There is a natural reaction when a major disruption in business occurs to go into survival mode. That means tunnel and short-term vision as well as tactical and reactionary measures. That can be a necessity for survival. However, a recent poll of the Strategic Planning Community (SPC), a business social network of strategic planners hosted by the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP), shows that for the most part, the knee-jerk reactions to the downturn have passed and most companies are moving towards more strategic moves.

Of respondents to the web survey on the SPC site, 82% reported that their companies are now thinking more strategically. Companies still operating in a purely tactical and survival mode, will likely find themselves being left behind when the economy turns. This result matches well with a recent Bain Consulting survey of global corporations where they report that “Almost eight of ten executives agree “our company will use this recession to improve our competitive position”

Some of the specific strategic questions suggested by the SPC members for companies can be categorized into two main groups that address both fundamental shifts in customer needs as well as business model changes. For a business, a shift in how you serve customers and how you generate profits are really the core fundamentals of a strategy.

In terms of customer needs, it is clear that there has been a sharp shift in demand across almost all industry sectors. Maintaining alignment with customer needs is one of the most important drivers of business success, prompting me to suggest the most important strategic question in the study to be, “What do our customers value most in what we deliver?” The intent is to be able to make cuts in areas that customers don’t value and increase focus on those areas that matter most. Business Week just ran an interesting article about how some companies are taking “de-featured” products that they sell in emerging economies and finding that bringing those into developed economies is proving highly successful. For customers is means lower prices with delivery of just the most critical features or capabilities.

Shifting to a different product mix can require shifts in cost structure and channels as well. In the study, several other strategists suggested asking questions about business models. Kenneth Hein, an Association of Strategic Planning member and Chief Strategist suggests asking, “How do we leverage our capabilities and capacity in a way that will allow us to expand while others are contracting or adopting a very defensive ‘hold on’ strategy.” Sue Arrell, another ASP member suggests looking for opportunities in the unexpected situation by asking, “What unintended consequences of today’s economic situation can we capitalize on in the future?”

Successful survival techniques in any situation rely on quick action to avoid immediate danger as a first step followed by a careful assessment of the situation and developing a plan of action to exit the situation. For some, it is possible to become frozen in fear and unable to think clearly and objectively about the plan for exit. For those who plan to exit this downturn successfully, now is the time to be repositioning for the new market realities and beginning to execute on steps to ensure successful exit.

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If you are responsible for improving performance of a professional services orgnaization or merging services organizations, you will find this webinar valuable in terms of specific benchmark performance metrics from the ”best-of-the-best” and a well proven process for transformation with some tools and case exmaples to apply to your business.

Video Link

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According to a recent IDC Global Retail Insights survey, 75% of retailers and 58% of consumer products manufacturers rank customer-centricity among top 3 keys to success. This finding aligns perfectly with our experience that the only way big ideas turn into big results is when those ideas are based in a deep understanding of customer needs and are executed by delivering a winning customer experience. There are some breakthroughs in approaches to listening to customers and tapping into their innovative ideas that the most innovative companies are applying today. Below are some simple descriptions and first implementation steps you can take to moving down this path.

1) Listen to customers, but listen closer to non-customers.

This is similar to to the idea of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Sometimes you learn more by listening to those who don’t see things your way than those who already agree. This tip is one very commonly overlooked when developing strategies for growth. Many companies listen to their sales force to understand strategic customer needs. This is one perspective, but the conversations tend to be short-term focused, are clouded by the vendor/customer relationship dynamic, and represent people who already see the world the way you do.

With the Wii, Nintendo converted non-customers of gaming systems by listening and creating a solution that moms would love to have in their homes. Southwest airlines converted non-customers of air travel by creating a price point and casual travel feel that matched bus travel, but was much faster. Netbooks are converting non-customers of expensive laptops into mobile computing users.

IMPLEMENTATION: To get started listening to non-customers, set up a specific research effort to call on customers who have left your business, sales leads which were lost, and targeting potential customers who have never been reached at all. Test if there is a lack of awareness of your company, a disagreement about the value proposition, or an unmet set of needs that you could begin to serve. This is where many breakthrough strategies originate.

2) Engage customers in open and direct innovation online

The most innovative companies are turning to a new set of online solutions to engage customers directly and openly into the innovation process. Cisco has been one of the most forward and successful, perhaps finding it’s next $1 billion product category through an online innovation campaign. They leveraged an online tool set from Bright Idea Software (Dissero’s strategic partner) to launch an open innovation contest that allowed anyone from around the world to suggest ideas, have them voted on by others, and collaborate and shape ideas together. The new solutions provide ways to open up and capture innovative ideas, engage with customers directly, and provide tools that filter the ideas so you can easily harvest only the best and most popular ideas for consideration internally. This allows you to truly tap the wisdom of the crowd, but not be overwhelmed with too many random and tactical ideas…like the old suggestion boxes that we’ve all come to detest. This is new technology, with new capabilities and a real breakthrough in business strategy.

Watch the video on this page to hear more about how Cisco did this and what the program accomplished.  http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/iprize/index.html

Lego toys launched a site to let users design and purchase their own kits, which other people can purchase as well.  http://factory.lego.com/

Starbucks created the My Starbucks Idea site to gather direct customer input for new ideas of all types. These are voted on by others so the best ideas can rise to the surface.  http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/

IMPLEMENTATION: If you are interested in creating your own customer innovation site there are many considerations on technology platform, scope of ideas to request, and internal innovation management process to harvest the benefits. Dissero has partnered with Bright Idea Software to provide a full solution to quickly and easily get you in touch with your customers and begin tapping their innovative ideas, creating new revenue streams and great loyalty. The good news is that almost immediately and for the cost of a typical “ideation” brainstorming workshop or offsite with your management team, you can put in place a pilot program to engage customers, employees, and partners in searching for innovations. This will become as pervasive as having customer panels or user groups and much more extensive and powerful.

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This month we published, with SPI Research, a white paper focused on how to successfully transform professional services organizations (PSOs). PSOs have an ability to rapidly scale and drive greater profitability if you have the right focus and ability to transform smoothly. Since PSOs are people-driven businesses, they have an ability to change very rapidly, but also are at the greatest risk in hitting roadblocks to change as well.

The white paper points out the specific reason why PSO transformations typically fail to reach their desired results due to the use of under-scoped and limited tools of change management and business process re-engineering solutions alone. A complete framework for transformation and a streamlined and proven transformation process are described. The paper also shares some breakthough statistics from the 2009 Professional Services Maturity Model that clearly tie leadership and strategic focus to greater profitability and overall performance.

For a copy of the white paper - click here.

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If you had enough time to read 100 business books in depth, what do you think you might learn? Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten did that for all of us and this month published “The 100 Best Business Books of All Time” to share what they found. Jack and Todd run 800-CEO-Read and usually are selling books, not writing them. But they have seen a lot of business books over the years and took the time to summarize the best of what they have seen up through books published in 2007. They actually found that there are only five problems that all of these books truly addressed at the core. Todd tells us what those are in the interview that follows…

  
Michael: Todd, you’ve made a living at 800-CEO-Read as an expert in business books, and now you’ve written one. What did you learn about business authors that you didn’t know before writing The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
 
Todd: I learned that being a business author is not easy. 800-CEO-READ works with authors all the time, whether its getting books to their events or helping them find audiences for their ideas.  I thought we knew the struggles.  I only had a glimpse.

One of the authors in our book asked what we found different about the process now that we have become authors.  I said, “You always have to be hustling.” Now, they might be too forceful, but you have to convert on every opportunity that is presented to you. The book is not going to sell itself and I think too many authors think that.
 
Michael: You mentioned that out of all of the books you and Jack Covert read that there seemed to be really just five key problems that all of those books were looking to solve. I would see those as the five biggest and most enduring problems that business people should understand. So, can you share those with us?
 
Todd: Our basic premise with the 100 Best is that business books help people solve problems.  An alternate title for our book could be “The 100 Best Business Solutions of All Time”.

The interesting part is that those 100 solutions point back to these five big problems.  They appear across categories whether it be sales, leadership, innovation, or narrative.  They also scale in that they apply to individuals, teams and organizations.

The Big Five are purpose, decision-making, action, change, and feedback.  I could spend a day on each of these. But just think about the first one and how lack of purpose confounds while clarity of purpose makes everything apparent. And that leads to better decision-making, which leads to quicker action, which leads to meaningful change.  Feedback ensure the first four are directional correct.
 
Michael: How should people use your book as a resource?
 
Todd: We think this book is for the third-book buyer. The first business book most people read is one that is recommended by someone they trust.  A book like Good To Great or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are common.  These are both great books and people get excited about the possibilities for business books in their lives (I may be overstating it, but bear with me).

That first book leads them back to the bookstore with the belief that there are other books that can be helpful.  They purchase their second book and almost always disappointed.  The lure of a shiny cover or clever title led them astray. The book may or may not be good, but the bigger problem is that it didn’t help them solve a problem they were dealing with.  And with that disappointment, they swear off the category.

The 100 Best is meant to help people find the third book and the fourth book and the tenth book. Most people complain that they don’t have time to read books. I think what they are really saying is that I don’t have time to find books, because once someone finds a great book that really helps them, they can’t put it down.
 
Michael: If you made the book the best “105” and added one new book for each of the five categories you mentioned, can you suggest one for each that you might add?
 
Todd: I would include the following (my co-author may disagree):

For purpose, I would have included Purpose by Nikos Mourkogiannis.  There is a deep philosophical foundation in this book and shows there are only four kinds of purpose worthy of a business’ pursuit: the new, the excellent, the helpful, and the effective.

For decision-making, I would have to think a long time.  I think that reading almost any great book can help you improve your decision-making. Biographies and narratives are especially good for that as you can see others’ success and failures. One of my recent favorites is One Great Insight Is Worth a Thousand Good Ideas by Phil Dusenberry.

For action, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  The book is essentially about procrastination, but like all good books, it is about more than that.

For change, 800-CEO-READ’s 2008 Business Book of The Year Tribes by Seth Godin would be included.  The book is about leadership, but what it is really about is fear, risk, and change.

For feedback, I would include Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott. It was the first book that showed me the power of talking and listening in a honest, straightforward manner. This concept is difficult and challenging for the vast majority.
  
Michael: Congratulations on the new book. A lot of us business authors are excited to see you and Jack contributing such a unique perspective to our industry and joining in the fun with us.
 
Todd: Thank you , Michael.

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This week was the most amazing industry gathering I’ve attended in a long time. This meeting was held using Cisco’s telepresence meeting rooms in San Jose, Seattle, New Jersey and New York, as well as a lot of people joining by WebEx. The meeting was a gathering of professionals, across many different companies and industries, who were all responsible in some way for innovation at their companies. I was honored to have the group request copies of BIG Ideas to BIG Results for all of the participants. It turns out that most people in corporations agree that the problem with innovation is not a lack of ideas and creativity. The problem is in effectively hearing those ideas and then organizing to get them implemented, the topic of our book.

As you can see in the sample picture below, the telepresence rooms at Cisco virtually bring together people in an environment that simulates being at the same table together with remote people. It was a huge improvement over traditional video-conferencing and a couple of times I caught myself trying to make “eye contact” with someone in one of the other locations. It’s a little strange, but created an effective group working environment.

The conference was sponsored by BrightIdea Software, who provides innovaiton management software. Prior to the conference we all used their web-storm software to run a high-engagement brainstorm for conference topics, all handled across the web in somehting like a social network and collaboration space combined. What was interesting about the Webstorm was that it allowed people to interact, share ideas, build on ideas and give feedback in their own time and location. And for people who don’t like speaking up in brainstorming meetings, it allowed them to have a voice.

The whole event was a fantastic experience. We’ve been thinking a lot about how companies can increase engagement of people in generating big ideas while reducing travel budgets and ineffective meetings. The Birds of a Feather meeting allowed me to share the book with people who are also looking to bridge the gap between ideas and results, learn from other people in companies working to make innovation more effective, and got to play with a really innovative experience with telepresence as well.

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Today I met with about 50 professionals with a variety of experiences with M&A integration at the Association for Corporate Growth. The topic of my presentation was to share the true keys to success that have made the difference in companies who successfuly create shareholder value through business combinations.  Several people were interested in getting a copy of the slides so I’m trying out an online publishing tool called DoXtop to easily share these.

In addition to the presentation, I’ve also included a link to a companion article to go with the presentation for those who are interested.

Presentation Download

Article Download

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800-CEO-Read: Best Business Books on Innovation

http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/008611.html?blog_id=1

The National Best Book Awards 2009, in the category of Business Management and Leadership

http://www.usabooknews.com/bestbooksawards2008.html

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Usually Dilbert is the one comic that truly captures the tragically funny (i.e., would be funny if it wasn’t describing my actual professional life) things that happen in business every day. In this case, though, an old Calivin and Hobbes cartoon perfectly describes the auto industry crisis better than any strategic analysis our firm or any other analyst could do. (click the comic to enlarge the image)

It’s funny. But, it is also pointing out a repeating pattern that needs to be broken in the auto industry immediately and across other businesses as well. Take a quick read. Laugh, laugh uncomfortably becuase it is too close to the truth, or laugh it off, but take a moment to read it and consider how you might avoid the same issues in your business.

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