Too Busy to think about (improving) Your Business? — Join the club

I had a conversation with a few business consultants this week.  Their world is a world of:  finding clients, challenging clients, guiding clients.  It is a never-ending process, and their competitors are many – with the largest competitor being “no-one.”

The more I listened, the more I realized this:  the average person is so busy doing his/her job, running the business, that thinking about business innovation, business strategy, business improvement – simply thinking about the business itself – is something beyond the demands of their day/week/month.

Which is my problem – and I suspect yours.  I always have my next book to read, my next synopsis to prepare, my next speaking engagement to prepare for, that time to spend thinking about and improving my business always slips away. It is always the last priority – which means it does not get done.

So this conversation was especially helpful to me.  And here’s the challenge for all of us – if we are so busy doing our job/working in our business that we don’t have time to think about our business, then we need to carve out time for that — to think, to plan, to improve….  Real soon.

Adam Werbach on “Nature’s Simple Rules”

Adam Werbach

In Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto, published by Harvard Business Press (2009), Werbach identifies and then discusses what he characterizes as “Nature’s Simple Rules” as a basis of strategy and execution. They are:

1. Diversity across generations to support long-term species survival.

2. Adapt and specialize to the changing environment with precise navigation and adjustment to changes of climate, food, and predators.

3. Celebrate transparency by knowing where and what are dangerous as well as where and what are not.

4. Plan and execute systematically, not compartmentally, by devising solutions that optimize the entire system rather than individuals.

5. Form groups and protect the young by developing strengths and resources that are sufficient to the threats.

6. Integrate metrics as Nature does by obtaining the right information, applying it in the right situation at the right time.

7. Improve each cycle because evolutions can be harsh “but it’s a strategy for long-term survival.”

8. Right-size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally, because “organisms adjust to be as small or large as necessary.”

9. Foster longevity, not just immediate gratification, because Nature “does not support unlimited growth or inefficient use of resources, but it does foster longevity.”

And then one of Werbach’s most valuable insights:

10. Waste nothing, recycle everything, and borrow little. “One organism’s waste is another’s food. Some of the greatest opportunities in the twenty-first century will be turning waste (inefficiency, underutilization, energy waste) into profit.”

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson on embracing constraints

Jason Fried

Here is a series of brief excerpts from one of the chapters in Rework, co-authored by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. It was published by Crown Business/Random House in 2010.

* * *

“I don’t have enough time/money/people/experience.” Stop whining. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.

For example, “Southwest – unlike most other airlines, which fly multiple aircraft models – flies only Boeing 737s. As a result, every Southwest pilot, flight attendant, and ground crew member can work any flight. Plus, all of Southwest’s parts fit all of its planes. All that means lower costs and a business that’s easier to run. They made it easy on themselves.

“These days, we [i.e. 37signals, a software company that Fried and Hansson co-founded years ago] have more resources and people, but we still force constraints. We make sure to have only one or two people working on a product at a time. And we always keep features to a minimum. Boxing ourselves in this way prevents us from creating bloated products.

“So before you sing the ‘not enough’ blues, see how far you can get with what you have.”

David Heinemeier Hansson

* * *

Although Eliyahu Goldratt introduced a similar concept in Theory of Constraints in 1990, I think his most important work is The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (first published in 1984 and most recently revised 2004). In it, Goldratt develops the concept to a much greater extent.

Book Review: Strategy for Sustainability

Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto
Adam Werbach
Harvard Business Press (2009)

As Werbach explains in the Introduction, all companies have the opportunity to formulate and then execute a strategy that will enable them to avoid severely damaging if not fatal problems such as those encountered within the last 12-18 months by major corporations such as AIG, Bear Stearns, Chrysler, and General Motors. This book, he adds, “is about developing and executing a company’s strategy that takes into account all aspects of sustainability but that is useful enough to be implemented today. It’s about involving employees and the community in every part of the process. And it’s about survival.” He asserts that true sustainability has four coequal components, all of which must be accommodated by the strategy that is require: social (i.e. acting as if other people matter), economic (i.e. operating profitably), environment (i.e. protecting and restoring the ecosystem), and cultural (i.e. protecting and valuing cultural diversity). “In building a strategy for sustainability, companies must accept that a constant state of change is becoming the status quo. Sustainable organizations celebrate positive action in the face of bureaucracy and indifference.” More often than not, positive action encounters culture resistance, what James O’Toole so aptly describes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”

Through his narrative, Werbach makes brilliant use of reader-friendly devices, including checklists such as these as well as mini-commentaries such as “Does `Built to Last Mean’ Sustainable?” (Pages 38, 41-42) and Tables such as “Comparison of a built-to-last strategy with a strategy for sustainability (Pages 39-40). He explains how to formulate a different way to formulate a business strategy, how to map available opportunities, how to “set a North Star” and initiate the “TEN” cycle, how to use transparency to execute strategy, engage individuals throughout (and beyond) the given enterprise, how to establish and strengthen a “network of sustainability partners,” and how to develop leadership at all levels and in all areas. My frequent use of the phrase “how to” is intentional, correctly emphasizing Werbach’s pragmatic approach throughout the book.

He concludes with an especially appropriate excerpt from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series: “If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat. Life is a level of complexity that almost lies outside our vision; it is so far beyond anything we have any means of understanding that we just think of it as a different class of object, a different class of matter; `life,’ something that had a mysterious essence about it…” Given that, what does Adam Werbach suggest? “When a situation seems too complicated grasp, grasping it isn’t always necessary or even possible – so do what you can, when you can. Act now.”

Follow Me on Twitter to Get a Quick alert about each new blog post

I usually tweet a link to each new blog post, by me, and all of our blogging team members. (If I am out speaking or teaching, I may be a few hours late).

So one way to learn what is up on our blog pretty quickly is to follow me on twitter.  Follow me here:  Randy1116.

Switch & Tribes & Many Other New Business Book Synopsis Presentations now available at 15minutebusinessbooks.com

Karl Krayer and I have just completed our 12th year of monthly presentations of business books at the First Friday Book Synopsis.

Our webmaster (thanks, Dana!) has just uploaded a number of these on our companion website, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.  When you purchase one of our presentations, you receive the handout, which includes representative key quotes from the book, and an outline of the content of the book.  In addition, you receive the audio of our synopsis in an MP3 format, which you can listen to on your computer, load into your iPhone/iPod, of use in any other way you would like.

The way to take maximum advantage of this is obvious – listen to the recording while following along with the handout.  This is what the participants at our live monthly event do each month.  But you can get plenty of information by listening alone while you work-out or drive, or just by reading the handout alone.

Here’s a testimonial from the CEO of a mid-sized, growing company.  He knew that a client was a fan of one the books we had presented, and wanted to discuss the book’s implications for his business.  The CEO purchased our synopsis from our site, read over the handout (he did not have time to listen to the audio), and then met with his client. The client had read the book – the CEO had not.  As they discussed the book, it was clear that our handout had provided enough of the important content that the CEO actually had a better grasp of the key content and transferable principles of the book than the other person had, who had actually read the book.

If you have never ordered from us, you might want to read the FAQ’s to understand where these presentations and recordings were made, and learn a little more about what we offer.  Some of these were presented by my colleague Karl Krayer, and the others were presentations I made.

Here is a partial list of the new titles now available on our site.  And more are coming each month.

59 Seconds Book author(s) Richard Wiseman Presented at FFBS in 2010 March

The Design of Business Book author(s) Roger Martin Presented at FFBS in 2010 February

Fierce Leadership Book author(s) Susan Scott Presented at FFBS in TYBTL

The Healing of America Book author(s) TR Reid Presented at the Urban Engagement Book Club

Inside Advantage Book author(s) Robert Bloom with Dave Conti Special Presentation

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Book author(s) Verne Harnish Special Presentation

Supercorp Book author(s) Rosabeth Moss Kanter Presented at FFBS in 2010 February

Superfreakonomics Book author(s) Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner Presented at FFBS in 2009 December

Switch Book author(s) Chip Heath and Dan Heath Presented at FFBS in 2010 March

Trade-off Book author(s) Kevin Maney Presented at FFBS in 2010 January

Tribes Book author(s) Seth Godin Presented at FFBS in 2009 January

Tyranny of Email Book author(s) John Freeman Presented at FFBS in 2010 January