• They are led by a strong coach who believes in them and prepares them for the tough situations they are likely to face.  He helps them work on the key skills they will need to excel and walks them mentally through the difficult scenarios they could face.  This coach leverages his experience.
• They actually believe in themselves and know that they can win.  Teams like this are rarely cocky because expectations are lower and they realize they are underdogs, but they fundamentally know that they have the ability and the drive to succeed.
• They play as a team and not as individuals.  While undoubtedly, any team that advances in the NCAA tournament has individuals with high levels of skill, these Cinderella teams invariably play as a cohesive unit, complement each other well and feed off of each other.
• These teams can feel the legions of new supporters getting behind them and they use this new energy and support to accelerate their momentum.

So how does all of this relate to business?  Today, many companies, even very successful ones, are facing a dearth of talent at the top.  It’s a real succession crisis.  There are no Cinderella teams, everyone who is in leadership worked their way up through long and predictable career progressions.  As a result, the demographics at each level of the management pyramid are relatively consistent in terms of age, gender and nationality.  A lack of diversity encourages group-think and impedes innovation.  People who came from the same place and walked down the same road for the same length of time tend to think similarly.

I would posit that it’s highly beneficial for your company culture to have a few Cinderellas bubbling up through your hierarchy.  These are the women and men who ultimately hit your executive suite in their late thirties or early forties as opposed to their fifties or sixties.   Their performance and responsibility exceeds their experience, by a wide margin.  Not every young person has the right makeup for such a career acceleration, but certain players can really rise to the occasion if they are given the chance.  How do you make this happen?

• You can usually identify these people very early in their career, within two to four years out of college.  It may be hard to put your finger on it, but there will be something about their drive, their curiosity, their inherent leadership and their desire to make each job bigger than it is on paper which will let you know that they need to be stretched, really stretched.  Don’t over-analyze it.  Trust your gut.  
• Start developing them very, very early.  Move them twice as fast as you normally would.  Rotate them across functions and geographies so that they are equipped to play every position on the team.  Put them in stretch assignments that very few people think they are capable of pulling off and set up an infrastructure that helps them succeed.
• Build up a small network of assistant coaches and supporters.  Find a few other colleagues that also believe in these young folks as much as you do, so that you aren’t the only source of confidence and direction for these young people.
• Spend time with them leveraging your experience.  With each new position, help them understand the challenges, help them understand the political hot spots, and walk them through some of the more difficult scenarios they are likely to encounter.  Role play with them so that they can visualize how to deal with these battles once they invariably surface.  Without terrifying them, keep them ever mindful of any potential career-limiting mistakes which could be made.  Remind them that you a have a lot of your personal credibility equity invested in them and to please keep their nose clean.
• Build a strong mentor relationship which outlives your direct manager-subordinate working relationship.  Just as Professional basketball players still often call their college and high school coaches for advice before a big game, build a trust relationship that will enable you to keep being a sounding board and informal personal adviser  for your proteges even after they haven’t worked for you in years.  It’s a rewarding relationship and a great investment in your talent pool.

Even though the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles are unlikely to make it to the Championship Game, they will develop more over the next week or so than they probably have at any point in their basketball careers to date.  You have a similar opportunity to give some selected 15 and 16 seeds in your entry level ranks the same kind of accelerated development ride.  Find your in-house Cinderella Teams and Root for them!!

by Jeffrey J Davis

Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From

The key breakthrough concept for me in this video is that most innovations arise out of the collision between two slow hunches.   Although I bill myself as an “Innovative Leader”, I’ve always been of the  belief that there is very little truly original thought in this world, and that most innovation comes from the creative combination of existing ideas.  Johnson’s “slow hunch” analogy made this concept gel and click for me somehow.    It made me really start thinking that the breakthrough for organizational innovation is in developing a way to uncover and  intelligently  link all of the “slow hunches” buried in the minds of our associates.   I think the degree of difficulty of  this problem scales exponentially as your organizational size grows, but then again, so does the opportunity.

We have a lot of proven methods for matchmaking in today’s society;  eHarmony.com, AirBnB, Speed Dating, Incubator Demo Days:   They all aim to match unmet needs with underutilized potential.  Heck, my Google Ads sponsored results and my Facebook targeted ads are working 24/7 to help me satisfy needs I don’t even realize that I have yet!!  We have the technology to do this, we just need to apply it.

In an organization, many people (not only sales people) have ideas about unmet customer needs.  Many other people (not only R&D people)  may have ideas about different ways to leverage and apply existing or developing technologies.  Can it really be so hard to intelligently matchmake here?

I could see it working in at least a couple of different ways.  In one such system , Slow Hunches could be explicitly entered into some sort of  a common shared database:

1. “What If . . . ?” hunches could highlight unmet needs that customers might not even realize they have and would generally take the form “What If – A Current Problem – Could be Solved to a Certain Degree?”  i.e. “What if you could clean your hair without using water and without having to enter a shower?”,  or “What if peanut butter was dispensed in a way that you could easily get it all out of the container?”.  The key here is highlighting the problem and inferring the benefit, with no focus on possible solutions, feasibility etc.
2. “I think . .  .” hunches could be ideas about ways to use existing or developing  technologies to solve different problems than they are used for today and would take the general form “I think — Current Technology — could also be useful for — A different problem or application.”  i.e. “I think our high temperature corrosion proof turbine blade alloy could make good cooking utensils” , or “I think the hydrophobic coating we are developing for fabric stain resistance could be useful for waterproofing iPhones”.  Again, there doesn’t need to be validation or verification, remember, it’s just a hunch.

Probably these “What If?” and “I think . . .” hunches should be kept short and sweet and almost tweet length.  We have to make it easy to log brain burps and we have to give people the confidence to know that it’s okay to only have half of an idea.   A central database of needs and potential solutions should be pretty simple to query and bounce off  itself  using key word and concept searches to highlight potential Slow Hunch Collisions.  The corresponding hunch authors could then be connected to flesh out their hunch collision more fully and see if it warranted an ad hoc team to research the potential.

This is just one concept of a method to lure ideas out of hiding and match them together.  I’m sure there are more sophisticated tools which could identify and match interests, beliefs and unsolved problems based on search histories or other internet activity.  The key point is that leadership of the enterprise needs to realize that there is a gold mine of untapped innovation opportunity buried right beneath the noses of their org charts and that they need to establish frameworks to uncover the Slow Hunches in their organizations and to help them to collide.  That’s where innovation happens, at the collision of the Slow Hunches.

What ideas would you have for tools to facilitate the Slow Hunch Collisions?

 by Jeffrey J Davis

I am a manufacturing guy by background.  I have run factories and now I run a real business, making real products that solve real problems for real people.  Of course I am in it to make money for my company and hopefully money for myself.  But by operating non-virtual assets, I am also able to see the much broader economic benefit that my business provides.  In addition to the personal salaries earned by over one thousand employees at my six manufacturing operations in US and Europe, there are the employees’ incomes, the company incomes, and the reinvestments of my suppliers, my suppliers’ suppliers, my logistics partners, etc.  Manufacturing of “Non-Virtual Products” creates lasting value in our economies.  Additionally, where there is value creation, there is inevitably taxation, which helps to solve  the major budget crises which the US is facing right now.

On the other hand, a technology based social media or smart phone app start-up has a much smaller trickle down impact on the economy.  As Thomas Friedman recently noted, the number of employees is typically much smaller and the resulting supply chain impact is minimal.  Sure, the local Starbuck’s, web hosting company, Pizza takeout joint and foosball table distributor get some lift from a new tech startup, but the overall stimulus to the economy is much smaller.  And while it may be much harder to quantify, I do not dispute that many successful tech companies offer products or services which create value for their users via increased productivity, group buying, etc.  But I really struggle to find much meaningful tangible, lasting economic value creation in a producer of virtual goods.  Many, many hot tech startups have been invested, exited and subsequently evaporated in the prior Web 2.0 and current Social Media technology inflatable balloons.  For many of these companies, the net aggregate cash flows once the music stopped and the dust settled flowed from users and customers into the pockets of founders and VC’s.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people getting rich from their work, I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to do it for almost 30 years.  But it feels a little bit like a Ponzi scheme and I do not think it’s a sufficiently robust way to drive true lasting economic recovery.

The US remains one of the most innovative countries in the world.  We have great research and key technologies which can create real value for society in such industries as alternative energy, green chemistry, advanced materials, high efficiency transportation, smart grid power distribution, pharmaceuticals, water purification, etc.  Each of these industries could be a real starting point for sustained economic vitality and renewed competitiveness for the US.  Regional hubs and corridors for key technologies could fuel synergy and innovation.  Real technologies could evolve into real production plants which employed real employees and supported real supplier ecosystems.  Rest assured, we would still need founders, management teams and VC’s who would earn well-deserved wealth, but in a non-Ponziconomy, they wouldn’t be the only ones.

 by Jeffrey J Davis

As I neared my destination, Google Navigation decided that it was better for me to leave familiar Highway 220 and take this route over the mountain instead.  ”No problem” I thought, Google Nav had never done me wrong.  The road quickly degraded into a roughly paved, un-marked road, marked only as Route 606.  Ominous signs indicated “No Vehicles over 25ft, Buses and Trucks strongly discouraged” and “Not recommended for GPS Navigation”.  The last one threw me somewhat; was the route  somehow underground or underwater?  Anyway,  I forged on and figured I would just turn back if it somehow became impassible.   (I drive a BMW M3, not the Magic Schoolbus, so I figured I could probably make it).

Despite a narrow 1.5 lane road with no marking, no guard rails and switchbacks galore, I ended up being so happy that I took the road less traveled.  The views were staggering, green lush mountain forest as far as the eye could see, and I had the road to myself, only passing one other car on the whole route.  I was able to drive much “more aggressively” than normally recommended in Virgina, the land of illegal radar detectors.  The adrenalin from the switchbacks and the fragrance of a moist spring forest really inspired me.

Routine and convention dull our psyche and our innovative capability.  Your mind has a tendency to just check out if you are executing a routine task or driving a familiar itinerary that you can do in your sleep.   The next time you have a chance, don’t drive to work via the same route you always take.  Take a detour, roll down the windows and really take in your surroundings.  Notice all the things you never noticed before. Tomorrow when you get up, don’t go to your normal daily staple of websites / blogs, StumbleUpon randomly or wander around on Tumblr to see something new and inspiring.  Walk to lunch, instead of driving, and take it all in.

Innovation is all about recycling and synergizing other inputs and ideas from your environment.  The more chances you have to charge your RAM with fresh inputs and stimuli, the better chance you will have to come up with something creative.

Take the road less traveled.  I guarantee you, you will be more motivated and innovative once you get to your destination.

  by Jeffrey J Davis

Potential mistakes they made which might have led  up to such tragic endings:

• Totally ignored the potential risks: They never considered it, frankly never understood it, never saw it coming, and most likely died an immediate and unexpected death.
• Understood the risks but poorly timed their transition: They were aware of the risks in shifting to the new space, and probably even studied the transition area for some time before crossing the road.  But due to some combination of bad data, incorrect analysis and bad luck, they happened to time their move at precisely the wrong moment.
• Failed to move decisively: They noticed an oncoming car, then quickly backed away from their plan and reversed direction, then re-initiated again, vacillating quickly with almost squirrel-like indecision.  They failed to plan their move and commit to it fully.  He who hesitates is lost.
• Detected an oncoming threat, but failed to act quickly enough: Many of these players planned their move carefully and were aware of the potential risks.  When making their shift, unfortunately, their acknowledged worst case scenario materialized.  Rather than acting promptly at the earliest identification of the risk, they stood fixated, like the proverbial “Deer In The Headlights”. (Pun intended.)

Don’t get me wrong, there is often a  strong imperative to get to the other side of the road for any number of reasons.  Just because there is risk, does not mean that the transition might not be required or desirable.  But a strong analysis of risks, potential scenarios and a well-timed plan, executed decisively, will help ensure that your business does not die an untimely death.

Don’t let your business become roadkill!!

(Image courtesy of deepwarren under Creative Commons License.)

  by Jeffrey J Davis

See the full gallery on Posterous

Came across these two Shanzai Convenience stores on opposing sides of a busy Nanhui intersection yesterday. I wonder which one dupes more customers?  Both of these Japanese chains have huge presences in China;  Lawson’s has over 300 stores in Shanghai alone, and Family Mart has nearly 400 outlets in Shanghai.  With such a huge investment, I wonder how much they appreciate their brand equity getting hijacked and dilluted by these knock-off branches?

Posted via email from jeffreyjdavis’s posterous

 by Jeffrey J Davis

This very cool infographic (Originally hosted at blog.kissmetrics.com) details the many unsuspected ways that color can impact emotion and hence buying behavior.   We all know that we tend to have a “connection” with various colors and that brands have connections with colors (John Deere Green,  Coke Red) , but we probably don’t think very often about how marketers use these color affinities to shape our purchase intent.

I used to work a lot with color back in the GE ColorXpress days, and trust me there are entire groups like the Color Association that do nothing but plan and forecast color trends in industry.  It’s really quite fascinating.  So if you somehow feel “drawn” to a product for no explainable reason, think about the role that colors may have in your decisions.

 by Jeffrey J Davis

via wired.com

Finally my dream job, commercializing two things I’m passionate about, Wind Energy and Kiteboarding.

Take a huge oceanic catamaran, stick a hydroelectric turbine underneath it, and hitch it to a 6.5 million-square-foot parafoil flying nearly a mile in the air. That’s a Korean research team’s new proposal for generating gigawatts of clean energy.

As the parafoil pulls the boat, seawater would be forced through the turbine, which generates electricity. The 800 megawatts of electricity produced would separate seawater into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis, and the hydrogen would then be stored on-board the ships.

I sure hope that 720,000 meter foil is water relaunchable!!!

Read the full story at Wired Science.

Posted via web from jeffreyjdavis’s posterous

“Time Changes Everything.” “Everything Changes Over Time.”  Said differently, or more technically, most things which you can measure can be considered as a function of time.  This applies to most personal metrics:

• Your weight,
• Your career progression,
• Your achievement of key goals,
• Your net worth,

as well as to most business metrics:

• Your company’s revenue run rate,
• Your company’s profit run rate,
• The yield of a manufacturing process,
• The quality of your company’s products or services, or
• Your customer’s  satsifaction with your offerings.

As a leader, when you ask people in your company how well you are doing on a certain key metric, they rarely tell you that things are rapidly getting worse.  I’ve found that they also tend to under represent areas where you are doing well.  I’ve found that the most common answers you are likely to hear are mediocre answers such as “it’s stable”, “it’s doing OK”, “so-so” or “we’re holding our own.”

Well, if these answers are similar to the answers you usually get, I have a news flash for you.  Your people are LYING to you! Here’s why.  To get  slightly technical again and take you back to Calc I, the slope of any function F(t) is defined by its  first deriviative, F’(t).  The only points where the function is not either increasing or decreasing are the local maxima or local minima, the points where F’(t) is equal to zero.  Everywhere else, the function is either increasing or decreasing.  Do the math!!

So other than for the occasional brief millisecond, your business has to either be constantly getting better or worse.  If your people can’t tell you with conviction that things are getting better, chances are they are probably getting worse and you need to get on it!! Challenge those First Derivative assertions!!  Keep the velocity positive!!

 by Jeffrey J Davis