Business Insanity
December 27, 2008
With a new year upon us, it is a natural time to reflect on the year in review and look ahead to the prospects of a new year. We live in an unprecedented and exciting era of change. As we, at AscendWorks, reflect on our perspective of business and the new economy, here are some observations we have made:
- Mindsets Are Everything: There are two prevailing mindsets we see. The growth mindset and the fixed mindset. The old economy played to the fixed mindset types of workers. Keep the status quo, build organizational structures and refine. It is not so today. The only true mindset which prevails is the growth mindset. It is the attribute of people who are on a continual journey of learning. Technology is now a commodity. The main factor now is utilizing talent and knowing how to put the ingredients for success together. Talent comes from people who have a growth mindset. Everyone else is pretending and scared. They are in the wake of the talented people making new rules and new pathways.
- Decision-Making: Information is presented to us in order to move to an action or a decision. Everything else is noise. When we develop a continuous habit of letting our inbox fill up and not making decisions, we develop a habit of being indecisive. The tragedy is that the items that are a crisis are what get addressed.
Defending Mediocrity
December 19, 2008
Customers today ignore boring products. Old brands which do not inspire passion or luster are not guaranteed to be around, for customers increasingly value what is novel and stands out rather than what was promoted to be safe, common, and routine.
Many of the institutions we see (yours may be one of them) are intrinsically designed to resist change. When they sense it from new technology and processes, they dig their heels in. They settle on mediocrity. They risk going extinct quickly.
Change is happening everywhere around us. From presidential elections to old models of corporations, others are getting ahead because they understand how the new economy works. The rest are hoping the 1980’s would return. Read more
When You Are A Stranger
December 12, 2008
When You Are A Stranger
Do you look forward to hearing your phone ring? If you are receiving a sale, the answer is, yes. If someone is trying to sell you, then you might not be so eager. We are all doing one of two things every day - buying or selling. Depending on which side of the equation we are engaged in, our posture changes.
There used to be days when the salesman would visit with their suitcase full of goods to a country home. They were welcomed with lemonade on the front porch and the seller and buyer would sit and talk. The stranger became a friend. That was under different circumstances: Read more
Desperate Times Do Not Call For Desperate Measures
December 5, 2008
In baseball, it is known that major league players, though they are at the highest echelon of their profession, always go through slumps. They may go through a drought of hitting whereas they had had streaks of success in the past. It is in those times that baseball players get back to the fundamentals. They start thinking through the micromovements of their swing, stance and approach. The fundamentals were what made them successful in the first place; they cannot violate natural laws for long without having to realign with them.
This is true for golfers, basketball shooters and business people. Yes, in the game of business and life, there will be slumps. Many are due to macro effects. Some are due to ability and talent. Read more
Productivity Glass Ceiling
November 14, 2008
I had the privilege of being in Germany when the Berlin wall fell. My father served 25 years in the military and 9 of those were in the Cold War era of then West Germany. At that time, West Germany was one of the most dynamic economies in the world. East Germany was a communist, economically struggling society. When the wall came down, hundreds of thousands of East Germans crossed into freedom.
One of the lighter sides of the whole ordeal was seeing the disparity between the two German peoples. I can remember traveling down the autobahn. There are no speed limits on the German autobahn. They were made for fast BMW’s and I would love to drive mine there for the pure speed thrill. That was what West Germans were like. Read more
Anyone Could Do That
November 7, 2008
Go to the grocery store and buy all the ingredients you will need. Next, go to Williams and Sonoma and get the best cookware and utensils. Sit in front of the television and take careful notes. Mimic the cook and see if your dinner dish comes out as succulent as you saw.
Are you now a world class cook? Now that you have all the required tools, accessories and instructions, can you serve in the finest restaurants? How about if you read the manual, a good cook book?
What makes a world class cook? If we break down all the elements to their sterile descriptions as we illustrated here, we get a picture, but not necessarily the essence of what it takes to be a gourmet chef. No, there is a much larger price to pay for such excellence that people praise and have demand for. Read more
Make Me Feel Important
October 30, 2008
Everyone has a deep need which they are seeking to fulfill. We all need to feel important. Watch anyone, and if you can identify what makes the person feel important, you will know what motivates the person.
Your customer, your boss, your family and your friends either have a good or bad relationship with you based on how you make them feel important. Otherwise, there is not a relationship. At best, there may be mutual exploitation and utility.
It should not shock me, but it still does. I am incredulous at how business people miss the obvious. They wonder why they lack business when it comes down to how they work with their prospects, the vendors or anyone they run into. We live in an ecosystem of relationships. When we do not do the things which makes the other person feel important, then a relationship is in jeopardy.
Here are they blockades of why people do not give this all important ingredient to making relationships and business opportunities work: Read more
Busy or Productive?
October 22, 2008
We run into the challenge every knowledge worker is facing today. We are all overwhelmed. There are more emails than what we know what to do with. There are more phone calls than we can return. There is more news than we can absorb.
Information moves with such abundance and ease that it is hard to keep our bearings. Often, we shut down and lose what is most important as human beings:
Maybe People
October 17, 2008
“A maybe person will never get you where you want to go.” - Jim Riley
There are two things that matter in business - decisions and actions. All the activities, emails, conversations, meetings, phone calls, and myriad of work we do as knowledge workers ends up in a decision and an action.
Unfortunately, many people put their energy and emotions into another thing altogether - hope. Hope is a poor strategy. When a person you are seeking an answer from does not decide or act, it slows down momentum. Their lack of forthrightness has you pursuing without a clear answer. Unfortunately, we live in a society where people are not candid. Rather than return a phone call as good etiquette, they ignore your call. Part of it is inattention. Part of it is hoping you will go away. Either way, it is indecision and inaction. They are likely not a decision maker, not interested or not polite. It is a person not worth pursuing business with. Read more
Guaranteeing Success
October 9, 2008
The guarantee of success is music to our ears. That is what every customer, company and employee wants. We want security in our jobs. We want to know the products we buy will do as they promise - make us more money, make us more fit, make us more beautiful, etc.
Guarantees meet our need for reducing perceived risk. We have all been burned. We have all experienced unmet expectations. Thus, our guard goes up.
I can remember years ago when my wife and I were seduced into one of those typical honeymoon events - a timeshare presentation. Why not? We were in high spirits, our guard was down and everything was just a good time.
We were definitely entertained. It was salesmanship from the get go. There were multiple hand-offs between the street salesman to the breakfast reception to the keynote speaker. The experience was one giant show. The emotions and pressure were high. Promises were made and we bought. We bought what we thought were years of good times and a return on a small investment. Read more
