportunity to learn. Thanks for your blogs. Jayne ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/20/2012 12:34:31 PM You are welcome Jayne. Good point, always learning. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Story: Communicating Value First STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: communicating-value-first CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/08/communicating-value-first.html DATE: 08/09/2012 04:55:34 PM ----- BODY:We are in the process of building out our new Manifast website. This is not the Manifast tool which is already quite mature and powerful, but our marketing website.
There are so many ways you could do it.
This is our approach.
Seth Godin talks often about telling a story; best story wins. Chet Holmes talks about focusing on a core story with market driven data in "The Ultimate Sales Machine". Bob Burg and John David Mann talk about creating value in "The Go-Giver".
Value is the sum of the benefits, features and the intangibles. Often value is not directly related to the things you think of in the actual product or service.
Zappos sells shoes online. So do a ton of other stores. Zappos does the experience better than everyone else. They focus on customer service with real people answering the phone. And they are trained to listen and solve problems, not just sell shoes. This wow experience commands loyalty and huge word of mouth. A great story.
Your story better be about something bigger than money and the product. It should resonate and be authentic with your target market. There is no "right" story.
Are you focused on you and your products, or the customer. Education based marketing (core story) positions you as the expert. You aren't selling your products but instead addressing the know, like and trust equation first. But you have to be seen as adding value whether or not the prospect buys. Buying comes later.
The insurance industry is ultimately selling peace of mind not: "insurance", or benefits (horrible things have to happen to get them), or features (the details of the policy).
I like to separate value from benefits in the planning part of the exercise. This allows people to focus beyond the obvious and see the entire picture. The real reason people buy.
In business to business the benefits are the ways in which your product or service can be used. What problems can you solve. These form part of the value.
Feature are not unimportant. The problem with features is they don't drive emotion. The sale is usually made on emotion and then justified by facts.
You want prospect to make the decision to buy early and then use the features to confirm the decision.
By focusing on the story and value first, you also take pricing to a later part of the process. You don't want people deciding on your products based on facts and prices or low pricing will come into play.
You don't want to separate the content on your website by these headings. You also don't want your copy to be mechanical.
But you do want to organize it in such a way that the story and value come first in the reader's mind; then filled in with benefits, features and finally costs.
If you have a great product and service, you need to make it easy for the right people to buy what you have.
Of course, it is not actually easy to do this well.
Take a first stab at and then iterate over time. It doesn't have to be perfect out of the gate. It can evolve.
If this is not your talent, get some professional help.
Is your website communicating your value and story? Is it bringing you customers?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Doug Wagner: Certified Go-Giver Coach STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: doug-wagner-certified-go-giver-coach CATEGORY: Go-Giver Coach CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/08/doug-wagner-certified-go-giver-coach.html DATE: 08/03/2012 06:08:48 PM ----- BODY:(I've been bursting at the seams to announce this.)
I first met Bob Burg on Twitter. Then I read his blog posts. Then I read his book "The Go-Giver".
"The Go-Giver" essentially nailed how I thought business (and business relationships) should work. Up until that point I wanted things to be like that but was not seeing "the real world" behave like that.
I signed up for the Go-Giver Retreat 2012 (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and went in April. Everyone I met there was super wonderful; including the speakers and I got a lot out of it even though I had some bad news from home.
It should be noted that the character Pindar and Bob are not one in the same. This is a actually a good thing really because Pindar was a fictional character and as such it is up to the reader to build out the details not covered in the book. My imagination filled in details that no human could likely match; only aspire to. This is why we should never idolize people.
I assure you Bob is both human, consistent and authentic. The Yoda of Go-Givers without being green or talking funny.
I also met Bill Ellis of Branding for Results as part of a pre-Retreat, Go-Giver Success Accelerator session he coached and then at the Retreat in person. Another true Go-Giver and a major influence in my decision.
I recently worked with Dixie Gillaspie (Master Certified Go-Giver Coach) to redo the Success Accelerator in preparation for becoming a coach. I learned a lot the first time through and more the second. Working with Dixie also solidified my decision.
I wanted to become a Certified Go-Giver Coach.
The Certified Go-Giver Coach program fits in really nicely with our own business goals without being restrictive. It feels like a team.
1+1 >> 2
And best of all, I get to work with Bob Burg, and the rest of the Go-Giver team (sorry I can't name you all here) and continue to grow personally and professionally. Special thanks to Kathy Zader and Carrie Zaatar for all their help in the process.
As a new Certified Go-Giver Coach I have a lot to learn yet (Jedi in training) but I do look forward to helping business people and entrepreneurs map out Stratospheric Success and implement it using Manifast.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 08/03/2012 07:06:00 PM Doug, what an awesome post. Thank you for your very kind words. Please know how honored WE are to have you with us as part of the Family of Certified Go-Giver Coaches. You ROCK, my friend and brother! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.155 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 08/03/2012 07:19:24 PM Doug, this is terrific news and a great new path for you to forge. You are a fine and welcome addition to our group. Welcome. Bill ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jean Allen Kuhn EMAIL: dwagner42@gmail.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://bounce-solutions.com/blog/ DATE: 08/03/2012 07:48:07 PM I'm very glad you have joined "The Force". I also just read your blog about Calvin. I'm so sorry for your loss. Last year we lost our dog Sara who had been with us for 16 years. Like Calvin she had lost her hearing a couple years before. Two weeks later we brought home a 3 month Australian Cattle Dog mix from a rescue. We named her Sgt. Pepper. And in January we rescued a 3 yr ACD. I too missed a dog lying at my feet when I'm working from home. I know how heartbroken you had to be. The Force Be With You, Jean ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/03/2012 07:52:28 PM Bob, thanks. Looking forward to working together to make things awesome. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/03/2012 07:53:40 PM Thanks Bill. Happy our paths crossed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/03/2012 07:55:14 PM Jean, sorry to hear about Sara but happy you have 2 new wonderful additions. May the force be with you as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jayne M Cox EMAIL: jayne@jaynemcox.com IP: 109.145.74.172 URL: http://www.jaynemcox.com DATE: 08/03/2012 11:58:13 PM Congratulations Doug I sensed you were on a wonderful journey. You commented on my Natural Coach blog recently and yes Doug in my eyes, before I knew this news, I saw a Natural Coach. Congratulations on becoming a Certified Go Giver Coach! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/04/2012 10:53:01 AM Thanks Jayne. I really admire the work you are doing and appreciate your support. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Typepad Support EMAIL: mlevi@saymedia.com IP: 108.33.61.174 URL: http://www.typepad.com DATE: 08/04/2012 02:09:26 PM Testing comments for Typepad Support. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dixie EMAIL: dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com IP: 75.92.226.249 URL: http://dixiedynamiteblogging.com/ DATE: 08/04/2012 08:24:52 PM Doug, I've really enjoyed having you in the Go-Giver Success Accelerator training! Your insights added to MY experience! I know you already offer tremendous value to your clients and this will simply add another layer to that offering. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/04/2012 11:12:21 PM Thanks Dixie. I really got a lot out of the second time through and will likely learn lots when facilitating it as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 08/07/2012 11:50:50 AM Way to Go, Doug. The entire team at Sunwapta join me in extending heartfelt congrats to our lead as you join the Family of Certified Go-Giver Coaches. This initiative brings all of us closer to our mission at Sunwapta so you can count on our support as you facilitate the Go-Giving principles to others just like you have already been doing internally at our workplace. Hi-5 !!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 08/07/2012 02:21:55 PM Thanks Al, appreciate the support. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Pivot: Strategic Plans Need to Adapt Quickly STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: pivot-strategic-plans-need-to-adapt-quickly CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/08/pivot-strategic-plans-need-to-adapt-quickly.html DATE: 08/01/2012 05:00:17 PM ----- BODY:We started out thinking that our Manifast strategy would be to use our business expertise to build a great software product. It would educate and "coach" businesses to work on the business. Business advisers, coaches and consultants would use Manifast to enhance how they work with clients and the pairing would benefit all.
We launched the product publicly in January 2012.
By March we shifted our marketing focus to working with business advisers who would in turn use Manifast to work with their clients. We would still encourage Do It Yourself (DIY) companies to use the tool as well.
More recently we had another "Eureka" moment.
A pivot is a term taken from basketball to indicate a strategic change where one foot is grounded in the past strategy and the other is used to change in a new direction. You are not abandoning your strategy so much as using a lot of what you've done and heading somewhere else (product, service or market). The term pivot was made popular in "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries.
You measure. You change. You measure to see if the change made a positive difference.
Darth Vader Pivots to New Profession Post Villain
Our Company Mission: Enable people to achieve their full potential.
Our Product Slogan: Manifast your dream business.
So ultimately it is:
Manifast your dream business and enable the people involved to achieve their full potential.
Our core strategy did not need to change.
Business owners and business advisers may really like your product (i.e. Manifast).
However, because it essentially involves learning new things, new habits, and growing as people... to achieve maximum success we need to make that change easier.
Most people don't want to figure out everything themselves; they want someone to help them through the process.
This applies both to business owners and the business advisers we are trying to work with.
We are going to take our business, process, systems, and software expertise and merge them together into a full service and product offering.
This means our focus will be on building a solid core of business advisers to coach, mentor, consult and train both for the tool and in general business as well.
The Manifast product currently provides built in training and business best practices. It will continue to evolve towards being a software coach, trainer and mentor.
Most importantly we are going to use this core to support our external network of business advisers, coaches, consultants, etc. Ultimately we will help them succeed as well. This will be done through our Certified Manifast Coach program.
We really want to allow this program to reach as many people as possible.
This means the bulk of the business adviser capabilities will come from our external-independent Certified Manifast Coaches and consulting network. We want the business advisers to bring their strengths to the table. We want to allow them their independence. We want them to succeed and Manifast their dream business.
We don't see having an internal core of advisers as a conflict with our external business adviser network.
Most business advisers specialize in one area. They will be able to draw on other expertise including the internal core advisers and other external business advisers in the network. They will also be able to get training and improve their own skills.
If you approach things from the perspective of strong ethics, communication, and abundance; all of the potential issues are resolvable and everyone wins.
I don't see it as slicing up a small pie. I see it as making the pie as big as we want it to be.
Right now 96% of businesses don't make it past 10 years. That is a lot of pie that can be improved.
Of course, this is based on what we know and believe today. Things may change again tomorrow and we may need to adjust our strategy.
But today we have a solid direction; a strategy that gives everyone a clear picture of where we are heading.
That is why it is important knowing where you are going now while being able to pivot quickly when necessary. Things change.
How have you changed strategic direction lately?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Little Things Matter: They Add Up to Big Things STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: little-things-matter-they-add-up-to-big-things CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/07/little-things-matter-they-add-up-to-big-things.html DATE: 07/26/2012 06:07:43 PM ----- BODY:I recently caught some of the speakers at Susan Baroncini-Moe's Guinness World Record attempt at the longest uninterrupted web cast. As of this writing she is allegedly the new record holder.
I happened to win a free copy of a book for being quick on Twitter (live Tweeting quantity). My closest competitor did taunt me mid way through (her mistake). Not that I am competitive.
It just arrived the other day in a standard brown envelope. Upon opening the envelope I saw this:
Susan also happens to be the owner of Business in Blue Jeans (a business and marketing consulting firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana).
So this little surprise made me smile. She didn't miss a opportunity to reinforce her marketing and branding message.
And the book by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman looks really good too (Social Marketing to the Business Customer).
What little things are you doing right to make a big difference?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Susan EMAIL: IP: 99.28.227.159 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/susan66 DATE: 07/26/2012 06:25:16 PM Aw, that's nice. What a compliment. Thank you! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/26/2012 06:33:31 PM Susan, thank you for the book and for the reminder that the little things matter. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Travisro EMAIL: IP: 72.134.98.187 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/travisro DATE: 07/26/2012 06:50:58 PM That is a phenomenal example, Susan. Very clever idea! Thanks for sharing this, Doug! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/26/2012 06:56:39 PM Hi Travis. Yes, I was quite impressed both by Susan's big goals and her attention to little details. Thanks. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ben Cope EMAIL: bcope1@gmail.com IP: 99.12.150.72 URL: http://internetgenius.com DATE: 07/26/2012 07:19:41 PM I too received a book in the mail from the "Break a Record With Susan" event - http://breakarecordwithsusan.com ... and I had to smile when I opened the package and saw it wrapped in blue jeans tissue paper. The connection was immediate, and you're right - the little things DO matter. I can tell you though, the tissue paper is only the beginning. Susan (along with several of the other BARWS participants) also took the time to send me a gift card to my favorite local gardening supply store (Pike Nurseries), in appreciation for my help during the event ... Kudos to Susan for paying attention to the details! =) And congrats again on breaking the world record! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/26/2012 07:24:51 PM Hi Ben. Yes I remember you from the event and am really happy, but not surprised, to hear that Susan took care of the details for you as well. P.S. And thanks for your help in keeping the event going. Lots of great content from lots of great speakers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Wake-up! People ARE Your Strategy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: wake-up-people-are-your-strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/07/wake-up-people-are-your-strategy.html DATE: 07/16/2012 11:46:07 AM ----- BODY:It is not customers first. It is not employees first. It is not shareholder or owners first.
It is people first.
Take care of all the people and you are halfway to a successful business.
You can have the most brilliant strategy on paper. You can invent a killer product or service. Without the right team you are dead in the water.
Are you waiting for lightning to strike or doing the hard work of building your team?
First the term Human Resources (HR) is part of the problem. It was part of the idea that you could group all of the people related administration into a department so that managers and leaders would not have to get bogged down with the details and could focus on their job. It would save money.
Except that for a manager or leader, a good portion of the job is (or should be) developing people and all of the other related people work.
Don't get me wrong, the stuff that HR does is usually vital to an organization. The problem I have is treating people as if they are interchangeable resources like a lump of coal or gallon of fuel.
The second point is that everything to do with your people needs to be part and parcel of your business strategy.
Having a strategy means you are going from point A to point B intentionally.
Part of this means having a strong core. Define and communicate your mission, your core values, your company culture and your vision. Your goals and your people strategy fall out of this.
You need to hire and train for where you are going, not where you've been.
You need to build a business that enables the execution of your strategy.
That means you need to put processes and systems in place that mesh your People Strategy with your Business Strategy; it is all one strategy.
So your business needs to reinforce your culture, your core values, your mission and the execution of your vision.
Your business can't just be efficient. Efficiently going the wrong way or preventing the execution of your strategy does not make sense.
Once you know where you are going, you will be able to determine how your team will get you there.
You have many choices including developing your existing team or hiring. Even if you hire you will probably still need to develop those people to some degree.
The key is to ensure your team is aligned with your core strategy and has the training and experience to achieve the vision and goals.
You can't talk strategy without talking about people. You can't develop your people in isolation from the strategy. Building a business that ignores people and strategy is equally foolish.
Business success requires considering all aspects of your business. This is why we don't separate these activities in Manifast.
Wake up, people are part of your strategy.
How are you incorporating your people strategy into your business strategy?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Defying the Gurus- Don’t Pigeon-Hole Me STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: defying-the-gurus-dont-pigeon-hole-me CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/07/defying-the-gurus-dont-pigeon-hole-me.html DATE: 07/09/2012 07:16:15 PM ----- BODY:Marketing wisdom and search engine optimization techniques suggest narrowing the definition of what your product does so that it falls into one (or a few) categories and search terms that people would use to find it.
I get that people search for things based on what they already know.
What if your product or service defies easy categorization? For example, lots of musicians don`t fit nicely into one genre. What if your product or service spans multiple categories?
We built Manifast to help people to build their dream business and in so doing, enable the owners and employees achieve their full potential. Only 4% of businesses make it past 10 years. We think we can change that.
Crossroads, Clouds and Intersection of Working On and In the Business
"You are 50% more likely to succeed just by having a plan and yet 90% of business owners never have one." via Chet Holmes
Manifast has a strategic planning module. So people want to call it a strategic planning tool.
But we take it from mission, core values, culture, vision and goal setting all the way down to project planning. Then we allow you to focus on getting real results; execution and action. So it is a strategic planning and execution tool, a goal setting tool, or performance management tool.
An effective way to make better decisions, improve employee engagement, and ensure buy-in from people is to involve as many people as feasible in information gathering, looking at solutions, etc. So we added brainstorming tools and group discussions.
If you don’t work on your business you probably will not be able to execute well on your strategy.
You need to measure it to know if you are improving it so we added the ability to manage and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can define your business processes, systems, information technology, other tools and infrastructure and then you can work on them as a team to make them align with your business strategy and be more efficient.
You can’t grow a successful business without developing your people. By this we mean defining what skills, talents, experience, education and certifications are required to succeed in a role or position. Then you look at what the person actually has. The difference or gap is the work you need to do to develop your people. Remember that roles change over time so most likely everyone needs some development.
If they don’t maybe they are ready to move onto another role at some point. Then you can start developing them for their next role. This is also part of the succession planning exercise. Also easy to do regular performance reviews with the tool.
So Manifast is a Human Resources (HR), skills management, performance review or succession planning tool.
SWOT Analysis Tool
No product or service or customers = no revenue = no profit = no business
The value pipeline allows you to define, manage and develop your products and services in conjunction with your marketing and sales strategy. Concept to cash with a strong focus on delivering value to people along the way; hence value pipeline.
(Lots more key words and categories here.)
Planning without execution will not change anything for a business. So we included some powerful team project management tools to allow your teams to execute on achieving goals, working on the business, developing new products and services, etc. Oh, and it handles customer projects as well.
If you are like most business owners, the work is infinite. So we built a tool to allow everyone in the organization to best make decisions on the most important work for the day. Task tracking, to do list on steroids, decision tool, etc.
And we support and heartily encourage business coaches, advisors and consultant to use Manifast to support their great work. We will be offering extra goodies for them as well.
Oh, and the tool itself provides education and coaching on building a business and to get you started and heading in the right direction we are going to offer onboarding and coaching services (in partnership with our certified Manifast coaches).
And we are NOT done yet by a long shot.
I fully get that people want to categorize you, your product and your service.
I understand why it is usually desirable to focus on and dominate a category (before potentially branching out). The problem with categories is that they already exist and have competitors. Plus not every round peg fits correctly in a square hole.
Even better is to create a new category and dominate it.
It is also not possible to build a great business without focusing on most of these things; and our goal is to help small and mid-sized business owners to not only succeed but “Manifast their dream businesses”. So splitting the product up to fit existing categories does not make sense just to satisfy the gurus.
I like the sentiment behind “Go big or go home.”
New and dominate sounds fun.
Rather than focussing on dominate it is better to focus on adding value to small and mid-sized businesses via our mission (Manifast your dream business)... And the more people and businesses the better.
So the dilemma is which category or categories? Leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Innovate, Imitate or Replicate? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: innovate-imitate-or-replicate CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/07/innovate-imitate-or-replicate.html DATE: 07/05/2012 09:05:42 PM ----- BODY:
You can either do things the way everyone else does them (imitate) or the way it has always been done (replicate)... or you can innovate and come up with something (hopefully) better.
We had this discussion today at our Manifast development team meeting.
When you are building a single user web application or one where only one person needs to interact with a piece of data at a time, things are relatively simple.
When you have an enterprise (even a small enterprise) software package where many people have to view and edit the same data, you have to address concurrency. Concurrency is how you handle data updates when multiple people want or need to change it at the same time. There are several traditional ways of doing this (first in wins, last to save wins, locking, etc.).
We elected to push the envelope a bit.
There are some relatively new technologies out that allow us to create (a little easier) the ability have multiple people edit the same set of information and keep everyone up to date as to the changes being made. Yes, we still have some behind the scenes concurrency issues as only one person can "actually" update the data at a time. But by using the new technology and micro-locking we can make it feel like everyone is able to edit the information at the same time.
Manifast - Brainstorm Tool with 2 Users and Auto-Updating
Innovation can be risky or have high cost so there are definitely times to use Imitate or Replicate, but for the WOW effect, Innovate usually wins hands down.
How are you innovating in your business to create WOW?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.72.158 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/06/2012 01:07:14 AM Udi Dahan at ADSD has taught me a good lesson - concurrency is a problem invented by software. In the real world concurrency doesn't usually exist. Sometimes what it takes is to innovate by stepping away from technology and looking at 1. what people are trying to achieve 2. how did they do it before computers took over Long discussion, but bottom of it is that a lot of problems are not as complex as we picture them :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/06/2012 05:40:26 PM The trick is to focus on the experience of the people using the system and what is best for their experience rather than the technology. Only if the technology won't support it or the cost is too do we need to look at technical compromises. Not sure how we did it before computers is always the best answer. Sometimes we are trying to make things better in some way. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 12 Years in the Making - Manifast Your Dream Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: 12-years-in-the-making-manifast-your-dream-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/06/12-years-in-the-making-manifast-your-dream-business.html DATE: 06/26/2012 05:32:26 PM ----- BODY:Only 4% of businesses make it past 10 years. Sunwapta Solutions just celebrated 12 years in business.
Woohoo. (insert fireworks,marching bands and the Flintstones).
For that I am extremely grateful.
This is also my 400th blog post and 2nd video blog.
It has been quite a rollercoaster ride over the years. Bootstrapping with a $100 initial investment. Not getting paid much for the first year(s). Long hours. Watching our baby grow… and stumble.
I wouldn’t trade it. It has been 12 years of University, Graduate School, Internship and Hard-Experience.
Because without this experience we would not have been in a position to launch our Manifast product and services; and I am extremely excited about that and will have lots to share over the coming days and weeks.
Looking back I think there are some key lessons for longer-term business success.
I don’t think I could have made it without my two business partners, Al and Glen. We each brought our unique talents to the mix and kept each other honest. According to Les Mckeown businesses are 5 times more likely to succeed if they have two founders.
Some of our employees have been with us over 10 years plus years. Some have come and gone. And some have joined more recently. We’ve always learned from each other and it always felt like family. Having a great team has been essential to success.
We are only recently mastering the art of marketing and sales. However, we’ve always done our best for customers and it shows. Our biggest client has been with us for over 11 years and our PenForms clients continue to rave about the high value support they get.
We didn’t always have a plan. When we didn’t and were going with the flow, we put ourselves at the most risk. Accoring to Chet Holmes and Anthony Robbins from Business Breakthroughs, you double your chances of success just by having a plan (no mention of good plan or good execution).
A plan means:
This was one of the tenets of Tae Kwon Do and it applies to business. Never give up. Change strategies if you must but keep going as long as you can. I’ve always been amazed how easily the average person gives up.
Many business owners quit before they learn enough to succeed. You aren’t born an entrepreneur. Perseverance makes luck possible.
Perseverance allowed us the time to learn what we needed to develop Manifast both from a business and technical perspectve.
We hope to make a big difference in the first statistic I mentioned about 4% success in 10 year... to make allow people to Manifast their dream business and enable everyone involved in it to achieve their full potential.
A big hairy audacious goal but one worth striving for. And we still have lots of growing to do ourselves; but we are going to work with lots of other people to make it happen.
Happy Anniversary Sunwapta!
What are some of the things you are grateful about in your business? Share a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.72.158 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/26/2012 06:59:05 PM Congratulations on 12 years! It's a significant milestone worth a celebration. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/26/2012 07:04:18 PM Thanks Sean. Busy month. Little celebration now and a big one later. Good idea to celebrate the little things along the way as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: BoastCapital EMAIL: IP: 174.0.122.160 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/boastcapital DATE: 07/04/2012 02:31:45 PM Congratulations Doug! A great post which provides a good example for budding entrepreneurs... I could see the blood and sweat as I read this. All the best, Lloyed ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 07/04/2012 02:38:03 PM Boast Capital: Thanks for the feedback. Yes, blood, sweat and tears are part of building a business and keeping it going over the years. On one hand at times it is hard, really hard. On the other hand, the experience has been very rewarding and most importantly, an opportunity to grow. Everyone would wish for less of really tough parts, but I think that is what builds the strength to go to the next level. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tammy Li EMAIL: li_tammy@hotmail.com IP: 199.185.132.4 URL: DATE: 07/24/2012 10:13:26 AM A late Congratulation!Happy 12 Anniversiry Sunwapta! Great achievement! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 07/25/2012 04:07:54 PM Thank you Tammy for the congratulations and for your part in our success. I hope you and family are well. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Chasing Lots of Rabbits is Not a Strategy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: chasing-lots-of-rabbits-is-not-a-strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/06/chasing-lots-of-rabbits-is-not-a-strategy.html DATE: 06/19/2012 05:45:12 PM ----- BODY:If you are a coyote and you are chasing rabbits and try to catch them all at the same time you are likely to come up empty handed and go to bed hungry. If you catch one first then catch the next one after that you are likely to be well fed for a long time.
Les McKeown (author of Predictable Success and The Synergist) just posted the following tweet earlier today.
It has a very important message because I think a lot of business people including advisers mix this up when they talk about why they think having a strategy is a waste of time or too limiting.
According to Google the definition of strategic is:
According to Google the definition of arbitrary is:
I had to look a bit deeper for a good definition of opportunism as many definitions had a connotation of violating ethics although strictly speaking, chasing an opportunity could be within or out of your values.
and
Being strategic may or may not mean you are inflexible about your longer term vision and goals. Having a strategy does not mean you can never change or adapt it. In fact you should review your strategy periodically; how often will depend on your circumstances. Things change.
Being arbitrary means you are likely to change direction without a lot of consideration of the impact. Changing direction is costly for an organization. Without a clear sense of direction a team can quickly start heading in many directions at the same time. The team is unable to predict what the next change will be or even if this current change will be completed because of the arbitrary nature of the decisions. This also makes it virtually impossible to effectively delegate as your company grows.
Opportunism means you seize opportunities when they present themselves. If this is not part of your overall strategy it can cross over to being arbitrary or violate your core values and culture.
Strategic opportunism is the ability to know where you are going overall (mission and vision) and have a strong set of guiding values and supporting culture; while being able to change direction quickly and pursue opportunities.
This means you either adapt your strategy quickly or your strategy is flexible enough to allow different ways of reaching the end picture. Your strong values and culture constrain the opportunism to opportunities that further your business while maintaining your values, culture and overall mission.
The key is that you execute on the opportunities and bring them to market (at least most of the time). If you change paths without completing any opportunities you will eventually run out of money... profit lies in results... delivering value to customers. You will also frustrate most of the team.
Chasing lots of rabbits at the same time is arbitrary and NOT a strategy.
Having opportunism as part of your strategy can be effective. So can staying the course on a single objective.
The key is that you and the team are crystal clear on what the strategy is. Writing it down and communicating it regularly is also very important.
What style of strategic planning do you follow? Leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fascination, Value and Relationships - Day 2 of the Go-Giver Retreat STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fascination-value-and-relationships-day-2-of-the-go-giver-retreat CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/06/fascination-value-and-relationships-day-2-of-the-go-giver-retreat.html DATE: 06/11/2012 08:11:52 PM ----- BODY:One of the speakers I really, really wanted to hear was Sally Hogshead. However, due to the events mentioned in my last post I unfortunately only caught the last 15 minutes of her presentation. I can say that her message about how to fascinate using the 49 personality archetypes is powerful.
Mine is the Veiled Strength (Mystique and Power) which is only loosely related to being a Ninja.
Despite missing most of the talk I look forward to further understanding her work and figuring out how to use my triggers to fascinate.
"Selling is all about helping people make a decision to buy something that is good for them." (Most people are bad at making desisions.)
"Don't spend your life "gathering" information."
"Success is an early warning system for failure."
"Whether it turns out right or wrong you can still enjoy it."
"Become more of what you are. Emmulate not imitate."
"Secret formula (sorry for spilling the beans): Value = Expectations + Education + Something Extra"
"The money you make in life is determined by the value you deliver."
"Something extra is the secret sauce of the value equation."
"6 Ways to Add Value:
"Who are the most important 10 people in your life and how will you add value."
"Create and keep connections."
"Love what you do. Easy is overrated. Love who you do it with and for."
Gina Carr, Terry Brock, Viveka vonRosen, and Bob Burg
Note: My notes are a little sparse on social media as I was busy with my first "live" tweeting event to get in the spirit of things.
"Relationships: establish, build and maintain."
"(Sales) has always been about relationships."
"Consider: See yourself as a facilitator and motivator."
"Must align with your overall strategy and goals."
"Determine your goals and start with baby steps. Play well with others."
"All about them, not you."
"Use interviews with celebrities."
"Use responsive web sites for multi-platform support (smart phones, tablets and PCs)."
"Sales is lifeblood."
"Selling can be righteous."
"Selling is about giving. Time. Counsel. Value. Etc."
"What separates top from middle sales people? It is about others!"
"Create the environment: know like and trust and they will choose to buy."
"GIve people a back door so they don't have to take it."
"Powerful: "If you can't do it, I'll definitely understand."
This concludes my pearls of wisdom series from the Go Giver Retreat.
What are you applying to your life today and tomorrow? How is your life different after this or a similar event?
Leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gina Carr EMAIL: IP: 142.197.110.174 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/ginacarr DATE: 06/12/2012 09:12:09 AM Thanks for sharing, Doug. Really appreciate your golden nuggets. I used this pic as my cover photo on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ginacarr ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Douglas Wagner EMAIL: IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://profile.typepad.com/1210975446s21354 DATE: 06/12/2012 09:44:19 AM Hi Gina. Thanks so much for stopping by. Glad you were able to use the photo and I do appreciate all of your social media wisdom. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Power of Gratitude For Healing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: power-of-gratitude-and-healing CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/06/power-of-gratitude-and-healing.html DATE: 06/07/2012 03:29:04 PM ----- BODY:Note: This post will deviate a bit from the normal business and personal development focus. I make no apologies. I write for myself just as much as I do for my readers, and I needed to write this even though it was hard, really hard.
As I mentioned in my prior posts I went to The Go Giver Retreat in West Palm Beach in April 2012. The first day of the event was fanstastic. The speakers were awesome, I had the opportunity to connect with speakers and participants, and things were great.
I went for dinner with Deb to a nice Italian place. During the drive back the skies opened up and a thunderstorm hit us. We were in the hotel lobby when my cell phone rang... it was our dog sitter.
Our 14 year old border collie was going for a short walk in the off leash park behind their place and had suddenly collapsed. Calvin died within a few minutes.
I spent most of the night not sleeping. We also decided to cut the vacation part of the trip short but I did finish the 2nd day of the Go Giver Retreat and we spent the next day walking on the beach and sight seeing before heading home.
This post is not about my grief. It is about the power of gratitude to heal.
Gratitude and appreciation focus your brain on what you have and not what you don't have. In addition to being an enabler for attacting more good things, gratitude also helps you heal.
Rather than focusing on grief and pain, we can focus on what was good. Rather than avoiding getting another dog in the future to avoid pain, we can focus on the joy that having a dog brings. We move on and stay open to future relationships and companionship.
Our minds are built to see negative. It is part of our survival mechanisms.
Gratitude, appreciation and visualization of a positive future are our tools to override our instincts.
Calvin was the first dog Deb and I got together but not my first. He was a rescue dog from the Calgary Humane Society. He was being fostered with a lady who worked there and had a 90 lb doberman. I was totally fascinated by border collies and we had done lots of research prior to making this decision. We thought we knew what we were getting into.
After first meeting the 3 month old bundle of energy, we decided to name him after Calvin of "Calvin and Hobbes" fame. We couldn't have chosen a more appropriate name.
After eating a meal Calvin would tear around the house for 30 minutes on a sugar rush. He would grab things and try to get us to chase him to get them back. Shoes were one such thing.
The third night we had him he suddenly stopped. Reached over and grabbed the curtains in the dining room. A quick yank and off the wall they came. Fortunately, he was pursuaded to not do that again.
We picked him up after his trip to the vet to get um... well less fertile, and we were told to get him to take it easy for a few days. That was not on his mind at all. Still under the influence of the anesthesia and wobbling when he walked, he kept wanting us to "throw the bal, throw the ball" with the determination of a border collie.
He was extremely eager to please, learn and very food motivated. So we taught him lots of tricks. High five, shake a paw, roll over each direction, "hands up, bang, fall over and play dead", spin left and right (he knew the directions by name), etc.
His best trick ever was go hide. If we had a yummy treat and told him to hide, he would attempt to find a location where we could not "see" him. If we could see any part of him, we would yell "I can see you" and he would try again. We were at a picnic site once and did the trick. The trees were not big and he tried to hide by pressing his nose up against a tree and standing so his body was behind the tree. Brilliant attempt but we could still see him. So he ran round in a panic and then found a dead tree stump and lay down behind it. Yes! That is when we were sure he was not just memorizing the hiding spots.
He also invented his own tricks. When he was young he was determined to pick up 2 squeeky balls in his mouth at the same time. He eventuall mastered this and set off to get three in at once. We added the numbers to his vocabulary and would tell him how many we wanted and he would come back with the right number most times, even if it took him 10 minutes to get the third in.
Calvin liked to announce himself when he arrived. He loved people and attention. When we started him in dog agility, the first time he entered the facility he let out a mighty "woof" when we entered and everyone turned their heads.
He truly loved agility. Jumps, tunnels, walls, bridge, teeter totter, tires, everything. If you didn't clearly indicate the next obstacle far enough in advance (the next AND the next) he would stop, spin and bark at you (or guess for you and head off in the wrong direction). He was pretty fast physically and mentally so we really had to up our game to keep up our part of the partnership. He really kept the crowd watching with his antics and close calls.
When they were announcing results, he would seem like he wasn't paying attention, but when they called his name he would bark and then race up to the prize table to see what he won.
Border collies sometimes chase lights. The reflection of the sun off a shiny object was all it took as long as it moved. It was very noisy game becuase he also like to bark at the lights. One day while driving the reflection off my watch caused him to jump into the front seat and bark. Needless to say that was not brilliant and I stopped wearing a watch until he was older and understood the "not in the car" part.
One day I was stopped at some lights and there was a pop song on the radio where the chorus had the words "kiss me" in it. I was singing along (yes I admit it) and suddenly Calvin reached over and gave me a big wet one on the cheek.
Calvin also got to try his paw at sheep herding a few times when we entered him in sheep herding clinics. He was a solid worker but we didn't have the time, sheep or money to keep it up.
Frisbee was his thing too. He didn't just chase it, he knew where it was going to go and went there.
He learned to swim at about 6 months and loved it. He had long fur so in the summer he couldn't chase a ball very long before overheating. In the water he could go all day.
No ball or stick to fetch? Not a problem. He would make splashes and then bark and bite them. When he was doing this he was oblivious to anything else. Like floating down the river and disappearing into the horizon with us running along the rocks on the shore. With all the high pitched barking, the serentity of a lake was lost but he was having fun.
He liked to play with flies and spiders. Flies on window. Catch. Release. Catch. Release. Opps. Find another one. He played with spider for 45 minutes before he pawed it a little too hard and it didn't move again.
I used to think dogs chasing their tails were a few watts short of a lightbulb. Then I watched him. He would spin for 5 minutes and keep flicking his tail just out of his reach, closer then farther away, lunging with his mouth and pulling the tail away. At the end he would "let" him self catch it.
He had a bit a temper at times. When he was young he banged his head on the wall and then growled at the wall. Before we put in the fence we had him on a wire line attached to a stake. He ran across the yard and "gawk" suddenly stopped. He turned around and grabbed the plastic coated wire and spent thirty minutes pulling on the wire and growling at the wire. That became a favourite game later.
Kong on a rope. Buddha (rope toy). Whack. Whack. Ow. Whack, figure of eights like nunchuks and no ow.
The first four years of business I worked at home. Calvin would lie on my feet all day. Miss that.
If Calvin wanted something he let you know. Emtpy water dish? Bark or huck it at your feet.
He also had a lot of empathy. If you were upset he would come over and try to cheer you up.
One night he chased some deer across a busy road. When I finally caught up he was coming back and about to cross the road. Lots of cars were coming. I yelled at him to "lie doon" and he did. When the cars passed I went over and got him.
He used to think that stay meant his stomach had to stay on the ground. If he got bored in a long stay, he would crawl along the ground and go visiting; careful to never let his chest leave the ground.
He thought he was an alpha. But it rarely worked out well. So I called him an alphalfa.
He met another male dog named Hobbes in the off-leash park. He thought Hobbes was a girl. We both (the other dogs owners and us) yelled our dogs names then laughed our heads off.
When I was playing my fiddle, he would start howling if I played the open E-string a lot.
He was a professional begger with visitors. He would find someone, get their attention and then start running through his bag of tricks until he got a treat. One summer BBQ he got to try dried seaweed.
The last year Calvin started losing his hearing. He stopped howling and stopped barking at the coyotes in the distance. He was determined that pointing meant there was food over there.
There is obviously a lot more to be grateful for.
I miss you buddy and will alway cherish everything about you. You were an amazing friend.
And I am grateful we still have Kaylee with us. Our other border collie.
Please share a story about your pet in the comments. Let's be grateful for what we have and will still have in the future.
(L-R) Dondi Scumaci, Sally Hogshead, Mark Sanborn and Bob Burg with Dixie Gillaspie (not pictured) as moderator.
"Two factors for success:
Tension between who can help you and who you can help." ~ Mark
"Ask really hard questions" ~ Sally
"Solving a business problem" ~ Dondi
"Aligned with organizational priorities" ~ Dondi
"Info is easy, insight is powerful" ~ Unknown
Overall: Don't go it alone. Use master minds, coaches and mentors for personal and business success.
John David Mann and Bob Burg introducing Colleen Barrett and presenting her with Go-Giver Award.
"Hiring - Minimum 3 people to approve a new hire" (to avoid bias)
"Empower people to make a difference, to make decisions... customer services decisions... that are not illegal, unethical or immoral."
"Culture and behavior are everything."
"No distinction between external and internal customer service. Who is your customer?"
"If passengers come back you can make a little money". (Profitable for 39 years straight.)
"Study everything about people. 3 Attitude requirements:
On and off the clock."
"Residual income. Royalties. Why? It still has value. Residual impact."
"What would it take you to be happy with your income? 2 times current is normal answer. It doesn't matter where you are, most want double."
"Work hard... add value... network."
"A state of want does NOT equal receptivity. I want means I don't have (and will never have)."
"Monitor your language (it is powerful)."
"A state of appreciation is beneficial."
"Emotional gravity: we are hardwired to look for negativity."
"Conscious: 20-40 neuron firings per second. Subconscious: 20-40 million firings per second. What are you feeding your baby elephant (subconscious)."
"The baby elephant doesn't hear (qualifiers like) don't. Speak in positives to it."
"Images trump words. 1000x more powerful."
"Send images during powerful times of day: drifting off to sleep or waking up."
"Never go to bed angry."
"Feelings trump images."
"Consider forgiveness. Yourself and others."
"Trust the universe, trust yourself. Stay Open."
(To be continued.)
Please leave me a comment below if any of this resonated with you or you have points to add!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.155 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/29/2012 07:49:10 PM Doug, I am very grateful that you are sharing your notes. Clearly the panelists and speakers dropped nugget after nugget of terrific info. Great value! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/29/2012 11:01:27 PM Bill, it has been a great exercise to review the notes and take the highlights out for a post. I had truly already forgotten some of the great wisdom shared by those amazing speakers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Influence and the Truth - Lessons from The Go-Giver Retreat STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: influence-and-the-truth-lessons-from-the-go-giver-retreat CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/05/influence-and-the-truth-lessons-from-the-go-giver-retreat.html DATE: 05/24/2012 12:49:48 PM ----- BODY:Like most people that go to a business conference, seminar or retreat... I tend to get very pumped up and enthusiastic. Then I get back to the office and get busy. Then after some time passes, most of the lessons are forgotten and put aside.
One way around this is to revisit your notes a while after the conference and reflect on the points that resonated the most with you. After you've done that, pick a few and figure out how to integrate them into your business and personal life by implementing and making them habits.
All of the speakers were truly amazing as people and as presenters.
Here are some pearls that resonated with me.
"Adapt. Don't adopt. Be authentic to yourself."
Lesson: Don't blindly follow someone else's way. Learn, adapt and implement it in your own way. But do learn and apply.
Connect with Bob on Twitter: @BobBurg
"Take care of yourself first so you can take care of others."
"Disengagement is costing $300 billion a year in US."
"Happy people produce more!"
"Manage your zone of high performance."
"Perspective: Beliefs grow into behaviours. Beliefs and behaviours shape culture. Keep your eye on the objective."
"What do I believe about myself that is holding me back."
"Influence over power."
"When life presses on you, whatever is inside will come out."
Connect with Dondi on Twitter: @DondiScumaci
"Everything in your life is your own damn fault."
"You've got to be willing to do whatever it takes."
"You are not paid to be happy."
"Hard work and excellence" lead to success.
"Take responsibility."
"If your life is a disaster, you fix it."
"What will you give up to gain success in another area of your life. You have to choose."
"Learn to be flexible."
"If your business sucks, it is because you suck as a business person."
"You won't change if you are happy. WHY? You will only change if you are unhappy."
"Sometimes you can do everything right and things still go wrong. But you can stack the deck in your favor."
"Lighten up and have fun. Every day if possible. There a lot of funny stuff out there if you pay attention."
"When you mess up (and you will), admit it, fix it and move on."
Connect with Larry on Twitter: @larrywinget
(To be continued.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.155 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/27/2012 05:05:51 PM Doug, thanks for sharing your notes after you've revisited them. These are such jewels that they should be reviewed time and again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/27/2012 06:20:53 PM Thank Bill. Yes, these were some amazing speakers and the value is lost if we don't reflect on what they said once in a while and put some of that to action. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Things Change - Do You Really Notice? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: things-change-do-you-really-notice CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/05/things-change-do-you-really-notice.html DATE: 05/10/2012 11:19:46 PM ----- BODY:Change is often like the fable of the frog in boiling water.
The frog starts out in cool water and the temperature slowly rises. As the temperature rises the frog should realize the trend and hop out. But because the change is gradual the frog doesn't notice until it is too late; poached frog.
The point is not whether this fable is true (or not or to go try it out).
I went to West Palm Beach Florida to attend the Bob Burg Go Giver Retreat in April.
I first met Bob on Twitter. At the time I had around 50 followers (I actually don't like the term followers in social media and think Twitter made a big mistake coining that term; it implies one way communication). Bob had 35,000. Something remarkable happened. He actually went out of his way to connect with me.
I read his blog. Commented. He replied.
I bought his Go Giver books. Liked them, a lot.
I saw a Tweet about the retreat. Looked at the speakers that were lined up. Decided I have to go meet Bob and the people who were connected with Bob (It turns out they all pretty much have some level of friendship with Bob).
I took the Go Giver Accelerator with coach Bill Ellis of Branding for Results from St Louis and he has become a friend as well.
Without Twitter this would not have happened.
Twitter has not been around very long and despite my technical background I resisted the change required to learn the medium and was a somewhat late adopter. Waste of time to hear about someone's choice for lunch.
I was wrong.
One of the people (Tara Rogers, Mojo PR) I met at the Go Giver Retreat travelled all the way from Dubai (yes the one in the middle east). We are now connected on Twitter.
I was jokingly Tweeting to another Go Giver friend in the UK (Lisa Settles, Telcare) about not being able to make The Breakfast Club because there weren't any flights only to find out it was a virtual meeting (silly me) and even though it was midnight for me, I met another half dozen people who meet first thing in the morning to connect.
The world is shrinking and connections that were difficult to make in the past are much easier now.
My point is not about the wonders of Twitter, although it is pretty remarkable in its reach it is not for everyone.
My point is not about the wonders of Social Media in its entirety either. Again it is truly amazing but not everyone participates.
My point is:
The world is changing in remarkable ways. Just like the frog we are often too busy doing the things we always do in business (and life) to notice or we take it for granted.
The danger? We don't notice the importance of the change until it is too late.
If you don't your competitors will.
What amazing changes have you been a part of or seeing in your business? How are you adapting? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Lisa Settle EMAIL: Lisa.settle@telcare.co.uk IP: 82.69.126.151 URL: http://Www.telcare.co.uk DATE: 05/10/2012 11:55:20 PM Spot on Doug, I whole heartily agree. I have had the same experience with Bob, he is an amazing guy! Great blog:) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/11/2012 12:02:19 AM Thanks Lisa. It is not just Bob who is amazing. I'm seeing a lot of amazing people and things everywhere. We all have it in us and I cherish connecting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Tara Rogers EMAIL: tara@mojo-me.com IP: 86.96.229.68 URL: http://www.mojohq.com DATE: 05/11/2012 01:02:29 AM Hi Doug, great post. I couldn't agree more with your points. Twitter has been one of the most valuable tools I have ever used, not only personally but professionally too. I have recruited new team members, won clients, pitched stories to journalists,sourced suppliers, sponsored events and made some life-changing, soul enriching friendships around the globe. My world has grown so much bigger through Twitter in terms of learning too - about every topic under the sun. Thank you for great Twitter content, for all your RTs and interesting comments and I'm honored to know another Go Giver in my Twitterverse. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 05/11/2012 05:01:14 AM Doug, what a terrific, terrific post - not just about Twitter (and that part was itself very inspiring) but about the two other key points in your article. One, about change/adaptation and the other about how it is still all about the relationship. The various media are simply there as a tool to further those relationships. And, of course...thank you so very much for your very kind and extremely generous mention. It was an honor and pleasure to have the opportunity to finally meet you in person. Your presence added greatly to the event. I've also greatly enjoyed meeting Lisa via Twitter. And, having Tara at the event with us in person was a great joy. What an honor to know she traveled that far and, like you, added so greatly to the event. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bob Burg EMAIL: bob@burg.com IP: 76.110.209.197 URL: http://www.burg.com DATE: 05/11/2012 05:04:13 AM Just noticed that I neglected to mention Bill Ellis, who was also cited in the article. Bill is a great friend, an authority on marketing and branding, and a Certified Go-Giver Coach. I've known Bill for years now and not only is he a sharp business mind, but one of the nicest and most genuine people I know. Thank you Doug for your kind mention of Bill, as well! I'm so glad you enjoyed your Success Accelerator course with him. I know he enjoyed having you as part of it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/11/2012 01:23:22 PM Hi Tara, Thanks for your wonderful comments and examples. I forgot to mention in my post that we were chatting while you were in Hong Kong on business. Global, 24/7 and instantaneous and you don't need to know where someone is to connect. Go Givers rock and I am happy we've met. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/11/2012 01:29:27 PM Bob, thank you so much for your wonderful comments. The whole Go Giver philosophy encapsulated how I already wanted to live life. It put a name to it all. Treating others well, connecting, making long-term friends, adding value... and oh, being well rewarded for those things. And yes Bill, he is truly a wonderful person. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Bill Ellis EMAIL: bill@brandingforresults.com IP: 75.54.25.155 URL: http://www.brandingforresults.com DATE: 05/11/2012 06:01:00 PM This is a wonderful blog Doug with so many facets I've had to read it several times. First off, I love the frog analogy...very clearly communicates your point. Change can happen so slowly that we don't even notice...or it can happen so quickly and so apparently that we are hesitant to accept or understand it. Stepping up and embracing change for its positive impact is exactly the right thing to do. Building life and business based on relationships is, in my opinion, key to success and happiness both. The Go-Giver Retreat underscored all of your points. It allowed me to meet you and to become friends. In turn I've met Lisa via Twitter through your blog. At no point did I anticipate meeting someone from Dubai - much less someone as business savvy and engaging as Tara. Bob is a gentlemen and a true inspiration and is sort of the catalyst for all of these connections. He rocks! Thanks for the mention but mainly thanks for your blog. Keep writing! Good stuff my friend. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/11/2012 06:27:42 PM Thanks for your very positive comments Bill. Yes you are right, change can also happen very quickly. Either way we need to recognize it quickly. I am truly enjoying the journey and the wonderful people like yourself that I am meeting. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jayne Cox EMAIL: jayne@jaynemcox.com IP: 86.146.25.143 URL: http://www.jaynemcox.com DATE: 05/19/2012 11:54:13 PM What a great blog Doug and it's been lovely getting you a bedtime drink at #thebreakfastclub on Twitter. Lisa invited you to join us and as you say we all connected over Twitter. First and foremost Twitternis about human interactions and relationship building and I look forward to discovering more about you and the people you mention here :-) not judging books by their cover also springs to mind, there's far more beyond a Twitter bio too... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/20/2012 12:09:54 AM Thanks so much for stopping by Jayne and commenting. It has been wonderful getting to know the members of #thebreakfastclub. You are entirely correct, you can't judge a person solely by their cover or bio. We all have depth and complexity that takes time to see and appreciate. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Essential Business Processes and Training for Excellence STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: elite-training-and-systematization-are-not-draconian- CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/05/elite-training-and-systematization-are-not-draconian-.html DATE: 05/03/2012 03:49:56 PM ----- BODY:At a certain point of growth, every business needs to start formalizing "how things are done here". These are your processes and systems.
In "Predictable Success" by Les McKeown, he pretty much says outright that you can't get to predicable success unless you put enough (but not too much) systems and processes in place (plus some other things).
Too many people think formalizing processes and systems means taking all initiative and creativeness out of business and replacing it with lowest common denominator bureaucracy. Or they think it means everything is handled exactly the same. Or they just don't want to be one of those places with rules and believe that you just tell people the goal and let everyone figure out how to get their on their own. If you hire smart people everyone will just get on with their job. Why take the fun out of work.
They avoid discussing, documenting, improving or systematizing processes at all.
Can you imagine a professional hockey team that never practiced individually or together? Or forgot everything it knew about how to do things before each game and just winged it? (Yes, some teams do seem to forget.)
So what is practice at the elite level?
Practice is is identifying the individual and team skills and techniques that need to be done over and over again... automatically and with minimal thinking.
They are systematizing and automating the things that happen or should happen over and over again. Players no longer need to think about how to do a slap shot. Or how to pass. Or any of the more complex maneuvers and plays that they practice over and over... thousands of times. This gives players and team immense skill to draw upon.
In the game itself the players can draw on what they know automatically. However, the game is too complex to predict every situation and thinking, adapting, initiative and creativity are very important for successful teams to master; but they know they can rely on the core.
Then they play a few games, see what is working and what is not and then adjust their practice and routines to get a better chance of winning in the future.
The key to systematizing your business is NOT to make it rigid and inflexible. It is not to lower everything to the lowest common denominator.
In fact, working on your business (processes and systems) should follow the following steps:
Once you understand your processes you can also look at automating or delegating the parts that are repeatable and predictable.
Give your team some leeway to adapt to the current situation. Bring everyone up to the level of your highest performers by leveraging what works, systematizing it and training.
Process, systems and technology are tools to help your people work better; they work for your people. Don't set it up so your people work for your systems.
Above all learn and adapt. Processes and systems are not rigid for all time. Involve the team and other stakeholders into the process of systematization.
Don't develop a policy that punishes everyone because of one case where something doesn't work. Systematization is a balancing act of "just enough" to keep things reasonably predictable while being aware that you can't control everything.
And remember to keep practicing the skills required for the process success and those required to innovate and create to stay competitive as well.
What level of systematization is your organization at? Leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Mission, Purpose and a Video Challenge STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: mission-purpose-and-a-video CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/04/mission-purpose-and-a-video.html DATE: 04/17/2012 06:53:13 PM ----- BODY:I've been taking the words of wisdom from Carrie Wilkerson, author of "The Barefoot Executive" to heart lately. After all, she is a force of nature when it comes to getting things done.
The challenge was simple on the surface. Video blog. One take only. Talk about something you know (extemporaneously) for 3-5 minutes. Minimal editing.
Armed with an HD camcorder, a tripod, and some basic editing software this video is the result. There is something a little nerve wracking about actually recording yourself especially when you have no redo. It is much easier talking to real people, even a small crowd. (I already want to re-do it but I won't.)
So here it is. Rough, raw and ... DONE!
What are you doing to push yourself out of your comfort zone? What is your company mission? Go ahead and continue the discussion in the comments.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The 7 Unspoken Truths About Pay for Performance STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-7-unspoken-truths-about-pay-for-performance- CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/04/the-7-unspoken-truths-about-pay-for-performance-.html DATE: 04/09/2012 07:24:32 PM ----- BODY:Pay for performance normally works something like this. You figure out goals for each employee that ties back to the overall corporate objective and then set the employees variable pay (bonus or incentive) based on the degree to which the employee meets those objectives.
There are 7 unspoken truths about why most organizations fail to make pay for performance work very well.
Most pay for performance planning cycles are based on a yearly cycle. Business is fast paced and things are constantly changing. If the individual goals become irrelevant or the job description changes you have to adjust or risk confusing the employee or worse, robbing them of the ability to succeed. Remember to tie pay to performance you need to set SMART goals at the individual level. The specific part makes it hard to adapt.
It sound pretty easy on the surface, but it can actually be difficult to clearly set individual goals that flow all the way to the top organizational goals. The more layers the more difficult this can be. If it is not clear how an employee's goals tie to the corporate goals you can have both heading off in different directions. Worse, you can actually have individual goals in various parts of the organization that conflict.
If you do manage to set up good individual goals that flow up to the top of the organization, be aware someone higher up in the chain can ruin the impact of everyone below them. This can also happen on an entirely separate branch of the goal success chain. Say sales meets their goals but oversells the capabilities of operations to deliver? You could have a lot of sales but a bunch of unhappy and unprofitable customers.
When you tie pay to performance you are basically inciting employees to achieve their goals even if it means destroying teamwork or not applying common sense. I've seen this vividly applied in the real world. It took an entire team to sell a project to the client and the team came together on its own. When it came time to divide up the credit some critical contributors behind the scenes did not get credit. You can imagine the result the next time the team needed to come together (sorry I am too busy).
If money has the same impact on everyone's performance, why do some top performing sales people make way more than others? Shouldn't they all be motivated the same amount? Some people can be motivated by money alone, but most seek motivation and satisfaction in other ways. You would be wise to tailor motivation to the individuals as well as other solid leadership and management principles. Money is a very short-term motivator. Pay your top performers very well, they are gems and you don't want to lose them over pay. But if an employee is motivated by something other than pay you are better off using than than focusing on pay for performance.
Pay for performance is a variable expense. Yes, you can tie the incentive to overall corporate performance as well. The problem is if a top performer always achieves their targets but the company does not, they will not get the performance part of the pay. Yes, they may feel pretty disconnected from impacting the overall company targets because of the way personal goals are set. For many organizations this becomes a variable expense whether or not the company does well.
If you realize your goals cannot be achieved for whatever reason, they become a strong de-motivator. Because they are set at the start of the year, they may become quite disconnected from reality. The opposite can also be true. If I exceed my goals by mid-year, I could coast for the rest of the year and save my discretionary effort (or sales, etc.) for next year's quota.
Pay for performance encourage's defensive work. As soon as a projectstarts people start looking for reason's why it is not their fault and someone else's in case anything goes wrong. In fact you want to encourage teams to be self-correcting and self-improving. Everyone should be looking at ways to make things work better and succeed.
For small and mid-sized businesses without the in-house expertise, pay for performance can be difficult to set up correctly and manage wisely. It can be made to work but also has the problems I outlined above so you need to set it up very carefully.
I am a big fan of paying people well for their expected performance as part of the base and then tying variable pay to a self-funded bonus structure based on overall company objectives. If they don't live up to expectations you can deal with it real time. This offers the benefits of having everyone work towards the same goals as a team and only paying them out if the company meets its objectives. The payout structure can vary by position. The team will point out the sluggards.
This strategy for "profit sharing" means less work and overhead for small and mid-sized business owners and a lot less risk.
I am not at all saying companies should pay everyone the same. I am not saying employees should not have individual goals or be held accountable for performance standards. I just feel strongly that leadership and people management are real time happenings and not something you do once a year.
What is your experience with pay for performance? Leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.81.125 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 04/11/2012 08:05:12 AM Good post Doug. I have seen how promised up-front performance bonuses literally ruined teams' spirit when board had decided the team did not "earn" it. And that's after all the hard work the team put into success of the project. After that, as you can imagine, the key ingredient was gone - trust, and eventually team fell apart. Moral for me was: a company better off without promise and dividing extras later, than promising bonus and not delivering with excuses other than facts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 04/11/2012 01:59:13 PM Thanks Sean. You are right. Trust and simplicity are key. That is why I like the self-funding company level bonus system. The score is easy to define and see and everyone ends up working for the same objective. You also don't have to rely on a yearly process that can get confusing. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Our Secret Marketing Plan Revealed (Next Steps) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: our-secret-marketing-plan-next-steps CATEGORY: Manifast CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/03/our-secret-marketing-plan-next-steps.html DATE: 03/27/2012 10:45:00 AM ----- BODY:Last week I wrote a post called "Marketing Yourself Is Your Real World". In it I included a diagram of our "Simplified Marketing Plan For Manifast" which was actually pretty complex even after being simplified.
Well we obviously can't implement everything at once. So I put together the next few things that need to get done in card format in our actual Manifast tool (partial screen shot below) as a project (blue) and outcomes (light yellow). Still pretty aggressive but achievable.
Now it is action time.
Are you one of those people who chases every business opportunity you see hoping to cash in on the next great thing? Are you not finishing what you start because you are juggling too many things?
Stop it.
The people who make the most money over the long-term focus on one thing at a time and get it finished. They have a vision of where they want to be and single-mindedly pursue it through to success.
Our business was recently approached with an offer to front another business in the consulting body shopping business and make some easy money on the side with the potential of more opportunities down the road.
When my team came to me with the idea I asked three simple questions:
The answer to all three was a resounding "no". My answer to my team was why are you wasting my time and company time then.
When you know who you are and what you stand for as a company you don't waste time on ANYTHING that does not match. Only if you have 100% match on all three items do you even have to waste time analysing the opportunity.
Core Values: Those things that are written in stone and you will never bend on. Ethics is one of ours. We won't do anything I wouldn't be proud to tell my mom about.
Mission: How do we serve humanity as a company? If it does not support the mission it is a distraction.
Vision: Where do we plan on being in 3 -5 years? If it does not help us get there it is a distraction.
The wonderful part about clearly defining these things is that you can train everyone in your company and even your partners, customers and suppliers who you are and what you will and will not do.
Kids need consistency when growing up. The reality is that so do adults.
When you decide who you are you don't waste time and effort chasing every rainbow and unicorn that comes along. We are constantly being bombarded with information and the requirements to decide. The easier your decisions are, the more time you can spend on action and results.
Sure your vision and even mission can change over time to adopt to the world you live in. I am not suggesting blinders and running over a cliff like lemmings.
But knowing who you are? It just simplifies decisions and helps you focus on the results that matter.
Question: How do you focus on what matters? How do you keep your team on the same page? Please leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Marketing Your Product is Your Real World STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: marketing-your-product-in-the-real-world CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/03/marketing-your-product-in-the-real-world.html DATE: 03/22/2012 01:54:54 PM ----- BODY:12 years ago when we started our company, I thought that branding, marketing and selling were something that someone else would handle. Sure as the president of the company I needed to set direction, but the icky parts were going to be done by someone else and I could focus on the project work for clients; you know, "delegate".
Today I know deep down in my heart that branding, marketing and selling are your business. Building a business means dealing with those subjects head-on. You can delegate the work, but you should not ever delegate the strategy (or the supporting corporate mission, core values, culture and vision). As Chet Holmes states in his book, "The Ultimate Sales Machine", you need "pig-headed discipline" to make sure you stay the course. If you do the tail will end up wagging the dog (actually there will be multiple tails wagging the dog).
This does not mean you can't involve your team and delegate and let your team run with stuff. It just means that consistency of purpose has to come from the top.
In reality I've come to really enjoy Branding, Marketing and Selling. Why the about face?
You get to tell a story. You get to put on a show. You get to build relationships. You get to create an awesome business.
Your business will not matter if nobody knows about it or buys from you.
Over the past few years I've learned a lot about marketing, online marketing, search engines, paid search, social media, etc. I've read books by the experts and even engaged with advisers that can show me how they got to success and avoid some of the pitfalls (mentoring and coaching).
We have recently launched our Manifast product and I put together a diagram to better understand how everything fits together.
I should disclose that I like technical stuff and studied engineering in university. So when I say this is the simplified version of something, it truly is.
So here is the simplified version of all the components to our marketing plan for Manifast.
Simplified Marketing Plan for Manifast
I'm not at all worried about anyone stealing this or using it against me. You see it is not the plan that matters. It is actually a pretty generic and obvious plan.
What really matters is what you do with the plan. How you implement it. How you engage with people in the real world.
The story you and your brand lives by.
Marketing your product in the real world is both complex and simple.
From this diagram our action steps become crystal clear to me. We need to pick the important parts and get them done. One at a time, get them done. Build momentum over time. Reach the tipping point.
We won't try to do everything at once. I only put this diagram together so we could understand how all the pieces go together for our situation.
You need to decide what your plan is and then do the work (or delegate it). Just make sure you don't delegate and disappear. You won't like what you become.
Questions: Is your situation this complex? How do you plan and execute your marketing strategy? Please leave a comment below.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: An Entrepreneurs Fable STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: an-entrepreneurs-tale CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/03/an-entrepreneurs-tale.html DATE: 03/16/2012 05:30:01 PM ----- BODY:Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.
This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. Companies were spending money like there was no end of it… other people’s money (OPM (rhymes with opium))… huge burn rates with no plans to turn a profit until some vague point in the future when they dominate the market… or cashing in on an IPO. Speculators were buying stock because a company had Linux in its name and a vague promise of a grand future.
Then the bubble burst. OPM dried up. Companies were closing their doors and shareholders were left with nothing. Then the events of 911 further dampened economic outlook.
The three business owners and their staff survived these downturns. They were not addicted to OPM, were not selling a lie, were good technicians, had strong ethics, had great staff, had low costs… and most importantly had a few good customers that remained loyal and fed them enough work to survive.
The company continued to grow and then hit a bump. Then it grew again and hit a bump. Everyone was working really hard, mastering their craft and taking care of the clients. But something was wrong. They just could not achieve the growth they wanted, the dream was not happening.
Then five years into the business, the CEO had a dream. Fast forward 10 years in the future…
The company had grown a bit over the years. Very hard work and perseverance had allowed them to survive the rough times and when times were good they expanded a bit, but not significantly. Many employees have moved on. Some have been around a long time, a few since near the beginning. The loyal ones had been rewarded with an ownership stake in the company. Several of the owners (original and new) were ready to move on to the next phase of their lives. But, there was no easy way out. The customers were loyal to the people, not the company. There were too few customers. There were key people that could not easily be replaced. People were getting tired of doing the same thing with no change. There was no way to extract the value out of the company… no way to exit gracefully… only failure or a partial success…and too much pride to fail.
The next morning the CEO awoke with the dream still vivid in his mind. He knew what was wrong. They had spent all those years, working very hard, sacrificing… to create jobs for themselves.
After much reading, reflecting and soul searching the answers became clear. To really become an entrepreneur you have to embrace two fundamental truths:
Being a great practitioner of your craft (what you are selling) merely gets you a job. The limiting factor of any business is the owner (leadership).
You must learn to become a master entrepreneur.
That is your real craft… building something great from nothing… passionate… inspiring shareholders, employees and customers… making a difference… a creator... always evolving … a CEO… a master entrepreneur.
The CEO decides to embark on the journey to become a master entrepreneur. Only time will tell what great adventures the CEO and those who journey with him will enjoy. But with this knowledge the future is much brighter.
The End... and the Beginning.
Update: This is a repost from 4 July 2008. I decided to reshare this post because it is the business need and story that started Manifast, our new product to help business owners avoid this exact situation.
Disclaimer: This fable is only loosely based on a true story and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 03/19/2012 05:13:46 PM The End... and the Beginning. How true !! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Much Effort Does It Take To Move From Good to Great? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-much-effort-does-it-take-to-move-from-good-to-great CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/02/how-much-effort-does-it-take-to-move-from-good-to-great.html DATE: 02/23/2012 11:41:43 PM ----- BODY:I was asked a question today. It was about our Manifast product which is aimed at allowing businesses to bring strategy, working on the business and developing your people to the same level of importance as working in the business; serving customers and fighting fires.
Roughly the question went like "How much effort is required to setup the tool and maintain the information in it? Is the benefit of doing all that stuff worth it?"
Aside from the context of the tool the question is really more fundamental:
"Is the effort of documenting, planning and executing your strategy, building your business and developing your people worth it? Would I not be better served just taking action and spending the time serving our customers and finding more customers and deal with issues as they come up?"
If you are a one person shop or very small organization you may be able to keep everything in your head. You may be doing some strategic planning and working on the business is really just changing the way YOU do things. Not hard to track.
My experience as well as learning from numerous sources is that the majority of businesses that don't consistently plan and execute on their plans under-perform their competitors significantly. If you are in an industry that is trending upwards you may still be profitable and even seem to be doing well.
However, you are likely leaving tens of thousands to millions of dollars on the table. You may be impeding your ability to grow and sustain that growth. Your business may not be heading in the direction you really want it to and it may not serve your needs as the owner.
Your fire fighting will likely consume more and more of your time as you grow. A great business will fix problems and become self-healing without everything being a force of will from the top. You just need to take the time to build that organization and train the people in it on building a business.
Great businesses have great customers. They attract top talent and top customers much more easily than their competitors. This translates to larger profits and ultimately, a great value on the business itself.
Each company must choose its path. Choosing the path to being a great company (large or small) means doing those things most other businesses chose not to do.
Yes, this takes some work. Many people advise that organizations spend 10-20% of your budget on strategy, business and people development (more if you are growing quickly or spending on research and development for new products).
And using a tool to manage all of this? Where were you going to document it all without the tool? How were you going to track everything that needs to get done? How much time would you be spending communicating and coordinating all of that information and keeping everyone on the same page? How much time tracking accountability? How much time conceiving and managing the process of managing all of this and ensuring it gets done?
And the real work is in the execution.
Yes, there is some learning time to master a new tool. Yes, there is some initial setup time and you need to invest in maintaining the tool. The underlying business skills take time to learn as well.
Any good tool pays for itself many times over.
How much effort does it take to go from good to great? Much less over time if you have the right tools and use them well.
Are you looking to build a great business? How are you doing it today?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Paradox of Referral Fees STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-paradox-of-referral-fees CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/02/the-paradox-of-referral-fees.html DATE: 02/09/2012 11:25:59 PM ----- BODY:Offering referral fees to others to send business your way is a two edged sword at times:
Therein lies the paradox.
On the positive side you are offering a financial incentive to others to refer business your way. Your customers and "agents" can earn some cold hard cash sending business your way.
You hope that the person doing the referring is looking out for both your and the potential client's best interest in making the connection.
However, this is not always the case. Your "agents" may start sending business your way that is not good for you and even worse, not a good match for the customers.
And once they find out that the "agent" was benefiting financially from the referral they can become bitter to both the agent and your company by association. With the reach of Social Media, this may be a complication you don't need.
There is another issue on the psychology side: monetary incentives alone do not motivate well long-term. Some people are even arguing that pay for performance is causing people to blindly seek the money and game the system.
For our Manifast product we are looking for business advisers (coaches, mentors, consultants, board of directors, etc.) who would see value in offering a tool to reinforce and add to the value to their consulting work. They get added revenue from helping their clients actually do the planning required and we get the software licensing fees.
The consulting work per client potentially far exceeds our piece. We would also expect to eventually refer work back to the advisers.
Already we are thinking of the tremendous value to both the advisers and the customers.
Raving fans of your product who give referrals out of caring are potentially worth a lot more to your brand than paid agents. As well, many advisers need to remain unbiased in the eyes of their clients so will not want payment anyways.
(And in the future we have even more powerful value propositions in store for both groups.)
So first look for other ways you can give value back to your champions so that referral fees are not necessary. Amazing value.
Referrals fees can work well for certain types of business where an unbiased referral is not a concern and customer matching is easy or straight forward. Commodities like books are like that.
If you are going to use referral fees make sure you set them up to get the customers you really want and need. Also be prepared to deal with the administration of score keeping and refereeing those trying to game the system.
I like the idea of delivering amazing value and getting customers to become raving fans.
Are you using referral fees successfully? Leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Are You Too Busy To Add Big Dollars To Your Bottom Line? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: are-you-too-busy-to-add-big-dollars-to-your-bottom-line CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/02/are-you-too-busy-to-add-big-dollars-to-your-bottom-line.html DATE: 02/08/2012 12:02:30 AM ----- BODY:If you are not, you are impacting your profitability in a big way.
As a business owner this is coming right off your bottom line. If you are losing $10,000 in costs (i.e. profit) and you have margins of 5%, you would have to earn another $200,000 in revenue to make that back.
Business advisors like Jeff Pallister can come into many businesses and easily find $50,000 in savings in a short period of time. He does this largely by tapping into the latent talent and creativity of your existing team.
Recently I had to step into a business process and get some work done that was languishing. The people currently doing the work did it in short bursts and then did something else; the work was cyclical. Because I wanted to do a large batch all at once the flaws in the process became painfully obvious. Because I am very time constrained I elected to fix those processes. The result was that I was able to do the remaining work in 50% less time, saving 10-20 hours of effort.
The “E-Myth Revisted” by Michael Gerber promotes the idea of the entrepreneur(s) learning and doing each role until they understand it and make it repeatable and efficient. Only then should you hire someone to perform the role. This is part of the idea of running your business as a franchise, even if it won’t be.
Now this is not the only way to do it. But as an entrepreneur you must own the “creation of your business”. You can delegate pieces but you must train, coach, measure and hold accountable all of the people you have delegated the process to.
Over the period of a year we spent 500 hours supporting, upgrading and administering one application. A 10% improvement in overall efficiency could translate into 50 hours of savings a year.
As the president I am an expensive resource as are some others in the company. But once the process is more efficient and predictable you can delegate certain work to less expensive resource without the risk of having it all fall apart. Now you have a double savings; $5,000 becomes $10,000 or more.
This is only one process out of a lot even for our company.
It is likely you are sitting on a lot of lost opportunity as well. Maybe even your ability to grow or become great!
There are several things you need to do to successfully work on the business. Other than customers and your product and services; building a great company involves three things that often get overlooked:
Working on the business means:
Using a proven methodology is a great first step. Using a tool like Manifast to reinforce the process and streamline the tracking is even better.
Well you could use a percentage of the increase in profits to self-fund a profit sharing plan. Most people also want to be efficient and produce at the highest level possible. They just need to know how to keep score and have the time and tools to do it.
How much time do you spend working on your business? How much money might you be leaving on the table?
What action are you going to take? Today?
Leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Chain Reaction (to Sustainable Profits) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: chain-reaction-to-sustainable-profits CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/01/chain-reaction-to-sustainable-profits.html DATE: 01/27/2012 01:00:28 AM ----- BODY:I read Chain Reaction - A Business Novel by Jeff Pallister a few months ago. I enjoyed the book and found that a lot of Jeff's thinking paralleled our thinking about how business could be.
Jeff Pallister is a speaker, author and management consultant who specializes in applying creativity and teamwork to generate increased profitability.
The book itself is about the company president Ryan Vale who was hired by the founders to get the company back on track. Most of the founders are reaching the end of their careers and want to cash out by selling the company and then enjoying retirement.
One big problem. The business is not worth nearly as much as the owners thought it was because it has some issues:
Ryan then hires a consultant who guides him through the "12 Best Practices" to turn the company around. I won't spoil the ending. I recommend you get a copy of the book if you are suffering from any of the issues mentioned above.
Manifast is the software product we developed to help small and mid-sized businesses and organizations find the right balance between: "Strategic Planning, Working on the Business and Developing Your People" and "Working in the Business".
Using a integrated software tool to keep your team focused, accountable, communicating, etc. can add a lot of value and effectiveness to execution of your plans. Using a coach/consultant and software tool together can add tremendous value.
Here is a quick overview of how our tool can be used to support the implementation of the 12 Best Practices in Chain Reaction.
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Chain Reaction Practices |
Manifast Tools |
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Tap Into Creativity |
Brainstorming Tools |
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Work Through Teams |
Team Planning, Developing People |
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Lead |
Entire Tool |
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Set a Clear Direction |
Strategic Planning Module |
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Know the Score |
KPI Tracking, Goal Setting |
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Create a Productive Work Environment |
Working on the Business, Developing Your People |
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Apply Rigorous Methods |
Brainstorming, Entire Tool |
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Redesign Processes |
Working on the Business |
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Eliminate Hidden Costs |
Working on the Business |
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Deliver Innovative Products |
Strategic and Team Planning |
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Create Exceptional Customer Value |
Entire Tool |
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Create the Chain Reaction |
Entire Tool |
Read the book for details on the best practices. Contact Jeff if you would like more information about his services or book.
We are honoured that Jeff chose to work with us and become an early adopter of Manifast for both himself and his clients.
What software tools do you use to implement your business planning and execution? Do you use a coach or business consultant to help your business? Leave a comment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Are You On Auto-Pilot? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: are-you-on-auto-pilot CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/01/are-you-on-auto-pilot.html DATE: 01/20/2012 11:24:11 PM ----- BODY:You know that feeling you get when you drive home along a familiar route and afterwards you don't remember any of the drive?
That is what running on auto-pilot is like.
Your brain is amazing. If you've done things repeatedly the same in the past before, you can do them again with little thought or effort required.
The same is true if you are doing something simple or low risk. You don't need to fully engage.
In both cases you can run on auto-pilot and safely get to your destination.
Until something changes suddenly. Or until a danger suddenly appears.
Then you will be present again.
But it just may be too late. The lack of attention may be fatal when the danger become obvious. The sudden whack in the side of the head that you are too late ducking.
You can't afford to live your life or run your business on auto-pilot. You and your customers deserve your best.
You need to have and follow a plan; even if it changes regularly.
You need to work on your business. As well, you need to work on yourself and your people to prepare for the future.
And most importantly you need to have a system that helps you stay focused, even when you could run on auto-pilot.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: I'm Not In The Mood For... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: im-not-in-the-mood-for CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2012/01/im-not-in-the-mood-for.html DATE: 01/13/2012 06:03:13 PM ----- BODY:The other night I was in a funk and this post almost ended up being titled "Real Men Don't Talk About Depression" but while there is still too much silence and taboo around the topic; I didn't want to take away from the plight of those who are clinically depressed and this post ended up on a different path anyways. I must also credit Carrie Wilkinson of The Barefoot Executive fame for showing me the value of being real (i.e. human) and thus not deleting this post entirely.
As we started the New Year I was both excited and overwhelmed by business and personal objectives. I won't call them resolutions because they are really just continuations of the paths I had set last year.
But there is something magical and crazy about 1 January 2012 as a date. It feels like a new cycle and a chance to instantaneously fix all of the problems you perceive you have about yourself.
So a week into 2012 I was still clearing stuff I was supposed have finished last year and this year's stuff was piling up. Lots of things that needed to get done, lots of people depending on me, and lots of decisions that needed to be made... fast.
Yup, I was pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. Way beyond. And not moving very quickly.
So then I got in a funk. And stayed there. My mood was in a down cycle.
That is not to say I could not function or appear fairly normal. But my spark was gone and I was a little quicker to react negatively to things.
And with it the spark for a thing I value immensely: creativity. For me my creativity is best when I am in the right frame of mind. I don't create on demand.
Then last night I remembered reading "The Introvert's Guide to Success in Business and Leadership" by Lisa Petrilli. In her book she uses the most accurate description of an Introvert as someone who loses energy in public situations (crowds, networking, etc.) and needs alone time to regenerate. But that was not it as I was not actually doing a lot of public stuff.
Then I remembered the second part. Introverts often also need time to reflect to make decisions.
I was feeling overwhelmed because I was trying to hold in my head and make too many decisions at the same time without giving myself enough time to reflect. So they were all sticking around and coming back to occupy my attention any time I was not intently focused on something else.
This causes the feeling of being overwhelmed.
I suspect many other business owners, entrepreneurs and people feel this way at times.
The natural defence at this point is avoidance. I just won't do ANY of the things that make me uncomfortable.
Fortunately there is a solution and it does not involve quitting my role or hiring someone to deal with everything I don't want to.
It is using a system to get rid of the noise and focus on action.
There are two parts to this system:
If you don't know what the most important thing is or how to break something down, pick something important and take action that you think will move you closer finding the root of the problem or implementing a solution. Build momentum that will boost your mood.
In our Manifast product we are calling this "My Most Important Work". Some people use a quadrant based prioritization system (based on important/urgent). Whatever works for you.
The system helps with analysis, reflection, (and most importantly for an Introvert) decision making and taking action.
Now that I've recognized one of my triggers for a funky down cycle I can use that knowledge and the system I've outlined to recover my momentum faster.
"I'm not in the mood for creativity" may just be a thing of the past, or at least more short-lived.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Resolutions for 2012 - Dream Big STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: resolutions-for-2012 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/resolutions-for-2012.html DATE: 12/31/2011 01:23:04 AM ----- BODY:Assuming I set New Year's resolutions I would have the following and more:
But if I haven't done those things consistently in the past, what makes me think I will do them in early 2012? Why am I making a big list of things I will likely fail at?
The problem with resolutions is that we tend to focus on the things we aren't happy with... our weaknesses. Oh we can couch them as goals with positive sounding outcomes. Let's face it though, we are forcing ourselves to accomplish them with a big stick approach.
So I propose you look at the things are are doing right and probably enjoy. I hope you have some.
Do more of that.
That is action.
Then make some small positive changes. Bundle the small improvements with the things you enjoy or do the things you enjoy as a reward for the improvements. Focus on a few things at a time. Build momentum.
Set goals, plan and take action regularly throughout the year. Start small and get bigger as the momentum builds. Make your ultimate goals so exciting to you that the work required to get there is worth it. As you get better at it you will be able to set bigger goals and actually achieve most of them.
Just don't save this for a once a year guilt trip. That is why I don't do New Year's resolutions. I believe in working on goals and reflecting all year, not just in December.
Dream big. Everyone should have a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) they are working on.
Who is to say I can't actually visit Mars (or some other big goal). You might be wrong. And the BHAG gives me focus and reason to take care of the other important things.
Have a wonderful 2012. Dream big and achieve all year.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Master Plan - How Money Works Part 4 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-master-plan-how-money-works-part-4 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/the-master-plan-how-money-works-part-4.html DATE: 12/29/2011 05:29:03 PM ----- BODY:In the previous post I talked about how to intercept the flow of money. This post addresses investing, borrowing, the master plan and concludes the series.
When you invest money you no longer have it in your possession. What you have is either a promise to give you your money plus interest back or you have ownership of shares in a company or other investment vehicles.
Cash investments are loaned to others so the money can be spent on something of value.
When you invest in a company you are either buying the shares (at their perceived value) from someone else or you are giving it to the company itself to invest, or spend to grow the business. Eventually you hope that the company will generate value for customers and thus your value. But they don’t hold onto it either, they invest (spend) on things for future growth or you are buying someone else’s shares.
So again, money is flowing.
You don’t actually have it in your pocket or under your bed. You have the promise of getting your money back or you have shares (or similar) you can sell later to get your money back plus some (if you invested wisely). Essentially you have the ability to tap into the future flow of money.
The money is in motion, now and in the future.
Borrowing money means that you are trading your future ability to create value for something today.
Not only are you trading the future for today, you are paying a price on top of that called interest.
This works ok for very short-term loans (i.e. paying down your credit card balance each month). It is a very bad approach to acquire long-term debt for today’s pleasures and material goods. Essentially you are trading your future potential to create value for something today.
Borrowing can make sense for two situations:
The problem is that to encourage the flow of money and thus the creation of income for people (interruption of flow) and companies, the government and financial institutions have been making consumer lending very easy to get. This encourages excessive personal spending today but at the price of putting a limit on the future flow of money since you are already pledging the future today; once you are maxed out, you can’t do it again until you pay it all back plus interest.
The problem is even worse in that governments at all levels are borrowing against the future tax base on your behalf. Since the future tax base is essentially your ability to produce value in the future, they are borrowing against the people.
You can only borrow so far into the future before it can all unravel.
Some event triggers people and organizations to stop or slow down the flow of money. When this happens, people and companies are not able to interrupt the flow of money at the rates they could before the slowdown.
The flow of money slows down.
This is why the government’s reaction to this is to spend money and lower interest rates. They are trying to kick-start the flow of money which has a cascading effect. Consumer confidence is actually a measure of the stickiness of the flow of money.
However, the government needs to borrow money to do this. And they need to encourage you to borrow money so you will spend it.
It is an insidious cycle.
And it is all artificial.
Money was created by people. The flow is created by people. Borrowing from the future is created by people. People have figured out a way to consume value today and pay for it later; often much later and longer than expected.
Don’t worry though. There is a master plan (insert evil laugh) for how it works. It is not pretty but it is the way it is.
Inflation and growth.
The value of money (specifically long-term debt) is devalued over time so it gets easier to pay back. As well, the ability to pay back the debt is mitigated by expectation of the constant growth of total value created (population growth and productivity) product and services.
Oh, and your children will pay for the excesses of today as well since people have been borrowing against the future excessively. Or maybe they won’t.
Sadly, we are already seeing how well this plays out in some of the European nations and even the US.
You can interrupt as much of the flow as you want without hurting anyone else’s ability to interrupt the flow. This is not dirty or shameful, it is the natural way things work in commerce since the beginning of civilization. Value traded for value. Money just makes the flow easier and faster.
You interrupt the flow by creating value and reaching (influencing) as many customers as you can.
The more value you generate compared to the money you bring in (interrupt) the more resilient you will be to a slowdown in the flow (poor economy) or threats from competition.
Focus on the future and long-term sustainability and growth. Don’t go for the short-term quick gains at the price of the future. Invest in the future. Live within your means today but realize that doing so means your future is wide open, unlike those who have borrowed heavily against it. You’ll sleep better too.
The amount of value that can be created is nearly unlimited. So is the potential for each person to create value. As wealth is created the flow increases and more wealth can be created (more interruptions are possible).
Slowdowns are created by the perception of shortage and excessive borrowing against the future.
So there is no shortage of money, only a shortage of understanding and people creating the value needed to intercept it.
Final Note: This is my take on what they all mean when they say there is no shortage of money. In reality "abundance" is a good way to look at things because it means we can work together and not entirely against each other. Of course the real world is more complex.
What is your take on money?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Right Way to Prospect (Intercepting the Flow - Money Part 3) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-right-way-to-prospect-intercepting-the-flow-money-part-3 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/the-right-way-to-prospect-intercepting-the-flow-money-part-3.html DATE: 12/22/2011 02:04:26 PM ----- BODY:I ended the previous post on how money really works with a quote. A very important quote to be sure. But it doesn't tell the full story. It doesn't say how to intercept the flow of money.
How money works was not in and of itself why I choose to discuss the topic at this time.
So what is the right way to prospect or sell to maximize your income? When should you give your killer elevator speech? How should you get the conversation focused on you?
Don't.
Stop doing it from a me perspective.
It is all about the person you are interacting with and not you.
Create value for that person without the expectation of anything in return. "All things being equal, people buy from people they know and trust." (Bob Burg)
Call it Karma. But what goes around comes around. Give first. Be genuinely interested in the other person. Build relationships. Do something of value for that person without any expectations. Everyone is not a potential customer, but they are people and a potential friend.
The way to get noticed by the flow is to insert value into the world. The flow is really about value for people. Insert enough value and the money will eventually divert to you.
You don't really control who will be your customer. It is their choice not yours. And you never know who will know who and how the rewards will flow back to you.
This happened with our own business. Our biggest customer noticed us 11 years ago not because of our sales, but because one of our partners was active in giving back in the community.
It is real. It works. And it is the better way to do business and love your job and business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Money Really Works - Part 2 Business Income STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-money-really-works-your-income-part-2 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/how-money-really-works-your-income-part-2.html DATE: 12/20/2011 11:17:49 PM ----- BODY:In the first part of this larger topic, I talked about how some people think of money and how it works at a personal level.
In Part 2 I cover how it works at a business level and how you can get as much as you need and why there is no real shortage of money.
Picture the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a nation or the world. This is a measure of the flow of value that is changing hands. It the cumulative value created by everyone in the economy measured in money. Actually it is not the total value it is the compensated portion of the value.
No one actually has this money in their possession. In fact, there does not even need to be that much physical money in circulation because money is only needed for the exchange and then is in flow again. Most of the exchange occurs electronically these days.
The economy is a giant flow. The giant flow is made up of countless smaller and larger flows.
Every person and every organization intercepts a piece of that flow and returns it back into the flow one way or another.
People create value by working. Companies create value through products and services. Some value is quasi-real (tied to the physical world) and some is perceived or soft value. For instance, real estate is tied to the physical world and some perceived value. Watching a movie has mostly perceived value and does not deplete the physical world significantly.
(We won’t consider the criminal activities of theft or fraud where the flow is interrupted for no exchange of value.)
So if you are running a business, you need to access the flow of money by intercepting it. There is no limit to the number of times the flow of money can intercepted as long as it stays in motion.
You do this by creating a product or service that has value. If what you do has value you can get paid for it. People will buy your value as long as the price is less than the cost. The more value you generate for that person, the more flow of money you can intercept.
So one customer, one transaction transfers value to your customer and in return you get money. If you have repeat business, the one customer will periodically get value and give you money.
To increase your share of the flow, you can either create more value for each customer or you can increase the number of customers you have (or both). The number of customers you have is your reach. The more people and customers you reach, the more value you are creating in the world and the more money you can intercept in the flow.
But you don’t keep that money. You have staff to pay. You have other expenses. You have pay taxes.
The money flows out to others who provide value and intercept the flow.
This happens over and over and is the basis of the giant flow.
Money is in motion.
Some physical things in the world actually do have a physical shortage. For example, there is only so much real estate along the coast of California. If you want a private home on the beach you have to convince someone else to sell it to you. However, this is only valuable if people want it.
For much of the stuff we consume, there is no physical limit (at least that we have to worry about right now). There is no limit to how many people can watch a TV show. There is no limit to the amount of massages that can be given. The pace of the creation of these types of goods and services is increasing as is the perceived value.
In the case of money, there is no limit to the number of times it can be intercepted or the amount that can be intercepted. How many times has that twenty dollar bill in your pocket been exchanged? It is a simple formula: create value, get customers, and intercept the flow.
The rich don’t sit on hoards of money like some crazy scrooge. They spend it and invest it. The investing of money means more spending and the creation of more jobs and more flow. The rich have the added benefit of being able to tap into the flow in more ways, in greater quantities.
Both of these activities increase the flow of money and the number of opportunities to intercept it. Since money is an artificial creation and no longer tied to the real world, there is no limit to how it can flow.
There is no shortage of money, only a shortage of flow.
And most times, the shortage of flow is only an attitude.
As long as you can generate more value (real and perceived) for people than you take out in money, there is no real limit on how you can tap into. Similarly tapping into the flow does not really take away someone else’s ability to tap into the flow as long as they are generating more value than they are taking out.
“Your income is determined by the value you create for each person and how many people you impact or touch with that value.” Bob Burg
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Money Really Works - Part 1 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-money-really-works-part-1 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/how-money-really-works-part-1.html DATE: 12/19/2011 10:38:05 PM ----- BODY:Have you ever heard someone say that there is no shortage of money, in fact there is an abundance of it? This is what the rich understand and the poor do not.
I’ve heard it quite a few times, several times in the last week alone.
What does this really mean? I had to really think about it too.
The following is my take on what they mean about how money really works. Like most things, there is a reason it is important and some important lessons to be learned that go with it. So I encourage you to stick with all the parts.
There is a giant pot of money which is divided between all of the people. Rich people get a lot. Poor people don’t get much.
The attitude that results from this is that money is greed. The thinking goes that if I have a lot of money someone else can’t have as much. There is a finite amount and it is divided between haves and have nots.
Exactly how many pots of money do YOU have tucked away under your bed?
If you are like most, not much. Some change in a jar. Some cash in your wallet. Maybe a little tucked away at home on your dresser. You certainly don’t keep your entire earnings or wealth at home.
Money is an artificial man-made construct to aid the exchange of goods and services… or the exchange of value. It only has value because we as a society have set up rules and given it value. It is a means of exchanging value without having to resort to direct bartering (a visit to the dentist for a cow).
Money is in constant flow.
You work to create some value for your employer. In exchange for this value you get paid money. The value you create for your employer should be larger than you get paid otherwise it would not make sense to keep you around.
The government takes a percentage of this as taxes and uses it to purchase goods and services (things of value) effectively redistributing your money.
You then need to buy things (of value) to live and survive:
This is your non-discretionary income. What is left over is your discretionary income.
You have two choices for dealing with your discretionary income.
So money comes in and money goes out. This is the flow of money.
In reality money also flows in bursts as you get paid and spend it. It also flows in cycles over the year.
You do something of value (unless you are a thief or fraudster), get paid a fair amount for that work, product or service and then you in turn purchase things of value.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: New Fables in Biz - Tortoise and the Hare STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: new-fables-in-biz-tortoise-and-the-hare CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/new-fables-in-biz-tortoise-and-the-hare.html DATE: 12/15/2011 11:07:32 AM ----- BODY:The classic tale written as a business case study.
The tortoise and the hare were the two main direct competitors in their industry. They were focused intensely on one-upping each other and acting invincible to smaller players.
The tortoise was slow and steady. He was adverse to risk and sought to keep competitors away by putting a wall around his products and services. It was hard to move fast with all the baggage he was carrying with him. He was really good at copying the innovations of others.
The hare was fast and willing to take risks. Unfortunately, the hare was missing focus and got distracted by new things easily. She quickly built new products but would often lose interest in them if they didn't take off right away, allowing the tortoise to steal market share over time.
The tortoise and hare decided to have a race to decide who would be the winner once and for all. Just before the race started, a fox gave the hare and the tortoise each a cool new gadget. It was a cutting edge smart phone with a GPS, camera, and music player built-in.
The race started and the two were off and running. The hare of course burst way ahead of the tortoise and in 30 minutes was 2/3rds complete the race.
The hare thought she had lots of time since the tortoise was miles behind so she decided to stop and play with the new smart phone and finish the race later.
The tortoise was moving slow because he had to carry his shell with him so he started playing with the new smart phone as he plodded along. He saw the value of the new product and was wondering how his company could copy it and maybe something even better. He was so focussed on this task he accidentally missed the turn and ended up on the longer path. He was still plodding along with belief he had all the time in the world.
The fox was smart, fast and hungry. He used the built-in GPS tracking to find the hare where she was sitting and playing with her new toy. The hare had her earbuds in and didn't hear the fox until it was too late. All the speed in the world can't help if you don't see or hear the warnings.
The fox ate the hare for lunch.
The fox knew he couldn't take on the shell of the tortoise directly so he helped keep the tortoise distracted so he would think he had all the time in the world and could continue trying to win the old race.
The fox created a new market with new demand seemingly out of thin air. It was an entirely different race.
The hare was easily distracted and disappeared from the market entirely.
The tortoise is still there trying to win the old race, far too late to market and protecting his old world.
The world is wide open to the hungry fox.
What brought you success in the past, is not guaranteed bring you success in the future. Innovation must be continous and timely.
Which character is your business?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Proof that Values, Purpose and Culture Are Important STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: proof-that-values-purpose-and-culture-are-important CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/12/proof-that-values-purpose-and-culture-are-important.html DATE: 12/02/2011 01:58:39 PM ----- BODY:Lisa Petrilli offers real proof that successful companies consider their values, purpose and culture to be extremely important. Not only that they live and breath it.
What CEOs Really Think About Values and Culture
This is something I have believed in strongly for quite a while and have even been building into our new product; because it is important.
What is your experience and thoughts on this?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Buying Attention In Social Media - Does It Work? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: buying-attention-in-social-media-does-it-work CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/buying-attention-in-social-media-does-it-work.html DATE: 12/01/2011 12:16:39 AM ----- BODY:As soon as something becomes popular, someone tries to figure out how to make money on it. Nothing wrong with that... that is a free market in action.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are essentially free for the end user. The companies building and running them can't afford to do so forever without a revenue stream. So free means harvesting the data and selling it in some way, shape or form; and some advertising.
Businesses in general are experimenting with how to interact with customers and potential customers via these platforms. Some have been remarkably successful which is causing other businesses to take note and try and mimic their success.
This is tricky in social media as people use it to interact and connect with other people. It mimics and enhances people desire to connect with others, positively or negatively. Too much of the wrong thing can backfire.
One mechanism companies are using is to essentially buy, at least temporarily, attention from people. Giveaways, contests and discounts if you like a page on Facebook, Tweet or Retweet on Twitter, blog etc. Let's face it, we love free stuff or a good chance to win free stuff, even if we would never buy it normally.
Jeff Nelson (a savvy SEO and social media guy) from Anduro Marketing is running a campaign for one of his clients to show them the power of social media. (He asked us to help him out so I am doing a little case study on it as part of my blog because there is something to learn for any business owner.) In my opinion, this client is an excellent example of a company that can be successful on social media because it meets three key criteria:
The idea is to build and maintain the relationship on social media, not to ram advertising down your followers throats; or they will un "like" you faster than you can blink.
In case you are curious, the company being promoted is Oasis Spa and you can check out their Facebook page to understand their offer. I don't know the company myself and I am not a spa person. But if you or your business likes to give these things away, their promotion is for nice package "gift certificates" at three different levels. If nothing else you can see a campaign in the making and learn from it.
So does buying attention in social media work? It can if you structure it right and figure out how to connect longer term.
Does it work for you? Let me know in the comments.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marie-Eve Mayrand EMAIL: memay@1staccess.ca IP: 70.75.1.91 URL: http://bloomingmarketing.com DATE: 12/01/2011 02:57:54 PM Very interesting. I am part of the marketing strategy as well (http://bloomingmarketing.com/oasis-spa-calgary). Can't wait to see the results. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 12/01/2011 03:54:01 PM Buying attention in social media sounds less appealing than "earning" attention in social media. It is hard for one to promote a business of which we know very little about. Our friend and followers in business would look at it as an endorsement. A little bit of risk involved, I would say. It took courage and thought to post this blog. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 12/01/2011 03:58:25 PM Marie-Eve: Thanks so much. Looks like we took a similar take on how to help out Jeff, without compromising the integrity of our blogs. Hub-spoke... I have to learn more about that or relearn what I already knew. Al: Thanks for the comment. I am curious on how the promotion will go and how well they convert the likes into long-term followers and customers. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Losing Focus On Your Goals - Those Pesky Little Distractions STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: losing-focus-on-your-goals-those-pesky-little-distractions CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/losing-focus-on-your-goals-those-pesky-little-distractions.html DATE: 11/30/2011 12:11:28 AM ----- BODY:The other night I woke up with a burning sensation in my left eye. It felt like something major was in there and my eye started watering like crazy. I spent 30 minutes flushing out my eye to no avail.
I was starting to think I would be heading off to emergency. My eyes seem to attract problems for some strange reason. I was also thinking there go my business plans for the next few days.
From past lessons I knew that rubbing is very bad. Scratched corneas take a while to heal and are quite painful.
I decided to have another go at finding what was in there. A small flashlight in one hand and trying to grab my eyelid (not trivial as you know) with the other I finally found the culprit... a tiny piece of dirt. The only problem was, I needed a third hand to remove it.
In the end I memorized the location of the particle and put the flashlight down. A small moist piece of kleenex and a few blind attempts and I immediately knew I had gotten it. Instant relief.
This little incident reminded me that the smallest things can cause you to lose sight of your dream, vision and goals. A little irritant and we are off totally focused on solving that problem instead of doing the things necessary to move us forward on the big things.
This happens all the time in business.
Solving the little things is immediately satisfying. Instant relief from the irritation.
Working on your goals and vision is longer-term and the pay off is further out.
I am reading Grant Cardone's "The 10x Rule" right now. He recommends:
It is also important to build fun and rewards into the entire process of achieving your goals and vision.
Doing these things will keep you motivated and focused along the way and help ensure the those goals are not just wishes.
What are some of the pesky little things holding you back and how are you staying focused?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: You Can't Do That! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: you-cant-do-that CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/you-cant-do-that.html DATE: 11/24/2011 12:36:44 PM ----- BODY:I received my copies of "The 10x Rule" and "If You're Not First, You're Last" by Grant Cardone. I randomly flipped open a few pages in each (what I normally do when I get a new book) and stumbled on something worth sharing. I haven't read the books yet but based on my last post, I feel compelled to share this message from Grant.
Be Deaf when Someone Says You Can't
Grant Cardone
Be deaf when someone says you cannot do it!
Be deaf when someone says it is impossible!
Be deaf when anyone tries to put limits on you!
For these people who make efforts to limit you and suggest that you cannot fulfill your dreams are dangerous people.
These people have given up on their dreams and seek to convince you to do the same.
And do not be confused by them when they suggest that they are only trying to help you!
Help is not what they offer.
What they really seek to do is have you join the ranks of slaves, the apathetic, and the hopeless.
Be deaf to all of them!
Perhaps a little a little harsh on the critics, but the message is clear. Follow your path.
And for the would be critic, support the people around you following their paths. It is also the path to reaching your own goals for you will also gain the support of those around you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.81.7 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 11/24/2011 07:31:39 PM Harsh? Nope, very pragmatic. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/24/2011 08:02:23 PM Thanks for the comment Sean. I think the motive of many is merely to create a world of safety and no risk for themselves which of course does not exist. Your efforts upset that perception of safety they cling to. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Giving (Negative) Advice: You Could Be Wrong STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: giving-negative-advice-you-are-most-likely-wrong CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/giving-negative-advice-you-are-most-likely-wrong.html DATE: 11/23/2011 04:44:19 PM ----- BODY:Lately I have been thinking a lot about the influence of criticism and negative thinking on yourself and others. I have two major motivations:
Have you ever met someone who is perpetually positive about everything? How about the opposite?
Yet the reality is most people, myself included, are usually somewhere in the middle. We go through highs and lows emotionally and express those feelings externally in how we deal with others.
Our frame of reference, beliefs, other feelings and a host of other things come into play as well.
When someone shares their idea, goal or dream with you how do you react?
Are you a realist who feels compelled to point out why they most likely won't succeed? Why they are better off playing it safe or doing what you would do? Are you implying or stating "you are not good enough to do that"?
What if you flipped it and gave that person your support?
What if you genuinely got interested in what they were doing and cheered them on?
What if you spent your effort helping them succeed instead of quit.
They might still not succeed.
Then again they just might.
The market is filled with successful businesses and people that were told they would not succeed by some or many people. Yet they achieved success regardless.
They probably had enough inner confidence to see it through on their own. Or maybe they had enough of the right people believing in them to drive up their confidence.
Success is first a frame of mind. If you believe you can succeed, you are 10x plus more likely to succeed and stick it through the hard part of execution; especially when things get tough.
Friends don't let friends drive drunk. This is because the consequence of doing so can kill other innocent people and destroy lives. The risks are no longer things you can bounce back from and others had no say.
Friends should let friends risk failure. Because when you risk failure you also risk success. More importantly you grow as a person from the journey.
So let's create more success by encouraging it.
Personally, when someone tells me I won't succeed at something I really want to do, I just dig in and try harder... prove them wrong. But I would rather have your help and support as that is a positive motivator.
I am not saying blindly agree with everything someone says or does. Sometimes the best thing we can receive is the right advice. Just be aware of the effect of the advice, how it is delivered and whether the person is open. Most importantly look at your motivation; do you really want them to succeed?
Don't be fake. Be authentic.
And remember you don't know everything. Wisdom must be tempered by the fact that it is greatly influenced by the past. The future is inherently different and knowledge and wisdom must be applied carefully.
Your advice just might be wrong: for that person or situation.
What have you accomplished that others thought you couldn't? Do you support others in what they do? What motivates your behaviour on this?
I know I have some practicing and learning to do on this score myself; especially when I am on a down cycle.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 11/23/2011 05:04:06 PM I am meeting an entrepreneur pal of mine later today and I plan to apply some of these advises right away. He might be seeking to discuss personal or business matters. Whatever is the case, my aim is to be supportive and encouraging. Going there with a 'giving' attitude. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Taking Critcism Well? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: taking-critcism-well CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/taking-critcism-well.html DATE: 11/21/2011 01:30:05 PM ----- BODY:This post is my comment in response to Bob Burg's post "Consider the Source". Since it ended up being one of those "epic" responses I thought I would put it up as a post myself.
Taking criticism well is one of the hardest things we need to master in business and life in general. It hurts and we are wired to react to hurt.
The thing is, the degree of hurt is often of our own making. By that I mean we let ourselves react as if our physical being is threatened and therefore some defense mechanism needs to be triggered (fight or flight).
So the trick is to subdue our inclination to react right away. Look at the source is a good first step but take it further. What is the motivation of the person offering the criticism? Most often the worst criticism is really about them and not really about you (sounds like a good theme for a book).
I don’t agree with the approach of not respecting anyone who disagrees with you and dismissing the criticism because of that. I think the nobler approach is to show respect to all other people whether or not they seem to deserve it. Hey, I’ve probably annoyed someone with my criticism too; we are all human.
Grow from the criticism in one of two ways: look to see if it is valid or a wise alternative and learn/improve, or learn how to deal with the criticism in a positive way (not getting walked over either).
I think Seth Godin might have said something like “if everyone likes you and agrees with you, you are not making much of an impact… take a side”. So dealing with criticism is something you need to deal with to make a difference in the world.
In any event, I fully admit I am not there yet and need to work on my reactions. In the meantime if I offended you with my criticisms, I am man enough to be genuinely sorry for how it made you feel.
Where are you on the spectrum of dealing with criticism postively?
P.S. The worst critic most people have long term is themselves.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile is Out, Lean is In... Work Management Options STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-is-out-lean-is-in-work-management-options CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/agile-is-out-lean-is-in-work-management-options.html DATE: 11/17/2011 03:27:32 PM ----- BODY:In business, there are two main types of work:
Of course the lines blur a lot: large ongoing work versus small projects.
Ad hoc ongoing work tends to be mostly queue based for most people. How this work gets managed (or not) varies wildly.
For project based work I see that you have 4 main options for managing it:
Lean is getting a lot of attention (Lean Startup, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Development, Lean Marketing) these days as the newest and greatest thing.
I like how lean (kanban) forces an important concept; FOCUS.
If you can only work on 1 or 2 things at a time until they are done, you gain the ability to focus all of your attention on that one thing and avoid the distractions and lost productivity of switching focus. To me this is really the beauty of lean. Sure there is a lot of stuff around the math of productivity and small batches, but it really comes down to losses due to focus and queuing.
Some of the examples of effective agile teams are actually using the power of focus (small work in progress) and short iterations to achieve small batch sizes without calling it lean.
Similarly a well run scheduled project or simple queue could achieve the same results.
Every project manager (managers and team members as well) should really learn all they can about the different methodologies. Every project and situation is different and you will likely need to use aspects of each sometime in your career.
I find it ridiculous to state that some methods of work management are more focused on continuous learning and improvement than others. This implies there is no room for those things in other methodologies.
Sorry, it is the people who are focused on those things. The people adapting agile (and now lean) successfully are by their very nature, more inclined to be learners and improvers.
Some processes if they are done well will help people focus on those things and even expose inefficiencies. However, it is the people who make it work. I have read between the lines in some of the books on Kanban; the manager (and team) made all the difference in the successful adoption and when they left, things reverted in many cases.
As the masses go lean, many will mess things up just like the pseudo agile shops out there. This is good news for those with the skills to make things work.
Don't be ashamed to use what process will work best for each situation; even if it not currently hip. Use what you can from each to make your work and projects as effecient as possible. If you have to use a schedule based methodology, use some agile and lean where you can.
Measure, learn and improve.
If you don't your competitors will.
Lean is great. But so are the practices from the other methodologies.
Lean and agile are about using what works best; not being rigid. Keep an open mind and use what works for your team. Deliver as much value as you can.
What methodologies are you using for managing your work?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How to Create a Marketing Persona - Make it Personal STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-to-create-a-marketing-persona-make-it-personal CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/how-to-create-a-marketing-persona-make-it-personal.html DATE: 11/09/2011 04:49:38 PM ----- BODY:Whether you are talking about product (or service) development or your marketing strategy or sales tactics it is important to understand who your customer is.
This is where personas can help you.
You start by creating a specific and detailed profile of the people you want to reach. Then create characters (or personas) to represent those people. I really like the idea of treating them as real people as long as you can remember they aren't.
Harry Potter is a character in a popular series of books and movies. When you mention his name, you can immediately bring up a picture of him, what he is like, what issues he has (Lord Voldemort is trying to kill him) and therefore what solutions you could sell him (a better wand).
In the case of our forthcoming product we are going through this exercise. We've identified two main categories of people who would be interested in our product:
If we were to focus on the business owner in some crisis our profile might look like:
Let's now make it personal and name the persona and apply some demographics.
Judy Calson
Background - Judy worked for 15 years for a company doing accounting and bookkeeping. She was laid off during a merger and decided to start her own business. Things went well for a while and then Judy started hiring additional staff. Customers were impressed with Judy's quality work when she could oversee everything. Now, 3 years into it she just doesn't have time to check everything and employees are not living up to her standards. Customers are starting to be unhappy.
Then you create personas for several of your other types of potential customers.
You get the added bonus of being able to talk about Judy Calson by name which adds some reality to the profile. Protip: Don't use a real person as your persona name.
Now you can ask and answer specific questions like:
This is just a sample of the power of personas and how they can be used.
Keep in mind that you have to treat each real person as an individual, not a generality. Everyone and every situation is unique. However, by using personas you make your market segments real and are less likely to treat them like a revenue target and more like real people (yes, treat your customers as real people).
We are just getting into this ourselves and it seems like a great approach. Is anyone using personas effectively in product development, marketing, sales or customer service?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Employees: Getting Them Thinking Like an Owner STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: thinking-like-an-owner CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/thinking-like-an-owner.html DATE: 11/04/2011 03:36:20 PM ----- BODY:Are you a business owner wondering how you can engage your employees and get them to think like you would when making decisions?
I recently read "Ownership Thinking: How to End Entitlement and Create a Culture of Accountability, Purpose, and Profit" by Brad Hams.
Brad talks a lot about entitlement and how it is "destroying companies, our economy, and crushing potential". Entitlement is basically the idea that you should get paid just for showing up at work; no matter what your actual impact is.
Brad's personal mission is "to eradicate entitlement".
Basically it starts with the idea that given a choice, people actually want their work to be meaningful and productive. People also want to learn and grow to their full potential.
Companies can achieve this by focusing on several things:
Overall, I found a lot of good stuff in this book. Brad and Ownership Thinking are in good company too. If you have read "The Great Game of Business" or "A Stake in the Outcome" you will recognize many of these very topics.
What I liked about this specific book is that it was not focused solely on one company or industry and he gives lots of real examples of KPIs and improvements you can implement.
Of course, understanding the theory is just the beginning. The harder part is implementation. But the rewards are worth it.
It turns out that Brad's mission to eradicate entitlement and our mission "To help people achieve their full potential." dovetail nicely. The reason is that we've decided to focus on the impact that a great company has on the entire realm of owners, employees, families, customers, vendors and community.
By improving businesses, we both seek to improve everyone on the team to their full potential.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Zumba Party with a Cause STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: zumba-party-with-a-cause CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/11/zumba-party-with-a-cause.html DATE: 11/02/2011 05:31:21 PM ----- BODY:This event has been cancelled due unforeseen circumstances. I encourage everyone to consider a donation to the Food Bank anyways.
'cause it is good for you and helps the Calgary Inter-faith Food Bank help others.
Have you been feasting on leftover Halloween candies and want to wear off some of those calories? Want to try Zumba? Don't know what Zumba is but want to have fun?
Bring some of your excess food and donate it to the Calgary Food Bank; join Dance Through Life and instructors Deborah Mandzuk and Paula Callihoo for a FREE Zumba For A Cause party on Saturday at the Tryzub Ukrainian Dance Studio at 3953 - 112 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta.
Don't forget to bring your food donations. Let's make Paula regret not getting a BIG car!!!
Our company mission is to "Help (ensure) you (live to) reach your full potential (by staying fit)".
In support of this event our company (Sunwapta Solutions) is making a donation to the Food Bank as part of our giving back.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who Are You (and Your Business)? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: who-are-you-and-your-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/who-are-you-and-your-business.html DATE: 10/31/2011 07:36:58 PM ----- BODY:Today I was reading a post about "Being Right at Someone Else's Expense" by Bob Burg (recommended blogger).
I decided to comment on his post. Rather than take my normally more serious approach (in business anyways), I decided to post a fun comment where I started out in a negative over the top tone and then switched tone midway through. In fact, one commenter (Amy Wells) replied "Doug, LOL. I was gonna offer you a Jack Ass to carry all that rightness of yours..." which shows how over the top my intro was. See the post and the comments in detail for yourself. I had fun doing it and it obviously caused a reaction before people realized I was joking.
When I am at work there is a lot of work to get done and often things get fairly serious. Planning strategy, working on the business, developing new products, working hard to deliver excellence to customers, etc. all take their toll on your humour. There is also a tendency to portray a businesslike and therefore competent, persona; to be taken seriously.
But deep down, we are not always like the persona we portray. When I am relaxed I like to joke around a lot; often a dry humour that might be an acquired taste for some. I am not so serious as I have sometimes been lately.
Don't get me wrong, not being serious doesn't mean "don't care" or "doesn't like to succeed".
So why do we let our work persona drift from who we really are at times? Why do we talk about work and personal life being different.
I wrote the blog comment in a moment of spontaneity. It was fun. We need to do more of this.
In my case I am lucky. I am in business with two other great partners and we have a really good team here.
We can have our business be anything we want it to be. It can support who we are and serve us. It can be fun.
Who are you and your business? It really is your choice.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Build Something You Know... Or? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: build-something-you-know-or CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/build-something-you-know-or.html DATE: 10/27/2011 05:49:25 PM ----- BODY:Good business advice is to build products and services around things you already know well. Then you can focus on one hard thing at a time; building a great product.
But not all innovators do so with something they already knew. In fact sometimes innovators are successful precisely because they brought fresh insight into an area where the experts already knew everything there was to know.
You can build a product that relies on expertise that you have to learn as you go. This is a lot harder, but possible.
The trick is to truly commit to becoming an expert in the new area; it is difficult to fake it.
You can accelerate the building of expertise by building on things you already know, skills you already have, and bringing in experts to learn from and build immediate credibility.
To really succeed you have to commit to organizational expertise; being (among) the best in your field and having the world know that (or at least the part of the world that matters).
So a great software product requires both software expertise and subject matter expertise.
So you can build something you know or you know about something you build... but knowing and your product go hand in hand.
P.S. Organizational expertise includes everyone, not just developers and business analysts. Sales, marketing, customer support, management....
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Product Value - Long and Short Term STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: product-value-long-and-short-term CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/product-value-long-and-short-term.html DATE: 10/25/2011 11:09:36 PM ----- BODY:If you are building a product (or service) that is intended to help companies and people over the longer-term you have a dilemma on how to get them to long-term.
People have short-term attention spans and may not have the staying power to see things through if they don't start seeing benefits over the short-term. If they abandon your product before they see the value, you have a problem.
You might try to lock them into a longer term contract. The problem is that while you have the money, they still might stop using your product or at least have lost interest. If they don't get the value you have not met your part of the deal; it is a one way transaction.
The solution is to bundle the long-term value with something they can derive some noticeable value over the shorter term. The value over the short-term does not have to be huge, but some sort of of visible progress is required to the bigger benefit.
P.S. Long-term does not mean what it used to either; even that has condensed.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Start Your Engine (of Growth) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: start-your-engine-of-growth CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/start-your-engine-of-growth.html DATE: 10/24/2011 12:59:39 PM ----- BODY:We are in the midst of launching our new Manifast product. In fact we are committing to launching our MVP in November 2011. This has gotten me to thinking about marketing, sales and most importantly our revenue model.
In "The Lean Startup" Eric Ries talks about three engines of growth for startups:
I agree with Eric, it is best to pick one engine and focus on it as when you are in product launch (startup mode). It is fairly easy to pick one top contender. It is not so easy to not focus on all three at once. But it is necessary.
Our Manifast product is aimed at helping small businesses balance "working on the business" with "working in the business" in an agile and lean fashion; just in time planning and execution. Coaches and consultants will also be able to offer their services on top of Manifast to streamline the interactions and allow them to focus on value added areas rather than information gathering.
We are planning on offering the tool on monthly subscription basis.
Being realistic, business owners have better things to do than tell their friends to sign up for our product. We hope that they will see value in our product and do so but this is not like Facebook (yet) or similar so we shouldn't count on that. So Viral is out for now.
The Paid Engine could work if our customer acquisition cost is low and we can keep businesses around for a few months. But our mission is to "Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life." So unless our product succeeds in a very short time frame and then it is no longer required; Paid is out.
I believe that in order to achieve our mission, we need to either have a long-term relationship with our customers or have lasting impact.
The Manifast product is designed to help new and existing small businesses (under 150 employees) work on their businesses using just in time planning. The only reason a customer should leave us is if they grow too big or they shut down shop to retire (sell).
The subscription model also works best with customers that stick around.
But the biggest reason of all is we want to deliver long-term value for our customers.
We need Sticky in order to fulfill our mission. And it should lead to more success in the other two engines later.
So the Sticky Engine of Growth it is.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Getting Past Fear - Launching our MVP in November STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: getting-past-fear-launching-our-mvp-in-november CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/getting-past-fear-launching-our-mvp-in-november.html DATE: 10/18/2011 04:10:49 PM ----- BODY:Ok, I admit it. I was caught in a trap... actually a few; partly of my own making.
After reading "Lean Startup" (see review) and rethinking what I've learned from Seth Godin over the years the message is loud and clear. Build and ship, measure and learn, adapt and ship. This needs to happen sooner than later.
The fear comes from putting a product out there that is conceptually good on paper, but not yet feature complete nor as perfect as I would like. After all you only get one shot at a first impression, right?
But after reading Lean Startup I've accepted that our product is nearing the point (maybe way past?) of being a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and we should get it out there so we can get real feedback. And just like Eric Ries says, if we annoy a few early customers, there are always more and the damage can be minimized. That is the worst that can happen. The best has endless upside.
So better now than later.
The interesting part is the the product we are building is putting together concepts from experience and a number of business gurus and authors to form a platform (tool) for working on your business and your most important work. Every time we learn something more that is really useful, it somehow will get added to our product; sometimes in subtle ways.
Yes, this product will continue to grow and evolve over time. By definition, it will never really be done. Business improvement, agile and lean are continuous by definition.
Yes, this is starting to feel like a Ukrainian/Russian Nesting Easter "egg and chicken" situation.
So the reality is we need to get it out there and learn from customers. Not just what they tell us they want but what we learn they need from experience and observation. We also need to build out our revenue engines.
The fun is just beginning.
Now that I've committed to a launch window I feel somehow that the pressure is actually less; not more.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Naveed EMAIL: nsorush@sunwapasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 11/03/2011 10:36:56 PM It is an interesting strategy, however, one of the challenges with MVP could be determining what is “minimum viable”, identifying the features that are absolutely required to launch a useful tool that can attract enough users, nothing more, nothing less, just enough. Moreover, since one of the goals of the MVP approach is to receive feedback from the customers/potential customers, I think it would be important to make the process of giving feedback as easy as possible. For instance, it could be part of the tool, an icon on the side where users would be able to easily access the feedback page and offer feedback. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/03/2011 11:08:40 PM Good points Naveed. There is nothing easy about this MVP approach. The point is to get something out and start learning. One of the things that Eric Ries talks about frequently is that customers don't know what they really need. So the direct feedback approach is dangerous at times. With MVP you can start with just a few customers and see what they actually use and think more directly. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Lean Startup 2 - Growing and Staying Lean STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: lean-startup-2-growing-and-staying-lean CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/lean-startup-2-growing-and-staying-lean.html DATE: 10/17/2011 07:46:23 PM ----- BODY:I've finished reading "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries that I discussed on my last post.
Part 3 of the book talks about:
Part 3 does not have as many specific details (would have been a large book) as the prior 2 sections but it does plant some good seeds for keeping the lean startup energy thriving and your organization adaptable.
This book is going to remain on my "A list" for some time. The material fits a lot of what I have been writing and thinking about for years and fleshes out some of the details. I think I will get additional copies to share instead of lending my own.
The key with all good books and ideas is to translate those ideas into action and results in your own life and organization. This one is going to affect Sunwapta Solutions and our product development for some time.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Lean Startup - Measure, Learn and Adapt STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-lean-startup-measure-learn-and-adapt CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/10/the-lean-startup-measure-learn-and-adapt.html DATE: 10/05/2011 12:25:02 PM ----- BODY:I am about two thirds of the way finished reading "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries. I was already coming to some of the same conclusions as part of my thinking and reading on entrepreneurship; his book helped me solidify things and fleshed in more of the details of implementation.
Essentially, starting a business (especially a high tech one) is a crapshoot. You come up with a brilliant idea. Then you make a business plan or strategy that incorporates some large (leaps of faith) and small assumptions about your product, your customers, the market uptake, revenue and profits. When you are just starting almost nothing is a given.
Even if you are an established company, when launching something new that part of your business is just like a startup.
So the first step is to clearly define what your strategic/business assumptions are; right down to the details. Then you build what he calls a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is a product that is good enough to start testing your assumptions but not the fully featured, high quality product you envision.
One by one you test your critical assumptions by validating with potential customers. Don't worry about your reputation at this point. Honestly if you are just starting, you don't have one and any missteps will only affect a few customers.
Then you measure, learn and adjust as you tune your product and revenue engine. Avoid the vanity metrics and find ones that validate real success based on the changes you are making.
If you find a key part of your strategy is not working, you have to decide whether to persevere or pivot. A pivot is really changing your strategy while keeping what you've learned to date. Your overall vision "may" stay the same, but the details may need to change.
Eric gives lots example of companies that waited too long to pivot. I suspect that you can pivot too early and too often. After all, the measurements or data could lead to false interpretation or it could be more of an issue with critical mass or not enough of the right type of marketing.
In the development of our Manifast product (soon to be released) we pivoted at least 3 times; even though we didn't call it that. I wish I could say we pivoted because of excellent data driven feedback, but we didn't know enough then to it as scientifically. I would guess that some entrepreneurs have a little bit of an instinct for adapting their business to connect with customers.
After what I have read so far in his book, even a lean startup is a crapshoot.
The difference is that you acknowledge this and then build a system that can help you determine the winning strategies from the crap.
P.S. Can't wait to finish the book and implement some of the ideas.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Customer Testimonials STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: customer-testimonials CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/09/customer-testimonials.html DATE: 09/28/2011 07:53:19 PM ----- BODY:I was recently asked to write a testimonial by the owner of a dance studio. I think people like to know what others think of a business or service and I am really happy with the studio so here is what I wrote.
"I have been taking Canadian Step Dancing classes at Dance Through Life since it opened and prior to that with Paula at another location. I didn’t have any prior dance experience when I started so it was a bit of a shocker to get those feet moving correctly. From personal experience I know not everyone is born with coordination and sometimes it is harder when you are starting out as an adult. But after lots of instruction and practice, I’ve moved from beginner to advanced and am now comfortable performing on my own and with the Step’N Up dance group she runs.
I highly recommend the studio. The instructors are all awesome and supportive, the floors are great and there are many different dance styles and levels to choose from if one isn’t right for you. I don’t enjoy jogging anytime or cycling outside in the winter and exercise machines are boring. Dancing is fun and challenges the mind while offering excellent cardio and toning. Seriously, if I can learn to dance as an adult, so can you, just stick with it, I intend to. So much still to learn and so much fun!"
I think we often forget to ask our customers what they think and to go beyond that and ask for a testimonial.
This is a good reminder to always be marketing and getting feedback.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Only 24 Hours in a Day? Really? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: only-24-hours-in-a-day CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/09/only-24-hours-in-a-day.html DATE: 09/27/2011 05:24:00 AM ----- BODY:Are there really only 24 hours in a day?
I am an eternal optimist when comes to thinking I can do anything; as much as I want. My brain tries come up with ways to get more time in a day. Maybe I can sleep a little less. Maybe if I work harder I can get everything done. Yet there is a price to pay. A trade-off for every choice you make. And there is always something more.
Still, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Work. Relationships. Health. Recreation. Hobbies. Self-improvement. You need to be balanced or you will eventually pay the toll for cheating. Balance is a personal definition; your balance is not mine.
As an entrepreneur the challenges are often limitless. Negotiating a lease. Hiring. Performance reviews. Meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Accomplishing as much as you can in the time available. Working on the business. Working in the business. Strategy. Marketing. Sales. Keeping everyone happy. Paying the bills.
The default is to let the world choose for you. To be busy but not really going where you want.
Yet there are only 24 hours in a day.
The only choice is to make a choice... on how you spend it.
Focus on your most important work, the things you create the most value doing and give you the most happiness. Create balance and have your business work for you.
Choose how you spend each of your 24 hours.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fueling the Myth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fueling-the-myth CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/09/fueling-the-myth.html DATE: 09/08/2011 04:15:19 PM ----- BODY:Computers are still harder to use than they should be.
I overheard a conversation between two young university students the other day:
Person 1: "I don't know why people bother using Macs, they cost a lot more."
Person 2: "They are easier to use and they don't get viruses because they are more secure."
I recently shot and edited a dance video (see my last post for the link). I ran into to some issues that would have derailed a non-technical person.
The HD camcorders we were using had memory cards. Rather than use the USB download option, I elected to insert the memory cards into the slot on my laptop. Other than having to know which directories to copy and which were not required it was pretty easy.
I then brought the laptop to the office to copy the files to the computer we wanted to use for video editing. I wanted to the use the most capable computer we had as HD video editing and rendering is resource hungry.
Both computers were on the network. I shared out a directory on the destination machine and started copying using Window Explorer. The copy process hung, so I cancelled the bulk copy. Then the machine hung. I rebooted and retried.
At first I thought a file might be corrupted, but I was able to copy elsewhere on the hard drive and it played fine. I researched possible issues on Google, but none of the suggestions worked.
I then connected a USB hard drive to the laptop thinking that if nothing else, I could sneaker net it to the destination. I copied the 16GB of video files to the USB hard drive. However, I decided to try copying from the USB hard drive to the destination computer via the network.
This actually worked.
Now I could get on with editing.
I won't cover the video editing in detail. Suffice it to say that doing anything beyond very simple editing means working with tracks and timelines. Since I already understood the concepts the learning curve for Adobe Premiere Elements was not that bad. It is actually a pretty powerful application for $125. Unless you are doing professional work, you likely would find it more than capable.
However, I did run into one glitch with the soundtrack. Since it was a dance video, we wanted to have the main music run continuously. So I put it in the soundtrack "track" and it should all work.
And it did work perfectly in the editing playback views.
Then I went to render the video and no sound. I tried different settings and could find no reason sound would not come through. Researched help in the application and Adobe sites. Used Google. Could not find out why the soundtrack was rendering with no sound but playing back ok in the editor.
Finally had to create a new audio track on top of the stack and put the music into the new audio track. SInce we didn't want sound from any other tracks this was an adequate workaround.
If you are publishing directly to YouTube from Premiere, you don't have to worry about settings when rendering the video, Premiere does that for you.
Computing is still more difficult than it needs to be for end user (consumer). I don't think a non-techie would have worked out these issues without help.
Some of the devices out there (iPod, etc.) have made using the apps much easier for the average person. However, you still need to use iTunes to get stuff on your iPod. From my experience with iTunes and the iTunes store are still not as easy as they could be.
Therein lies opportunity.
People want simple things that just work. They don't want to have to hire a tech to set things up and they don't want to look dumb in not figuring it out.
Is Apple better than Microsoft? I'll leave that for the fanatics on both sides to argue and it is not the point here.
Apple is playing their cards on the we are simpler front; fanatically marketing that message. Others are doing the same. Myth or not, they have created at least the perception that their stuff is easier.
What are you doing to make your stuff easy for people to use?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 09/08/2011 07:06:25 PM This is awesome! Just today I had a discussion about simplicity in general and its’ implementation in computer science. Didn’t have enough steam to write a post of my own, but there’s enough to reply to yours. First the Apple thing – they did a few things that were just straight forward: 1) remove complexity 2) make it appealing to the customer. Steve Jobs told his UI/UX folks to make products “lick-able” for a reason. Any iPhone addict literally licks its phone. It’s simple, it’s working, and for a trivial tasks it does the job most of the time. Ironically, we developers name things simple after hard work (.NET Rocks recent show Richard the host mentioned this interesting fact). Something that we work on for years, the moment it’s cracked, immediately identified as “simple”. It’s our ego and snobbism that talks. The “thing” is not simple, it is still complex, but we want to call it simple to differentiate us (the smart ones) from others (less smart) by calling it “simple”. Example – I have created code and frameworks in the past, that are based on complex underlying frameworks/technology, and by being the author of those frameworks and knowing how it works, I have categorized my code as “simple”. When in reality it wasn’t simple at all. Another example – ASP.NET Web Forms vs. MVC. The reason so many developers are moving away from We Forms is because it’s so complex (plus more). Long story short – we are not as sophisticated as we think of ourselves. Simplicity is the name of the game. Apple was wise to identify that early. The rest time will show :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 09/09/2011 03:54:14 PM Thanks Sean, Yes, simplicity applies everywhere. Sometimes complexity IS required. If you can hide complexity from the customer; that is innovation worth pursuing. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Zumba - Do the Pause Entry STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: zumba-do-the-pause-entry CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/08/zumba-do-the-pause-entry.html DATE: 08/31/2011 02:11:16 PM ----- BODY:My wife recently decided to get some of her Zumba friends together and enter the Zumba "Do the Pause Contest". I ended up (long story) being part of the camera crew, director and video editor. There is enough involved in this process for a blog entry or two.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the resulting entry. (Note: Sadly, you need to log into Facebook to view the video.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 09/02/2011 05:43:42 PM I recall this started as "let's find someone who can video tape these dances at various locations and the end-result will be an entry will be submitted for the contest".Later, you made a wise decision and decided to direct and make the film yourself, with your own help-crew. This reminded me of the book I am reading "Anything you want" by Derek Sivers in which he describes the most rewarding experience of his life was to learn new things and do it himself and then apply them in his business. Seeing the final production of this Zumba entry, tels me you should be pleased with your decision! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Kanban - The Power of Focus STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: kanban-the-power-of-focus CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/08/kanban-the-power-of-focus.html DATE: 08/15/2011 08:42:18 PM ----- BODY:
I recently read "Kanban - Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Company" by David Anderson.
The most important takeaway is the power of focus.
I don't think the author quite stated it that way. He basically presented numerous examples and statistical evidence to show that limiting work in progress lead to a more effective and predictable outcome for software teams; especially those working on maintenance or lots of little projects for different systems.
It seems the more work you have on your plate that you are trying to simultaneously juggle the less efficient people and teams are.
Kanban essentially proves what other authors (i.e. "Your Brain At Work" and "The Power of Focus") have stated numerous ways. People are horrible at multi-tasking, distractions kill productivity and context switching in complex tasks is expensive (time and energy).
So focus on one (or a small few) things and get them done. Then move on to the next thing.
Kanban enforces this process on people and teams by limiting work in progress in each stage of the value stream.
Once you limit work in progress, you will discover your bottlenecks. You may or may not want to remove bottlenecks because the slack time other people have can be used to work on other improvements; this is where you get the resourcing for continuous improvement. The only issue I see there is the person who may be the bottleneck doesn't get slack.
Remove unnecessary work and processes (waste). Seeing the process operate on a whiteboard with stickies makes everyone aware of where the problems are. If you don't/can't use a whiteboard approach (electronic) you will have to spend a little extra time ensuring understanding in order to enable improvements.
Build a high trust relationship with business and upstream/downstream teams. Deliver often (regular releases) and products with high quality. Over communicate and involve stakeholders in decisions.
There are lots of other good takeaways, especially for larger organizations and teams.
The author tried to show how you could use Kanban on top of Agile or in organizations that could not make the leap to Agile for whatever reason. He seemed to think it could deliver most of the results of Agile for projects without the steep price of entry. However, from what I read, the best use of Kanban is for software maintenance teams or software teams working on lots of smaller projects.
I think that Agile teams using short sprints and limiting the number of features/stories taken on by a developer (or pair) will experience most of the same benefits without using formal work in progress limitations. Update: Pairing is also potentially a powerful way to keep focussed when done right.
And of course, agile should also be about continuous improvement and sustainable development.
The book has a lot of good ideas and points but it is not light reading and somewhat repetitive.
The big takeaway is...
The author has proven statistically what we all sort of knew. If you want to be effective at getting things done; work on one thing at a time and finish it before moving on.
This extends way past Agile and Kanban software development and is good for anyone or any business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 08/15/2011 10:29:14 PM Last sentence echoed to what I keep telling Liam - "do one thing at a time, but do it well" :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Working on the Business? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: working-on-the-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/07/working-on-the-business.html DATE: 07/19/2011 05:35:52 PM ----- BODY:What does working on the business really mean?
As a business owner (or entrepreneur) you spend a lot of time working to build your business. You are:
And many business owners can generate a lot of revenue and even profit doing the above. They may even significantly grow their businesses.
So isn't that working on your business if you are growing it?
Partly, but not really.
What are you doing to make the actual business (the processes, systems, information technology, automation, tools, the facilities, the infrastructure, etc.) run the way you want them to? Did they grow by accident or did you plan to do it that way? Did you just let each employee figure out a process that works for them?
The great businesses treat building the business that delivers the product/service to the customer as just as important (or more so) than the product/service you are delivering. After all, products and services change over time. As well, the consistency at which you deliver the product or service very important to establishing your brand or reputation.
Your "business" needs to reinforce and support your: mission, core values, company culture, vision and goals. It needs to be in alignment with your core (mission and values) and support the execution of your strategy. I refer to this as alignment.
Your business also needs to be efficient and competitive at what it does. This means your process and systems need to maximize the value generated versus the costs. The difference between these is the profit and all businesses need to eventually generate profit to stay viable. This is also where business innovation comes into play. I refer to this part as efficiencies.
If your business is efficient but is not in alignment you will get to the wrong place faster.
There are many ways to be more efficient at something and sometimes parts of your business can be "good enough". You can't compromise on alignment if you want to achieve your personal vision.
This will vary by owner (or entrepreneur) but some good reasons include:
And the best reason: You will be more likely to build the business you really want; this will lead to much more long-term satisfaction.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 07/20/2011 03:27:12 PM This writing was most helpful reference when a potential client and I were having a dialogue re: challenges business owners run into that prevent them to achieve original goals formulated at inception of business. Being too busy servicing existing clients has been number one hurdle. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Timesheets Don't Lie - The Power of Tracking Effort STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: timesheets-dont-lie-power-of-tracking-effort CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/07/timesheets-dont-lie-power-of-tracking-effort.html DATE: 07/06/2011 12:25:58 AM ----- BODY:Timesheets don't lie.
Sure people filling out timesheets can be less than honest, but more often than not, they are more inaccurate than dishonest.
I've come to the very firm conclusion that if want to achieve your full potential, obtain your peak performance or build a great company you need to measure where you and everyone else spend their time.
When you are doing your strategic planning, looking to improve your business, thinking to grow sales or just working to satisfy your existing customers; it is likely that free time is in short supply.
This means you will tend to be busy but not always get the most important work done. Even worse, most people tend to get side-tracked by the many distractions out there (e-mail, Twitter, instant messaging, Facebook, etc.). We justify it all by saying to ourselves that it is necessary to keep in touch and a myriad of other justifications.
If you track where you spend your time fairly accurately and include categories for the busy work and distractions (and assuming you are honest with yourself) you will likely find that you spend much less time on the important work than you should.
Don't bury the distractions in your other work time reporting. That 5 minute distraction cost you 5 minutes for the distraction and 10-20 minutes to get back into your flow. Account for them if you want to improve your effectiveness.
As a business owner (or someone who wants to just excel at your work) you make the most money when you are doing your most valuable work, pure and simple. By that I mean the work that you are really good at and that has value to your business and customers.
Most business owners (and companies) spend far too little time on the strategic and "working on the business" activities. If they do spend enough time it is by working excessive hours.
So how do you get this under control?
Measure.
Then look at where your time goes.
If your time is not going towards the most important work either re-prioritize, avoid the distractions, or delegate (the work that is not your best, most important work).
I periodically look at my time sheets to see where I am spending time. Actually, I look at it from the perspective of the entire company as well.
I am constantly amazed at how easy it is to get off course; to find a week or two went by and you didn't put any effort into executing your plans.
Don't beat yourself up. You will just look for distractions to make yourself feel better. Besides, humans are naturally easy to distract. (This is why so few humans achieve at their full potential.)
Do something. Just use the information to refocus and redirect your efforts:
Do this periodically. The more often you do it: the smaller the damage, the smaller the changes required and the easier it is to redirect. The added benefit is you can work less hours and actually be more effective.
Time sheets don't lie. Use them wisely to improve your performance and the performance of your team.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Top Challenges for Businesses - Top 5 List STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: top-challenges-for-businesses-top-5-list CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/06/top-challenges-for-businesses-top-5-list.html DATE: 06/28/2011 02:59:20 PM ----- BODY:In my prior post I listed 15 business challenges and received another eight (8) and counting additional ideas from the crowd. When I wrote the list I purposely stated similar problems a few different ways to see if they would form "bunches" in the responses.
Based on preliminary feedback (I'll post an updated list later in the summer), the following are the top 5 statements/challenges:
Hiring good people and long-term employee retention; having the right people.
The people in the business are so busy with serving customers and keeping the business alive they don’t have time to work on the business, let alone a strategic plan.
Business plans are made once a year (or less) and then seem to disappear off the radar.
Our business needs to become more of a learning organization; one that constantly reflects, learns, implements, measures and repeats in continuous cycles.
People are busy every day, but the important long-term work keeps slipping
And one more that was close:
The results are far from unanimous; every business has a different top 5. This is not surprising since all businesses are in different stages, etc. and facing different challenges. I expect as we talk to more organizations, the list may change slightly.
This exercise has been very useful and we will continue this process of crowd sourcing, including getting more sophisticated at it.
After all, we are building these tools to help others, not just ourselves... and knowing who will relate to our solutions the most is invaluable as we start to reach out with our mission:
"Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/28/2011 06:04:32 PM I would almost advocate for item #1 to be split into 2 items: (A) Hiring process is getting the right people - initial investment, filtering, sensing/gambling on personality and skills. (B) Long-term employee retention - you know the person is right and now it's all about creating the right environment, stimulus, and conditions to keep the person. From employer point of view, A and B are desirable from the get-go and viewed as one. From employee point of view, it is not linked together. More often it is the immediate and obvious and only later realization of the benefits and decision to stick around. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 06/28/2011 06:31:06 PM Sean, I agree with your comment. Solving the problem is actually two parts. They are somewhat intertwined in that having a well run company with a clear culture and mission/vision is going to solve both challenges to some degree. However, the specific things you do to hire are different from retention (career path, growth, ongoing fit, etc.). Ideally, hiring would help reduce churn caused by hiring the wrong fit. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The End Is Near! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-end-is-near CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/06/the-end-is-near.html DATE: 06/27/2011 01:37:16 PM ----- BODY:The forecast for today is fire. If we make it through that the rest of the week looks pretty good.
Are you accomplishing your most important work?
We are on our count-down to our product launch. We just need to make it through the next few weeks and focus on our most important work.
For us, the end is near... then things get going for real.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Happy 11th Anniversary Sunwapta Solutions! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: happy-11th-anniversary-sunwapta-solutions CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/06/happy-11th-anniversary-sunwapta-solutions.html DATE: 06/23/2011 04:04:26 PM ----- BODY:Wow, 11 years.
As they say, I wish I knew then what I know now.
We started out as a software development consulting firm. We moved into building and managing hosted applications for our customers and their clients. Over 150,000 employees have had access to tools we have built at companies with pretty impressive credentials.
Then we built and sold our first hosted application (PenForms) obtaining well over 40% of the available market. Near as we can tell, we have the largest market share out of our competitors, largely because we had a good product and good customer service. The biggest thing we got out of it was more experience in the cloud (SaaS or ASP) space and fleshing out our customer support abilities. We can do better too and there are already plans to do so.
You can never rest on your past.
Today we are readying another cloud application to launch into the marketplace. The past 11 years have given us a lot of credibility and set the stage for what we are attempting to do. Without the last 11 years, we would not really be ready to embark on the next phase.
We have a mission that resonates. A vision that is big but attainable. We are moving towards something and focusing on a strategy and building a business. We are focused more on our culture and people development. These were things that we got distracted from at times during our earlier past and it made us realize how important they are today.
I've also (mostly) enjoyed the journey. I think I have grown a lot through this process; in adversity and in positive times (still room for improvement too). You find out who you are in the rough times.
I really appreciate the relationships we've built with our employees, customers, partners and vendors and the dedication that so many people have shown over the years to meeting our shared business objectives. Sunwapta Solutions would not be what it is today without you.
And as always, I appreciate the fact that we had tremendous support from our families, spouses and friends.
Looking forward to many more years of doing great things; and enjoying the journey.
Thanks!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/23/2011 08:11:40 PM Mazal Tov! Wish many more successful years. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 06/23/2011 08:54:45 PM Thanks Sean, You are one of the people I thank and I hope to one day work on a great project together. Maybe use agile to build tools that help businesses be agile. Doug ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who Owns Quality In Development STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: who-owns-quality-in-development CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/06/who-owns-quality-in-development.html DATE: 06/21/2011 12:32:07 AM ----- BODY:The simple answer: Everyone.
Actually this goes for any business. Quality is not a department or a person, it is something a company needs to live and breath from top to bottom.
The development team creates the code. If the software contains bugs, the developers created them.
If you are using third party libraries, developer may have inherited some bugs, but again, it is up to the developers to deal with them.
Quality is as much an attitude as a practice.
If you don't own the code as a team and own quality as a team; you won't have the right attitude to deliver high quality. That is, if you think that quality is something someone else will solve, you will shift your thinking on testing code... the wrong way.
So own the code. Own quality. Automate as much as you can.
Unit tests, TDD/BDD, integration tests, user interface testing, automated builds, pair programming, code reviews, group code ownership are all tools.
It starts with really understanding the customer domain.
A lot of the bugs and problems I've seen over the years stem from not truly understanding the customer domain. If you don't understand what the customer really needs and the details of the business rules you will build the wrong thing; correctly.
The ability of the development team (and User Interface (UI) designers) to communicate well with the customer (and business analysts) is critical to being an effective developer. It really doesn't matter how good your code is if you blow the understanding; you've built the wrong thing.
The customer (and/or representatives) must ensure they are available on an as close to real time basis as possible to resolve communication and understanding issues and avoid drift. They are also responsible for helping define the acceptance tests.
Good software depends on the quality and frequency of communication.
Domain and code language must match as closely as possible. Code in the language of the business domain not some development abstraction or you will constantly risk misunderstanding and translation errors.
Did I mention that development creates the code and therefore they also create any bugs?
Developers also understand the design of the code the best.
Mastering the ability to test your software and design your software to be testable is just as important as mastering your ability to write and design application code; maybe more so.
So knowing what to test from a code perspective is driven by development.
The quality assurance (QA) team should ideally find nothing. This is because in an ideal world, communication with the customers is perfect, functionality is constantly being validated with the client and lots of automated and other testing is occurring.
In reality, QA needs to work with the customer to understand and flesh out the tests that will prove that the business requirements have been met. As well, good QAs have a knack for finding combinations that test circumstances not imagined by the customer or the developers.
But it should never be an us and them.
Lets face it. Customers and business analysts don't have all the answers ahead of time. User interface designers and developers may introduce an application that is not optimal but meets the basics of the functionality and business rules.
This necessitates redesign, re-coding and refactoring... and re-testing.
This is why automation is good.
And the rest of the team including project managers, management, infrastructure, database administrators, product managers, marketing, sales, operations and any other stakeholders?
They are not off the hook. In fact they are integral to quality.
Nothing worse than someone sitting and blaming poor quality on someone else. Remove roadblocks. Take some of the time pressure off. Encourage and allow the team to delivery quality. Roll up your sleeves and improve the quality of part of the process or application. Be part of the solution.
Quality is a culture the permeates an entire organization.
Everyone should be looking at what they can do to deliver quality better, faster and cheaper.
Quality is owned by everyone.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/22/2011 07:58:11 AM Very good points Doug. I would also add to the list that developers working with QAs in parallel (instead of phases) achieve way better results. As well, some customers deliberately choose not to go with the quality because of the price tag that is associated with it (a lot of times due to misunderstanding or lack of education of what it will cost down the road). ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Top Challenges for Businesses STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: top-challenges-for-business CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/06/top-challenges-for-business.html DATE: 06/16/2011 11:56:16 PM ----- BODY:I've been thinking a lot lately about the power of crowd sourcing.
I've compiled a list of business challenges that are all somewhat related but stated in different ways for people in different situations. We are looking at getting some feedback to support some of our marketing and product development efforts. Leave a comment or contact us directly, we'd love to hear from you.
Which of the following can you relate to personally the most? Which do you think are the most prevalent and compelling for businesses in general?
80% of businesses fail within 5 years. That number repeats again for the next 5 years.
Many business owners work long hours yet do not feel their business brings them fulfillment; they achieve that elsewhere.
The people in the business are so busy with serving customers and keeping the business alive they don’t have time to work on the business, let alone a strategic plan.
Business plans are made once a year (or less) and then seem to disappear off the radar.
Business planning is necessary but we also need to be agile and lean to survive in today’s business climate.
You’ve been running your business for 20 years and it has earned you a good living but you don’t feel engaged with it anymore and now wish to go off and do something meaningful.
You want to retire or reduce your work week and need to do succession planning and ensure your vision continues to be followed; without having to be present all the time.
Communication of the strategic vision from the board of directors to the management team and down to front line workers is not as good as it could be. Visibility the other way is almost non-existent and filtered through a select few.
We run a distributed organization and keeping everyone heading in the same direction is a challenge.
Coaching is individualized and not fully aligned with the overall business vision. Or coaching is at the owner level but not flowing down to the frontline workers.
People are busy every day, but the important long-term work keeps slipping.
Business coaches and consultants want to spend more time on the value-add and less time on documentation and tracking.
Business coaches and consultants want tools to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.
Crowdsourcing: Businesses want more creative input, on all facets of their business, from all of their stakeholders including employees and key customers; real time and distributed.
Our business needs to become more of a learning organization; one that constantly reflects, learns, implements, measures and repeats in continuous cycles.
After a few years of long hours you are so burned out you are ready to let it all slip away (and join a monastery, move in with your parent/children or make a drastic change in careers).
Two or more key people are not getting along and the division is threatening to take down the whole organization.
Having the business survive the sudden loss of a key person; risk management and succession planning.
Hiring good people and long-term employee retention; having the right people.
All of your eggs in one basket (product/service/customer) leaving you very vulnerable to a change.
The opposite, chasing too many baskets; a lack of focus.
Finding the proper balance between serving and growing existing business relationships and obtaining new customers.
Being aware of changing markets and competitive forces without being obsessed by them; don't copy your competitors.
A business plan tells you where you are going from a big picture perspective. What is missing is the part where you build a business; the process and systems that incorporate your best practices and learning.
Could you clone your business and have someone else run it or does it depend on a few key people (i.e. a turnkey or franchise model)?
If you tell one or more people something, it is not a secret; or at least assume it isn't.
Our society discourages people from talking about money.
If employees know too much they will ask for more money if the company is doing well or panic and leave if the company is doing poorly.
If your customers knew that information, that would impact your pricing and contract negotiations. If your competitors know that information they can use it against you.
Companies that move to opening their books to employees do not suffer from these problems. In fact the act of trusting employees with the numbers helps them make better decisions on their own and feel more engaged with the business.
Every publicly traded company has some degree of open books. Most privately companies that open their books do better, not worse.
And the truth is often better than the guesses and rumours that permeate a company that does not share information.
Fear, or mostly fear.
Fear of the unknown. Fear of being judged. Fear of what could happen.
When you do it right, generally company performance increases across the board.
I know of a company that is so convinced that this stuff works they offer a money back guarantee on the training and consulting work they do around this.
But it is also the right thing to do if you want your business to run without you there every day making every decision.
We are not exactly a closed book company. But we are not fully an open book company either... yet.
I plan on formalizing this process in the coming weeks and months. It involves not just sharing the numbers but teaching people what the numbers mean and how they can impact them in their jobs. And to be honest, it means becoming better at understanding the numbers ourselves as owners.
We don't need to share every detail. For instance, payroll costs will likely only be shared at the aggregate and not individually due to privacy concerns. Maybe someday that will be transparent too.
To be a lean and agile business today, you need to delegate decisions and hold people accountable for results. To make wise and informed decisions, people need information and the knowledge to use it.
When the owner can go on vacation for 12 months and come back not just to a company that survived, but one that thrived? Then you have a great company.
That is the one I want to be part of. One where I come to work because I want to, not because I have to.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Achieving Your Full Potential Starts With Health STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: achieving-your-full-potential-starts-with-health CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/06/achieving-your-full-potential-starts-with-health.html DATE: 06/03/2011 06:17:14 PM ----- BODY:I just went through one of those smack in the side the head reminders. Actually I am still going through it.
Like many busy professionals and business owners, I was finding myself grabbing lunch and/or dinner out. In this section of downtown, there don't seem to be a lot of healthy choices for food. I made the mistake of stopping at Tim Horton's for their chili combo.
I ended up spending the night regretting that decision immensely. The regret continued into the following day and well into the next. I still regret it. I won't get graphic so let's leave it at bad chili.
I really feel sorry for anyone out there who has to live with ongoing or repeated nausea. A two year old child could have kicked my butt I was so weak and tired.
That was my smack in the side of the head.
But being more aware of food poisoning wasn't the lesson I was supposed to be reminded of. Nor was it that small bacteria and viruses can knock out out organisms a million times bigger than themselves.
The lesson was that your health is precious. It is one of the few things that will determine whether you are able to live to your full potential.
And the biggest point.
What you eat, drink, breath and ingest have a huge impact on your health.
Chili and a multigrain bun. Doesn't sound as bad as burger and fries.
But the mass produced chili of the fast food chains is likely pretty far removed from the nutritious stuff you might cook up yourself from fresh ingredients.
I don't really know how Timmies chili is made but I now have visions of the cheapest ingredients possible being cooked in giant pots in a central facility where it is then canned or frozen and shipped to... um doughnut shops to be reheated all day in a pot. I have no idea how long they can keep a pot going.
The point.
This is not fresh, healthy food.
Why would I delude myself otherwise? Because it is our nature to justify our behavior.
I am a strong proponent of encouraging people to achieve their full potential. In fact this is now our corporate mission.
Controlling what crap goes into your body is the biggest thing you can do to be healthy with the next being exercise.
I don't think most rational people would argue this.
Yet we so often rationalize the opposite into our lives. You hear people say "I exercise so I can eat what I want" or "I take a vitamin pill so I don't have to eat vegetables".
As an aside, I read that taking vitamin pill actually encourages you to slip something unhealthy into your life. Part of that human rationalization thing.
I am not saying I am going to be perfect in my diet going forward. I am not suddenly a born again foody health nut eating wheat grass shakes for lunch.
But I do plan on taking a sustainable step forward... I will question every choice I make about what to eat and where from a rational standpoint and not based on the whims of my desire.
More good and less bad. Keep improving.
And by the way, can't even think about those types mass produced, low cost, fast foods without feeling ill all over again. That will help keep me honest.
While I admire the stories of people achieving great things when beset with a major illness; I think it much more likely that you will be able to achieve your full potential when a two your old can't kick your butt.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Slippery Slope of Being a Horse Trader STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-slippery-slope-of-being-a-horse-trader CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/05/the-slippery-slope-of-being-a-horse-trader.html DATE: 05/26/2011 07:22:41 PM ----- BODY:Back in the old days, horse traders were the equivalent of used car salesmen today.
Their business model was to buy horses cheap and sell them high. Reputable horse traders dealing with knowledgeable buyers were as close to a fair transaction as you could get. But in reality there were many not so reputable sellers and often buyers didn't have all of the skills or knowledge to price a horse correctly; buyer beware. As the saying goes, "a fool and his money are soon parted."
When you start or buy a business there are two ways of making money when you sell it.
The first type of company is doing two things of value for society beyond creating wealth for the owners: it is generating something of real value thereby increasing the real productivity of the world and it is creating lasting employment. A buyer can expect this to continue.
The second type of business is a valid way of making money in our world as well. It just is not generating as much (if any) real and sustainable value. In a perfect world with a reasonably honest seller and a well informed and knowledgeable buyer, both are getting the deal they wanted so they both win.
Where this all falls apart is that often:
When I buy a stock on the market and sell it for a profit later; I am not actually creating anything of value. The underlying business is (or not). If the underlying company is not a business that actually builds value, then really, I am selling to the greater fool. This bubble eventually pops and lots of people end up losing money. This is a win/lose situation. The anonymity of the public market just hides us from the fool instead of staring them in the face.
The problem in my mind is that the type 2 company inherently forms an environment that creates dishonest sellers by its very nature.
If I am selling a company that has not made a profit since its inception and has no expectation of doing so, then I am a horse trader selling a nag as a horse fit for nobles, it about creating an illusion.
As time goes on, and the bubbles get bigger, people get greedy or fearful. They could run out of money before they can sell or they could make a lot more money by not sharing the entire truth. See where this is going.
You start out not sharing the entire truth and justify it as marketing; just a little spin on reality. Then next year you bend the truth just a touch. Then to keep your numbers up you downright start lying to investors, customers and shareholders.
Not so amazingly, people are attracted to this model because it proposes you can get rich quick without creating anything of lasting value. You just have to have the right spin. You need to be a really good horse trader.
To make matters worse, there are a whole lot of people (investors, investment bankers, lawyers, etc.) who will support this model because they too will make a pile of money based on the greater fool theory. They are generally protected by the systems they have helped create.
I am not saying you can't stay ethical with a type two company and strive to sell fairly to a knowledgeable buyer... I am just saying the temptation is very high to stray. To eventually sell to a greater fool.
The problem is, the great fool is the public. It is your neighbor. It is your parents. It is your children. It is the average investor who does not have access to the same information that the insiders and institutional investors have. They are the people relying on the stock market to make their savings grow so they can retire. Yes, there are greedy buyers too and many should know better.
In the old days they often hung unscrupulous horse traders if they got too bad a reputation. But far more likely, the traders took their money and left town before people found out or could take action. This happens all the time in type 2 companies.
In the meantime, buyer beware, that horse you are buying for an unbelievable price (hoping it will go up) is likely a nag and eventually someone is going to wise up.
I think the better approach is to create a business that generates real value over the long term. Via its products and services to its customers and by creating sustainable profits for its shareholders. This should be the plan out of the gate.
I think this is better for the owners too; it keeps you one of the honest horse traders.
(This post was in part inspired by the current run up on Internet and Social Media stocks and the rantings of people on Twitter like @dhh. I doubt we as a society will ever really learn from history and I sometimes wonder how many more times the governments can bail us out; we are the governments' bankers people.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The "Real" World Doesn't Exist STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-real-world-doesnt-exist CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/05/the-real-world-doesnt-exist.html DATE: 05/24/2011 04:39:00 AM ----- BODY:Ok, the real world does exist... sort of.
The problem is that there is no truly objective way for people to observe it.
We all see the world through our senses which are interpreted by our brains and rationalized through our view of the world.
My reality is different than your reality. Nothing is real and everything is real. If your brain says it is real, for you it is real.
Say I'm riding public transit and see some drunk men acting obnoxiously and see them as slightly dangerous. My interpretation. The person sitting beside me sees the same men out having fun and decides to interact with them.
It goes on and on like that.
The good news is that we don't really have to live in the "real" world.
We are free to create our own view of the world; to interpret things however we choose. Sure, we are impacted by the real world but how we take that impact is largely up to each person.
Great entrepreneurs and leaders create a vision of the world as they see it or want it and convince others to join them in creating it.
Some people go a little too far and see only one view of the world; theirs. Everything else is wrong. Harmless if you are not forcing your view on others, harmful if you are.
The trick is to remember that other interpretations are ok. In fact, being able to see other views is a good talent to have. You can also change your mind or direction on your own; your world today doesn't have to be the same tomorrow.
When someone says "You can't make a living doing that in the real world." or "That business model won't work."; that is someones interpretation of the real world. Invariably, someone will prove them wrong.
This is what I think of when I think of executing a business strategy or personal life strategy. Figure out what you want yours to look like and go make it happen.
As long as you are not harming others, creation is a blessing.
And as I've said before, it is the journey from which you grow, not the destination, so enjoy it; real or not.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/24/2011 12:34:32 PM Doug, Very good read. Makes the question “what is the outcome you are looking for” more meaningful and also validates it ( within one’s own reality that one has created). Al ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Getting Better, Every Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: getting-better-every-day CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/05/getting-better-every-day.html DATE: 05/19/2011 11:36:26 PM ----- BODY:Imagine if everyone in your organization got a little better everyday. If you learned something or practiced something to make you a little smarter or faster or more efficient or... better.
In a business with 10 people, that would amount to 3650 steps to a better team every year.
Imagine if everyone in the business did something to make the business a little better everyday. Improved a process, went out of their way to connect with a customer, worked on building a stronger team, found a way to save a bit of money, found a better tool...
In the same sized business (working a five day week and accounting for time off), that would amount to 2000 plus improvements a year.
Imagine your business makes things a little bit better for each of your customers every time they buy or use your products or services.
Depending on what your business is you might have 100s or 1000s (or more) of customers.
If you can imagine it, you can do it.
Go ahead. Make the world better, every day.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Flow - The Ultimate State of Effectiveness STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: flow-the-ultimate-state-of-effectiveness- CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/05/flow-the-ultimate-state-of-effectiveness-.html DATE: 05/05/2011 05:50:02 PM ----- BODY:I just spent some time reflecting on the last 12 months of running and working in Sunwapta Solutions. This wasn't just daydreaming. My goal was to look at:
This is the process of reflection. If you don't stop and look at what you do and how you do it periodically, you are unlikely to improve anything.
I am lucky to have two great business partners and a good solid team here at Sunwapta.
But I suspect most entrepreneurs and business owners are somewhat like me; doing lots of different things all the time, are constantly multi-tasking and suffering from tons of interruptions.
Unfortunately, constantly multi-tasking means you are not focusing. You certainly can't achieve the state of mind known as "flow" whereby you are at your most creative and productive. Here I measure productivity by the amount of meaningful outcomes you achieve... your results and not hours worked.
Moving things in and out of your conscious working brain is expensive. It also de-focuses your subconscious and much more powerful part of your brain from coming up with creative solutions.
If I look at almost every significant achievement over the last 12 months, it was achieved when I focused on one thing of importance for a period of time and got it done.
So my big change for the future, besides delegating some work.
Focus and flow:
Success is measured more by what you finish than what you start. Lots of people start things all the time. Effective people finish things and get results by their almost single-minded focus.
The ultimate state of effectiveness is when you achieve "flow" in your work.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 05/06/2011 07:23:28 AM @Doug, I have admit that after reading this post, I can tell you that you are the only owner of a software business that actually does what is SO essential in software development. By acknowledging and practicing it yourself you enable others to do so. I clap to you. The history if not learned is doomed to repeat itself. Company that doesn't reflect will continue mistakes it did. You nailed it with "If you don't stop and look at what you do and how you do it periodically, you are unlikely to improve anything."! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 05/06/2011 12:08:24 PM I am in the process of going through all your blogs ( for business reasons, education as well as preparation for product launch at Sunwapta) and I agree with Sean that it takes a real business leader to look at the past success and failures and then move forward with corrections, with passion and alignment of vision and mission with objectives. Here is a past blog that is a good example of need for reflection in running of a business, software or otherwise: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com/weblog/2009/12/clear-window-foggy-mirror-honest-selfreflection-is-harder.html I plan to implement what I am learning so thanks ! Al ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: You Gotta Want It: New Skill Mastery STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: you-gotta-want-it-new-skill-mastery CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/04/you-gotta-want-it-new-skill-mastery.html DATE: 04/20/2011 03:48:06 PM ----- BODY:Apparently, when you start off to learn a new skill, your commitment level determines your chances of success more than the time spent practicing ("The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle).
If you are passionately committed to becoming good at something over the long-term, you will likely do better at it than less committed people (or short-term committed people), even with less practicing.
This has to do with the urgency your brain associates with paving the superhighways that connect the neurons in your grey matter... something called myelin. That commitment plus the practicing ends up generating more and better superhighways than practicing by itself.
There is no shortcut either. You need both the commitment and the practice to achieve peak performance.
And we are not talking about superficial practicing either. We are talking "deep practicing".
Deep practicing is the type of practice where you are really pushing yourself... on the edge of you capabilities with lots of mistakes, corrections and repetition. If you are not making mistakes, you aren't really practicing or learning. But it is not the mistakes, it is fixing them that is important. You have to know that you are making mistakes too. Deep practicing is draining and not always fun; hence the requirement for commitment and passion to sustain you.
We've often sensed that passion and commitment are the keys to excelling in any skill. Now there is an explanation why it is true.
Passion for what you do and commitment to it long-term. You gotta really want it!
This applies to any field including software development. So if you aren't really striving in your profession, why? And why should we hire you if you aren't?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Run Like a Gazelle - Agile for Small Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: run-like-a-gazelle-agile-for-small-business CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/04/run-like-a-gazelle-agile-for-small-business.html DATE: 04/18/2011 06:12:31 PM ----- BODY:Most software developers have heard of agile development. Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Test Driven Development (TDD), etc.
Other business books such as "The E-Myth" talk about working "on" the business versus working "in" the business; and treating your business as a franchise prototype.
As a small or mid-sized business owner, you need to balance off:
The problem is, every day you have a gazillion things to take care of. The world is getting more complex and faster paced by the minute. Your world is getting bigger; you are competing against companies around the world and in non-traditional ways.
If you are small and the lions are after you, you need to be able to run and turn like a gazelle (long enough to grow and maybe one day morph into a lion or elephant). Ok, maybe not the best metaphor but I didn't say you "are" a gazelle, just that you need to be able to move fast and change direction quickly.
The trick is really to take some of the learnings from all of the various disciplines. Take some agile, throw in a little psychology, a little motivational theory, personal performance and time management, some coaching, and the kitchen sink.
Whether you are talking strategy, business planning or project planning, don't plan in more detail than you need to up front. Things will change by the time you get there. Set the overall vision or outcome and then plan details closer to implementation. This way you don't waste too much time on the nitty gritty details that may be thrown away. Besides, you will never know more about a topic then when you are implementing it.
I am not saying don't plan. You need to know where you are going in order for everyone to move there together.
Plan and execute work and project in shorter cycles. Anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks (a month) seems right for most businesses. You might be able to get away with longer cycles in a slow moving industry, but that is not the point.
The point is that you have a learning and improvement process in your cycles. It should look something like:
Repeat.
This gets you in the habit of continuously looking for and removing obstacles and unnecessary work; making improvements.
If you are running projects in shorter cycles, you can learn and improve more often. Most importantly, you adapt your planning to what is happening in the real world, not what you guessed it would be a long time ago.
You are trying to put together a map for the coming week. At the start of every week:
Make your goals for the week aggressive enough that you are moving while achievable enough that you have a chance of achieving them. Otherwise, this becomes another giant "to do list" that never gets done.
Every day starts fresh. At the start of every day:
Every day it is a good idea to try to balance things that need to get done with things that should get done to make things better longer-term.
Sure there a lots of things to get done, but don't forget to work on yourself. Include:
If your entire business team was doing this; imagine what you could accomplish.
Finally, remember two things:
Most business owners see a gap between what they intend and where they really are.
You may have an intention to have a certain culture and live by certain values.
You may have an intention to follow a certain higher mission.
You may have an intention to implement a new vision and achieve certain goals.
This is all fine.
The gap between intention and reality creates movement; hopefully towards your ideal state. The larger the gap, the more movement (or change) required.
The problems start when you sell the intent and not the reality.
You sell the intent to your customers but that is not what you deliver.
You sell the intent to your employees, but they see a different reality, with no movement towards the intent.
You sell the intent to yourself and can no longer see that you are no longer real.
How can you sell something you don't believe in yourself?
The days of building a successful business selling on selling a large gap between what you tell the world you do and what you actually do are numbered. You can't spend your way to success by marketing alone. Your customers will call you out publicly on that gap. It is already happening.
I've written hundreds of post over the last few years. I've stated my latest thinking on a number of business, development and personal topics.
I have the intent to live and work to these ideals. I have a lot of work ahead of me. As I learn more, my intent shifts. I expect to be learning and striving the rest of my life.
I am not there; I am on a journey.
Our business mission is to "Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life."
The wording was chosen carefully.
Do you reach your full potential at age 22 and then coast the rest of your life? Does winning a gold medal at the Olympics mean you've reached your full potential and the rest of your life is meaningless?
No.
Achieving your full potential starts today and goes for the rest of your life.
This is where I am taking our business (and myself).
We are not there either; we are on a journey as a company.
My goal is to create movement and change by attempting to reduce the gap between intent and reality. That starts with understanding and measuring the gap. To do that you need to be honest and authentic, with yourself and the rest of the world.
I hope to make the world a little better by doing this.
It is a journey because the intent and reality are themselves moving.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Did God Give Developers Brains? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: did-god-give-developers-brains CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/04/did-god-give-developers-brains.html DATE: 04/07/2011 01:33:48 PM ----- BODY:I just saw a tweet from @UncleBobMartin
"If programmers were meant to test everything, God would have given them brains."
Perhaps a little non-diplomatic. Maybe evoking religion into development discussions. Funny and thought provoking though.
Another person I know is facing the task of moving his organization to agile and meeting some resistance from the fabled "crusty old C++ developer".
How do you get others to move to what you consider is a better method of programming?
Persistence? Wear them down over time? The best religion wins?
The problem is developers tend to form camps, often with religious overtones. It is very hard to move someone out of a camp by force. Most people don't look objectively at their beliefs on a regular basis.
Before introducing TDD (a method of programming) into the equation you would be wise to get agreement on the desired outcome: clean, supportable code with zero defects for example.
If you can't agree on the outcome, you won't agree on the method; guaranteed.
Once you agree on the desired outcome then the rest of the conversation is around the best method to get there. Listen objectively to the other person. Learn from what they believe. If they think you are listening to them, they are more likely to listen to your ideas objectively.
Then discuss the merits and weaknesses/costs of both methods. Why do you believe TDD is better? Than what? Manual testing? Ad hoc developer testing? External QA and user testing? What problems does it solve?
If you truly believe TDD is the best method to get there, then prove it over time. Most people who truly believe in the outcome will come around over time to better ideas. Just don't bash them over the head with it. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to agree with people who are yelling at me (unless they have a gun).
If both don't agree to the desired outcome you have bigger problems than TDD discussions. You are on different roads to different destinations.
Caring about the outcome is even more important. Maybe the question should be "Did God give developers hearts?".
Smart and caring about their craft.
Brains and heart... and courage; but that is a different story.
(We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz, because, because, because, because, the wonderful code he does.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Science Proves It - Calgarians Are More "Manly" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 0 BASENAME: science-proves-calgarians-are-more-manly CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/04/science-proves-calgarians-are-more-manly.html DATE: 04/01/2011 12:05:00 AM ----- BODY:
I was recently reading an article in the Okotoks Western Wheel titled "Alberta's fish are on drugs". When put together with other information I have come across I came to a startling realization.
Calgarians (actually western Albertans) are manlier for a scientific reason; and it has nothing to do with the Calgary Stampede.
People take birth control pills and other medications in large quantities. Our kidneys are very efficient at removing these chemicals from our bodies. People then use the um, ah, well facilities and give those medications back to the municipality. As well, the old wives remedy for excess medication is to flush it.
Waste treatment facilities are unable to effectively remove many of these chemicals (but they can remove most of the ummm, sorry... crap). Some of these chemicals are also "estrogen" like. Where does all that treated water go?
Well, it goes back into the rivers along with other chemicals from things like antibacterial soap that contains a chemical called triclosan that acts as a "endocrine disruptor".
The hormones and chemicals add up to "feminize" fish. Yes, male fish grow ovaries.
This water then flows east from Alberta into Saskatchewan and other destinations.
As far as I am aware, male humans downstream from us are not growing ovaries. However, we all know that excess hormones in humans exaggerate emotions.
Calgarians (and Albertans) have long suspected that people east of us were spending more time crying over a lack of jobs and money than working hard to reproduce money.
See now we know the real reason. Too much estrogen in the water! It is not their fault, it is sort of ours. Well they were blaming us anyways.
Now you may be thinking, "I drink bottled water".
But we all know chemicals can be absorbed through the skin so you can run, but you can't hide. If you bath or shower, you are not immune.
Now Calgary is downstream from a few towns. So it is fair to say that city dwellers here are probably a little less manly than many of those dwelling in more manly places like Canmore (as in there is no can't in Canmore) and Bragg Creek, where they coincidentally spend more time in the wild back country. However, because our upstream towns are so small it isn't so bad.
I also speculate what would happen if you are downstream from a major retirement community; thinking Viagra here. But I think you would have to move west to BC to experience that.
Apparently the water coming from your well has been down there for like a hundred years or more. This means that our rural dwellers are drinking the same water as our pioneers did; with much less estrogen.
This makes rural dwellers much more manly for a reason other than the fresher air.
I know this for a fact. Since I moved out of the city onto a small acreage, I have learned to fix me traktor, all about septic fields and other manly rural skills. Red-neck Alberta is 20 years behind for a reason... less estrogen in the water.
Drinking expensive white wine and champagne reinforces the effects of estrogen on the body and mind. Drinking beer (or whiskey) can cancel the effects of estrogen quite significantly. No need to prove this, just watch people near closing time at the local bar.
So come on Calgarians. Take up this challenge.
Let's spend less time washing our hands and reproducing money. Let's drink beer, forget to take the birth control pills and make love. We owe it to the environment and our eastern neighbours.
Oh, and any software developers extraordinaire living east of Calgary, move here before it is too late. If nothing else, we are upstream; and that is a good thing.
We have the Calgary Stampede and we are more manly. It is an undisputed scientific fact.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Rejoicing in the Success of Others STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: rejoicing-in-the-success-of-others CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/rejoicing-in-the-success-of-others.html DATE: 03/28/2011 12:17:44 AM ----- BODY:This quote showed up courtesy of a Twitter feed. Whether or not the Dalia Lama actually said it is not point. This point hit home for me for three main reasons.
It is unlikely you will ever be truly happy if don't find happiness in seeing others grow and be happy.
This one is truly hard; especially if you are competitive or insecure by nature.
It is one thing to see your friends succeed and cheer them on, if you are doing just as well or better. But to see your friend succeed well beyond your own success is a different matter.
Call it jealousy. Call it competitiveness. Call it what you will.
If seeing that success makes you unhappy and hateful, you need to get over yourself or be prepared for a life of disappointment and unhappiness. There will always be someone more successful than you, either right now or in the future.
If you can share that joy and then use that to push yourself on to greater accomplishment that is fine; unless it becomes an obsession.
If you are in a work situation where you are on a team for a common goal ask yourself this, "Is it better to be the best person on the worst team in the world or is it better to the worst person on the best team in the world?" I think the bar is higher on the second team and even the least capable person on that team is more productive and successful than the lone superstar.
So building the entire team makes you better too!
Whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur, manager or leader; you need to surround yourself with talented people and then help them achieve to their full potential.
Chances are some of these people are more talented than you, at least in certain aspects. In fact, you should hope they are as you need diverse talent for a business to succeed.
What do you do when one of those people has the potential to move beyond your level? Do you feel threatened and hold them back? Do you sabotage them in the company? Do you encourage them to move elsewhere? Or do you encourage their best and ensure they have a path to move beyond you, making your organization stronger in the process?
Great managers are happy to see their people exceed them. It means that the manager was able to identify talent, give the person opportunities to grow and ultimately help them be better. (If you are working for a great manager, cherish and appreciate it.)
If you are business owner, finding talent to take over may be essential to your succession planning.
The best coaches and mentors thrive on this, helping others be great at something.
Our company mission is "To help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life."
In addition to the above 2 points, there are two additional realizations that come out of this quote.
Too many business owners started with only the goal of making money. I think that as an entrepreneur, aligning your business with your values and personal fulfillment means you will never regret having started it. In fact, you are more likely to succeed because of it.
This then leads you to achieve the mission for yourself.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 03/28/2011 07:32:43 AM "So building the entire team makes you better too!" - absolute truth. And also this is a very rewarding experience when you get to see that team functional. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Is Building A New Product A Dream? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: is-building-a-new-product-a-dream CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/is-building-a-new-product-a-dream.html DATE: 03/22/2011 05:55:00 AM ----- BODY:Is it your dream to launch a new product into the market? Are you looking for your dream job? Dream house? Are you dreaming of running a successful business?
Stop dreaming!
Actually, don't stop dreaming. Dreaming is good.
Stop "stopping" at dreaming.
Make your dreams real.
Dream, plan and take the action require to manifest it.
On two levels that is what our Manifast vision is about:
It is not a just a dream. It is happening.
What is your dream?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Decide What Your Show Is! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: decide-what-your-show-is CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/decide-what-your-show-is.html DATE: 03/21/2011 07:09:09 PM ----- BODY:The other day I did a post about putting on your best show.
Before you can do that, you have to decide what show to put on.
A show is more than just your product or service.
It is the essence of who you are and how you want to impact the world.
It is how you choose to do that in a way that is unique and creative.
It is your art.
Decide what your show is. Then give everyone the best show possible.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Always Give People Your Best Show STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: always-give-your-best-show CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/always-give-your-best-show.html DATE: 03/19/2011 11:31:53 PM ----- BODY:Personal and business lessons are everywhere, even in the things you do as hobby or for fun.
I've mentioned before that I play Celtic music in couple of bands here in Calgary. One of those bands just completed a Saint Paddy's Day performance. We were the opening act, initially playing for a sparse crowd that then grew into a full house. It was also a noisy pub night environment; people drinking and talking with their friends.
One might be tempted to think people are not really watching and not put your full energy or talent into the show.
But this would be a mistake.
Good performers put on the same quality show for their audience no matter: how many people are in the audience or whether they appear to be paying attention.
A mediocre performance guarantees no one will care or pay attention. Giving Your best performance all the time will draw the audience in and either: make you better for the future or potentially opens doors you might otherwise miss.
You never know who might be watching; so always give your best.
Your gift as a performer is to reach people through sharing your talent. Reaching the masses is great but most bands start with one fan at a time.
Your audience, even a small one, deserves your best. Create as many fans as you can.
If you go see a performance by the same band or performer in three months, 90% of the show is likely to be the same. There are exceptions, but then that is the uniqueness of their show.
The reason for this is that they want to produce a consistent and quality show. This happens by perfecting their work. Practice until everyone knows it inside and out. Mistakes can still happen (and often that is what makes live entertainment interesting) but the pros practice recovering too.
You may be tempted to focus all of your attention on getting new audiences and creating new fans.
Don't forget your existing fans. They were with you before. They are loyal and already like what you do. Make them happy.
This is smart on so many levels, but one often overlooked view... your existing fans likely have the strongest relationships with you. Appreciate it.
Besides new fans can be fickle.
Business (and your personal career or job) isn't really so different from performing.
Your business is always on stage... so always give people the best show you can.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Software Developer Extraordinaire STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: software-developer-extraordinaire CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/software-developer-extraordinaire.html DATE: 03/16/2011 12:16:15 AM ----- BODY:We are hiring some more technical people.
We have recently been readdressing things like mission, vision and culture. To me fulfilling live means a balance of achievement, relationships and fun.
So when I wrote the job description for a great developer, I decided to have some fun... and hopefully share some of that fun with our applicants (and anyone else who reads it).
This is the most fun I've had doing this and it reinforces the idea that work should be fun. Looking for lots more opportunities for that.
It is also a good opportunity to see what we think makes a great developer. So hope you enjoy.
Software Developer Extraordinaire
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Getting 100% Employee Engagement STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: getting-100-employee-engagement CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/getting-100-employee-engagement.html DATE: 03/12/2011 07:12:39 PM ----- BODY:HR professionals (even enlightened ones) and business consultants often talk about the "fact" that employees generally are giving 80% effort and the having them fully engaged can bring them up to 100% plus (110% or 120%) effort. This gap is called discretionary effort and is the recipe for business success.
Our mission involves helping people (and thus businesses) acheive their full potential; so I am all over the idea in general. But, as with anything, you need to really understand what it means.
To me 100% effort means holding back nothing; giving it your all. So what does someone mean when they say I am going to try 110% or 120%?
It reminds me of a trick our drill sergeant played on one person who dropped his rifle on the parade square (this is considered a very bad thing in the military). After making the guy run around the parade square many times with his rifle above his head, then making him do push-ups until he dropped, the sergeant approached the poor guy who was collapsed on the ground and said "Why did you stop?" The guy replied "I can't do anymore push-ups." The sergeant said "Give me one more and you can stop." So the guy dug deep and did one more. The sargent then screamed at him "You lied to me, you said you couldn't do any more push-ups." and sent him off to run around the parade square some more. (You can't win in these situations as the rules are not constant.)
That was approaching 100% effort. So striving for greater than 100%? Figure of speech or exaggeration.
Now I am not saying this is a good way to motivate or engage your employees, but the point is, defining maximum effort is a tricky business. In most cases people always have a little more than they can give; but at some point the price is pretty high.
The example also brings up the question. What did all those push-ups accomplish?
The guy didn't drop the rifle on purpose. He just failed to catch it after one particular step in the process that we were all just learning and perfecting. It could have happened to anyone. I could have been the guy doing push-ups.
From a business perspective, do you really want extra effort from your employees or do you want maximum results? Working a few extra hours on something that didn't really need to be done is not really the goal.
I think great managers set the bar at excellence, not average. This is very important and distinguishes great managers from average ones. But excellence implies performing a role or function to deliver excellence; not merely working really hard (effort). It is the outcome that is important. The top of excellence is 100% and is more a constant goal than a destination (what is excellent today may be average tomorrow).
Make it easy to ask for excellence. Make it easy for employees to deliver excellence.
Assuming you've done a good job on selecting an employee, the manager's job is to: set expectations via outcomes, provide any required training and coaching, and then remove any external barriers to their team achieving excellence.
The key is that you have selected the right employee (based on talents) for the right role and the person fits your culture and can stand behind your mission.
I subscribe to the premise that most employees want to do a great job and want to do work that they enjoy and also matches their talents. If you are capable of doing the work (talents, skill and knowledge), you enjoy doing it, and you have the tools and environment to support it all, you are having fun, who wouldn't strive to give their best?
Great businesses are run by great leader(s) and great manager(s). Business leadership sets strategic direction including mission, vision, goals... and most importantly company culture.
The number one reason for leaving a job? Bad manager.
A manager's primary role is to achieve the business's goals by maximizing the results from each of their team members. The manager has to know their people. Employees need to trust and receive recognition from their manager. This is an extremely important relationship in achieving excellence. It is also a balancing act.
You can get advice and guidance from HR, consultants and other outsiders. You can read and learn. You can delegate administrative tasks.
But ultimately, to build a great business (large or small) you need a minimum of one great leader and one great manager. If you are lucky, you may have both in one person. If not, hire for the missing talent.
Managers, not the HR department, are your best strategy for maximizing employee engagement.
To achieve excellence, to get 100% employee engagement, to become a great company (no matter your size) you need to keep the core of of who you are close.
If you don't own your mission, vision, goals and culture as a business owner, you might really be working for someone else.
You need to own the core, not outsource it. You can sometimes outsource core predictable and repetitive work. Great management is part of the core that should not be outsourced.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Infrastructure and Development Support Specialist - Opening STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: infrastructure-and-development-support-specialist-opening CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/infrastructure-and-development-support-specialist-opening.html DATE: 03/07/2011 12:29:00 AM ----- BODY:Sunwapta Solutions is in growth mode and hiring people for our Calgary location.
The job title is negotiable. The outcomes we want to achieve are not.
We are looking for someone to work closely with our development team to drive out the architecture and support our hosting environments, look after our internal infrastructure, help support the applications and databases, and provide support to our developers.
The full description is available in the careers section of our company website.
(We will also be looking for a software developer in the very near future.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Better Method For Hiring STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-better-method-for-hiring CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/a-better-method-for-hiring.html DATE: 03/06/2011 11:14:30 PM ----- BODY:We are back in hiring mode. But we are also changing the way we think about hiring.
Traditionally, companies write a short description of of the job followed by a list of the essential knowledge and skills. Potential employees don't get a lot of details about what is expected of them until the interview and post-hiring phase.
It is also difficult to tell if there is a match between the company's mission and culture and the potential employee. For instance, you may be told that a company is in the top 100 employers category. But what does that really mean? It certainly doesn't mean everyone will be happy working there, it just means that the people working there are happy according to some rating criteria.
So we've modified our approach to share more information from the get go. I think this is going to make the process better. Instead of check lists of skills and knowledge, you can look at what is expected and see if you think you would have the ability and desire to perform that role.
The Mission - We tell you what it is. Everything else flows from the mission; so If you don't mesh with our mission, we definitely aren't a good match. Let's not waste time.
Our Culture- We are still learning to define our culture. I thought it would be easy, but it is not. Ultimately culture is defined largely by our values. Picking the most important ones is the hard part. You don't compromise on values, ever... or they are not values.
Desired Outcomes - What exactly we want you to do and the expectations defined as outcomes; not tasks. If we hire you, can you accomplish these outcomes; that is the real test.
Required Talents - Talents by our definition are part of the person. It is very difficult to change a person's talents... it is far easier to build on existing talents. These are the talents we think you need to achieve the desired outcomes.
Skill and Knowledge - These are still useful, it is just that matching on the first four items is more important. Skill and knowledge are learn-able so some shortcoming here are acceptable as long as the rest is strong.
There are no tricks to hiring. There are no tricks to applying for a job and interviewing.
The point is not to trick each other. It never works out.
The point is to get a good match between us and an employee.
That is how you build long-term relationships; and ultimately, that is what we are about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: If You Want To Accomplish Something - Choose! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: if-you-want-to-accomplish-something-choose CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/if-you-want-to-accomplish-something-choose.html DATE: 03/04/2011 03:02:24 PM ----- BODY:There are 60 seconds in a minute
There are 60 minutes in an hour.
There are 24 hours in a day.
There are 365 days in a year, plus a bonus day every 4 years.
Everyone has the same constraint.
(As far as I know) you have to sleep, eat and breath to live. The rest of your time is yours to spend how you want; but you only get to spend it once in this lifetime.
Some people accomplish amazing things in that time. Others don't seem to accomplish much, but they may be busy; even very busy.
The magic secret?
Choose.
Every single day, every week, make a choice.
Choose what you are going to accomplish.
More importantly, choose what you are not going to accomplish.
You can't do everything. The more you take on the less time you have to spend on each thing.
It is actually very hard to choose. I find myself being overly optimistic on what I can accomplish (desire) and what my talents, skills, knowledge... and time will actually allow me to accomplish.
Avoid distractions (part of the choice). Focus and start moving forward. Build forward momentum. Get it done. Ship it. Go.
If you want to accomplish something, the first thing to do is to make a choice... so choose.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Which Way Is The Wind Blowing? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: which-way-is-the-wind-blowing CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/03/which-way-is-the-wind-blowing.html DATE: 03/03/2011 12:23:52 AM ----- BODY:I live in Calgary (Alberta, Canada). We've had a cold snowy winter. The other day it was minus 30 Celsius with a minus 38 Celsius windchill. For those in the US, this is pretty close to the same number in Fahrenheit). Either way it is cold and windy.
I noticed that some of our doors and windows were not sealed right and quite a breeze was blowing in. This made the house feel cold and it was costing us money; not to mention wasteful from a green perspective.
So I picked up some materials from the local hardware store and proceeded to do some fixing.
First off. Doors don't have equally sized gaps in our house. This meant that I had to use different materials in difference parts of the door. Replacing the doors was out of scope and budget.
Second, doors need to open and close. This is why they are doors and not walls. You can't use too much filling/sealing or the doors won't open and close. They may be sealed, but you can't come and go.
Some windows also need to open and close, but if they leak a lot, you can seal them up for the winter. However, in summer the coverings come off and you have to repeat next year.
That was when the wind was blowing from the northwest.
Today the wind was blowing from the southeast (still wasn't warm and tropical though). Today there were a whole bunch of other leaks to discover and fix.
I think business is like that. You have do things differently in different circumstances. You can't be married to what worked yesterday. Things change and not all customers are the same. You have to accept that.
Knowing which way the wind is blowing is half the trick.
The other half is knowing what to do about it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Ensuring Successful Outcomes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: ensuring-successful-outcomes CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/02/ensuring-successful-outcomes.html DATE: 02/23/2011 11:23:43 PM ----- BODY:I was recently reminded of the importance of following a solid process for ensuring success using outcomes.
Manage by outcome, not by task.
You want to tell people what the desired outcome is and let them figure out how to achieve it. The alternative is micro-management which does not develop the abilities of people to solve future problem; and it stifles creativity and the desire for some autonomy over your work.
But using outcomes doesn't guarantee success.
Have you ever played that game where one person reads a long complex sentence. Then they pass it on to the next person, and the next, and the next.... Then the person at the end says the secret phrase out loud and it is compared to the original. It never matches.
In fact, it is usually totally messed up.
Communicating or delegating work is like that; and the more people involved, the more messed up it can get.
Human memory is subject to both interpretation and loss. The more time passes since the assignment is given, the more it gets messed up.
The initial assignment as described in the kickoff meeting:
"We used approach A (technology and process) to do some complex work in the past. It took longer than expected and is not suitable for client work in many cases because it is too expensive. Let's try to make things better by using approach B. Learn the technology and build out a test solution using approach B. The goal is to determine if and when approach B would be better than approach A both from an initial build cost and in facilitating future client changes."
Three weeks into to the project the team thought the scope of the assignment was something closer to:
"We are replacing approach A with approach B in future client projects. Learn the technology for approach B and build out a test case to prove it works."
I am not putting this here to pick on my team, and to be fair, it is actually just as much my fault as anyone else's. I assumed everyone understood and would remember the project outcome.
Assuming is bad.
This is a good lesson and reminder for me.
The key to successful communication of outcomes is:
Yes, this is common sense stuff for most people. Funny thing is, we sometimes forget anyways or slip into bad habits when we are busy.
The key to ensuring successful outcomes lies in doing it right, without exception.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Creativity Just Doesn't Work Like That STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: creativity-just-doesnt-work-like-that CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/02/creativity-just-doesnt-work-like-that.html DATE: 02/17/2011 12:18:27 AM ----- BODY:I went to the hockey game this evening with my business partner (really good tickets courtesy of a very generous friend of ours). Al was telling her that I would probably write a blog post about the game and somehow blend in some business lessons from the game.
But my first reaction was, "Hey, I write about what I want when it comes to me. Creativity doesn't work like that." Telling me to write about something actually blocks the creative process; you can't force it.
I am sure he was thinking that here are two teams (Calgary Flames and the other guys) fighting for playoff spots, Doug can write about competition, or perseverance or out-playing the other team.
But frankly that feels forced.
Nope, to be in touch with your creative side you actually have shut down your conscious (active) brain enough to listen for inspiration from your subconscious as it brings ideas tantalizingly close to the surface. You have to be aware, just enough, to grab hold of these ideas before they disappear. But you don't want to grab too hard or you push all the other patterns aside... at least until you have the inspiration you are looking for. Having a preconceived notion severely impedes the process.
So sorry Al, I am not going to write about how the Flames won 4-2. Or how they came back in the third from a tied 2-2 game. Or which players made the biggest difference. Or the importance of a great coach. Or the impact of strong management on team momentum. Or how hockey is like business. Or how I really enjoyed the game. Or how some people can be so nice.
Creativity just doesn't work like that.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Our Approach for Designing Applications STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: our-approach-for-designing-applications CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/02/our-approach-for-designing-applications.html DATE: 02/14/2011 02:54:08 PM ----- BODY:We are currently building an application that will help businesses and the people in them: execute on their strategy, work on their businesses and focus on the most important work first.
Over time our process for designing the application and eventually getting to a working application has changed (and it will probably continue to do so as we move forward). My part of the process ends when it moves into source control, HTML and detailed look and feel. I am focused on capturing two main things in this project:
Now to be clear; we all use the tools we are most familiar with. If you are filling this role and know HTML/CSS inside and out you may skip from sketching to high fidelity HTML mock-ups like the folk at 37signals. This is a preference and the key is that it works for you.
I start with sketching in most cases. A whiteboard and sticky notes work well for what I am normally trying to do. Here is a sample of a sketch (I had to blur it a bit because I used real client information in my sketch).
In this case I was working through the business logic and not designing user interfaces. We are building a product and not a custom software product. So my goal is that by the time the developers start coding, I can act as the customer because I understand the subject matter well enough. I am also fairly clear on what we need to build so we avoid excessive thrashing in code (which is very expensive).
I have numerous discussions at this point with the developers to make sure I really understand the application (i.e. I can answer questions) and get ideas for what is possible, easy and hard in code. Developers are also encouraged to offer ideas for product improvement.
This part of the process is highly iterative and in no way do we try to spec out the entire application at once. We build part, make sure it works, then add more stuff in.
In the second stage I layout the screens in interactive wire frame mode. The goal is to make sure the business logic is captured, we think through the user experience and maintain consistency with the rest of the application.
I don't get too carried away in wire frame designing. The tool we are using right now (FlairBuilder) allows you to program quite a bit of interactivity, but I prefer to only do enough to work through the business logic and work-flow. I leave the rest to the normal (agile) discussions between developers and the customer which occur throughout. There is no possible way anticipate everything in paper or wire frame; and that would be a step backwards anyways.
Here is a sample (very simple) wireframe. I still plan on doing a review of the Flairbuilder tool down the road with more details about the actual tool.
The next step in the process is to develop the application in code, use it, refine it and repeat until we are happy with it (or until the budget or time line is used up).
My goal with sketching and wireframing is to explore numerous design ideas very quickly and then have discussions with the developers about the options. With this approach we can go through several iterations for a new module or capability in a day or two. In code we would probably be talking weeks or longer.
For me, right now... this is the simplest thing that works.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fair is Fair (Red Gate and CRTC) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fair-is-fair-red-gate-and-crtc CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/02/fair-is-fair-red-gate-and-crtc.html DATE: 02/03/2011 11:18:39 PM ----- BODY:I've been reading a book called "Your Brain At Work" by David Rock lately. It is really about how your brain works (or doesn't) during the day both at work and at home. The concept is that if you understand, you can use the knowledge to your benefit by controlling how you think and react to the world. This is one of the best books I have read for its impact on my own thinking.
In the book the author states that we are wired to know what is fair and what is not. In fact survival often depended on people's ability to detect other people who did not behave fairly and avoid them (or punish them) in the future. The brain treats unfairness similar to any other threat, real or perceived. Therefore, it is a very powerful driver of emotion and people will remember unfairness (and seek revenge) for a long time (some will take it to the grave).
As an aside, one of the things the brain does is avoid uncertainty (i.e. hard tasks where the outcome is not certain) and is easily distracted.
So I was following twitter more than I normally do and picked up two main threads:
Both of these organizations made decisions recently that triggered a very strong unfairness reaction.
Apparently, Red Gate promised the developer community that they would keep .NET Reflector free. After several years they realized that supporting software that you give away for free costs a lot of money; money they were no longer prepared to throw away. (I could have told them that for free.) They are going to charge developers $35 for version 7. The wrinkle, the current "free" version is time-bombed to ensure developers always stay current (so they don't have to support old versions. Essentially, developers are being forced to upgrade to the paid version or stop using it.
Red Gate is perceived as making lots of money on their other products.
Now the developers that are screaming the loudest are highly paid consultants and forking over $35 is trivial.
Except the "this is not fair" part of the brain has perceived this to be a significant threat. And once the brain perceives a threat (even a fairness one), it will not rest until the matter is resolved or you consciously let it go (which is harder than you think).
The ISPs in Canada requested that CRTC approve usage based billing for Canadian Internet users. Canada already has some of the highest Internet usage fees in the western world. Most ISPs put a cap on bandwidth usage on a monthly basis and wanted a clear ruling that they could charge for excessive usage. With the proliferation of services like NETFlix bandwidth usage is skyrocketing so the caps that are in place would kick in a lot more often... this could be big bucks.. especially considering the extra usage fees are out of line with incremental costs ($2 per GB on many plans) to the ISPs.
The problem is that most of the major Canadian ISPs are also in the phone, wireless, satellite and wired television business. Services like NETFlix get to use the infrastructure for free to distribute competing services. Infrastructure in a country spread out like Canada is likely expensive. The incumbents would like to restrict the competitors or get compensated. This is just business.
The Internet is largely perceived as being about buying a pipe and then using that pipe as much as you want (unlike wireless data plans).
The major ISPs are also large businesses. So even if you can see their point of view, there is not a lot of sympathy built in; especially when Canadians are told other countries get Internet with unlimited downloads for much less.
The fairness alarms are being sounded. Again, by people who really could afford to pay a little more for heavy usage. So again it is not really about the money.
It is the perception of unfairness.
And people are not going to take it anymore!
As a business owner, you need to really understand how people work. If you don't, you will make mistakes that could be fatal.
The people at Red Gate were being logical and appealing to developers based on logic. (Who would have thought) It backfired, because the fairness rule was violated and logic does not apply.
The CRTC was seen as siding with big business even though the decision probably made logical sense when presented by the big ISPs.
So something like trying to get lots of subscribers based on free services with the intention of charging later just might backfire.
So be clear in your intent and stated communications, free now but pay later or free now and always. It is hard to change later.
Remember, fair is fair.
(Red Gate can possibly fix things by releasing one more free version that is not time-bombed or open sourcing the current version; then start charging. The other one, well it is in the hands of politicians now.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: mendicant EMAIL: mendicant@beigesunshine.com IP: 206.47.180.194 URL: DATE: 02/04/2011 08:53:04 AM The issue with the CRTC is not necessarily UBB, which if you ask most people they will probably agree is basically fair. It's the amount they'll charge for their UBB. A good article on this is: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/gadgets-and-gear/hugh-thompson/what-is-a-fair-price-for-internet-service/article1890596/ He claims it likely costs the isp 3cents/gb to transfer data and that includes all costs, not just data transfer (electricity, etc). Even if we double that (an unlikely cost) it still doesn't explain why we're paying $2/gb for each gb we go over. It's not fair. Now, if you're going to start to charge me 10-15 cents per gb, sign me up. I'm all in for UBB. But we're not going to get those prices... so while UBB is fair in the idea of each paying what they use, it's not fair when you factor in the charges that will come with it. They're not doing this to be fair, they're doing this because it's a chance to pad their bottom line with a gravy train. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 66.11.84.105 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 02/04/2011 03:53:40 PM In regards to Reflector - the commitment was to keep it free, not something anyone pulled Red Gate by the tongue. Plus, a lot of "features" Red Gate added are not needed for the core Reflector functionality. Normally, you'd keep bare minimum as a free version, and have commercial version(s). Post#, Babel, etc - all done the same. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Artic EMAIL: sof@Invoise.org IP: 178.137.160.135 URL: http://tutorials4free.altervista.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=1653 DATE: 05/28/2012 01:18:27 PM james ranno con zoloft alergy medication lithium batteries airplanes cymbalta medication allis chalmers wd tractor equipment geriatric use lexapro buspar side effects long term trazodone use [url=http://forumprzymierzeslaskie.tarnogorski.pl/viewtopic.php?pid=37850#p37850]what is antivert used for antivert versus the patch [/url] [url=http://webkuhnya.ru/showthread.php?p=175210#post175210]naprosyn mg naprosyn and weight [/url] [url=http://jizan-mcz.com/vb/showthread.php?p=46028#post46028]micardis dosages alcohol consumption and micardis [/url] [url=http://taaffeplace.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=112663]willy gans kum gan san restaurant [/url] [url=http://www.avcitube.com/forum/konu-aricept-and-detrol-aricept-long-term-effects]aricept and detrol aricept long term effects [/url] free market pros and cons is viagra covered by insurance companies ebay viagra pills ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Focus On The Good News Folks! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: focus-on-the-good-new-folks CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/focus-on-the-good-new-folks.html DATE: 01/25/2011 02:24:34 PM ----- BODY:It is a funny thing.
I wrote my last post thinking, "Hey this is good news, I can pretty much do anything I really want to if I am willing to just work at it." and "As I practice I will get better and better." These thoughts really pumped me up and I saw opportunity to keep growing as a person... maybe even become great at some things.
A lot of people when they read it went, "I guess I'll have to settle for not being very good then."
I've always assumed I can do most things if I put my mind to it; and if I can't I'll have have fun until I get better.
I choose to focus on the good news folks; it is both a choice and the way I am.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Practice Makes Perfect - Period STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: practice-makes-perfect-period CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/practice-makes-perfect-period.html DATE: 01/24/2011 06:02:56 PM ----- BODY:To become good, better or great at something we need to practice; right?
But obviously there are some people who have natural talent that slingshots them past everyone else. They can become great at something in a fraction of the time of regular people; it is called talent. These are the instant success stories you hear about all the time... they are born with "the gift".
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? More relevant here... which came first, the talent or the practice?
I was killing a bit of time in a bookstore recently and skimmed the book "Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else" by Geoff Colvin. I didn't read the entire book (yet) but one section really caught my attention.
(From memory) Apparently after studying the habits and activities of a large group of violinists who were accepted into a music school in Britain they came to an astonishing conclusion. They broke the group into 3 subsets of musicians: the good, the better and the best. The good typically went on to become music teachers, the better often played with an orchestra or band and the best went on to become world class soloists. They all basically had the same curriculum, they all had the same instructors, they all played music in groups, and they had all been playing since age 8-10.
The only significant difference. The best violinists (solo) practiced 4000 hours more than the merely good (7000 versus 3000 give or take a few hundred hours). Over ten years, this difference is 8 hours a week, every week for 10 years. The best practiced (solo) on average, 20 hours a week in addition to playing in lessons and groups.
This is the hard and not fun kind of practicing. Scales, arpeggios, vibrato, repetition, technique, etc. Tunes over and over.
They found very little evidence of any natural talent that allowed one violinist to be as good as all the others without the practice.
This fits with other sources of knowledge on talent. The rough rule: 10,000 hour of doing something to become a master; or roughly 10 years (maybe 5 if you work really hard).
Now this is not to discount that some people just don't have the body or makeup for some types of things. Genetics does play some role in many areas... so does the quality of instruction and the age at which you start.
People have talent because they practiced something (or something related).
But this knowledge is comforting (and discomforting at the same time).
Just about anything you want to do well you can become good, or even great at.
The not so good news; you need to practice it. And you need to be passionate and committed enough about achieving your goal to stick out the hard and not fun parts of it. The right kind of practice. There are no easy shortcuts. A coach, instructor or mentor helps too.
Mastery is within your grasp.
Start practicing (with passion).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 66.11.84.105 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 01/24/2011 06:52:53 PM It's a good book. And also nicely explains a few things about Mozart and his father (historical facts that are getting omitted). As in everything, practice makes the difference. Reflecting back I can tell you that I would probably be complaining and winning if wouldn't have move on and start practicing. Interesting thing is that when you actually grasp it, it seems so simple and so logical, something completely opposite from the way you see it initially. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Zap! Make an Improvement STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: zap-make-an-improvement CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/zap-make-an-improvement.html DATE: 01/18/2011 03:01:07 PM ----- BODY:I just remembered something I read in "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh.
At Zappos they asked every employee to make an improvement to the business every day. The cumulative impact is huge.
If you have 10 employees and every employee makes an improvement to the business every day for a year (say 200 working days), that is 2000 improvements.
This illustrates the power of a group of empowered and motivated people all working towards a common objective; leverage.
What improvement are you making today? Tomorrow?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 01/18/2011 03:48:40 PM Reading this blog reminded me of a continuous improvement initiative I was involved in at a prior company ( Amoco ). A huge investment was made to bring in Conway Management consultants and each process and activity at Amoco ( by department)was reviewed to see on how it can be improved. Substantial savings were achieved at the end of the routine and it was all about team work. Here is where the blog on the subject can be found : http://www.challengestoci.com/ and Conway's website is at : http://www.conwaymgmt.com/ ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fortune Cookies Don't Lie STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fortune-cookies-dont-lie CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/fortune-cookies-dont-lie.html DATE: 01/17/2011 12:59:21 PM ----- BODY:I recently got a fortune cookie that said:
"The smallest deed is better than the biggest intention".
In a nutshell: dreams, ideas and intentions are worthless without action towards achieving them.
Far too many starting entrepreneurs are all about the next "greatest idea". They put in place non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality clauses, and non-compete agreements. They are focused so much on protecting the idea and preventing others from stealing it (and thereby building it) that they often don't get past the idea phase.
How can you get customers, investors, employees, etc. if you can't tell anyone your brilliant idea.
Yes, in order to build it and sell it you need to share the idea at some point. Why not now?
Share it and start building.
That is exactly what I have been doing over the last 315 posts. I am sharing nuggets of insight and ideas that I think someone else might benefit from or find useful; and if nothing else, writing it down solidifies it... makes it real for me and easier to put in practice.
And behind the scenes we are building. Lots of small deeds adding up to a new product (or more).
What will this product do?
Exactly what the fortune cookie said:
"Help people and businesses focus on the deeds that achieve the best results; accomplishing your best intentions."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sterile Environments Are Depressing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: too-clean CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/too-clean.html DATE: 01/12/2011 02:53:31 PM ----- BODY:Husbands can now rejoice, there is a scientific explanation for what men have subconsciously understood for years, too much housework sucks.
Apparently our obsession for clean and sterile environments is depressing us. An article I recently read in The Metro said that we are now making our world so clean and sterile that our bodies are being robbed of the multitudes of benign bacteria and germs to fight on a regular basis. This is causing us to become both weaker and in many cases our immune systems actually start attacking our own bodies leading to things like increases in allergies and depression.
People living rural lifestyles (i.e. farming and ranching) are exposed to vastly larger numbers of these bacteria and germs, just like our ancestors have been for years; even if they keep a clean house. The result is that rural dwellers suffer less depression.
This article and the research it is based on brings up all kinds of other questions. Are slobs happier? Does riding public transportation nullify the effect? Etc.
I also see a parallel in the business world around sharing new ideas and challenging the status quo. Does your business environment encourage:
Are you accidentally (or through feeding your ego) encouraging the opposite? A sterile, "That is not how things are done here!" environment?
Your body needs those bacteria, germs and little organisms to be stronger; and so does your business. Yes, they may be pesky and distracting at times. Cleaning products companies (and some people) may claim that you are safer without the risk they bring.
What worked in the past might no longer work in the future and by the time you notice, it is often too late.
That little germ of an idea might turn out to be the next great product or service.
And most people need to be growing stronger too; or they will be unhappy or move on.
It turns out sterile environments are depressing on many levels.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Managing Projects by Outcome STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: managing-projects-by-outcome CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/managing-projects-by-outcome.html DATE: 01/11/2011 12:53:41 AM ----- BODY:If you have used most popular project management software tools (Microsoft Project, etc.) you notice they encourage two things:
One major issue with time-line based project planning is that the project plan is usually out of date by the end of the first week. Nothing ever goes according to plan so you either spend lot of time changing the plan, or just use the time line as a rough guide; not ideal.
Another common approach is to list all the things that need to get done (tasks or to do's) in a big list and then pull items off that list until everything is done. This is sometimes called a project backlog.
Are projects really about completing a predefined list of tasks or to do lists? Maybe.
But at the heart of most projects is not the time-line or list of tasks; it is what the project is meant to accomplish... the project outcome or results.
We get paid for creating results and achieving outcomes; not being busy checking off tasks and to do lists. High performers also focus on the most important outcomes at any given time, generating maximum value as they go.
So the better approach is to start from the overall project outcome (or result). This is the thing that if accomplished, you would know the project was successful. There are many paths to most project outcomes.
Then you start defining intermediate outcomes (results) that you can accomplish that will move you closer to the end game. Again these are results focused and not activity focused.
Unless you have already done something very similar in the past, a lot of up front project planning is pretty much guess work. This is fine. It is as good a starting point as any; as long as you accept that they are just guesses.
Some important considerations are:
The agile software development community often uses user stories to define these intermediate results from a customer perspective. Developers then work on the highest value user stories (as defined by the customer) first. Project teams are encouraged to deliver business value early in the project and within each iteration.
This same basic approach works for any type of project.
The key is really learning to define outcomes (and results and stories) in a manner that captures the true business value; in a way that we feel inspired by.
Most business writing and almost all technical writing used for business is dry and emotionless. I think that long ago we decided as a group that writing from this perspective made us sound more professional. Sadly, this hasn't made our documents more professional; it has made them entirely forgettable; sucking the life out of us and ensuring no one ever reads them.
If you are writing a project outome imagine how the end recipient would describe the result if they were totally wow'ed; as if you delivered an awesome result. Capture that feeling somehow; tell a story.
I think you are much more likely to achieve awesome results and wow your customers if you describe your outcomes in this way.
What is the next "most important" outcome/result you can tackle?
Once you answer that question, each outcome is then further refined into a path and action items/tasks. The goal is to determine the optimal approach to deliver the outcome as close to execution as possible. Why? Because this is when you are most likely to know the most about the work at hand.
Tasks don't go away. To do items don't go away. The work still needs to get done.
What you are really doing is tying all the busy work back to business value so you can decide what is the most important thing to work on next; rather than just ticking of items in a list.
Getting results in business and life is not about getting all the work done. It is about doing the right work at the right time. You will NEVER get it all done and if you do there is always more. It also allows you to sleep better when you can't get it all done; at least you know the most important things were taken care of.
That is why I am now a proponent of managing projects by outcome... especially when the outcome can be awesome.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 01/12/2011 10:14:40 AM Perfect timing for this blog as most of us have new year resolutions or equivalent drafted mentally in our minds to ensure projects and tasks are accomplished successfully this year. Better than prior years. I find that if I can describe the outcome clearly, there is an increase in momentum and passion that goes into the effort of realizing the task on hand. Being result-oriented and focused on the mission critical tasks is one way to attain awesomeness !! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: CES Keynote by Microsoft STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: ces-keynote-by-microsoft CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/ces-keynote-by-microsoft.html DATE: 01/06/2011 12:27:27 AM ----- BODY:I took some time today to watch Steve Balmer and his team from Microsoft present at CES in Las Vegas. I was following some people talking about it on Twitter during and after.
What really amazes me is how much we now take amazing advances for granted these days; we expect it instead of being surprised.
Companies used to release everything at one of the big shows. It was the best way to guarantee a large uptake if the reviews went well. Today though, companies spread their announcements out over time to better take advantage of speed to market and critical purchasing seasons like Christmas. It is also harder to keep things quiet. So ultimately they have fewer big announcements at trade shows.
Microsoft's XBox 360, XBox 360 Live and Kinect were all released prior to the CES. So the really cool thing was an add-on to that platform. Essentially you can now animate an avatar using the Kinect controller (AvatarKinect); not only body motion but "facial expressions". They also demo'd the voice and body controller aspects for interacting with your home entertainment system including streaming movie, TV and music.
WF7 (Windows Phone 7) was a little less exciting from a demo perspective. It is hard to appreciate the user interface improvements without using it yourself for a period of time. A lot of the really cool stuff around voice and Bing search is apparently not available yet in Canada. As well, we already saw a big leap with the iPhone release. One really clever part of the WF7 platform is the tie-in to the XBox platform via XBox Live and light version of the games available on the phone. Smart. Strategies like this will build a following over time and with the number of developers who have access and skills in Microsoft platforms, they will likely pick up even more momentum over time. While it is a pain for developers to have several large players in the smart-phone space, ultimately it is going to drive innovation.
From a hardware perspective there are some fairly cool tablet and touch screen PCs coming out from a number of vendors. I must admit I got distracted and I was only tentatively paying attention at this point. However, the Microsoft Surface 2 was amazing. Each LED (pixel) in the display is also an infrared sensor. This makes it so much more than a touch screen. I suspect that the technology is a little ways out from being mainstream but "wow".
The technologies we see in science fiction movies (and many spy and police dramas) are not so far off from being reality.
A recent Tweet from Josh Brown (one of our developers):
"Lots of neat stuff coming from Microsoft soon, now its up to the developers to make it rock!"
Well I am not a developer. But as a product manager and idea person, I am already starting to come up with lots ideas on how we can integrate these technologies into our software products to allow for more interesting and productive interfaces. Other companies like Apple and Google are doing cool things too. I'm sure others (our team and customers) will add to the ideas as well. (Maybe we will set up a little lab and let people play.)
Then it will be up to the development team to make it rock.
(Yes, I am serious about the lab.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 66.11.84.105 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 01/06/2011 06:54:25 AM I absolutely agree with you and Josh. Tonnes of cool things are coming out. What is more interesting, that it's not only Microsoft that is trying hard to impress customers, but companies across the board. Samsung's AMOLED (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8S8tbQMp2k) and a lot of other things combined together - sky is the limit. On a software side, it's booming as well. Silverlight for WP7 is outstanding, things added to .NET are improving from year to year. One gray side I find in this race is how proper practices will shape up and developers/customers dealing with frequent waves washing away the idea of "stability for an extensive period of time". Interesting times we are living in :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Shaping the Path - Building a Business That Reinforces Success (Part 2) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: shaping-the-path-building-a-business-that-reinforces-success-part-2 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/shaping-the-path-building-a-business-that-reinforces-success-part-2.html DATE: 01/05/2011 05:26:00 AM ----- BODY:Continued from Part 1...
I think the real trick to leadership and correspondingly actual fulfillment doing the work (team member) is to have the right balance of scripting and freedom to choose how you accomplish the work.
Script the things that don't require creativity, are repetitive, or are really important to follow exactly the same process. Surgeons scrubbing for surgery have a predefined process. They don't reinvent it each time. This saves having to think about it or the risk of making mistakes.
The same holds true during change. Because you are changing behavior it is sometimes necessary to script the method of doing something until it becomes the new habit. It doesn't stop there though; you need to reinforce the new habit. If it is a big habit change you need to break it into pieces and praise compliance with each (any) of the steps, even though people might not do it all correctly at the start.
People need (crave) a certain amount of autonomy in their work. Much of today's work involves knowledge work or creative work; the method of accomplishing the work is not clear at the outset or it is "one of", never to be repeated. Define the beginning and clearly define the desired outcome and let the team determine the solution. You can define a creative process to make sure any critical steps are covered including any management oversight. You may even want to create or customize the process to suit each situation.
In software development this may include: talk to the customer, rough out a solution, work with customer to refine solution, build production code, formal testing and quality assurance, sign-off by customer. Within that framework the team has a lot of latitude to innovate.
There is a danger with too much scripting. It sounds artificial when interacting with people. Zappos did away with scripts and timed calls and lets its call center have real conversations with people, trusting them to do the right things (culture and values).
As a final thought; don't set a process and make it rigid. You should be constantly having the team look for better ways of doing things; even the ones you take for granted. "That is way things are done here." should become "That is the way things are done here for now".
Rally the herd.
The culture you create as a business will largely determine what you can and cannot do as a team; in both rigid and subtle ways.
Culture should flow from your core values and mission and should reinforce any implementations of your vision and goals. You cannot violate your mission and core values and be true to yourself. This is the line in the sand you and your team will not cross.
You can tweak your culture to support your new goals as long as they don't compromise your mission or core values. People naturally will try to fit in with a group. We are naturally wired to do so. I am not talking sheep type fitting in here either. But this desire to run with the herd and be respected by your peers is very powerful.
Culture is constantly evolving... what is the norm today will be different tomorrow. You might as well try to change it in helpful ways.
Leadership comes from two sources: hierarchical and situational. The management team is certainly important to building a great business or supporting change.
But so is that grass roots leadership... the parts where people are either on board or bucking change.
If you want to change the development process, you can dictate the new process from above and try to brute force your way through. Or you can get the support of one or more natural leaders on the development team, the ones that are most vocal or others look up to. If so you will be much more likely to succeed. Give these people time and space to convince the rest of the team. These types of changes happen faster in small groups until majority is achieved.
And hey, if you have the whole team on board from the get go? Count your blessings as now you only have to wrestle the normal human flaws we all have and not the castle walls and moat that are erected to resist change.
The goal is to get the business to the point where the management team only needs to oversee the work and remove roadblocks.. the work would continue to get done without much guidance and would be accomplished to the levels defined by the business... self-guiding and self-managing.
All this to say that if you can get the group aligned and heading in the same direction... momentum will increase and you can accomplish great things. This is the goal of all great companies.
Shape the path and build a business that reinforces success.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Shaping the Path - Building a Business That Reinforces Success (Part 1) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: shaping-the-path-building-a-business-that-reinforces-success CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2011/01/shaping-the-path-building-a-business-that-reinforces-success.html DATE: 01/04/2011 12:43:40 AM ----- BODY:In a recent post I talked about Driving Corporate Change - Made Easier and how we can take the lessons from a book and apply them to what we are doing in the real world. I did the same for Business Retrospective - Finding The Bright Spots, digging deeper into one chapter and integrating it into my thoughts on reflection. This was fitting as we were also wrapping up 2010.
Today I want to talk about creating an environment for success.
Whether we call it working on the business, building a business architecture, franchising a business, or shaping the path (or something else); this is one of the most important differentiators between great and merely good companies.
The situation or environment we create will either multiply or divide the effort we put into our business.
Get it right and you will create something that will take on a life of its own and move forward despite the shortcomings we have as people. Get it wrong and you will be constantly wrestling with the beast you have created, trying to keep it going where you want it to.
People are both amazing and flawed. It is amazing what we can accomplish as individuals and even more importantly as groups. Yet it is amazing sometimes that we accomplish anything at all. Flaws include our wavering attention, focus and drive, our ability to get distracted or chase another rainbow, mood swings, conflicting desires, insecurities, miscommunication, etc.
The idea here is to create a business that reinforces what you want from people and discourages or nullifies the flaws or weaknesses.
When trying to make a change, the authors of Switch talked about shaping the path: tweak the environment, build habits and rally the herd.
In terms of building a business this translates to:
Often we blame people for poor outcomes (bad people) when often, the situation creates the propensity for bad behaviour. Change the situation; change the outcome... often with the same team.
A good example is someone who is normally a courteous driver. Now put them in a situation where they are 20 minutes late for an important meeting (think day care closing in 10 minutes). Now that same person is a jerk behind the wheel.
Take some good developers. Now put an short and inflexible deadline on them. Suddenly they are not thinking straight, making mistakes they would not normally make and things start taking longer than expected. The stress and pressure caused by the deadline, impede the ability to be creative and see all possibilities; something normally cherished in developers.
Switch things up to reinforce the desired strengths, and productivity and quality actually go way up; making deadlines easier to achieve and the product better.
The physical environment can also reinforce the situational environment. There are always trade-offs so be careful that you create an environment that supports the most important aspects of what you want.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Business Retrospective - Finding The Bright Spots STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: business-retrospective-finding-the-bright-spots CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/12/business-retrospective-finding-the-bright-spots.html DATE: 12/27/2010 12:16:21 PM ----- BODY:As humans we tend to focus on negative things more than positive. After projects that don't go well we have post-mortems to discover all the things that went poorly and try to fix them for next time. After submitting a sales proposal and not winning the business, we have a review to look at why we didn't win.
As business owners we need to step beyond this tendency and look more at what is working.
This mean looking at projects that went well and looking at the things that you did right; so you can do more of it and have more successful projects. For sales this means looking at the proposals where you won the business and learning from those. Do more of what works. Find the bright spots.
In my last post, I talked about change. One of the chapters was on finding the bright spots. In the context of change, this means find someone or something that is working (or supporting the change) instead of those things that are in your way. Do more of it and you can start moving in the right direction.
Part of running an agile business should include conducting business retrospectives. Retro - inspection. Not retro - judgements. What went well, what went poorly and what was ok but could use some tweaking?
What Went Well? - Do more of it. You are good at this and playing to your strengths can lead to a concept called leverage where your results are larger than the investment.
What went poorly? - The obvious solution is to become better at these things. But focusing too much on your weaknesses will often make you average at best and divert energy from what you are good at. Agile principles would have you look at the situation more creatively. Do you really need to do these things in the first place? Are there other ways of achieving the desired outcome? What is the simplest thing that will work? What are the impediments and how can they be removed? Can you allocate resources better so that the people who are better at those tasks can perform them? Training?
What was ok, but could be improved? - We tend to ignore these things in favour of the things that went poorly. But in reality these are things that you already have some skill in. Improvements here might jump the outcome to "what went well?"; thereby leading to leaps in productivity.
End the retrospective in a positive fashion. The goal is not to leave a trail of blame and excuses.
The goal is to make the future better and leverage what you already have. Concrete action items and repeatable lessons. Ensure your team comes away stronger for the next challenge and pumped to take it on.
This is why business retrospectives should be finding the bright spots.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Driving Corporate Change - Made Easier STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: driving-corporate-change-made-easier CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/12/driving-corporate-change-made-easier.html DATE: 12/15/2010 09:14:26 PM ----- BODY:If you've been reading my blog posts over the last few years, it should come as no surprise that I have been putting a lot of focus into what makes companies and people succeed. I've been reading books, attending seminars, reading blogs, etc.
Our mission is
"Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life."
We are building a software product to do just that for entrepreneurs and business coaches.
We are at an amazing point in history; so much of the knowledge that people have amassed is readily available and openly shared for our taking. This blog is one such example. Very smart people are openly sharing ideas.
One of the challenges to book knowledge is how to apply it to the real world. So here is a real world example based on a book I am reading and all the stuff I've been talking about in my blog for the last 2 years.
The book, "Switch: How to change things when change is hard" by Chip and Dan Heath. They use the metaphor of the Rider and Elephant to explain human behavior. The Elephant is the part us driven by our subconscious mind; largely emotion and intuition. The Rider is the part of our mind that can analyze and decipher new things and is more driven by logic. As you may guess, the Elephant is much larger than the Rider and it takes a lot of energy for the Rider to direct the Elephant for any length of time and if the Elephant wants, it can ignore the prodding of the rider.
The outline of the book is:
Direct the Rider
Motivate the Elephant
Shape the Path
You need to take care of both the Rider and the Elephant to succeed with change.
The mission and vision combine to create a compelling motivator for the Elephant first (the story and higher purpose) and the Rider second (through the big picture destination).
Goals and projects deal with directing the Rider. Since goals are tied back to the emotion of the vision and mission, they continue to motivate the Elephant as well.
Working on the business is the shaping the path part.
Developing your people to accomplish all of the above rounds it out and fills in the holes.
With every book I read, I think about how I can apply the parts that resonate with me to our business and to our software products.
The mistake a lot of developers make is seeing tools like software as a bunch of inputs and outputs with business rules in between.
Well developed software has the power to do more than that! It has the power to reinforce and shape human behavior. Look at some of the most influential software currently out there for examples.
Great software has the power to make change easier... and keep us reaching our full potential.
Our challenge is to harness that power; the power of the Rider and Elephant and lots of people working together for a common outcome.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Measuring Awesome STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: measuring-awesome CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/12/measuring-awesome.html DATE: 12/10/2010 12:00:46 AM ----- BODY:If you want to deliver awesome (services and products) to your clients, how do you measure awesome?
Ask your clients.
(They are the ones who need to feel you deliver awesome.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Our Mission - Defining Our Purpose and Direction STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: our-mission-defining-our-purpose-and-direction CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/12/our-mission-defining-our-purpose-and-direction.html DATE: 12/09/2010 04:09:01 AM ----- BODY:After reading, researching, thinking, brainstorming, agonizing and writing numerous blog posts on the subject... I am finally ready to share our very own mission. Theory is great but time to show a real example, one that is close to home.
"Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life."
The first part is somewhat straight-forward.
Help people achieve their full potential. Maximizing the potential of people.
Without the second part we felt that there was a danger that we could help people achieve their full potential but that their lives might not be in balance; they might ultimately be unhappy. A person could become the world's greatest entrepreneur but not have any time for family or friends.
Life is not just about achievement but about being fulfilled. Fulfillment is in the eye of the beholder. But fulfillment does not imply any achievement or betterment of society. So achieving fulfillment by itself is not the answer for us either.
So we search for excellence but temper it with the balance of fulfillment.
Well why not?
Ok that answer will not do. We could have chosen any mission. But we have chosen this one.
Over the last 10 plus years we have been building software for human resources (HR). If we drive down into what the real goal of HR is for a company (outside of administration); it is to maximize the output of its workforce in achieving corporate goals. A bit selfish. But that is why the word resources is in there and yes, corporations are non-human by nature... it is the people running them that have the potential to add humanity back into the equation.
I've also spent the last 20 plus years (gads has it been that long) in numerous management and leadership positions. At some point I started genuinely trying to figure out those topics covered by the business, management and self-help aisles of the bookstore.
In the last few years I've come to realize that these things are heavily entwined.
Helping people (and by extension companies) achieve their full potential and obtain fulfillment doing so brings everything full circle.
As I stated before, choosing a mission provides a purpose beyond just making money. We need to start living this purpose. It isn't a destination. Greatness and fulfillment don't end on a certain date. It is a journey.
As individuals we will strive to seek our mission.
As a company we will strive to develop products and services that fulfill our mission.
As a company we will strive to help our employees live the mission.
As a group we will strive to help everyone we come in contact with through business and living life; be touched and improved by the mission.
Ok, right now it sounds a little pretentious, even to me. Maybe a little corny too.
But I believe in the potential of people to do more than you expect. So why not? Why not have a goal that is big and lofty? At the very least what we produce will serve people and businesses.
Once you have a clear purpose, doors will begin to open. We will connect with and seek out people who are motivated by or share this mission. It has already started. We continue to run a business too.
Maybe we will make a difference in the world. And maybe, in striving to do something great, we will achieve fulfillment for ourselves.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Why? Why? Why? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: why-why-why CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/12/why-why-why.html DATE: 12/02/2010 04:26:37 PM ----- BODY:"Why? Why? Why?" said with your best Jack Nicholson impersonation (think the Witches of Eastwich movie where Jack plays "gasp" the devil).
Why should you have a mission? Why should you have a vision? Why should your goals and business strategy be tied to these things?
Many (most?) people strive to find a higher purpose or meaning in life; especially once they become aware of their mortality.
Some people, including many business owners strive to create a legacy... to live beyond the grave through their business or some other mechanism.
As someone recently said in a seminar recently. Once you are gone, no matter how important you think you are, the world will quickly adjust to you not being there; life goes on. As proof: when you go to a funeral, everyone is sad and there is a lot of crying. Then it is over, and everyone goes and has lunch.
Similarly, many people fix up and renovate their homes when they are selling them. You don't actually enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Don't separate work and purpose in your life if you don't have to. Purpose is one of the biggest and lasting intrinsic motivators; for you and for your employees.
Have fun. Live with purpose. While you live.
"Why? Why? Why?"
Your mission and vision define your purpose. Create a business with purpose (on purpose).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Living Your Mission STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: living-your-mission CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/12/living-your-mission.html DATE: 12/01/2010 05:50:02 PM ----- BODY:In a prior post I defined the mission as being the Tweet sized statement of your service to humanity without reference to your current products or services. The mission is long-term and should be able to survive changes in your business offerings. In fact this is essential, as what exactly your business does, must change over time to address the changing world in which we live.
But your mission is not just for your customers.
You must live it internally in your company. Your shareholders, partners, vendors, and employees must see the consistency.
Before the Internet and social media you could decide what you wanted your brand to be, spend lots of money selling the brand to the world, and achieve that message.
Today, the world will see your inconsistencies.
Living your mission and company values is how you build your culture; and ultimately your brand.
But are "we" living it?
You bet. At Sunwapta Solutions we've embarked on that journey; and there is no turning back. I feel it is the best decision we've made in the last 10 years. We are consciously choosing to live life by choice based on who we are and what matters most to us... and it feels awesome.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Aligning People and Strategy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: aligning-people-and-strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/aligning-people-and-strategy.html DATE: 11/24/2010 08:01:10 PM ----- BODY:Some people or companies think you can buy loyalty and productivity. As Daniel Pink says in "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" this is motivation 2.0 at work. The carrot and stick approach to management that derives from the factory mentally of the previous century. It works, to a degree, for repetitive work where the problem to be solved is linear and repeatable.
But much of today's work is knowledge and creative work. The outcome is not a linear, repeating process but rather requires a unique solution each time. Software development is generally like this. Sure each small problem may not require a complex solution, but when you assemble all the little solutions together, there are a zillion ways to make a complex software application work. This requires motivation 3.0.
However, focusing on extrinsic rewards instead of intrinsic rewards actually causes under performance in many of today's jobs. For example, pay for performance usually fails because money focuses people on the short-term at the expense of the long-term. People need money to live and it should be in an amount that is fair; so that money is no longer a prime consideration.
After that, motivation 3.0 addresses three human needs:
When setting up your business, if you have a compelling mission and a strong vision, it will address the purpose of what you are doing. If your purpose resonates with your employees they will achieve meaning in their work.
Autonomy and mastery are handled partially by your company culture (the core values) and systems/processes ("the way things are done here"). Make sure you set up your business to address this as much as possible. If you want employees to care about your customers you need to be consistent and care about your employees.
Actually, consistency with your mission, vision and culture are paramount to building a great company.
The final piece is understanding the personal goals of each employee (or at least key employee); especially the career goals. I am not saying you need to develop someone to become a musician if their job is software development, you are running a business after all, but the closer your real goals are the better.
However, the trick is to align (as much as is possible) people's goals with the achievement of company goals. Look at where the company needs to go, then look at where your people want to go, then look at the people you have and figure out what skills they need to achieve mastery and success for the new role through training and experience. That is your people development plan.
My opinion, promote from within as much as possible. This gives people a career path and it preserves your corporate culture. Hire their replacements from outside. The only exception is for totally new roles or roles that can't be trained for in the time-frame you need. When you hire, look for fit in mission, vision and culture. Hire slowly and fire bad matches quickly.
As well, make paths for people to continue to grow within their specialties. A great developer should not have to become a manager (unless they really want to) to keep growing careerwise. I've personally seen some really unhappy (bad) managers who were once great technicians; total waste.
Ultimately, it all starts at the top... aligning people and strategy.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Setting Goals You Won't "Want" to Miss STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: setting-goals-you-wont-want-to-miss CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/setting-goals-you-wont-want-to-miss.html DATE: 11/23/2010 05:33:11 PM ----- BODY:Earlier I defined what I thought make a great mission and vision.
A mission is the Tweet of strategy and describes your overall purpose or service to humanity. Your mission should not reference your current product or service.
Your vision is the story (or blog) of where you intend on going. A good story has a beginning, a middle, and a strong ending. It also should touch on why; this will fuel your emotional commitment.
Goals are where things get a little tricky. Not because goals are inherently difficult to understand, but because setting good goals is tricky. There is a big difference between what you think you want and what you really need. As well, goals can contradict each other or support each other.
This is why I think having a compelling and clear mission and a vision are critical. Equally important is making sure that everyone knows and understands them; because every strategic goal relates back to the vision which relates back to the mission.
If you don't know what the big picture is, it will be difficult make the right decisions for a small team and next to impossible to delegate execution to a large team without micro-managing every detail.
Someone once told me that if you have big goal and assign a task or project to me; in essence this task or project then becomes my goal. I can then delegate part of the work and it becomes someone else's goals, etc., etc. One problem with this thinking is that the people several steps removed from the original goal lose the context of what they are doing. But there is another related issue that is even more insidious.
If I have a big goal to increase profits from 5% of gross revenue to 7% of gross revenue next year so we can invest in a new product offering as part of the vision, it is pretty clear what the desired outcome is and why. However, management will then attempt to set sub-goals and tie performance management to those sub-goals.
Say you have a manufacturing operation and the sub-goal of the parts inventory group is to reduce the amount of capital tied up in parts sitting in the warehouse. You buy the parts and put them on the shelf until they are needed. One way for the parts inventory group to meet their goal is to stop stocking parts in advance of anticipated work and just order the parts that are needed short-term; just in time supply if everything is working right and a little late when things aren't. The parts group is going to meet their targets.
The problem is, manufacturing has a goal of increasing production by 20%. When they run out of parts, the entire production line is shut down. The parts group is meeting their goal, but the manufacturing group is constantly being short changed and missing their production targets. The two managers are butting heads and things are getting worse.
This is all caused by the different groups losing sight of the larger goal.
Jack Stack gives a similar "real" example in the business classic "The Great Game of Business". Their solution, performance goals should be set at a very high level only (company or business unit) and then everyone should work on accomplishing the same, clear goals. Sure you have some sub-goals and projects to accomplish the actual work, but everyone is getting rewarded for the same performance goal.
If you are focused on your mission and vision first, it becomes much clearer what is needed as opposed to what is wanted. What do you need to accomplish to make the vision happen? Everything else is a want.
Wants are fleeting. They don't satisfy you long-term. They are consumption based. It can be difficult to motivate people to achieve goals that are just wish lists.
If you have a mission you believe in and a vision that is compelling for you; goals that are needed to make these things happen are self-motivating. This is powerful stuff because when you achieve your goals, you are getting closer to making the vision a reality which then fulfills your mission which is making the world better in some way.
Most people find it hard to stay motivated (long-term) by money alone so keeping this chain of why you are doing things intact gives you the emotional boost; true engagement. Oddly enough, the money then seems to take care of itself.
Professional athletes don't focus on the money on their way up, they focus on the game first. The money happens when they are good at the game.
Setting SMART goals is important.
Setting goals that resonate with everyone is more important. Goals must engage at both the logical level (they make sense) and at the emotional level (they have built in motivation).
Sure you can use the carrot and stick to get a donkey to work, but I would rather have a horse that wants to run because it wants to play the game I've set up.
This is the way to set goals you won't want to miss.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/24/2010 12:32:26 PM I surely hope there are many people reading your blogs as there is so much depth in them. Your blogs are as a result of your own creative thinking as well as reading many books on subjects that inspire business owners and what us readers get by reading these blogs of yours, is a dosage of wisdom that would otherwise take us a long time to receive. Never stop blogging as your contribution and efforts are not going by unnoticed!! I feel blessed and so should others. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/24/2010 01:46:21 PM Al, thanks for the kind feedback. It is nice to know someone esle appreciates what I write down. Ultimately I find that writing posts clears my thinking on numerous topics. Hopefully others find it useful. P.S. People are going to start thinking I pay you to say nice things. :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: When The Student Becomes the Master STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: when-the-student-becomes-the-master CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/when-the-student-becomes-the-master.html DATE: 11/16/2010 12:13:49 AM ----- BODY:The Manager
A funny thing often happens when you first become a manager (leader). You think that you became a manager because you had all of the answers or that being a manager requires knowing all.
After you settle into the role and if you have the right mindset, you realize that your job as a manager/leader is to find people who are smarter than you and help them produce at peak levels; essentially you are there to coach and remove roadblocks. You cannot truly be a great manager until you put your ego aside and realize that you become worth more with a strong team.
Now by smarter, I don't really mean straight IQ, though it could be. Smarter means better at doing certain things than you; you can't do everything yourself and it is not your role to do everything anyways. Set the objectives, give guidance where required and then step back and let your team succeed.
Make it easy for your team to approach you when they are stuck. Don't pretend you know everything or talk down to them. Ask the right questions and let your team find the answers if possible, or provide a sounding board or gentle guidance and if necessary bring in the right resources. Admit you don't know everything.
The Teacher
When you first start teaching your students, they are beginners and you are the superstar. Then they start getting better, some faster than others. Sometimes the student will exceed the skills of the instructor.
Sometimes an instructor will hold knowledge back so their students will never be better than them. This is not your role as an instructor. It is caused by petty feelings like jealousy and personal insecurity.
Making students who are better at something than you is the ultimate compliment to a master instructor.
The Coach/Mentor
When your student becomes the master at a particular skill, or your team members are better at something than you the manager; your true role is just beginning.
Many top performers require someone who has "enough" knowledge about their area of expertise to understand them, but more importantly, someone who knows them and how to nudge, prod and encourage the best from them.
This is the role of a coach or mentor; or great manager.
Great managers normally brag about the accomplishments of their team members; not themselves. They succeed when their team succeeds.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/22/2010 12:08:58 PM I really like the part about setting aside one's ego and being humble in this process. Al ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Strategy - Don't Forget Your Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: strategy-dont-forget-your-business CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/strategy-dont-forget-your-business.html DATE: 11/12/2010 02:49:13 PM ----- BODY:There is a lot of confusion over some rather simple concepts in business. They stem from the following:
This all stems from one major problem with how many entrepreneurs think about business.
Your goal as an entrepreneur is to build a business (first and foremost) that can then build and deliver great products and services to your customers, thereby making more money than you are spending (profit).
What many entrepreneurs do is build the product or service as the main focus and deal with the business as an afterthought. One of the three outcomes is then possible:
I've excluded "you somehow get the business right despite the lack of focus because of either luck or a natural ability to be an entrepreneur"; this case is just too rare.
Strategy
Your business strategy is where you are planning on taking things from a larger time perspective than what you normally work in; your strategic rather than tactical perspective. These terms derive from a military context so I will use a military example.
You might decide to use a strategy of "war by attrition" on the belief that you can more afford to lose resources than your enemy and after a period of time, they will capitulate or plain run out of steam. So then your tactical responses are based on your strategy; you try to draw your enemy into battles that cost them lots of resources. It doesn't matter if you win or lose each battle as long as they lose lots of soldiers each time you engage.
From a business perspective, many organizations focus strategy on their customer, products and services, finances, etc. These are goals like: grow our market, double revenue, increase profit margins, or release a new product. Internal goals and projects can flow from these or you can have internal goals all by themselves.
Working On The Business
If your real job in being an entrepreneur is to build a business, why do so many entrepreneurs focus on their product/service at the exclusion of their own business?
Simple. Most entrepreneurs start businesses doing something they are good at... the product or service. Your customers then want more of it (if it is any good) and you are kept busy delivering it. You then hire people to "take care of problems" or "help". You then depend on those people to handle it without stepping back to really design it. You are totally dependent on a few key people.
Some of the best businesses are created by people who aren't experts in the details of the product or service when they start. They are forced to build their organization to work despite their shortcomings. They hire experts to handle customer delivery and they put in systems and architecture to ensure that those people deliver according to the mission and vision.
Working on the business means that once you know where your vision is going to take your business, you work on the architecture, processes, systems, tools, etc... the how part... of every aspect of your business that is required to deliver on your promise to your customer; your mission and vision.
People are also horribly unreliable. Even you. (Even me.) We get distracted easily and can lose focus. We have emotions and can go from being happy and productive to unhappy and unproductive. Yet our customers are expecting a consistent delivery on our promise to them. You need to make sure you design your business not just to mechanically fulfill the requirements; but to motivate and inspire the best possible outcomes in delivering to your customers (and your employees, shareholder, vendors, partners, etc.).
Continuing the military example... Working on your military muscle would include enhancing your ability to recruit and train soldiers, inventing and enhancing weapons capabilities, building out supply lines, engaging the civilian population to ensure commitment to the eventual goal, ensuring depth of skills and capabilities, building new bases, etc.
As a more business example closer to home, you decide to launch a new software product available to customers via the cloud (the Internet). Yes, you have to build the software product. If you are a great software development team, that is not your biggest issue. You also need to define:
If your answer is that you will deal with all that when you have paying customers, that is the first indication that you may not be really working on your business. I am not saying you have to deal with all of the details of flying before you build the plane and engines. On the other hand, I doubt you want to try flying for very long without them.
The architecture you put in place requires that you identify the key areas of your business required for your venture to succeed and build them up with as much interest and focus as you put into your products or services.
The Process for the Process (of Architecture)
First rule. You probably already know a lot about what really needs to get done. You not in the sense of "just you", but you in the sense of you, your team, your friends, your family, your customers, and anyone else willing to help you out. Having your entire team involved will help ensure additional buy-in from them when it comes time to implement.
First step: Brainstorm what all of the things that need to get handled in your business are. By brainstorm I mean think of all the options, not just the obvious ones. You can discard things later that don't fit your mission, vision or budget.
Second step: Determine which items you want to tackle first and brainstorm creative solutions. Focus not just on what needs to be done, but how. How do you make the work that needs to get done self-motivating? Make it fun, make it a game and keep score; make it your culture.
Third Step: Implement your solutions, measure, create and brainstorm some more.
Repeat.
Conclusion
Whatever happens, don't forget that working on your business is an essential part of your business strategy.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/15/2010 01:49:29 PM I TRULY APPRECIATED THIS BLOG AS IT IS WRITTEN WITH SO MUCH PASSION AND BELIEF THAT I AM ALREADY SHARING WITH BUSINESS FRIENDS. HERE IS MY TAKE AWAY REMINDER FOR NOW : "Working on the business means that once you know where your vision is going to take your business, you work on the architecture, processes, systems, tools, etc... the how part... of every aspect of your business that is required to deliver on your promise to your customer; your mission and vision." ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: User Experience Design - Ahead of the Developers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: user-experience-design-ahead-of-the-developers CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/user-experience-design-ahead-of-the-developers.html DATE: 11/10/2010 11:05:41 PM ----- BODY:Lately we've been using an interactive wire framing tool to design and define the user experience across multiple pages of the application for our product development. It is working well for us as we can make changes faster than building HTML or code by an order of magnitude; it is even quicker than paper when you consider how much redrawing you do to explore ideas. We still use paper to get the rough idea sorted out first.
The lessons I have learned so far are:
Not everyone will agree with this process and we use other methods ourselves for different situations.
RIght now, this is the simplest thing that works for us in our new product development; and isn't that what great development is all about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 11/11/2010 07:57:32 AM Sounds quite right. When UX expert can be involved as well, that becomes an ultimate union. I've seen situation when UI and UX are downplayed, and customers get something they are forced into instead of willing to use it. Just as a thought, you could share some "screenshots" without client or confidential information. That way readers could visualize what level of details you stop at before moving on to development and final refining. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://blog.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/11/2010 09:38:51 AM Sean, You are right. The post would have been better with some pictures. I plan on reviewing the tool we are using and instead of just reviewing the features I will answer that question as part of the review. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Corporate Disclaimers - Have Fun Instead STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: corporate-disclaimers CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/corporate-disclaimers.html DATE: 11/10/2010 05:43:00 AM ----- BODY:Have you seen the amount of disclaimers that coming out of well known companies these days. You go to their website and it basically says:
This contradiction is insane. It is not how you build trust.
Here is the version I am working on for our outbound e-mails:
Disclaimer: In the event any of the information contained in this e-mail is wrong or doesn't work for you, by virtue of receiving it and reading it, you and your heirs, kings, queens, princes, princesses, frogs and mermaids, agree that an “oops, sorry” is all you can expect from me, no matter what, whether or not you like tarts or tortes, forever and ever. If you are not the intended recipient, who ARE you?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Great Visions Tell A Compelling Story STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: great-visions-tell-a-compelling-story CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/great-visions-tell-a-compelling-story.html DATE: 11/09/2010 02:55:26 PM ----- BODY:In my last post, I covered what I think a good mission statement is. Short, serves humanity and when you fulfill it, you are fulfilled.
If a great mission is a tweet, a great vision is a blog post. A short compelling story about what you are specifically going to do to over the next 3-10 years to deliver on the mission.
Unlike the mission, you get to include your product or service here. A mission is timeless but a vision is a picture of a point in the future. It is a moving window about where you are heading to provide guidance for the rest of your strategic thinking, planning and execution.
Think of this as your elevator speech. You have 20-30 seconds (max one minute) to give a compelling story about why you are in business and where your business is going.
Lots of facts and figures don't make a compelling story. Leave all the nitty gritty details about revenue and profit to your goal setting. You need a compelling story that your shareholders, employees, customers, partners and vendors can get into.
Humans are historically story tellers. We relate much better to good stories as part of our wiring. In the past all of the wisdom of the elders was passed down through stories for a reason. We relate to and remember them. Religious teachings are often shared in stories. Today, just look at the book, television and movie industry for current examples.
So if you want to create your own version of the world called a business, then tell a compelling story. It doesn't have to resonate with everyone and won't. The world is a big place and you just need to reach those who really matter to your mission and vision.
What if you have more than one story to tell? Well you wouldn't mash Harry Potter with When Harry Met Sally; so create two or more visions. Keep the stories compelling and interesting without confusing the reader. (Just remember, too many visions and you are a McFly, buzzing around and get nothing done but crap.)
I'm intentionally not going to give an example here. You know what a compelling story is.
Go ahead and write yours.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Mission - Not So Impossible STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: mission-not-so-impossible CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/11/mission-not-so-impossible.html DATE: 11/08/2010 11:24:44 AM ----- BODY:Coincidentally this is my 300th blog post. Somehow I am subconsciously compelled to impart something remarkable. So I thought I would share some wisdom that I find compelling... I'll leave it to you to determine what it is worth to you.
Mission Statements
This is a topic that generates a lot of confusion about the difference between mission, vision, values, goals, etc.
There are a lot of really bad ones out there too. Blah, blah, blah, value to shareholders, blah blah, customers are important, blah, blah, employees, blah, and ethics... blah.
Why This Is Important
I know a number of people who started businesses to make money, build a product, focus on technology or the product details and service a particular customer segment. At first it is really exciting. You are creating a business, creating a product/service and finding new customers.
Then after 3, 5 or 10 years you are doing pretty good (assuming you survived) but you are not very pumped about your business any more. In fact, I know a number of entrepreneurs who then start figuring out how to have the business run without them. Presumably this is so they can then focus on more meaningful things like giving back to humanity.
These are all variations on: "Someday" I will do what I really want", "I will work really hard for 3 years and then spend more time having fun", "Start your business with an exit strategy", "We are going to go IPO and then sell out", etc.
Business is work. Fun is fun. Personal life is something you do when not working. Giving back is rewarding.
They are all kept separate.
The Mistake
From the perspective of privately held small and mid-sized businesses this is plain dumb.
You spent 40-50 hours a week working (minimum). Another 10 to 20 hours a week going to and from work. Maybe you travel. Maybe you think about your business when not working. You are spending the majority of your waking hours in some aspect of you business.
You (and maybe a few others) own it. You built it the way you did.
Why did you build it this way? Why don't you change it?
The Lesson
Align your business's mission around something that serves humanity AND resonates strongly within your heart.
In social web terms this is a Tweet. A short compelling Tweet that pumps you up.
In "Built to Last" and "Becoming a Category of One" they talk about mission statements that transcend current products and services and focus on timeless service to humanity. Some good examples:
There is no right or wrong answer. The key is that is something beyond making money or your short-term product vision. Something that gives you "wow" and satisfies the the real you, not the one that someone else expects.
After all, your working time is not a separate part of your life... it is your life. You don't need "balance" in your life if you build your business to serve your life.
Then align everything in your business with the core of your mission. Your values, culture, vision, goals, products, services, employees... everything.
Oh and by the way. If you decide later that it no longer resonates with you... change it. It is your business. You might not want to do it every day but don't put up with a business that sucks the life out of you.
Your business is there to work for you. To give you the life you want and need.
Build yours the way you want (and enjoy the journey).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 11/08/2010 03:46:42 PM First of all congrats on your 300th post! One of the vision we have to consider when time is right, is the possibility of publishing a book from lessons learned and story of Manifast. The time is not now - but it is a vision in any case. Our mission about helping others achieve their dreams and now our building efforts with Manifast, tells me we are on right footing. Exciting times ahead, Doug !! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Rapid Prototyping STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: rapid-prototyping CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/rapid-prototyping.html DATE: 10/28/2010 09:44:41 AM ----- BODY:Building a product from scratch is a creative and exciting endeavour. This is not a custom software application designed for a single customer; but a product that hopefully millions will find useful and easy to use.
I've been around the development world long enough to see the Waterfall process in action. Spending months to years writing detailed specifications, then attempting to build software according to those specifications, even if they are dated or wrong. Then the stress of in scope of and out of scope change requests to make some attempt at getting the customer what they really want.
Then there is a section of the agile camp that says no specifications, build the application in code and get frequent feedback from the customer so that they get what they want. As the code-base gets bigger, even with lots of effective test coverage, it takes longer and longer to refactor the code when significant changes are required. The cycle for the customer (product manager for products) to see and test out ideas becomes days and weeks.
Both of these methods ignore user experience design. You need to make software useful AND easy to use. Building it out incrementally may make it useful, but it is not until after you have built out quite a bit of the application that you enough to start designing the user experience. For a product (versus custom software) this is critical.
White-boarding or sketching on paper helps for simple applications. But when you have twenty to over a hundred screen in a more complex business application, paper gets messy. It is also difficult to make changes quickly without redrawing everything. Worse, you really can't get user (customer) feedback on the design.
Prototyping in HTML could be useful, but even without code behind, HTML can take some time to make changes to. It also gives the impression to certain people that you are closer to a working product than you are; it should be a throw away. There is also a tendency to focus on details too early (fonts, formatting, etc.).
Remember that in product development you potentially have millions of customers to make happy at the same time and it is not generally feasible to require user training.
So in the spirit of do the simplest thing that works, we are now using a rapid prototyping tool to mock-up screens in wire frame mode and build in basic interactivity.
This is a very agile and iterative process. We can now mock-up 20-30 pages in a few hours, explore multiple design options and get more realistic customer feedback in a very short time frame. The only shortcoming we've seen, and it is minor, is that you have to have the prototyping software installed before you can demo the interactivity.
One key consideration is that all of the stakeholders are involved in the protyping activities; this includes development. This ensures that the design is practical to build and allows development to contribute their expertise.
This is not Waterfall. You are not documenting rigid specifications up front. What you are doing is rapidly designing the user experience in an iterative and interactive process so that you can avoid unnecessary thrashing.
In "Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love", Marty Cagan suggests that the user experience designers (prototyping) stay one to two sprints ahead of the agile development teams. This avoids the situation where the designers are working inside a sprint and are feeling pressure to circumvent the customer feedback loop in order to give developers something they can start building.
It is also important that the designers don't get too far ahead. This isn't Waterfall either.
Remember that there will still be some rework during the development process. It is not possible to think of everything in prototyping; especially around the business logic. The designers need to also be involved in the sprints to deal with user experience changes and get those changes reflected back into future prototypes. Don't forget user feedback during actual development as well.
All in all, we are here to build the best possible software for our customers... great software. We also need to do it as fast as possible and make the software supportable long-term.
Avoiding expensive thrashing at the end of project, is key to shipping great software. Use all the tools at your disposal wisely. Agile is not about being rigid in your thinking.
P.S. It seems to be working well for us.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 10/28/2010 10:57:39 PM Sketchflow is a very handy tool. I looked at it once and it impressed me. Besides that, I like paper. Call me old school, but it's fast inexpensive. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com/ DATE: 10/28/2010 11:01:57 PM Sean, I still use paper too. But it was getting tedious redrawing 10 screens every time something changed globally. I will likely post a review of the tool we are using later (name slips my mind). Cheers, Doug ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: What Is Your Real Intent? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: what-is-your-real-intent CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/what-is-your-real-intent.html DATE: 10/25/2010 12:53:05 PM ----- BODY:People say they intend to do things all of the time.
More often than not it never happens. New Year's resolutions are point in case.
I want to get in shape. I want to lose weight. I want to take my business in a new direction. Etc.
You get what you intend!
That was the driving premise of Anurag (Gupta) during a 2 day seminar put on by ProCoach that I recently attended.
So if you aren't actually accomplishing your goal, then you never really had the intent to do so.
Another point to be aware of is that you have a default intent that drives you whenever you aren't actively engaged in replacing it. Being safe, not trusting, taking it easy, etc. are some examples. Some people may think of these as habits, but habits are not the underlying purpose. What are you "getting" by doing what you are doing in your life. Just be aware you have one and don't try to change it.
The key is to decide on intents that you feel are important. Ones that light up your inner self are the easiest to follow through on. Then you focus on them until they become the default intents by putting in structures around your life so the new default is easier than the old one. Replace not delete.
In business this translates to your overriding mission which everything else flows from.
What is your real intent. Prove it by doing and being it. Everything else is just a wish.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sunwapta Solutions is Growing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: sunwapta-solutions-is-growing CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/sunwapta-solutions-is-growing.html DATE: 10/21/2010 09:02:00 AM ----- BODY:In the next couple of weeks I will be adding a careers/jobs section to our website and fleshing out the specific requirements.
We are growing and looking to make some strategic hires over the next month to year. We are expanding both our consulting practices and our products divisions.
We are going to be looking at cultural fit and aptitude ahead of technical skills (which can be learned).
So far I see the following positions required in no particular order:
Product Manager - A person who can own the product, get input from all stakeholders and plan out the future direction of the product. Work with development teams as the product owner.
Infrastructure Support - A person who can support our production, hosted application server environment, our development teams and our internal infrastructure. This includes everything from security to managing databases and everything in between. The drive to constantly be working to make things better and more efficient.
User Interface Designer - Someone to drive out the product's user experience and usability. May also include graphic design and user interface development.
Developers - Software developers keen on not just great and clean code, but excited about the value of the end-product as well. Being current on software development best practices (agile) is a given.
Sales, Marketing and Customer Support - Ramping up the ability to reach potential customers, sign them up and then ensure that their ongoing experience is excellent.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 10/21/2010 07:42:48 PM Congrats! I can refer a few good people that looks like soon will be looking. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Make Decisions for Your Customers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: make-decisions-for-your-customers CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/make-decisions-for-your-customers.html DATE: 10/20/2010 12:12:55 AM ----- BODY:Three things stuck out in my mind today from reading the two books by 37signals a while back:
Scratch your own itch - Essentially, if you solve a problem you have you will know something about it and you will have passion about the solution.
Decide what you won't do - There is tendency to watch competitors and listen to customers to chase the feature list. 80% of non-core features rarely get used and they just make the tool more complex for everyone esle. Stick to your core and decide what you won't do.
Make decisions for your customers - There is a tendency to try to make software "generic" so that anyone can use it. To accomplish this, everything is customizable and configurable. This way, one shoe fits everyone. Most users stick to the default configuration. So instead, build your software so that it makes those decisions for your customer so they don't have to.
The last two are hard to commit to, but once you do, you are free to build simpler and better software. Everyone won't want it but you don't need everyone.
Still it is hard to stay the course... after all, you want everyone to like you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 10/20/2010 12:42:06 PM Chapters from Rework : the book is a good reference as it is so easy to read. 2nd bullet : allows you to focus on a niche ..which is essential for any business. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Butting Heads In Rutting Season STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: butting-heads-in-rutting-season CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/butting-heads-in-rutting-season.html DATE: 10/19/2010 12:54:32 AM ----- BODY:Recently we went out into our yard to discover a bunch of our trees and shrubs had been hacked and slashed to bits and the bark shredded off. There were branchs strewn all over the ground and several fairly large trunks were snapped off at the base.
We had just planted them in the last year and it was a lot of work; so this was very disappointing
Upon looking closer, we determined the culprits were deer. We were thinking venison might be an option.
Apparently, male deer get their antlers in the fall and fueled by testosterone, they attack small trees and shrubs to take out their aggression. Something about smashing things is satisfying to young bucks. I guess it gets them in the mood for butting heads with the other guys.
The competition is fierce to pass on their genetic code with the prize going to the male who smashes the most trees, shrubs and heads successfully.
Yet as aggressive as they are to each other, they also live in fear of predators and have strong flight instincts. Following the herd is second nature.
They are largely driven by instinct, greed, fear and emotion.
Despite what we would like to think, a lot of the time people aren't really much different.
The challenge is to accept that and rise above the situation. We have the ability to reason and the ability to look at things from another's perspective. The way you react is actually a choice.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: High Touch, High Value or Commodity? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: high-touch-high-value-or-commodity CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/high-touch-high-value-or-commodity.html DATE: 10/13/2010 03:08:29 PM ----- BODY:Business is ultimately about making more money than you spend; that is a given. I would never suggest otherwise.
If you are running a commodity business, you focus on volume and keeping costs low; that is where the margins are made. Customers can go pretty much anywhere and get a similar experience. Wendy's or McDonald's? Best Western or Holiday Inn? Does it really matter which one you pick?
In sales people talk about the lifetime value of the customer; how much money is the typical customer likely to spend on your products and services over the lifetime of the relationship? How do you increase this number? How do you get customers to spend more so you can make more money?
This is "us" focused thinking and not customer focused thinking.
This is bass-ackwards.
If you are running a business that purports to be high touch or high value to your customers, why are you using tactics to increase the value of the customer to YOUR bottom line first and foremost?
Don't you think your customers will eventually catch on as to who you really consider the most important (you)?
We had one marketing consultant who would ask if his cheque was ready for pickup almost every time he came for a session (we weren't late in paying). How do you think that makes your customer feel? Seriously, if you are that hurting for money you certainly don't want your customers to see it in 3D techni-colour... and if you are always taking all the money out to spend as personal income and not putting any away to weather business cycles, please don't offer to consult or coach me; you are incompetent and have no business advising others.
The personal and business coaching industry is like that too in many cases. You attend a free seminar and they do a hard sell at the end for their product or service with a discounted "today only" pricing. You sign up for the two day seminar and they sell you the advanced seminar, books, DVDs, and ongoing coaching programs. The programs are designed to keep you coming back for the next great answer or step in the (very long) process. Kind of like therapy; you feel good after the session but never get any better.
The stated message is: "We are here to help you. We love helping people and businesses succeed. That is why we are coaches or consultants." But the underlying message is we will hold back so you have to keep coming to us.
Great managers and leaders freely help other become great as well. The pie can be as large as you want.
What if you focus on the value you are creating for the customer instead of the value the customer is creating for you? Value is anything the customer is happy to receive and pay for. You can charge a percetage of the value you create and customers will willingly pay as long as they continue to get that value. Why would anyone stop coming to you if you are always delivering value. This is sustainable.
1. What is your business's lifetime value to the customer?
Can you imagine a doctor holding back? I know how to cure your disease, but I need revenue. So instead of curing you I will keep doing little things to slowly fix you (and prolong your agony and suffering). Yup, I figure I can get 2-3 years out of the average person before they will get better.
2. What if you give everything you have now and don't intentionally hold anything back?
Great businesses generally have a meaning bigger than just making money or products. Create a product or service that creates value for your customer today. Focus on the value to your customer. Keep improving it. You don't need long-term contracts if you are not a commodity and deliver value.
It is likely they will still be your customer tomorrow, even without the traps or hard sell... and likely that they will refer many others to boot.
To be a high touch, high value company you need to address these two questions.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Calgary Businesses Giving Back - Zumba Party in Pink STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: businesses-giving-back-zumba-party-in-pink CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/businesses-giving-back-zumba-party-in-pink.html DATE: 10/08/2010 12:18:30 AM ----- BODY:A friend of mine owns a dance studio geared towards getting adults to go from watching dancers on "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" to actually taking the plunge and taking lessons. Yes, if I can learn to do Step Dancing at my age and abilities... there is a course for you and you can learn to dance too.
Paula Callihoo is the owner and director of Calgary's one and only "Dance Through Life" dance studio. She is into her second year of keeping everything running and teaching lots of classes to boot.
You read a lot of negative press in Calgary about the environmental damage from industry and the problems that are going on in the city due to the rapid growth.
What we don't hear enough about is the good things people are doing.
This being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Paula and two other Zumba instructors are hosting a Zumba Party in Pink on the evening of Friday the 15th of October to raise money for breast cancer research. Zumba is a Latin dance inspired workout class.
Now lets be clear, it takes a fair amount of energy and time to put together these things; time that is on top of running a fairly new studio and trying to make her business successful. So I asked her why she is doing it:
"I just really feel that the disease unfortunately touches almost everyone in one way or another. I think almost every person out there knows someone who has sadly passed away from it or survived it."
The facility in the northwest of Calgary can accommodate over a hundred people so I am hoping she can fill it.
She stated in her posters and e-mails that "a portion of the proceeds would be going to the charity". I asked her what that means, as it is a bit vague, and it turns out that it is pretty much as I expected... everything except for the cost of renting the hall; which the Irish Cultural Society is providing at a special low rate because this is for charity. I think she is even providing stuff for draws on her own dime.
So I have decided that this month, Sunwapta Solutions will donate enough to cover the cost of the hall rental, plus some, to the same charity. This way, Paula can tell people that effectively, 100% of the proceeds are going to charity if she wants.
Why? I feel the same way. Many people I know are impacted by cancer and cures are are closer to reality than ever before.
So my challenge to other businesses here in Calgary:
Let's make a big difference together.
And for individuals reading this... post a comment and/or go out and join the Zumba Party in Pink. I am sure you will have fun AND it is for a very good cause. And if you aren't available, just do something to make the world a better place.
ZUMBA PARTY IN PINK - Come out and support Breast Cancer Research. Friday October 15th - 7:00pm. $20.00 (cash only) to get in at the door! Irish Cultural Center in Bowness - 6452 - 35 Avenue NW. Contact Paula for further details.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Al Dhalla EMAIL: adhalla@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://www.sunwaptasolutions.com DATE: 10/15/2010 03:02:13 PM Hats off to Paula Callihoo for her initiative to help out and to you for helping promote the good cause. Shahida and I will donate $20. Hope that helps. Keep up the good work (Paula and you too). Al Dhalla ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com/ DATE: 10/15/2010 08:37:06 PM Thank you both for your personal contribution. I am hoping others will also continue to make contributions in whatever way possible. Don't forget to add a comment if you do. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Doesn't Anyone Else Hear It? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: doesnt-anyone-else-hear-it CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/10/doesnt-anyone-else-hear-it.html DATE: 10/05/2010 06:13:24 PM ----- BODY:I was at the local Tim Horton's to pick up my lunch today. They have those bread toasters with the conveyor belts. Over the last 2 months, the toaster has started screeching, progressively getting louder and louder every time I visit.
I can only take about 5 minutes in that place. I can't imagine meeting someone for coffee and trying to listen to the person attentively.
A while back, I asked an employee there if the noise bothered him. He told me you get used to it after a while. Kind of like that frog in hot water experiment I guess. (Come to think of it I haven't seen him in a while.)
Management and the staff seem oblivious; just going about their job without emotion.
Is your business becoming like that?
Do you say your business is one thing but the reality is that employees and customers see something different?
It used to run well and really look after customers. Then something minor went wrong and you overlooked it because you were busy.
Just like broken windows and graffiti in a neighborhood give permission to commit escalating levels of petty crime, things progressively get worse until they cross a threshold.
Then one day you wake up to find your customers are leaving and you don't enjoy what you do anymore.
As Anuarag Gupta reminded us at a recent seminar hosted by ProCoach, "You get what you tolerate".
Are you tolerating things that you shouldn't? Why?
Really?
Even if no one else hears it you must address it. Or what you will really be hearing is your business's death spiral.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Journey to Happiness Is About The Journey STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: it-is-about-the-journey CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/09/it-is-about-the-journey.html DATE: 09/22/2010 05:28:20 PM ----- BODY:I have been reading "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh. He is the guy who started LinkExchange and sold it for 200 million and then grew Zappos and sold it for 1 billion. Not a bad track record.
What is interesting is not the making lots of money part (well that is interesting too).
It is that he realized early on that it is not about the money (especially when you have a reasonable amount already I suppose). It is about the experiences you create and the relationships you build.
If fact, on professional networking... build depth in the friendships first and the networking benefits will take care of themselves, even if it takes 3 or more years to flourish. This contrasts to the approach of many who go to networking events with the goal of making as many contacts as possible and trying for a short-term win.
Some other author said to be "fully in the moment" referring to communication with others and connecting. I think this plays in well with building deeper relationships with people and creating meaningful experiences.
One of our respected client contacts reminded us to also celebrate the small victories and wins along the way. Sage advice as in real life, you usually find that right after any small victory comes another round of things to be solved. Celebration reinforces the success and creates positive momentum.
As an entrepreneur you have two choices. Play the game as defined by others or invent your own game. Either way you still have to interact with the rules of the universe and external world. But the important distinction is you have control over what game you play and how you play it.
Lately I have been thinking not only about where Sunwapta is going; but how I want the journey to be. I intend to focus a lot more on the relationships and experiences along the way.
In many ways the journey is more important. It will last a lot longer. It will either motivate you or demotivated you. It will also change your chance of getting to the destination.
Like I have been saying for some time, life is about the journey.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Doug the Plumber STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: doug-the-plumber CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/09/doug-the-plumber.html DATE: 09/20/2010 11:16:09 PM ----- BODY:There are surprising similarities between the process of plumbing and building and supporting software. I didn't realize that until the other day.
Recently the pump that runs hot water through out in-floor heating stopped working. This was fairly easy to determine as:
The last time the pumped seized up I called in a plumber. I had to wait a week for them to show. Then they put in a new pump. The total cost was over $600.
So because it is not quite winter out yet and that seems like a lot of money for the work I looked into doing it myself using the power of the Internet and my enthusiasm for learning new things.
It turns out you can buy a cartridge to replace the moving parts for 25-30% of the price of a new pump. The plumber never mentioned that!
I ordered the part, it got shipped from Edmonton and I picked it up. Finally found time to do the install the other night.
Of course the most important thing when working with water and electricity is to make sure the power is turned off; they just don't mix. Finding the right breaker took a few minutes as they were not correctly labeled. Rechecked it a few times with a circuit tester...since the pump was seized up, you can't verify by not hearing it.
So had to wait an hour for the pump to cool down before I could work on it. I well remembered my lesson from four years ago well. Hot = bad.
The instructions said to isolate the pump by turning off all the in and out water valves. That was kind of obvious and easy to handle. Then the instructions said to reduce the water pressure to zero before removing the pump.
Whoever put the system in did not think they would be the ones doing the maintenance on the system so there was no way to do this. The system was sitting at 60 psi and it looked like I would have to do it the hard way! (No isolation, no unit tests, and lots of pressure to get it done).
If you have ever unscrewed a 300 foot hose from the faucet without first releasing the pressure, you know it takes a while for that much water to go down to zero psi even with the tap turned off. Well I got out a big bucket, and put it under the pump and to be on the safe side, I wrapped the joint that I was going to release first with a rag so the water would not spray all over the room, then unbolted (yes and they were big bolts too) the joint... slowly.
Good thing I used a big bucket. Water poured out for 15 minutes and almost filled a 5 gallon pail. All the pressure and all the water higher than the pump had to pour out.
Bronze is surprisingly heavy. That is what the housing and tubing of the pump are made of. The pump won't reach the floor as the wiring is too short and I didn't want to mess with that part. But the pump weighed too much to let it hang or hold while working on it.
Plan B, get something to put under it. Bar stool. Apparently all good plumbers started out as bartenders; or drinkers at the very least so they already know this.
Disassemble the pump, insert new cartridge. Put in new o-ring, reassemble the cartridge.
Reinstall the pump. Tighten the bolts. Double check the bolts (remember the 60 psi and that electricity thing).
Clean up any spilled water. Open the valves to allow the water to reach the pump again (don't run pumps empty or you will repeat the whole replacement thing very quickly).
Turn on the power.
Warm water is flowing into the floor again. No leaks.
Yes! Doug the plumber. I am man... handyman. I can do anything.
I tell wife. Wife says "Really? You got it working?" with a lot of surprise in voice.
"Of course, was there any doubt?"
Wife quickly readjusting to news and knowing about men "No of course not, it is just that I am surprised you got it done so quickly."
"Yeah baby, AND I saved 500 bucks, excluding my time and effort."
Software development is like that too. Developers often think they can do anything and sometimes it is a surprise that it works at all.
And sometimes you can do it yourself and sometimes you might need help.
And sometimes it it good to push yourself to learn something new, even if you don't want to be a plumber full time.
No matter what, making something new work is satisfying.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Do Optimists Make Better Entrepreneurs? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: do-optimists-make-better-entrepreneurs CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/09/do-optimists-make-better-entrepreneurs.html DATE: 09/14/2010 03:12:39 PM ----- BODY:Most people don't want to be labeled as a pessimist, even if it is true.
It has been my experience that some people focus and dwell on the negative things as a habit or by nature.
When you are talking to them and feel the conversation is going into negative or blaming territory, you may be tempted to call them out; "why are you being so negative?" or "be patient things will get better", etc.
Someone who is an optimist by nature (temporary deviation) will pause, admit they are being overly negative, and then immediately brighten up the conversation.
On the other spectrum, you will get a response like "I am just being realistic".
My experience to date... if someone start off a thread of conversation with a statement like that they are about to rain on your parade big time.
Let's call a spade a spade. Realists are just putting a nicer label on their behavior; pessimism.
Reality is the way things really are: neither negative or positive. Very few people can identify reality because we all look at the world through our own filters.
You can also be overly optimistic too. This can be related to:
Who would you rather work with or for?
This is actually quite important as most great businesses need to attract and retain talented people to grow and thrive.
To really thrive in sales either you need to be the only solution out there that customers need or you need to sell your vision of a better future to you clients.
It is this hope for a better future that I think makes great sales people. Sales is also about building long-term relationships with "people". Organizations don't buy, people in the organization do.
I look at investors in a similar camp as customers. They have something you want (money and advice) and you are selling your company's future potential to get it.
When you are hiring you are selling your company as a good place to work, etc.
When you are starting up and don't have a long-term track record, selling a better future is all you have.
In order to create something new you need a strong vision and the ability to implement it. According to the book "Quiet Leadership" by David Rock it is far easier to learn new habits and skills if you have lots of positive reinforcement. Negative thinking strengthens old "bad" patterns.
Entrepreneurs are creators of something new. They take a business from concept to reality... they are builders.
To be a great entrepreneur or leader you need to be able to sell a better future. This takes a healthy dose of optimism, faith and hard work. Great entrepreneurs also need to have a health grounding in the world they will operate. Sometimes this can be the real world and sometimes it is the world they create.
The good news is that unless you are in either extreme, you can likely change enough to succeed.
That is the true lesson; great entrepreneurs see a better future for their business AND themselves.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Software Post-it Notes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: software-post-it-notes CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/09/software-post-it-notes.html DATE: 09/09/2010 04:16:58 PM ----- BODY:Keeping things simple we would have just used post-it notes and a whiteboard or wall. We have lots of concurrent projects and could have used up lots of walls.
But we also have remote clients, developers and testers.
So we decided on a software solution. This is what the OnTime Planning Board looks like with client names removed.
Of course it is all drag and drop.
Note that we are currently using 1 week sprints with two major releases for these types of projects. I have found that longer sprints make it hard for developers to estimate how much work they can accomplish in the time-frame as they are often involved in multiple projects. A week is just easier to see.
Going beyond the sticky notes: it is easy to sum up the amount of work assigned to a resource in a period of time as it is all dynamic; you can look at features/stories and manage defects; and you can also sort based on work flow steps priority, etc.
Overall the tool is helping us manage both agile and hybrid projects (scrumerfall) to suit client needs.
The trick with any of these tools is to focus on what you need it to do and not what it "can" do.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Pushing Out of the Comfort Zone STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: pushing-out-of-the-comfort-zone CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/09/pushing-out-of-the-comfort-zone.html DATE: 09/08/2010 04:04:13 PM ----- BODY:Recently we had a project where we received a rather complicated mail merge Word document that needed to be generated from a web site. If we could handle the Word documents directly, we would have a very flexible method of building similar applications for our clients in the future.
We looked at third party tools and several looked promising initially.
However, they seemed to fail on handling the nested if statements properly. The output in Word or PDF format was rendered incorrectly.
So we looked at using the docx (XML) format and the Microsoft docx SDK. The Word docx format saves the content in XML format which can be manipulated by .NET code just like any other XML file.
We were able to do the merge correctly for the data fields. However, Word doesn't generate the XML consistently and handling the nested if statements in code turned out to be a bit painful. As well, different versions of Word render the doxc mail merge differently so if we left them in (the if statements), we couldn't render them consistently for various clients.
We are pretty sure that we could have kept going and got it working. However, we had a client deadline to meet and there was still some "if" and "maybe" involved.
So we went back to our tried and true solution, build an HTML page to replicate the Word template and generate the output in PDF format. Brute force approach but it works.
Now at the beginning of the project we had a choice: play it safe and build this application using the tried and proven method or push the envelope and hopefully, leap our solution forward in capability.
The play it safe crowd could say "I told you so".
But then if you always play it safe, you never push yourself out of the comfort zone... and you cease to learn.
We now know Word, docx, mail merge and Word to PDF technology a lot better than yesterday. This is very valuable because next time, we will have a working solution and not just a spike that didn't pan out.
You can't do this all the time; sometimes you have put delivering working software ahead of trying new things... technically we are paid to primarily deliver working software and not for things that didn't work out.
But pushing out of your comfort zone once in a while (as a company, team or individual) will pay off in spades later. Playing it safe all the time just ensures that you will stay at the back of the pack.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean.work@gmail.com IP: 70.73.83.242 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 09/09/2010 06:14:15 AM Absolutely. No pain, no gain. There has to be a common sense when the risk is worth or not, but generally, especially with technologies, only experience gains a real knowledge. As in regards to MS products - they first have to mature the initial stage, then they become reliable for usage. Looks like it's a tradition (or iterative approach :) Well done. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Old Habits Are Hard to Break STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: old-habits-are-hard-to-break CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/08/old-habits-are-hard-to-break.html DATE: 08/30/2010 11:31:31 PM ----- BODY:I was doing some more reading on the train this evening. We all know old habits die hard but we try to change them all the same.
This approach is totally wrong.
Other than intentionally damaging your brain (which I strongly recommend against) it is impossible to actively rewire or remove an existing memory map once it has been firmly established. The more you think about a bad habit, the more it becomes entrenched; not less.
Yet well intentioned people try to change themselves and others using the brute force method all the time, even though it almost never works. You just end up getting frustrated or worse; think the person is intentionally not getting it (or just dumb).
It is why it is so important when learning new things to learn it right from the beginning if you want to become truly good at it. This is true for music, dance and sport. Think of how much money and time golfers spend paying a pro to help relearn their swing. Most golfers start out as hackers and eventually decide to become better at it later.
The best you can hope for is to learn a new habit to replace the old one.
Habits (or skills) are formed when your memory map gets wired by your brain into (or partially into) your subconscious. You don't really have to think about how you do something if it is a habit or skill.
New habits are learned faster and better:
So once you learn a new habit you can then stop using the old one.
As a mixed blessing: if you don't use it you lose it.
The brain prunes and removes unused links over time, kind of like garbage collection. So if you can avoid the old habit for long enough, it will eventually fade as a habit. This takes longer the more deeply it was wired into your psyche and also depends on your genetics and other factors... some people never forget.
Unfortunately, you can't consciously choose when this will happen either.
So instead of fighting your coworker's or employee's undesirable habits; work with them to develop new ones using positive reinforcement and repetition over time... act like a long-term coach.
Remember, old habits are hard to break (yours included).
P.S. For me blogging helps reinforce what I am learning and thinking about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Don't "Tell" Me It Is Not Possible STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dont-tell-me-it-is-not-possible CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/08/dont-tell-me-it-is-not-possible.html DATE: 08/26/2010 09:07:00 AM ----- BODY:Recently we building an application for a customer and we had to merge two existing PDF reports into one.
We already have a license for a utility that creates PDFs from HTML web pages. It can also append or merge existing PDFs into its output. But could it just merge two PDFs into one without printing a page first?
Well rather than waste time, our developer asked the vendor via e-mail support. The first attempt got dumped by their spam filter. The second took a few days to generate a response.
In the meantime our developer couldn't wait for the answer and made it work.
Yesterday we got a message from the vendor that it was not possible to do what we wanted with their product.
When you don't know something is not possible you are open to possibilities.
When someone tells you something is impossible and they are somewhat authoritative, you close your mind to possibilities. Negative input can generate negative outcomes unless you are die-hard "I'll prove you wrong" person.
So don't tell me it is not possible... and even if you do, I might ignore it.
Additional Thoughts
In a somewhat related Post From Seth Godin on Senior Management:
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 66.225.129.93 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 08/26/2010 11:06:36 AM Reminds me my experience with Samsung support and DLNA support by one of their products. The answer was "look in manual" (when manual didn't have a thing about DLNA) :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com/ DATE: 08/26/2010 01:36:38 PM Sometime not being told the official answer leads to both a better understanding of the product and a better solution overall. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: When All Else Fails, Reboot STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: when-all-else-fails-reboot CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/08/when-all-else-fails-reboot.html DATE: 08/25/2010 04:28:31 PM ----- BODY:Worth quoting--one of Arthur C. Clarke's lesser known three laws: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong."
Some of our client applications use Thawte SSL certificates. We've used them for year without any problems.
Recently Thawte upgraded their root certificate paths to make them deeper.
When we went to install the certificates on ISA server, we started getting error messages in the browser that the certificate chain had issues.
We found the relevant support article at Thawte and made sure all of the intermediate certificate authorities were installed, etc.
Still the problem persisted.
Resetting the publishing rule didn't work either. The certificates were there and everything was configured as per the specifications.
Only one option remained.
Reboot the server.
It used to be the first thing an IT person tried when something was not working. But in 2010 we expect to be able to reconfigure most things without a reboot.
But even today, when all else fails, reboot.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: If It Wasn't for Friction... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: if-it-wasnt-for-friction CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/08/if-it-wasnt-for-friction.html DATE: 08/24/2010 04:24:51 PM ----- BODY:I was just thinking back to my university days as an engineer and was thinking about motion and friction.
Newton's First Law states: Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force.
Don't worry, I won't get much more technical than this, after all it has been a long time for me too...
This Law applies to two things I was recently thinking about:
When a car goes around a corner at speed, the friction of the tires on the road as you turn your steering wheel is the force that makes it possible. Without friction, you would just keep going in a straight line forever.
The maximum amount of friction available (coefficient of friction) to either change direction or stop, is determined by the two materials in contact; your tires and the road. If you are on ice you have less friction. If you are on ice without good snow tires, even less friction. Once you start sliding, friction is also reduced (which is why you are supposed to steer into the slide).
The number of tires connected to your engine has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to turn or stop.
Sorry folks, all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive helps you get going faster but it doesn't help you corner or stop any more than anyone else on the road. Believe it or not, I heard a practicing engineer talking about how much faster he can go in bad conditions because of the 4 wheel drive he had (sad).
Cars also require constant force or energy (i.e. an engine) to keep them moving forward because three main things suck the energy out of the car: the power required to run everything and keep the battery charged, the friction of the tires on the road (keep them properly inflated), and wind resistance.
You come into your business (or job, etc.) all charged up to get things done. You know what you want to accomplish and you are pumped up. You start doing things and building forward momentum.
But to keep your forward momentum you need to expend energy.
You have a certain amount of friction to overcome just between you and the task at hand (your tires). As soon as you start to interact with, depend on or involve others you have external resistance (wind).
You also need some energy to keep everything running so you can be in business in the first place. And if you don't recharge your batteries, you will also eventually run out of charge and stall.
So keeping your project, business and yourself moving forward you need to expend energy.
As your business gets bigger and more complex, it generally takes more energy to change direction quickly.
The problem is most businesses focus more on building a powerful engine and connecting the engine to as many wheels as possible so they can build forward momentum faster.
The great companies remember that you need to be able to change direction and build in a mechanism for steering the company, allowing it to change direction quickly when needed. When this is coupled with:
You have an all season race car.
In adverse conditions your ability to survive depends on your ability to see, stop and change direction.
The size of your engine (assuming it is big enough) and the number of connected tires will not make any difference if you are heading in the wrong direction, you'll just end up in the ditch or driving off a cliff faster.
If it wasn't for the friction (applied at the right time in the right amount)...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Crow Conventions and Other Dark Rumours STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: crow-conventions-and-other-dark-rumours CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/08/crow-conventions-and-other-dark-rumours.html DATE: 08/23/2010 04:25:18 PM ----- BODY:Yesterday I looked out of the window, south over our yard and neighbour's field just after a thunderstorm had blown through.
There were hundreds and hundreds of crows. I've never seen this many crows in one spot before (in real life anyways).
It took a few minutes to realize that they were not making much noise. Hundreds of silent crows.
After about 15 minutes they started flying off in groups of 20-40 heading north. As you can imagine it took some time before the last group left.
Ominous if you are superstitious. They are obviously up to no good.
Ravens and crows (and magpies) have been cast in folklore as rather evil beasts; always siding with and being partners with or tools of the evil villain in the story. Harbingers of death. Dark messengers.
It is our fears of the unknown that create monsters out of nothing. There is little dark corner of the mind that whispers crows are not to be trusted.
I have no personal experience that crows are dangerous. It is all just rumours and vague unproven stories. But this is enough to activate the part of the brain that responds to danger. It "could" be true after all.
Yet, in reality crows are just crows. They are neither good nor evil as a species. They perform a vital role in nature... and they are supposed to be quite intelligent.
For me, I witnessed something amazing.
But it did make me think again about how our subconscious mind responds to rumours and stories; as if they must all be true.
I've read that well told stories stick with our memory just as well as real events. This helped us learn and survive back in our more dangerous pasts.
But sometimes, stories (and rumours) can be wrong. If fact they often are, because the ones that spread quickly are usually sensational in some way.
So the challenge is to use stories wisely when you tell them and to interpret stories you hear carefully... avoid reacting to or spreading dark rumours.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Mid-Life Crisis? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: midlife-crisis CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/08/midlife-crisis.html DATE: 08/11/2010 06:57:14 PM ----- BODY:What exactly causes a mid-life crisis?
A mid-life crisis can apply equally to your personal life and relationships, your business (normally after 5-10 years), your career, your spiritual life, etc.
Why do some people do drastic things and others weather the storm with just a minor blow-up?
You start out as a young adult with wide open possibilities and few obligations. You have the potential to write your own story.
As you go through life (or business) you can acquire obligations. A spouse, pets, kids, loan, a mortgage are some of the obvious ones. You require growing income to pay for all the obligations and the search for higher income becomes an obligation in and of itself.
As you build relationships and increase your circle of friends you acquire obligations to spend time with them, attend their weddings, etc. As you age, you then need to go to their kids weddings, funerals, etc.
You need to spend time with your spouse, your kids, your pets. Your obligations start driving your life.
If you are a business owner, you have obligations to your business, your employees, your shareholders, your vendors and your customers. Eventually, it will likely overwhelm you.
Then at some point, often a birthday, you realize you are doing everything for everyone else and not yourself. You realize you are mortal and running out of time.
What is your next step?
The infamous middle life crisis is the first option. Do something extreme to show you are in control (eating a tub of chocolate ice cream is not really extreme). Focus totally on yourself and flip the obligation relationships.
This is the immature response and rarely works well.
Ignoring the problem rarely makes it go away. It just increases the likelihood of a blow out (and you saw what can happen there with BP and the Gulf).
Trying to control the external worlds is like trying to hold the ocean in your hands, fleeting at best and likely to drown you at worst.
The mature response is to take charge and change things so that you are again driving your life's story, without wrecking all of the relationships and destroying your family unit, or some other drastic events.
Sure you may make some drastic changes, but they should not be impulses or polar opposites just for the sake of it.
The trick is to decide where you want to go with your story. Longer-term, shorter-term, etc. and then work to get there by taking action.
J.D. Meiers, has a website and upcoming book ("Getting Results") that teaches you how you start building your life using the principles of agile software development. It is not the only system in town for getting results but it looks decent, doesn't require a lot of time or even require that you know the full destination; just that you make choices actively every day.
This should resonate well with many software developers out there. It applies equally well to personal and business situations. And the best part is that it meshes with my current thoughts on business planning; including the software we are building to help with that process.
So if you are feeling like your business is driving your life, or your obligations are overwhelming you in your personal life, or you just are going anywhere in your life; find a system that works for you and start writing your own story... making choices on purpose.
Disclaimer: The author did not do any of the following and is not planning to: buy an expensive sports car, replace current spouse, quit job to become a rock star, buy clothes that a 20 year old would wear, jump out of an airplane, etc.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Much Is Your Business Really Making? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-much-is-your-business-making CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/how-much-is-your-business-making.html DATE: 07/28/2010 04:39:38 PM ----- BODY:Profits = Income - expenses
Profit margin is the percentage of profit over income. If you keep the ratio consistent, adding more revenue equals more profit. Relatively simple concept. (For simplicity let's keep income taxes out of the discussion.)
Yet it is interpreted very liberally and differently by small businesses.
The main reason is that most small business owners (practice owners) think of the business as an extension of their own personal accounts.
The formula becomes:
PersonalIncome = Profit = Everything left over is mine
Essentially, they exclude their own income from the business from the expenses and this inflates the profit margin.
I think this is a big mistake.
To determine if your business is really profitable, I think you need to include the reasonable costs of your time and effort in the formula.
All your time and effort.
The parts where:
What would it cost to replace you or from a different perspective, what could you make putting in all those hours for someone else.
You don't actually have to draw this income as salary. You make choose to take it out as dividends or keep it in the business.
Now the equation looks like:
RealProfit = Income - Expenses (including OwnerPay)
After you virtually or actually pay yourself, the real profit is what you have made by investing your time and money in the business. The value you have created above and beyond just the job. This can be income for you or you can reinvest it in the business if it makes sense.
If the number is less than zero you have a problem. You are subsidizing your business with your volunteer time. Hope you are getting some other benefits because you could make more working for someone else.
If you want to sell your business, an investor is looking at real profit to determine worth. Sure there are intangibles, intellectual property and other goodwill. But ultimately the buyer wants to make X dollars per year on their investment of Y dollars. And the investment return needs to be bigger than you would get on relatively safe investment vehicles.
Not liking the answer (and many business owners don't) is not a reason to ignore calculating real profit.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Judith Gaston EMAIL: judithgaston41@gmail.com IP: 72.44.81.15 URL: http://howisabusinessvalued.com/ DATE: 08/19/2011 09:11:14 AM People who are starting a business might overlook the difference between profit and personal income. The problem begins when personal income comes in the way of profit. New businesses fail because of this. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How to Succeed Like Apple STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-to-succeed-like-apple CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/how-to-succeed-like-apple.html DATE: 07/22/2010 03:05:21 PM ----- BODY:Earlier this week I wrote a post on "i" dominating multi-platform support.
I just tripped across another well written post that gives great insight as to How to Succeed Like Apple, written by Jason Baptiste.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Shocking Products STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: shocking-products CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/shocking-products.html DATE: 07/20/2010 05:39:00 AM ----- BODY:I saw a building maintenance guy in the building next door changing lightbulbs.
He had a long metal expanding pole with an attachment on the end for grabbing lightbulbs from high overhead fixtures.
At first I thought, there is a clever contraption.
Upon further reflection I realized that he was sticking a metal pole into light fixtures. Sure, 99.9% of the time the lightbulb doesn't break, but...
I think there is a reason electricians use fiberglass ladders after all.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Multi-Platform Starts With an "i" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: multiplatform-starts-with-an-i CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/multiplatform-starts-with-an-i.html DATE: 07/19/2010 02:13:08 PM ----- BODY:I just received an e-mail from a business publication we subscribe to in paper selling their online versions.
"Enjoy ... across platforms and devices like iPad, iPhone, PC and Mac".
Umm... three of these platforms and devices are owned by one company. The other represents an entire industry but only got one mention.
Now personally I think it is premature to write off all of the other smart-phone players this early. Similarly the PC is not dead as a platform and there are other electronic book reading devices that are easier on the eyes than the iPad when reading hundreds of books.
But it doesn't really matter.
The consumer and the media love the "i".
In fact, if any other phone/device company built a phone that loses signal when you hold it in your left hand, then goes public saying it is not really the signal but the formula on the signal strength indicator and finally gets blasted in Consumer Reports for a faulty device... they would not sell many devices and their reputation would be questioned.
But if there is an "i" in the name, they can do no wrong. You can't beat that for customer loyalty.
People want to fit in. If all of your friends have something, you will want it too. But unlike some fads that are here today and gone tomorrow; there is a critical mass involved here. They can offer better services (cool things) for their platform than anyone else. This solidifies the platforms' longevity. (Well that and the three year contracts with your wireless provider).
Anyone else sharing the rest of the platform naming alphabet... you might want to do something... soon.
P.S. zzzPad is not a good choice.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/19/2010 09:27:39 PM Following the herd is popular among humans, they can't be blamed for that. i-insanity in North America is entertaining though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh Brown EMAIL: jbrown@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: DATE: 07/22/2010 10:09:33 AM You know the i-craze is getting even nuttier when you see products like this.. http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q107-make-your-bathroom-sing-icarta-ipod-toilet-paper-holder/ ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: to-boldly-go-where-no-man-has-gone-before CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/to-boldly-go-where-no-man-has-gone-before.html DATE: 07/13/2010 08:41:00 AM ----- BODY:Well it started out as a bold enterprise. Start looking for a new car. Visit a few dealerships and see what the cars actually look and feel like, while avoiding deadly contact with the Klingons (err car sales people).
Really missed having phasers and photon torpedoes. Shields would have been useful. Cloaking device, essential. Expendable security officers, check. As it was, unarmed and in hostile territory.
Our current starship is getting a little old. If we don't get it replaced, we may not make it home to our distant planet. The question is:
Buy new or used? Dealer or private? Friend or foe?
Online reviews. Consumer reports. Lemonaide Guide... recommended makes and models. This should be easy.
But space is cold. Absolute zero. Unless you are in a star, then you vapourize.
Comfortable planets are rare. Easy ways to find and buy a good car are even rarer.
Looking at one model that was reviewed, but it is too small. Literally... my head hits the roof. I can't drive 5 gazillion light-years crouched down. Was the reviewer a small green man? What about that other model?
"Enemy wessel approaching." "Captain, we are being probed. Their weapons are armed." "Raise shields." "Communication coming through."
"Captain, we have you in our weapons range and will destroy you and your vessel unless you comply. This is our territory and we make the rules. If you want a new spaceship you must play our game, our way. Surrender your wallet and 50% of your future pre-tax income and a hostage or you will be annihilated."
"How do we know we can trust you?"
"Ha, ha, haaaa. You can't. But you don't have a choice."
"What guarantees do we have that our new vehicle will get us home safely and our crew member will be returned."
"You have our word AND we'll give you a piece of paper. If you act now you have get a free set of tribbles for your trouble."
"I just have to run the deal through our supreme ruler (sales manager)".
... heading home in the new spaceship, a thousand pounds of dilithium lighter in the wallet.
"Captain, the ship is speeding up unexpectedly. We are approaching warp 7... warp 8."
"Cut power and reverse thrusters."
"No Response... warp 9..."
"Eject the anti-matter"
"Captain, we are stopping!"
"Call the dealer and have them repair our ship".
"Captain, the dealer says that our warranty is not valid if we have tribbles on board."
Ahhhh! Kahn!!!!
...Does your sales process alienate your customers?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Empty Nesters STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: empty-nesters CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/empty-nesters.html DATE: 07/12/2010 07:03:24 PM ----- BODY:Yup, our kids just left the nest. The pressure is off but we are also sad.
It seems like just a while ago when it all started. The expecting parents were busy and ignoring all their friends. I think it is called nesting. They were building nests like crazy. Five or six that we know about. Yellows, greys and some baby blue highlights from an old tarp.
Then mom laid the eggs. She sat on them to keep them warm during snow storms and cool nights. Two eggs didn't make it. One we found smashed on the ground (all the king's horses and all the kings men couldn't put it back together again) and one about 15 feet away with a small hole in it.
Dad and mom chased away up to four of those evil magpies at a time with some help from some neighbouring blackbirds and their ever vigilant (human) step-mom.
About two weeks ago the two remaining eggs hatched. Robert and Robyn were hungry kids. Worms and more worms. And they grew fast. At first they were all necks and beaks, rising up out of the nest to feed. Then they were stretching their wings and fighting for food like only siblings can.
But two weeks is a long time and finally they were ready to leave the nest.
Full of bravo, Robert the big brother, flew out of the nest first. But courage was fleeting and he hurried back under the deck, misjudging the height of an opening along with his flying skills and banging his head on a beam... finally settling onto an artificial tree in the darkest corner. Robyn watched her bigger brother with interest and when it was her turn, she flew down off the beam and joined her brother on the back of a deck chair.
She sat for a while watching Robert and finally decided to show him up, and flew off into the yard to join her parents. Meanwhile, Robert's dad flew back to offer some encouragement to his son. Then he kinda just started getting annoyed and impatient when Robert failed to listen or respond, as any parent with teenagers would. But eventually, Robert joined Robyn and their parents out in the yard.
And now we are empty nesters.
How are our kids doing? Will we see them again? Will they graduate from flying school?
Epilogue
Have you ever noticed that as humans we tend to humanize things? We have an unrelenting desire and ability to try to explain the world through our own perspectives using stories. Sometimes this serves us well and sometimes this causes us to misunderstand the world around us or miscommunicate with others.
For instance, the majority of people see that robins are good and magpies are evil for trying to eat their babies. In reality, neither are actually good or evil. They are doing what they are meant to do. We just relate to the ones that are closest to our own viewpoints. The cute robins.
Sure sometimes people are actually evil or dangerous to be around.
But usually people are just different from what we define as normal or acceptable, and we judge them prematurely or incorrectly, based on how "we" would see things. I read in a book recently that treating others as you expect to be treated is a bad idea (for managers). Why? Because you should treat them as they expect to be treated? Everyone is different and is motivated by different things.
So knowing how AND when to see the world as it really is instead of through our programmed lens is a valuable skill. And even better yet is the skill of seeing the world through someone else's perspective.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Far Computer Technology Has Come STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-far-computer-technology-has-come CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/how-far-computer-technology-has-come.html DATE: 07/08/2010 03:02:45 PM ----- BODY:We are in the process of refreshing some server hardware for a client. We have servers ranging from 6 plus years old to fairly current in use.
In that relatively short time frame, we have gone:
One 2 processor (4 cores with hyper-threading) server now has enough horsepower to replace at least eight servers from 5-6 years ago or four from 3-4 years ago.
If it wasn't for considerations around disk I/O, we could do so for 1/5 of the cost of the original hardware.
And this is just the last 6-7 years.
Back in my early exposure to computers (high school and university) I used the Commodore 64, an early Apple, and a VAX 11/780. Yes that is a long, long, long time ago.
The Commodore 64 had a whopping 64 KBytes of RAM, but you could play a surprising number of games on it. How many developers today could stay within 64 KB of RAM with operating system, etc?
I saw roomfuls of computers using tubes and iron core memory that were 20-30 years older yet (older than me in fact).
Then the x86, 286, 386, 486, Pentium 2, Pentium 3, Pentium 4, etc.
I started using the Internet actively in 1995 with a dial up modem.
And this is all within the last 25 years.
During that same 25 years, if cars had gotten faster at the same rate it would now take me a second to get to work. But they haven't. However, they do now have computers controlling everything including engine performance, acceleration, braking, etc. (And sometimes, they don't control like like they should and bad things happen.)
Now when the iPhone 4 comes out people think "cool". But we are no longer really surprised.
In fact, we are pretty much so used to innovation in information and communications technology, we are no longer easily wowed... we take this innovation for granted. It is expected that miracles will continue to happen.
Once in a while it is good to reflect on how far we've come.
And dream about how far we can still go.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/09/2010 07:07:57 PM These are definitely interesting times. Cell phones with over 10MPixel cameras (cell phone with cameras?:), hand-held devices that have storage capacity of a library, etc. It's amazing. One thing that I don't really like is that people are becoming more "technical" and less human. Who knows, maybe borgs will take eventually over? ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 07/09/2010 07:15:08 PM Yeah, hard to imagine people communicating so much via commments on blog posts, text messaging and twitter even 15 years ago. On the bright side, we are still communicating. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Gog is Watching STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: gog-is-watching CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/gog-is-watching.html DATE: 07/06/2010 06:31:24 PM ----- BODY:Once upon a time, you could do something silly or downright dumb. A few people might notice and someone might talk about it. Video cameras were huge and no one carried one in their pocket. Cameras had film and required having the pictures developed. Usually, only the major news companies could broadcast either to millions, let alone the entire planet. Fortunately, not enough people cared about the exploits of Bongo the town idiot to make it worth their while. So unless you were famous or important, you could be almost anonymous.
Today, everything you do in public can be caught on camera. Cameras are small, proliferous and built into everything. Anyone can post the video or pictures on the Internet, instantaneously. Your friends, family, acquaintances, coworker, boss, colleagues and even strangers can watch it. The things you do are public record.
There is Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Bing, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube and a host of other sources of information (i.e. Gog).
Maybe you were already living as if God was watching.
Maybe you don't care what anyone thinks or maybe you want people to think you are the town nut.
Maybe, transparency and the idea that "people" might be watching will cause some people to rethink that bad idea or behaviour.
It doesn't have to end up like the Orwellian "Big Brother" type watching. But let's face it, things have changed and will continue changing.
As an individual, a citizen, a group, a business owner, a business or leader in general you can and most likely will be discussed, highlighted, exposed, or otherwise found on the Internet.
The trick is understanding this... and ensuring your online identity is what you really want it to be. This is more likely if your real world identity matches.
... assume Gog is watching.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Tracking Tools for Agile Software Development STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: tracking-tools-for-agile-software-development CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/07/tracking-tools-for-agile-software-development.html DATE: 07/02/2010 02:56:17 PM ----- BODY:Further to my previous post, we decided to purchase Axosoft's OnTime Enterprise Edition. The software will allow us to track:
The cool part is the support for scrum/agile processes including a planning board, burn-down charts, reporting, release and sprint planning, etc.
It includes:
To be honest, when evaluating products like these (it lists at $3995 US for a 10 user starter pack), you have to make compromises. Not every package does everything the way you want. But, it does not make economic sense to spend hundreds of hours doing an evaulation of multiple products either.
So we found something decent. Now our plan is to use it for a period of time, work with Axosoft to make it better and focus on shipping software.
If it doesn't work out we will be better informed as to what we want. In the meantime, we have a usable tool for remote teams and client access into our tracking system.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Differentiating Your Product or Service STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: differentiating-your-product-or-service CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/differentiating-your-product-or-service.html DATE: 06/29/2010 07:01:00 AM ----- BODY:I recently saw a fido ad on TV. They usually have dogs in their ads and because of that they seem to catch my attention.
In the most recent one one guy is talking to another guy and hucks a big water bottle into the distance and a dog brings back a cell phone. Then the guy says something like, this cell phone contains parts made from a recycled water bottle. Apparently fido sells several that do.
Ok, nice.
But fido doesn't make cell phones. They resell cell phones made by other companies.
They provide voice and data services.
How much recycled plastic is in a cell phone? They are pretty small to begin with. How much of a difference does it really make? According to the fido website, as a company they have recycled enough 19 liter water bottles that (if they were end to end, they) would cover the length of a football field. Not the area of a football field, but the length (that is 100 yards by the way). And that isn't from these new phones, it is company wide. That actually isn't that much plastic.
Get your cell phone from us because we are green; sort of?
Is this what is differentiating fido from their competitors? What if the competitors offer the same brands of phone?
Do people really buy phones because they are green or because they are cool or do cool things?
Looking at their website again, and ahh there are the dogs (just wait for the iPhone ad to go past). Fido cares. You don't have to sign up for long-term contracts.
If this is actually true, that is their differentiation.
What is yours? Really?
P.S. Next hot cell phone app only available at fido... dog tracker to find your wandering dog. A little device on your dog's collar and a bring up the application and boom, and fido is found; down the street in the neighbor's trash, er, recycling. Hey, but are they cute or what?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Tuning Web Service Calls in .NET STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: tuning-web-service-calls-in-net CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/tuning-web-service-calls-in-net.html DATE: 06/28/2010 02:51:08 PM ----- BODY:Troubleshooting a single applications is an art. Troubleshooting a single application with a database requires yet more skill.
When you get in a multi-tiered service oriented architecture you may have:
You need a very broad set of skills for this (or a team), access to a search engine and some luck.
If you are finding that your web application is calling external web services and seems to be under-performing, be sure to check your Machine.config default settings. Out of the box, IIS and .NET have settings set conservatively (presumably so your applications don't overload the hardware).
In one recent case, after tracing through the application stack and doing numerous sub-system tests, we realized that the second tier web service calling the third tier web service was being limited to two outbound network connections.
Tuning maxconnections (and some related settings) for the hardware increased performance dramatically.
See the following two Microsoft articles for details:
Note, for many of these settings you can set overrides in the application.config file as well.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.147.0.90 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/28/2010 04:54:20 PM Yeap. This is were multiple levels of testing are becoming extremely handy. Test what you can automatically first, then it's integration world. I just happened to burn a day of effort on something that is tiny, but gets you when you deal with an array of things (relaying on each other). The joy of development :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: You Don't Care Anymore, Do You? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: you-dont-care-anymore-do-you CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/you-dont-care-anymore-do-you.html DATE: 06/25/2010 02:59:04 PM ----- BODY:If you are in the software development world, you've pretty much got to like or eat pizza once in a while.
I used to be a big fan of Panago pizza. The toppings and flavours were pretty darn good.
But Pizza isn't just about the toppings, it is about the part that holds the toppings as well. Would it be a pizza if the toppings were served on focaccia bread? How about un-cooked dough? Mastering the pizza dough is an important part of the great pizza equation.
The last few years, quality has been suffering. I think the pizza places are running the ovens hotter and sending the pizzas through faster to increase output. Hey, increasing output is a great thing... unless quality drops.
The last time we got the pizza, the dough was really raw. As in only about a quarter of the way through cooked.
As well, about a year ago they also decided to centralize order taking. Before, I called and got directed through to the nearest location. They would ask my phone number and confirm the delivery address "are you still at ...". They remembered that I was a regular customer ordering pizza for a room full of developers (well maybe not the second part but they did remember me).
Now I call the number and get a call center. They ask me my phone number. They ask me my address again. They take my order. Then they insist on calling me back to verify that my phone number is correct because the order is over $50 (don't they have caller ID or a database?).
I get that the pizza business is competitive, whose industry isn't? I get that expenses are going up and you can increase profit by increasing productivity or reducing costs.
But I think Panago has lost sight of the fact that I want great pizza with minimum hassle and good service.
You don't care anymore, do you?
Wanted to join our development team: Great pizza from a company that cares about the customer (and delivers to downtown Calgary).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 10 Things I've Learned About Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: 10-things-i-learned-about-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/10-things-i-learned-about-business.html DATE: 06/21/2010 03:34:18 PM ----- BODY:In honour of our 10 year anniversary (22 June) I have decided to write a few lists about 10. This one is about 10 things I've learned about business.
Despite all the ups and downs, I still enjoy running a business.
And the bonus thing: Business is like everything else in life; it is about the people and relationships.
From our readers:
I've included a few more quotes and my thoughts on the book, "The Great Game of Business" and how it applies to what we do.
Cost/Value
"... to stay in business you have to be the least cost producer or have something nobody else has."
Being the least cost producer would give you some advantages, but I think being in the same range is probably strong enough for most companies in the commodity world. Of course having a unique or perceived value proposition is always better. But don't forget those costs, you don't want to be throwing money away; chances are, one of your competitors isn't.
Mixed Big Picture Messages
"Compensation systems are the primary way that companies send mixed messages. But they may also do it with performance evaluations... Management by Objective."
It is very easy to set personal goals that pit one person or department against another or that achieving will ruin a corporate goal. If you are looking to create a strong team environment and then don't set "team" goals you are saying one thing and rewarding another.
I see examples of this all the time. For instance, a team works on landing a big client. Because they are compensated on individual sales targets, the points for the sale are fought over. Some contributors don't get their fair share with the result being, next time they don't help the others and keep leads to themselves.
Balancing individualism and internal competition with corporate goals and teamwork has always been a challenge.
Lesson - Reward what you really want and not the way everyone else does it.
Open Book Management
"When I talk about open-book management, I'm referring to the practice of communicating with people via the numbers."
The idea here is that business success is really measure in your financials which flow through to everything else you do. How many people understand how what they do in their work flows through to the bottom line? We give people only a partial understanding and trust that someone up the chain understands how it all comes together. The problem is you lose the ability for the group to participate. Look at the concept of "Crowd-sourcing" that is gaining in popularity with the proliferation of the Internet... very powerful stuff based on the idea that more informed people you have working on something, the better chance of a breakaway solution.
Summary
I am not going to quote the entire book in my blog. The point is, there are lots of good ideas in some of the classics and newer books.
Mastering software development as a company means more than building software according to someone's ideas. It means bringing new ideas and ways of doing things into the products you build.
Our value as software developers is multiplied by the extras we bring to the table, the business knowledge and wisdom. That is software development as an art-form.
And there are some great ideas and inspiration for creating our own version of the Great Game of Business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: When the S--t Hits the Fan STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: when-the-st-hits-the-fan CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/when-the-st-hits-the-fan.html DATE: 06/17/2010 11:37:40 PM ----- BODY:in software development things often don't go according to plan. Sometimes the fault lies with a third party vendor, sometimes you have to re-factor a design that no longer works and sometimes you get a bug that doesn't show up right away.
Whatever the case, you are way off estimate.
Developers will sometimes question if it even possible to estimate time on a development project.
You know what though. In reality few things of any complexity actually go according to plan.
So why plan at all?
Well for starters you need to commit to shipping a product. In business, saying we will build something someday doesn't cut it.
Others are depending on you and businesses need to meet deadlines too.
So we do the best we can and then adapt.
We have scope, budget and time. Time (schedule) is often not flexible. You don't want to blow the budget too often or you either won't make money or won't get invited back to do more work. Either outcome is not good for business.
So that leaves scope.
Scope is hard to estimate up front. Requirements change and better ways to build stuff comes up.
So you do rough estimating up front. Add in some buffer.
Then in each iteration you estimate the work for the sprint and commit to it. At the end of the sprint you know more and can estimate the next sprint a little better. The smaller the chunks the more accurate the estimates become. You win some and lose some.
If you are tackling the high risk stuff first, you reduce the likelihood of runaway estimates near the project end. As well, early on, don't focus on the bells and whistles. Be ready to go back to the drawing board on a bad code design. Too often developers just keep patching code rather than step back and redoing it.
Stuff happens and you adapt the plan. If you are working and communicating well with your customer they are not surprised.
When the time comes to ship you ship a working and tested product. The scope might be a little different, but it is usable.
And sometimes, despite everything, the S--t hits the fan at the last minute. Good teams can work through it.
Yes you can over plan up front (Waterfall). But no planning at all during the process is almost a guarantee of problems. Rough, refine, refine, ship. Agile applies to the code, design AND planning.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Entrepreneurs, Stories and Selling STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: entrepreneurs-stories-and-selling CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/entrepreneurs-stories-and-selling.html DATE: 06/14/2010 11:02:27 AM ----- BODY:Entrepreneurs who build software products really know their product inside and out and have a lot of a passion for it. This is great and bad. Bad because sales often become dumps of technology, facts and features instead of truly listening to the customer.
As well, technology companies tend to focus on the product first and sales afterward.
Telling a story right from the get go is a way to bridge the gap between building and selling.
Paul Kenny gives a good presentation on how this works (posted on Joel on Software). If you are in technical sales or on the executive team of a company focused on technology I recommend you have a gander.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile Project Management Tools STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-project-management-tools CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/agile-project-management-tools.html DATE: 06/11/2010 11:04:07 PM ----- BODY:We have a distributed workforce, lots of projects, remote clients, developers working on more than project at a time, and a large number of applications in support mode.
Whiteboards and sticky notes work well for a few projects and a local team. Excel and Google docs allow some remote sharing. Bug tracking software only is really useful for task and bug tracking.
So we are looking at finding one software package that can do product and release planning (stories or features), project management, Scrum/sprint management, bug tracking and also allows our clients to participate. It needs to integrate with our development environment (Visual Studio) and be installable locally (sorry, we like the cloud but some of our clients don't). The entire team from product managers and project managers, quality assurance and our clients must be able to interact. Ideally the product should also have some APIs so we can add to it if necessary.
The kicker?
We want it to be simple and relatively easy to use in development work flow so that developers are developing code and not spending lots of time managing information, documentation and projects.
Version One and Axosoft's OnTime seem to be candidates. Does anyone have experience with either or recommend something else?
I think our next step is to get some trial versions going and see what we like.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: QA Should Find Nothing! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: qa-should-find-nothing CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/qa-should-find-nothing.html DATE: 06/04/2010 03:19:31 PM ----- BODY:Developers should produce code that is so good, the quality assurance team should find nothing. If they do it should be a big thing. How did that get through all the tests?
If continuous integration builds fail, it should be a big deal (think sirens going off). Failing tests should never be removed just so the build can be green... doing so is a slippery slope to crappy code.
Writing crappy code is never faster than writing good code.
It is all about putting the craftsmanship back into development.
These topics and many more contained in a recent presentation by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob). We can always use a good reminder to keep improving our craft.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh Brown EMAIL: jbrown@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 96.51.128.101 URL: DATE: 06/04/2010 09:35:36 PM Scott Bellware had some interesting points in his blog post a few months back about QA. http://blog.scottbellware.com/2010/02/qa-missed-something.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean.work@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/04/2010 10:02:25 PM Glad you found it good. I loved the part about developers going to business and asking "would you like quality code or crappy code" :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Great Game of Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-great-game-of-business CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/06/the-great-game-of-business.html DATE: 06/04/2010 12:12:08 AM ----- BODY:As I have mentioned numerous times, I have been spending a lot of time studying what make some businesses succeed and what makes some people great. Our company builds a lot of tools that measure, forecast and analyze personal and business information to make better decisions.
So far if anyone has a magic formula for wealth, I haven't found it. Lots of great ideas for increasing your chances though.
Every once in a while it is good to go back and read some of the classics instead of just the "new" ideas found in more recent publications.
The Great Game of Business (Jack Stack, 1992) is one of those classics. It is one of the first compelling business books on the benefits of employee share ownership plans (ESOP) and more importantly, open book management.
It really makes you think that if a small re-manufacturing company can make it work, then just about any business could.
Essentially it is about making business into a game. Not a silly game but a game with rules, a scorecard, a way to win (or lose) and a reward for winning. The scorecard are the business numbers; not just quotas, targets and goals but the real numbers... income and expense and balance sheet.
Of course you need to train people to:
Essentially you teach them to play the game of business so that they understand how what they do in the business impacts the business results. Hundreds of people focused on a common goal are much more effective than a few top down controllers.
There are lots of other ideas and guiding principles for how to set up the game of business YOUR way for YOUR business. It is fascinating that a book written in the dark ages of 1992 has at its heart, many of the same things that authors are talking about today.
In many ways, people and business have not changed. Technology changes. Products and services change. But the game is still inherently the same.
Know the rules, plan to win, keep score and play hard to win.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Google Shoots at the Microsoft Tree STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: google-shoots-at-the-microsoft-tree CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/google-shoots-at-the-microsoft-tree.html DATE: 05/27/2010 02:43:25 PM ----- BODY:Using metaphors can be dangerous when you don't really understand how they came about. I came across the following in an e-newsletter today.
"Google fired another shot across Microsoft's bough in the battle for cloud dominance with the release of a tool that eases the migration from Outlook to Google Apps."
I now have vision in my head of a Redmond tree like the one in Avatar, but bigger.
Interestingly, the linked article starts off with yet another war based metaphor in the title; Google Blitzes Microsoft With Outlook Migration Tool. I wonder how many people these days know where/how the war-time meaning of blitz originated . Not sure if the release of a migration tool counts as overwhelming force but it is a catchy title.
Besides, any techies out there would realize Microsoft is more of a forest (or forest of forests), than a tree. Which tree do you shoot at next? What if the trees can shoot back?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Getting the Results You Want in Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: getting-the-results-you-want-in-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/getting-the-results-you-want-in-business.html DATE: 05/19/2010 07:11:13 PM ----- BODY:Most people think they deserve something big for working hard. But is this just desire or is it really an entitlement?
More and more people are being judged by the results of what they produce; not the effort they put into it.
Sure there are still jobs where you put in your time and you get paid. You put in extra effort and you get paid more. The relationship is pretty linear... and finite.
When you are an entrepreneur or business owner the relationship is not linear.
The market doesn't owe you anything for hard work. There are no labor laws to hide behind. You are on your own to make it, or not.
If your business is contract work then there may be a linear relationship between effort and income supposing you can keep the work coming in.
If you are just going to get paid a wage for each hour you work you are not an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is about leverage.
You build a business that can scale to some degree. That provides something remarkable to the market such that people seek you out. You employ or contract others to do some of the work. It is not about the raw hours you put in. It is about the results you show to customers.
The goal is to build something that generates multiples on your effort. Eventually, you may not even need to be working in the business depending on your objectives. Certainly, you want to have a choice for your investment of time, money and sweat.
It is about doing the right work. The work that needs to be done to move your business forward. You need to align your efforts with your end vision, your goals and your plans. Most importantly it is about taking action on your planning.
Planning does not need to be formal. It can be a rough plan that changes over time. It can be in point form. The important thing is that you know what it is and can tell whether the work you are actually doing is moving you forward or is just busy work.
An entrepreneur needs fire. The drive that keeps you going and can motivate others. The focus that keeps the end-goal in sight... and keeps you improving.
As you grow you need to communicate the vision, goals and plans to your teams. You need to be certain that what they are doing is helping your business do the right things. It is easy to become caught up in the busy work and even easier the further you are from the vision.
But many owner operated businesses do just that. They get caught up in the busy work and start believing that if only they had more time, they could get the business going where it needs to go.
Guess what, time fills up just like your hard drive. Not everything on the hard drive is important to the same degree. And not everything you do with your time gets you the results you need.
You can do the business execution process (vision, goals, plan, action) on scraps of paper, in Word or Excel, or you can use more sophisticated software to help you and your team get results.
But the important thing is that you do it.
Getting the results you want in business is about knowing where you are heading and taking the action to get there. Effort can be important, but only the right effort.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Chameleon - An Adaptable Salary Administration Tool STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-chameleon-an-adaptable-salary-administration-tool CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/a-chameleon-an-adaptable-salary-administration-tool.html DATE: 05/17/2010 06:40:02 PM ----- BODY:Back in 2001 we built a web-based data merging tool for human resource and pension data. There were about 7 sources of data and every time the data didn't match for an employee, someone had to go in and make a decision as to which version (if any) was correct. This was happening across a dispersed team so a web front-end and shared database back-end made sense.
Recently we built a salary administration tool in Excel. The technology choice was made before we entered the picture and it turned out to be totally the wrong architecture. Excel is great, but not for this type of application where a lot of people are modifying data at the same time and you have to split and merge the data in a very short time-frame. Murphy's law kicks in big time. Sure we got it going in the end with some really long hours, but we knew we could do better.
Then we built an Employee Slotting Tool for a fairly large company to merge two sets of employee data with different organizational hierarchies, compensation levels, and performance management standards.
We are still moving the tool forward more into the salary administration space. Essentially what we have is a (distributed) team-based data merging, analysis and decision tool; with full change logging and the ability to wrap business processes into it.
In the meantime I have been thinking about who else these tools might be useful for (and welcome any creative ideas).
During a merger or acquisition process you have to merge two cultures and two sets of data where there are considerable differences in standards. You have a limited time to get the job done.
Ok, it is downsizing wrapped in political correctness. But again, there is a lot of data and you need to make decisions about the people represented by it quickly.
Most large companies, especially those with a matrix organizations or those revamping levels/benefits, could use a tool to help with the annual or one-time process. This is a Salary Administration Tool.
This is where we can start thinking outside of the box:
If anyone has answers to the last two questions, I would love to hear it.
In the meantime, I am sure other uses will reveal themselves, as long as we keep listening and an open mind.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Business Optimization Process STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: business-optimization CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/business-optimization.html DATE: 05/11/2010 06:38:18 PM ----- BODY:I have been spending some time recently looking at how you can improve your business's performance. There are essentially two major categories:
Major innovation is not always easy, especially for established industries and businesses. And even when you introduce a major innovation that shakes up your industry or leaps you in front of the competition (i.e. creates a blue ocean); there is usually a follow-on phase of business optimization.
One thing common across all types of business improvement, no action = no results. To manifest your vision and achieve your goals you need to take action; exectute your plan.
I really think you need to know where you are heading. What is the big picture vision of what and where your business is going to be in 3 to 10 years out.
Most business visions are too big and too far out to be meaningful as day to day working objectives. Goals are your intermediate objectives that you can achieve in a shorter time-frame. They should be specific and measurable.
Projects are how you will move towards attaining your goals. The key parts of a strategic project are:
Ongoing business processes and business systems can be improved by implementing projects (taking action) or projects can have objectives of their own.
Innovation Footnote: If you haven't guessed, a project can introduce an innovation. So really, business optimization is about aligning your business results with your business vision. Innovation or improvement have the same objectives, sometimes the scale is a little different.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Presentation Zen STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: presentation-zen CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/presentation-zen.html DATE: 05/05/2010 07:52:28 PM ----- BODY:A number of years ago, a coworker and I were working on a project in Edmonton. We got hungry and hopped in the rental car to find a place to eat. We had no idea what food we wanted or where in town we needed to go.
So we just started driving. No map allowed. When you approach an intersection, you make a best guess as to which direction you might want to head. This approach started working well for us. As time went on, we would find places where there were amazing specials and we never had to eat the same food twice.
One place we ended up had a special on all you can eat beef ribs. I was much younger and didn't have to watch the waistline. Anyways, as we were eating I was looking around the restaurant and saw a man sitting by himself who I felt I knew. I approached him and asked if he was my spouse's uncle. Sure enough, he was and even though I had never met him before in person, I had connected with a relative.
From that moment forward we called our driving approach Zen navigation. You might not know where you are going or how to get there, but you do know where you are and where you have been.
So when I saw a book called "Presentation Zen" by Garr Reynolds, it really caught my attention.
I am working on a presentation to start selling one of our new products around business optimization. But I don't really want it to be just another "Death by PowerPoint" presentation where you have page after page of bullets (usually started with a 10 minute company overview... ahhhhh!).
So far the book is inspiring me to try a much different approach. Tell a verbal story and support it with visuals that add to the story and not repeat it.
This approach to presentation building is new and unfamiliar. I don't know what I am going to end up with, but I do know where I have been; and I don't like it. Presentation Zen, here I come.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-picture-is-worth-1000-words CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/a-picture-is-worth-1000-words.html DATE: 05/05/2010 03:02:16 PM ----- BODY:I never really like how I look in pictures. Well, I found one I can live with and have updated my blog and social media profiles to include it.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I am off the hook for any more posts for some time.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Fine Line in Marketing Health STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-fine-line-in-marketing-health CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/05/the-fine-line-in-marketing-health.html DATE: 05/04/2010 01:52:32 PM ----- BODY:How much is YOUR life worth to you? If you were diagnosed with an untreatable, fatal health problem, how hard would you try to find something on the fringes that might work for you?
If you were suffering from chronic pain, how much would you pay to get rid of that pain?
What if it was a spouse or your children?
Health care is big business whether you are in the US with a more capitalistic approach to health or in Canada with a more social approach. Business is there to provide a product or service and make money doing so.
If you are selling Beanie Babies or some other fad toy, over-marketing and over-promising is relatively harmless; you aren't really hurting anyone if they buy your product and don't feel the magic.
But if you are talking about health... it is really easy to cross a line.
I recently saw an episode of Marketplace (Stretching the Truth) where they looked at spinal decompression therapy for back pain. They use a machine call the DRX9000to stretch out your vertebrate (up to 100 pounds of force) and allow your spine to recover. Patients are paying up to $5000 for the treatment and the manufacturer and clinics are claiming a very high success rate; 85-90%.
Too good to be true? Yup. (Biased reporting? Maybe, but the point of this post is not this product, but the ethics around overselling health.)
According to one doctor (back specialist), 75% of backs get better on their own anyways. And the other 25%, spinal decompression may or may not help depending on the real issue; in some cases the machine makes the back worse, much worse.
In a way all doctors (MDs, chiropractors, optometrists, dentists, etc.) are in business. They get paid based on the number of patients they see and treat. The better reputation (personal marketing) they have, the more they get paid. No patients equals no job or practice.
There is probably a built in tendency of the medical practitioners to over-state benefits and minimize risk. After all, you don't want to worry patients too much, it affects recovery rates and adds stress for no reason.
And heck, if doctors are saving lives and ending pain and suffering, they deserve to be well compensated.
The problems start when:
I am a big proponent of providing a useful product or service to the market and getting compensated for it. Therefore, if your product or service is providing nothing useful, I would question the ethics of your business model. And yes, entertainment and happiness are useful.
So yes, we need to know about options concerning our health (marketing), but we also need to know that our health professionals and businesses are recommending treatments that are in our best interests, not just theirs.
One cure that fits all is often just too good to be true.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Nearly Skunked STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: nearly-skunked CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/nearly-skunked.html DATE: 04/29/2010 12:45:11 PM ----- BODY:Tuesday night I decided to take the dogs for a walk. I stepped out the door and froze. The smell of skunk was very strong. The dogs were sniffing the air but fortunately didn't see anything.
After pausing for what seemed like several minutes, but was likely a few seconds, I quietly turned on my flashlight and looked around. Sure enough, there were eyes looking back at me about 50 feet out, beside a bush.
I don't actually know what the range of a skunk is but I assumed it was less than 50 feet so I took the dogs out along a route that would keep some major distance, moving very slow so there were no misunderstandings.
I went for the walk and was quite cautious coming back. No further sign of the skunk.
I love the power of a flashlight to reveal hidden animals. They don't know their eyes are giving them away.
While I was walking, I was reflecting on how time moves differently when you perceive danger. Sure getting skunked is not really danger (fear of having to clean two dogs and myself is a real fear, but it is not danger); but the brain sees it as fear it so it works the same.
Reminded me of the lizard brain that Seth discusses quite a bit in Linchpin. Sometimes we are glad it is there.
And sometimes, fear makes you react with avoidance. Sure you might get skunked, but you also might miss a really good journey or not get anywhere worth going. You can mitigate the risk and push aside the fear.
I could have went back in the house, but I didn't. I got an adventure and the dogs got a walk.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The 5 Stages of Evolution: People and Computing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-5-stages-of-evolution-people-and-computing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/the-5-stages-of-evolution-people-and-computing.html DATE: 04/28/2010 02:40:11 PM ----- BODY:I was thinking about the evolution in computing over the past few years. Computers have been used to make sense of information, find answers, for entertainment and to connect with other people. We used to find someone with perceived expertise in a subject and get advice from them.
Some things change and some things never really change. It turns out it is not really about the evolution of computers so much as it is about the evolution of people using computers.
We all know someone who is just not computer savvy. Maybe you bought them a computer a few years ago and even with hours of training and support they still struggle with the basics. Everything is still according to the installation defaults and they have no idea where any documents they create are except "on the computer".
People who have discovered the Internet including e-mail web browsing. Now you can find tons of information about everything; but interestingly, few real answers.
People using computers to run businesses. End-users don't have to worry about where data is anymore and rely on their Information Technology (IT) folks for that. The IT folks are overwhelmed trying to make it all work and worrying about where all the data is.
The processing and data are "out there" somewhere. Even the corporate IT folks no longer really know (or care) where the data is. Essentially, part of the corporate computing just got outsourced. Of course if you are building the application that is "out there" somewhere or have to integrate with it; it is another ball game entirely.
This is all the social media and user created content. We have access to too much information and we are now relying on perceived experts for advice. Friends, bloggers and product reviewers have gained quite a bit of influence over what products and services get purchased. Obviously it is just like the offline world, you trust the opinions of "authoritative" sources and friends over strangers. It is just easier this in an increasingly complicated world.
So things really are not different; people still do things the way they have for thousands of years. They just now have more tools and can reach around the world for information, answers, connecting and entertainment.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Using Social Media for Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: using-social-media-for-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/using-social-media-for-business.html DATE: 04/23/2010 04:16:03 PM ----- BODY:Over the past few weeks, I've read a couple of books on how to market your business or product using social media. I am not discounting the power of social media by any stretch, after all, I am blogging.
However, there seems to be an overtone of "using" social media in the books and consulting around this subject. Start a blog, write amazing content, promote yourself and company in LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Follow people who have lots of followers and tag along on their success. Post comments on popular blogs, etc. Get better ranking in Google by getting quality inbound links. You know; "use" social media.
Just like commercials, spam and telephone solicitation, it worked pretty well when only a relatively small number of companies were doing it. But after a while, there is so much noise and people either ignore it or actively react to it (backlash). I suspect this is already happening in social media.
So if you are thinking of "using" social media as a marketing tool I would like to ask you reconsider.
Social media is an extension of the real world. In the real world people connect with people to communicate, share ideas and to feel like they belong.
So consider participating in social media to build relationships with people. Sure they might buy from you but first connect with them in a real way. The key is it has to be real.
Many astute brick and mortar businesses have been doing this for years... you know the places where they know you when you come in... where you care about the success of the people and business.
Seth Godin has said on numerous occasions that the power of social media is to connect with your customers one on one (not en-mass). Great product, great service and great relationship equals a great business model.
If there is no "using" involved; both parties win.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: KISS Your Software: Core versus Cool STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: kiss-your-software-core-versus-cool CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/kiss-your-software-core-versus-cool.html DATE: 04/22/2010 05:27:18 PM ----- BODY:In the software development realm we all succumb to this at some point. We lose site of what is core (what absolutely needs to be there) in favour of what would be cool or only used by a few.
What is the essential set of functionality that defines your software? Really?
What would happen if you removed it? What percentage of application users would notice it missing?
When you define the core, you can focus on the core.
Get this right and spend 80% of your effort on this for version 1. Otherwise you will spend 80% of your time on the things that don't really matter.
I just recently went through this exercise with my development team for a product we are building.
We sliced the application across many perspectives:
If you find yourself going "wouldn't it be neat if we?" then it is probably not core. Of course if having a cool application is your thing, then cool is core. Otherwise most people just want to get their work done as quickly as possible.
The KISS principle says keep things as simple as possible. Focusing on core versus cool is one way to do that.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: New Website - Less is Now, More is Later STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: new-website-less-is-now-more-is-later CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/new-website-less-is-now-more-is-later.html DATE: 04/14/2010 04:12:04 PM ----- BODY:The shoemaker's kids finally have new shoes. We've always been so busy doing the technical stuff for our clients, we've been ignoring our own marketing. Well that is changing.
Today we launched version 3 of our corporate website. It is using a Content Management System (CMS) behind the scenes so we can keep the site current.
I was inspired recently by several good books. Essentially, the message was pick a date, set a budget and vary the scope. This avoids it is never good enough syndrome and allows you to ship; on time and on budget.
This also follows the agile principle of build what you need now and improve it later when you need it.
Some of the scope constraints:
The only rule in place: it had to be better than what we had.
I think we've accomplished this goal.
And most importantly, less launched now. More would have delayed the launch, perhaps indefinitely if another client priority came up. More can come later.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Elliot Ross EMAIL: elliotross@sympatico.ca IP: 207.219.141.36 URL: http://elliotross.wordpress.com DATE: 04/19/2010 02:06:36 PM I think you are bang on! "..More would have delayed the launch, perhaps indefinitely if another client priority came up. More can come later." Because you are correct; "Some Day" just isn't in the calendar. Congratulations. PS which CMS?? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 04/19/2010 02:12:33 PM Hi Elliot, We are currently using Joomla. It has some quirks and learning curves but seems to be fairly capable. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: "They" Are Right STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: they-are-right CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/they-are-right.html DATE: 04/12/2010 07:43:20 PM ----- BODY:They are the people who can be used to explain everything or cinch any argument.
"They say you should eat right and exercise."
"They say you should look out for yourself because everyone is out to get you."
"They say you should look out for others, especially those who are less fortunate."
They are not always right. They are just a convenient way to prove a point. The best part is that no further proof is required if you use "they".
"They say we need to refresh our corporate website."
On the last point, THEY are quite right this time.
And it is time to do something about it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Now Available Via Twitter STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: now-available-via-twitter CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/now-available-via-twitter.html DATE: 04/09/2010 02:57:49 PM ----- BODY:My blog is now being shared via Twitter (@Doug_Sunwapta).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Useful Software - From Drums to Real Collaboration STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: useful-software-from-drums-to-real-collaboration CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/useful-software-from-drums-to-real-collaboration.html DATE: 04/08/2010 01:58:14 PM ----- BODY:Way back during the Greek and Roman empires, if you were part of the forced labour (slave) on a galley ship the business rules and communication structure was pretty simple. The drum would beat and you would row. If you didn't bad things happened to you.
Since then we've moved from farming, to factories to information workers. Ships have moved from human propulsion to sails and now diesel engines.
When you move past one person on a project, the number of communication paths (links between people) grow quickly. With two people there is one bidirectional path, with three there are three, but with 4 there are 6. With 100 people it gets crazy.
If you've ever tried to follow a long running e-mail conversation with a large group, you know what I mean. It can quickly consume most of your energy. What happens when you need to add another person to the conversation?
Meetings are a similar story. The smaller the group, the more effective the meetings.
Unless you are using e-mail and meeting to convey information out to the group in a one-way fashion; much like the drum on the galley ship. But even then, much of the information is often not much use to everyone in the audience.
Today's software applications need to handle more than just the data and the business rules.
They need to consider optimizing the work-flow and even more importantly; the communications between the people on the project. This is often tacked on as an afterthought on a software tool.
Interestingly, social media and the mobile world have already introduced a number of really good communication metaphors. Blogging with comments, forums, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, etc. The problem is actually too many options.
It may be tempting to just connect to an external tool and do the communication there. But unless you can do it seamlessly, then people have yet one more place to go to do the work on a particular task... and the external tool may not meet your security or logging requirements.
For example, in our Employee Slotting Tool we added in the drum (messages from the top). But we also added in work-flow and communications between team members: status flags, follow-up flags and comments. Comments are turning out to be used a lot more extensively than expected as the software morphs into more than just employee slotting and into the realms of performance management and salary administration.
And that is as it should be, build the software and get it into the hands of the customer. Let the customer find new uses for it and drive out emerging requirements. Then you can use your expertise (not just coding but communication and work-flow as well) to creatively help people collaborate to get the work done faster and more effectively. As we better understand the way people work on these projects, the tools will get better too.
Still, many people have used e-mail for business communication for a long-time it is a hard habit to break. The first step is knowing there is a better way. Our younger workforce already understands this.
The answer is building software that is useful and moves from a drum to real collaboration.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Employee Slotting Tools STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: employee-slotting-tools CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/employee-slotting-tools.html DATE: 04/06/2010 06:50:17 PM ----- BODY:Your company has just announced it is merging with another company. This isn't just a small acquisition, it is big.
The problem is:
And it has to be done in a very short time frame (yesterday usually).
Someone is likely to suggest using Excel.
But splitting data in Excel and merging it later is a big headache. But that does not even begin to touch on the real issues of e-mailing Excel files around. If you need to update the data or Excel macros, it means redistributing and re-merging all the work done to that point in time. Now you have multiple versions of the files floating around. How do you track who changed what? How do you work on the same file with different team members?
Forget it.
What you really need is an online tool.
But your internal development group is either too busy with other priorities during the merger or you don't really want them having access to all the corporate employee data, at least during this process.
You can use an external software vendor. But the issue is that you have to pick one quickly because the clock is ticking.
Your best bet is to look at one you can trust. One that has been working with HR data and applications for a long time. Even better, one that can potentially partner with a reputable HR consulting firm to give value added advice on the slotting process and other merger "people" considerations.
We (Sunwapta Solutions) have been building serious applications and managing data for the HR, actuarial and financial services world for 10 years... and most recently, we have been building Employee Slotting and Salary Administration tools. The tools are new, fresh and web enabled. Just what you might need to manage your portion of the merger.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Optimizing Developer Productivity STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: optimizing-developer-productivity CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/optimizing-developer-productivity.html DATE: 04/04/2010 10:47:56 PM ----- BODY:In my last post I made light of the constant desire of (some) developers to want the latest and greatest in hardware; it can never be good enough. Smart managers know there is a balancing point between having the right tools to increase developer productivity and throwing money in the wind.
So exactly how do you justify and quantify the benefits of using faster tools in development?
The Business Case
Part of a manager's role is to make the most profit for the company as possible while keeping customers happy. The other part of their role is keeping developers as productive as possible; and this fortunately means (usually) happy too. Whether you are building software for internal use, software for a customer or a product for many customers; the goal is to get as much software capability for the least amount of cost. Hopefully, you are also thinking long-term supportability and upgrade too.
The developer's role is to build the best possible software as fast as possible and for the least overall cost.
The problem? How do you really measure developer productivity increases due to better tools?
You can look at the burn-down rates on user stories before and after. The problem with that though is that estimates are based on current capabilities. The team's ability to estimate and then complete work during a sprint automatically adjusts to accommodate new tools and processes; after all that is what agile development is all about.
Lines of code is a useless measure for productivity. It is more about the right lines of code than quantity unless you want to encourage developers to write inefficient code.
The best way I can think of to determine developer productivity and conversely, developer bottlenecks is "observation". Get out of the office and go watch developers do their work in as close to a real setting as possible. Make notes.
Then discuss the bottlenecks with the team. Where are the biggest time killers and frustrations? Is the task that takes 10 minutes twice a day more or less wasteful than the one that takes 30 seconds, 10 times an hour? Consider the impact on flow too. If you are waiting too much time when you are on a roll then you can lose the flow by having to wait.
Consider moving tasks that require a lot of horsepower, but not very often, to a server environment that can be shared by the team (continuous integration, etc.). It might make sense to optimize for the specific problem.
Sometimes the vendor of your developer tools will force your hand through increased hardware requirements.
So now you know what problems you are trying to solve and can make legitimate business decisions around where to spend money.
If you can give your developers an additional 2-5 minutes per hour, that translates to something like 50 to 125 hours in a year. Of course don't forget to subtract the realistic time it takes to load all of your tools and configure your new development environment.
All this assumes of course that you have additional paying work for them and that they are actually focused and not distracted in the first place.
If the developers are constantly interrupted by things like social media, e-mail, text messaging, and instant messaging, there may be few realized gains. The same holds true for meetings and other corporate distractions.
Ultimately, the best work gets done when teams can focus for solid periods of time without distractions; including waiting too much for slow hardware.
The Perception
Increasing productivity may not be a direct business value. Perhaps the productivity gains will not offset the cost of better (more expensive) equipment. Perhaps there are other factors.
But the remaining thing to consider is the perception of the majority of your developers. Do they feel they have adequate tools to do their job? If so this can lead to job dissatisfaction and higher than normal churn.
This will impact your bottom line too.
Conclusion
Developers and management have to understand each others' concerns. Management needs to help developers remove bottlenecks and roadblocks so they can focus on developing great code. Developers need to be constantly looking for ways to improve things and increase their productivity; delivering real business value.
And the two camps need to understand, communicate openly, respect and help each other. Us and them doesn't work anymore in today's fast paced world, especially in the technology world.
Great development is both a business and a development function.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: New Developer Computers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: new-developer-computers CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/04/new-developer-computers.html DATE: 04/01/2010 10:30:59 PM ----- BODY:Productivity is frequently an argument made by developers to get the latest and greatest computers.
This is what our developers tell me we are using now.
This is what they want (a supercomputer and monitors for every window they might want open). Everyone else is using this and it even supports pair programming.
I suspect we will have to compromise; and balance productivity gains with cost. Sorry guys.
Notes: See TopNew.in for the story on the supercomputer. If I had posted this morning I could have told them this is what they are getting.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Using the Last Roll of Toilet Paper STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: using-the-last-roll-of-toilet-paper CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/using-the-last-roll-of-toilet-paper.html DATE: 03/29/2010 02:01:43 PM ----- BODY:Have you ever gone into the washroom to do your business and been surprised at the end to find out someone used the last of the toilet paper (and there are no extras in the washroom)?
Surely someone must of noticed that the roll was at the end. Why didn't they go get more (reactionary)?
Even better, why didn't someone notice that they were loading the last roll and go get more (proactive) before it was all gone?
How many areas of your business are like this?
Do you wait until the customer notices something or do you deal with it just before the customer is inconvenienced? Even better, do you deal with it before the customer even notices; making it a non-issue? Is it all a part of your delivery and support process?
Software development and information technology used to be about reacting to customers. Then as IT staff got more busy and short of people compared to the work, some of them started figuring out ways to deal with little problems before they become big ones, reducing future work and headaches. Are you the Maytag repairman from those commercials or being run ragged and stressed out?
In software development this has led to TDD, BDD, unit testing, automated user interface testing, automation, error logging, load testing, server failover, active monitoring, etc. Does this guarantee no future problems?
No.
But it does reduce the likelihood of being caught with your pants down and no easy way to clean up a mess.
And you can make the fixes without a high risk of breaking something else.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Good Code Today, Legacy Code Tomorrow STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: good-code-today-legacy-code-tomorrow CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/good-code-today-legacy-code-tomorrow.html DATE: 03/26/2010 05:54:28 PM ----- BODY:We recently came across a few potential clients with applications built around the turn of the millennium. These are business applications so presumably they have a team that is also supporting them.
We are talking Visual Basic 6 and Active Server Pages with DCOM.
Back in their day, these applications may have been well written code.
Now they want to migrate these applications to the latest .NET Framework, etc.
Back when we first moved to .NET Framework 1.1 coding best practices were quite a bit different than they are in .NET Framework 3.5 and soon, Framework 4.0.
Moving from VB and ASP to .NET put us into object oriented programming. To be honest though, it took us a few years to acquire the skills and experience to really develop good object oriented applications.
So good code today looks a lot different than good code yesterday. Things are evolving.
There are patterns like MVP and now MVC being implemented in .NET. Other technologies like AJAX, LINQ and Object Relational Mappers. WPF is supplanting WinForms, etc.
So the jump from VP6 or ASP is pretty big.
To really take advantage of the latest frameworks and best practices, they really need a team that has current "good" programming skills and experience. Maybe their in-house developers have been keeping up and maybe not.
Certainly migrating applications also involves understanding what the application does in the first place; domain knowledge. The danger is you basically end up with what you had but on newer technology. The real power is using the opportunity to make things better.
Essentially you would start from scratch but using the old system to help define user stories and tests.
However, the real take away from this discussion is...
Good code today will be tomorrow's legacy code.
So don't get too worked up about how great your code is today or striving to be perfect, for tomorrow there will be a better way of accomplishing the same things. Build good, supportable code now and focus on getting value into the customer's hands.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 03/30/2010 06:05:49 AM In 'Working Effectively with Legacy Code' book by Michael C. Feathers it was nicely captured that legacy code is code that is not worked on. Many times what we see is situation where code is written and then it's not touched for a long time for different reasons. There the gap starts to grow between the "good past" and "better present". As long as code (as a part of product) is maintained consistently, chances to end up with VB6 and classic ASP are slim to none. And this is not just a developer call, but also business buying into comittment to maintain the product. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: "Do What I Did and Get Rich" Books STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: do-what-i-did-and-get-rich-books CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/do-what-i-did-and-get-rich-books.html DATE: 03/24/2010 01:49:06 PM ----- BODY:I picked up a book recently about how now is the time to cash in on your passion; how to use social media to promote your personal brand.
Essentially the premise of the book is:
Everyone can make a great living doing this? Guaranteed? What a load of crap.
There is no magic formula for getting rich. And if there was, no one would share it with you via a book, because it would no longer be a magic formula for getting rich.
Yes, the Internet has changed the game. Yes, social media is important. Yes, you should always be thinking of your personal brand. Yes, you should be promoting your business brand. Yes, some people are making money in the ways the author describes.
But do what I did and get rich?
The things in common about most business and personal success stories are:
In starting or running a business, there are things you can do that will make it more likely for your business to succeed. Not doing certain things can make failure more likely. But there is no one answer.
Did I learn something from the book?
Yes, and I will continue to read and learn from others. But I do know there are no guarantees.
Not even writing a book about "Do What I Did and Get Rich".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile Landscape (and Garden) Development STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-garden-development CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/agile-garden-development.html DATE: 03/22/2010 02:44:10 PM ----- BODY:There are two main approaches to building out a nicely landscaped yard:
The "Waterfall" approach is typically taken by people who:
Planning out the hardscape (structural) parts of the landscape requires some up-front planning or a lot of difficult rework. This is much like software development where the choice of programming language, code design patterns (MVC, MVP, AJAX, etc.) and other architecture items need to be made early and can be hard to change later. Moving a 30x20 exposed aggregate concrete patio is non-trivial.
However, even these things are not 100% permanent and serious agile gardeners will evolve the entire landscape over time.
Agile gardeners usually like doing much of the work themselves, but will bring in experts for some of the difficult or impossible tasks. Since they are do-it-yourselfers, they are limited in how much they can accomplish in any one span of time.
There are several cycles of landscape development each year. Winter is the dreaming and sometimes planning phase. For me planning is like white-boarding, the details will emerge in the project. Spring, summer and fall each have their unique maintenance tasks and projects are normally implemented in one or more of these periods. Some tasks have to be done in certain seasons and "mother nature" makes those rules. For instance, fall bulbs have to be planted in the fall. Some plants can only be moved safely in the spring. You don't get to decide.
Now to be honest, here in Calgary, winter is probably 6 months, spring is 1 month, summer is 3 months and fall is around 2 months. 6 on and 6 off allows gardeners to rejuvenate.
The really agile part of landscape development is that the landscape is constantly evolving.
After you plant an orange flower beside a pastel pink flower you realize, what was I thinking and moving one of the plants to a new location gets added to the gardening "backlog". Now moving the plant to a new location usually means that something else will have to move as well, or you will need more space; either situation adds another item to the backlog.
Now the gardener is always thinking, what changes could I make in the next while that will deliver me a beautiful garden as soon as possible or for next year? This is usually how a gardener chooses items off the backlog.
Of course, there is nothing preventing you or your spouse from going to a greenhouse and picking up some new plants. These suddenly emerging requirements get added to the backlog and cascade into a bunch more work for the current "sprint" and follow-on sprints.
One year we acquired a number of trees and shrubs for 75% off. Unfortunately, there was no home for them yet and we had to "park" them in a temporary location. This wouldn't have been too bad if it was one year that passed; but after 2 years they got really big and the price of moving them is a lot of work. This is like a debt that is built up that eventually must be paid. So the initial savings were not as great as we thought. Lesson learned.
During the season, you are continuously trying to improve your gardening processes and getting better tools. Too much time spent watering? Mulch or irrigate. The goal is to get the best garden you can with the time you have to spend.
And remember, gardening is usually a team effort. Sometimes, everyone does everything and sometimes people specialize.
At the end of the gardening season, the ground freezes and you must stop working.
You get done what you get done. Your time line is constrained by nature and hopefully you managed your budget well. If so, then you got as much accomplished as you could and the team should be feeling good about delivering a working garden for next year.
Sit back, relax and dream about the improvements you can try next year.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Spring Is In The Air? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: spring-is-in-the-air CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/spring-is-in-the-air.html DATE: 03/20/2010 11:38:05 PM ----- BODY:Today, Saturday the 20th of March was the first day of spring. It was a beautiful sunny day; warm with a light breeze; just what you picture when you think of spring.
When you are living in Calgary (or most of Canada), winter is usually cold and dark with the sun much lower on the horizon. Some people suffer from depression in winter caused by the reduced sunlight. However, I suspect much of the depression is actually caused by realizing your favourite hockey team might not make the playoffs.
So spring brings optimism. (Football will be starting up soon; maybe they will do better.)
The season is changing and the dormant vegetation will be springing to life (in mid-May). Birds will migrate back and feast on the emerging mosquitoes. We get to spend more time outside mowing the lawn, painting the house, and communing with nature... and burning food on the BBQ. People rush out to enjoy our all too short summer; packing as much activity as they can into the season. Snow in July and severe thunderstorms are some of the surprises nature sometimes has for us in summer.
The economy follows a similar cycle and business has an certain optimism to it right now. It isn't summer yet... I suspect that it is a ways off yet. But already I can hear the buzzing of those mosquitoes. Here's hoping that blessings of the next economic summer outweigh the nuisances.
Remember to enjoy it as much as you can and just like the squirrels, remember to store some nuts for the coming winter. After all, the next winter will follow no matter how much we wish otherwise.
But as long as you have lots of nuts, winter isn't so bad. And if you happen to grow nuts in winter, you can make a fortune while everyone else is hibernating (or watching hockey).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Jogger Killed by Plane STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: jogger-killed-by-plane CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/jogger-killed-by-plane.html DATE: 03/17/2010 01:22:02 PM ----- BODY:I read in the paper today that a jogger listening to an iPod while jogging on a beach was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing.
What are the odds of that happening?
A year ago I read about someone jogging with an iPod and getting hit by lightning through the ear buds.
Obviously iPods attract danger and we should all stop jogging just to be safe.
(Or maybe safety is an illusion and we should all listen to iPods while jogging on the beach during a thunderstorm.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Is Your Business Encouraging Inefficiency? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: is-your-business-encouraging-inefficiency CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/is-your-business-encouraging-inefficiency.html DATE: 03/12/2010 11:44:45 PM ----- BODY:I was recently taking the LRT (train) here in Calgary and noticed a repair crew working on the train platform.
There were three people: one with a hoe, one with a chipper shovel and one with a corn broom.
Two watched while one person worked. The guy with the hoe would pull off a loose tile, the guy with the chipper would chip out the mortar and the guy with the broom would sweep up the debris. The two not currently busy would carry on a conversation.
While it is easy to pick on these kinds of industries, it is more valuable to try to learn from others.
Does your business provide the right tools to your employees so they can be productive most of the time?
Do you have some employees waiting on the inputs of others before they can do their work?
Do you have opportunities to cross train employees to perform additional roles so that you can move people around to adapt to changing priorities?
Do you have incentives in place to reward efficiencies?
Do you have hiring practices in place to bring on people who can generate efficiencies and do you give them the authority to implement them? (People with passion for their work.)
These are all part of optimizing your business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fe Fi Fo Scrum - I Smell the Blood of a Best Practices Man STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fee-fie-foe-scrum-i-smell-the-blood-of-best-practices-man CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/fee-fie-foe-scrum-i-smell-the-blood-of-best-practices-man.html DATE: 03/10/2010 10:47:09 PM ----- BODY:It is the time of year when gardeners start seeding plants indoors. Beans, Jack and giants suddenly popped into my head. (BTW, if you hire a landscaper, gardening is a waterfall process. If you do it yourself it is more an agile and iterative process. Things are always changing and you are never done.)
In "Succeeding with Agile" by Mike Cohn he states:
"Although team members should always look to share with one another their newly discovered good ways of working, they should resist the urge to codify them into a set of best practices."
Best practices imply perfection; a destination. Agile (and Scrum) should be about continuous improvement. Best practices today should be thought of as the best we've come up with so far, not the best we can do.
Yes, you need to settle things down sometimes and do it consistently for a while. Pick the best approach you have right now and move forward. Analysis paralysis is not what it is about. Chasing the latest and greatest is not what it is about either. Both are recipes for not delivering working code for clients.
But keep in mind there might be a better way.
The ultimate goal is to build better software at a lower cost and with fewer bugs. If you don't your competitors will.
I've said it before... it is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy it and make it as good as it can be; you only get to pass this way once.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who is Keeping Score? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: who-is-keeping-score CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/who-is-keeping-score.html DATE: 03/08/2010 07:08:46 PM ----- BODY:In order for you to hire the right (A) people, you need to build a scorecard defining their mission, expected outcomes and key competencies (reference is Who). This serves two benefits:
This flows from your corporate strategy which when compared to your current staffing levels will determine who you need to hire to achieve your vision.
So really, you should have a scorecard for all of your key employees. For us and the way we are set up, all our employees are pretty key to our success, but they might not all be directly tied to your strategy; some are focused on tactical work.
A scorecard is pretty much a performance management tool. Knowing what you want your staff to accomplish and communicating it to them seems to be an obvious and critical step in executing strategy.
The book gives one example of a question posed to 200 CEOs. "How many of you have in place written objectives for your direct reports? Only 10% raised their hands." So obvious and critical does not equal in common use.
If you further asked how many of you review and update the objectives and progress on a regular basis (i.e. more often than the annual performance review) I am guessing the number would drop.
So it seems to me that:
Oh, and let's make it a living, breathing document (and process) so it is never stale; the last thing you want is more documentation that sits on the shelf.
And remember, business owners and most key employees are busy people, so let's not make it too time consuming or difficult to use.
(P.S. This Spring we will be launching our version of a tool that does this while trying to keep things simple.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Being Indispensable and Type A Employees STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: being-indispensable-and-type-a-employees CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/being-indispensable-and-type-a-employees.html DATE: 03/07/2010 04:48:20 PM ----- BODY:I just finished reading "Linchpin - Are You Indispensable" by Seth Godin. In the book he encourages you to make a difference in what you do, treat your work as an art, connect with people, get things done, and be the best you can be. The world is changing quickly and people who merely show up (cogs), are going to be marginalized. So be indispensable.
I just started reading another book called "Who - The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. I tripped across this one through the magic of Amazon. The premise of the book is that great companies are driven by hiring great employees; type A employees (not B or C employees). Type A employees matched with the right work get things done, make a difference, and do great things.
Two separate perspectives (individual versus organization), same basic message.
Are you bringing your A game to your work? Are you working to be indispensable?
If not maybe you should be.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Remember to Stop and Smell the Roses STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: remember-to-stop-and-smell-the-roses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/03/remember-to-stop-and-smell-the-roses.html DATE: 03/01/2010 11:33:50 PM ----- BODY:I was just looking out the window. There is a full moon shining on a low lying fog over the hills and prairie; the light reflecting off the tin roof of a barn to the south of us. Absolutely haunting and stunning.
The other day, I saw what initially looked to be a gopher running across the lawn. Upon closer look it was white and not quite a gopher. In fact it was a ferret with its winter coat; and a black tip on its tail. It looked like a white stick standing in the yellow grass. Thanks to our recent warm weather and the melted snow, it was no longer an invisible visitor, but a small surprise for the day.
Take the time in your day to see the things that you take for granted. Take a closer look and reflect on the treasures you have been given. Your family, friends, your dogs and cats... your business partners and teammates, your customers and vendors. It is the people and relationships that are important in life.
Life is busy these days. Work is demanding. Running a business is stressful. But remember it is a journey, not a destination.
So , remember to stop and smell the roses.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Gentle Introduction to BDD STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-gentle-introduction-to-bdd CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/a-gentle-introduction-to-bdd.html DATE: 02/25/2010 11:11:24 PM ----- BODY:Our team went to the subject Calgary .NET User Group session presented by David Mogantini.
I am not a developer but I was able to follow the general lessons and examples. TDD, BDD and the Cortex testing framework were covered. David plans to open source the generic part of the framework which I think many will find useful.
David did a really good job and there was some really good discussion generated during the Q&A.
Good to see the development community meeting and sharing ideas here in Calgary. Hope we can keep it up even as the developer market becomes hyper-competitive again.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile and the Devil's Advocate STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-and-the-devils-advocate CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/agile-and-the-devils-advocate.html DATE: 02/24/2010 02:56:11 PM ----- BODY:Software development has three camps regarding agile:
There is actually a fourth camp; the oblivious (software developers who don't care enough about their craft to investigate options).
Fortunately, most developers (at least the ones I know) fall into the somewhere in the middle.
Humans when faced with change; encounter fear... the resistance.
People with no fear are pretty risky to be around (think about riding in a car with them).
The Devil's Advocate
The devil's advocate is a person who points out all the bad things that could happen. In most cases, this is done with a conscious or subconscious effort to derail the change.
The best example of this is finding examples of where agile doesn't work:
The reality is that software development has always been risky. After all, you are building new and potentially complex things. Agile is an attempt by the development community to introduce an alternative (actually many different alternatives). For every success or failure I can find the opposite (with or without agile).
Why do we focus on the negative more than the success as humans? Fear. We want to be safe and change and the resulting stress does not make us feel safe. As Seth Godin calls it; the lizard brain or the resistance.
What Can We Learn?
Any software development group not learning and moving forward, is moving backwards. This is because the world itself is moving. Status quo is a false safety.
Playing the devi's advocate, if done from a learning perspective, allows you to consider all the pros and cons and then address them so you have a better chance of succeeding. The goal is not to quash forward momentum, but to minimize the false starts.
More importantly though, it allows you to allay the fears that everyone naturally has by having solutions, not just problems.
Whether you chose to embrace agile or not, there is something to learn in observing the success and failures of others.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Attitude Changes Your Results STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: your-attitude-changes-your-results CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/your-attitude-changes-your-results.html DATE: 02/23/2010 08:39:00 AM ----- BODY:I am constantly amazed at how the grey matter upstairs works.
It is kind of like when you buy a new car and then you start noticing all of the similar cars out there.
When you make the commitment as an individual and company to:
Essentially being much more optimistic and less fearful of hypothetical problems that may never come to pass.
Then more of those things (opportunities) come your way.
Why? Because you are looking with the right filters.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Effective Business Optimization STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: effective-business-optimization CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/effective-business-optimization.html DATE: 02/22/2010 04:19:01 PM ----- BODY:Business optimization is not a one time thing.
Business optimization is not about looking at the numbers (though that is part of it) and squeezing every last penny out of your business.
It is an ongoing process; a journey with a destination far in the future.
Effective business optimization is a continuous cycle (not a rigid order):
Repeat.
Seth Godin mentioned today that you can be too focused on very small things (saving pennies) instead of the things that really make a difference.
I agree, going for that last few percentage points of improvement can consume an infinite (at least more than you have) amount of time and defocus you from the real goal.
And innovation.
Innovation is what makes you great; indispensable to your customers.
That is how you effectively optimize your business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Business Strategy: What Do You Really Want to Optimize? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: your-business-strategy-what-do-you-really-want-to-optimize- CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/your-business-strategy-what-do-you-really-want-to-optimize-.html DATE: 02/21/2010 11:39:17 PM ----- BODY:There are two main ways of improving business performance:
It is easy to think there is a magic bullet for optimizing your business's performance. It isn't as easy as that though.
Optimizing it to do what?
The first thing you need to decide is "what is your business strategy?" There are trade-offs between which areas you want to optimize.
Is it to maximize profit? That sounds pretty good. Profit is the difference between what you charge and what it costs you do deliver a service or product. You can charge more or reduce costs.
Reducing costs is attractive if your processes and cost structures are inefficient in some way. However, if you reduce services or quality to achieve "maximum" profits, over the longer-term you may drive away your customers.
Same with raising your prices.
I think a better strategy for most businesses is to figure out what a decent profit level is for your business, considering its strategy, and then optimize pricing and costs to achieve it. You will need to balance profit against a number of other factors to determine what is optimal for you.
Is it to grow your business? Generally growing your business requires investment. If you are not going to outside investors, that means funding growth from profits.
Is it to attract more customers? You will need to invest more in marketing and sales. You may also need to improve your offerings or add more staff to handle the customers. Will you rely on word of mouth from happy customers?
Another option is to lower prices.
Do you want to focus on customer retention?
Is it to maximize the value of the business? Focusing on the saleability of your business may impact other areas. You may need to spend resources ensuring you are not required in the business, etc.
Other Strategies? There are many other strategies and many factors that affect your business.
Ultimately, you need to know what you want to accomplish as the starting point for optimizing it. Then you can begin the optimization process.
By the way, avoiding the subject of optimization (for whatever reason) means you are likely leaving money on the table; maybe a lot.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Are You Working on the Right Things? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: working-on-the-right-things CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/working-on-the-right-things.html DATE: 02/15/2010 10:55:44 PM ----- BODY:Lately I have been struggling with over-commitment and more things to do than time. Between the business, hobbies, personal relationships, and other things that need to get done, sometimes there is just not enough time in the day.
When all else fails, start making lists and prioritize.
I was reviewing Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". In it he has the following diagram:
These are things that are both important and urgent; problems and fires that cannot be ignored. This is reactive work. Operating in this quadrant is stressful and draining.
Quadrant II - TasksThese are the tasks that are important but not in a rush for completion. This includes doing the things that would reduce the number of Quadrant I tasks; proactive work. Unfortunately, because they are not urgent they often get ignored in favour of Quadrant III tasks, which are urgent.
Quadrant III - TasksThese are tasks that are not very important, but urgent by virtue of time. These are the distractions that bring you away from what you need to be doing; the busy work that feels important.
Quadrant IV - TasksThese are neither urgent nor important. They are often used to avoid Quadrant I tasks because those task are stressful and draining.
Most e-mail, text messaging, Twitter and other social media falls into either III or IV. When all else fails, act busy.
More to ItThis categorization method is simple and proven. Unfortunately, it doesn't fully answer the question of "are you working on the right things at the right time?"
To do this you need to consciously divide your time across all of the categories that are important to you. In my recent post (The Three Faces of an Entrepreneur), I talked about three roles for an Entrepreneur:
You can't just work on what is important. You need balance across all the roles. The right mixture is up to you and your situation.
You may also wish to cover all aspects of your life (business, personal, health and fitness, etc.).
Once you have your categories AND your quadrants beside all of your tasks you can then properly prioritize them for action based on the relative time alloted to each category. This way you achieve balance.
If you have many tasks in the same quadrant (I and II) you will need to further prioritize them. However, you do want to continue working on Quadrant II tasks, especially those that prevent things from slipping into Quadrant I. This is the proactive work you do and is extremely important for an entrepreneur.
To do this you need to give up Quadrant III and IV tasks for a while. You can't give up Quadrant I tasks, they are too important; so the only place you can get time is Quadrant III and IV.
ConclusionIf you are spending the day being busy, but not really accomplishing your goals, this is a good starting point for understanding where you are going wrong and getting back on track.
Be brutally honest. Challenge why things are important by asking: "what will happen if I don't do this? today? in the future?"
You may find you have really been procrastinating and you actually have more time than you thought. If not, at least you will know where to spend it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Hiring Developers in 2010 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: hiring-developers-in-2010 CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/hiring-developers-in-2010.html DATE: 02/12/2010 05:51:01 PM ----- BODY:It looks like Sunwapta Solutions will be hiring in 2010 to support our current clients and our growth plans. This likely includes:
The first hire will be a developer. The position has not been fully defined or posted yet, but if you know of a great intermediate to senior developer in Calgary with all or a bunch of the following skills please pass them on:
We'll be updating our website (we've been up to a lot since it was last updated) including more details on the final posting in the coming weeks... by why wait if you have a match today?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: All Talk and No Action? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: all-talk-and-no-action CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/all-talk-and-no-action.html DATE: 02/11/2010 09:22:00 AM ----- BODY:Lately, I've been talking in my blog about what it is to be an entrepreneur. Working on the business versus in the business. Strategy versus busy work. Keeping customer happy, etc.
Is it all talk and no action?
Not at all.
Sure I blog about the things that I find interesting or attract my attention. If I am focused on something, it get's more attention over a period of time in the business.
We have been in business almost 10 years now which is an accomplishment in and of itself. We have had the pleasure of working with and building great software applications for some pretty significant world-class companies.
Lately I have been revisiting our strategy; our vision for the next 5 to 10 years. Both where we want to be and how we will get there. I've been involving our entire team when I can.
The good news is that the vision and strategy is more vibrant and clear than it has ever been. I've determined better ways to document and share it too.
There are no drastic about faces required.
It involves doing more of the same development work; delivering top-notch software products to customers. The big changes are: new offerings in new markets, more focus, increased speed to market and a lot more emphasis on marketing and sales.
Work is also happening on the planning details and the execution.
Sure we get busy "doing". But we are committed to action on our strategy.
Talk and action.
Afterall, action with no talking is just confusion when more than one person is involved.
The proof? Well that is 3-5 years out.
P.S. I'll cover the public facing part of the strategy in future posts.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Three Faces of an Entrepreneur STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-three-faces-of-an-entrepreneur CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/the-three-faces-of-an-entrepreneur.html DATE: 02/10/2010 11:08:13 PM ----- BODY:The Leader (Entrepreneur)
This is the role most frequently associated with being an entrepreneur. A leader has a clear picture of the future and inspires others to share it. Vision and passion drive the creation of a new business.
The Manager
This role is essential to take the dream and make it into a world class business. There are two distinct types: business and people.
A great people manager is a catalyst to get the maximum results from people in alignment with business goals. Great people management is a talent that is not always learnable.
A business manager handles the building of the business (systems, processes, etc.). This is the critical entrepreneurial function.
The Doer or Technician
This is what you are when you are doing the work of the business. The work of the business is the delivery of the product or service that customers pay for and includes all the supporting roles including sales and marketing.
The Three Faces of an Entrepreneur
A great entrepreneur must be all three, or partner with others. The trick is to balance them appropriately at any point in time.
The problem is many people end up closer to the "doer".
The other problem is that they all require vastly different skills. Some would argue that they also require different core talents (which are not easily learn-able).
Whether you have to pull them all off yourself, or you have the luxury of partners or hiring; failing to understand and separate the roles will cause you grief.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Entrepreneurs, Creation and Enlightenment STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: entrepreneurs-creation-and-enlightenment CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/entrepreneurs-creation-and-enlightenment.html DATE: 02/09/2010 03:08:15 PM ----- BODY:A couple of quotes from "E-Myth Mastery" by Michael Gerber that I found interesting:
"Entrepreneurship is, first of all, the power to create.
But creation is not something you do.
Creation is something that is done through you."
and
"Your job is not to become an entrepreneur. It is not to create.
Your job is to commit to the process of becoming an entrepreneur and then to practice what entrepreneurs do so that entrepreneurship can find you when you've practiced enough to be ready.
Commitment and practice."
What is not stated here is how long? That is because the answer is "as long as it takes". What is also not stated is what happens if you don't commit and practice (hint: the word nightmare comes up a lot).
This is no different than the process of spiritual enlightenment. Nor is it much different than achieving your black belt in martial arts and being told "now you are ready to begin learning". Nor is it much different from becoming a master fiddler (musician). The same is true for software development.
Malcolm Gladwell (in "Outliers") stated that 10,000 hours is what it takes to master a skill (assuming you have some talent for it). Not only that, it depends on where you grew up, your genetics and your upbringing.
So the instant prodigy or success story probably has a longer story behind it. Of course there are some who connect with their talent faster, but instant is rare.
Many people give up too soon. Or never start down the path.
Commit and practice the skills required for entrepreneurship; then be open to the possibilities.
Caveat on E-Myth: There are pearls of wisdom in most business books. Sometimes you have to suffer the pain of reading through fluff or much useless information. Gerber's later books have become a lot more spiritual in nature and you either like it or dislike it. If nothing else, understand that underlying the book is a business and there is something to be learned in understanding the model.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Great, Good Enough and Poor STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: great-good-enough-and-poor CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/great-good-enough-and-poor.html DATE: 02/08/2010 04:34:17 PM ----- BODY:It is important to distinguish.
You only have 24 hours in your day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year and who knows how many years.
Your company only has so many people and the same constraints on time.
Great
Great effort or great results? I think the world rewards you mostly for results over the long-term. Sure you can put in a lot of hours on something, but if the results aren't great?
Because being great at something usually requires a lot of effort over a long period of time, you must choose wisely; you can't be great at everything.
Focus on your talents, develop your knowledge and skills. For most people, their greatest contributions and joy will come from this area.
This applies to a business too. The trick is to see the strengths of the business and not the individuals in it; they can change. Very small businesses are often the same as the individuals.
Good Enough
This not where you want to be for your core livelihood. As Seth Godin has pointed out, there is less and less opportunity in the middle as the world moves forward.
However, not everything you do needs to be great. Some things can be good enough.
And you can hire someone to do the things you are not great at.
Poor
If you are doing something poorly it is probably worth looking at whether you should even be doing it in the first place.
Assuming you are not just in the middle of learning something new, maybe you would be better off spending your precious time on the first two with a large focus on great.
Either hire someone to do it right or choose not to do it at all.
Choices
You can show up or you can contribute. Most people enjoy being good or great at something a lot more than spending every day doing a bad job.
You need to have fun or at least enjoy what you do from a macro level; you may not enjoy every moment.
so make your choices a conscious one. You and your business will benefit.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Are You Building an Entrepreneurial Business? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: are-you-building-an-entrepreneurial-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/are-you-building-an-entrepreneurial-business.html DATE: 02/05/2010 04:26:58 PM ----- BODY:Are you an entrepreneur or are you a builder of an entrepreneurial business?
An entrepreneur is someone who has an idea for product or service and turns it into a viable business; making money in the process... repeat.
A builder of an entrepreneurial business is someone who builds a business full of people who have ideas and they turn them into viable products and services; making money in the process.
The first depends on one person. The second leverages the potential of many.
Both can work and can generate enough to retire on, plus some.
One has the potential to become much more.
Which one are you? Was it a conscious choice?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Look After The Customer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: look-after-the-customer CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/02/look-after-the-customer.html DATE: 02/01/2010 10:46:11 PM ----- BODY:I've had it in mind to write on this subject for a while. It is so easy to find examples where companies don't look after their customers as much as they should, but harder to find examples where they do.
Unfortunately, my experiences lately have been more negative than positive; and I find that surprising when everyone is saying they are different and understand their customers; and even more bizarre in a down economy.
The idea is that if you find a great product or service that people want and focus on great customer service, the market will reward you.
If that is true, why do so many companies do the opposite?
In "Built to Last" by Jim Collins (et al) they discovered that visionary companies had a core focus on something more than just making money. It was not always primarily the customer. It was usually about being great at something though.
Some were focused on things like improving the world through creating innovative products. The customers came after the innovation. Of course this doesn't mean that that the customer was not important, it is just which one comes first.
But still, that was 20 years ago. I think the customer is getting more difficult to please today. Competition is more fierce and the Internet makes communication immediate. Even if you have a different primary "vision" for the company, the customer must feel like they are key.
So why do so many get it wrong?
Sometimes it only takes one mistake and your customer is gone... and they are expensive to replace.
Some are getting it right. Are you?
Every company can do a better job of looking after the customer.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Knowing When to Quiet the Lizard Brain STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: knowing-when-to-quiet-the-lizard-brain CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/knowing-when-to-quiet-the-lizard-brain.html DATE: 01/28/2010 09:01:47 AM ----- BODY:Another great post by Seth Godin about how fear sabotages success; often subconsciously. The thing is, without it you would live life recklessly and probably have already doomed yourself.
So the trick is to ignore the irrational part that keeps you from succeeding and pay attention to the part that helps you survive. How do you do this?
Walk through the possible outcomes of things that are causing your fear to their logical conclusion. Usually, the worst outcome is not nearly as bad as you imagined in your subconscious. In that case ignore the fear. And if it is real, then you can take action now to mitigate it.
Sometimes you are a hare and there is a coyote hot on your heels. Then you just might need your lizard brain.
But many times, it is just getting in your way.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Abbey Salvo EMAIL: asalvo1@umbc.edu IP: 130.85.92.39 URL: http://www.whoweam.com DATE: 08/31/2011 01:39:21 PM How right you are, Doug! I am always kicking myself for painting situations out to be worse than they actually are. Why isn't 20/20 hindsight enough to change the way our mind assesses these types of problems? I work with someone who posted an article talking about the same sort of thing at http://whoweam.com/2011/08/talulah-derailed/. Looking at the issue at 20,000 feet - if this is how people are wired, then maybe even larger cultural issues are caused by the aftermath of this "lizard brain" theory? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who Is Right? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: who-is-right CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/who-is-right.html DATE: 01/27/2010 11:25:56 PM ----- BODY:Read ten different business books and get 10 different stories on the secret to business.
Talk to 10 different entrepreneurs or business owners and you will get another 10 answers.
The reality?
There are many paths to business success.
Most companies will make lots of mistakes along the way. Some will have some luck and some will have some hard luck. Some will ride a trend and some will pick one that doesn't pan out. Some will survive and some will thrive. Some will bloom quickly and fade just as quickly and some will struggle and bloom later.
Just like judging people, it is easy to look at something different and make a judgment.
The thing is, just like people, some will surprise and some will disappoint... and you can't always tell just by looking and even people you know for a long time can surprise.
Have passion. Try to provide something that the world needs or will make it better. Do it well. Make a difference. Keep at it. Keep learning and growing. Pick the ideas that work for you. Enjoy the journey and the people. Do it your way or do it in a way you can live with.
The world is changing quickly yet in many ways it is the same. Respect differences and learn from them. Get advice when necessary but treat is as options.
It is not about who is right. It is about what is right for you. You get to choose (how you want to run your business).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Lessons from the Coyote and Hare STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: lessons-from-the-coyote-and-hare CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/lessons-from-the-coyote-and-hare.html DATE: 01/25/2010 12:44:28 PM ----- BODY:This morning I saw a hare (big rabbit) duck under our fence with a coyote hot on his heels. The hare stopped and went motionless. The coyote could not fit through and stood 20 feet away, staring at the hare, trying to figure out how he could salvage his breakfast.
Who is trying harder?
The predator or the prey? The obvious answer is the prey. However, if the predator doesn't eat on a regular basis they will eventually become too weak to catch food.
If your business is struggling, it may feel like you are the prey and the market is out to get you. In order to survive you have to try harder and do the right things; continuously.
If your business is doing well, you make the mistake of thinking you can coast. Hey, you have it made and are a business genius. But just like the coyote, eventually complacency leads to weakness. At that point you become unwilling or unable to adapt quickly to the market. Even a previously struggling competitor can unseat the current champion if they are not fully engaged.
The prey can only make a major mistake once; and then become dinner.
The same is true for a struggling business. You must always be on your game. But unlike the Hare, you need to take more risks; you are risking the venture not your life. I am talking calculated risks here not gambling risks.
If your business is doing well you have two luxuries: time and money. You can afford to take some risks because you have a cushion. The mistake you can't afford to make is taking your customers for granted or being complacent. Still, sometimes one mistake can do in even the greatest companies; it just takes a bigger mistake.
It depends who you are and your perspective. Some people admire the predator and some cheer on the prey. If you are a gardener or farmer, a large population of herbivores such as the hare can destroy your crops. Coyotes are smart and very adaptable; yet they get more fear and hatred than respect.
I think people admire (and fear) the aggressive predator, yet cheer on the underdog (the prey) in many cases.
The trick in business is to be smart, adaptable and competitive while keeping the respect and empathy of your customers.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Software Development Really Works STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-software-development-really-works CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/how-software-development-really-works.html DATE: 01/17/2010 11:54:31 PM ----- BODY:This post is based on a presentation we sent to a client when they wanted early screen shots of the working application and said we seemed to be a serious bunch. We are serious about our work (building great software) but do have some fun doing it.
During the budgeting phase the requirements are a little down-played.
The developers scramble to put together the framework and plumbing that will allow the rest of the application to take shape.
The designers attempt to pin down the basic look and feel for consistency.
The developers try to tackle some of the difficult pieces and reduce project risk; like the engine.
Assembling all the pieces into the final application.
What the customer really wanted and great developers will deliver...
Note: Of course in the real world of application development there are many steps and iterations that have been omitted for illustration purposes. If you are going to pick an analogy, make it a cool one!
If you want the actual car and not software go here. Lot's more great pictures.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 01/20/2010 07:09:17 AM This is an interesting (and definately creative) way of explaining SDLC. One thing that I suggest to evaluate is creation of framworks in the very begining of project. When it is OK to use established frameworks (or 3rd party components) building new ones before the project shapes up is a bit slippery slope. Many times it lead to locking down solutioning to a particular option, leaving other options "impossible" due to newly established framework. If I were a client, I would be impressed by the analogy. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Development and Business Optimization STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: business-optimization-and-developers-1 CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/business-optimization-and-developers-1.html DATE: 01/12/2010 04:52:25 PM ----- BODY:The other day a developer asked me what we really know about business optimization; after all, developers build software not run businesses.
I would suggest that the right kinds of developers are exactly the right people to help with business optimization. I say help because no one person should be responsible for business optimization; it should be something done by everyone in your business and any external advisers as a team. No one person has all the answers and every business is different.
So if you are great developer what talents and skills can you bring to the table? Great developers:
Here at Sunwapta Solutions we have been focused on building software while doing all of these things.
Do we have all the answers? Again, business optimization is a team effort.
But we can help get the solutions you need as part of your team (and have been doing so for many years).
This is what every great developer should strive to do.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Great Idea Equals a Great Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: great-idea-equals-a-great-business CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/great-idea-equals-a-great-business.html DATE: 01/11/2010 05:30:57 PM ----- BODY:Apparently this is a bit of a myth. Sure some companies were founded on great ideas and become very successful.
I think this feeds into our desire to find the quick fix.
Great idea. Build a great strategy. Start a company. Instant wealth.
In 99.99% of the cases "instant" is actually many years in the making; kind of like the odds of winning the lottery.
In "Built to Last" by Jim Collins, they dispel this myth.
"Why? Because the great-idea approach shifts your attention from seeing the company as the ultimate creation."
Essentially, you focus on the product and not the company. Things change and eventually the product is no longer relevant or something happens to the visionary; then there is nothing.
If you are not distracted by the "idea" you will focus on building a company that can generate great ideas and can run without you at the top. Many great companies simply do lots of things and then throw away the things that don't work. When they started they looked completely different and switched strategies a lot.
I suspect that some tough times in the beginning can help with the focus as well. You learn to be resilient and keep costs under control.
Focus on building a great company (even if it is a small giant). Focus on your customers and find things to sell them. Learn how to do this organizationally.
Still the lottery is pretty tempting... I think I have another great idea!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who You Are - Consistency STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: who-you-are-consistency CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/who-you-are-consistency.html DATE: 01/07/2010 06:02:44 PM ----- BODY:Over the past few months, we've had a few clients approach us that had important work that needed to get done quickly; and they had limited options. You may be thinking...
Ka-Ching!
Wrong.
You may get the business once that way, but people will ultimately remember you hosed them.
That is not how things are done here. Here we value ethics, honesty and long-term relationships.
We believe we are entitled to fair compensation for our work including reasonable profit margins (every business needs this). But we don't believe in "between a rock and a hard place" pricing.
Sure, if costs are higher because of a rush job, it requires overtime or doing a rush job will impact other work, you can charge for the inconvenience and pass on the costs. You may also wish to discourage clients from saying everything is a rush... but you need to be consistent and honest about it.
So we set fair pricing. For us... who we are is consistent.
P.S. If you decide who you are (as a person and company) ahead of time, all future decisions become easier and you are less likely to stray.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Ultimate Secret to Everything Revealed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-ultimate-secret-to-everything-revealed CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/the-ultimate-secret-to-everything-revealed.html DATE: 01/06/2010 03:02:49 PM ----- BODY:What is the ultimate meaning of life, the universe and everything?
How can I guarantee personal financial success?
What is the magic product or service that will guarantee success?
What is the secret to instant business success?
Where is that magic bullet?
We are all looking for answers in some ways; easy answers preferred. Low risk. There is a book for every subject and they all contradict each other to some degree. Who is right? Many of them are.
42 is an easy answer and the big joke in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But applying it is the trick.
The ultimate secret? There is no ultimate secret.
The answer is different for everyone. There are lots of good ideas out there. Keep learning, self-reflecting and find the answers that work for you. Oh, and enjoy the journey... you only get to do it once and the answer may ultimately remain a secret.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Think Positive, Set and Achieve Your Goals STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: think-positive-set-and-achieve-your-goals CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2010/01/think-positive-set-and-achieve-your-goals.html DATE: 01/04/2010 10:48:43 PM ----- BODY:I find it interesting how when you are in a certain frame of mind, you notice (attract) more of the same things that reinforce that frame of mind.
Beware negative thinking. It begets more negativity.
Sometimes my mood is like a bouncing ball being chased by a border collie, up, down, sideways and everywhere in between. Retrieve and repeat.
Lately, I have been pretty positive. Pumped up positive. Eager to take on new things; make things happen.
My last couple of posts were reflecting on how focusing on your strengths (generally a positive thing) builds success.
Well today, I received newsletter from ProCoach. It included a link to w worksheet that you can use to reflect on your accomplishments and successes in the past year. Have a look at it.
Basically, you are asked to reflect on the past year including:
Now set your goals for the next year in all areas of your life!
He has you focus on your strengths (even though he doesn't call them that) and build positive images of success in your mind. After this exercise will you be able to visualize anything but positive outcomes? Will your goals not push you to personal greatness?
Positive thoughts beget positive energy and the motivation to achieve your goals. Celebrate your successes.
Ever hear someone talk about the good old days? That is living in the past.
Focus on the future and make every day and year you live the best one yet.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Why Not Be Great? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: why-not-be-great CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/why-not-be-great.html DATE: 12/31/2009 01:52:44 PM ----- BODY:It is funny how the closing of a year brings reflection on the past... and a fleeting commitment to fix all the things you weren't happy with.
Sure, getting rid of some destructive bad habits is a good thing. But is spending your time dwelling on your mistakes and trying to fix your non-talents (weaknesses) the way to go?
In "First, Break all the Rules..." by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, their research basically determined that you should focus on your talents and figure out ways to minimize the impact of your non-talents.
This is based on the science of the brain. Basically, your brain is wired a certain way based on genetics and early development. By the time you reach adulthood, it becomes very difficult to change the way your brain is wired and so you are predisposed to certain repeating ways of relating, behaviour or thinking that make you unique.
This differs from skills and knowledge which can be learned (within the boundaries of your talents).
Great managers know this and:
But you can't rely on a great manager to do it for you, they can only help.
So what do you need to do?
You need to spend time in self-reflection on a regular basis and look at the things you do well and not so well. Be real. Is it because of your innate talents or are they just skills or knowledge you have picked up (or failed to pick up) along the way. If you fight this you may end up in roles where you will struggle and do poorly indefinitely and this is very stressful and draining for most people. You need to discover and develop your talents.
Sure, getting some varied experiences will help you discover your talents (most people do not even know what their talents are or at least not all of them). But the key is; once you know, you must keep developing those talents and find roles that do this. Of course passion makes talent truly blossom, but no amount of passion can fix a complete lack of talent (sorry). Michael Buble is not famous because he has a decent voice; he is famous because he has a natural talent for connecting with the audience (specifically the women).
This then becomes your career plan.
If you are an entrepreneur, you will be more successful doing things that build on your talents. Find partners and hire for talent to cover off the other things.
Seth Godin put it out there in his recent post. What are you going to do different to make the next 7 years remarkable (or at least more fun)?
But it is the post from two years ago that inspired this title... "why not be great? We have an obligation to do great things.
Again back to Marcus, any job or role done to excellence should be worthy of respect. We need to stop the insanity of climbing the corporate ladder to progress. The talents required for different rungs (developer, manager, leader, etc.) are vastly different. Success at the one does not guarantee success at another.
I've known this for some time. I firmly believe a great developer (technician, etc.) should be allowed to progress (i.e. make really good money) within the role without having to move into a management track or become an architect, or???
As a business owner, you need to create this path of excellence. After all, if you are a development shop, you want great developers and you want them to stick around as great developers; not become mediocre managers. If you run a call center or help desk, don't think of these jobs as entry level. They are critical to your success.
This applies to any position that impacts your customers or the success of your business.
As an individual you need to build on your talent and strive for greatness.
So that in a nutshell is my business and personal plan for 2010 to 2017.
Why not be great indeed!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sales - Greatness Versus Failure STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: sales-greatness-versus-failure CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/sales-greatness-versus-failure.html DATE: 12/29/2009 12:28:01 PM ----- BODY:What makes one salesperson great and another fail?
We often think greatness is the opposite of failure. That if we look at why people fail and do the opposite we will succeed. Perhaps this is because it seems logical... the easy solution. Maybe the opposite of greatness (or failure) is merely average. Maybe greatness and failure are merely variations on each other.
This is discussed in "First, Break all the Rules... " by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.
"By studying the best salespeople, great managers have learned that the best, just like the worst, suffer call reluctance. Apparently the best salesperson, as with the worst, feels as if he is selling himself. It is this striving talent of feeling personally invested in the sale that causes him to be so persuasive. But it also causes him to take rejection personally - every time he makes a sales call he feels the shiver of fear that someone will say no to him, to him.
The difference between greatness and failure in sales is that the great salesperson is not paralyzed by this fear. He is blessed with another talent, the relating talent of confrontation, that enables him to derive immense satisfaction from sparring with the prospect and overcoming resistance. Every day he feels call reluctance, but this talent for confrontation pulls him through it. His love of sparring outweighs his fear of personal rejection.
Lacking this talent for confrontation, the bad salesperson simply feels the fear.
The average salesperson feels nothing. He woodenly follows the 6 step process he was taught and hopes for the best."
Now obviously the you can argue that people are more complex than this and other talents are involved. You can also argue that some fears can be reduced by practice.
But, I would hope that you no longer assume the opposite of greatness is failure. They are often subtle variations of each other. Study your best.
Makes you think about where else this logic could apply.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Twittering in the Social New Year STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: twittering-in-the-social-new-year CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/twittering-in-the-social-new-year.html DATE: 12/23/2009 12:27:05 PM ----- BODY:I have been blogging for the past 18 months and have posted slightly over 200 articles. I also regularly comment on other people's sites and do trackbacks. Guess that makes me a blogger.
One of my pet peeves is people who accept comments or trackbacks and don't actually publish them (assuming of course that you aren't spamming, slashing or flaming).
I recently posted a link to another article on how smart phones are time wasters. Hard to argue too much when you look at how slow and ineffective a medium texting is for anything other then very quick conversations.
I am already a member of Linked-in to maintain a business network.
In the next while I will probably start using Facebook personally and maybe a little for business networking. I also have couple of Celtic bands I am in and probably need to get a page setup somewhere so people can find us. I've been procrastinating on this because I find I have so little time.
Several dance performances by our step dancing class and a few sessions we went to are on YouTube.
One of my New Years resolutions is to remove time wasters from my life so I can focus on the important things.
Some of my colleagues are telling me to link my blog into Twitter so they can be updated immediately whenever I submit a post. Well now I will be tweeting. Are people who spend a lot of time tweeting on Twitter, twits? What will that make me?
I do know one thing for sure. Our company (Sunwapta Solutions) is focused on helping people and organizations use technology (software) to help their businesses succeed. You can't do that sitting on the Internet sidelines.
So wasting my time on the social web isn't just for fun, it is my job. That is my story and I am sticking to it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Dance in the New Year STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dance-in-the-new-year CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/dance-in-the-new-year.html DATE: 12/21/2009 07:26:38 PM ----- BODY:Paula Callihoo, the owner of Dance Through Life, is opening up the 2nd half of her studio (i.e. even more classes) in the New Year.
The New Year always brings out the resolve in people to change something and I can't think of a better time to:
Hey, I am partial to the step dancing myself being it relates to the Celtic music I like playing and listening to (I am not so much into (taking) belly dancing (classes) personally)... and I happen to really dig the instructor for the new beginner class.
Music and dance keep the brain active too.
What are you doing next year to keep active and push yourself forward?
I know Paula will be busy instructing, dancing and running her business.
Disclaimer: No belly dancers were insulted, harmed or injured in anyway in the writing of this blog. Nice to watch but I'll leave it to the women.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Trish Zorn EMAIL: trish_zorn1999@yahoo.com IP: 75.159.23.137 URL: DATE: 12/23/2009 08:32:17 PM Hello Doug, Being the new Bellydance/Bellyfit instructor at Dance through life, I must comment - You'd love bellydance (at least watching it!!!!) Just wait till I get Paula and all those other instructors shaking and shimmying! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 12/23/2009 09:59:38 PM Hi Trish, Just to clarify. I like watching bellydance, I would encourage any women who have an interest (and any guys braver/crazier than me) to take it. I can't wait to see the year-end recital! Doug ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The iPhone is Ruining the Country STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-iphone-is-ruining-the-country CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/the-iphone-is-ruining-the-country.html DATE: 12/16/2009 03:28:36 PM ----- BODY:A great tongue and cheek review (by John Dvorak) on how cell phones and all of the bells and whistles that come with them are really just time wasters.
Let's face it, goofing off is goofing off. Pretending otherwise is... well goofy.
The funniest part, many of the comments are arguing with him about how they use their iPhones to do things like fly over a friend's house as examples of useful productivity (the killer app).
Don't get me wrong, every tool has a purpose. But if you are goofing off, don't confuse it with productivity. Oh, and get back to work, the future of the world depends on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Blue Oceans, Red Oceans and Small Ponds STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: blue-oceans-red-oceans-and-small-ponds CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/blue-oceans-red-oceans-and-small-ponds.html DATE: 12/14/2009 02:48:32 PM ----- BODY:I just recently finished reading Blue Ocean Strategy. I found the book to be quite informative with a lot of good concepts that can be put into practical application. In the book they talked about the convergence of competition in the bloody red oceans and the need to create blue oceans of value innovation to break out of the red ocean into the uncontested markets of the blue ocean (read bigger profits).
One premise of the book is that there a sort of formula (a process and tools) that can be applied to create blue oceans in a low risk fashion; sort of whenever you need them.
The problem with most business books with a theory to prove, is that they pick examples (companies) that prove their point and ignore all the others. There are so many successful companies out there following vastly different business models that you can prove just about any theory.
For some reason I doubt most of the blue ocean examples in the book were created by strategic planners. They were created by people who:
The business world is littered with the corpses of the businesses that get to the second or third point and then flounder.
In fact, I would argue that the last point is the only part that generates long-term viability. No customers (revenue) equals no viable business.
The real formula for business is pretty simple: find a product or service that people will buy and then do an extraordinary job of consistently delivering that value.
The book also focuses mostly on the larger companies (although some started small before their Eureka moment) so that the examples are recognizable to people.
So this then begs the questions:
If you are operating in a small pond you actually have some advantages. You can take business models that are evolving elsewhere in the larger world and adapt them for your local market. This is actually copying and not creation of blue oceans, but if it works who really cares.
If you read Small Giants, you realize that you can choose the size of company you want to be. Bigger is not always better. If you want to stay smaller and that model works great and conversely, if you want to grow big that is fine too.
If you stay in a small pond with value innovation, there is some risk that another (maybe much larger) company will copy your model and take it to the larger market.
The problem of course is that there is only so much time to do everything. But staying static forever, rarely if ever, works for the long-term. Change is part of the world. So business innovation is just part of it.
Ultimately, the ideas and tools in the book may inspire more Eureka moments for you as an Entrepreneur and as a business... whether you are creating a blue ocean, competing in a red ocean or staying in a small pond.
But don't expect business to be reduced to a simple formula any time soon.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Clear Window, Foggy Mirror... Honest Self-Reflection Is Harder STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: clear-window-foggy-mirror-honest-selfreflection-is-harder CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/clear-window-foggy-mirror-honest-selfreflection-is-harder.html DATE: 12/08/2009 04:00:54 PM ----- BODY:As I mentioned the last post, we are in the middle of some cold weather. I was taking a shower this morning and the sun was shining through the window, warming up the room. The steam from the shower fogged up the mirror (which was in the shade) before it fogged up the window. This got me to thinking...
Have you ever seen someone in a bad relationship or pursuing destructive behaviour and thought to yourself, the answer is obvious on what needs to happen next. Same thing when looking at someone else's business issues, the answers are fairly clear to you. In these situations, the person living through the situation is either: blind to the problem, blind to the answer or is afraid to take the required action.
Believe it or not, sometimes that person is you.
I know I find it much harder to look at myself or business objectively than I do at others'. The window is clear, but the mirror is foggy.
Honest self-reflection is harder. You may know what you want to be, you may know what you should be, but knowing what you currently are is clouded by your reality and the voices you hear. Are the voices of your conscious mind positive or negative?
Sometimes a little dishonesty is ok. If you think you are capable of doing something beyond your current experience, the confidence will help you stretch and achieve.
But if your real skills are totally out of alignment with what is required, and you are oblivious to that; you may be in for some serious failure. Just look at some of the people seeking to get on the singing and dancing talent reality shows; some of them honestly don't know they don't have talent.
The trick isn't to find your weaknesses and fix them. It is to find your strengths and find others to cover off your weaknesses (i.e. stop doing the things you are weak at) for maximum, consistent high performance and success. The same thing applies to your business.
The tricky part comes if you have a lot of strengths personally or as a business. There are just so many things you could do. Of course the trick is to focus and pick something; anything.
Still, it is much easier to help others do this for themselves than to do it for yourself. If honest self-reflection is a weakness you have and it is holding you back, find someone to help you out.
But therein lays the quandary, if your weakness is honest self-reflection, will you admit to yourself that you need help?
For me, I perceive this skill to be essential to my success as an entrepreneur and personally. So honest self-reflection it is, even if the mirror is a little foggy at times. Things get better with practice.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Black, White and Shades of Grey STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: black-white-and-shades-of-grey CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/12/black-white-and-shades-of-grey.html DATE: 12/05/2009 11:10:44 PM ----- BODY:I have two border collies. They are black and white.
Friday it started snowing and really blowing; blizzard conditions. Falling snow is white. Blowing snow causes white-outs, even at night. Ice you don't see on the road is called black ice.
This morning we woke up and our snow was grey, not white. Not a light grey, a fairly dark grey.
The field to the north of us is bare soil. The wind was blowing from the north all night... strong enough to move a substantial portion of the field into our yard along with the drifting snow.
The dogs were outside playing in the grey snow today.
When they came in the house, the snow melted and turned into black mud... on the dogs and all over the entrance. After a bath the dogs again are showing their hidden white.
Sometimes things seem to be either black or white. Sometimes things appear to be a shade of grey.
Sometimes, on closer inspection things really are black and white. Grey minus white is black after all (as proven by the melting snow).
The point is, are you seeing things one way out of habit or industry convention; or are you open to other possibilities?
The greatest opportunities can appear out of the murky grey of our busy worlds and saturated minds. Not all opportunities are black or white. In fact, most are a shade of grey until someone can combine them with vision and leadership to resolve them into something real, opening a new market.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 200 Posts and a Little Wiser STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: 200-posts-and-slightly-wiser CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/200-posts-and-slightly-wiser.html DATE: 11/30/2009 02:06:29 PM ----- BODY:Over the last 18 months of blogging I have covered a wide variety of topics concerning business, business strategy, HR, demographics, personal development, software development, etc.
In fact, if you look at the pattern of articles you can see the things that are foremost in my mind over a period of time.
Over the last six months, I have moved a lot more focus onto what makes entrepreneurs succeed. Does this mean I don't care about software development?
Nope, in fact it means that the software I am now interested in building is comprised of tools to help entrepreneurs and businesses succeed. I am more interested in building great software than ever... because I see more potential to help others in software than ever.
I am focused much more on the why and what than the how. I have a great team working with me that handles the how (development).
I am one of those people who is consumed by a need to learn and grow. As with most people this starts out with reading for information, knowledge and to be uplifted and motivated.
Over time this has evolved to finding application of the knowledge. Blogging helps with this. As I write about the concepts, it helps clarify how the information can be used.
This is the true value of learning... learning to apply the lessons you believe in to improve your world. If you read a book or take a course and don't make single change in what you do or how you do it; you are just reading for entertainment. It may be fun but has no lasting value.
If I had the level of understanding and ability to apply the knowledge I do now, 9 years ago, Sunwapta would be a lot more successful. I am not knocking our current success. The last 9 years has been a treasure of learning; Sunwapta University.
But the future looks even brighter. When I look at the next 9 years and the next 800 blog posts sharing my journey and lessons learned, I am more inspired than ever.
Thank you for reading my blog and sharing your views with me.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Information Overload - Blink STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: information-overload-blink CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/information-overload-blink.html DATE: 11/27/2009 01:35:54 PM ----- BODY:Your brain processes things at two levels: conscious and subconscious (not unconscious).
Conscious thought demands information, cost and benefit analysis, pros and cons. We demand more information. But more information does not equal understanding. Understanding vast amounts of information is very difficult. You can still draw the wrong conclusion, especially under stress.
Worst of all, decisions take a lot longer to make. What if we make a mistake? If I just had a little more information I could make a risk free decision. Analysis paralysis. You can also make a wrong conclusion and stick to it because that is what all the information points to.
The problem is, things are never black and white when dealing with the real world.
Unconscious thought is very powerful, can process multiple streams of information and give a "gut" decision much quicker. The problem is that this decision making process can also be prejudiced by your past experiences and biases; including fear and survival instincts.
These are the kinds of things discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking". In the book he quotes Sigmund Freud:
"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or profession, the decision should come from within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."
In Business
You need to listen to your hunches and intuition, but understand how they are impacted by your past, biases and fears. You can validate your ideas through analysis.
Conversely, when necessary do the analysis, but listen to what your gut is telling you as well.
Remember that knowledge and ability without passion is unlikely to lead to happiness or prolonged success.
Using Information Technology
Use technology to monitor a very limited set of measurements (KPIs) that are the most important to you.
On a periodic basis look at more details and review if these are still the most important measures to you. Do not keep your head buried in the analysis. Use your real world experience.
Don't use technology to saturate yourself with information and data. Use it to derive knowledge that will help you make better and faster decisions; not slow you down.
Conclusion
Ultimately the most successful entrepreneurs and business owners focus on a few things, do them well and with passion. Understanding how decisions are made and using the most appropriate tools for the problem at hand will lead to business agility; something that is essential in today's marketplace.
Remember, not making a decision is often worse than making a wrong decision and adjusting later. Avoid information overload.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Great Leadership and Management STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: great-leadership-and-management CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/great-leadership-and-management.html DATE: 11/20/2009 06:51:42 PM ----- BODY:The age old discussion around what is the difference between great leaders and managers continues.
Marcus Buckingham in "The One Thing You Need to Know" sheds a little light on this.
Great managers are focused on maximizing the performance of the people they manage by developing talent. Great managers are catalysts... speed up the reaction between each employee's talents and the company's goals. They are motivated by helping people grow.
Great leaders rally people to a better future. The focus on the future and the drive to accomplish something new/better is what drives a leader.
Some people have both traits as they are not mutually exclusive, however, one trait normally dominates such that a person is more naturally a manager or a leader.
What is interesting about these definitions is that they fly in the face of conventional wisdom that says anyone can learn to be a great manager or leader.
Some people may have latent talents, but without the right passion I think it would be difficult to be great at either of these. Average or not bad are learn-able, great is not if the talent and passion are missing.
Talent combined with passion creates the potential for greatness.
From personal experience I have seen people who were great technicians promoted to management or leadership positions and either fail or achieve mediocrity... and unhappiness.
I believe an organization needs to create paths that feed the talent and passions of the people working in them. If those combinations an individual possesses are not required to fulfill the company's vision, then help the person find a place where they will fit. This is not just touchy feely HR talk, this is good business as your remaining employees will see how you deal with people and this will impact retention and hiring in a positive way.
A business needs a leader to be great. It also needs great managers. Hire the talent you need to fill out the rest of the roster.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Becoming a Small Giant STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: becoming-a-small-giant CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/becoming-a-small-giant.html DATE: 11/18/2009 02:10:39 PM ----- BODY:I recently finished reading "Small Giants - Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big" by Bo Burlington.
I enjoyed the book, though like most of these books, you need to determine how and what you will apply to yourself.
My basic take-aways include:
Make sure you choose correctly for what you really want and are capable of. Bigger does not guarantee you will be better or happier. In fact, if you seek growth at all costs you could be worse off (lose control or fold). Sustained high growth levels usually demands a price on the owners as well; are you willing to pay it.
Here is a good quote from the book that summarizes these concepts:
It usually happens, however, when a company's leaders being focusing on growth or financial returns, not as by-products of a well-run business, but as goals to pursue for their own sake.
Important note: Small Giant does not mean you give up making money/profit. In fact, most of the sample companies are quite profitable. To me the question is; "are you serving your business or is your business serving you?"
Ultimately, you have a choice; big or small.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Learning from Experience STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: learning-from-experience CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/learning-from-experience.html DATE: 11/17/2009 11:26:39 AM ----- BODY:I have a country neighbour who decided to put up a fence. They acquired those 6 foot high by 8 foot long, pre-assembled solid fence panels and proceeded to put the fence up using 4x4 posts set in dirt every 8 feet.
It gets really windy in this region. Howling windy. And they are located in an unsheltered lot.
They got about 8-10 panels up before the first wind and rainstorm struck from the north. The next day we saw part of the fence leaning at a 45 degree angle, a bobcat (tractor) holding part of the fence up and a bunch of boards holding the rest up.
A week or two later they straightened it up and added a few more panels using the same methodology. Again the wind blew from the north but they had the bobcat, and a bunch of boards bracing the fence. So it leaned a bit but did not blow over.
A few weeks ago they added more panels using the same methodology.
Guess what?
The wind blew from the southwest.
Today we drove by and half the fence was down.
They were treating the symptoms of a north wind and did not plan for a south-west wind.
It is like a one of those comedy shows about a dysfunctional family and the disasters they face. Except is it more sad than funny. I think some of the people living there are in the construction industry!
Lessons
Learn from experience. Plan ahead and deal with the issues. Be open to a change in strategy and tactics.
Set your posts in concrete. Make sure they will support the load (enough posts or more solid posts). Assume the wind will blow from all directions. Maybe you can live with a hedge or a picket fence instead.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: What Does the Other Person Really Want? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: what-does-the-other-person-want CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/what-does-the-other-person-want.html DATE: 11/13/2009 11:27:51 AM ----- BODY:We often go into a situation with preconceived notions about what we want and what the benefits are to the other person or organization.
This applies to partnerships, client relationships, vendor relationships, employee-employer relationships, and personal relationships.
Don't jump to the solution until you really understand the problem.
Otherwise your hammer will make everything a nail.
How do you get this understanding?
You ask and then... listen.
Simple in concept? You bet. Hard for most of us to pull off consistently? Certainly or the world of relationships would be a lot simpler.
Business Owners
What are your personal goals? Does your role in the business align with your passion? How will the business work for you to create the life you want? If you have partners, you need to ask and resolve this.
Clients
Does your client really have the problem your solution fits? Do they care enough about it to want to spend money, time and incur "risk" to solve it? What are their business and personal goals? Etc. Only after you build trust and understand the real problems and needs can you earn the right to present a solution.
Employees
As employers it is easy to assume that employees want certain things. You need to build an environment of trust and open communication. Only then will most employees tell you what they want from the relationship with their employer.
While the onus is perceived to be on the employer by most employees, it is probably wise for employees to share their career goals and passions with their employer. How can you get want you want from your career if you don't ask?
Conclusion
We need to avoid presenting solutions as fixes to every problem. Understand the problem first. Build trust and open communication and ask.
Sometimes, the other person doesn't understand the problem, issues or what they really want. This is where you can shine.... help the other person figure it out. Then once they agree that it is a problem in the first place and they want a solution... well, then it is time to present your solution... but only if it fits.
What does the other person (party) really want?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Mirror Mirror on the Wall (Self Reflection) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-self-reflection CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-self-reflection.html DATE: 11/11/2009 11:12:31 PM ----- BODY:In the last few days I have been looking at myself. Who I am and who I want to be.
You can look in a mirror and see your reflection, but that is just the outside appearance that the rest of the world sees.
If you start looking around at the people in your life and the strength and quality of your relationships you see a different reflection.
You were born into your family. You don't choose those relationships but you choose how you manage them.
You get to choose your spouse and vice versa. Same with friends, business partners, etc.
Then you can look at what you have accomplished. The things you are proud of and the things you regret. What you are proud of can tell you a lot about yourself. Is it focused on you or does at least some of your satisfaction come from what others you care about have accomplished or helping others?
Who you are and the way you interact with others is reflected in those that surround you, the people who are willing to call you friend and who care about you. If your friends are not very nice, well?
I don't like everything I see in my reflection. I have room for improvement and growth in my personal development.
But I have a bunch of really good, decent people around me and I am happy to see them evolving, growing and doing well.
So mirror mirror... I must be doing ok.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Mix of Messages STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-mix-of-messages CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/a-mix-of-messages.html DATE: 11/10/2009 01:48:55 PM ----- BODY:What is in a Company Name?
I recently saw a truck drive by with the name "Explosive Landscapes". Not sure I would want my landscape to explode or do they blow up old ones or is that how they dig holes? I would probably choose a landscaping company by referral so the name probably doesn't matter.
That begs the question, does a company name really matter as long as it is easy to remember and spell?
How much time does a startup spend agonizing over a company name and logo? Unless you are going to be like McDonald's your logo is probably the most useless thing to spend time on when starting up. Lost in the noise of all the other logos out there. We chose a round logo to indicate the circle of life, etc. ... who cares.
I think the marketing message or story is more important than a cool logo or a clever name. Build a memorable service that people want!
Great Small Business Overview Book
I read a lot about what makes business tick. I recently picked up "How to Succeed as a Small Business Owner (and Still Have a Life)".
If you are tired of reading 500 pages to get 20 pages of useful information or are one of those people who likes things short and to the point, this book covers just about all the key things you need to tackle to run a successful small business. Topics range from why you are in business in the first place to systems and processes.
I even agree with a lot of what he says.
If you don't already know everything about what it takes to run a small business, you can get this book, and start working on your business rather than reading countless books to get the same information.
BTW, none of the books really tell you how to do everything in detail... the detail is up to you to figure out.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Manifesting Your Strategy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: manifesting-your-strategy CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/manifesting-your-strategy.html DATE: 11/04/2009 06:29:32 PM ----- BODY:As I mentioned earlier this week, I have committed to the future being different than the past and have been focusing as much on long-term strategic work as dealing with day to day issues.
Another milestone was reached today at Sunwapta Solutions.
We've been building (organically) software tools to help small businesses succeed. Well the first thing a business needs to do to succeed is focus on strategic initiatives and get their heads out of the day to day grind.
Today we internally launched release 1.0 Beta of a tool (Silverlight, .NET and SQL Server for the techies) that will be used to help organizations take strategic vision through to action and results.
Now I have a tool to make it happen here. Once I am happy with it, we will be launching it for our favourite customers and getting the word out.
Thanks go to everyone who has helped to make this happen.
Note: Organically here means incrementally using sustainable development practices. (Thank Kim Bechtel for the term).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Lessons From Maslow STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: lessons-from-maslow CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/lessons-from-maslow.html DATE: 11/03/2009 06:26:09 PM ----- BODY:Every once in a while, I find something worth sharing and instead of writing my own post, I merely point my readers to their content.
Dr. Jeff Cornwall covers a variety of topics around being an entrepreneur and the impact of small business on the American economy; a lot of which applies here in Canada too.
I especially liked this quote from Dr. Paul White:
"The issue isn't "what do I want to do" but "what goods or services are needed that people are willing to pay for"? As a culture, we have forgotten that the primary purpose of a career is to provide financially for ourselves and our family. This is accomplished by providing a service (either customers or an employer) that someone needs and is willing to pay for -- and obviously, that we are qualified to provide."
A good reminder on what business is really about. If your dreams match what people want so much the better but your primary objective should not be gratifying yourself and ignoring what the market wants.
Look here for his entire post on Lessons From Maslow.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Plan For Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: plan-for-success CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/plan-for-success.html DATE: 11/02/2009 04:49:21 PM ----- BODY:Here in Alberta, Canada the federal and provincial governments have been telling everyone we need to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus. Yup this is a nasty strain of flu that is killing the young and the healthy.
The media has been playing this up too with stories in almost every edition.
Initially there were long line-ups and a run on the vaccination clinics.
Last week, someone I know was at an adult dance class and the instructor was telling the students they would not be touching hands tonight and that the government had decided to focus on high priority groups and the rest of them would have to take their chances. We may all die, but for now, let's dance.
Now there is a shortage of vaccinations and they will be focusing on the high risk groups (young children, pregnant women, chronically ill, etc.). The rest of us will have to wait until Christmas before everyone is processed.
Of course everyone high up in the government agencies is claiming two things:
This was not a bi-election with low voter turnout.
This was something that played to one of two very important motivators: fear and greed.
After scaring the bejeebers out of everyone for 6 months, they were surprised people actually showed up. Well I am not surprised by the outcome nor the response.
But the purpose of this story is not to bash the government.
It is to make a point about business, something you might be able to impact or change.
If you are going through the trouble of building something great and then marketing it... be prepared; plan for success. Don't make excuses.
You may only get one shot so it's time to dance.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: It's Not You, It's Me. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: its-not-you-its-me CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/11/its-not-you-its-me.html DATE: 11/01/2009 04:53:32 PM ----- BODY:When relationships go through a rough period or break-up there is a tendency to cast blame. That blame is either directed at the other person or yourself depending on your personality and a variety of other factors.
The problem is that both reactions are driven by strong emotions.
In business you can do the same thing. Every time something goes wrong you can look for someone or something to blame.
However, this does not actually do you or the business any long-term good. Your customers really don't care about excuses. They care about results.
You need to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and see the truth. You need to be able to look at your business and see the truth. You need to be able to see the truth in others.
Anything less and things may come back to haunt you.
The first problem is the human mind is a lens shaped by our genetics, environment and past. What you see and what I see are different. The truth or reality is different for each of us.
The trick is to determine what you want to be like and then determine objective measures to see if you are really like that. The same applies to your business.
The second problem is you can't change someone else. Even if it is you, there is nothing I can really do to force you to change. You can only change yourself. So if your outcome is not what you want you have to change yourself in some way or change the way you interact with others.
For your business, you can't change the people either. You can change environment or the process/systems. You can build an environment of learning and a culture of change. But ultimately, it is the people working in your company who will either adapt or not. In reality what changes they make, will be up to them.
If you need to radically change direction, it is likely not realistic to assume everyone else will want to move in that direction and that is fine. You can't force it.
However, you can make it more successful by involving the people in the change and having a culture of trust and openness. People change when they see a reason; something in it for them that is worth the effort and discomfort (pain).
Unless you are perfect, everyone can change for the better. Everyone can improve how they interact with others.
As I lead our business into 2010, I realize that change is required. We will be heading into new products, partnerships and service offerings that will impact everyone at some level. But I will not ask anyone on my team to do what I am not willing to do myself. It's not you; it's me (that needs to change).
See once you realize this, the sky is the limit.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Is Opportunity Knocking? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: is-opportunity-knocking CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/is-opportunity-knocking.html DATE: 10/27/2009 04:23:33 PM ----- BODY:A while back one of our mentors reminded me of something very significant.
"Big opportunities don't come very often so don't let it pass you by."
Today we met with Andrew Barber-Starkey of ProCoach Success System again. My lesson today was to make sure your business passion matches your life purpose or is part of your strategy for achieving your life purpose.
So the question then becomes do you have plan for your life? If not then how would you know if an opportunity is a match for you?
Of course, finding your purpose or meaning in life is not a trivial undertaking... some never succeed.
Think of the possibilities of having opportunity meet passion. Now we are talking.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Ideal Partnership STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-ideal-partnership CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/the-ideal-partnership.html DATE: 10/26/2009 01:47:15 PM ----- BODY:Recently Sunwapta Solutions has been actively partnering with a number of companies to extend our product and service offering in complementary ways.
What would an ideal partnership look like (top ten list)?
Any takers?
The above listing is obviously a spoof. But the funny thing is; many partner programs have some of the above attributes either intentionally or by accident.
If you want your partnerships to fail, be really greedy and don't build trust. Almost everyone I talk to has been burned by bad partnerships or untrustworthy work or personal relationships.
This builds a mentality of not trusting anyone and going at everything alone. Or entering partnerships looking for reasons they should fail instead of succeed (hey, I tried but I got hosed again). Is the risk inherent in partnering really more than hiring employees (stealing your ideas, intellectual property, customers, etc.?). Seth made another good point in Begrudging:
"If you're going to do something, do it. Go all in. Doing it half in makes no sense at all to me."
If you want your partnerships to succeed:
Partnering with another company or individual has a lot of upside potential if both parties are genuine and committed to making it work.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Marketing Company STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: your-marketing-company CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/your-marketing-company.html DATE: 10/20/2009 01:44:00 AM ----- BODY:Do you think of marketing as a function within your organization? Is it something to do with communicating your message to your customers to generate leads or awareness? Part of the sales process?
In today's world marketing is everything.
Michael Gerber (E-Myth Manager) hit it on the head when he defined marketing as "the promise you make to your customers and your company's ability to deliver on that promise".
This definition says marketing is the responsibility of your entire company. Not in a superficial manner like "we are all selling our product" or "everyone has an impact on our customers"; but deep in the core of how we think about business.
I think we all need to embrace this.
As Seth Godin has mentioned a great number of times in his blog, gone are the days when marketers could just buy ads and get us to buy their products via interruptions. We are too saturated now to notice. Your product or service needs to be remarkable (worth remarking about or a Purple Cow).
You have a product (or service). How you communicate and create awareness of your product and how you sell is it part of your brand. Your ability to deliver the product while consistently filling your promise is part of it. Your ability to deal with problems that come up along the way is part of it. The way you take payment and deal with suppliers is part of it. Your ability to generate references and word of mouth is part of it.
In essence, everything about your company is part of it.
Now all your customers have the ability to share their opinions about your product not just with their friends, but the entire planet. Your brand is what your customers say it is.
You don't hire a marketing company.
You are a marketing company; your marketing company.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fear of Buying - Software STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fear-of-buying-software CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/fear-of-buying-software.html DATE: 10/19/2009 04:47:24 PM ----- BODY:In Seth's recent post (Fear of Apples) he talks about how fear impacts buying. People don't want to do things that scare them and for some the threshold is low (buying the wrong apples).
He says:
"Whatever you sell, there are two big reasons people aren't buying it:
1. They don't know about it.
2. They're afraid of it."
Unfortunately, software development (one of the things we do) fits into this category big time. This is why business people often want to bring their IT people with them to a meeting... what if you say something they don't understand and make them look foolish.
Unfortunately some industries have rightly or wrongly been pigeon-holed into the scary realm.
Getting the right tools and help in front of business owners and managers should not be a scary prospect. If you are selling a high "fear" product or service you will have a longer sales cycle. If the price is high often perceived risk is higher too.
You need to build trust and consider starting with something a little smaller. As the trust goes up you can move to the more complex offerings.
As a (small) business owner you need to address any fears you have about important aspects of your business. Find a trusted partner to help you with things like information technology, human resources and business optimization... focus on what you do best.
In an ideal world, it would be easy to make sure people know about it and you would choose something to sell that no one (in the mainstream) is afraid of.
In reality there may be no such thing. If people are afraid of buying the wrong apples then anything more complex is going to have some perils for someone.
I think the key is to make sure there are "enough" people who are in the no or low fear (innovator/early adopter) category to support your offering while you are Crossing the Chasm (Geoffry Moore) into the mainstream; and whether or not it is even possible to make that jump.
For ourselves, we are constantly striving to make software development easier for our customers. Success breeds word of mouth and more success. But we are also making it easier for customers to try us out by offering more low risk "packaged" software products in the future.
What is your business doing to address the fear of buying?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Honesty in the Real World STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: honesty-in-the-real-world CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/honesty-in-the-real-world.html DATE: 10/15/2009 12:26:54 PM ----- BODY:In the last few days I have personally witnessed 2 companies (other than ourselves) deal with annoyed customers.
Honesty
In the first case (no names, my blog is not about embarrassing others), the owner of the company had to deal with a customer that was upset about a missed deliverable. This occurred while we were meeting with him. What impressed me about it was his attitude. Yes, he was genuinely upset about his company's process failure... but he was not embarrassed about it or trying to cover it up with the client or with us. Honesty goes a long way.
Too Much Success
The second case (again no names), involves a marketing firm that is running a website for a group of credit unions to foster better relationships with small businesses. The website is quite well done... clean and easy to use.
They had Seth Godin lined up to give a presentation on how you can "remove the small from small business". Now they had hosted a number of other live seminars which I assume were successful. But if you know of Seth, you know that he is extremely popular.
My guess is that word started spreading quickly (think Twitter) and the website was overwhelmed by the volume. So much so that the pages could not even load, never mind see the presentation itself.
I sent a note to the seminar host and got a response back within a few minutes. Yup, the seminar was more popular than expected and was going to be posted later in the day for members to view.
Moral of the Story
If you are a business you are going to mess up with your customers at some time... guaranteed. How you deal with it is as important as run your regular business, even more so.
Deal with people honestly and quickly when you mess up. Fix it and do what you can to prevent similar problems from happening while accepting that with the world and especially people, you can never eliminate risk and !#$# happens.
And remember, word of your mess ups can spread faster than you can even imagine. The viral spreading of information on the Internet is a two edged sword wielded by a crowd. You can't control it, but you can influence it through honesty, quick response and building relationships. (Sorry, putting your head in the sand doesn't help, it just means you have no chance to benefit at all.)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Feeding a Need on Thanksgiving Weekend STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: feeding-a-need-on-thanksgiving-weekend CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/feeding-a-need-on-thanksgiving-weekend.html DATE: 10/13/2009 05:53:58 PM ----- BODY:My business partner Al Dhalla and his friend Al Mohammed started Feed-a-Need a few years ago. Our business has always supported giving back to the community through organizations such as this, the Interfaith Food Bank, Bethany Care Society, The Mustard Seed and the Boys and Girls Club organizations.
We are a web application development company and have recently volunteered company time to help revamp their public website (still not released yet).
Over the weekend they had an opportunity to make another big impact and I thought I would share it with my readers:
Just thought I will share FeedaNeed’s involvement over the thanksgiving weekend with some of our friends and relatives:
We were fortunate to be teamed with Wayne’s Moving Services company to assist Mr O's family, a Sudanese family, whose home was recently engulfed in fire and they were left homeless!
FeedaNeed was able to provide all the furniture for their newer home where the family has just moved in yesterday. Our volunteers worked with Wayne and his moving staff to accomplish this. Our special thanks to Wayne.
Global TV newsmen were at the scene too and it is my understanding there is a news coverage tonight, Tuesday at 6 pm on channel 8.
FeedaNeed is always seeking help from volunteers and sponsors to help fund this noble work. Come forward – donate some of your hours, skills and dollars and be part of us. Enjoy the satisfaction that comes from serving in this capacity.
It is good to periodically reflect on the things you are thankful for... and strive to make the world a better place everyday. Small things matter.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Automating Success (Measurement) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: automating-success-measurement CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/automating-success-measurement.html DATE: 10/12/2009 11:29:57 PM ----- BODY:My last post (Measuring Success) was on measuring key factors before and after a change to determine if the change had the desired effect.
Just as important, if you want to be sure that measurement is easy and will not get put aside when things are busy; you need to automate the process of generating the measurements.
This follows the agile principle of automation for anything that gets done more than once. It is equally effective for businesses.
If you have managers or staff members whose job description includes manually generating part of all of a report or key performance indicator, you have a candidate for automation.
It is costing you more than you think. People are relatively expensive and their value comes not from doing repetitive tasks (that can be automated) but from adding value on the analysis and decision making.
It is insidious. Ten minutes a week adds up to 520 minutes in a year... more than an 8 hour workday gone a year. Add up all the repetitive tasks and the cost is significant. That is if it gets done regularly.
Chances are when things are busy, these things get put aside.
Then perhaps poor decisions get made because the information is not readily available. That can cost a lot more.
Automate reporting. Automate analysis. Automate distribution of the information.
The tools are out there.
Automate success.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Measuring Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: measuring-success CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/measuring-success.html DATE: 10/07/2009 08:17:32 PM ----- BODY:To succeed in business, common thinking says you need a vision of where you want to go, then you need a strategy (plan) for getting there, and then you need to take action over the short-term (goals, projects, tactics).
One part missing from this is measurement.
If you make a change to improve on the execution of your strategy, how do you know it has the right impact?
Gut feel or intuition? Anecdotal evidence? Or do you measure the key factors before and after?
For small to mid-size businesses, who often don't have access to a host of expert analysts, this is a difficult subject to master. It is yet another thing to learn and it takes time. You might not be able to even pull the required data together.
However, to succeed consistently you need to master measuring success (and quickly) or hope luck favours you; because that is what you are relying on.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Your Web Presence STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: your-web-presence CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/your-web-presence.html DATE: 10/05/2009 05:35:53 PM ----- BODY:Every business should have a web presence... it is a no brainer right? Maybe.
Actually, the first thing you need to decide is what you want to accomplish on the web. Whether your goal is: marketing, sales, connecting with customers, or something else....
You need to align your web presence with your company vision and strategies if you want to be sure you are not just throwing money out the window (and as a small business owner that is your money).
Don't spend any time or money developing a web site until you know what you want to accomplish.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Knowledge Is Power STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: knowledge-is-power CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/knowledge-is-power.html DATE: 10/03/2009 11:46:31 PM ----- BODY:Knowledge is power if you can use it to make better business decisions. The trick is to get the right knowledge in front of the right people at the right time.
Inside a business there are normally three key sources of knowledge:
Chances are you have a lot invested already in each of these islands of knowledge... but they may not be connected or otherwise delivering the value you want. If the data does not already exist in a usable format, you may need to capture it.
Relying on Bob
Too many small businesses have critical functions that only one person has the knowledge to perform. Unfortunately this creates problems for:
The Solution
Besides doing his day to day job, Bob needs to be working to make sure that he is paving the way to move to the next level and have his replacement able to perform his role.
This means putting tools and processes in place to automate the gathering of data and information into knowledge... and decisions, so that others can do his job as well as he could.
If you do this right, everyone wins.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted in this post are purely fictional and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental. No Bobs or Roberts were injured or killed as part of this production, including Bob from accounting... and BTW, Bob is my uncle.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Future Is Small and Big STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-future-is-small-and-big CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/the-future-is-small-and-big.html DATE: 10/02/2009 03:03:48 PM ----- BODY:Over the next few months we will be launching a number of software products and services aimed specifically at small to mid-size businesses (depends on how you measure size).
In most cases, small businesses (should) behave and operate differently then their much larger counterparts.
We are very good at certain aspects of technology and understand how small business is different. Working with small business owners is potentially very satisfying... you get to see significant results from your work. Our work with larger corporations is interesting too... it is just harder to see the bottom line impacts.
We are also aligning ourselves with several partners that offer complementary services.
Small is the new big after all.
And it starts next week.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sunwapta Message Update STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: sunwapta-message CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/10/sunwapta-message.html DATE: 10/02/2009 01:59:57 PM ----- BODY: Our latest iteration on messaging for our website.Data. Innovation. Software. People. Vision.
We bring meaning and life to complex data through innovative software solutions. This allows people to collaborate more effectively and make better decisions; faster and with more confidence.
Software, knowledge and people aligned with strategic vision drives competitive advantage.
We adjust our approach based on the situation and the people involved. Large organizations are inherently different than smaller owner operated organizations, we've worked in and with both.
No matter what your challenges are, we believe there is a better way of maximizing the return on your technology investments.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Tide, Things are a Changing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: tide-things-are-a-changing CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/tide-things-are-a-changing.html DATE: 09/29/2009 09:44:18 AM ----- BODY:I was watching the breakfast show on TV this morning. Tide had a commercial talking about how environmentally friendly their product was. Their detergent is 2x concentrated reducing plastic in the packaging by 47% and allowing them to use less diesel fuel shipping it.
Yup, these are good things right?
The only problem is that every other detergent is exactly the same. In fact I saw one that was 4x concentrated.
Yet they are implying they are different... better even.
I think the days of putting a "spin" on the routine and calling it differentiation are quickly disappearing.
If you are going to claim something, you need to be real with your customers.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Creating Lasting Business Partnerships STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: creating-lasting-business-partnerships CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/creating-lasting-business-partnerships.html DATE: 09/28/2009 11:13:18 PM ----- BODY:Over the past couple of years we decided to start partnering with other companies to broaden our market reach and increase our ability to provide a comprehensive suite of services and products.
There are two keys to forming any lasting relationship; trust and communication. This is especially true in business.
Trust
Trust is built on a foundation of strong ethics. You then have to be genuinely committed to the success of the relationship and for that to happen, both parties need to give. The final component is that you need to be trustworthy... do what you say you will do in a way consistent with what the other party expects.
Communication
What do both parties expect from the partnership? What are you prepared to give to the relationship? What are the boundaries? Who owns the client relationship? How will you resolve disagreements? How will you walk away (dissolve the partnership) if things don't work out or it is no longer required...and still be in good standing with your partner (it is possible)?
Communication starts at the beginning and goes through the entire relationship period. Even competitors can be partners if there is trust and communication.
Strong communication builds trust.
Admitting you messed up, apologizing and fixing the mistake is essential. Given enough relationships and enough time, everyone will mess something up.
Check your ego and pride at the door. These are relationship killers.
But creating lasting business partnerships is worth it... the great masters of business have understood this since the dawn of business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 09/29/2009 06:10:50 AM "Check your ego and pride at the door. These are relationship killers." - very good words. I work with a few younger developers that just don't get it. Success is not only measured in lines of code, but also in relationships you manage to build or destroy. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Web Site Updates STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: web-site-updates CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/web-site-updates.html DATE: 09/24/2009 10:29:57 AM ----- BODY:Joomla 1.5
Finding quite a few undocumented "features" embedded in Joomla out of the box. For example, the default WYSIWYG editor does not appear to be generating proper HTML and there are a few 500 series errors generated by the admin site. The search engine optimization feature does not work if you are hosting on IIS instead of Apache, you need to acquire an ISAPI filter.
Don't get me wrong, Joomla has some pretty powerful capabilities and because it is open source, the price is right. But, there is a learning curve and work required to get it right if you are going to host it yourself... and the documentation is sparse.
Our Purpose
I received some good feedback on the message I posted the other day. Essentially, we are not emphasizing our expertise with the back-end and data which is what really differentiates us from the garden variety front-end web developers.
Work in Progress
I have decided to change my approach on this launch. Rather than get all the initial content built, I will be publishing "enough" and then adding to it.
The problem is that in a normal day, client work and other essential business functions like sales and product development eat up a lot of time.
This is sounding a bit like a broken record. For you readers who may never have heard a record, it is sounding like a YouTube video on a painfully slow connection.
Time to get it done and move on.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Our Company Purpose STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: company-purpose CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/company-purpose.html DATE: 09/21/2009 11:57:28 PM ----- BODY:As I have mentioned before, we have been working on our corporate web site. It is always hardest to work on your own stuff for some reason. Client projects, proposals and hundreds of other things get in the way.
We've been looking at what we are good at, our past projects for clients and where we want to be. I also wanted something strong that we can get excited about, fits in with where we are going right now with our products and goes with my strong interest in what makes a business succeed. In the end, we have come up with the following statement for our new home page:
"We help drive your competitive advantage through creative and innovative software solutions.
Many companies believe that implementing the same processes and tools as their competitors will bring them success. Everyone wants to stand out in the marketplace, but in reality they are often pretty much the same; it is just easier to do what everyone else is doing. Yet the most successful companies stand out because they do things different.
We believe that software can effectively bring together the right blend of: people, communication, process and knowledge to bring organizations of any size significant competitive advantage… our clients understand this as well.
We work with our clients as trusted, long-term business partners to:
- Understand your underlying business strategy,
- Envision creative and innovative business solutions that drive out that strategy, and
- Implement and support all of the necessary software and technologies to help drive your business vision forward."
It is still subject to some editing but I really want to get the remaining web pages finalized so we can publish our updated web site.
P.S. I am really excited about our new message and how it ties into our upcoming product launch... plus all of the synergy with our exiting and new business partnerships. But, you'll have to wait for the launch for details (coming soon to a website "virtually" near you).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Employee Share Ownership - Alignment of Goals STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: employee-share-ownership-alignment-of-goals CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/employee-share-ownership-alignment-of-goals.html DATE: 09/18/2009 11:45:52 PM ----- BODY:In my previous post on Strategy and Corporate Governance for Small Business, I talked about aligning Shareholder goals with the running of the company.
When offering employees ownership you are making them shareholders.
Companies sometimes do this in an attempt to retain employees as the primary motive. However, there are issues:
When talking to Perry Phillips of ESOP Builders, is it clear that he believes employees should purchase their shares. I agree. Things that are given are not appreciated as much as something you earn through hard work. In addition, I think that this automatically filters out the employees who really are not fully on board.
Employees do not have to pay cash in advance. They can use bonuses or sweat equity to buy them. They can also pay in installments.
Alignment of Goals
However, the most critical aspect is that the goals of employee shareholders and majority shareholders are in alignment. If the majority shareholders goals are income to support their desired lifestyle then the employees should get profit sharing. If the goal is to sell the company at a large gain in x years, then the employees should share that goal.
Most people don't have much patience these days for the long-term; they want it all now. A small increase in pay today might mean more to them then a large maybe for tomorrow, especially if they really don't believe in or feel a part of that vision. Again, it comes down to alignment of goals.
Are your key employees key because they share the dream AND make valuable contributions? Or are they just doing an important job and you've become dependent on them?
This comes down to figuring out who you really should be hiring; the ones that are most likely to be in alignment with your company's culture and long-term vision AND who have the right skills. An interview won't do it. Kim Bechtel of YourHRco, believes that there are better ways to find good employees and traditional hiring techniques don't work, especially for small businesses that can't afford to make big mistakes.
Ownership Means Ownership
Ultimately, the most important aspect for management/owners to understand is that in order for employees to be engaged in the company and "thinking like owners"... you need to treat them as owners.
This means sharing more information and allowing them to influence decisions as valued contributors... understanding how what they do contributes to the bottom line... their bottom line since they are now co-owners.
This is how you really get employees thinking like owners and sticking it out for the long-haul.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 09/19/2009 08:03:08 AM I absolutely agree that traditional hiring techniques don't work well these days. People are also more competitive. To stick around for a long time for someone, means his ideas have to be aligned with company ones, chemistry exist between individual, company to take the right path, and much more. It is not so often you can have all of those (and I listed just a few) locked down in a single workplace/individual. This is why people move more often than they used to do in the past. Plus, to be honest, people that are incompetent, but well capable of playing political games, are faster to jump on opportunities, and they more real fast. Either way, sharing responsibility means sharing ownership and decision making. If you only share paycheck, then you are not emotionally attached and chances employer would loose the individual are high. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Two Robins and Some Lessons STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: two-robins-and-some-lessons CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/two-robins-and-some-lessons.html DATE: 09/18/2009 12:06:46 AM ----- BODY:Earlier today I was watching the birds in our yard. They are starting to gather together in greater numbers as they get ready to start migrating. It was interesting watching them dart through the air and how they interacted.
As I was getting ready for work, I heard a big crash.
I went back to the window to see what was going on and two robins were laying beside the glass on our deck. In their high speed acrobatics, they had missed that fact that it was glass and not a normal opening.
One of the birds eventually got up and was still quite stunned. It walked over near the other robin and stood near it for quite a while like it was waiting for it to get up. I've never seen anything quite like it. Unfortunately, the other bird never did rise. Eventually, I went out and removed the dead bird and the other robin moved off, I am not sure if the other bird is really ok.
A sad way to start the day.
A strong reminder that life is fleeting and death can be sudden. One moment full of life, darting around and having fun. The next moment it is over.
Cherish every moment and as I always say... enjoy the journey. The destination has no guarantee.
As well, there is probably a lesson about getting too excited and focused on the game and the bird ahead of you. The bird ahead of you may appear to be winning so you pour all of your effort into catching up; only to find that neither of you saw the real threat until too late.
Aggressively chasing your competitors or getting too excited about a perceived opportunity can blind you to seeing what is really happening. Intuition is great but not if it is really your fear or greed talking.
And luck plays a role too. Sometimes, things just happen.
I try to take whatever lessons I can from things that happen... always trying to learn and grow.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Strategy and Corporate Governance for Small Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: business-strategy-and-corporate-governance-for-small-business CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/business-strategy-and-corporate-governance-for-small-business.html DATE: 09/15/2009 01:42:03 PM ----- BODY:Corporate structure goes something like this:
In large public companies this structure has become dysfunctional for many reasons, for example:
However, small (privately held) businesses are usually much different.
Often the shareholder, board and senior corporate officer is the same person.
Even if there are multiple shareholders and board members, the group is usually smaller and it is much easier to align the goals of the organization, its executive and the shareholders.
Let's look at how the corporate structure can be used to maximize the real value of the business to the small business owner.
Shareholders
Shareholders need to be clear on what value they are wanting to derive from the business. It could be:
This message needs to be clear and all shareholders need to agree to it; this is why they are investing in the company.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors needs to make sure the goals of the shareholders are receiving the correct attention from the company and its management team. This is the very high level strategy that is ultimately driving the business so it is important that there are no disconnects.
The Board also needs to perform its governance function and ensure that the executive team is fulfilling their obligations to the shareholders, complying with laws of business, and generally upholding the standards they have set for ethics.
Some small businesses bring in Board members who can act as advisors and help make the right connections to help the Executive Team execute the strategy.
Executive Team
The Executive Team's role is to flesh out the details of the corporate strategy, plan and then execute the strategy. This includes accountability to the Board and ensuring accountability of the organization to the Executive Team.
Conclusion
Small businesses can use the corporate governance structure to reinforce the importance of:
This helps avoid the trap of working in the business instead of on it... even if all positions are filled by one person initially.
Intestingly, this covers 4 of the 6 steps in Seth Godin's Hierarchy of Success. The other two (attitude and approach) are who really based on who you are or want to be.
Oh, and don't forget to regularly review this at each level. That is what shareholder's meetings, board meeting and executive meetings should be accomplishing.
Then you can use corporate governance not just to comply with the rules, but to drive your small business strategy forward.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: corporate, governance, business, goals, strategy, planning, execution, doug, wagner, sunwapta, solutions ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Lessons From Amazon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: lessons-from-amazon CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/lessons-from-amazon.html DATE: 09/09/2009 12:37:59 PM ----- BODY:The lessons in a nutshell:
You can also watch the video directly on YouTube.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fall - Back to Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fall-back-into-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/fall-back-into-business.html DATE: 09/08/2009 01:04:52 PM ----- BODY:We are up on a bit of a hill. Last night we got a surprise frost. So much for the weather forecast.
Yup the nights are getting cooler here in Calgary and that means everyone is getting back to business after a relatively short summer.
There are two main periods of busy business activity here in Calgary: Fall and Winter/Spring. Stampede until Labour Day is a slow period and so is December/January. This year with the doom and gloom economy still lingering, it was especially pronounced.
Federally, the politicians are thumping their chests again. Too bad they consider their job to be mudslinging and discrediting each other to get ready for an election and not running things. "We can do better" was the tentative campaign message for the opposition. Hmm, gotta like the breadth of that vision. We can be average or a bit better.
I think we have to start seeing "we can do great things"; not just a little better.
I know that is how my vision looks for our business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kim Bechtel EMAIL: kim.bechtel@yourhrco.com IP: 68.146.188.237 URL: DATE: 09/09/2009 12:55:31 PM I had the same reaction to the tag line in the Liberal ads, "We can do better". There's an academic's call to arms if I ever saw one. Thanks for the shout out in your previous blog. Sunwapta Solutions is a Small Giant if I ever saw one. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Outsourcing your HR Needs - Small Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: outsourcing-your-hr-needs-small-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/outsourcing-your-hr-needs-small-business.html DATE: 09/04/2009 06:40:19 PM ----- BODY:Al and I finally reconnected with Kim Bechtel after losing touch a few years ago. We did a project for him while he was at the City of Calgary. Somehow we lost touch and then when Kim changed jobs, his contact information no longer worked.
Today Kim is the President and Chief Idea Officer at YourHRco (web site under construction).
He has been working in HR for many years but has decided to focus on HR strategy and services related to smaller businesses. Small business is different than the big companies and HR needs to be applied to helping small businesses with those differences in mind.
Pricing is a big one and he has addressed that through having both a subscription and a project based pricing model (hope I got that right).
The other distinguishing factor is service. From what I know of Kim, good service is not just a tag line in his brochure, it is something he firmly believes in and delivers.
If you are interested in connecting with YourHRco, leave me a comment and I will forward on your contact info.
In the meantime, Sunwapta Solutions is looking forward keeping this relationship going now that we've found him again... and using their HR outsourcing services as required.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: IMC Vancouver - Calgary Preview STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: imc-vancouver-calgary-preview CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/imc-vancouver-calgary-preview.html DATE: 09/02/2009 07:33:29 PM ----- BODY:Al Dhalla and I attended a sneak preview of the Vancouver Internet Marketing Conference hosted by Anduro Marketing.
It was kind of like appetizers before the main meal. Tasty but not very filling.
The full conference should be a lot more meaty as it goes for three days rather than just a couple of hours. Looks like there are lots of good presenters too.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 101 Business Tips STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: 101-business-tips CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/101-business-tips.html DATE: 09/02/2009 07:23:43 PM ----- BODY:Good compilation of business and marketing tips from various authors.
101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Gaining Competitive Advantage STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: gaining-competitive-advantage CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/09/gaining-competitive-advantage.html DATE: 09/01/2009 06:38:26 PM ----- BODY:Today I was thinking of what competitive advantage really means and came up with a few categories or methods of gaining competitive advantage. I think it is well worth looking at how you stack up against each category periodically (anything missing?).
Capability
Essentially you have something or can do something that is significantly better than your competitors. Even better if you are the only one or there is a barrier to entry.
Speed
How quick can you deliver on your promise and how fast can you respond to change.
Knowledge
What do you know that your competition doesn't. Knowing your customer fits here and so does intellectual property.
Location
Location, location, location. These days location means that your customers can find you and reach you when they want to buy whether that is in the real world or virtual world.
People
If you have great people and can prove it, you gain competitive advantage. You then need a way to attract and retain those people.
Cost
Efficiencies and outright cost reductions. Lowest price generally wins for comparable products, but not always... see reputation.
Reputation
People will pay more for the safe brand they know. Build your reputation and guard it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who Are You (and your Business)? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: who-are-you-and-your-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/who-are-you-and-your-business.html DATE: 08/31/2009 04:11:40 PM ----- BODY:Who are you? What matters? What do you stand for? What do you want to become?
At the core, the business and owners must be in synch for long-term success.
Sure you can buy a franchise for a proven business, say a muffler shop, but if you have absolutely no interest fixing cars it is going to be a long painful ride.
I've been running Sunwapta Solutions for over 9 years now and we never clearly defined this for ourselves... until now. Luckily strong ethics and doing good work were part of our core make up without thinking about it regularly.
If you just go with the flow: your customers will define you, your market will define you, and your employees will define you. But you may end up somewhere you really didn't want to be.
Who are you and what will you become?
You need to know who you are today. You need to define who you will be when your business succeeds.
Be real. You can't become something someone else wants or you think they want. It has to be something that works for you.
See, starting a business as an entrepreneur is a journey. Today there may only be you. Tomorrow there may be 100 employees, or 10 million in revenue, or 1000 customers, or whatever.... Who you are tomorrow may need to be different.
So it is not just about the money or the business. In reality it is about you. If you and your business are in alignment great things are possible and you will enjoy it a whole lot more.
Seth Godin's recent post (Who Gets to Decide What You Want? ) addresses this from a product and marketing perspective (i.e. you or the marketers?).
You need to address this for yourself. Who will define your business? You or someone else?
Then you need to make sure your employees are whistling the same tune. This is the only way the market and your customers will get the message consistently and they absolutely need to.
Know who you are and know what your business stands for.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Cloud Computing - Does Anyone Really Care? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: cloud-computing-what-we-really-need CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/cloud-computing-what-we-really-need.html DATE: 08/27/2009 08:34:28 PM ----- BODY:Lately cloud computing has been getting a lot of buzz. It is a giant umbrella for either hosting your applications "out on the Internet" or acquiring software hosted by someone "out on the Internet".
It is actually quite funny in a way. An evolutionary happening is being sold as a revolution.
The cloud has been there for years. The hype is newer.
Reality
A large percentage of people don't really understand computers, hardware, software, networks and the Internet very well at all. They really don't care where something is running or where the data ends up as long as:
It is easy to use,
It works and I can use it whenever I want, and
It doesn't cost a fortune.
This has been true since the dawn of mainstream computing for the masses and is only getting worse as people grow up using computers and devices as black boxes from childhood. Remember, only the IT folks really pay attention to the technology.
The Cloud Means...
To me cloud computing really means that the user should not have to care where there application or data is other than in a generic sense. It could be a PC, it could be a client on the corporate network, it could be browser based and out there on the Internet or it could be running on your smart phone... it could be a combination of all of these and more.
The Death of Desktops
Over the last 20 years I have heard about the death of desktops, the rise of thin clients, centralized, decentralized, and vice versa. Hey none of this is new... and mainframes are still around too.
If I have a portable movie player linked to the Internet via a wireless connection, it doesn't mean I will throw out my big screen TV, surround sound stereo, and Blue Ray player. It more likely means that I will want to also watch Internet content in both places, but expect it to be better on the big system.
A car is not transportation to some. Some are willing to buy better cars and some are minimalistic.
Desktops or their replacements will be around as long as they offer some additional value.
The secret is making the desktop work with the cloud invisibly.
If I buy a subscription to a word processor, do I really care where it is running. Not if the price and functionality are the same. In fact, sell the SaaS and desktop version in the same subscription. When you are on the road you get the essentials, when you are in the office you get the premium. Both have the same storage options (local, corporate or cloud). See! Now I don't care.
What is really changing is pricing models, but that is another topic. Smart companies strong on the desktop have an advantage over pure Internet... they can do both if they want. They just have to change their overall pricing models. It is the pricing model that could kill the desktop if things don't change.
Ubiquitous Computing
(Hey, I just like this word.)
The real meaning, lets get on with making it so people don't need to care how it works or where it works... it just does.
Remember, only us techies really care about how it works... and that increases our value not hinders it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Some Good Business Books STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: some-good-business-books CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/some-good-business-books.html DATE: 08/24/2009 05:08:27 PM ----- BODY:Sometimes you pick up a business or personal development book and you enjoy reading it, but for some reason, nothing really changes afterward. Some are read it once and never read it again.
Well, recently I was perusing my bookshelf and picked up two I had read quite a while ago for a re-read.
When reading these (or any other books), you are not likely to get magic ideas or formulas to guarantee success in your business. What works for one company will not work for yours straight out of the box.
No the thing to get out of these books are some of the things you need to address if you want to run a successful small business or take your business to the level. There are lots of ways to address them and it is up to you to do so.
The E-Myth Revisited
The E-Myth Revisited; Why most small businesses don't work and what to do about it by Michael Gerber is one of the classics that has spawned a large following.
Essentially the premise is that buying a good franchise almost guarantees business success, yet starting your own small business almost guarantees failure. The reason... most small business owners have an entrepreneurial seizure and think that doing the work in a business is the same as running a business.
Unless you are really just an independent contract employee with a holding company for liability and tax purposes, you need to work on the business as much as in it... and this includes doing the things that franchisers do whether or not you intend on franchising or not; create a system to run your business so that you don't have to be the one doing it... that or risk burning out with little to show for your risk.
Becoming a Category of One
So you have your business up and running and you've created some systems to handle all the business functions. You have reached a plateau and are ready to go to the next level... now what?
Joe Calloway looks at how extraordinary companies transcend commodity and defy comparison in Becoming a Category of One.
He does this by looking at what this means and gives some great examples from a number of companies large and small. In most of the examples it not just talk about how people are your competitive advantage, they actually create competitive advantage through people, processes, systems and corporate culture.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Those Pesky Customers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: those-pesky-customers CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/those-pesky-customers.html DATE: 08/19/2009 10:34:13 PM ----- BODY:Ever have one of those days where customers (internal or external) keep derailing something you want to get done?
If only they would go away, life would be simpler and you could accomplish all your projects.
Yup, no customers would be perfect.
No customers, no distractions... no revenue... no business.
POP!
The trick is not in making your customers go away. Unless you have no intention of growing you actually want more happy, satisfied customers receiving something they need. Your business depends on it.
So the trick, is setting up your business so you can do both; and I don't mean working 16 hours a day.
You need to work on the business so you can free up time to do the important work... the strategic stuff.
Putting good systems and processes in place should be part of your business strategy. Everything needs to be clear.
That way you can work on the important strategic and customers stuff... safe in the knowledge that the customers is always being taken care of properly... just not always by you.
Have I got this right. Not yet, those pesky customers have been in the way. But I am making time to address it so that the future is brighter.
P.S. Any customers reading this should not feel I find them pesky. I mean not you but the other customers that are pesky. You are a great customer and I cherish your business.
P.P.S. Ok, the point is really that clients are not pesky, avoiding doing the right things to build your business is pesky.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Continuous Improvement STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: random-topics CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/random-topics.html DATE: 08/18/2009 11:42:21 PM ----- BODY:Web Site Update
Thought about it some more... need to just get things done so new Sunwapta Web Site version one will focus on content and not so much on being an unusual tech site. Just not enough time to do everything.
However, we have a product launch scheduled for September and I will be creating a brand new site for that. That is where I will focus my creative energies.
Convention over Configuration
This evening I went to a Calgary .NET User Group meeting and presentation by James Kovacs (MVP) on "Convention over Configuration". Another passionate presentation by a very talented developer covering a lot of pieces of the development puzzle (Fluent nHibernate, nHibernate, mappers, JQuery, IOC containers, etc.)
The underlying theme tied it all together and really made sense to me. With careful design and strong understanding of your tools, you can use convention (rules and tools) to automate a lot of the plumbing in an application; especially during the critical unknown and fast paced early stages where the domain model is rapidly changing.
Client Application Performance Tuning
We've been working on a client application for a while and talking about improving performance. The calculations are very complex, actuarial formulas, and there are a great number of them in the model. Realized it is time to break the problem down, implement tests for each piece and then re-factor the application to improve performance. Having tests (speed and calculation accuracy) will allow us to make changes quickly without worrying about breaking the calculations.
It's nice to be able to apply some of the coding best practices to pieces normally done outside the raw code by a separate team.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Build Versus Buy (Software) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: build-versus-buy CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/build-versus-buy.html DATE: 08/17/2009 02:03:17 PM ----- BODY:There are two main reasons to build your own software versus buy an existing software product:
The impact of competitive advantage through software and automation is underestimated by most small and mid-sized companies (and many large corporations too).
Non-Existent
Despite the vast amount of software out there in the cloud and available to be run in your own enterprise, there are still a number of business problems that cannot be solved by off-the-shelf or preexisting software.
And even if that software exists, it may have been tooled to be too specific to one environment and the cost of customization or workarounds is too high.
Integration of two different software products often requires either configuration and customization or a piece of new code to glue things together.
Still for most run of the mill business problems needing a software solution, something probably exists. The question is: Does using it create a competitive advantage?
Competitive Advantage
Aside from those unique situations where there just are no valid solutions, competitive advantage is the primary reason to use software and more specifically, to build software that gives your company an advantage over the competitor.
Some types of competitive advantage include:
Reduced cost of ownership - There are times when it is cheaper to build software than to buy it both in initial purchase and ongoing cost and in soft costs... the preexisting solution may be overkill for your situation. It is also easy to underestimate the complexity and cost of building software;
Process simplification or speed - Is the preexisting software going to simplify your processes or make them more complex? Will you be more responsive to the market and your customers or less?
A new way of doing something - Chances are your competitors are all using the standard software and process templates that come with them. If you have determined a new and better way of doing something that can't easily be done with preexisting software, then you may gain an advantage over the competition.
Adaptability - Can you change your processes and the software need run them quickly? If you are trying to run a lean or agile business, your success may depend on how quickly you can switch. It doesn't do you much good to quickly devise a change in process or service offering and then have to wait a year for your technology to support it.
Intellectual property - Your competitors can't just buy it, they have to build it. If you get your software off the shelf, then so can your competitors. If you invent a better process or mousetrap, the last thing you want is your competitors to quickly copy you. You can gain significant competitive advantage if you can do something new, something faster or something better than your competitors.
If you are an independent software vendor the last point is what you are all about.
It Is All in the Solution
This is what Sunwapta Solutions does for a living. We work with your team to determine what problem you are trying to solve, look at the best way to solve it and then implement a technical solution that is right for you.
Implementing includes:
We are both a consulting company and a product company so we get it.
After all, competitive advantage has to come at the right price.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Quick Update on Website - 2 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: quick-update-on-website-2 CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/quick-update-on-website-2.html DATE: 08/15/2009 02:05:00 PM ----- BODY:In my last post on this subject I mentioned how fun it would be to do a parody of a normal website. Then I said I didn't think I had the courage to be taking that kind of risk.
A few people have challenged me to not put out a standard (serious and boring) tech website.
Of course, they are not the ones that would be taking the risk so it is easy to say "Jump!".
I am thinking that the parody version would not be right for me. Fun, but not really what I am about and certainly not what Sunwapta Solutions is about.
But something that fits better with who we are might be.
If I can figure out an angle to make it a bit different... exciting, fun and quirky... and definitely not boring... then that would be really good.
Some of this might happen in release 2. I don't want to get too off track but yeah... now you got me thinking.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Failure to Communicate STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-failure-to-communicate CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/a-failure-to-communicate.html DATE: 08/14/2009 04:09:47 PM ----- BODY:Ever play that game where you take a secret statement, pass it on through a subsequent chain of people. The person at the end says the statement out loud and everyone laughs at how it different it is from what it started out as.
Now add in not just memory of what was said, but include an understanding of what was said, especially if the problem is complex.
The meaning and details are both important and if either aspect is lost, good communications have not happened.
This means that in any development project where there is more than one person involved, there is a risk that miscommunication can derail your project.
This is why many agile methodologies insist on a customer being on-site and present in the project; with the entire team in one room.
But the reality this is not usually possible, especially for long running projects.
The issue is NOT one of proximity. The issue is one of communications. Communications can fail with two people sitting right beside each other.
So for any development project, the key is... communications.
What should you do if communications failure is one of the leading causes of overall project failure (probably more so than poor technical skills)?
Well if you need to get in shape you work out more. If you need to get better at programming you study and practice more.
If you need to communicate better, you need to practice it more and become disciplined in its correct usage.
If you are the subject matter expert (i.e. customer or customer representative) or other team member:
Above all, practice good communications skills when meeting. This includes:
Don't let a failure to communicate derail your project. Don't hide behind proximity issues or blame others.
Good communications needs constant work and attention... from the entire team... your success depends on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Quick Update on Website STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: quick-update-on-website CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/quick-update-on-website.html DATE: 08/11/2009 05:25:29 PM ----- BODY:We have our content management system configured now and our template 90% implemented. I haven't been blogging too much lately mainly because I am busy writing content for our website while simultaneously doing application design for a couple of other web applications.
While writing site content, I was thinking about how much fun it would be to do the entire site as a parody of the normally serious and deathly boring technical corporate website... and oh yeah, throw in some of the standards for differentiation marketing:
"Our developers have been extremely agile for years, long before agile became popular as a methodology. Yes, they had to be to learn to dodge impossible and arbitrary client deadlines, last minute scope changes and irate spouses when they had to work all night to complete the project that someone else messed up."
"We are completely different from our competitors, we code in ones and zeros and they use zeros and ones. Besides today I am wearing a brown shirt and I am pretty sure I saw our competitor wearing a blue one. And did I mention, we have really good people."
And the one that came out in an actual RFP asking team members to have 5 years of experience in a technology that came out 2 years ago (RFP was reissued a year later).
"All our staff currently have over 5 years experience in every technology that is currently out and have already started learning technologies that are just being conceived as you read this."
Reality Check
After all my competitive research, I could not find a single example of a reputable technology company website that was funny... and frankly, I am not brave enough to try something that different.
So back to reality and writing serious content for our website. While we like to have fun, we are serious about building good software.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 08/12/2009 12:17:52 AM Being different is not bad. I would go for that. Originally different though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: michael EMAIL: stihl441@gmail.com IP: 72.228.14.137 URL: DATE: 09/06/2009 07:07:05 PM Wufoo I think as the best website of this type- at least they are funny ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Dance Through Life STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dance-through-life CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/dance-through-life.html DATE: 08/10/2009 11:10:58 AM ----- BODY:Paula Callihoo's new dance studio website is now live.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Gloves Are Off STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-gloves-are-off CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/08/the-gloves-are-off.html DATE: 08/04/2009 02:16:38 PM ----- BODY:I was off reading some blogs today and came across an interesting exchange in the comments section.
It started off on a technical argument, got nasty and then got personal.
When the insults on personal choices of cell phones started flying, I knew the gloves were off.
Yup, your choice of a cell phone says a lot about you.
The Mac, iMac, iPod and iPhone were all initially about going against the herd. Forget the technical arguments for a minute. People are proud that they are not getting what the majority are getting, it says something about you. And Apple? Brilliant at consumer marketing... they get it.
If everyone (or at least a majority) get an iPhone, what will having an iPhone say about you?
What happens if Apple achieves mainstream?
What if they get to the point Microsoft did with Windows and get declared a monopoly?
For a while the browser wars were seemingly pretty much over and one browser had a clear domination. Then browsers woke up and we have some competition again... and change. Good for consumers, bad for content/site creators.
Not to worry though. I don't see the cell (smart) phone battle as being over.
With the size of the market, the size of the players and the stakes, you can be sure... the gloves are off.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Age and Money - A Matter of Perspective STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-matter-of-perspective CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/a-matter-of-perspective.html DATE: 07/31/2009 06:07:50 PM ----- BODY:A business client and friend of mine is turning 50 on Monday.
For humans 50 years is a long time.
But $50 is not much money.
50 years is the same as 18,262.5 days. $18,262.5 is slightly more than what you would make on minimum wage in Alberta in a year of working full-time.
50 years is the same as 438,300 hours. $438,300 is nice.
There are 26,298,000 minutes and 1,577,880,000 seconds in 50 years.
$1.5 billion is a nice big number and few achieve it.
If you earn 1 dollar every second of your life, you can have $1.5 billion in 50 years.
Treat every second of your life as if it is worth something.
Age and money are a matter of perspective.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Getting Marketing Feedback STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: getting-marketing-feedback-on-the-cheap CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/getting-marketing-feedback-on-the-cheap.html DATE: 07/29/2009 06:44:53 PM ----- BODY:If you want unbiased feedback on your marketing material or a new product where do you go? If your answer is:
You should seriously reconsider.
While friends and family may try to give you honest feedback, generally they are naturally biased... they will generally tell you what you want to hear. Why? To show their support. After all, isn't that what family is all about and why you chose your friends?
Employees are influenced by balancing showing support, not making their boss annoyed, and trying to be honest.
Besides, none of these people are likely to be representative of your customers.
So valid options include:
You can attempt these yourself or get outside help.
Today I had a demo of a cool product called Focus Forums that is one online tool that you can use to gather information about your customers' views a little more scientifically.
But if you are on a shoestring budget, you may be able to get some feedback on the cheap, especially if your customer demographic is relatively easy to find.
Find a place where people in your target group have to wait for something. Then approach them with your questions and samples of what you are offering or wanting an opinion on. Ask, listen and make notes. Then give them a small gift (Starbucks coffee card, etc.) if they took it seriously. Hey they might be a future customer and they did something of value for you. Besides, the next person in line will not be likely to say no if they just saw you giving something away. Might cost you $50 for 10 respondents.
This may not work for you, but the point is to be creative within your niche.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/29/2009 08:53:18 PM "Employees are influenced by balancing showing support, not making their boss annoyed, and trying to be honest." I know employees that would not mind speaking up ;) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 07/30/2009 02:40:26 PM Sean, So do I with some being more keen than others to share their opinion... But not sure if they can represent your client accurately. Doug ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Choosing a Content Management System STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: choosing-a-content-management-system CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/choosing-a-content-management-system.html DATE: 07/28/2009 04:59:52 PM ----- BODY:Historically we have been a Microsoft .NET shop with some experience in Java. It is not that we are against other technologies, it is just that we don't see a reason to jump all over if the tools you have do the trick.
In the case of choosing a content management system (CMS) for our corporate website, we looked at open source and low cost CMS products on the .NET platform and found them not as mature as we needed.
We have therefore chosen Joomla as our CMS. It is a well supported and widlely used CMS developed on the PHP platform and is open source to boot.
After the first round of kicking the tires, it appears like Joomla will do everything we need it to and more.
Now that this decision is made, we have only two tasks remaining:
Generate the content.
Looks like generating the content will be my next task for the coming few weeks.
No doubt about it, revamping our web site and keeping it up to date will be a major priority for us going forward. The trick with a corporate web site is to build credibility with potential customers and ideally to generate sales.
No more barefoot children for this shoemaker.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.147.0.90 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/29/2009 12:18:01 PM Typical buy vs. build :) PS: Watch out for customization - this is where it becomes "not so free" and painful (unless you have developement in PHP in place). ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: About The Value of Blogging STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: about-blogging CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/about-blogging.html DATE: 07/27/2009 04:32:18 PM ----- BODY:Seth nails the value of blogging. I do it as much for the clarity as I do for the audience.
I often find that I start out with a blog topic, start writing and by the end, my own understanding has improved. Teaching some things is like that too. It really makes you think about what and how you are doing something; sometimes you even catch mistakes in your current thinking or abilities.
As per the last two posts (The Value of a New Customer and Marketing Budget 101) I talked about one way of determining your marketing/sales budget.
If you want a simpler method, allocate a percentage of total revenue.
Now the question is where to spend your money for maximum effect.
There are basically four sources of future sales:
You will want to allocate funding (or effort) to all areas.
Existing Customers
Everyone talks about existing customers being extremely valuable, yet so many businesses don't allocate much in the way of resources into maintaining the relationships and looking for other ways to service existing clients... until the relationship is in jeopardy. You need to act like any customer is at risk at all times; because quite frankly they are. Things change very rapidly in business and the most solid customer can become an ex-customer very quickly.
Make sure your budget nourishes existing customer relationships; they are very expensive to replace.
Referrals
Your best and most credible referrals come from existing customers. Other sources include your employees, your business and personal network, and other sources of word of mouth such as the Internet.
How do you ask for referrals? Do you allocate resources to acquiring them and just as importantly, do you reward people in some way for referrals?
The simple reality is that almost everyone is focused on themselves in some way, shape or form. What motivates a referral and what will make a person want to give more referrals. Direct compensation for referrals can be tricky but there are many ways to reward without crossing that line. Be creative and get referrals through intentional effort.
Cold Calling and Networking
Cold calling and networking are active methods of sales where you initiate the contact with the potential customer and try to either get a sale or a referral to someone who will buy. This is the hardest and most time consuming method of generating sales but it can be effective when done over a longer period of time and with consistency.
You need to spend a lot of time and resources building relationships but for larger values of work, this is often the only way in.
New Leads from Marketing
Prospects are driven to you through your marketing efforts. By the time you are in communication they have already shown some interest in what you have to sell by virtue of them having contacted you.
The better your marketing engine is at pre-screening clients, the better your closing ratio will be and the less effort you will spend on sales calls. For some business types this is easy, but for others, direct interaction is required to determine fit.
Conclusion
You want to make sure your marketing and sales plans and budget address all four aspects of marketing and sales.
If you only need to spend on the first two items, congratulations, you have a great word of mouth business.
If not, focus on marketing to generate qualified leads or cold calling/networking. If you want to grow quickly or very large, this becomes even more essential as word of mouth takes time to build.
The boundaries are blurring but you need to market by plan, not by accident... the key is wise marketing budget allocation.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Marketing Budget 101 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: marketing-budget-101 CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/marketing-budget-101.html DATE: 07/23/2009 06:28:47 PM ----- BODY:Now that you know how much you are willing to spend on acquiring a new customer the next part is easy... and very hard.
How many new customers do you want?
Infinity is a good long-term goal for the highly competitive but lets bound the question a bit.
How many new customers can you handle over the next year?
Consider your ability to:
Don't forget to include any customers you might lose over time in the equation.
Now multiply desired new customers by how much you are willing to spend to acquire a new customer divided by the average life of a customer relationship in years.
This is your optimum marketing and sales budget for the year.
Marketing is there to generate leads and sales is there to sign up your customers. You need to allocate to both pieces. Sales is leads times conversion rate (0-100%).
Your goal is to generate enough leads at a high enough conversion rate to meet your goals. If you can achieve this within the optimum budget you have... you have a very solid business model.
And infinity (at least within your market segment) may not just be a dream.
If not, you may still have a valid model, but you may need to further refine it and allocate more dollars to marketing and sales. Without sales you don't have a business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Value of a New Customer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-value-of-a-customer CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/the-value-of-a-customer.html DATE: 07/22/2009 03:25:37 PM ----- BODY:One of things you need to do for your business is to determine the value of a customer. This is the lifetime income from that customer to your business and should include factors such as:
Now determine the fixed and variable costs in delivery your product or service. Fixed costs are those that you have regardless of how much you sell and variable costs are those that depend on volume. Don't include marketing or sales costs but include any administration or support costs.
Now take the lifetime value of your customer minus the cost of delivering the service (or product) over that period of time.
This is how much money you could make if it didn't cost you anything to sell your product and didn't have to pay corporate taxes.
Hopefully this is a positive number. If it isn't you probably don't have a valid business model.
This is how much a customer is worth to you in raw profit. It isn't really profit yet because it might actually cost you money to acquire customers unless you are very lucky and have totally automated the process at no cost.
Now decide how much desired profit you want from your business as a percentage. 10-30% is pretty typical based on normal risk factors. 100% and you are likely just stealing money from someone.
Take that percentage and multiply by the lifetime value of a customer.
Now take your raw profit number and subtract your desired profit.
If you have a positive number, that is how much you should be willing to pay to acquire each new customer. If you have a negative number (or too small of a positive number), you have to go back to your business model and either expect less profit, increase revenues or reduce costs (or a combination of all three).
The important points of this exercise:
In the next few days I will talk about how to determine your marketing and sales budget from this number and how to engage your entire company and network in your marketing and sales process.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Clean Code (a la Mode) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: clean-code-a-la-mode CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/clean-code-a-la-mode.html DATE: 07/21/2009 01:45:00 AM ----- BODY:Clean Code
Our team recently wrote some code for a client of ours to handle user authentication through Silverlight. It was largely from scratch and implemented a lot of business logic both in Silverlight and on the server.
The nice parts: clean code with lots of unit tests... and a very happy client. Good work team.
Silverlight
Microsoft's Silverlight platform is starting to mature quite well with Version 3.0. Our developers are getting quite good working with it... so much so we are seriously considering switching from an AJAX web browser application to Silverlight part way into a project. If it will speed up future development the price would be worth it.
The Domain Design Breakthrough
Another logic breakthrough on the application we are building for the SMB market. I love it when you can make something both simpler and more powerful and effective at the same time. Multidimensional problems are interesting... you can always slice them in a different way.
Content Management System
The final piece of the puzzle for our updated website will be decided today. Once it is in place we will have everything we need to finish it up from a technical perspective. I'll let you know how it goes and the details later.
For now the rest of the work is mine... finishing the content.
Putting It All Together
The cake, the icing, the ice cream and the invitations... I am already visualizing the party when this happens.
It is going to be a busy, productive and fun summer... and everyone is invited.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Jumping on the "Everyone" Bandwagon STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: jumping-on-the-everyone-bandwagon CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/jumping-on-the-everyone-bandwagon.html DATE: 07/20/2009 02:56:09 PM ----- BODY:We see it all the time.
Real estate is doing well, everyone starts buying up properties and the prices start climbing. The stories of easy money generates momentum. Then the market becomes saturated and the cycle reverses. Many caught at the end are left buying high and selling at a loss or finding tenants to cover part of their payments. There are some markets that defy logic but generally that is the way things go. The problem is, no one knows how long the rise will last.
The real (i.e. lower risk) money was in being there early.
The same happens in technology, the dot com run up and crash was a good example.
These days the latest thing is the iPhone. There are stories out there of companies writing iPhone apps and quickly making lots of money. Now everyone is writing iPhone applications.
The problem is... everyone is writing iPhone applications.
Now the good news is lots of people are still buying and using iPhones, the cycle has traction.
The problem is, how do you make your application stand out against the competition? There is now a lot of it.
I am not saying that the iPhone is dead (far from it). I am not saying there won't be a lot of great apps built or money made. Certainly, the number of apps out there will only help Apple and the iPhone prosper.
But it probably is going to be difficult to make the easy money. The price of admission has gone up.
This happens whenever "everyone" is doing something (following the herd).
The trick is to do something before everyone else. That is where the real money is.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: How Do You Make the Best Business? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: how-do-you-make-the-best-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/how-do-you-make-the-best-business.html DATE: 07/17/2009 12:41:01 PM ----- BODY:I listened to a live interview of Satyen Raja, leader of WarriorSage by Andrew Barber-Starkey of ProCoach International on Wednesday evening.
Satyen presented an idea for the ideal marketing or business plan. It is not brand new, I've heard variants of it in the past but it is brilliant in its simplicity and a good reminder that things need not be overly complex so I thought I would share it.
You have an idea for a business. Go to 10 of your ideal or best potential customers and present the idea. Ask them to write an extraordinary testimonial for that fictional business. Make sure they cover off all aspects of the service/product, the experience, the relationship, the price, how they feel about dealing with your business, who they would tell, the location, etc.
Take the 10 responses and go build a business that would generate these testimonials or as much of them as feasible.
If you are already in business you can use the information to improve your existing business.
Being the best is not really that hard intellectually, the hard part is the commitment and work required. Average or good enough is easy. Extraordinary is... well, extraordinary.
Now you know how to be great. Are you ready to do it?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Dance Through Life STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dance-through-life CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/dance-through-life.html DATE: 07/14/2009 05:31:32 PM ----- BODY:Recently a friend of mine (who is also my dance instructor), decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge. She is opening up a dance studio here in Calgary.
It reminds me of the time nine years and a bit ago that we started up Sunwapta Solutions. A dream, a commitment and the excitement and fear in jumping into a new world. So much to learn and do.
Dance Through Life (web site coming) will be focusing on adult dance and fitness classes. Most of the dance studios in town cater to children and teens and while some offer adult classes, there is often not much choice beyond the beginner level. This studio will be focused on getting adults out and dancing and having fun dancing, from young adults all... well... "through life". Your inner child is welcome but other studios will handle your actual kids.
If you used to dance, have always wanted to dance, want to do something for yourself instead of your children, or feel it is just time to do something different, check out her studio.
I would like to congratulate Paula Callihoo, proud new owner of Dance Through Life, on the birth of this venture and wish her success in the future.
Update: The Dance Through Life website is now live.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Does Your Business Work For You? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: does-your-business-work-for-you CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/does-your-business-work-for-you.html DATE: 07/09/2009 05:49:27 PM ----- BODY:Be honest. You don't have to share the answer with anyone but yourself and you are doing yourself a huge disservice if you deceive yourself.
Do you work for your business or does you business work for you?
You can work in your business (employee), you can manage your business (manager) and you can work on your business (entrepreneur).
You can have a business plan, cash flow, working capital, investors, products and services, customers and an exit strategy. You can be providing a critical service to society.
But that does not answer the fundamental question. Why are you in business in the first place?
To answer this you need to know what YOU want. You need to know what your personal dreams, plans and goals are.
Money?
That is a cop out answer... everyone wants money. You can't take your money to the grave so, why do you want it? How much? What will you do with it? There are lots of reasons and infinite paths to earn money so why this?
The only reason to start a business is to have it accomplish something towards your life plan... to have your business work for you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Exit Planning - Be Prepared STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: exit-planning-be-prepared CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/exit-planning-be-prepared.html DATE: 07/06/2009 11:37:55 PM ----- BODY:When you buy a ticket on a plane you have a destination in mind. When you arrive you get off the plane and it is the end of the flight. You have arrived and there is no ambiguity.
When you are taking off, the flight attendants tell you where all the exits are in the event of an emergency. If you've flown a number of times you have them memorized by now. Hopefully you won't have to use them.
If your plane has to divert to another destination due to bad weather, you will have to make alternative arrangements to continue your trip.
Today, the subject of exit strategy came up in two different meetings.
A business is a bit different from flying.
When you start you have a destination in mind (your business plan). The problem is, once you take off and start flying your business, the destination often gets adjusted on the fly. Customers, the market, technology, competition, distractions, etc. can quickly make you lose sight of the destination or change it entirely.
How do you know when you have arrived?
Ideally you want to maximize the reward for the shareholders (i.e. yourself and others). There is probably an optimum point on the growth curve to sell. The problem is, unless you can see the future, it is very difficult to spot.
For example, when you are taking off, you are climbing rapidly. If someone came along and offered you a decent sum of money, you might be tempted to turn it down. Why? Because you are growing and the growth is accelerating, waiting may bring even more money if you sell it down the road.
Or it maybe not. You may be approaching your maximum cruising altitude.
When I attended a seminar put on by BCMS Corporate, they stressed that using simple multiples (i.e. industry standard valuations) was dangerous to your wallet as owner expectations get set too low. So is going with an unsolicited offer.
The reason is simple, there is no competition and competition drives up the price. So does finding a buyer that is complementary or can generate economies of scale for your offering increases the value of your company to them.
The best bet?
Plan your exit strategy when you start the business and review it regularly as part of your strategic planning process, at least annually. Consider triggers such as:
If any of your triggers occur start working on an orderly sale of your business or change the triggers.
If you get an unsolicited offer, know what price will make you take it seriously. You are always balancing risk and reward. Sometime a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And sometimes you would be giving away the farm.
Know your business, keep your emotions out of it (as much as you can), be prepared and have an exit plan.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Raising a Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: raising-a-familybusiness- CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/07/raising-a-familybusiness-.html DATE: 07/02/2009 11:34:00 PM ----- BODY:These days there are a lot of blended families. I recently got to observe one such family closely. Children, parents, step-parents, joint custody, two sets of grandparents, day care workers, teachers, coaches.... It reminds me of that saying, "it takes an entire village to raise a child". Sometimes the village works and sometimes it doesn't; to the detriment of the children.
Starting and running a full-fledged business is a lot easier when there is a village behind it. Sure it helps to have a strong leader too, but succeeding in business is hard enough without having to go it alone. When you have a large group of people wanting it to grow and succeed you have a much better chance.
It is even better if your customers are part of that village (or tribe as some marketers call it).
What you are doing (product or service) can't be a commodity to engage customers in your business success. If they can get it anywhere, they will.
No, to create that grass-roots village or tribe support, you have to have a compelling story that engages the customer to make them feel compelled to stick around.
People still gravitate to belonging to something. It used to be a physical community based on where you lived. Now the world has changed and communities are dispersed, yet they are maintained across common interests... hockey, music, religion, etc.
Technology has created more virtual communities.
The open source development community has been around for a while with its own motives for participation.
The social web is a more recent example; starting with chats and forums and evolving into Facebook, Twitter and the like.
Some businesses are using the social web to interact with customers.
The real trick though is building a business that can attract, engage and retain customers as part of the tribe; customers that have a vested interest in the business succeeding.
Oh yeah, and a real business that actually makes a profit for its shareholders (living off the cash from a big IPO indefinitely doesn't count) while delivering that service and community to its customers.
That is the trick to having a village raise a business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sharing Code Between Silverlight and WPF STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: wpf-and-silverlight CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/wpf-and-silverlight.html DATE: 06/29/2009 01:09:51 PM ----- BODY:I recently saw an advertisement for a webinar on the subject of this post in a newsletter. The seminar looks at the feasibility and some of the limitations.
For us this is a been there done that subject. We worked with one of our clients (partners) to develop a framework of tools, etc. for them to quickly build out applications that would work in both WPF desktop and web via Silverlight.
That is not to say there were no limitations or gotchas involved. The XAML is not 100% compatible between the environments and similarly the with the .NET framework... essentially Silverlight is a subset of both with some other limitations.
With Silverlight 3 out, the picture got even better.
If you have a requirement or desire to define you UI once for both the web and desktop, the technology is now there to do it for most situations.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Sunwapta Solutions Turns 9 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: sunwapta-solutions-turns-9 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/sunwapta-solutions-turns-9.html DATE: 06/25/2009 06:48:12 PM ----- BODY:Our company just turned 9 years old. I spent that day with family and the evening on a plane returning to Calgary after visiting family.
While on the plane I spent a few moments reflecting on where we have been and where we are going as a company.
It has been an incredible personal journey to this point... highs and lows abound in business. We've built some incredible software and technology has changed faster than most would like.
The people have been amazing. My business partners, our staff, our customers and our partners/vendors have all contributed to our success over the years.
Behind the scenes we all have families who have been behind us through the ups and downs and give us motivation for all of this.
Thank you one and all!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 79.176.126.114 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/25/2009 11:06:07 PM Happy birthday to Sunwapta! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Back at Sunwapta STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: back-at-sunwapta CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/back-at-sunwapta.html DATE: 06/25/2009 12:39:46 AM ----- BODY:I was away for a few weeks and out of the blogosphere. It is good to take a break from the constant connectivity once in a while. I actually managed a whole vacation without any contact with the office.
I have a feeling things are going to get busy... and I already have several ideas for some posts.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: An Entrepreneur's Fable - Part 2 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: an- CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/an-.html DATE: 06/11/2009 06:06:00 AM ----- BODY:I was reviewing some of my posts over the last year and thought it would be a good idea to add to this story (the original is included below for ease of reference).
The Fable - Part 2
The CEO reflects on the past year....
The journey to master entrepreneur has no fixed destination. It is a quest for personal growth and development and there are many paths and many places you can end up. There is still a lot to learn and as you learn more, you realize there is even more to learn. Only you can decide when you've arrived.
Matters got more complex as the world headed into a recession and governments collectively spent trillions of dollars to buy their way out of the financial mess. But that is out of the control of most CEOs and you can only focus on your part of the world, the part you have any influence over. Survive and then try to thrive in a changing world.
There comes a point in time when you realize you will not be a master of everything needed. You need to find others who can share your journey.
Such was the case recently for this CEO. He promoted some staff members internally and thereby freed up time and energy for focusing "on the business". He took on the role of business development. Not in the sense of a synonym for sales but in the sense of building businesses within the business... products/services, delivery processes, sales and marketing, everything to run the business and the business within the business.
Since that time he also realized that a great business needs to either find or develop great people to lead the business and run its critical functions. Some functions work ok with new hires and minimal experience, but our industry is not quite like that. Since it is getting very hard to find good or exceptional talent, essentially, a business function is needed to develop people in alignment with your long-term strategy.
IT consulting revenue is often cyclical and relies on a constant stream of sales. So the CEO has been working on launching products and related services that are sold on a recurring subscription model. These product and services also will tie into the consulting work and vice versa.
The first of these initiatives is due for release this summer.
There is still much to do and the story continues...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: An Entrepreneur's Fable (Part 1) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: an-entrepreneurs-fable-part-1 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/an-entrepreneurs-fable-part-1.html DATE: 06/09/2009 09:46:00 AM ----- BODY:Note: This is a repost of previous story. Part 2 is coming out later this week.
Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.
This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. Companies were spending money like there was no end of it… other people’s money (OPM (rhymes with opium))… huge burn rates with no plans to turn a profit until some vague point in the future when they dominate the market… or cashing in on an IPO. Speculators were buying stock because a company had Linux in its name and a vague promise of a grand future.
Then the bubble burst. OPM dried up. Companies were closing their doors and shareholders were left with nothing. Then the events of 911 further dampened economic outlook.
The three business owners and their staff survived these downturns. They were not addicted to OPM, were not selling a lie, were good technicians, had strong ethics, had great staff, had low costs… and most importantly had a few good customers that remained loyal and fed them enough work to survive.
The company continued to grow and then hit a bump. Then it grew again and hit a bump. Everyone was working really hard, mastering their craft and taking care of the clients. But something was wrong. They just could not achieve the growth they wanted, the dream was not happening.
Then five years into the business, the CEO had a dream. Fast forward 10 years in the future…
The company had grown a bit over the years. Very hard work and perseverance had allowed them to survive the rough times and when times were good they expanded a bit, but not significantly. Many employees have moved on. Some have been around a long time, a few since near the beginning. The loyal ones had been rewarded with an ownership stake in the company. Several of the owners (original and new) were ready to move on to the next phase of their lives. But, there was no easy way out. The customers were loyal to the people, not the company. There were too few customers. There were key people that could not easily be replaced. People were getting tired of doing the same thing with no change. There was no way to extract the value out of the company… no way to exit gracefully… only failure or a partial success…and too much pride to fail.
The next morning the CEO awoke with the dream still vivid in his mind. He knew what was wrong. They had spent all those years, working very hard, sacrificing… to create jobs for themselves.
After much reading, reflecting and soul searching the answers became clear. To really become an entrepreneur you have to embrace two fundamental truths:
Being a great practitioner of your craft (what you are selling) merely gets you a job. The limiting factor of any business is the owner (leadership).
You must learn to become a master entrepreneur.
That is your real craft… building something great from nothing… passionate… inspiring shareholders, employees and customers… making a difference… a creator... always evolving … a CEO… a master entrepreneur.
The CEO decides to embark on the journey to become a master entrepreneur. Only time will tell what great adventures the CEO and those who journey with him will enjoy. But with this knowledge the future is much brighter.
The End... and the Beginning.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Pain in Joint Ventures STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-pain-in-joint-ventures CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/the-pain-in-joint-ventures.html DATE: 06/02/2009 05:38:23 PM ----- BODY:As Seth Godin points out in his post today, the success of a joint venture is greatly reduced due to both:
The Venture Part: Is by definition risky.
The Joint Part: The more independant parts in something that can fail, the more likely the overall thing will fail. This applies to just about anything and gets even more challenging to predict when dealing with the complexity of people.
Open Source Software Projects
Open source software projects are often done by a team of dispersed and somewhat independent developers, etc. The common goal keeps everyone aligned.
If someone volunteering their time drops out, someone else in the community must step in and fill their shoes. If the group is large enough, losing one or more people poses little risk. The downside is that these projects can take quite a while and timelines are often variable.
The problem with the comparison is that open source is not for pay, it is volunteer work by definition. This makes sure that only people who are truly motivated for the project to succeed will show up. But I don't think open source can be categorized as a venture in a business sense if there is no compensation in the model.
Goals Alignment and Tracking
The final piece is making sure the goals are aligned and tracked. There is something to learn there in open source projects.
They generally use tracking software, transparency and a lot of peer pressure to deal with underperformers on the team... this is the accountability piece and in the development world it can be powerful.
For your joint venture you need leverage (something that works in your case) on enforcing commitments and a workable plan for dealing with partner breakup while having the venture survive.
Or you can take Seth's advice and keep the venture under one roof.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: People from Jobs Past STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: people-from-jobs-past CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/06/people-from-jobs-past.html DATE: 06/02/2009 01:00:00 AM ----- BODY:There are three types of people from the past: the good, the bad and the un-remarkable. You quickly forget the un-remarkable and the bad you want nothing to do with ever again.
Sometimes a particular problem or event causes you to remember some of the good ones.
Even after many years, when the good people cross you path again you feel good. Whether it is the past memory or the knowledge that they are still doing well, it is a nice but fleeting experience to briefly catch-up and then... go down your separate paths again; too busy in your own lives follow through on the "let's stay in touch".
Sometimes, there is an opportunity for more. The potential of working together or helping each other out. Many times this is triggered by a sequence of events and paths cross again (was it meant to happen or luck or something else?).
In the past few weeks several good people from the past have crossed my path... and so have some matching opportunities.
Hopefully our journeys will take us on the same path again.
It is also a good reminder to be one of the good ones for other people as you go through your career... they too may want you around again and present an opportunity to you.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Progression - Growth by Success STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: progression-growth-by-success CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/progression-growth-by-success.html DATE: 05/29/2009 12:48:41 AM ----- BODY:The worst thing you can do when developing your staff/team members is to set them up for major failure (the second worst is not bothering to develop them at all).
For instance, you hire a recent business graduate with lots of potential and then put them in a position far beyond their experience level. The person then messes up really bad, maybe loses a key account or mismanages the team such that productivity drops or key employees quit. You will have to "fire" them from their position. This can devastate the individual and quite literally ruin their level of respect in the company. This can set them back years.
Or say you just hired an intermediate programmer. Good solid development skills but no knowledge of your business domain or enterprise level issues. You give them a very important and complex project because you are short on staff and they are smart. The person gets into the project, realizes they are in way over their head, starts to fail and takes a job at another company get away from the failing project.
In both these cases, you have either failed to develop, set back or lost very good talent.
Now suppose you took that up and coming developer or business manager and coached them properly.
You give them progressively more challenging assignments, always being sure that the individual has a good chance of succeeding at the current level. Some failures are ok but they should not be devastating, but rather learning experiences in and of themselves.
Lots of coaching along the way and the person builds skills and confidence as they go. The challenges eventually can get bigger and the person can be pushed further out of their comfort zones as their skills improve... including the ability to deal with failure.
I ran into an expression early in my career, "People are promoted to their highest level of incompetence".
What this means is that they are often promoted based on their performance in their last job and since they are up and coming... too fast and too far. They failed to develop the skills to succeed at that level (they were never really being coached). What happens is the person cannot be demoted to learn the requisite skills to be competent at that level so they languish in incompetence; unable to be promoted and resented by their subordinates.
As a leader/manager you want to promote people to their highest level of competence. When they are better able to stretch, you can make the increments bigger. But remember to keep coaching, it is still in your best interest for your team to succeed. Know their limits and customize the path for each person worth developing.
The same basics apply to your own personal self-development. Keep progressing incrementally so you are growing through success. Success builds momentum.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Development Updates STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: sean-visit-results CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/sean-visit-results.html DATE: 05/27/2009 01:49:00 AM ----- BODY:Sean Feldman spent the day at Sunwapta on Monday. The visit was highly appreciated by our team and especially me.
I think what is most important now after all the visits and training is to just do it; take action. We have a perfect (greenfield) project that is starting up from scratch and we will be using all the latest and greatest we can manage:
In this project I am representing the customer but I would not classify myself as the domain expert.
I'm finding I can't use a pure agile process with the team as I need to do more up front design than is normal, mostly because I am figuring out the domain by doing so. But in my mind that is fine. Agile is a tool and like any tool it needs to be used in the right place and right time and flexibility is more important than rigid process.... after all we (development teams) are replacing a rigid process with agile and what is the point if agile is rigid.
On the other hand, I am far from using a waterfall approach and that is excellent.
It is mostly a white-boarding type exercise for me. Lot's of iterations to ensure I understand the domain and can later explain it to the developers. But I have no real attachment to the initial rough design... it is just a starting point and I fully expect it to be iterative and incremental once we get going. Let's face it; even the most patient agile developers would be ready to kill the customer if the basic domain rules changed drastically every few hours for a few weeks, refactoring tools or not.
I fully expect to have version 1 out by the end of June. When we do that and accomplish most of the other stuff I will be very happy we are continuing to move forward... and I think it remains doable.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Moving Forward in Today's Economy STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: moving-forward-in-todays-economy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/moving-forward-in-todays-economy.html DATE: 05/26/2009 12:44:11 PM ----- BODY:As I mentioned before, I am actively watching ProCoach Success System and Andrew in particular as he grows his company and in doing so, helps entrepreneurs succeed in manifesting their dreams.
He recently posted a video on YouTube that I found had some good advice on how to move forward in today's economy:
Stay Informed (but avoid wasting energy on negative discussions)
Evaluate Your Risks (and adjust as required)
Pursue Opportunities (there are never as many as when the economy is down)
Focus on Things Within Your Control (activities and mental attitude)
It is worth watching.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile Business Creation STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/agile-business.html DATE: 05/25/2009 07:07:16 PM ----- BODY:Here at Sunwapta Solutions we live and breathe software development. Whether it is consulting work for clients or building software products, we need to follow and excel at the latest technologies and trends.
Agile development is a methodology and even more if done right; a state of mind for the development team that can lead to more rapid software development cycles with value for the customer early and often.
Agile business means an existing company being able to set a new direction followed by rapid implementation... the ability to respond quickly to the marketplace. This may mean launching a new product. If it is a software product you may use agile development to build it. But what about the marketing, sales, billing, customer support, etc? The scope for an agile business is quite a bit bigger than development.
Taking this to the next level, agile business creation would be the ability to quickly create whole new business entities (or something that behaves like an independent entity within a large organization).
There are "super" entrepreneurs who have a knack for this. They start up and direct business after business. This includes the business model, putting all the processes in place for all critical business functions, finding a great management team, hiring or contracting out the execution, etc.
With technology improvements this may very well be an upward trend. Rapidly create a new enterprise, grow sales and let the enterprise liquidate when the service or product is no longer profitable... and if you hit it big, well you can retire or repeat the process more often. The startup and operating costs are dropping all the time for the right business models.
Unfortunately for many would be entrepreneurs, there are not a lot of recipes for quickly building businesses, especially if it is something a little different. It is a little like baking, you need some flour, a sweetener, eggs, some oil/butter, a liquid and some other ingredients. But depending on how you put them together you will either get a cake, cookies, a pie or an unpalatable blob of dough. You need to be a master cook or be willing to experiment for a while to get it right if you are doing it from scratch. The best you can do is copy someone else's recipe.
But just as agile development is a bit of a proven process so too are many aspects of agile business. Then by extension it must be possible to have an agile business creation process or formula... something to make things a little easier and faster.
Ultimately, skill and experience still play a big role in all three endeavours... they are as much art as science.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Development Skills Sprint STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: development-skills-sprint CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/development-skills-sprint.html DATE: 05/22/2009 01:45:45 PM ----- BODY:As I mentioned in my previous post, I am now much more focused on business development. For me this means being an agile business (I'll come to this later in a new post). As a piece of this I need a development team that is both agile and leading edge skills-wise.
It is interesting how things sometimes come together. JP moved back to Alberta and ran his Nothing But .NET course again here in Calgary and we sent one of our developers.
Sean Feldman, a Nothing But .NET and Sunwapta Solutions alumni, offered to come back and share with us what he has found in his development journey over the past while. So Monday, he is visiting Sunwapta and spending the day sharing his experiences with the in and outs of agile, object oriented design, domain driven design (DDD), behaviour driven design (BDD), development tools, etc.
This kind of sharing is invaluable. Why? Because having other outside perspectives on development best practices makes you revisit how you do things yourself.
You may have an approach or solution that works for your team. That is great. But maybe, your approach is not as effective or efficient as it could be. Or maybe something is about to change in your world. Knowing other solutions have worked for other teams can save you a lot of pain.
After all, only a fool does not want to learn from others' successes and difficulties.
But all this training, discussion and knowledge means nothing if it is not accompanied by action.
Now I have always believed we have a good, solid development team. Sometimes improvements come incrementally and sometimes it's time to raise the bar significantly higher... push out of the comfort zone.
Yes, it is time for the development team to sprint their skills forward again. The best part, we already have a good foundation, we have a good sense of where we want to go and now have some good projects to test the new skills on.
The journey is exciting yet again.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Developing with Passion @ Sunwapta STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: developing-with-passion-sunwapta CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/developing-with-passion-sunwapta.html DATE: 05/20/2009 10:57:26 PM ----- BODY:With my personal focus on business development I am swinging heavily back into a focus on software product development.
I am more the product manager/architect type and leave the developing to the experts, but I have a passion for building great software nevertheless. This includes everything around encouraging our developers to further learn and master the latest agile processes and tools, from the foundation of solid Object Oriented Design to the latest in development tools.
The last week and a bit have been pretty consumed with the JPBoodhoo show. For those of you who don't know Jean-Paul Boodhoo, he is considered to be somewhat of an expert on leading edge development best practices applied to the Microsoft .NET technology stack.
A year and a half ago we sent one of our senior developers on JP's Nothing but .NET course and he came back with dreams about where we could go with software development. He made a very significant contribution to our development best practices including getting the entire team to a layered architecture including the MVP pattern, a home grown object relational mapping tool and eventually an implementation of nHibernate.
Last week we sent another of our senior developers to the Nothing but .NET course. It is a very intensive course going from morning until midnight every day for 5 days straight. I think the biggest thing you gain from the course is suddenly being aware of how much there is to still learn.
Today JP dropped by Sunwapta for a visit and the rest of the development team got to discuss some of the practicalities around moving further down the agile path.
This evening a number of us went to JP's presentation on Domain Driven Design Using Fluent nHibernate hosted by the Calgary .NET User Group. JP did not disappoint and adeptly covered how using tools like Fluent nHibernate can free up the development team to focus on a rich domain model rather than data mapping issues... it is not about the tools, it is about spending proportionately more time on the part of software development that matters.
A lot to digest in a short time but I think we will be making a big surge forward adopting these practices over the next while. So thanks JP and thanks Sunwapta team for being open to moving forward.
Becoming agile and a great developer is a journey not a destination... so I agree, you might as well develop with passion... enjoy the journey folks.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Doug Wagner @ Sunwapta - 1 Year Anniversary STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: doug-wagner-sunwapta-1-year-anniversary CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/doug-wagner-sunwapta-1-year-anniversary.html DATE: 05/16/2009 01:18:00 AM ----- BODY:It is surprising how fast a year goes by. My blog has reached its 1 year anniversary today.
Approximately 125 posts in one year is not a bad accomplishment considering writing is not my full-time occupation.
I have found I have a passion for writing in a number of subject areas.
Sometimes it is hard to come up with a new subject and sometimes ideas just flow out. Sometimes an idea sounds good in your head but when you write it down, it is not as brilliant. That is the challenge of taking an idea and communicating it in a limited medium of text and pictures. It is best not to second guess past posts.
But I do know one thing for sure, I find writing helps clarify my thoughts. I can only hope that people have and continue to find some value in reading what I have written.
It is not just about my blog, I also enjoy visiting a number of other blogs regularly and try to include a comment or a trackback when I have enjoyed a post or have something to add. I have even connected with a few people in the real world that I met in this virtual space.
Looking forward to another year of being active in the blogosphere.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Manifesting your Dream - Team Edition STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: manifesting-your-dreams CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/manifesting-your-dreams.html DATE: 05/15/2009 01:29:06 PM ----- BODY:On Wednesday, I talked a little bit about manifesting your vision and yesterday a little about taking action.
Things get a little more interesting when you start trying to manifest your vision and at the same time, align your business team with that vision.
Sure you can just ram your vision down their throats but you have a better chance of success if you can get them behind your vision and an even better chance of success if their career and/or financial objectives align with your vision.
The thing is, strategic goals are easily lost in the day to day work of keeping clients happy. Keeping the strategy in your own mind at all times is a challenge... doing so for the entire team is an even bigger one and the problem often grows exponentially as your organization grows.
Tracking and measuring collective progress on these goals can be time consuming. But just being aware of the vision and goals is not good enough; the team also needs to be taking action.
If you are in the position of needing a team of people, all aligned with your vision and goals, to accomplish your business dream/vision, then this is a problem you will need to solve quickly or it will come back to haunt you.
We've been running into so many people lately that are suffering right now due to not only the economic downturn but from lack of attention to business strategy. When times were good they were so busy working in the business, they ignored working on it (business strategy). That mistake is costing them a lot now and yet, competitors who got it, are doing better.
So what are you doing to ensure you and your team are always working on your long-term strategy... so that you even have a long-term vision?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Actions Speaks Louder Than Words STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: actions-speaks-louder-than-words CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/actions-speaks-louder-than-words.html DATE: 05/14/2009 11:12:57 PM ----- BODY:Vision does not create results.
Goals and planning do not create results.
Only action creates results.
Any action towards your goals and vision is better than all the planning in the world and no action.
How do you know your detailed plan is right? If you are heading down a new path planning out all the details in advance is treacherous. Things change and you spend all your time adapting your plan rather than taking action.
So have a vision, do "enough" planning and start taking action towards your goals. Avoid analysis paralysis. Be open to different paths along the way.
After all, actions speak louder than words.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Manifesting Your Vision STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: manifesting-your-vision-101 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/manifesting-your-vision-101.html DATE: 05/13/2009 03:40:24 PM ----- BODY:Whether you have a personal dream or a business vision, unless you do something to manifest that vision in the real world, it will not materialize.
At its core, the process is simple:
The bigger the vision, the more nebulous the path to accomplishing it may be. But no matter what size your dream/vision is, you need to take concrete steps to make it happen.
You need to keep the long range vision in mind, you need to focus on your shorter-term goals, and you need to take action.
Just as importantly, you need to keep yourself open for new opportunities, contacts and information that will help you move forward and clarify the path. You may not actually be attracting them but when they come you don't want to miss them because you are not paying attention.
Then you need the persistence and stamina to stick with it.
As I always say, every dream may not manifest the way you intended (or maybe not at all) but life is not about achieving your dreams, it is about growing as you strive to achieve your dreams.
Enjoy the journey, the view along the way can be better than the vision at the end.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Can't or Won't (Achieve Your Potential)? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: cant-or-wont CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/cant-or-wont.html DATE: 05/12/2009 04:01:48 PM ----- BODY:How many times do you hear someone say they can't do something?
The problem with thinking like this is that you almost guarantee you won't.
Can't is defeatist. There is a finality and despair to it... a sense of giving up on yourself or a cop out.
If you say you can't do something others will lower their expectations regarding you and you can continue to safely coast through life.
But have your really tried? Do you really mean you won't do something?
But you have a choice.
You can choose a goal. You can take steps towards achieving your goal. You can change your attitude to can and will.
You can find others who can and learn from them. You can celebrate your small victories along the way.
Remember, the journey to your goal is often more important than actually achieving it. This is where you will grow and learn the most.
You can achieve your potential.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Make the Pie Bigger STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: make-the-pie-bigger CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/make-the-pie-bigger.html DATE: 05/11/2009 12:16:04 AM ----- BODY:One option for increasing sales is to partner with complementary businesses, put your products or services together and tackle bigger markets jointly.
You share sales and marketing costs and can significantly increase revenues for both parties. The relationship can be informal, formal or you can even launch a joint venture.
There are two keys to making this work:
Both partners need to give to the relationship so that both win.
Yes, the biggest killer of any type of partnership is when one partner takes without giving back. Unfortunately, it happens too often.
You don't always need to give equally and it is usually very hard to actually give 50/50 at any point in time, but both partners need to win over the long haul. You need to continually work on the relationship and have a plan ahead of time for situations where it may no longer work.
Unless you have the resources of the big guys, partnering with complementary organizations may be one of the best ways to survive economic downturns and thrive during the upswing.
Remember, if the pie is getting bigger, you don't need to squeeze your partner to win. In fact if you do, the pie will eventually shrink again. Don't be greedy, you can both get enough.
After all, you were smart enough to make the pie bigger... stick around to enjoy it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: ProCoach Update and Intuition STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: procoach-update CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/procoach-update.html DATE: 05/07/2009 11:40:06 PM ----- BODY:Al Dhalla and I (Doug Wagner) went to another ProCoach Success Systems seminar put on by Andrew Barber-Starkey. Andrew is based out of Vancouver and was in town for this seminar and other ProCoach activities.
My intuition was telling me I should attend, but I'll get to that part later.
Their System
Seeing a second presentation by Andrew, talking to some of the people in the room who are (or were) working with him and reviewing some of his materials that he provided as part of the seminar helped me form a stronger opinion about ProCoach.
My feeling so far is that he has developed a good coaching system for setting goals that are right for you, getting you focused on a plan, and taking the required action to make your dreams happen. If you are struggling with any of those things, ProCoach might be your answer.
I could probably improve my effectiveness using their system, because just about everyone can use help around effectiveness. And everyone we talked to in the room that knew Andrew was a fan. His costs are pretty reasonable too considering most consultants/coaches go for far more per month... the key is he has developed a good system for delivery.
As always, make your own informed choice, check the references and make sure you fit the profile for ProCoach services... do your own homework!
My Intuition
When I go to these seminars, I always do so from three perspectives:
Turns out, I knew a lot of the materials already. I read a lot and admire a lot of the same authors Andrew does. The realization was that in fact I would enjoy coaching. Some of my proudest moments in the past include getting subordinates promoted... and I have a keen interest in understanding what makes people and businesses succeed.
On first impressions, I liked Andrew and I like the system he has put in place for ProCoach. He seems honest and I plan on keeping him as part of my business network no matter if I use the coaching services or not. Maybe one day we will work on something together that will benefit both of us. If not I'll be interested to follow his business and its success.... lot's to learn by watching others.
Based on the two factors above alone, my intuition paid off and I did not waste my time.
Eureka Moment
But the story does not end there.
Tuesday evening I was sitting on the train ride home reading a book by an author Andrew recommended. Actually I did not get very far.
The heading was "Putting it all Together". I read the next three paragraphs without really reading them. Something in my mind clicked and hundreds of different things, including parts of the seminar, came together at once and my mind started drifting.
I have been working on a pet project for several years. I had a vision in my head that I could not seem to manifest in the real world... and not through inaction either. It was an abstract thing that I could not properly explain to others through my logical voice as an architect or a software designer. I was caught up in modules, features and screens starting from the bottom up.
My "Eureka" moment turned it all upside down. Suddenly all the pieces fell together and I had a stone arch bridge rather than a pile of stones. It was the top stone that keeps it all up.
The story does not end there... it is just now beginning again. I can't wait to share it with everyone, but for that you will have to wait.
The lesson is here is to clearly know where you want to go, start taking action on the path forward and then stay attuned to the world around you so you can see the clues and opportunities to manifest your vision. If you have to work you might as well work on the right stuff.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Strategy - The Amazing Race STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: strategy-the-amazing-race CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/strategy-the-amazing-race.html DATE: 05/05/2009 02:23:37 PM ----- BODY:On Sunday night I watched two contestants get eliminated from the Amazing Race. It came down to the fact that one of the team members drank so much liquid she had to stop for a bathroom break on the final leg to the pit stop. Not a good way to go down.
This applies to business strategy as well. It is really easy to get caught up in the task at hand and lose sight of the big goals... causing you to lose everything.
On the show, one team member had to eat a bunch of deep fried creatures. In this case, the team member took a bite, then drank a big swig of water... polishing off 4 large water bottles in a short period of time.
This was a working strategy for completing the task. However, there was no thought beyond the task or the ultimate goal.
How many times do you put everything into the task at hand thinking once this is done, THEN I will worry about the big picture again?
As an entrepreneur (and leader) you must never lose sight of the big picture. Everything you do will either:
Your most important job is to ensure that everything you do takes you towards your goal or at a minimum does not hurt your chances of reaching the goal. You must regularly do things to get you towards that goal.
Three other teams made better choices. They are still in the race.
Sometimes in business it is easy to knock yourself out of the race with one bad decision or lack of focus. Especially when stress and fatigue set in.
The prize goes to those who stay in the race and keep moving towards their goal until they achieve it. Other competitors may get there first sometimes, but if you continue to stay in the race you will eventually win.
Make sure you focus on your strategy; your amazing race depends on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Back to Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: back-to-business CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/back-to-business.html DATE: 05/05/2009 10:10:19 AM ----- BODY:Hoping everything is back to relative normality health-wise.
I will be focusing on my primary role, business development, so the focus of my writings will be shifting to... well business development. Being that the role includes software product development, I will be also returning to my roots in technology and agile development experiences.
In the meantime I hope at least some people enjoyed the ligther side of my more recent posts.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Guys with Sensitive Eyes STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: sensitive-eyes CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/05/sensitive-eyes.html DATE: 05/04/2009 05:15:20 PM ----- BODY:I had to take a bit of a hiatus from blogging. Had a flare-up with the eyes and it was a bit hard to read or write much, at least without lots of grammar and spelling errors. But I did have lots of time to think and writing helps clear my thoughts and motivate me... so here goes.
Government Forms Can Cause Blindness
I didn't know this either and it is not in the fine print anywhere... I found it out the hard way on Wednesday evening. Ok, I admit I procrastinated a bit on the personal tax returns and had lots of other business stuff to do.
So I had hunkered down in the office, grabbed lots of snacks and was prepared to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening on catching up. Nothing like the last minute to make you productive... time to sprint.
I did the payroll which took longer than expected because the government had changed the personal tax exemptions for April 2009 and the benefits costs for everyone had changed as well.
After that my eyes still being a bit irritated from before and seeming a bit redder than earlier, I decided that to be on the safe side I would put a few drops of Polysporin in them to "help the healing". I then proceeded to tackle the GST quarterly return which involves making sure all the expenses were caught up and entered.
After I answered the call of nature, I looked in the mirror and my eyes were bright red! I flushed my eyes with water, cursed, and prayed that it was just temporary.
I tackled my personal tax forms next, taking a break every 15-20 minutes to flush out the eyes. I won't go into details about it except to say it was not pretty.
I filed my tax return and then called my business partner, Al Dhalla, to see if he knew of any place open at 11:30 PM, other than emergency. Nope.
Called home and told Deborah to pick me up at the office and then we would go to emergency as things were really getting uncomfortable. While she was driving I finished up some stuff and locked up the office.
Emergency Room Wait
We then went to Rockyview Hospital in Calgary's southwest. The admitting nurse asked what happened and I told her I thought my eyes were allergic to government forms or Polysporin.
Waiting in emergency late at night is always interesting. Besides the normal stuff there were three young men who looked to be mostly on the receiving end of a nasty altercation and were getting stitched up, complete with police officers taking pictures of the wounds. News in the making.
After waiting for over two hours (I was lucky, that is short in Calgary), I finally saw the doctor. Turns out I had gone to the right place; the Rockyview was the place was where the "serious" eye doctors in Calgary hang out.
The diagnosis, stay away from Polysporin and to be on the safe side, don't do your government returns at the last minute without lots of breaks, it's been known to cause blindness. Yup, should clear up a couple days after the deadline.
Customer Service with a Smile
Thursday I had to go pay our GST at the bank. I had Deborah drive me to the branch. I was really careful to wash my hands and not touch my eyes so there was no risk to the public... and besides, I am pretty sure I was wearing my own shoes.
The teller gets "A" for effort. He looked at my eyes and clearly believed that I was one of the X-men beginning to transform. But the entire time he smiled and did all the right things for great customer service, even though he clearly felt like running.
Wear Red to Match Your Eyes
Deborah started up Ukrainian dancing again this year and their year-end performance for friends and family was that night. She was feeling a bit tired and was worried that if she went, I might need to go to the hospital and she would not be here to drive me.
So I solved the dilemma by going to watch. Now I won't make any jokes about Ukrainian dancing being hard on the eyes as I do have some sense as to what is likely to get me killed.
I decided to wear a nice dark red shirt, it's not often you get to wear red to match your eyes. Actually the motive was to distract viewers and camouflage the eyes, as after the teller incident I didn't want to panic the performers.
I probably came off a little stand-offish to her new dancing friends as I refused to shake anyone's hand. Hopefully they thought I was just Howie Mandel in disguise for "This is Howie Do It".
Real Men Don't Cry
Of course real men don't cry... and if they do it must be dirt in the eyes... or a reaction to the antibiotic cream.
The doctor explained how to put the ointment in. Sounded easy.
Reality, the stuff sticks to everything including your eyelashes. 10 minutes to get the stuff in and 20 minutes to clean up.
An hour later, tears came to my eyes. Honestly, it was just a reaction to the antibiotic cream.
Sensitivity in the Workplace
This all got me to thinking about how men and women are different and how this can manifest in the workplace.
It is important as a manager to be aware in differences not only between the sexes but in personalities. You need to learn to motivate different people in different ways.
It is never wise to ignore feelings when dealing out criticism. And equally, you need to be aware of staff members who may be "off" due to circumstances away from the office.
Hey, I am a guy. I admit I may have been accused in the past of not being sensitive enough from time to time, especially when I am focused or being competitive.
But, I do like to think I am more observant than many and...
The experts confirmed it; I am a guy with sensitive eyes.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Door Openers - Getting The Right Foot In STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: door-openers CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/door-openers.html DATE: 04/29/2009 02:10:19 PM ----- BODY:If your product or service offerings are fairly expensive and you are looking for new clients, one way of getting in the door is having a door opener.
Retail
In retail you see door crashers all the time. Special prices designed to get you in the door or to generate a bit of a marketing buzz.
If oranges are on for 50 cents a pound, you might go to the store and while you are there upgrade to bread and cereal. The upgrade path is clear.
If a big screen TV is regularly $1500 and they have 5 on for $400, they are creating marketing buzz. It is unlikely that you are also going to buy enough other products while picking up the TV for them to recoup the loss.
Consulting Services
Consulting services (or larger cost products) are a bigger sale. Trust and relationships are also important. Things may not be perfect with the incumbent supplier(s) but the perceived risk in trying your services may be too high.
How do you get in the door without requiring a large leap of faith from the client?
Many companies try to do this by offering a door opener.
However, you need to be really careful in how you go about this. There are several options commonly used:
Offer your regular service at a steep discount and take the loss as an investment,
Offer a smaller version of your core service,
I don't recommend the first option. It just teaches the new client that they should expect low prices and steep discounts in the future.
The second option requires enough value to impress your client and build trust. If the light version is too good, why would they need to upgrade to the full service. If it is too light it won't meet the value and trust requirements.
The third option needs to be considered very carefully. You need to understand how one lower cost product or service will map into another more expensive product or service. Buying a great suit doesn't mean I will go to you for a fridge. Don't plan this right and you may get in the door, but remain in the lobby.
Have a Plan
If you are going to implement any of these strategies, it is just like any other marketing to sales planning. You need to carefully consider how you will move up the value chain and what the likelihood of doing so will be.
What is the upgrade path? If they buy X what is the likely path to Y? When is this likely to occur? Each step must create value for the client and in turn build trust in the relationship.
Then you need to implement the strategy, measure, tune and repeat.
The Fourth Option
Don't follow the traditional paths. Dare to be different.
Maybe your door opener is being great at what you do. You build a name for yourself for something and let word of mouth and your clients build trust in new clients. Jump right to the meaningful work.
Of course this requires that you focus on great.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Spring is Taxing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: spring-is-taxing CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/spring-is-taxing.html DATE: 04/26/2009 10:18:49 PM ----- BODY:Just looked at the weather forecast. Cool, wind, rain and snow accumulating until May. Life in the foothills.
Just looked at the calendar, personal taxes returns due by end-April.
Good news, eyes are better... the redness and watering are gone and I can see well again.
Bad news... I can see the snow and tax returns.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Thanks Team! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: thanks-team CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/thanks-team.html DATE: 04/25/2009 04:32:55 PM ----- BODY:I like to acknowledge things that are done right.
On Friday, one of our good clients came to us with an unexpected problem. Their client had changed the infrastructure specifications and the application we had helped them build would not run in the new configuration. They had spent a fair amount of effort over two days trying to get it working and then reached out to us.
Of course these things always happen when your most experienced developer on the team is away. Well we managed to connect with him via phone but he was unable to remotely offer a working solution and then the battery on his phone died.
This was later Friday afternoon now and the team could have just waited for our guy to return on Monday but instead they dug into the problem. Our infrastructure guy was not familiar with the application and the developer wasn't familiar with the infrastructure. So they both stuck around into the evening and managed to reproduce the problem and then work out a solution in our test environment. They then sent the solution off to our client so they can verify it works in their environment.
The best part. I didn't have to tell them to do it.
This was done on the team's initiative. They stuck at it until they had a solution because it was important to our client and therefore, themselves. They worked with their counterparts on the other team, shared ideas and got it done.
Thanks team!
P.S. We'll know Monday whether the solution works for the client, in the meantime we gave it our best, and that is what counts.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Day 4 - New Website STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: day-4-new-website CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/day-4-new-website.html DATE: 04/24/2009 02:39:07 PM ----- BODY:It's been challenge to work on a website this week with eyes not quite working right.
I've been looking at what we have done over the past 9 years and it seems quite impressive. Our industry experience has clearly been Human Resources, Actuarial and Financial Services. However, many of our core capabilities could easily be applied to just about any industry... web applications, modeling, complex form/surveys, data migration, integration, project management, etc.
In fact we are launching products aimed at the small and medium business market that will maximize the human capital in your business inside and outside of the traditional HR boundaries... we believe that that boundaries are artificial anyways.
I've always firmly believed that if something "can" be done, we can do it. Maybe it is my engineering background, maybe it is my competitive nature or maybe it is because we have some pretty good people here.
In the last few years we've built really good relationships with others in our industry, from our sister company in Toronto to a number of high-end consultants in a variety of technical and agile disciplines... this "can do" attitude is now more true than ever.
These are some of the things I am trying to incorporate into our new corporate website.
Our corporate website will now also be a lot more dynamic, with content being updated more frequently. In fact, writing for this blog has given me a lot of practice for the task ahead.
It is also going to be an evolutionary project. No longer will it be something we create and then ignore because we are too busy on client work.
You see, one of the most important business lessons I have learned in running a business is, You can never be passive in anything, least of all marketing and sales.
Here is a rough mock-up (some things will change) of the template for inside pages we are starting with:
This is just a starting point and our site will evolve over time, but to start we are keeping things simple and minimalistic. Get the message right and then evolve the UI to support the message... then repeat.
P.S. This is just a rough template mockup and things will be a lot cleaner and more polished in the final version.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Day 3 - Testing My Resolve STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: testing-your-resolve CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/testing-your-resolve.html DATE: 04/23/2009 06:10:00 AM ----- BODY:Most New Year's resolutions fail due to a lack of resolve or persistence. People have a tendency to quit at the first signs of difficulty.
It is no different in business.
Whether you want to significantly grow your business or become a higher earner, you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and into new, uncharted territory.
Whenever I have done this in past, things come up to test your resolve. Some are small and some are big. It is no different today.
Monday I had enormous energy and positive outlook. I got a lot accomplished.
Tuesday I had a red eye and a visit to the doctor. Wednesday, I had two matching red, watering eyes and to be frank, it was hard to work. Other distractions popped up as well.
But I have set off on a path... business development and the launching of new products and services. I will not be turned aside so easily. Recover and continue. Do what you can without impacting your health even if the steps are smaller.
The biggest lesson I learnt from basic training (in the military) was never quit. (Polishing shoes, ironing shirts, push-ups, making beds to precise standards and marching have not turned out to be transferable skills for running a business.)
Sure you can change your goal through conscious choice, but don't give up because of fear or discomfort. Always check in your heart to see if you are letting a goal or dream go for the right reasons.
I know deep down that the key to success in anything is to set your goals high, push your limits, focus your energy... and persist until you persevere.
Life is meant to test your resolve and give you opportunities to grow...and reap the rewards that come from growing.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Big Enough STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: big-enough CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/big-enough.html DATE: 04/22/2009 07:00:34 PM ----- BODY:Some companies will never be big enough. Some companies are too small. Very few companies are just the right size.
The only thing that matters is not your current size, but your ability to bring together a team to deliver a specific product or service to a specific customer at a specific point in time in the future.
The past does not really matter though it can be perceived to be proof of the future by many buyers. But the past is not today, nor is it the future.
The work can be done in-house, contracted out or through a consortium. The quality of the team for this project is paramount.
So long as the customer is happy at the end of the day... that is big enough.
Update - 29 April 2009: Seth posted a good related article. Maybe big and great are not the same.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Great Customer Service Example STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: day-2-great-customer-service CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/day-2-great-customer-service.html DATE: 04/21/2009 11:03:32 PM ----- BODY:This morning I woke up with a very red and irritated left eye and decided to work from home. After lunch I realized it wasn't getting any better, so I decided to head off to the doctor.
Now I live between Okotoks and Calgary so I decided to head south to the Calgary Health Region's "Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre".
Now I always find it interesting how different a town is from a city, even when they are 15 minutes apart. We've normally found people in customer service to be just a little more friendly, genuine and less rushed (pound for pound) in Okotoks than the big city.
The way it works there is that the first person you see is a nurse. They make an initial assessment as to your condition, the urgency of the visit and preliminary information gathering. After you finish with the nurse a second person gathers all the administrative information.
Now both of these people were very personable and had a great sense of humour. This puts the patient at ease very quickly and makes any wait less annoying. Not everyone can pull of the humour, but even a little light hearted dialog goes a long way.
After sitting in the waiting room for a bit, they moved me to a treatment room... PROGRESS. The nurse also told me that they had several very sick patients so the doctor might be tied up for a while.
After waiting a short while, the nurse paid a quick visit and did some more preliminary diagnostics, then left.
Then after a while the doctor appeared and completed the diagnosis. All the preliminaries were done in advance so the doctor focused on the problem and the solution. Very fast. But because of all the earlier attention, it did not feel short.
I may have been there 45 minutes to an hour tops. But it felt like ten minutes AND I got the problem diagnosed and solved.
Question: What can you take from this story and make your business's services better?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A New Beginning - Day One STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: a-new-beginning-day-one- CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/a-new-beginning-day-one-.html DATE: 04/20/2009 11:34:12 PM ----- BODY:We made the big announcement to our staff today. Hanif is now the Manager, Consulting Services and I am focusing on business development. He has a great team supporting him so I am not worried about letting go... really.
In reality most of the team is still doing what they did the day before and I am still here too.
But, it's like rearranging the furniture at home; a change brings something fresh and new to the room and its residents.
With my new found energy I tackled some architecture issues with one of my senior developers for one of the products we are working on launching, did some product planning and kicked off the exercise of rejuvenating our corporate web site.
I went to a bunch of technology company websites and it is really quite amazing how similar they are. A few tell a better story but the layout and structure are remarkably similar. Services, products, about us... many even sound the same.
I don't know whether that is reassuring or disappointing.
I do know I have a dilemma and a complication or two.
The Dilemma
Follow the herd or be different.
I can just do what the competition is doing and build a brochure site that lists the services and products we provide... kind of a feature dump with a smattering or benefits and maybe a client example or two.
Or I can do something a bit different.
The Complication
I have more than one story to tell.
I can try to tell multiple stories in one web site and potentially confuse the viewer considerably. Or I can skip the stories and just list all the things we do and sell... the brochure site.
Or I can do something a bit different.
The Solution
I think the solution lays in simplicity of communication... one main story per site, with multiple sites to cover the different stories, and then do each story well.
Then one story to rule them all and in the dark...
Sorry, got carried away. I'll leave world domination to Sauron and the other evil empires. We are here to do good... yes precious... good.
Then one site that ties it all together... the big story that ties all the smaller stories together. This one will superficially resemble the lobby of a movie theatre... lots of cool posters depicting all the movies you can see in the complex.
Ok, it will kind of be a web brochure, but when you enter each venue, the story will unfold.
I have to start somewhere so a video store metaphor will have to do for the short-term. You can read the back of the case, but the story has to wait until later when you are at home, or in this case, once we have time to finish filming it.
P.S. The shoemaker's kids are getting lots of shoes... hopefully they won't all disappear.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: If the Shoe Fits - 2 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: if-the-shoe-fits-2 CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/if-the-shoe-fits-2.html DATE: 04/19/2009 10:56:21 PM ----- BODY:Quick update on the missing shoes affair...
Apparently there was an extra pair of shoes left at the end of the gathering (not mine as I did review the extras before I left and these were the wrong colour and style). So my aunt mailed them to the guy we thought had my shoes.
They were not his shoes.
I have the wrong shoes and he has the wrong shoes.
Who has our shoes?
I think I will turn this case over to Mulder and Skully as I am sure now that paranormal forces are at play. In the meantime I am closing the X-file and just buying myself a new pair.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Letting Go and Growing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: letting-go-and-growing-up CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/letting-go-and-growing-up.html DATE: 04/17/2009 11:24:53 PM ----- BODY:It's funny how reading something about one topic can inspire a Eureka moment in another subject.
As I mentioned prior, I listened to an interview of Barbara Stanny by Andrew Barber-Starkey of ProCoach Success Systems on his web site. Now I am always looking for new stuff to read so I picked up a couple of books, one of them being "Secret's of Six-Figure Women" (I'll cover the book itself later).
The gist of the message I read was you need to let go (of your comfort zone) before you can move up the income ladder.
Well on the heels of my article on the "Art of Delegation" and other thinking I have been doing about where I should be focusing my time to best grow the business and maximize the value of my own talents I realized two things:
So effective Monday I am reorganizing the company a bit.
I will still be the president, but instead of also being the general manager of everything, I intend to focus my talents more on one main area... business development.
For me this means bringing new products and services to the marketplace including:
Essentially, I will be focused on creating businesses within the business. As I mentioned quite a while ago, this aligns with my personal need for creativity and my abilities around visualization.
This will be done for both Sunwapta Solutions and for key clients and partners we are working with to launch new revenue streams.
Sometimes you just need to let go so you can grow. And the really nice part is when you grow you make room for others to grow too.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 04/18/2009 10:45:15 AM You are right about the fact that by allowing others to grow only then you grow (team wise). This boils down to the concept of shared responsibility for the success of the business. That makes parties involved in the business try as hard as possible to make it work. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Senior Cyborgs STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: senior-cyborgs CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/senior-cyborgs.html DATE: 04/16/2009 02:06:07 PM ----- BODY:Read an interesting online article at PCMag.com about robotics that people wear to help with limited mobility.
With advances like these and those in medicine, life is going to be quite different for those people reaching retirement in the next 10-20 years than it was for prior generations.
Check it out complete with pictures and video.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: If the Shoe Fits... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: if-the-shoe-fits CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/if-the-shoe-fits.html DATE: 04/15/2009 11:45:12 PM ----- BODY:A few weeks back I attended the funeral for my uncle and then went to my aunt's home afterwards. There was quite a crowd from all over.
Later in the day, when I went to leave, my dress shoes were missing.
Luckily, I had another pair of casual shoes in the car, or I would have been driving for two hours in socks.
Well, my relatives (my aunt, mom, and grandmother) tracked down someone who had left their shoes at the gathering. Apparently his eyesight is not too great and he noticed he had the wrong shoes about halfway back on the drive to Winnipeg (from Brooks, Alberta). Don't worry, he wasn't driving.
He agreed to mail them back to me. Everything was arranged.
Well the package arrived today in the mail and I thought the story was done.
They are not my shoes. Wrong brand, wrong size, wrong style and they are quite a bit older.
The shoes don't fit.
But that begs the Cinderella questions, "If the shoe fits, who is wearing them now?" and "Whose shoes do I have now?"
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Art of Delegation STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-art-of-delegation CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/the-art-of-delegation.html DATE: 04/14/2009 11:10:35 PM ----- BODY:I've noticed something over the years that often happens to three categories of people in many situations:
Managers Team members that report to managers are either unable or afraid to make decisions and have learned that they can pass the hard part off to the manager, who will take the work back because they are too busy and frustrated to deal with the problem. Subject Matter Experts Team members come to the subject matter expert with a problem. Instead of looking for ideas in finding a solution, they pass the problem onto the subject matter expert for resolution. The subject matter expert finds that it's easier and faster to solve the problem themselves. Suckers
In business and at work suckers are people who:
This differs from doing someone a favour in two ways: the motive of the shirker and the lack of reciprocity.
I admit it. I've been a sucker in the past... on all three fronts.
So have most people.
The Problem
The problem is... you are not really solving the problem by being a sucker and in fact you are both limiting your career, the career of the person dumping problems on you and the potential of your business.
The Solution
The art of delegation is simple in theory:
The hard part is changing your own habits and response to reverse delegation.
But do your business, yourself and your teammates a favour... master the art of delegation and stop being a sucker.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Web Site Redesign STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: web-site-redesign CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/web-site-redesign.html DATE: 04/08/2009 08:40:24 PM ----- BODY:I have spent the last year or so thinking about redesigning our corporate website. I'll be the first to admit our company's website is dated and the content is a bit stale. It has been kind of the story of the shoemaker and his kids... too busy working on other people's stuff.
I could just take the existing content, update it a bit and put a new front on it. But that didn't really feel right.
Sure there are lots of static and dynamic brochure style websites out there to emulate. This is who we are, these are our products, these are our services and here are the career opportunities. Put a pretty look and feel and customers will flock to our business.
If you make a brochure site the same as everyone else, I think your message would be lost in the cloud.
Currently we are building a new web tool for a client. They are focused on a cool theme and tons of graphics. Our developers are focused on making the application work at a technical level.
Something is missing.
Then I read Seth's blog and he hit it on the head.
It's the story that should be the focus.
What are you trying to tell your readers? If the story is look at our cool stuff, so be it. But if the story is something other than the interface, then you may be distracting your visitors. Kind of like fireworks at the ballet.
The interface should be invisible. If you have to think about it, it is distracting.
That is what I have been waiting for our web site... a compelling story to tell.
That isn't to say we don't do great development work and have a number of products under our belts. The problem was listing them in a brochure does nothing to tell a compelling story... and so I waited.
The good news, we now have a compelling story to tell... the bad news, the kids are still barefoot and I am a busy shoemaker.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 04/09/2009 06:15:32 AM Get the kids shoes sooner than later :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Katie EMAIL: katie@firstthought.com IP: 76.90.21.134 URL: DATE: 04/10/2009 12:47:30 PM On the whole, Seth was absolutely right, but his post also conflated a bunch of aspects of Web design, that need to be considered separately. First, there's the visual aspects of the site -- sometimes you want people to notice them, sometimes not -- but they should always complement the story you're telling about your business. Second, there's the technology, which should always function properly and efficiently...it's very possible to use some cutting edge technology on a site that appears somewhat stodgy. Nonetheless, noticeable bleeding edge technology is sometimes appropriate and sometimes not. Thirdly, there's my corner of the world, the interaction. Here we care about things like: Is it a button? Should we use something besides a button? Does it look like a button? Does it behave like a button? Does the button do what the user expects? I have never encountered a site where the interaction design was a good thing to notice. In fact, I'm fond of telling my clients that if, when I'm done, a user can tell I've done anything at all, I haven't done the best job possible. Everything should simply do just what you expect. I've always found kids like going barefoot ;-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hazel Nieves EMAIL: hn@strategicbusinessdesigner.com IP: 69.137.113.240 URL: http://www.strategicbusinessdesigner.com DATE: 04/15/2009 08:12:14 PM After reading the blog post by Seth Godin discussing the first question every web designer must ask I said, amen Seth…but there is an even more important question that needs to be asked in my opinion that really starts with the client NOT the web designer. Check out my response here... http://www.strategicbusinessdesigner.com/archives/72 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 04/15/2009 10:48:21 PM Thanks for all the comments. It is very interesting that so many business owners see their website as nothing more than a brochure, and a poorly thought out one at that. But, it is a reality that most small business owners are good at the service they provide and not all the other aspects of business like marketing. P.S. I understand two things better now. One you need a story to tell and two, your online presence needs to be an extension of your physical company, they are not separate. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Tar Sands - Dirty Oil STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: tar-sands-dirty-oil CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/tar-sands-dirty-oil.html DATE: 04/07/2009 10:13:08 PM ----- BODY:I recently read "Tar Sands - Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent" by Andrew Nikiforuk. I found the book to be both dry (lots of statistics and numbers) and disturbing at the same time.
Now to be sure, the book is really about all the negative aspects of the exploitation of Alberta's oil sands. However, I do think it is important to see both sides of the story and welcomed a chance to understand some of the issues better.
Most of the book was about the socio, economic, political and environmental issues. There was one chapter at the end devoted to a solution but it felt more like a lame tack-on then a well thought out or well supported action plan.
I think all Albertans and Canadians should be more involved in issues like these that affect both our economic well being and our legacy to our children and grandchildren. Too many people either ignore the issues or are highly polarized one way or another.
Are politicians the puppets of big oil? Are oil companies inherently evil destroyers of the environment for profit? Are environmentalists misguided radicals at the fringe of society?
I think that type of talk is naive and does nothing to solve the real issues.
The world economy is addicted to oil and hyper consumption... no one can really deny that. The problem was 100 years in the making and won't be solved in a day without a great deal of turmoil.
Corporations are neither good nor evil. They are run by people and operate within the rules created by governments, or face repercussions. In Canada and other democratic nations, that means ultimately society sets the rules, directly or through neglect.
In the meantime, I encourage everyone to get more involved, understand the issues, communicate your views to your politicians and get out and vote... essentially exercise your democratic rights.
I know I will continue to look at what I can do to reduce, reuse and recycle in my life and with our business. It just feels right to me.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Good Business Coaches STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: procoach CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/procoach.html DATE: 04/02/2009 07:31:00 AM ----- BODY:An Example - ProCoach
I went to a seminar put on by Andrew Barber-Starkey of ProCoach Success Systems a number of years ago here in Calgary. The information presented in the seminar was decent, and of course it ended with limited time options to enter their program for a special price.
A few years later, I am still receiving newsletters from them. Sometimes there is a good pearl of wisdom in them. Recently, Andrew has started interviewing well-known authors and posting those interviews on his site.
Superficially, he appears to share a number of common business success principles with me. Now I haven't used his services, so I can't comment on whether or not his system and coaching team are worth pursuing.
A year and a half ago, we hired a sales and marketing consultant to help us jump start our sales process with mixed results.
This got me to thinking, "what makes a good business coach".
What Makes a Good Business Coach?
The first impression that comes to mind is that a business coach should be a highly successful entrepreneur; but is it really true?
In sports a coach is not the best player on the team. They don't even have to have competed in that field at a high level.
A good coach is someone who brings out the peak performance of the individuals and teams.
So a good business coach is someone who can help you and your business perform to their peak potential.
A good business coach doesn't even have to be an expert in all types or aspects of business.
Some things that are essential in a coaching relationship:
The coach must genuinely care about you and the success of your business. They will succeed when you succeed. You can easily tell if this is not true by the effort they make to understand you and your business and conversely how much they spend focused on their revenue from you first and foremost. Remember, you are the client... the one paying the bills and that you deserve great service in trade for fair payment.
They must know the subject in enough detail and have enough experience to provide guidance in the areas where they are coaching. However, they should recommend and help connect you with experts when they are out of their element.
They must understand you, human nature and know what you want and how to help motivate and keep you on target. The service must be customized for you and your business.
They must want you to win, almost as much as you want to win.
You must respect and value them at start, during and after the coaching process.
Both parties must give 100% to the process. Don't blame your coach if you don't do your part.
You must know what you are trying to accomplish by having a coach and know when you have outgrown your current coach. You don't normally hire a football coach for a speed skating team.
Check the references and ask tough questions about some of the above and how the coach made a real concrete difference. Some coaches could be riding the coattails of people who have been successful in spite of the coach. What is the return on investment?
Ease Into the Relationship
Have a reasonable trial period. It needs to be long enough to accomplish something of importance, something measurable. It takes a while for a new coach to make a difference.
But you do need a way of disengaging without losing your shirt.
If it works for you and you genuinely feel you are gaining value, then you have a winner commit a little longer.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Barber-Starkey, Master Certified Coach, "The ProCoach" EMAIL: admin@procoachsystem.com IP: 207.6.61.242 URL: http://www.procoachsystem.com DATE: 04/22/2009 10:06:14 AM Doug - I have been coaching self-employed entrepreneurs and small business owners full time for over 15 years and I must say this is the clearest and most accurate advice regarding business coaching that I have seen. Just like in professional sports, there are many different approaches to coaching and each coach has their own style. What matters is that you find a coach who is right for you and supports, challenges, inspires, teaches and mentors you to reach your business and/or personal goals faster. Well done! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 101st Post STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: 101st-post CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/101st-post.html DATE: 04/01/2009 11:55:00 AM ----- BODY:Still working on the visualization and goal attainment. Even when I achieve it I will probably still be doing something entrepreneurial with my spare time. The big difference is I will also have more freedom of choice for my time.
Well it's April 1st and at least I didn't fire anyone this year. Yes, a number of years ago our staff played a nasty one on management while we were at a lunch seminar with the CEO of Dell. Since then we changed the rules to exclude jokes about operational matters, too dangerous to get out of hand.
Happy April Fools Day and hope the worms and viruses stayed away from you!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: 100th and Last Post STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: 100th-and-last-post CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/04/100th-and-last-post.html DATE: 04/01/2009 01:00:00 AM ----- BODY:This is my 100th post. I've enjoyed sharing my thoughts, experiences and lessons over the past year.
One of the recurring themes of my posts and my motivational reading is the power of visualizing the end goal.
Well, the power of visualization and alignment has paid off.
I've reached my goals and I have decided to retire from business and writing. Yup, nothing but beaches and sailing on sparkling blue water for me.
As the dolphins said as they left Earth in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
"So long and thanks for all the fish!"
Nothing else to say... bye.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Intel's New Nehalem Zeon Processor STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: intels-new-nehalem-zeon-processor CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/intels-new-nehalem-zeon-processor.html DATE: 03/31/2009 09:47:35 AM ----- BODY:Just read some reviews on Intel's newest Zeon processor. Looks like the increase in processing power over prior versions and the competition is a very substantial jump... like double. Just as big is the increased support for virtualization to take advantage of features in Windows Server 2008.
Doubling the processing power while reducing or keeping steady the power consumption is significant.
We are hosting some client applications at Q9 Networks. They charge for power and bandwidth. If I can cut my power consumption in half to get the same work done, that would give us a substantial power cost reduction. Might even pay for a couple of servers in year.
Now if we can just get past the physical limitations of hard drives at a decent price point....
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Long Winter - Spring on It's Way STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: long-winter-spring-on-its-way CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/long-winter-spring-on-its-way.html DATE: 03/30/2009 10:55:25 PM ----- BODY:It has been a long winter here in Calgary... lots of lingering snow, recent snow and below average temperatures. The trees and plants are showing little sign of rebirth, though there are small signs that nature is waking up if you take the time to look.
On a personal note my business partner and I recently received recent news of deaths in our extended families. Families and friends are gathering from far and wide to pay their respects and show support for the living.
My uncle ran a small business doing survey work out near Brooks for the oil and gas companies, etc. He worked hard, but he also learned to enjoy the rewards of his labours. He was fortunate to have his sons and family close to him.
Growing up, our relatives were spread out across pretty much all of Canada. My father was in the military so we moved every 3-4 years as well. So I never really got to know my parents' siblings or our cousins that well.
It is still that way now. My sister stayed in Nova Scotia, (when the rest of us moved away) got married and had kids. Recently my parents decided to join them there.
My sister is getting remarried and her two wonderful girls will be joined by her fiancé and his two children, making for a fairly large family by today's standards. Deborah and I will be attending the wedding and getting reacquainted with our nieces and meeting the other two children and her future husband.
In the contrast of sorrow we learn to appreciate joy.
It takes winter to show us the beauty of spring. No matter how long winter is, spring is always on its way.
Life, wealth and possessions are fickle... make sure you always find time to enjoy spring, no matter how busy life gets with the other things.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Show Must Go On STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-show-must-go-on CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/the-show-must-go-on.html DATE: 03/26/2009 10:50:53 PM ----- BODY:I think I've mentioned that I like to play Celtic and Maritime music as well as do Canadian step-dancing.
Well recently the band I am in (Get Reel) had two gigs scheduled, one at a church hall on Saturday and one Wednesday evening at a senior's residence with our step dancing class as well. We currently have three members in our band (Greg Black, Deborah Mandzuk and myself).
We worked up a really nice set with all of us playing our multiple roles.
Just before the weekend, Greg called up and told us that because of a tear in his retina and his laser surgery scheduled for Saturday he would be unable to make both gigs. Now our primary concern was that Greg gets his eye healed up, vision is not something to mess with.
Deborah and I made some last minute changes to our set list for Saturday, enlisted a little help from another musician (Dave Fisher) who was going to be at the church hall, and carried on with our set.
Then Sunday, Greg called us to tell us the eye doctor said he could play. Back on for Wednesday.
Then Tuesday we got a call that he had developed some complications and would be unable to make it. Tuesday evening we talked to another musician friend of ours, Chris Gregg and got him to fill in last minute. We even scheduled an extra practice so Chris would not be hitting the performance cold. Chris also brought another musician into the performance (Paddy).
At the last minute, Greg, our regular band member called us having just finished with the eye doctor. He was back on for the performance and rather than cancelling our substitutes, we kept them in the show.
So instead of having our regular 3 member band, we ended up with 5 musicians. Add to that our step dancing classes and the show ended up being spectacular.
We had a lot of fun and the senior's residence had a wonderful show.
Had we cancelled the show when the first problems occurred, none of this would have happened.
Life, business and software development are like that.
Problems come up and you deal with them. Sometimes the setbacks are quite major and involve key resources. People with good coping skills, good managers and great project managers will roll with the punches and keep things moving. Sometimes things even turn out better because of or in spite of the difficulties. Perseverance is the key.
After all... the show must go on.
P.S. Look like Chris Gregg, who also tunes pianos, got some work to tune the piano at the senior's residence.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Caught a Worm, Gone Phishing? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: caught-a-worm-gone-phishing CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/caught-a-worm-gone-phishing.html DATE: 03/25/2009 11:59:23 PM ----- BODY:I was watching the news this evening and lo and behold, Stuart Crawford from BulletproofIT is talking about a worm that is set to wreak havoc worldwide.
Shows you the importance of keeping on top of patches and security best practices.
The three founders of Sunwapta Solutions (Doug, Al and Glen) all came from an enterprise technical support background at a big information technology (IT) consulting firm (that just got bought by HP).
From day one we have tried to run our own IT like we are a big company. We take it seriously. That doesn't guarantee anything, but it does decrease the risk of things like an errant worm taking you out.
If you don't put much thought into your technology and infrastructure in your small or mid-size business, perhaps you should... or hire someone to do it for you.
Lax IT security may cost you more than you are saving over the short-term... it could cost you your business.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: UI Design - The Hard Part STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: ui-design-the-hard-part CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/ui-design-the-hard-part.html DATE: 03/24/2009 01:07:55 AM ----- BODY:I finally understand something that has been nagging me for years.
It's the answer to "Why do the majority of software developers shun user interface design."
The user interface is the part the customer usually sees. It should be the glamorous or satisfying part of software development.
It is like building a car without caring what the interior, dashboard or exterior look like. Sure the motor and wheels are important, but who wants to drive or buy a chassis with motor on it? Judging by what I see on the road, very few people.
The reality is that the user interface design is:
Art Form Sure the graphics, buttons and other related items are best left to a graphics designer. That is a specialized skill in itself and most developers don't have it. User interface design is much more than the graphics fonts and colours... and it is as much an art form as it is a science. There are some good patterns and rules of thumb, but as the application gets more complex, you need to apply some creativity and intuition. Good designers have a tendency to know what "feels" right. Creativity, intuition and feel are unfamiliar territory for many developers. Scrutiny and Criticism The user interface is where the customer generally spends most of their focus. After all, they spend most of their time interacting with the application through the interface. Every user will have a different opinion on design. Everyone through the whole acceptance and testing chain will want to make changes. Let's face it. Most people don't like criticism. Developers are no different. Although I would argue that a good agile team has learned to accept feedback from others as a chance to grow rather than taking it as criticism... after all the goal is to make the application as good as it can be. But the application code doesn't tend to be judged on so many different levels. If it does what it is supposed to, passes the tests and follows standard patterns, then it is considered to be good code. User interface is different; it is subject to much more scrutiny and criticism from a lot more people. Understanding User Interactions and Business This is probably one of the big reasons. Building the user interface is not building one screen in isolation. It is not building a bunch of screens in isolation. To get it right you need to understand the business domain and how the customer does their work in that business domain. Then you need to design that into an interface that can actually be built (in the budget you have) and accomplishes workflow as efficiently as possible. Sure there are business rules in the code and good domain driven design is important. But so too is ensuring that the business logic manifests itself in the user interface and that the user interface is consistent across the entire application. You then need to test the user interface with the customer and optimize any inefficiencies or bad design. All this interacting with the customer requires strong communication skills... and patience. Overall this is very hard... right up there with overall application design and architecture. Getting It Right Let's face it. A good application starts with a good user interface. If a user can't figure it out or every step requires multiple clicks or inputs; you won't be popular with the business users. If you have a software product it will be hard to sell or get word of mouth working for you. If it is an internal application, the uptake may be low. If the interface is ugly, the formatting poor or the colour scheme a dog's breakfast, then the first impression will stick in a customer's mind.
Getting is right consistently is hard.
The Answer?
Getting it right; understanding the business domain and user application interactions; being able to handle scrutiny and criticism; and exercising your creative and intuitive skill... that is very hard indeed.
And the answer is... most people naturally shun the hard path.
Even if it leads to the greatest rewards.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Spring is for Growth STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: spring-has-sprung CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/spring-has-sprung.html DATE: 03/20/2009 12:17:58 AM ----- BODY:Tomorrow is the first day of spring. For some it is also the first day of a new calendar year.
Here in Canada, where the winter is long, spring is a time of renewal and the beginning of a period of growth.
There is a tradition of New Year's resolutions as we move into the beginning of January. However, with the longer days and renewed energy of spring, perhaps more people should be seeing this time of the year as one of personal commitment and growth.
This year in particular has been a colder than normal winter, both in terms of weather and in terms of the economy.
Here at Sunwapta Solutions (and personally), I saw the winter as a time of reflection and planning... building stronger relationships...surviving the wrath of winter... preparing for what comes next.
But spring is a time of action and hope.
Time to get out the running shoes and start sprinting... time to find the opportunities and start growing again... maybe not today (the nights are still cold), but very soon.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Evolution of Self STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: self-versus-group CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Mindset and Motivation CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/self-versus-group.html DATE: 03/17/2009 12:02:19 PM ----- BODY:We start off life focused on self. We have basic needs and as long as they are met we are relatively happy.
As we get a little older, we become aware of others. Not just as things we interact with, but as individuals with their own sense of self. We develop some sense of sharing and a sense of competition.
The high-end of athletics is a prime example self and competition taken to its extreme conclusion. The goal is to prove you are the best, or are at least on the best team, and have the world acknowledge your worth.
As some people mature further, they start placing others ahead of themselves for limited periods of time.
Many parents show this trait instinctively in protecting and encouraging their children. However, if you dig deep there is sometimes either pride or self-motivation underlying the selflessness. Aggressive hockey or soccer parents are prime examples of living vicariously through children (your sense of self as a parent is tied up in your child's achievements, if your child is great at something it is somehow tied to you).
As we get older (and our children no longer need our attention) several other factors start affecting us:
Some people move to what I consider is a higher plane of emotional maturity; they start thinking of the welfare of others without tying that giving to any reward for self. There are extreme examples of this state of personal development, but it is not necessary to give up all material wealth or rewards for self to achieve it. It is also important to not give up all sense of self or at some point you may become bitter or regretful.
Many consider our purpose to be to evolve as human beings during our lives. Some do so early, some later and some never.
In any event, it is important to look at both where your customers are in their spiritual evolution and even more importantly where you are. It is best that your self and business are in alignment.
Just keep in mind... you are not your business and your business is not you. Many people lose sight of this important distinction.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Biggest Sale Ever STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-biggest-sale CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/the-biggest-sale.html DATE: 03/13/2009 02:37:32 PM ----- BODY:What if you had something really big to sell? What if you only have one of them and could never sell it again? What if you had worked on making this thing for a good portion of your life? You only have one chance to maximize the selling price.
How would you sell it?
Would you create a detailed brochure and mail it to 10-20 prospective clients?
Would you put an advertisement in a classified listing (online or traditional) and sell it like a house?
Probably not.
The Biggest Sale Ever Is...
Your business. Yet most privately held businesses do not treat the sale of the business as a big sales and marketing exercise. They treat it like a commodity, real estate or accounting transaction and hand it off to to a third party to handle without questioning the approach or qualifications of the agents.
It is not. It is the biggest sale you will likely make and is primarily a sales and marketing exercise of colossal importance (to you).
And that is the premise of BCMS Corporate during their presentation on "Selling a Business For Its Maximum Value".
BCMS seems to have made a good business out of focusing on the full gambit of services around selling the business including negotiation and maximizing value for the owners... but they don't do the legal work or accounting work... they focus on the sales and marketing in a methodology consistent with best sales practices, but differing from most traditional business sales.
We are not actively selling our business. But going to these kinds of seminars makes you think and hopefully focus on what is important for your business and its growth.
It is important for all entrepreneurs to spend time on a regular basis on strategy.
The biggest sale ever may depend on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Blogging Update STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: blogging-update CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/blogging-update.html DATE: 03/12/2009 04:42:09 PM ----- BODY:Now heading over 90 posts across a diverse number of subjects... I am realizing that some categories need further refinement to make it easier for the reader to find articles of interest in the archives.
Business will be split into:
Sales and Marketing - Posts focused on sales and marketing related discussions.
Business Strategy - Working on your business... posts focused on business planning and strategy, the stuff of entrepreneurs.
Business Management - Working in your business... posts focused on the day to day aspects of running a business.
Business - General - Prior posts and new posts not fitting one of the above.
Employment - Self-explanatory.
I find running and growing a (software development and business solutions) business is a constant learning experience and challenge. Sharing what I find through this process via this interactive medium called blogging is both enjoyable and useful for me.
Yours humbly,
Doug
P.S. I will attempt to re-categorize some of the older posts as time permits.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Coke - Mercury Edition STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: coke-mercury-edition CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/coke-mercury-edition.html DATE: 03/11/2009 02:15:53 PM ----- BODY:First there was Coke, then New Coke and then Coke Classic. Well according to the news program I was watching this morning, Coke now contains mercury (in many instances).
Apparently, the sweetener of choice for Coke is corn syrup (or fructose-glucose in Canadian labels). They switched a number of years back from table sugar to reduce costs. In the process of extracting the sugars from corn they use a chemical with Mercury in it. Sometimes, they don't get all the mercury out... mercury in your body is bad. And by the way, this is a problem for all foods with corn syrup in them.
I would imagine that Coke buys its sweeteners by the trainload as a bulk commodity. Who knows which plant the corn syrup with Mercury is coming from or even which country the processing happens in.
There are three lessons to learn here for almost any business:
In China companies were brought down, charges were laid against individuals and executives committed suicide in the recent tainted baby formula scandal.
A company can reduce risk by having enforcing stringent rules on its suppliers, especially if you are a powerful corporation like Coke. Independent testing, quality control and good problem response processes can also help, but these things all cost money.
This is not likely to bring down Coke, but it does make you really think hard about the reliability of our food supply and the degree of accountability imposed on the supply chain.
And speaking of mercury, I think fish is on the menu for supper tonight... you can't win.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Vision and Leadership Required STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: vision-and-leadership CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/vision-and-leadership.html DATE: 03/10/2009 02:52:44 PM ----- BODY:Is it my imagination or did Alberta squander another boom?
During the Klein years, the focus was on slaying provincial debt and creating the Alberta Advantage, which near as I can tell was really about creating an environment for business investment (a good thing normally) in the province (low taxes, etc.), and not necessarily for having better quality of life, hospitals or educational systems. This led to a runaway provincial economy where costs were skyrocketing (too much of a good thing).
If you weren't in the Oil business, it was actually getting hard to compete outside of Alberta because of excessive rent and payroll costs. We are a software company not focused on the oil patch and our rent tripled when the lease came up for renewal 2 years ago.
Now this is not a rant about the Oil and Gas industry, it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do... get oil and gas out of the ground into the hands of consumers and make money for shareholders. This is about something bigger than one industry.
Premier Klein admitted that the government was taken by surprise and flying by the seat of its pants... playing catch-up on the infrastructure and government oversight required to run a super-hot economy.
Now the economy is in the dumps. Oil is trading at levels low enough to cause many new projects to not be worth investing in and credit is tight.
Sure, our government needs to tackle the issues of the day. We all expect this.
But to me this is the time that we need a long range plan most of all. Surviving until oil prices go up and things return to super growth mode is not really a plan.
I wonder what it is going to be like here in 10 to 20 years. Will I still want to call the province home?
One Vision
What if we, as Albertans and Canadians, decided to become an energy super-house with a diversified economy?
What if in addition to the research on carbon capture and storage (which is aimed squarely at the oil sands and is still unproven), we developed Alberta as a leader in alternative energies as well? There are a lot of roof-tops in Calgary, what if they all had solar collectors installed and on a sunny day had a net positive contribution to the power grid in addition to supplying most household and industrial energy. The reduction of greenhouse gases would be huge and there would be that much more energy to sell outside the province (and Oil and Gas aren't going to last forever) assuming we keep our current output levels from conventional electric generation.
What if Alberta more strongly encourages new technology companies, including Research and Development, outside of those supporting the O&G industries? The silicon valley of the NW....
What if Canadians did something more with our resources before we export them (only to buy them back as finished products at much higher multiples)? How can we preserve our environment and health so we live longer, better lives in harmony with the planet?
What if our leadership was focussed on the big picture and not day to day (political) survival?
These are just ideas but you get the picture.
Now we take all the billions being spent on reviving the economy right now and all the billions we will make in royalties when Oil prices climb and invest them in our long-term plan and vision.
Imagine where things could go if there was a vision and long-term leadership commitment to obtaining the vision.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Bench or Busy? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: bench-or-busy CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/bench-or-busy.html DATE: 03/06/2009 03:41:02 PM ----- BODY:The other day I read something about how having a lot of technical staff or developers on the bench was a strength for a vendor (this predates the current economy).
I suppose they are thinking, "Hey we can respond to your needs more quickly".
I guess you can put a positive marketing spin on anything.
Having been on both sides of the equation (vendor and customer), I don't see it as a positive thing at all.
Why are all those people on the bench?
Personally, I want the vendor and people that everyone else wants. If they are busy it should mean that somebody finds them good.
Being on the bench sucks!
I've never met a technician or developer that likes being on the bench. There is a perception that mold is growing on your skills and value. There is also a lot of stress, people on the bench are first to be let go during a downturn. The first people to leave are the good ones. Often, the ones on the bench are the less marketable people.
The Customer Pays... Always
If a company is always running with a large bench component, the customer pays... someone has to if the vendor wants to not lose money. No vendor can lose money forever without getting bought out or going bankrupt. They will also tend to pad projects with extra resources to get billing up.
Busy is Better
A good vendor has enough people to meet normal commitments and has the ability to hire or subcontract for peak demand. They should also have the ability to grow at a reasonable rate without straining their management structure, quality or processes.
Can the vendor meet your requirements in a reasonable timeframe (ramp up)? Once they start work do they meet their commitments? Is the team they are proposing good at what you are looking for?
If so and all things being equal, pick the in-demand and busier vendor, even if you have to wait a bit.
There is something contagious about organizations that can get things done efficiently with a lean and agile team.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Value and Price Trade-offs (Lessons from Session) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: value-and-price CATEGORY: Sales CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/value-and-price.html DATE: 03/05/2009 01:05:00 AM ----- BODY:Observations in real life can be useful if you take the time to look.
A Celtic music session I go to here in Calgary recently saw the pub we were holding it in close its doors permanently. Some new options have come up all the way from the far southeast quadrant to a more central southern location (or two).
People from the session live all over Calgary. As we have been exploring new locations, there has been considerable debate around both value (the quality and features of the session) and price (essentially location since there is no admission fee).
There is a classic trade-off for just about everyone... how far will you drive to attend.
What is interesting is that no matter that the value is; different people are willing pay a different price to attend.
Generally by location:
The inner city people are used to things of this nature being somewhat central so they want it to be 10-15 minutes away. Anything more than that is considered an inconvenience and too big a price to pay.
The people further south are used to driving a bit further and will consider anything central to deep south to be reasonable.
The people from the far northwest will only go as far as south central.
Some people are willing to drive further no matter where they live. This is the group that considers "if it's worth going to, it's worth it to pay a bigger price". There is a limit but it's much larger.
It doesn't seem to matter what price someone else has to pay... the low price tolerant people would prefer not to pay even the "average" price, even if that would be considered more fair (this plays to the "what's in it for me" theories on sales). There is no right or wrong in this... it's just is the way it is.
And there is a lot of debate about session quality and features... maximizing value. Not everyone has the same goals:
Quality and features change the value proposition for some, but not for everyone (as long as the basics are covered). People will defend their choices vigorously and minds are hard to change, especially if they are reinforced by others of the same opinion.
I think every business should look at how trade-offs occur for the value and price balance across your potential customer base and across as many dynamics as possible. If you are looking for micro-segments this is how you will find the most profitable ones.
Then consider how you get people in the same segment to reinforce each other's choices (for your product).
It might be good to consider a premium and standard version so you can cash in on both groups. If your business model can support it, maybe even a fully customized solution would maximize sales.
Ultimately you need to know your customer.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: What Makes a Good Developer? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: what-makes-a-good-developer CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/what-makes-a-good-developer.html DATE: 03/04/2009 05:37:14 PM ----- BODY:I think that "good" is partly a matter of perspective.
For a development team member, a good developer may have some or all of the following skills and attributes:
From a management or business perspective you could also add some of the following:
If you are applying for a position for employment somewhere, make sure your resume and cover letter address both sides of the coin in a positive fashion. Then, even in a down economy, finding work should not be as much of a problem.
Even if you are currently happy where you are you can increase your value by making sure you can always address both perspectives.
Any other ideas on things to look for in a new employee?
Hint: If you are applying here at Sunwapta, we will want these answers so show you did your homework.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 03/04/2009 06:58:50 PM More to dev. side: - being able to affect team members - being determined and committed to achieve goal - being able to admit errors - being able to "tolerate" others code, despite the fact that own implementation can exceed the others one - being able to delegate the work in order to achieve more value for business (sometimes too difficult for hands on developers) - being able to unlearn quickly when something better pops up ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Feed a Need STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: feed-a-need CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/03/feed-a-need.html DATE: 03/02/2009 03:53:56 PM ----- BODY:A few years ago, one of my business partners (Al Dhalla) and a long-time friend of his (Al Mohammed) started helping recent immigrants to Calgary by finding people wishing to give away furniture and matching them with people needing furniture.
Thus "Feed a Need" was born.
Since then, the program has grown to include people of all faiths with a genuine need earning them a nomination for a YMCA Peace Award and attention from the media.
Many of the recipients of the program have volunteered their time to help pick-up and deliver the furniture. As well, as they get established in the area they then are then able to donate furniture into the program.
What makes this a bit different from the Thrift Store concept is that recipients do not pay cash for things they need.
Here at Sunwapta Solutions, we are also donating all of our bottles and cans to the program and they pick them up on a regular basis... convenient and environmentally sound.
I wish the team at Feed a Need well as they seek to become a full blown and sustainable charity from their humble beginnings as a community helping the community.
As my Uncle Mike always said, charity starts at home (meaning look after the poor and helpless locally too).
Here, charity is starting homes.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Lessons from Survivor STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: lessons-from-survivor CATEGORY: Leadership CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/lessons-from-survivor.html DATE: 02/27/2009 01:16:00 AM ----- BODY:Ok, I admit I might watch Survivor on occasion. The game in survivor is to manage to be the last person voted off. But it is as much a social game as it is a physical or mental game.
Among the biggest reasons for getting voted off are being annoying or being seen as a leader. The correlation between the two is interesting. Many leaders end up being annoying.
This seems to parallel the real world. One of the biggest reasons for employee dissatisfaction is a bad boss. The big difference is you can seldom vote out your boss in the real world.
How would the game change if you could?
Now to really make use of this shift in power you would need to align the goals of employees with the goals of the organization. You would want employees choosing the best boss for the job at hand, not just someone who would let them get away with murder. If goals are aligned people often choose an effective leader, not a wimp or pushover. Hey, I want someone strong representing my group's interests.
Your employees know better than anyone else if you are not competent. They often have to cover for an ineffective boss. I know I have in the past.
For that matter you would also want employees choosing their teammates.
It's probably not really a workable solution in the real world as it's hard to avoid popularity contests, personality conflicts and selfish motives, though many companies support some of these ideas in their performance reviews.
But what if you acted like you could be voted out by your employees or peers on a regular basis? Would that change how you behave or the work you do?
I've always found I succeed because of my team, not the other way around, although I like to think I contribute as well.
Maybe your job and next promotion are secure no matter what they think.
Then again, maybe your survival does depend on it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Seth's Blog Turns 3000 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: seths-blog-turns-3000 CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/seths-blog-turns-3000.html DATE: 02/26/2009 08:05:56 PM ----- BODY:Seth Godin just recently posted his 3000th post. My count is 82 including the one that is being released tonight.
That is a lot of writing and work but it has paid off for him with a strong readership which I am sure translates to cold hard cash... he is a master marketer after all.
Some lessons there about hard work and persistence but I doubt most will hear it in today's world of instant "everything".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Time to Sprint Again STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: time-to-sprint-again CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/time-to-sprint-again.html DATE: 02/26/2009 12:44:57 AM ----- BODY:Sunwapta Solutions has been in business almost 9 years. Just like any budding or experienced entrepreneur, you do some things right and make some mistakes along the way.
Over the past couple of years we have been really revisiting what makes a business successful. You can read some of my archive collection for what I have learned and shared to date.
More recently we've launched a number of initiatives and are in the process of forming or solidifying what I hope are lasting and successful partnerships. The ink isn't dry yet on the arrangements but I am very excited by the potential. I think we are choosing good partners that we can trust and just as importantly, we will look out for them too.
Our consulting business is gaining traction as well with our increased focus on sales and building long-term relationships with existing and new clients.
We've got a really strong and ethical core-team with which to build on.
We are looking at hiring (many) more developers in the coming months as these ventures move forward.
My biggest challenge right now is that there is not enough time in the day and I am heavily involved in the start-up phases of these initiatives. Once things are moving we have the talent and will hire the talent to keep things moving, but my thing is creating.
The only solution is to focus on one thing... sprint and get it done... rest and repeat.
Oh yeah... and have fun doing it.
And yes, I won't forget family and life balance along the way (thanks Stuart for the reminder).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Happy 20th! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: happy-20th CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/happy-20th.html DATE: 02/19/2009 06:38:31 PM ----- BODY:Our sister company in Toronto entered its 20th year in business this year.
They share a lot of similarities with us (Sunwapta Solutions) both in size, market segment and their growth plans. We have done a lot of work in the pension (actuarial) space and they are focused on the insurance (actuarial) space. We also share the same technology stack (Microsoft and .NET) for our development efforts.
Even more importantly, we share many of the same business goals and values. They respect their customers and value long-term relationships.
Every person and company needs "friends and family" to support each other in today's world.
The more I get to know and understand our older sister, the happier I am to see them succeed.
Happy 20th illustrate inc !
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Going Against the Herd STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: going-against-the-herd CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/going-against-the-herd.html DATE: 02/17/2009 02:46:31 PM ----- BODY:I used to ride horses quite a bit. Now in the food chain, horses are naturally big prey. They survive by running from big predators or if cornered by kicking them. They are highly in tune with the herd.
If one horse panics, generally the whole group panics. If one horse looks like it's going somewhere important (better food) they all follow the leader.
Fear and greed motivate horses.
The job of the media is not to give us the news. It's to sell news. We all know this.
The financial industry is there to make money from us, not make us rich. This is why a lot of the analysis from the industry is naturally biased.
Fear and greed sell. People are also driven by strong survival instincts derived from thousands of years of evolution. We react strongly to group fear and we naturally seek to find the fastest way to ensure our comfort and survival.
When times were good, the media was telling us that the good times were going to continue. Now we are in a downturn and the media is telling us that it's the worst it has been since the depression, maybe worse.
But people have a gift that most animals don't. We have the ability to override our instincts by thinking for ourselves and making a conscious choice on a reaction to most situations.
Yet most people go with the flow in business and in investments.
Buy high, sell higher.
Then when things get scary, play ultra-conservative and sell off low to buy safe investments.
Business is the same. They react to a downturn by contracting rapidly.
However, when good times come again, they will have to spend an enormous effort and money building up capacity.
Now some businesses don't have a choice, you can't ignore your balance sheet or cash flow... and you need customers.
But if you have a choice, maybe you should be going against the herd... maybe you should be growing your business and positioning yourself for strong growth when the recession ends.
I stopped listening to the media. Hey, I read the news, I just take everything with a grain of salt and I am not reacting to the herd. I am not hunting per se. I am looking at where the herd is going and making a conscious decision as to where I want to go, not out of greed or fear but based on my goals; personal and business.
Yeah, I have to live in the real world, but I feel like growing and moving forward. I find challenge motivating (not depressing) so that is our plan.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Social Network Disease STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: social-network-disease CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/social-network-disease.html DATE: 02/13/2009 11:10:32 AM ----- BODY:I was reading a post by Stuart Crawford today. I meet Stuart in person the other day. He's off on a brave new venture with BulletproofIT. I've extracted a piece of his post here as it was such a vivid mental image.
"In our Red Deer office we have a picture of a guy holding onto his computer for dear life, stating that all his friends are in there."
Good reminder that people live in the real world and the social web should merely be a way of connecting with them better, not a replacement for the real people.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Outliers STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: outliers- CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/outliers-.html DATE: 02/11/2009 04:42:02 PM ----- BODY:I am always fascinated by what makes some people succeed and why some very gifted people don't really accomplish anything of note.
So the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell was a pretty good read, not because of the underlying ideas but because of his writing style and the examples he used.
Some of the premises of the book include:
I see this in action all the time. Some people are predisposed to be entrepreneurial by virtue of their culture, their upbringing and their history.
My parents were the traditional North American middle class mindset. Get an education, work hard for the right employer and retire with a pension. They did well for themselves in their reality.
But the world is changing. Employers don't guarantee lifetime employment. Pensions are disappearing. The economy is global.
And I am different. I want the challenge of being an entrepreneur. I love creating things.
So I am going to try to be smart enough, work hard on my core skills and with some luck, be in the right place at the right time to connect with an emerging opportunity.
My belief is that you can create your luck by being ready, being open to new things and by exposing yourself to as many other people and opportunities as you can. Then when you see something, Sprint!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Good Reading - Sprint STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: good-reading CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/good-reading.html DATE: 02/10/2009 11:51:49 PM ----- BODY:Sprint, by Seth Godin was one that hit home for me. Go at it full out, get it done and then regroup. In today's economy, speed is a critical factor and sprinting may be the way to get results without getting caught up in the day to day distractions or fear.
Decide on something that needs doing and get it done fast. Move on.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Gangsters are Subject to Today's Economy Too STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: gangsters-are-subject-to-todays-economy-too CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/gangsters-are-subject-to-todays-economy-too.html DATE: 02/10/2009 01:32:00 AM ----- BODY:I read an article yesterday in the Calgary Herald about how gangsters are moving back to Ottawa.
To my surprise, it was not a political column... gangsters and drug dealers who had previously come to Calgary to participate in the booming economy were now returning to their hometown of Ottawa.
The speculation was that there was no longer enough profit and too much competition (i.e. violent competition) to stick around.
Hopefully my readers are all more traditional entrepreneurs and business people and I hope you are doing well.
How is the economy affecting your business outlook?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Creative Partnering STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: creative-partnering CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/creative-partnering.html DATE: 02/09/2009 01:55:28 PM ----- BODY:There are two major categories of partnering that I can think of:
Related partners are the obvious situations, where you are in related lines of business. If you focus on the Microsoft suite then partnering with Microsoft makes sense. If you are a desktop support company then partnering with a networking company might make sense.
It can be with a competitor or non-competitor. Maybe working with a competitor can bring you a larger contract than you could get on your own.
Then there are partnerships that aren't so obvious on the surface. However, when they are combined they bring something new and remarkable to the marketplace.
Say you have person who makes really good, award winning chili. That person could partner with someone who plays fiddle. Food and music like that would be really popular, especially for special events.
During stampede week here in Calgary you might do extremely well.
That is creative partnering.
Who do you know that you could partner with to create something better for the market? Now go talk to them.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: My Blog is Better Than Yours STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: my-blog-is-better-than-yours CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/my-blog-is-better-than-yours.html DATE: 02/05/2009 04:50:35 PM ----- BODY:Let's assume for a minute that this is not necessarily true and two blogs are pretty much the same. Fairly well written, good subject matter and relevant to many people.
Why is it that some have a readership in the 10's of thousands and other are in the tens.
Sure some are better than others. Some are more thought provoking. But if we line up two apples or two oranges, why is one fruit sweeter than the other.
I think marketing has a lot to do with it.
Marketing is usually a long road. Sure sometimes it just takes off. Sometimes it's viral. But in the majority of cases it takes repetitive and consistent effort over a fairly long period of time.
Some bloggers are quite active in the public speaking circuit and/or have written a number of books. They may network extensively in the real world and online. All of their activities feed each other. They increase the perception of value to the consumer (reader).
So if your product is as good as someone else's product and they are outselling you... perhaps you should focus on your marketing.
Yeah if you can make a better product you might gain market share that way. But your competitor might leapfrog you on the technology front.
Work on the perception of quality just as much as the quality itself.
(If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Hmmm, what am I good at? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: hmmm-what-am-i-good-at CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/hmmm-what-am-i-good-at.html DATE: 02/04/2009 12:34:00 AM ----- BODY:In my last post I talked about choosing the tasks that need to be done really well as part of your time management process.
That begs the question, "What do I do well that adds the most value to the business?"
These are the things I should be spending the most time on, both developing and perfecting my skills and the things that I should make sure are done to the best of my abilities.
I decided to share some detail not to be seen as bragging but to make this post more real and relevant.
Based on my own experience, some personality tests I took, and feedback from others this would include:
Big picture thinking,
Vision, and
Creativity.
For me it's probably the act of creating new things that drives me. The first two items allow the creativity to manifest itself.
Of course the drive for creating then means that action and results are required. Otherwise there is no creation... there is just dreaming... action and results change a dream into reality.
For me creation can be: a painting, music, a new landscape design at home, building a business, a technical architecture or providing the vision for a new piece of software. Of course it's the last few that our business is focused on at Sunwapta.
Creativity is impacted by a number of internal and external factors. Seth Godin has another thought provoking post on this. For me, creativity cannot be forced and the wrong environment can wreck any chance of it happening.
I blog because it helps me clarify my thinking and it's a creative outlet. Often after writing I can realize a creative solution to something that was nagging me even if it's incidentally related.
Creating in a team environment is more challenging than as an individual... you need to be able to communicate the big picture and the vision to an implementation team in a way that is meaningful to them (and allows additional contribution). This can be harder than it sounds.
There are lots of things to keep you busy when running a business. These can take away from the things that you should be doing more of.
My next trick is to free up more of my time to focus on the three items I listed above. Those are the things that drive me and where I probably add the most value to the business and to our customers.
Part of the prioritizing exercise.
Do you know what you are good at?
P.S. If it's creating great software and you are looking for work in the Calgary area, drop me a line.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Prioritize Greatness STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: prioritize-greatness CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/prioritize-greatness.html DATE: 02/03/2009 10:50:11 PM ----- BODY:Good time management suggests that you should prioritize your activities based on importance and urgency.
Items that are important and urgent should be worked on first. Picking your kids up from day care before they close is probably both.
Time also changes urgency. As the deadline approaches, a task can become more urgent. The need to eat is like that, it can be put off but not indefinitely.
Missing from this picture is the idea of how good a job you should do on each item in your to do list.
If you are a perfectionist, you may be tempted to achieve perfection on every task you perform... or you may be entirely the opposite.
The best practice is to choose which tasks you need to perform to greatness.
A doctor needs to be great at medicine. A painter needs to be great at painting.
There are important tasks that don't need greatness.
A doctor may not need to be great at scheduling patients. A painter may not need to be great at selling paintings. Both of these are important functions, but something less than perfection is tolerable and therefore, you can safely delegate these tasks to someone else.
The real question is "Do you know what needs to be great?"
Do you make a conscious decision each time you do something as to the level of greatness required? Do you fully consider the impact of the wrong choice on your business, your reputation and ultimately your life? Do you know what you are good at?
I am not saying you should be sloppy in how you deal with clients, far from it. But you should really be looking at where you deliver the most value to clients and putting in the extra effort and focus on getting that part right. If you miss that then the rest may not really matter.
It doesn't matter how nice the hairdresser was if they mess up your haircut.
Make a conscious choice (not a random one) on what needs to be great, what needs to be pretty good and what can be done just ok.
Prioritize greatness.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Abandon Me, It's All About You STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: abandon-me-its-all-about-you CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/02/abandon-me-its-all-about-you.html DATE: 02/02/2009 01:05:51 PM ----- BODY:Let's face it. Deep down, sales are usually fairly selfish. You are selling your products or services to bring in revenue and profit. Sales drive your business.
Hopefully the transaction is mutually beneficial and the customer is getting something of value in the exchange. If not it might just be a one night stand.
When you are looking at your longer-term partnerships with either suppliers, competitors or customers it is very wise to start the conversation by looking at things from their perspective. I recently read a post by Stuart Crawford on giving back to your partners that got me to thinking about this subject in a partnership situation.
Big companies like Microsoft offer formal partner programs. Why?
They are not doing it for the good of mankind. They are doing it because Microsoft does a lot of business through its partner network. They realize they have to "give to receive". What?
Microsoft gets it. Now reverse it, "What are you giving to receive?"
If the answer is nothing, you should reconsider. Partnerships are two way transactions and must benefit both parties for there to be a desire to continue. Partners want their partners to succeed when there is a benefit in it for them.
To succeed in business and especially sales, it really helps if you can see things clearly from another's perspective.
Let's look at a specific example. A few years ago we submitted one of our software products for an Impact award with Microsoft. Now our tool was pretty slick and had been deployed to a lot of employees. But when we reviewed the winning solution there was an important ingredient missing from our submission. We did not really address the "impact" on Microsoft. I am not saying our solution deserved to win over the other one, what I am saying is just maybe, Microsoft would be looking at the impact on Microsoft as part of the winning criteria.
Once you fully understand what drives your customers, suppliers and partners... only then can you create truly winning situations where you can get what you want as well. And when they are successful in their goals, they will only be too happy to have you succeed in yours. That is how commerce has worked for centuries.
Abandon "me", it's all about "you".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Excitement of Product Launch Day STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-excitement-of-product-launch-day CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/01/the-excitement-of-product-launch-day.html DATE: 01/27/2009 10:12:26 AM ----- BODY:Back in 2003 we built a tool to help manage our business. At the time we thought that it was just something for us and that it wasn't good enough for the rest of the world. New employees kept telling us that it was one of the best tools they had seen for doing those things. But we were humble and didn't do anything with it other than use it internally.
Since then I have realized that many successful products have been launched with bare-bone features and mediocre capabilities... and excellent marketing. Sometimes products are sold before they are even built.
I read an article (blog post) about what it's like working at Google. One of the big things that sticks is that they celebrate product launches. They also are willing to launch bare-bones systems and improve them over time.
Well, over the past year we have been working on an updated version of our internal tool. It's an update in the sense that a car is an update from a bicycle. It does so much more and it's going to do even more in the future. It's really going to be a tool to help businesses focus on many of the core pieces necessary for running a business. But I'll save the details for our public launch.
Next week we are launching the tool for internal use. Eat our own dog food and make the product better.
We are going to make a much bigger deal about it this time around. Celebrate the product launch.
More importantly than that, we are taking it to market. Sure there is lots to do yet on the business planning side and on the product side, but that is how products evolve.
Building software products begins with the first steps and is only successful when you launch the product (release).
And we'll continue to celebrate our successes as we reach milestones, overcome obstacles and launch new releases.
When you are in the software business, nothing beats the excitement of product launch day.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stuart Crawford EMAIL: stuart@stuartcrawford.com IP: 68.146.7.240 URL: http://www.stuartcrawford.com DATE: 02/01/2009 09:25:02 PM Hi Doug, it is great to have stumpled on your blog. My name is Stuart Crawford and I am in charge of business development at Bulletproof InfoTech. I would like to invest some time to get to know you and your business and see if there are any synergies. Drop me a line. Cheers Stuart Crawford Calgary, AB ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile Design - Up Front and Often STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-design CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/01/agile-design.html DATE: 01/27/2009 12:47:02 AM ----- BODY:Sadly there is a misconception that performing any up front design in an agile project is a bad thing... pretty much forbidden because the opposite of agile is waterfall.
This misconception misses the whole point of building great software... use all the tools you have at your disposal in the most appropriate way and if something is not working fix it. Agile is not meant to be a rigid process... it's meant to be an attitude of continuous improvement. (Caveat, when you are first learning anything, stick to the proven process as you don't know enough yet to know what is important.)
Right from the beginning of a project you are making major architecture and design decisions. You typically decide whether it will be a web application or a desktop application and you pick a programming language, you might pick an object relational mapping tool such as NHibernate or Entity Framework, you might even have a corporate standard for a database engine.
When you are making so many architecture and design decisions up front already, why on earth would you choose to ignore all the other information readily available at your fingertips in your design?
The premise of good design is to continuously strive to incorporate all you know into the application design while making the software as flexible to changing future requirements as possible. Six months into a project, you would not pretend you don't know anything about the prior six months and only design the current story... the current story adds to the overall design.
The goal is to deliver as much business value as possible, as soon as possible, and then to continue to do so throughout the life of the project.
The key is how much time you spend on design and architecture up front and how far you go in documenting the results before you start building the application. Adam Kahtava covers this pretty well in "Big Design Up Front is Good".
There are two situations in a new project:
Let's be clear... what I mean by well defined is that enough user stories exist to define the business functionality that is intended to be included in the initial scope as well as any major constraints on design or architecture. This does not mean fully architected, fully designed and fully documented (i.e. I don't mean Waterfall), it's more of a roadmap.
If the entire project is well fairly well defined then you can use the information available to you to whiteboard or rough in an initial architecture and identify any high level design issues, especially the ones that involve other applications. You don't necessarily have to solve them up front. Create only enough artifacts (documentation) to meet your needs for communication or preservation of the thoughts. If your initial design is flawed, you may still need to redesign, but at least you did the best you could with the information you had. This is all anyone can ask.
If the project is loosely defined, then less up front design is possible and in fact, much of the early work will likely be more of a prototype in reality... it is used to flesh out the requirements and overall design. You will likely have to redesign extensively as requirements and the application evolve. Hopefully your code has lots of automated tests so you can facilitate major refactoring.
Make no mistake, design starts at the beginning of the project and continues throughout.
Great software comes from those who can do good design from the start, improve it as they go and are willing to change things when necessary.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Next Invention - An Accident Waiting to Happen STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-next-invention-an-accident-waiting-to-happen CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/01/the-next-invention-an-accident-waiting-to-happen.html DATE: 01/13/2009 11:22:50 PM ----- BODY:I recently watched an episode of the "Nature of Things" hosted by David Suzuki.
The show was looking at the fact that there is an element of randomness to many great discoveries. In fact, many of the greatest discoveries of the past several hundred years were the direct result of an accident or oversight.
The inventors could have dismissed the anomaly and went back to the original premise. Instead, they were intrigued and either continued the investigation down the new path or found a use for the discovery that was way off the original goal.
The other aspect was looking at how research these days is too focused on a specific objective and how scientists are penalized (loss of grants) for spending time on a branch. Part of this was also spending time outside of the direct specialization reading and learning about other things.
Serendipity plays a huge role in creating new things.
Now if your business is like ours... ideas, creations and intellectual property are the big ways of standing out from your competition. So this makes me think... you can try too hard to come up with new ideas.
I think you need to broaden the way you think into three categories:
Over the years, as a company, we've built up a considerable list of intellectual property, experience and know-how for ourselves and our clients. Our next big product might be a reapplication or recombination of something we already have or know... if only we could see it.
The next invention is an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully, we will be open enough to see it when it does. Having an open and optimistic mind will definitely help.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Wrong Thing Is Not As Smart STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-wrong-thing-is-not-as-smart CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/01/the-wrong-thing-is-not-as-smart.html DATE: 01/12/2009 08:32:34 PM ----- BODY:Today I was a little bit saddened. The place I have been going to for quite a while, the one that had great Reuben sandwiches, repeated a mistake they had previously rectified (see The Right Thing Is Smart).
Today my sandwich was overdone and the bread was hard and rubbery... the normal care and attention to details was not there. Now to be honest, the last few have not been that consistent.
Because I have been going there pretty regularly for several years I can't help but feeling betrayed somehow, especially considering my previous experience. The owner/operator had to have known it was not right, but they were distracted by a phone call with their accountant and it was close to closing time and they decided it would suffice.
Now I still happen to like the owner/operator of the place so I have no intention of naming names but rather to look at what might be going on.
I suspect that the owner has fallen into the entrepreneurial trap. They were working in the business and not on it. After doing this for several years with little change and not a lot of opportunity for increasing the payoff, they became burned out. Little details like customer experience and consistency don't seem as important as you struggle to get the big things in line.
Unfortunately, this hastens the departure of your customers which increases your stress which leads you to further disassociate from your customers.
If this is happening to you, then you have two choices:
Change your behaviour to change the outcome.
Be realistic. If all you have is a job with no upside, you don't have a business. If you have a business, treat it like that is your job and work on it.
Most importantly, change your attitude. If customers and your business aren't the most important things when you show up to work, try something else.
We've been in business now for 8.5 years. I understand how this can happen as almost every business goes through cycles and we've been through some tough ones. But you need to at least enjoy the journey and a journey means going somewhere or at least the potential of getting somewhere (have you ever been stuck in an airport?).
For now I think I will be going elsewhere for my sandwich, at least until I hear things have improved. Maybe the Reuben sandwiches will become great again and maybe my journey will take me back there, I hope so.
In the meantime I will be working on my business and trying to enjoy every day, even when things are not perfect.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Celebrate Your Accomplishments STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: celebrate-your-accomplishments CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/01/celebrate-your-accomplishments.html DATE: 01/09/2009 09:52:47 AM ----- BODY:It is very easy for a company or a management team to focus on the things that are being done wrong and dwell on the past. Sure you need to continuously look at improving things in your business and in your development teams. But you also need to focus on your successes.
Some of our recent accomplishments include:
Obtaining Microsoft Gold Partner status for 2009
Built a Silverlight application (adds to our WPF and web development skills) including components to make future Silverlight application easier to build.
Worked on strengthening our partnership with another synergistic company
Converted a Financial Planning Toolkit to .NET Framework 3.5 with MVP pattern and layered architecture
Thanks team!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Agile Development - The Magic Bullet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: agile-development-the-magic-bullet CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2009/01/agile-development-the-magic-bullet.html DATE: 01/07/2009 05:59:55 PM ----- BODY:I recently read a post by James Shore (The Decline and Fall of Agile). It matches what I am seeing and hearing.
In the beginning, agile was considered leading edge. It was practiced by teams of fairly experienced developers and tended to have at least a few top developers on its successful teams. It was succeeding in the right environment.
Then along comes the mainstream.
Become agile and your projects are guaranteed to succeed. No more pesky Waterfall with its up front requirements and engineering. Use Scrum and write code as fast as you can and if the requirements change, change the code.
The problem is as it has always been. There is a broad spectrum of talent in the development field... from coders to project management. The less talented or experienced mimic others, without truly understanding, they skip the hard parts.
True agile is hard.
True agile is a frame of mind as much as it is a process. It's about being the best you can be. It's about writing the best code you can. It's about always striving to improve. Most importantly, it's not about skipping the hard parts.
There is no magic bullet to developing good applications.
Whether you use agile or not, to be a great software team or developer you must strive to learn all you can about the tools, software design, the processes and the business domain you are writing software for.
Accept less and get ready to join the mainstream. Mediocrity is by definition, for the masses. Afterall, 50% of a crowd is in the bottom half. The 80/20 rule applies to software too.
The good news is it's a choice.
For our company, I have choosen the harder road, the one less traveled and the one that leads to great software. It feels right and is much more satisfying over the longer term... simply put, to build great software.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Call High Enough STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: call-high-enough CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/12/call-high-enough.html DATE: 12/21/2008 11:36:26 PM ----- BODY:Have you been to a sales seminar or training course in the past few years? Consultative selling is all the rage and it seems like the wisdom is to call high. Sure they might direct you downwards, but start at the top. Become a trusted advisor. That is the path to sales success.
This is harder than it seems for so many reasons. First it's really hard to get the CEO's or a senior VP's time. They have gatekeepers. Then when you do, you have to be able to add value quickly, or they will push you aside for more pressing issues. Let's face it, if you are not selling high-end business services or a really important product the big boss will not pay attention to you.
And even if they do pay attention, often they will refer you downwards. The new person you deal with may resent the boss meddling in their department.
Seth Godin, in his recent post (If you could meet one person...) made it all clearer to me. You should be calling the person who can make things happen... the one who will buy or influence the buy... the one who is not a bureaucrat, sitting on the fence and wasting your time... someone who takes calculated risks and is willing to try something new (your product or service).
There are people in every successful organization who get things done. The one you need is not necessarily at the top. You need someone you can build a relationship with... someone who will care about you and someone who cares about what you are selling.
Call the person who makes things happen. Call high enough.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mohit Gupta EMAIL: mohit_gupta17@yahoo.co.in IP: 122.160.18.43 URL: http://www.rkmblogging.blogspot.com DATE: 12/23/2008 11:16:41 PM good workt, thanks for the information ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Steve Eisenberg EMAIL: steve@steveeisenberg.com IP: 198.22.122.123 URL: http://www.clientservicenetwork.biz DATE: 02/08/2009 06:00:18 PM What is the best audio book available on consultative selling that you would suggest buying? Do you think of SPIN Selling as Consultative sales methodology? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 02/11/2009 04:50:38 PM Hi Steve, I really don't have a recommended reading for audio or otherwise. Consultative selling basically has the premise of the sales person becoming a trusted advisor to the customer. Haven't read much on SPIN (yet) but if it shares that premise or similar, then it's a variant. Cheers, Doug Update: SPIN is a method of investigative questioning. Consultative selling takes it a step further and has the salesperson become a trusted advisor. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Partnering with Employees (ESOPs) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: partnering-with-employees CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/12/partnering-with-employees.html DATE: 12/12/2008 07:05:00 AM ----- BODY:Continuing on the theme of partnering I wanted to look at an often overlooked form of partnership... partnering with employees.
Businesses and other organizations often talk about how their employees are their most important and valuable asset. Yet we often talk of partnering with other companies, partnering with customers and partnering with suppliers... but employees are often excluded or organizations "pretend" employees are partners.
For the sake of this discussion I am going to define employees as people employed, on the payroll or on a contract basis, by a business where both the business and the employee are benefiting from the arrangement.
Now based on my previous posts ("Why Partner?" and "A Good Partnership"), a good long-term partnership is only possible if both partners care about each other's mutual success and are willing to give without expectation of always getting an immediate payoff... the payoff may be farther out in the future.
Many organizations want long-term commitment with employees focused on the success of the organization, but treat employees as "resources" to be added and removed when required. Many employees see this reality and in turn are not terribly committed to an organization long-term.
Sure, businesses have to face the realities of the market. They need to turn a profit or they won't stay in business. Their mandate is to increase shareholder value... after all, the shareholders invested their money and sweat to get the company going.
Small and mid-size businesses (and some large) often employ the major shareholders in the organization. These people are totally focused on both the business and increasing shareholder value because they part of both structures.
One way of increasing employee retention and aligning employee long-term goals is to offer Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Shares may be real or unit based (mimic real shares).
This effectively takes the employee-employer relationship from take-take short-term to a much longer-term focus. Employees will now focus on the success of the company and the company will focus more on the success of the employee shareholder: both for the longer-term outlook.
And guess what? If your ESOP is set up properly the other important aspects of partnerships are taken care of:
And it's good for the business.
This is a direction I am looking into (there are other options as well.) I like and respect the team here at Sunwapta and I am taking a longer view so see how we can all succeed proportionately to our contributions. I want real employee partners, long-term.
Maybe one day they will be running the company and I will be sipping pina coladas on the beach somewhere.
Note: ESOPs can take a year or more to properly plan for and implement. They are not for every situation and require a number of conditions to be right to implement successfully. Some good ESOP information can be found at:
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Why Partner? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: why-partner CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/12/why-partner.html DATE: 12/11/2008 03:44:43 PM ----- BODY:In my last post, I discussed what makes a good long-term partnership work. In this one I will look at the more fundamental question, "Why partner in the first place?"
The world is a big place. The amount of information available is growing rapidly. It's become impossible for one organization to be an expert in everything. Even the largest companies have come to this realization.
For smaller companies partnering may be essential. It may be very difficult for a small company to provide enough breadth (skills and experience) to go against larger companies for big contracts. In many cases, if you are not big enough, you may not even get a seat at the table... sometimes size matters.
These are difficult economic times. Partnering can reduce marketing and sales costs. It can also spread risk such that both parties contribute to the strength of the partnership and absorb unexpected happenings.
So what do you do? Merge, acquire or partner? Merging and acquiring are actually partnering taken to different level. Assuming you don't have extremely deep pockets, most businesses can benefit from strong partnerships. The key for longevity (as previously mentioned) is to have a genuine interest in the prosperity of the other party. This is certainly true for mergers or acquisitions... they are yours now.
Some aspects to choosing a good partner:
The key to the long-term success will be that you are clear as to:
Intentionally unbalanced relationships do not normally end well. Sure business is ruthless out in the marketplace. But if you deal with your friends, relationships and partnerships the same way as you deal with your competitors, you will find it a ruthless and lonely world, with everyone gunning for you. Bad reputations are hard to shake... even harder in a connected world.
Your best potential partner might be one of your current competitors!
Bottom-line, you will get out of a partnership what you put into it... it makes dollars and cents (and it feels right).
It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but in reality a good business partnership is a lot like a good marriage. This applies to individuals in a single business or one or more businesses partnering in the marketplace.
Since people have a propensity to look at the world through a "What's in it for me?" lens, this is also how most partnerships end up working.
In marriage, if you have a "What's in it for me attitude?" then I would suggest your marriage is doomed from the get go. Sure you need to get something from it, but the marriages that really work over the long-term do so when you look at the world from a different perspective... "What can I do for my partner without expecting an immediate return?" or "What can I do for us?". These broader perspectives change things from a short-term gain to a longer-term investment that can really pay off over time. Both partners need to adopt this strategy and it's the "love" that keeps it working.
Most business to business partnerships end up being short-term focused. They create short-term win/win scenarios that are really take-take. The partnership only succeeds if there continues to be rewards on both sides and conversely, falls apart as soon as one party does not win.
From my experience and observations, many businesses enter into partnerships looking for others to provide. They will provide a service in fair trade but ultimately, they don't give to the relationship. They expect the partner to do most of the work. Then when things don't work out they come up with tons of reasons why it is the other party's fault the relationship didn't work.
The same is true in networking. Anyone can go to events and gather business cards... that part is easy. Taking from a network may work short-term but people remember. To build long-term relationships and have a network that you can count on to give back to you, you first need to give. You will not always get something in return but the act of giving, without obligation or expectation can bear fruit many seasons out.
The reality is that it's all about relationships and people. Just like a marriage, people associate, do business with and support those that they have a good connection with... those that give to the relationship freely.
It's one of the hardest things to do. Give to a business relationship without always expecting a direct return. Business people don't think enough about non-monetary rewards or long-term paybacks. We are too busy trying to be successful today to invest in things that may bring success tomorrow or in ways we didn't expect.
But ultimately, the truly successful business partnerships will be between businesses and people who genuinely care about each other's success.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean.work@gmail.com IP: 68.144.191.223 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 12/10/2008 06:58:02 PM I absolutely agree with what you've said in regards to company/individuals. At the same time, you cannot say the "what's in it for me lens" are always the factor to build a short term partnerships, based only on profit and gains out of the partnerships. Throughout my career I have seen not once when solid partnerships were broken as a result of two sides incapable to support all the requirements. And it's not just one or another side to be blames. As compared to a marriage, would like to add that "fake" partnerships are worse than none. Personally I consider those worse case. It's better to cut the partnership and move on. Unfortunately, partners are not brave enough and honesty steps aside when business talks. Then it's up to the partners to think through their arrangements. To finish it, business is a not the cleanest thing in the world. Expecting business to behave nicely and obey all the rules would be a bit naive... Hopefully, someone out there is still naive and does it the "right" way. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 12/11/2008 01:25:09 PM The post was definitely focussed on what makes a good long-term business partnership. A business in and of itself has no conscience or ability to think. People make a business come alive. The relationships of people in and outside of the business determine whether it will survive long-term. Sure there are beneficial short-term partnerships. But you better make it clear up-front or expectations will not be met and people will get hurt. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Business Long-Term Focus STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: business-long-term-focus CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/11/business-long-term-focus.html DATE: 11/28/2008 06:54:58 PM ----- BODY:Longer term business planning (strategic planning) is something that tends to easily get pushed aside by the realities of running the day to day aspects of a business. Three scenarios come to mind:
When things are good you are so busy keeping up with customer demands and delivering on promises that planning for the future just doesn't seem important. Hey, "you are now successful and you've "arrived" at the end".
When you are just starting up (assuming you don't have infinitely deep pockets) or if you've hit a bump, then you are focused on cash flow issues and it becomes hard to see past the next few months even if you have the time to do so. The stress is just so high it's hard to do anything else.
Sometimes neither of these situations apply and you've just developed the habit of being short-term focused.
All of these situations are extremely dangerous for long-term success.
Wait a minute... scenario 1 seems pretty good doesn't it?
Well, when you are successful today, you know what worked yesterday and maybe today. There is no guarantee that it's going to continue working tomorrow. You have competitors or will have competitors. Needs and expectations change. Relationships with customers change.
What do we mean by business planning? To me these include several components:
The company vision is the very big picture and doesn't really change often (or at least it shouldn't). The moral compass encompasses things like ethics... what the company will or won't do to achieve the company vision. The strategic plan is the specifics of what you will need to do over the coming months, year and several years to achieve the company vision based on where you are now. Goals must be specific and measurable with explicit timelines. You either meet goals or you don't. This is the map of how to get from point A to point B and it is subject to periodic review and change based on internal and external factors... it's adaptable as "how" you will accomplish the company vision changes. The exit plan is important even if you don't plan on leaving any time soon. This is how you (i.e. shareholders) are going to realize rewards from all the hard work you put into running a business. This ensures that you focus on maximizing the value of your company throughout it's life. Things can change and change can happen rapidly... marital breakup, illness, accident, disagreement with partners, etc. Ignore this and you may get pennies on the dollar when you decide to sell or more likely, liquidate your assets. Also, don't forget to work on making your services and operations repeatable no matter how much you grow or people change positions. Otherwise your people are your business and you can't sell it for much (revenue and profit are not repeatable for a buyer). So even when you are busy, or stressed or just plain not feeling like it. Work ON your business and this means business planning and all its related components.
Projecting the demographics of your workforce population becomes much more relevant when you tie the model back to your operational and revenue drivers.
The demand model basically ties your organizational size to your business requirements. In the case of a municipality, this would be related to the number of residents needing services and the expected migration and birthrates that would change those requirements. Capital projects would also come into play as they often have longer term staffing requirements associated with them.
With education boards, the demand is driven by the number of students entering the system. This then drives how many teachers and other support staff you require.
A logistics company may need to relate people to cargo. An oil company to barrels of oil produced, etc.
Now, when you project the workforce departures, you will have a very good estimate as to the number of people you need to hire or outsource.
Then you can change your assumptions... what if we need fewer teachers per student by investing in computers and online learning? How does that change the big picture?
Ultimately good people are getting harder to find as the workforce ages and retires. Getting the most value from your expenditures and allowing your organization to continue operations are important.
These days optimizing your workforce size is getting even more important.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Lest We Forget STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: lest-we-forget CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Current Events CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/11/lest-we-forget.html DATE: 11/11/2008 05:30:42 PM ----- BODY:Back in 1983 (is that really 25 years ago?) I graduated from high school and like most graduates going on to post secondary education, I was looking for a way pay for it all. So at my father's suggestion I looked at the Regular Officer Training Program, went in for all the tests and interviews and was surprised to get accepted. At that time I had a bunch of friends who were weekend warriors with the Reserves and my father was a career officer, so it didn't seem too foreign. So I accepted and went off to basic training, finished university (Electrical Engineering) and went off to work as a Communications and Electronics Officer (Air Force)... first in Ottawa and then in Winnipeg.
Some of the big things I learned in the military were:
I am thankful that I was never called upon to serve in an armed conflict. I am also so very appreciative of all the things we take for granted in this country and all the sacrifices that others have made on our behalf to make it so over the years.
While I have lost touch with many of those I knew from those days (I left in 1995), I know that some of them have continued on in their service.
On this day, my thoughts and prayers go out to those still serving in harms way and I hope you all make it back home to your family and friends. Whether you are there to make the world a better place or to serve our country, we remember.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Remarkable People STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: remarkable-people CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/11/remarkable-people.html DATE: 11/06/2008 05:35:59 PM ----- BODY:It's easy to become complacent (take things for granted) and not notice remarkable things happening around you all the time. I was recently observing the behaviours of my team members and didn't really notice anything special. It took outsiders to really bring home the significance of their work.
If someone does a really great job on something, above and beyond what you were expecting, you are likely to notice and think "Wow, that was remarkable!".
If that person does a great job on a regular basis, above and beyond the average, you have a tendency to starting thinking that this is normal behaviour. In fact the person has raised the bar on what is considered average (at least for you). Your brain stops noticing things that are routine. It's even more challenging if your entire team has raised the bar of normal.
Sometimes it takes someone outside to notice how remarkable these things are. Thankfully, many people do take the time to acknowledge remarkable work.
But it does make you think.
Take time to stop and look at the people you have around you all the time.
Learn to see the remarkable people.
Then figure out a way to notice them more often. Personal recognition and public acknowledgement are things most people crave. It gives meaning to what we do.
Take the time to acknowledge remarkable work and most importantly, the remarkable people.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: What Sticks STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: what-sticks CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/10/what-sticks.html DATE: 10/21/2008 04:06:56 PM ----- BODY:The human brain is quite remarkable. They are all similar and so different at the same time, so complex and so simple.
I think I mentioned that I play the fiddle in an earlier post. Today I was sitting in my office humming a tune over and over. You know how it is, you hear something catchy and then it sticks in your head. Well in this case it was a tune called "Forgetting the Lesson" that I had heard a couple of times at a session, but not recently.
Thing is, my brain memorized it. I didn't spend any effort learning it (but I will now). Yet my brain stored it and then started playing it back without me consciously thinking about it.
This got me to thinking about how important your marketing message is. I am not talking about your little jingle or some catchy slogan, but the real message and its consistency.
Is there something about it that is compelling and memorable? Relevant to your audience? Will it be triggered by an event?
You are not going to connect with everyone all the time... but will their brains connect your solution with a problem they are having when it really is relevant? Will this happen automatically?
I think marketing is as much understanding the human mind as it is about understanding the media.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Mudslinging is Bad Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: mudslinging-is-bad-business CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/10/mudslinging-is-bad-business.html DATE: 10/13/2008 02:22:27 PM ----- BODY:Watching the political race in both Canada and the US is a sad thing.
All the parties basically try to put each other down. They go way back in history and try to dig up any dirt that can be thrown around... mudslinging. This happens all the time but is heightened during the campaigns.
Over the short-term a scandal or negative campaigning can have the desired effect of making you seem better than your opponent, supposing you are actually cleaner. Hey, they are much worse than me!
Have you ever noticed that in a mud fight, everyone gets covered in mud!
At the end of the day, the voters tend to have a jaded sense of politicians and politics in general and voter apathy is high. Even if things were cleaned up tomorrow, it would take years to get back the trust.
The same things happen when vendors try to win business by putting their competitors down. The customers just end up wanting nothing to do with any of them and the overall market shrinks. This totally negates any money you've thrown at marketing and generally puts a bad spin on your entire industry.
Lets face it. Some healthy competition is actually good for your business in most cases. It gives your business legitimacy and you split the costs of educating the marketplace on why they need your service or product.
Sure you want your business to stand out, but mudslinging just makes everything grey at best.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Size Matters STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: size-matters CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/10/size-matters.html DATE: 10/08/2008 02:17:33 PM ----- BODY:Size matters. But not in the way you would expect.
Traditionally, big organizations would engage big organizations to be their suppliers. They could afford the extra premiums that the larger organizations charge as a burden of their size and overhead cost structures and it was a "safe" thing to do. Today there is nothing "safe" about business and even big organizations need to watch costs... just look at recent headlines.
If you are engaging with a vendor for something like software development, size matters... but bigger is not necessarily better.
Large suppliers have some pretty decent talent in their organizations. It would be unreasonable to assume otherwise. But they also have a lot of commitments for that talent. Their teams tend to be dynamic and fluid. This means that the team coming to work on your project may not have worked together in the past. Further, they may not have worked on any of the reference projects they are listing. Thus, past success in other projects may not translate to success in this project, the one that matters to you.
Smaller vendors will tend to put forward teams that have worked together well in the past. As well, the projects they have worked on will be the some of the same ones that the vendor will be quoting as references.
If your project represents 10% of a company's revenue for the next year they are much more likely be to be focused on the success of that project than a company where your project represents 0.01% of their revenue... it's just that much more important to the company's success.
Ultimately, when you are bringing on a vendor for a software project, you need to look at:
Domain (business) experience is another critical factor to ramping up a successful software team. Sure it is possible to learn the domain on the fly, but its akin to learning a new technology. Good programmers can do it, but it adds cost and risk.
In reality, software is developed by the team on your specific project. Size matters only in the scale of the team you need for your project.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Pay It Forward STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: pay-it-forward CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/10/pay-it-forward.html DATE: 10/06/2008 11:32:49 PM ----- BODY:What if every single day, everyone did something extra (outside of your normal roles) to make someone else's world a better place?
What if every single day, your business did something extra to make the world a little better?
Yes, we are all in business to make money. Yes, everyone is busy enough in their own lives.
But ultimately how we live our lives is just as important as how far up the ladder we get. And you never know, someday you may return to the bottom... and just maybe, someone will try to make your life a little better.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Risk Diversity - Eggs in One Basket STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: eggs-in-one-basket---risk-diversity CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/09/eggs-in-one-basket---risk-diversity.html DATE: 09/19/2008 12:26:21 PM ----- BODY:From the previous post I did on Investment Risk one might conclude that it's best to invest all your efforts in one venture, one big potential payoff. But there is risk to having all your eggs in one basket... what happens if the basket drops?
A number of years back I read a good book on investing and in it they covered investment diversity. Basically the premise is that you should find and invest in good companies with solid management teams. Finding these companies requires time and effort. But after finding them, the work doesn't end there. You need to keep on top of your investments to:
Your choice remains sound and your expectations for good returns over the long-term has not changed.
Therefore, a well diversified portfolio does not mean hundreds or thousands of stocks, but a maximum of 5-7 strong performers. More than this and two things happen:
This is much the same for an entrepreneur or a company. When you are starting up it is a good idea to focus all your efforts on one thing and a few customers.
Over time you probably want to diversify to mitigate the risk. This means not relying on just one or a few customers, not relying on a few good employees and not selling into a single market segment.
But heading off in too many directions at the same time will likely dilute your effort (focus) and ultimately your returns. A few high quality, well managed ventures is far more rewarding and less risky than only one or too many.
And if your primary venture needs or deserves everything you have because it's a runaway superstar... diversify in other ways. The world is fickle and things change fast.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Investment Risk STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: investment-risk CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/09/investment-risk.html DATE: 09/18/2008 07:20:44 PM ----- BODY:What is a better investment:
Investing $30,000 to make $50,000?
Certainly, $1 million is way bigger than $30,000. Let's say for the sake of argument that you have both sums of money to invest and your spouse will not kill you for doing so. Also assume that you are an entrepreneur and will have a significant influence in the outcome of both scenarios, i.e. similar chance of a positive outcome.
Worst case you could loose it all, $1 million or $30,000. Best case you would earn $9 million or $20,000.
I think it's pretty obvious that if you are going to invest your capital, time and effort in a venture as an entrepreneur, you should be thinking pretty big. And the rate of return is so much higher in scenario 1.
What if you had to invest $6 million to make $10 million? Same rate of return but you make $4 million instead of $20,000.
If you look at the $20,000 scenario, you would have to repeat your success 200 times to get the same gain. How much effort would that be?
Usually efforts and gains are not linear. So you can figure that winning 200 times for each small gain of $20,000 (for a cumulative gain of $4 million) would take quite a bit more effort than winning once for a large gain of $4 million... probably by a factor of 5-10. The expression the rich get richer is there for a reason.
After thinking about this a bit it's obvious to me why serious entrepreneurs tend to go for the bigger deals or investments.
There is only so much time in a day so you might as well spend it on the bigger payouts. Your time is a big part of the investment risk equation.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Planning Tomorrow’s Workforce Today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: understanding-demographic-changes-in-your-workforce-is-important-these-days-every-year-your-existing-workforce-gets-a-year-o CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/09/understanding-demographic-changes-in-your-workforce-is-important-these-days-every-year-your-existing-workforce-gets-a-year-o.html DATE: 09/17/2008 05:57:00 AM ----- BODY:Understanding demographic changes in your workforce is important these days. Every year your existing workforce gets a year older, a year closer to retirement. Competition for your talent is increasing every day and employee turnover is often increasing to match.
You can set-up and run a number of reports on your current demographic mix. Based on these reports you can easily do some rough predications on retirements and terminations over the short term. It will take some effort but it’s possible.
Adding in new entrants then complicates the predictions as they will impact both terminations and over the longer term, retirements. Refine the rough predictions by considering both age and service for departure rates for each and every employee for each in the organization.
Then throw in some assumptions about your organization’s growth plans for different departments over the short and longer terms. Consider the current economic and political environment and run the model for pessimistic and optimistic conditions. Consider the impact of some organizational interventions influencing departure rates or hiring profiles.
New information… re-run the model and reports. New data… re-run the model and reports.
This is quickly getting complicated and very costly, even if it’s all internal costs. It’s likely taking you or your staff away from the more critical question... what actions can we take to change the outcome?
Ultimately, if your organization is facing this situation, you should consider using an existing tool for the analysis and projections. Like most tools, they become more beneficial and cost effective the more you use them (and the better use you make of them).
A while back I wrote a short piece on Fortune Telling.
Well hindsight says the negative forecast was more correct. Stock markets are plunging due to the sub-prime meltdown and other factors, the price of oil is dropping, real estate prices are dropping, there is a federal election in Canada, and a presidential race in the US.
Uncertainty is the word of the day for businesses.
It’s at times like these that leadership is truly tested. It’s easy to be a leader during good times. Everything you do is likely to turn out ok… even going with the crowd works.
During uncertainty, stress and hard decisions are part of the puzzle… but more important is how leaders deal with the stress and keep their team motivated while moving towards concrete goals.
Yup, being a leader while under pressure is a whole different game.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Workforce Solutions for Today STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: what-if-you-could-predict-the-future-without-error-what-if-there-was-a-solution-that-could-solve-all-your-workforce-issues CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/09/what-if-you-could-predict-the-future-without-error-what-if-there-was-a-solution-that-could-solve-all-your-workforce-issues.html DATE: 09/09/2008 04:20:08 PM ----- BODY:(or What's Been Keeping Me Busy!)
What if you could predict the future without error? What if there was a solution that could solve all your workforce issues?
In actual fact, there is no way to fully predict the future. Neither can any one solution solve all your workforce issues.
Let’s face it, if it were that easy Human Resources (HR) professionals would not be necessary to the strategic and operational success of an organization. They would be providing administrative and clerical functions only. Attracting, training, motivating and retaining employees are an age old issues that are actually getting more complex, not less.
For over 8 years, we have been focused on building software solutions for HR and Finance. Many of the tools we’ve built in that time involve some component of workforce management or planning.
More recently we started looking at all the work we’ve done over the years, and then at what we could be doing to help deal with the current workforce planning problems being faced by many organizations and corporations. We can’t solve all of the problems for an organization. What we decided to focus on was providing tools so that the organization would be much better positioned to solve its own problems… without breaking the bank.
One of the tenets of management is “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.
One of the tenets of leadership is “if you don’t know where you are going, you can’t possibly get there”.
So to me, the first step in generating solutions to the workforce problems today is providing a tool for workforce planning that:
This is what we have done. I am proud to say that version 2.0 of our ForecastHR tool (which measures and forecasts your workforce demographics and hiring events) has been successfully implemented for a major client organization. We’ve done a fair amount of research and interest is high in other organizations as well.
We have lots of ideas on where version 3.0 and beyond of the tool can go and guess what? We listen to our clients and improve the tool based on their feedback so the future of the tool looks bright. And we have even more ideas for other tools.
We are providing the tools. Effective organizations will use the tools to make better decisions and focus on critical areas for maximum benefit. Right now we have to content ourselves with being happy doing the part we do best… providing the tools and whatever insight we can.
The next step is building the marketing engine so that the tool can get out to all those who can best use it and then to scale up the delivery engine.
That is the entrepreneurial part that is exciting as well.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Crazy Summer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: crazy-summer CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/09/crazy-summer.html DATE: 09/03/2008 07:37:15 PM ----- BODY:Over the summer period I've been especially busy both at work and personally. Posts have slowed down a bit but I expect to get back into a more regular schedule moving forward.
I find that as I am thinking about new things and reflecting on old things, writing down some of the thoughts really clarifies and reinforces the lessons. This makes it even more important to me to continue the process.
P.S. Thanks for dropping by and having a read.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Persistence with NHibernate STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: persistence-with-nhibernate CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/08/persistence-with-nhibernate.html DATE: 08/28/2008 06:39:00 AM ----- BODY:A while back I wrote a review on persistence ignorance presented by James Kovacs and I thought I would give a quick update of what has happened since then.
Last week we held a Sunwapta Professional Development Day for our developers. The morning covered the theory and the afternoon we broke into two teams and built two aspects of a simple application to reinforce the learning.
Recently we implemented the technology in a real project, a .NET desktop application also using WPF.
Mission (learning and implementing NHibernate in a real project) accomplished and hats off to the team (on taking this first step).
Development best practices are always evolving and it takes effort and dedication to keep learning. But that is what being a professional is all about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: While America Aged STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: while-america-aged CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/08/while-america-aged.html DATE: 08/27/2008 05:14:23 PM ----- BODY:The three stories told in the book (“While America Aged” by Roger Lowenstein) reminds me of the classic tales of a man selling his soul to the devil in return for riches and power. When the devil returns after the contract period to collect his “new” soul, the man desperately tries to avoid the fate he agreed to.
The first story is about General Motors (GM). As the unions became more powerful and smart, they demanded “future” benefits instead of large immediate pay increases. These future benefits included pension plans, health plans and retiree health plans. GM was always desperate to avoid strikes so tended to cave easily on benefits that were largely far in the future or soft. Even better, in those days you didn’t have to show the liabilities in your financials and even when you did you could use creative accounting to deflate the actual liability… so the shareholders were largely in the dark. But ultimately, the rising costs of these benefits at the same time that worker versus retiree ratio has significantly decreased has led to the decline of the company in the marketplace. GM could no longer invest in new products, innovations and productivity leading to a loss of market share and profits… shareholders were the big losers.
The second story is about how New York transit union bargained itself into bigger future benefits at earlier and earlier ages. Politicians basically caved on pensions because by the time bills came due they would not be in office and in the shorter term they desperately wanted to avoid transit strikes which had a crippling effect on the city.
The third story is about how the city of San Diego avoided raising taxes by stripping services and severely underfunded the pension fund. Essentially, they kept workers by trading future benefits (pensions) for smaller wage increases. But the truly sad part is how they worked hand in hand with several unions, the city and the pension boards to manipulate the system so that they didn’t have to pay the bills until someone else would be in office.
In all these cases the pensions are either government sponsored or insured by a government agency.
Notice a recurring theme in the stories?
In all cases, the leadership, unions and employees are selling out the future generations for gains in the present. It’s not the benefits, it’s who pays and when that is the concern. This would all be avoided or at least the risk would be mitigated if the bills for the future had to be paid in the present instead of being deferred.
But if that was true we would never hear commercials like “No money down and no payments until 2010”. Yes, we are a society of reward now and pay the price later… but ultimately the devil will collect.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Aligning Your Focus with Your Vision STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: aligning-your-focus-with-your-vision CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/08/aligning-your-focus-with-your-vision.html DATE: 08/22/2008 01:35:00 AM ----- BODY:What are you trying to accomplish with your business?
Making money is every business’s objective so that doesn’t count.
What are you creating that will create value for others such that they are willing to give you money? How are you going to make a difference in the world, or at least a part of it? What is your vision? What are your short and long-term goals to achieve that vision?
Everything that you do that does not take you closer to your vision is a distraction.
Don’t try to fluff up a distraction to look like you are achieving your goals in a roundabout way. Sure there are some things that just need to get done (but don’t move you towards the big vision). Be honest with yourself, is it a tool or a toy?
Focus the majority of your time, money and energy on achieving your big picture vision. The short-term goals and work may need to change (be adaptive), but the vision needs to be clear or how will you ever know if you are heading the right way.
Someone recently mentioned (reiterated) to me that there are two ways of increasing profit. Increase revenue or decrease expenses. Both are valid. However, the best is increasing revenue while decreasing or keeping steady (assuming profits are sufficient) the cost per unit of revenue. Focusing on one without working on the other can be dangerous. But ultimately as a small business, not growing revenue will lead to stagnation and risk, especially if you have not diversified enough. Something will eventually change in your market and you need some diversity to buy you the time to adopt.
Ultimately you need to create enough value so that others would be willing to buy your business. You don’t have to sell, but you could. Don’t achieve this and you will just have a job, maybe a high paying one, but a job nonetheless.
The secret: have a compelling vision and align your focus everyday towards achieving it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Transitioning Between Iterations STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: ive-noticed-one-mistake-that-is-easy-to-get-into-with-agile-project-management-and-that-is-to-not-properly-close-off-one-i CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/08/ive-noticed-one-mistake-that-is-easy-to-get-into-with-agile-project-management-and-that-is-to-not-properly-close-off-one-i.html DATE: 08/21/2008 02:09:25 PM ----- BODY:I’ve noticed one mistake that is easy to get into with agile project management and that is to not properly close off one iteration and then to seamlessly start the next iteration.
The biggest problems with this are:
You can avoid this problem two ways. First by ending each iteration properly:
And second, starting each subsequent iteration properly:
At all times do not allow iterations to blend into one another with no clear start and end.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Bite-Sized Iterations STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: bite-sized-iterations CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/08/bite-sized-iterations.html DATE: 08/11/2008 02:21:35 PM ----- BODY:Time and time again the wisdom of having a good release and iteration planning methodology comes to the forefront. This becomes incredibly important on a large complex project or one where the sky is the limit on what the project could cover (i.e. client is coming up with new ideas daily).
The reasons are simple:
Worrying about the design of the entire application up front is time consuming, likely to become dated and most significantly contributes to lack of focus and stress for a development team... where do you begin?
The solution is conceptually simple but requires discipline. Have an overall release plan (very rough and subject to change) for the overall project. For the first and subsequent iterations, decide on which stories will be included at the start of each iteration based on business value. The actual implementation of the stories is subject to discussion and change during the iteration, but no new stories can be added until the next iteration.
Then the development team and client can focus on accomplishing smaller, more manageable problems first, without the distraction of trying to grasp every nuance of every idea in the release plan. The simplest solution that could work applies here. Don’t try to build out everything you “may” need until you actually need it.
As well, you start to flesh out your understanding of the domain and the domain language that is essential to overall success. This common language between developers and business people facilitates more accurate and meaningful communication rather than the more traditional method of translation between two languages… business and development.
At the beginning of each subsequent iteration, the client decides which stories to accomplish next. If your iterations are short and have concrete deliverables, the client then quickly becomes accustomed to seeing value in the process and is very likely to want to follow it in the future.
Why does this potentially work so well?
Managing all the big picture worries stays with the project manager and management, not the implementers.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Raising the Retirement Age STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: raising-the-ret CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/08/raising-the-ret.html DATE: 08/05/2008 06:20:14 PM ----- BODY:I read an article a little while back that Cuba was planning to raise the retirement age for workers by 5 years to try to cope with an aging population (60 to 65 for men and 55 to 60 for women). Cuba estimates that 25 percent of its population will be over 60 in the year 2025. Government leaders are also studying ways to increase the birth rate.
If the rules of the game suddenly changed, how would it impact your business? Better yet, how can your business change the rules (not break the law) so that you are playing a new game?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Art of Procrastination STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-art-of-proc CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/the-art-of-proc.html DATE: 07/30/2008 07:05:03 PM ----- BODY:As they say, "to err is human". To procrastinate is definitely a human error condition.
Yes, I am human. In fact, that is why I am writing this post, I just had a recent incident caused by waiting too long and then running into problem. I lucked in and had a really good experience with a very helpful service desk. It doesn't always work out like that.
It's interesting that about 40% of our PenForms (an application we built) users were completing their annual returns to the government in the last week (or later in some cases), even though they knew about the requirement a year ago. Stress levels were high. People tended to not bother reading on-screen instructions or figuring things out on their own. Calls to our service desk went quite high that week.
This is both a cost and an opportunity. We had a chance to shine because we did have good support with real people answering the phones and customers were happy.
Some would also argue that their best work gets done under pressure. Fear is a motivator for sure.
But ultimately procrastination is a problem. Treating everything as a crisis leads to excess stress. Too much stress is bad. As well, rushing leads to mistakes.
So I resolve to not procrastinate... until next time.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nagesh Belludi EMAIL: nagesh@rightattitudes.com IP: 192.158.61.140 URL: http://www.RightAttitudes.com DATE: 07/31/2008 06:46:03 AM Doug, this article present great perspective on procrastination. One of the easiest ways to tackle our why-do now-what-I-can-do-later habit is to make a beginning. One practice I have adopted is to commit to work for just 10 minutes on a task I have been procrastinating on or an article/essay I have been putting-off. I realize that beginning a task can build momentum; there is a good chance I get absorbed in the tasks. Quite often, seemingly difficult tasks get easier once I get working on them. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Fortune Telling STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: fortune-telling CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/fortune-telling.html DATE: 07/25/2008 12:57:43 PM ----- BODY:A week ago I read a forecast saying oil is heading to $200 per barrel this year. Today I read a forecast saying that oil is heading below $100 per barrel this year.
Reality... the only thing guaranteed about the future is we don't really know what it holds. The past is easy and hindsight is 20/20.
So make sure your business vision and model support both up and down markets. I predict lots of both in the future.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: King (or Queen) of the Mess STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: ruler-of-the-me CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/ruler-of-the-me.html DATE: 07/23/2008 08:32:00 AM ----- BODY:The other day I watched a program on TV where they took a look at people who were extremely “messy”. The people they interviewed were the opposite of everything the Martha Stewart brand stands for. Picture rooms stacked to the ceiling with vast accumulations of “stuff“. In some cases the rooms were so jammed you could barely move around. One guy had four apartments just like it in different cities.
Some made the argument that the time others spend cleaning and tidying they spend on being productive or creative. Others claimed they were highly visual people and needed to “see” everything they were working on. Some were masters of the mess (organized mess) and some the mess mastered them (no idea where most things were). Note that there is also a huge difference between clutter type messes and actual health hazards (garbage).
The stereotypes on this subject are powerful. Slob, pig, absent minded professor, etc… all personal judgments of character. Somehow, a messy person is measured as less than a tidy person.
The interesting part is that the list of messy people included lots of very successful and productive people.
In a way, extreme tidiness is just as bad of a habit. How much time does one really need to spend cleaning at the expense of getting things done? But extremely tidy is in. Look all the shows and magazines about homes and offices… tidying up and decorating. People don’t seem to actually live or work there, at least not real people. But so many people strive for this visual result.
Tidiness seems to stem from a desire to control part of the world or make it appear better. You can’t control the weather, the world politics or financial markets, but at least you can control your part of the world. But control is an illusion. Does it really matter that you have the neatest workspace in the world. It does not guarantee success.
The majority of people are somewhere in between… neither totally messy nor totally neat but often torn one way or the other with the associated guilt.
One mixed extreme messy and tidy couple worked together in the same office and lived in the same house. The solution is to set boundaries. Messy does not cross tidy’s line.
Perhaps the key is to judge people by what they accomplish and produce. This is a universal measuring stick. Maybe messy people do have more time to get things done or are more creative. In any event, they are probably more laid back about appearances.
Maybe under all the clutter, is a gem waiting to be discovered… someone who gets things done or your next creative genius. Just be sure to set boundaries... and understand yours.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Who’s In Control? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: whos-in-control CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/whos-in-control.html DATE: 07/22/2008 05:55:00 AM ----- BODY:In business, you have to realize you cannot control everything. You cannot control your employees, suppliers or customers for example. All you can do is put the culture, systems and processes in place to attempt to guide things to your chosen destination.
Most businesses are actually organized chaos. Lots of things going wrong all the time but somehow things generally work out in the end. There is a point of diminishing return for effort invested in perfection (reducing problems to zero). Ideally the system is built to deal with the things that derail and then to get things back on track.
The trick is striking a balance:
Tired of having a boss? Quit and start your own business, right?
Sounds great! No one to answer to but yourself. Call you own shots. Master of your destiny. Top dog. Ah, life will be great….
Unfortunately, being your own boss is a not a good reason to go into business, especially if it’s the main or only reason. It’s an especially bad idea if you can’t work for someone else (anti-social, argumentative, can’t take criticism, etc.) because you need those skills in business.
Assuming that: you are actually trying build a business; you are ethical; and “you” are filling the top role (CEO, president, etc.) there are still people and organizations you will have to answer to.
Anyone Who Invested In Your Company
Shareholders, friends, family and lending institutions: they are all expecting you to turn their investments into gold or as a minimum return of capital plus interest. You have a moral obligation to do your best to make it happen. After all, you were happy to take the money and make the promise (even if the fine print has a disclaimer).
Board of Directors
The board of directors is appointed/elected by the shareholders to represent their interests and to guide the company’s management. If the Board is you, you still must keep this role separate from being the boss.
The Government
Let’s face it, don’t submit your taxes, sales taxes or payroll taxes and the top dog will have some explaining to do. If you are publicly traded there are extensive reporting obligations. Break a law and you are in trouble. You can’t mess with this one, they make the rules.
Customers
This is big and also somewhat out of your control. You can only control your side of the equation, not what the customer thinks or communicates to others. Loyal customers must be earned and that means making a promise and exceeding it, consistently. No customers and you have no business.
Suppliers
Your suppliers will expect things from you (money, reporting, sales, etc.). If you have sub-contracted any of your core business functions this is even more true.
Employees
Yes, they technically work for you. But you have obligations too. Employees have rights, you must pay them, motivate them and give them opportunities or they will move on quickly, in short you must be a good boss. Then there are benefits and Workers Compensation Board payments and reporting.
Your Family
You will need their support and in the process of building your business, you must never lose sight of their importance (do so at your own peril) to your own long term happiness.
The Business Itself
The business will make demands of you. When things do not go perfectly you will have stress. When they go extremely well you will be challenged to find life balance. Failing at business can be very hard on people.
Conclusion
At the end of the day you are trading a job with a well defined boss for being the boss of your own business. But ultimately, you still have obligations to others and are trying to please someone else… a boss of a different sort.
To successfully make it through this journey you need so much more than just a desire to be free from the boss.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Right Thing is Smart STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-right-thing CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/the-right-thing.html DATE: 07/15/2008 06:31:30 PM ----- BODY:There is a small vendor in downtown Calgary that normally makes excellent Montreal smoked meat and Reuben sandwiches. In fact, after going there a few times I became a regular customer. The owner is really personable and the walk is a nice break to the day.
Yesterday, I ordered the “regular”, a Reuben. I also mentioned that the last couple of times, the sandwich had not been quite up to par. Without a moment’s hesitation, she refused to let me pay and insisted this sandwich was on the house. A free lunch was not my goal, I just wanted what I used to get and because of the relationship, I took the time to let her know what was happening. But the result impressed me.
The next time a customer complains about your service or product take this business owner’s attitude to customer service to heart. Thank the customer for letting you know and do whatever it takes to rectify the problem.
You see for every customer that complains, uncounted numbers don’t say anything… to you. If you are lucky they just stop coming. If you are not, then they tell their friends, or communicate to the world about it online.
The day you ignore your customers is the day your business has no chance of succeeding.
Doing the right thing is smart.
P.S. If you are in Calgary and want a great Reuben, drop me a note.
No matter what you do in your job or life, you have power. This applies to business, software development or volunteer work.
First you have the power of attitude. If you have to do something, you might as well choose to have a good attitude about it and do it as well as it needs to be done (this differs from "do your best" as “best” may be overkill in some situations).
The second power you have is communication. You can choose to communicate respectfully and carefully so that your relationships are enhanced, or you can choose the opposite.
Patrik Löwendahl covers the power of communication style in his post “Merlin's Magic Spells in Modern Projects” extremely well. Suffice it to say, life can be easier or harder depending on how you choose your words.
Both powers are yours… they are choices you make. Excuses are a choice. Not making a choice is in itself a choice.
Choose wisely.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Chicken Omelet STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-chicken-ome CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/the-chicken-ome.html DATE: 07/10/2008 07:19:00 AM ----- BODY:Continued from Part 1 - A Chicken and Egg Business
I am a firm believer in reading, studying and learning from others… it saves a lot of time (by not having to repeat the mistakes of others). Many ideas are worth considering even if they are later discarded. To be creative in business (or anything) you need lots of perspective.
But for balance, make sure you also read about the people who were successful before the book… they may not be as stylish or fun to read as the professional authors, but the proof is in the results.
There is no one way or one miracle system to guarantee success... anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Creating something new means breaking new ground in at least some areas.
Most importantly, think for yourself, do what feels right for you… it’s your life and your dream.
And why choose one or the other? Leader of industry or thought leader? Eat a chicken omelet and you have them both.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: A Chicken and Egg Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: chicken-and-egg CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/chicken-and-egg.html DATE: 07/09/2008 06:17:00 AM ----- BODY:Have you ever noticed that the majority of top selling business authors and personal motivators claim to be successful business people? Most are… now.
But guess what? Often, their successful business was writing, speaking and teaching the content of their book.
Which came first, a successful business or the book?
The chicken or the egg?
Update - Another Chicken and Egg Situation: Seth Godin also mentions web sites that make money teaching people how to make money using web sites.
Part 2 - The Chicken Omelet
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ZaggedEdge EMAIL: mwilson1@bryant.edu IP: 72.221.109.236 URL: http://www.zaggededge.com DATE: 07/10/2008 08:14:53 PM In Tim Ferris' case, he was successful in his own right. Now he is uber-successful...it depends what Tim would say on how he define's success ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Personal and Impersonal Dreams STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: personal-and-im CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/personal-and-im.html DATE: 07/08/2008 09:52:00 AM ----- BODY:As stated in his latest book, “Awakening the Entrepreneur Within” by Michael Gerber, there are two types of dreams (goals):
Personal dreams are those that apply (mostly) to you: buying a new car, world travel, losing weight, going to the gym, getting rich, finding yourself, personal development, etc. The thing is… personal goals are fleeting. Once you achieve them they quickly lose their ability to bring you satisfaction and need to be replaced by new goals… over and over.
Impersonal dreams are those that affect everyone but ourselves. There is a sense of creation, changing the world (or a part of it) introducing something new… impacting others, not yourself. In a direct quote from his book, “Entrepreneurship is nothing about the one who creates a thing and everything about the one who consumes a thing”. Impersonal dreams bring longer term satisfaction.
Impersonal dreams that also have the ability to satisfy personal dreams are the most powerful for long term motivation and self-fulfillment.
I can see the reality in this. Most people want to be part of something that is bigger than them. Entrepreneurs can often create an organization that can meet this need in people to belong and have meaning.
Of course the dreams have to resonate with you, your shareholders, your employees and your customers. But guess what, having a clear dream and vision (expression of the dream) makes it that much more likely you will attract the right people to your organization… those who share your impersonal dream… or at least they will know they can satisfy their personal goals while helping you achieve your dream.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Jack and Jobs – 2 Types of Business STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: jack-and-jobs-2 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/jack-and-jobs-2.html DATE: 07/07/2008 04:40:42 PM ----- BODY:There are two (maybe three) types of small business.
The first type of business (owner operated) is what happens when someone who is really good (the expert) at doing something (or someone who really wants to do something because it’s a hobby or passion) starts a business built around that capability. If you are a great plumber, you may get into the plumbing business. If you are a good lawyer you may open up your own practice. If you are good at fixing computers, you can start up a computer repair business. If you love dogs you may start a dog day care business even though you are not yet an expert.
Owner operated businesses have some common characteristics:
Some owner operated businesses are very profitable and some are not. However, at the end of the day, they can be tricky to sell or exit because too many things are tied to the owner. Really it’s mostly a job: sometimes really a good job; sometimes not as good a job as envisioned; or sometimes a downright horrible job (think working 12 hours a day, seven days a week with no vacations, forever).
A subset of the first type of business is the independent consultant who incorporates for tax or legal reasons but really has no intention of building a full fledged business or hiring others. Let’s face it… this is another name for a contract employee… a job of another sort.
So that brings us to the second type of business… the entrepreneurial business or owner directed business.
The owner directed business goes smoothest if started that way from the get go (but it can also evolve from an owner operated business). At first it can seem deceptively similar to an owner operated business.
The owner is initially involved in all (or many) aspects of running the business. But an entrepreneur is only doing this as a stage in the business development to master the skill, build a repeatable system around delivering the skill, and then hand it off to someone else (employee or outsourced) for repetition. The entrepreneur’s “job” is building the business and they never lose sight of this (or at least don’t get distracted often) goal.
They are driven by a dream or vision of what is being built and it’s much bigger than they are. They know the only way to succeed is to build a system of systems (a business) that will help them achieve this goal. Something that will rely on no one person or entity for its ongoing success is the ultimate goal. Even the entrepreneur will no longer be required (desired maybe but not required).
You don’t have to actually sell the venture, but it has to be capable of being sold for its full value because it:
At this point you may have a mature owner directed business.
Some mature owner directed businesses will remain entrepreneurial and continue to grow and improve, standing the test of time. And some will eventually focus on yesterday’s success and over time shrink and fade away. The foundations that are built into the business today (don’t forget leadership selection and promotion as part of the system) will impact the long term results.
Look at Apple with the return of Steve Jobs for a strong example of dependencies on a person and the legacy left to General Electric by Jack Welch for an example of a systematic business including leadership selection and development.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: An Entrepreneur’s Fable STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: wysiwyg ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: an-entrepreneur CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/an-entrepreneur.html DATE: 07/04/2008 01:16:41 AM ----- BODY:Disclaimer: This fable is only loosely based on a true story and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.
Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.
This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. Companies were spending money like there was no end of it… other people’s money (OPM (rhymes with opium))… huge burn rates with no plans to turn a profit until some vague point in the future when they dominate the market… or cashing in on an IPO. Speculators were buying stock because a company had Linux in its name and a vague promise of a grand future.
Then the bubble burst. OPM dried up. Companies were closing their doors and shareholders were left with nothing. Then the events of 911 further dampened economic outlook.
The three business owners and their staff survived these downturns. They were not addicted to OPM, were not selling a lie, were good technicians, had strong ethics, had great staff, had low costs… and most importantly had a few good customers that remained loyal and fed them enough work to survive.
The company continued to grow and then hit a bump. Then it grew again and hit a bump. Everyone was working really hard, mastering their craft and taking care of the clients. But something was wrong. They just could not achieve the growth they wanted, the dream was not happening.
Then five years into the business, the CEO had a dream. Fast forward 10 years in the future…
The company had grown a bit over the years. Very hard work and perseverance had allowed them to survive the rough times and when times were good they expanded a bit, but not significantly. Many employees have moved on. Some have been around a long time, a few since near the beginning. The loyal ones had been rewarded with an ownership stake in the company. Several of the owners (original and new) were ready to move on to the next phase of their lives. But, there was no easy way out. The customers were loyal to the people, not the company. There were too few customers. There were key people that could not easily be replaced. People were getting tired of doing the same thing with no change. There was no way to extract the value out of the company… no way to exit gracefully… only failure or a partial success…and too much pride to fail.
The next morning the CEO awoke with the dream still vivid in his mind. He knew what was wrong. They had spent all those years, working very hard, sacrificing… to create jobs for themselves.
After much reading, reflecting and soul searching the answers became clear. To really become an entrepreneur you have to embrace two fundamental truths:
Being a great practitioner of your craft (what you are selling) merely gets you a job. The limiting factor of any business is the owner (leadership).
You must learn to become a master entrepreneur.
That is your real craft… building something great from nothing… passionate… inspiring shareholders, employees and customers… making a difference… a creator... always evolving … a CEO… a master entrepreneur.
The CEO decides to embark on the journey to become a master entrepreneur. Only time will tell what great adventures the CEO and those who journey with him will enjoy. But with this knowledge the future is much brighter.
The End... and the Beginning.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: dob EMAIL: starting_right_now@winning.com IP: 166.128.26.206 URL: DATE: 07/13/2008 03:16:34 AM Doug, I stumbled upon your blog through a trackback on Seth Godin's. I am glad I did, In all of my reading, in all of my business classes, in all of my discussions I have never experienced such a succinct and elegant description of what it means to be an entrepreneur. I will never look at the concept of starting/building a business in the same way again after reading your post, and at the same time I feel more excited at the prospect than I have in a long time. Thank you for gently pushing me into a moment of clarity. dob ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The Secret (of Positive Thinking) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-secret-of-p CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/07/the-secret-of-p.html DATE: 07/02/2008 06:55:57 PM ----- BODY:Are you a complainer? Nearly everyone is to some degree.
If you complain often then chances are you are creating your own “bad luck”.
I was eating breakfast over the weekend and one of the morning shows had a minister talking about the power of negative thoughts. The more you focus on something not happening (or bad things) the more these consume your thoughts and the more you get what is in your thoughts. The strong emotions tied to your negative thoughts:
This thinking is not isolated to one minister. “The Secret”, the “Power of Focus”, numerous other mainstream self-help gurus and even “Monty Python (complaint skit)” are in agreement on this one.
Part of his solution… he hands out bracelets. Each time you complain, you take the bracelet and move it to the other hand. This creates a conscious acknowledgment of the act of complaining and registers it in the mind. After 21 (consecutive not cumulative) days of no complaints you can remove the bracelet.
Personally, I am pretty sure I would not be removing the bracelet any time soon... it’s extremely difficult to manage an entire day, never mind 3 weeks, with no complaints. But, the goal itself is a worthy one.
Why? Because the opposite is also true.
Strong emotions tied to positive thoughts (dreams, goals, visions):
Fortunately, how you think can be learned… it’s a personal choice whether you use it or not.
And that is the secret.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean.work@gmai.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 07/03/2008 08:52:49 AM Generally a good idea. Though seeing everything in pink is somehow equivevalent to wearing grey glasses. For myself I am trying to find a balance. The middle path is probably what allows you to make it through without breaking. Breaking because of the bad things, or expectations that are too pumped. The bracelets - that one reminded (me) about a tribe in Africa and bracelets/rings they are putting on necks... on contrary they remove those when a person misbehaves and then the hed is no longer streight (over the years neck muscles are getting weaker and rely on the bracelets). :D ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Doug Wagner EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com IP: 142.179.147.100 URL: http://dougwagner.typepad.com DATE: 07/03/2008 10:38:35 AM Sean, thanks for the comments. Complaining and realism differ. Complaining focuses on the negative outcome and feelings. Realism focuses on improvement... i.e. the solution to improve things. Process is discover flaw, determine solution (group?), implement solution and move on. So goal is not blinders and rosy glasses, but to appreciate what you have and always work to make things better. Complaining focuses on the past. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DesignDump EMAIL: editor@designdump.com IP: 24.166.36.20 URL: http://www.designdump.com DATE: 07/10/2008 03:18:49 PM I like this post. SO very true. I grew up in a fmaily that was very, very negative ALL the time. I love them to death...and they would do anything for you. But man, was there some negative energy. It's amazing I ever believed I could accomplish anything. I like the braclet idea. However, not sur eit will work for me. I really like braclets. Must be the Metro man in me! Maybe I could try rubber bands or tape or soemthinf. Anyhow, like the idea. Nice post. ~DesignDump.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drea EMAIL: aileron.roll@gmail.com IP: 24.8.143.232 URL: http://www.businesspundit.com/ DATE: 07/10/2008 05:31:43 PM I've tried all-positive thinking in the past, and now do something more like what Doug (above) suggests, something in the middle. Because I've never been able to resolve this fundamental question: what do you do with complaints? Saying No to them doesn't make them go away, in my experience, either in your own mind or from others' mouths. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Persistence Ignorance STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: persistence-ign CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/persistence-ign.html DATE: 06/27/2008 12:26:12 AM ----- BODY:The other night I attended a seminar given by James Kovacs for the Calgary .NET user group. Essentially the topic was Persistence Ignorance (PI) using NHibernate.
I am more focused on application functionality, domain expertise, application usability and user interface design than what is underneath the hood. I leave the coding to the developers I work with.
Nevertheless, I have always been a proponent of separating the user interface, business logic, infrastructure plumbing and database (persistence) and not mixing the concerns unless you have to. I love the idea that loose coupling, programming to interfaces and good tests can reduce risk when making changes to the application. Great software continuously evolves and grows as domain experience increases… it is very seldom born that way (great or static) at a point in time.
James covered the theory behind PI and domain driven design (DDD) quite well and explained how NHibernate could be used to specifically address these concerns (with lots of code samples). The theory and the promise of the methodology (PI using an Object Relational Mapper (ORM) tool) resonate well with me. What really sat well with me was his admission that you can not be a good developer and be totally oblivious of the database (no matter how good the ORM tools), as database and network performance in the real world are still a concern… good code design needs to reflect the real world.
This matches my view of the world, that the master developers are adept at using a number of tools, understand the entire stack (well enough) and know when to apply the right tools for a given situation. You can specialize, but a developer who doesn’t care about the user interface at all is just as limiting at some point as one who is oblivious to databases and networks.
A while back (before NHibernate matured) we developed our own data access and then more recently, ORM tools (they've evolved into a decent tool). However, times change and it likely does not make sense to keep moving it forward with other robust options now available.
Ultimately it comes down to mastering the theory behind robust and flexible code design. Whether it’s NHibernate today or another tool tomorrow, we will be using an ORM so we can focus on building great applications, not the plumbing. We’ll also take the time to understand “what” we are doing… and most importantly, who we are doing it for.
Have you ever noticed that customer support seems to be an afterthought for many companies? They treat customer support as a cost centre to be minimized.
PenForms is an application we built and are hosting for completing annual filings of federal pension returns. As the filing deadlines near, stress levels often go up with end-users. We provide e-mail and phone support for all subscriptions.
I just received a really positive e-mail from one of our PenForms clients (I am happy to say we have more of these):
"To whom it may concern;
Over the last two weeks I have been busy completing the Federal Annual Information Returns on a system that I have never used prior to this. I have contacted your help support quite a few times regarding help with different issues. I would just like to pass along that it has been a pleasure dealing with your company. (a special mention should go out to {Employee}, who has been amazing and always found a solution the same day).
I find that over the years customer service is lacking in many institutions today. However, as I said it was a pleasure dealing with a friendly and efficient team to help solve the problems.
Thanks"
Imagine what it would be like if every customer was this happy with your customer service. Who would they tell? Would they buy from you again?
It's common wisdom that it’s less costly to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new customer.
Maybe your organization should be thinking of customer support in the same category as sales and marketing and not as an after sales cost. Invest in your customers; the truth is you need them more than they need you.
Update: I noticed Seth Godin covered much the same theme in his post but from a negative experience.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Happy Anniversary Sunwapta! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: happy-anniversa CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/happy-anniversa.html DATE: 06/22/2008 06:00:00 AM ----- BODY:Sunwapta Solutions Inc. was born 8 years ago when three techies from EDS got together and decided on a different path.
During this time we’ve had our share of ups and downs and I have learned a lot. You can read about it, study it and take courses… but you just can’t replace the experience and knowledge gained from actually doing it. It’s been like being on an 8 year business degree program in many ways, except the scorecard is the company balance sheet and your reputation in the marketplace and with your employees.
We could not have done it without the rest of the people who make up the Sunwapta team. I would like to thank each and every one of them for all of their dedication, loyalty and perseverance over the years. It gives me great joy to see how people grow over time inside and outside of work and I hope to create many more opportunities for the team. I am extremely proud of you all.
We certainly could not have done it without our customers. Customers are the lifeblood of any business but it goes beyond that. I really appreciate the relationships that I’ve built and hope they continue well beyond our current business engagements.
I would like to thank all the spouses and families. You’ve shown a lot of support over the years and have been a foundation for all of us.
I would like to thank all our past customers and employees as well and all the best wherever you are now. You’ve made an impact and helped us grow.
I look forward to many more years of shared success and experiences together… I know I have a lot to learn yet.
I also look forward to the new relationships that will be formed in the future.
And as I said before, the journey (and who you make it with) should be just as important as the destination... make a difference!
I just realized that dogs are among the best sales “people” out there.
I have a border collie that excels at sales. He has everything going for sales success. At a big gathering a few years ago his closing rate must have been over 30%. He ate nearly the whole time without any dishonesty.
He is persistent. He keeps trying until he succeeds or until there is no hope of success.
He knows what he is selling and communicates it to the prospect clearly and without wasting countless hours in meetings.
He’s adaptive. If what he is trying does not work he tries something else.
He loves people. He’ll work hard to get your attention. Once he has made a connection he knows how to keep the relationship going.
If one prospect does not pan out, his feelings are not hurt, he just moves on to the next prospect.
People feel good buying from him. He knows lots of tricks and the promise is met before the payment is received.
He focuses on his best customers for repeat sales.
Yup, lots to learn by watching the pros.
I’ve been listening to Celtic and Maritime music for about 15 years and I loved the energy the fiddle brings to the music.
Four years ago I decided to learn to play the fiddle. I signed up for a beginner course offered through continuing education and rented a violin. I’ve played other instruments so I knew (sort of) what I was getting into. My initial commitment was to finish the ten week course and put in enough hours practicing to determine if I would truly enjoy playing it long term.
About half way through the course, I knew I wanted to continue playing the fiddle. The next step was to purchase a decent violin and take some more lessons. The fiddle is not an easy instrument to learn. Becoming decent takes a long term effort and a reasonable dedication to practicing. I’ve made that commitment. I also understand that mastery is a lifetime’s journey, but for me it’s worth it.
The joy of the journey is the reward for the commitment. So far I’ve met many other wonderful musicians, done some performing and keep learning new things about the instrument, about the music and about the people. The biggest joy is when you touch someone with your craft… perhaps reminding someone of a home (Ireland, Scotland, Cape Breton, or PEI.) left long ago.
Becoming an entrepreneur is like this:
And most importantly, it’s a journey… enjoy it every day and try to make a difference along the way.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Friday the 13th STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: friday-the-13th CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/friday-the-13th.html DATE: 06/13/2008 12:07:23 PM ----- BODY:Friday the 13th is supposed to be an unlucky day according to superstition. Superstition is a belief taken on faith and supported by folklore and hearsay. These days folklore includes Hollywood and television (how many Friday the 13th movies are there?).
How much of what you do every day or how you think is on faith?
As a professional developer you should be learning from others, but not blindly. Always seek to understand why things are the way they are. Then you are in a position to decide on the best approach for your situation.
As a business person are you chasing your competitors? Maybe there is a better direction to head and you are missing it because you are not asking the right questions.
Investors are notorious for following the herd.
The successful innovators didn’t follow the herd or accept conventional thinking. They changed the game. Then everyone else is following them.
Learn, question and take some risks… starting tomorrow!
The classic definition of optimists versus pessimists does not entirely match the real world when considering workload planning. In the real world the time horizon plays a huge impact on outlook.
Future Optimists
The more time you potentially have to get something done, the more likely you are to be optimistic about getting it done. I see it all the time both inside software development teams and in other areas of business.
I highly suspect that future optimists operate on intuition rather than real project or time management principles. Intuition does not help overly much in complex longer term workload planning. This is why many people over commit in the longer term and then struggle to meet obligations. Personally, I think most people are future optimists in some way.
Short-term Optimists
These are the people that are hard core optimists. Even over the short-term with the walls crumbling around them, they are optimistic that with a little extra effort they can pull themselves out of the rubble and get all the work done. It often does not work out or requires heroic effort.
Fortunately, this group is relatively small. For most people the combination of experience and intuition works fairly well over the shorter term. For the exceptions, a strong peer group or manager may need to get involved to keep them realistic; or deadlines or quality will suffer.
Realists – The Planners
This group is really small and consists of the people who will look at their calendars, their existing workload and the anticipated effort required by the new task before making a commitment no matter what the timeline. Things can still go wrong but these people are also likely to not procrastinate so you will also know well in advance of the deadline if problems are encountered.
Future realists are rare. Hopefully, your project managers are in this category.
Short-term realists differ from short-term optimists only in that they use planning processes instead of intuition before they commit.
Pessimists
The pessimists use intuition the same way as optimists except their intuition is negative. There are also short and long-term pessimists.
Getting the Most From the Team
Most people seem to use experience and intuition to perform workload planning, especially when pressed for time or under management or peer pressure.
Whether you are doing software development, planning a project or running a business consider the following:
After all the glass is half-full and you can always get more, right?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: My Blogging Experience STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: my-blogging-exp CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Marketing CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/my-blogging-exp.html DATE: 06/11/2008 02:42:08 PM ----- BODY:Sometimes you just have to do something for a while to really understand it. Now I get it.
A couple of months ago I decided to try blogging. I figured it would be a good way to embrace the social web slowly and hey, I like writing. I did some research and got advice. I really wanted to avoid the trappings of the company blog that reads more like a news release, you know, to do it right. I accepted that it was going to be work.
Something changed. It no longer feels like work.
I realized I am a creator. This is the group of people on the Internet who create and maintain content (blogs, video, web sites, etc.) rather than just consume it. I have also realized I enjoy writing more than I thought. Even more so, I enjoy writing when people are reading. It’s very hard not to look at your blog statistics regularly and see how many people are visiting.
I also now care more about other creators (bloggers). I find I am more actively reading and commenting on other blogs.
It’s addictive if you fit the creator profile but it’s definitely not for everyone.
My readership is not in the thousands… yet. But I still have lots to say....
In the coming months I plan on sharing my thoughts and opinions on numerous topics around running a business, technology, agile development, marketing, sales, demographics, HR and anything else that comes to mind. I will also start sharing more of what is going on here at Sunwapta Solutions (from my perspective of course).
My goals going forward relatively are simple: make people think, have a little fun, share insights and knowledge, inspire… and most importantly, engage in conversation that will make me think too. See you in the blogosphere.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean.work@gmail.com IP: 68.144.163.10 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 06/11/2008 09:51:39 PM Now you getting it :) ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Getting Results STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: getting-results CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/getting-results.html DATE: 06/09/2008 03:18:10 PM ----- BODY:Have you ever noticed how some very successful people are not necessarily as smart as you are? Or as smart as you thought they would be?
Part of this is perception. If you have a high opinion of yourself you may judge others on a tougher scale. Part of this is because it’s really easy to be critical of others.
Part of this is reality. Many successful entrepreneurs did not graduate at the top of the class. But they have something many do not. They know their limitations, accommodate them and get results. They hire others who can do the things they can’t. They are smart enough.
Many intelligent people get caught up in the intellectual part of what they do: product perfection, having lots of important and long running discussions about approach and strategy, mastering their craft… getting results is secondary. If you can do a better job yourself then it’s also more difficult to learn to delegate effectively.
Remember, successful people know how to get things done.
Chances are you are smart enough. Now imagine being smart and getting results.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Groundswell STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: groundswell CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/groundswell.html DATE: 06/06/2008 02:07:09 PM ----- BODY:If you are on the Internet you’ve heard about the social web. Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and the list goes on, are generating a number of books on how to use social networking as a marketing and public relations tool.
By far the best book I’ve acquired to date is “Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (2008) and I’ve only read the first half so far.
It focuses not just on the technology which is changing quickly, but the patterns underneath the technology. Most importantly they cover a number of methodologies for determining which groundswell tools would be appropriate to reach your target audience.
In the planning process discussion they emphasize that the most important choice you have to make up front is how you want to interact with your customers. Choices include:
The approaches for interacting with consumers apply equally well to business interactions and interactions inside your businesses for a very simple reason… ultimately the relationships are with people. Once you make the decision and move forward, the new relationships (directly with your customers) can potentially change your entire organization so be prepared for that. Think big and start small.
From an agile development perspective embracing the groundswell seems to align well with the spirit of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
Ultimately more open and honest communication with your customers and employees should lead to a more healthy organization, business or software product.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Think “Green” Will Sell? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: think-green-wil CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/think-green-wil.html DATE: 06/05/2008 03:23:15 PM ----- BODY:Have you noticed a trend towards going green in advertising? Many companies are doing it. Presumably it’s a marketing exercise to cash in on environmental concerns that are popular (and rightly so) right now with many people.
But you can’t be what you are not just by running some ads.
I saw a big industrial garbage truck the other day; you know the ones that pick-up and dump the large bins. There was a big sign on the side saying how they were a green garbage company. Apparently when some of their private dumps were full, they put dirt on top and planted some trees. Sorry but that never worked on my mom when she told me to clean my room and its not fooling anyone else. Garbage is a messy business and you can make improvements in the handling, but garbage is garbage.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not picking on the garbage disposal companies. If they are improving their business practices to reduce environmental impact, that’s good. They are merely filling a demand created by other people; they are not creating the garbage.
A big box store is now advertising on TV how they are reducing energy consumption by adding insulation to the roofs of their buildings in an effort to go green. The reality is that wasting energy is expensive these days and they are doing it to reduce costs.
Part of what my business does is software development. Now software is the ultimate recyclable. Don’t like your software, uninstall it and install something else in its place. The ones and zeros are fully interchangeable at any time with nearly zero wastage. I don’t think I will include that in our advertising.
The point of this discussion:
According to an article (Aging Boomers to Shift Driving Trends, Calgary Herald, 30 May 2008) I read in the paper the other day, the demographic shift will be impacting driving.
By 2015 seniors will out number children under 15. By 2030 seniors will account for 25 percent of drivers. This is making the automobile industry take notice and action. Obviously with these kinds of numbers, car manufacturers want older drivers on the road as long as possible.
This means that ergonomics and safety will become even more important in car design. Roads, signs and intersections will also need to improve in design. This actually benefits everyone so no harm there.
Hey but don’t call them senior’s cars. Boomers won’t stand for it and neither will the younger crowd sought after by the marketers.
Better ergonomics and safety sounds like a good thing to me. Now we just need fuel efficient and fun to drive and we are all set.
Time to think about how other things will change too. Change brings opportunity.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Howe’s That? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: howes-that CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/06/howes-that.html DATE: 06/02/2008 02:07:19 PM ----- BODY:The C.D. Howe Institute posted a report saying that too many Canadians have inadequate savings and pension plans for an adequate retirement. About 3.5 million workers have no workplace pension plans and 5.5 million households (i.e. 1-2 workers in each household) have retirement investments that will yield insufficient retirement incomes. The goal is 50 to 70 percent replacement of your pre-retirement income.
Compounding the problem are the very high management fees associated with retail investment products which come off the top of your returns.
According to the report, the solution is a supplementary pension plan for Canada.
In “The New Retirement” by Sherry Cooper (2008), she states that lower income workers will get a decent replacement ratio from CPP/OAS alone. The rich are… well rich so they don’t really even need a pension plan. So it’s the middle to high income earners who would presumably benefit the most from such a plan.
I don’t see it happening. The government already has CPP and OAS. Looking south of the border at the underfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare, I don’t think too many Canadian politicians will be keen to open this up.
The concept of a paid retirement for the masses is relatively new in human history. Also new is the huge amount of debt that is being carried by people living well beyond their means. The math is simple and real, if you constantly spend more than you make, you will eventually run out of money.
On many levels, I’m proud of my grandmother. She worked hard and was a saver. She never expected anyone else to take care of her.
Personally, I plan on taking care of my own financial future. Maybe I’ll even make it to the coveted ranks of the financially secure. The world is uncertain at best and if I mess up I have no one to blame but me.
Does your organization create and promote a culture where there is respect and appreciation?
It’s very easy to slip into habit of being critical.
When a client is changing software specifications at the eleventh hour it’s very easy to focus on how they should have known better. But just maybe we should be thanking them for making the overall product better.
When reviewing the work of a coworker or subordinate, it’s very easy to focus on the mistakes instead of the things that were done well. Sure, the mistakes need to be fixed in many cases, but the real work is overshadowed by the negative. Remember that in saying “You did a really good job on this, but….” the “but” totally negates the positive feedback.
Hey I am human: I see things from a negative perspective at times. But (ha, slipped it in), I am always striving to improve and that includes seeing the good in things first. Respect, genuine appreciation and recognition drive a healthy organization. And it’s contagious. Positive people attract more positive people. And guess what, positive energy increases productivity, job satisfaction and ultimately… health.
Just like probiotic bacteria cultures (think yogurt) are supposed to improve your digestive system, pro-appreciatic cultures within your organization will improve the health of your business. Remember, it starts at the top and works its way through.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The New Retirement – Changing the World Part 2 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-new-retir-1 CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/the-new-retir-1.html DATE: 05/30/2008 09:02:00 AM ----- BODY:There are numerous components to a happy retirement:
You need to have a life plan to truly plan for retirement. What do you plan on doing in your later years? What do you hope to accomplish? Do you and your spouse agree on the plan? Will you have aging parents to support? Once you decide on the lifestyle you wish to lead and where you want to live you will be better able to determine what you need to achieve the goal.
More important than financial security is mental and physical health. Staying mentally active impacts your physical health as well. Eat better food and avoid excesses. Avoid substance abuse. Moderate exercise is important. By taking care of your body today and in the future you can add significant number of years to your life.
The more expensive your lifestyle today and before retirement, the longer you expect to live, the more you will need to have as a nest egg or retirement income to maintain your current lifestyle. It’s probably wise to have a two or three stage retirement plan. Say 60 to 70, 70 to 80 and 80 plus. The needs and wants in these phases are different. High income earners will face the most challenge in maintaining lifestyles, especially if you are without a good defined benefit pension plan. Since these are in decline in the corporate world and people no longer work 40 years for one employer this becoming a big issue. You probably need to save more than you think (often 15 to 30%) of your current income to assure a large enough nest egg.
Ultimately, with longer lives, a desire to continue a productive involvement in the working world and a shortage of enough retirement funds to maintain their current lifestyles, many aging boomers will elect to work longer and phased in retirements will become more popular.
Ultimately, due to the sheer numbers if nothing else, baby boomers are going to be changing retirement and old age.
Boomers are living this change, but non-boomers should understand this topic even more so. After all, its going to impact everyone to some degree.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: The New Retirement – Changing the World Part 1 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: the-new-retirem CATEGORY: Books and Courses CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/the-new-retirem.html DATE: 05/29/2008 01:59:43 PM ----- BODY:I just finished reading “The New Retirement” by Dr. Sherry Cooper (1998) in its entirety. Sherry Cooper (a baby boomer) is a senior economist with the Bank of Montreal. Now reading books by economists, actuaries and financial planners is generally not for the faint of heart and this book does not disappoint. Don’t get me wrong, there was lots of good information and things to think about but it does read more like an economics textbook than it needed to.
In this two part post, I will give you my shorter summary for many of the subjects covered in this book along with my own spin and a few extras to boot.
The baby boomers (those people born from 1946 to 1966 in Canada) are now rapidly approaching retirement years. The impact of this demographic bulge is studied from a mostly Canadian and US perspective. Because the boomers represent such a large segment of the population and because it’s occurring at a time in history where everything is rapidly changing, this cohort (demographic segment) is having a larger impact than many prior generations. However, we should remember that this book and indeed the boomer perspective is that of a generation looking inwards at itself. Most members of a generation consider themselves to be both more important and different from their parents.
The boomers as a group are actually split into the early boomers (born 1946 to 1954) and late boomers (born 1955 to 1966). The early and late boomers actually had quite different experiences in childhood and the workplace. Early boomers generally had more abundance as they got there first and before the major crowding (school, post secondary education, careers, etc.) that the late boomers faced. I can personally attest to that as I was born in 1965 and don’t really feel part of the boomer generation.
Due to vaccinations, better sources of food and other advances in medicine, people are living longer these days. More accurately, those with the means to afford medical coverage and better food are living longer. There is a substantial gap (especially in the US) between the haves and have-nots. At the same time there is a significant decrease in the fertility rate in Canada and most developed countries (well below replacement rates). Even with significant increases in immigration rates in the last few years, the population is still aging and there will be fewer people in the workforce as a ratio to those retired. This is going to have a significant impact on overall productivity and output. Since the economies of the western world are largely built around constant growth there are some issues around how domestic output will keep increasing with significantly fewer workers. This is in sharp contrast to developing nations where a younger workforce is in abundance.
There is a disturbing trend toward obesity and sedentary lifestyles in North America. This will have a downward pressure on longevity and significant upward pressure on the cost of medical services. This is driven by the food industry and consumers as high sugar, high fat and high salt content sells. At the same time, there is also a "wellness boom" where organic foods, alternative medicines/treatments, and holistic fitness are growing. There is also an expanding gap between the have (education and wealth) and have-nots. Simply put, healthy foods and lifestyles can cost more.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Angry People are Different STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: angry-people-ar CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/angry-people-ar.html DATE: 05/28/2008 06:05:52 PM ----- BODY:Seth Godin raises an interesting point in his post.
Dealing with an angry person can be an opportunitity or a drain on your business. His point is quite valid though, unless you can deal with the anger, you cannot move foward with any other subject or rational action.
If the person is not angry with you or your company you may have a huge opportunity. If you can resolve the problem you may have won yourself a loyal customer. However, you need to potentially spend a lot of time getting to the root of the issue. During this time you need to decide if the anger is chronic (if so find another customer unless you are an anger management coach) or if brought on by a rare situation.
If the person is angry with you, your company or your product there is is still opportunity. But you need to really listen and be prepared to take action. You may have already lost this person as a customer, but if the concerns are valid, you need to fix the problem. If its just a bad customer you may be better off moving on. Either way its an opportunity requiring careful thought and a decision.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Delivering Client Value STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: delivering-clie CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/delivering-clie.html DATE: 05/27/2008 01:37:50 PM ----- BODY:When all is said and done, moving to agile development methodologies has had positive results for us.
The biggest gain by far is the total focus on delivering client value early and at all stages of a project. Sure we were focused on client value before, but only at the milestones where there were client deliverables. Usually, iterations were longer and developers did the tasks in any order as long as the client got the expected result at the end of the day. This resulted in being 80% done for a long time yet having software that was not releasable or testable until near the (sometimes very busy) end.
Two things changed:
User Stories
By writing user requirements from the perspective of blocks of user defined functionality, things really change fast. The story is either completed or not. If it’s complete, it’s complete at all levels of the technology stack that the story affects. You either created the customer value or you didn’t.
Developers and other team members stay focused. You can only work on small number of stories at a time (preferably one). This means that they get completed before we move on to the next problems. The importance of this closure cannot be understated.
What this also means is that the user story can be tested by the customer as soon as it is completed. This leads to feedback much earlier in the cycle.
Short Iterations
Iterations are now generally 1-2 weeks (depending on the project). User stories are picked to fill the iteration (by the client or client representative) based on client priorities. Developers take on stories of their choosing from the iteration backlog until all the stories are completed.
Iteration velocity can easily be measured and progress more readily tracked. At the end of each iteration, only completed user stories count: and software must be stable and releasable. We can now fully test the software as part of each iteration, increasing the value of testing and quality assurance.
Conclusion
The combination of short iterations AND user stories is where it all comes together. A good source for further reading is “User Stories Applied” by Mike Cohn.
Whether it’s running the business or building software, it’s just smart business to always be focusing on delivering client value.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Making Dough 3 – Reinventing the Wheel STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: making-dough-3 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/making-dough-3.html DATE: 05/27/2008 06:25:00 AM ----- BODY:Why is that most people look at the manual (cookbook) only after they get really stuck? This is certainly true for navigating a car. How many people only ask for directions if they are desperate (or their wives make them)?
How many times does something get rebuilt from scratch when the problem has been solved a gazillion times before? Why do some people insist on doing things from scratch for no other reason than they want to do it their way (because it’s “better”)?
I challenge every one of you to learn from the success and failures of others. If you are reinventing the wheel…STOP.
Look at why you are doing it. Make sure that it’s not for any selfish reason. Make sure you are creating the most value for your employer, business or customer in everything you do. Don’t focus on reinventing the wheel, focus on the extras that will really wow your customers.
It’s a competitive and global economy. The organizations paying you deserve the best you have to offer.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Making Dough 2 – Effectiveness STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: making-dough-2 CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/making-dough-2.html DATE: 05/26/2008 07:00:00 AM ----- BODY:There are other lessons in the prior story as well. Making effective use of your precious time applies to not just business owners and managers.
Employees should strive to make a difference every day. You will spend at least one third of your waking adult life at work, you might as well get the most from it. Besides, by focusing on the most important things and not getting distracted by the noise around you, you are actually increasing your value and long term employability.
Another consideration for everyone is to know if a new skill is useful or if it’s wasted. Making taco shells is not a life goal, personal goal or otherwise. I may never use the skill again. However, I had a problem to solve, got caught up in solving the problem and focused on a low value problem until it was solved. How many times has everyone else done the same thing?
Learning new skills is important. It’s what keeps you growing. However, when you are considering your career or your business, you want to make sure that you are spending time learning stuff that is going to either get the job done or further your competence in the future (hopefully both).
Reality check: the biggest rewards usually go to the people who get results.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Making Dough STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: making-dough CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/making-dough.html DATE: 05/24/2008 11:25:08 PM ----- BODY:This evening we decided to have tacos for supper. I volunteered to cook dinner.
Started cooking up the lean ground beef, good so far. Got the onions, mushrooms and peppers ready. Looked for soft tortilla shells. None in the fridge or freezer. Looked for hard taco shells, none in cupboard. Now what? We are a 15 minutes drive (each way) from the store.
Well, I decided to make my own taco shells. They did it on survivor so it can’t be that hard. (Peanut gallery said it’s harder than it looks, I didn’t believe her.)
Round one: Found an empty wrapper for the soft whole wheat tortilla shells. Read ingredient list. Decided all the additives were not required. Made a thin whole wheat batter and heated up the pan. Poured the batter in… ended up with something resembling crepes.
Round two: Broke down and looked at recipe book. Tortilla shells are made from dough, I never really wondered before. Made some nice dough. Floured the counter, and rolled out the first tortilla shell. Nice. Problem! Can’t get the shell off the counter in one piece. Started again and kept adding more flour as I rolled it out. Hard to get them really thin and how do you get the excess flour off the bottom without tearing them? Heated up pan and did up the flour tortillas. Success.
After 2 hours of making shells plus another 30 minutes of cooking we finally ate dinner at 9:30 pm. Still have to clean up the flour.
Effective use of my time? Hardly. I could have went to the store and saved over an hour.
It’s much the same in business.
You must always be asking yourself if what you are spending your time on now is the most effective thing you could be doing for the business. Sure you need to balance long and short-term objectives, but focusing on the right things each day is how you really make the dough.
If your organization is like our organization, you were pair programming on and off long before attempting to adopt agile practices. Back then it was called mentoring and solving a difficult issue as a team.
For the last 6 months or so we’ve been using pair programming in a much more XP way on certain projects (driver and navigator, switching roles, etc.).
When the team is estimating work or tracking actual effort, there does not seem to be as much productivity gain involved as we had hoped. Usually the developers are saying, “Hey we like pairing, but I could do the same work myself in the allotted time and the other person could be doing something else.” One thing they all agree on is that when they are pairing they are less likely to be distracted by e-mail, phones, etc.
The biggest benefits from pairing so far seem to be mentoring and sharing knowledge, accelerated learning, cross training, better and more consistent design (depends on who the individuals are though), and perhaps reduced errors. For long running projects or products that will have a life cycle involving lots future changes and improvements, I suspect that the true benefits will manifest in the future. It could also be an experience factor or an imbalance of skills in the pair.
The literature (Pair Programming, XP Explained) seems to support 1+1 = 2 or 1+ 1 => 2. I think its achievable, I like to bet on a good team.
What is your experience? Does a pair always beat an Ace and a Jack?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sean Feldman EMAIL: feldman.sean.work@gmail.com IP: 79.183.120.130 URL: http://weblogs.asp.net/sfeldman DATE: 05/31/2008 03:37:54 AM Old saying claims: one head is good, two are better. ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: Don’t Worry, Be Golfing STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: dont-worry-be-g CATEGORY: Business Strategy CATEGORY: Dream Teams CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/dont-worry-be-g.html DATE: 05/21/2008 03:37:51 PM ----- BODY:In my research and contacts with numerous organizations I’ve come across an interesting observation. The people running things and making long-term decisions about how to handle the emerging demographic shift and labour shortages are generally within a few years of retirement themselves.
This only makes sense. After all, the most experienced people in a large organization by definition have been around a while, and they are entitled to retire after many years of service.
If good succession planning is happening, then perhaps it makes sense to turn this issue over to the candidate who is most likely to be filling the position in a couple of years. Organizationally, they have the most to gain by addressing the problem today. Of course full support and coaching by the current manager only leads to better results and a stronger candidate.
Then when the big day comes, the organization is still happily humming along with a secure legacy and the newly retired person is humming a different tune… don’t worry, be golfing (happy).
Demographics play a big role in the world. From marketers to city planners everyone is impacted one way or another by the population makeup. Currently, the most significant impact is thought to come from the Baby Boomers (those born between 1947 and 1966), a bulge in the population distribution affecting Canada and the US the most.
"Boom Bust and Echo" (by David Foot, 1996) outlined how this boom was going to affect Canadians in everything from the aging of the population to health care costs.
Sherry Cooper more recently updated the outlook in “The New Retirement” (2008) and talks about how the “me generation” is going change the face of retirement. Boomers are retiring earlier and will be launching second careers with better quality of life expectations.
“While America Aged” (Roger Lowenstein, 2008) just came out and talks about how the powers that be (unions, company leadership and government) have run up “ruinous” pension and health coverage benefits for retirement. Apparently giving big promises for the distant future seems easy in the present. Unfortunately, these benefits are already proving to be non-sustainable.
You only have to look at the speed companies moved away from Defined Benefit pension plans into Defined Contribution plans. Reason: the pain is here and now for these companies. You don’t have to look further than the big US car companies (Roger covers this more in his book) to see the impact on industry.
The costs of all this (unprofitable companies, large debt loads and very substantial future benefits costs) will be born by? You guessed it, the echo generation (the children of the boomers).
But guess what, the echo generation is different, as every generation is. Look around you at who they are and how they live. It’s a world of extreme marketing, social web, instant credit, instant gratification and having it all now… life at hyper-speed and still accelerating. The key question then becomes, is this generation selflessly going to accept less for themselves to pay for their predecessor’s excesses (perceived or real)?
Is it solvable? Probably. Will it be solved? I don’t know. Is the sky falling? I hope not.
I do know one thing, the boomer generation was bigger, but the echo generation will be louder.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Doug Wagner AUTHOR EMAIL: dwagner@sunwaptasolutions.com TITLE: TDD Inaction STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 1 BASENAME: tdd-inaction CATEGORY: Software Development CATEGORY: Doug's Blog UNIQUE URL: http://doug.manifast.com/2008/05/tdd-inaction.html DATE: 05/16/2008 04:14:26 PM ----- BODY:Our company is on the path towards adopting full agile development practices. As the senior “manager” this fits into three of my goals:
But this is not just a management initiative. It’s being driven by some of our development staff as well. The rest of the team is coming around over time as they “see what’s in it for them”.
Recently, we tried to implement full test driven development (TDD) on a small two person project. While it furthered our knowledge of what we didn’t know, unfortunately the project velocity dropped to zero in the first iteration. Now to be sure, this does not mean no work was done.
Agile is about delivering client value. So we’ve adopted the rule (as stated by Mike Cohn in his book, User Stories Applied) that at the end of the iteration, only fully completed stories count towards iteration velocity. Without going into details, the stories were not 100% completed and even if they had been, the amount accomplished was far less than what would have been accomplished without using TDD.
At the end-iteration retrospective, the TEAM decided that in order to maintain the project schedule and budget, it would be necessary to back off on the “all” TDD objective. I agreed with the assessment but added one condition:
The developers would continue to write at least a few tests (TDD or unit at their discretion) for areas of the code that would most benefit. This matches JP’s (Jean-Paul Boodhoo) advice when he visited, start with Unit Testing key components that would benefit and grow your ability as you learn.
You see, setbacks are not failures, they are opportunities to learn. Agile is not a destination, it’s a journey towards software and process excellence… always improving and moving forward.
That reminds me, I need to see how that testing is going…
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