It turns out this company has been innovating for decades and its most recent innovation is a refuse truck that loads with an automated All-Can grabber that can reach side-to-side—the only one of its kind.  You might ask, “so what?”  The truck comes fully equipped with a joystick-controlled robotic arm with a claw, used to automatically lift and tip wheeled bins into the truck’s hopper.  The Automated Side Loader only needs one operator, where a traditional rear load garbage truck may require two or three people.  Less labor and thus less cost; more profits for the waste management company who invests in these trucks.

Companies like McNeilus are an inspiration to entrepreneurial minded businesses.  They add value to their customer’s operations (in this case increasing their bottom line by eliminating not only labor cost, but also benefits and worker’s compensation cost).  Engineers at this Company are relentless in their pursuit of designing and implementing new concepts in a very mature industry.

Here are three key takeaways:

• Innovate passionately.  Calling attention to problems or identifying opportunities is often easy.  What business leaders seek are solutions.  New concepts that will either complete the missing piece of the puzzle, or will contribute to profitability and growth in a whole new way.
• Push your thinking.   We often think that ideas, like the side loader, come from aliens with massive brains and high density super computers.  When faced with difficult business challenges, dig deep, get rid of the distractions (start with your smart phone) and force yourself to think it through.  Collaboration with colleagues is another way to get clarity of thought.
• Make a difference.  Not all creative thought has to be as dramatic as the Side Loader.  The key is to end each day with this question “Did I make a difference today”?  With a shrinking employed labor force, business leaders and their customers are looking for innovative problem solvers who make a difference.

Pardon the pun. Think outside the trash can.

Whichever camp you fall into, there are great lessons to be learned from a successful, savvy and typically highly intelligent group of business barbarians (a term of endearment).

The recipe PEGs use to make money has a number of key ingredients (highlighted in bold) complete with all the proper cooking tools.  They are as follows:

• 1 detailed cook book………..also known as a business plan
• 1 large caldron…………………..to sift through talent
• 1 cooking thermometer……..to measure the timeline
• 1 teaspoon………………….of patience
• 1 atomic scale………………to precisely measure results



PEG will NEVER enter into a transaction without a clear, well thought out and analytical business plan.  Next—the main ingredient to success—is the careful selection of talented “doers” who earn a seat at the table.  Once a transaction occurs, a Gantt chart is instituted for every element of the business.  AND, deadlines move only in one direction.  No time is wasted on emotions, fluff or blame.  It’s all about results and measuring successful outcomes.

While we can’t pretend to be a PEG, or to have to agree with all their business practice, there are a few things we can learn from their recipe for success and their cooking secrets and bake them into our businesses. If we learn nothing else from PEG, we must have three important ingredients in our recipe for success:

• Ownership. Accepting an investment of capital from PEG mandates a noticeable change in behavior.  Managers and teams suddenly realize that their projects need to get done accurately, timely and completely.  Ownership of risk rests on their shoulders, not with PEG.  And guess what happens when there is one neck to grab?  Results improve noticeably.
• Urgency. Practice a discipline that celebrates a sense of urgency.  Each day—strike that—each minute counts.  Lose the idea that “it” will eventually get done.  Hold yourself and your team accountable to agreed upon deadlines.  Adopt the expression—“we’re burning daylight over here”.
• Execution. PEG is ruthless in demanding results.  We should hold ourselves to that same standard.  Frequently, projects are started and abandoned or executed partially.  Successful execution means understanding the task that has to be done and doing it right the first time.  PEG rewards seamless execution and punishes weak performers.

Does your business have the recipe for success?

Clearly, the accomplishments of Team 6 reminded us of the importance of Courage when faced with tasks that take us completely out of our comfort zone; about Discipline and the need to concentrate of what must get done; about Confidence when put in a position of responsibility to lead a project; about Team work and how we must rely on the strength of cross functional teams when it comes to tackling complex projects and how we must have complete acceptance of what needs to get done, with no doubts.

Beyond these and other great messages, there are three key imperatives that this event brought to us and they are as follows:

• Elite talent is a must have. Hiring, training and retaining talent is the highest priority of successful organizations.  It is challenging, time consuming and daunting.  There is no substitute for a few GREAT people.  Yet, we tend to hire to fill open positions and do not reverse our decision inside that critical initial 90 day window, if it appears we made the wrong decision.  Talent, or lack thereof, will reveal itself in those first 90 days.  Once the individual has passed this first gate, extensive training must follow.  Finally, every effort must be made to retain this asset.

• Preparation is a precursor for execution. While organizations believe this in principle, the majority fail to invest in the preparation time.  Planning is viewed as “micro management”.  In many situations, the heavy lifting is in the preparation for a project because the elements of proper execution are mapped out and thus getting the job done flows smoothly with no surprises.

• There must always be a Plan B. Successful organizations bake-in an alternate plan in case unexpected events arise.  Nothing is left to chance.  There is an exit plan or an alternate path to take to get the original mission accomplished.  All too often, no time is devoted to this element and when roadblocks occur, the organization tries to react and most often fails to execute.

While we can’t carry out missions that have historical perspective, we can contribute to the successes of our respective organizations by adopting game changing business practices.

As consumers, we are selective in companies we choose to do business with, based on their Brand reputation.  Why then would employers or potential customers of ours, not have that same line of thinking?

Successful brands are ABLE….they have characteristics that end in the letters a-b-l-e.



• Successful brands are Memorable, because they are interesting.  We are drawn to them because they are unique and different.  If you have ever been to a Cirque du Soleil show you will have a tough time forgetting what it was all about, and a difficult time describing what you experienced.  Their success has translated into annual revenues of $800 million.  What have you done recently that makes your Brand memorable?

• Successful brands are Reliable, because they are consistent.  We are confident about what we will experience, because they are trustworthy and dependable.  You can walk into a McDonald’s in Shanghai, Mexico City, or Atlanta, and the french fries will have that same fantastic taste, and you won’t be disappointed with the cleanliness of the bathroom.  Their annual revenues exceed $24 billion—but that what is remarkable is that they had net income of $5 billion in 2010—a BIG 21% net profit margin.  How reliable is your Brand and can you measure your success economically?

• Successful brands are Unstoppable, because they are multi-dimensional.  We can never get enough of them, because they are strong and confident.  Apple continues to prove that they are not a computer company.  They have so many exciting products, that we stand in line at the malls waiting patiently to give them our money.  Recession, competition, tension in the Middle East—nothing stops them from advancing.  They generated $65 billion in sales and $14 billion in profits in 2010.  Does your Brand isolate you in a box and tag you singularly, or are you perceived as a multi-faceted individual?

Start thinking of yourself as a Brand and emulate successful Corporate Brands by becoming remarkABLE.

Pacing the aisles on a Boeing 757 on a half day journey to the West Coast, I can’t help but notice the number of Kindle’s in use by my fellow passengers.  Electronics replacing print.  Who would have the courage to make masses of people take the leap and go against traditional forms of reading?  Would you?

In complete awe, it is another reminder of how behavioral transformation takes vision, courage and unconditional execution.  Wi-Fi on-board, has replaced gazing out the window; gourmet coffee has pushed aside free airline coffee; and if you want to purchase food or an adult beverage, you better have plastic on you.

Returning to my seat, I am painfully playing the “why didn’t I think of that” tape in my head, reinforcing a great lesson that innovators earn their billions by finding a path to changing our behavior and habits.

Many of us participate in change, almost without awareness, but few have the gift of a game changing innovation.  And why is that?  Distractions with non-value add activities would be one of a countless number of reasons, why there are only a few like Mark Zuckerberg roaming this earth.

So, what is a common person to do?  Here are some points to consider:

• Strip away the distractions, sit back and imagine. “Thinking” has been replaced by “Clicking”.  It is so much easier to play with smart phone apps, click on website icons and hit “send/receive” to see if an e-mail came through in the last nano second—than finding time to just think.  Find 30 minutes a day of quiet time to let your mind wonder and imagine possibilities.  Try exercises that force the opposite side of your brain to get stimulated and to design an idea.
• Develop the courage to experiment. What separates entrepreneurs from the rest of us—the courage to pursue dreams.  Jeff Bazos had just launched Amazon.com in 1995 and in 1997 when Barnes & Noble launched their website to compete with him, everyone thought Bazos was done.  Amazon shares plummeted to a mere $6 a share.  Bazos kept re-engineering and re-designing his on-line innovation.  Today AMZN trades at $176+ a share, has a market capitalization exceeding $78 billion and some say was responsible for driving Borders to bankruptcy.  A great design needs great engineering.
• Execute with a passion. Too many designs are built poorly and as a result, execution falters and is done with reservation and pause at the first sign of interference.  Some would argue that the real heavy lifting is not in the previous two phases, it occurs here.  If you read “Pour Your Heart Into It” you will indeed see that Howard Schultz drove Starbuck’s relentlessly to the industry leader it is today.

We all have the ability to transform human behavior in our respective positions, albeit not to the same extent as those sited here.  Why not set is as a goal for 2011—for instance transforming those you work with be more productive and successful.

An excellent example of such a company is Wal*Mart.  Despite its age (65 years old) and size ($408 billion in revenue and 2.1 million employees), it continues to grow year after year.   The way management has guided this company through its early development stages without turning it into a bureaucratic dying enterprise is a brilliant study in corporate leadership.

One of the reasons why Wal*Mart has succeeded is because everyone in leadership positions has understood their role through the various lifecycles.  Here are some points to consider:

• Determine your company’s stage of development—there are some very good books on the subject, including one by my good friend, Dr. Ichak Adizes, entitled Corporate Lifecycles. Learn to pinpoint where your company is on the bell shaped curve.
• Adapt your management style—to meet the needs for the stage of development your company is in.  For example, in the growing years, success stems from taking risks (embrace it), emphasis is on function not form (be patient), cash is poor (don’t panic).
• Breathe life into the lifecycle—which means having the confidence in yourself to step aside, if the company’s lifecycle does not match your skill sets.  An example would be an entrepreneurial company which has matured to become a publicly traded company, and thus require the skill sets of a “professional leader” vs. a “founder”.

Everyone within an organization has a role to play in the successful sustainability of their enterprise.  The more senior the role, the more critical it is to weigh actions taken vs. the stage of life your company is in.

Here is the good news.  Unlike humans, if your organization has gone past its Prime, through proper leadership and careful nurturing it can reverse course.

With the advent of the New Year just around the corner, and excess cash sitting on balance sheets of companies, is it time to look for an exit strategy?  Obviously, a lot depends on the Company’s overall long term plan, where they are in their corporate life cycle, the willingness of the owner or shareholders to sell the business and a host of other issues.

One point is universally clear.  No business should be started or acquired, without an exit strategy in mind.  That may sound unrealistic, but if the intrinsic value of a business to a potential buyer downstream is not clear before the doors open, then there is a missing element to the business that needs to be addressed before the first sale is made.

Determining the inflection point to pursue to an exit takes courage and determination, since such plans are draining, life changing, and time consuming with a long tail.  There is temptation to entertain an exit for the wrong reason.  Many will pursue such a plan when the business is struggling, because why sell a business when it is being successful?  Obvious—valuations are greater when the business is healthy.

Before pursuing an exit strategy, consider the following:

• Preparing the “bride for the alter”—can take a long time. Many businesses are not marketable in their current state.  Audited financial statements may be needed, or an upgrade in the quality of the management team, the renewal of a contract with a major customer, are all examples of actions which may need to be taken before the company is “up for sale”.
• Allow for a lengthy Due Diligence—more and more, buyout agreements call for earn outs for the sellers, which means the seller and buyer have to be in a business relationship for a year or several years post closing.  Mutual trust and respect between both parties is critical to a successful exit, and therefore due diligence on the part of the seller is just as critical as the buyer’s actions.
• Having a trusted team—to negotiate the transaction is critical.  While this might be intuitive, many entrepreneurs will bypass advisors on the basis of cost or their “opposing points of view”, and will select friends and family to determine the future disposition of their business. Carefully selecting the right team takes time and will be crucial to the success of a transaction.

Every business, even the corner bakery, needs to have a exit strategy plan that is well crafted, timely and devoid of emotion.