Imagen Consulting

I spent time yesterday with a very distressed friend. 2009 had been an awful year for his business, and he was no reconsidering everything – his business model, his aspirations, and his future.

My guess is that many of us resonate with him, and have enterered 2010 a little unsure of what “moving forward” looks like. For those still trying to get a handle on what comes next, here’s a series of questions from Seth Kahan that I found very useful.

As you reflect on your business’s past, ask yourself these three questions:

1. How did this service/program/product come to be?
2. What factors in the environment made it possible?
3. What new context emerged that gave birth to my initiative as a solution?

Now, transport your answers to today and ask these questions:

1. What has changed?
2. What do these circumstances look like today?
3. How are they the same and how are they different?

And finally, to squint and look into the foggy mystery of tomorrow, ask:

1. What appears to be forming?
2. How can my service/program/product best address the emerging needs?
3. What needs to change to sustain relevance?

2010 has opened a new chapter for business – a post-recession, post-hierarchal, globally-competative, social-media-rivetted, community-driven era of business. This is not business as usual, or a return to an earlier system of business operations. It’s the beginning of something completely new. And we’re here to help you navigate it, strategize for it, and build the engaged and change-ready organizations that can embrace it.

To get started, we’re offering workshops (live and vitural) through February to help business leaders and owners craft a vision-driven, values-based, and innovation-driven business plan for 2010. Email me for dates and more information.

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Here’s a great article by Roberta Matuson with five easy ideas/strategies for boosting profitability in 2010. (I’m especially a fan of ideas 1, 3, and 5. Let me know if we can help you!)

Five Ways to Boost Profitability in 2010

#1. Pick One Idea to Move Forward

If you are like most executives, there are at least 20 ideas on your 2010 ”to-do” list. Picking the perfect place to begin can take weeks or in some cases months. That’s just time wasted. Pick one idea from your list and move forward. Don’t second guess yourself for even a minute or you will be right back where you started.

Put the majority of your resources behind this idea so that you move one thing forward a mile, rather than move ten things a quarter of an inch. At first you may feel uncomfortable abandoning everything else on your list. This discomfort will dissipate as you see how quickly you are able to achieve results by remaining focused on the task at hand.

#2. Drop the dead weight

I’m not talking about the few pounds you might have put on during the holiday season. I’m talking about your non-performers whom you’ve been hanging onto because you didn’t want to fire them at Christmas time. Then, of course, you didn’t want to let them go for a myriad of other reasons throughout the year.

This is the year to be lean and trim. Excess weight slows down the organization and in some cases can be the death of companies. Don’t let this happen to you. Identify the people or positions that must be shed and then make it happen. You will be surprised at how easily you can outrun the competition now that you are in shape.

#3. Increase communication

One of the most common complaints that employee surveys keep bringing to light is the lack of communication between employers and their employees. Employees want to do a good job for their employers, yet they feel like they are operating without a roadmap. They no longer know which direction the company is headed, and are having a difficult time figuring it out on their own.

The price to increase communication has dropped substantially over the years. You no longer need to hire a PR firm to craft messages, nor are company intranets only reserved for Fortune 500 companies. Companies of all sizes are using technology to get their messages out to their employees. Some are using webcasts or weekly teleconferences. Others are using a company blog on their intranet that allows executives to immediately post messages to ensure employees stay connected. Finally, do not discount the importance of face-to-face meetings, which are affordable for organizations of all sizes.

#4. Connect with a trusted resource

It is no secret that 2009 was a tough year for most, and it looks like 2010 will be starting off the same way. As you probably have figured out by now, it can be very stressful trying to work through challenging times without a trusted resource or a peer group with whom you can share your thoughts and ideas. Why go it alone when resources are available?

Find a CEO group, an executive group, or whatever group will have like-minded people in attendance. Ask a trusted colleague for a referral to an executive coach or a mentor. Just do something so that you have access to a trusted resource to help push your thinking to a whole new level.

#5. Be the leader everyone wants to follow

How liberating it must be to be a company like Google or Apple. You are so far ahead of the competition that you don’t even have to look in your rearview mirror before changing lanes. Few companies ever reach this position because they are so busy trying to catch up with the competition. These companies move slowly, analyze everything to death, and kill innovation before it even has a chance to germinate into something big.

Imagine what your organization could accomplish if you charged ahead with little regard for others in your industry, took calculated risks, encouraged innovation, and rewarded employees who joined you on this ride. You might create a product others have only dreamed about or build a brand as strong as Coke. You could accomplish some amazing things, which sounds a lot more exciting than breathing the exhaust fumes from your competitors as they zip by you.

A new year is a gift. We have a chance to begin again and to do things differently. How will you proceed? Here’s to a great 2010!

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Crises can arise at any moment. I recently heard about a company holiday party that went afoul, ending with an older female employee doing some pretty inappropriate things with a younger (and very drunk) male coworker – and taking pictures! Needless to say, the pictures got out, the clueless male, now sober, was ticked. And things went from there.

Whatever your crisis situation, The Forbes Group, a 20-year-old strategic management consulting firm, recommends organizations adopt a seven-step crisis management formula:

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Here’s a good strategic year-end reminder from Seth Kahan. You can learn more about Seth's work at VisionaryLeadership.com

Use the End-of-Year to Create Your New Year Strategy

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These days, there’s one word that seems to sum up most of the business leaders I talk with: STUCK. After more than 18-months of economic downturn, a difficult 2009, and the low-hanging fruit of recession living already picked, many leaders are out of clean ideas and action-steps, and quickly settling into a fog of waiting and indecision.

If you’re in a similar situation, put Seth Kahan’s six steps to work and start looking for your next big breakthrough today!

Step One: Get your scope right. Identify the area you will address. This will determine what is relevant and what is not as you move forward, untangling inter-dependent relationships.

Step Two: Identify your Most Valuable Players. Now you are looking at the group that is relevant to the logjam. Who needs to be in the room to find and initiate a real solution? This is your guest list.

Step Three: Conduct the Interviews to Map the Territory. Contact people and construct a Reconnaissance Report which chronicles what you learn. Capture high-value statements and include them without attribution. You want people paying more attention to the content than who said what.  Note: Keep in mind that because you are operating on a logjam, initial contact begins the process directing peoples’ attention toward the obstacle. Movement will begin immediately. There is a tendency to view this as preparation. In truth, the operation has begun with the first conversation.

Step Four: Set up the Breakthrough Session for Success. All bets ride on the outcome of the face-to-face event. Do everything in your power beforehand to ensure it is successful.  Pour your heart and effort into establishing the conditions for success.

Step Five: Participate fully in the Breakthrough Session. Each step of the way, do everything you can do to press for results. This requires focused attention to the group’s process. Your job is to ensure that the group takes up the challenge and deals with the issues as effectively as possible with a common intention to find the most productive way forward.

Step Six: Be ready to provide support in follow-up. When the breakthrough occurs, it will require support to be carried out. Be ready to jump in and lend it where needed. Follow-up is where the action takes place and requires everything you've got to see your breakthrough move from the initial freeing of energy into successful execution.

Click here to read the whole post.

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What's thwarting American innovation? Too much science.

As dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Roger Martin is throwing down the gauntlet to companies who hope to analyze and strategize their way out of a recession by bringing in armies of standard management consultants. “You'll get what you pay for,” he warns, and it won't be innovation.

"The business world is tired of having armies of analysts descend on their companies," he says. "You can't send a 28-year-old with a calculator to solve your problems." The problem is that corporations have pushed analytical thinking so far that it's unproductive. "No idea in the world has been proved in advance with inductive or deductive reasoning," he says.

The answer? (Be warned: this sounds more than a little self serving!) Bring in the folks whose job it is to imagine the future, and who are experts in intuitive thinking. J 

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That’s one question Ron Hayes, venture investor, says he gets a lot. His response: “Now definitely appears to be a great time to start a company. And the current economy is a big part of that reason.”

Businesses have been slowing down, down-sizing, and basically running for cover for 18 months. Hayes comments, “This is important, because it means less competition for employees, customers, user attention, and everything else you might need to get your company off the ground. For entrepreneurs, that's great news.”

Read Hayes’ entire post from Fast Company.

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