Tag Archives: Culture

Better Feedback Models

Traditionally feedback has been seen as occurring externally between a customer and a provider and internally as flowing from a manager to a direct report. Many changes in the work environment, including self-directed project teams, matrix management, flat organizational structures, and doing more with less resources, lead employees to work more closely with one another and become less dependent on management to provide them with feedback.

The Feedback Cycle graphic below illustrates that, these days, we must recognize that feedback – from project team members, peers, and direct reports – is the primary way to give and provide information and suggestions to each other to improve work output and performance. We must also be certain to listen for emotions and feelings as part of the feedback process. Whether your role is within a multinational corporation or a small start-up, the need to look around you 360 degrees and see yourself and your work product as others see it is critical to charting your own and team success.

Within the field of emotional intelligence, there’s a best practice of trying to see matters from another’s perspective. It is in this ability to “be on the outside looking in,” observing our decisions as a series of choices based on information we have processed, that we gain insight, perspective, and mutually desirable outcomes. Intentionally studying how our actions will affect others, asking for their input, and incorporating a “win-win” scenario into our decisions makes for better management of self, projects, and others.

In the start-up world, the Feedback Model can be used to test and validate “fit” with co-founders, employees, strategic vendors, investors, professional services providers, and so on. If the other party is not incorporating your input into their communication, planning, and execution, they are not a good fit. Likewise, if we are not able to receive feedback from others, we will not be successful in executing our business/departmental/project strategy.

Non Profit Your Way to Helping Others

One of the interesting things we are discovering at EntreDot is the power of a non-profit to garner collaboration. EntreDot™ is a newly formed business mentoring organization that is committed to ensuring entrepreneurial success. Our objective is to increase the chances of entrepreneurial success by creating high impact companies that are run by entrepreneurs with sustainable business management and leadership capabilities. By providing needed business assistance, we will help entrepreneurs increase revenue and job growth for their companies and communities.

Were we simply a management consulting firm, we would be perceived as being in competition with other consultants, certified public accountants, attorneys, angel funds, investment bankers, and so on… in which case, we would be left to ourselves to try and help one entrepreneur at a time. We knew that we wanted the cooperation of people from all of the categories above, plus many more, so it was a strategic business model decision to become a 501 (c) (3).

What we did not count on, however, is the strong community support. Whether it is the local government (Thank you Mayor McFarlane, Council members Bonner Gaylord and Mary Ann Baldwin for your support evident last night at the Innovate Raleigh event at REDii!), paragovernment organizations like the Cary Chamber and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, educational groups like the NCSU School of Textiles and School of Design plus Wake Technical Community College, volunteers who serve tirelessly, or great sponsors, we have been overwhelmed at the synergy created by bringing people together who all want to see more entrepreneurs be successful.

The benefits to the entrepreneurs and to their communities are:

  • Avoiding critical errors that lead to business failure
  • Improving the business skills of local entrepreneurs
  • Having a second set of eyes on key business issues like financing, cash flow management, marketing programs, sales traction, and many more
  • Validating entrepreneurs’ their ideas and decisions
  • Helping entrepreneurs build the right management team to run their companies
  • Assisting entrepreneurs in building relationships with all their stakeholders, and potentially steering them to new customers, suppliers and financing sources
  • Retaining local entrepreneurs who will stay in their communities to create new businesses; reducing the “brain drain”
  • Increasing the number of good jobs within the rapidly growing new companies throughout NC, including in its most distressed counties
  • Increasing revenue to local communities via the expansion of local economies

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus espouse the virtues of social business as a means to solve community issues. This is an idea whose time has come! We are excited to be helping entrepreneurs create better local economies, with the myriad of spillover effects.

What non-profit can you help create that will solve community needs through strong collaboration?

Successful Business Plans: 5 More Keys


EntreDot Executive Director Bill Warner wrote a blog post this week for the Raleigh Emerging Designers Innovation Incubator website about business plans. In it, he shares keys to success.  Yesterday’s post here dealt with 5 keys; 5 more are offered below:

“Have a compelling value proposition.”

  • Solve a truly important problem with an attractive return on investment.
  • Make sure it fits into your buyer’s priorities.

The Challenge: You must fit within your buyer’s priority list for planned purchases. The benefit of your product has to be at the forefront of your customer’s needs. The best way to express the value of your product or service is to present a return on investment (ROI) analysis. You should be providing either higher revenue or lower cost/expense, and it should take less than a year to pay the investment back. Anything else is probably a “nice to have,” and is unlikely to win in a market where buyers are only purchasing “must have” solutions.

“Have a targeted marketing plan.”

  • Know how to reach your buyer to gain awareness
  • Establish a cost effective lead generation plan

The Challenge: Select the right way to deliver your message to your potential buyer: advertising, trade articles, mail or email campaigns, telemarketing, distributors, value added remarkets, dealers or direct sales force. Many companies are over-reliant on franchises as offering a silver bullet strategy for support and getting started. They don’t sufficiently analyze what the franchiser brings to the table that you can’t do for yourself. Franchisees sometimes over-estimate the value of the support from the franchiser; in that, is it worth the franchising fee and the royalty payment? Can those costs be made up by efficiencies offered by the franchiser? Can those costs be passed on to your customer? If not, the franchisee is at a competitive disadvantage. Those with a “brand” that can bring customers in the door on “day one” and provide active business operation assistance, rather than arms length promises, are particularly worth looking into. Once you have generated qualified leads, manage them through the entire sales process.

“Create the most efficient sales channel and excellent customer support.”

  • Ensure the sales approach is affordable
  • Build satisfied customers

The Challenge: Establish a sales forecast. Hoping for sales is not planning. Sales forecasts are based on understanding the buyer in your selected market segment and on the experience of others in it. Many new companies underestimate the time it takes to build a business to the point where it is profitable. As a result, many new businesses are under-financed and have insufficient working capital to sustain themselves in the initial growth period or during seasonal downturns. Being new and small is no excuse for cutting corners in dealing with customers. Would you go into a shop in the mall with cheap looking furnishings and lighting? Don’t try to save money there. Your sales and support efforts should be guided to create a satisfied customer who is willing to be a reference to other potential customers and give you repeat business as well.

“Understand your entire financial model.”

  • Establish realistic sales, cost, capital and expense plans
  • Understand cash flow and profit dynamics

The Challenge: Establish a solid financial plan. Many new companies are unplanned or under-planned. Planning cannot deal with all the surprises in the real world, but why be surprised by things you can anticipate and deal with beforehand? Planning requires a highly detailed and kinetic vision of the future of the business that reduces that vision to the language of business, dollars and cents. A financial plan is required to raise money from banks and investors in addition to helping you set financial objectives. Many new companies try to save money by avoiding the costs of lawyers, accountants and insurance agents. One mistake can cost you many times the small cost of relying on experts. Operationally, the most important financial dynamic to understand is cash flow. Know how money comes into and goes out of your company and when the transactions occur. The penalty for not managing your financials well is running out of money and probably losing your business.

“Ensure you have a winning team.”

  • They should have the passion for success
  • Attract the best experience and know-how

The Challenge: Pick the best people for your company. Many new businesses reach too far in a single step; for example, starting a trucking business without any prior experience. Take it “step-by-step”. Often the first step is to get a job in a business similar to the one you want to start. Learn the business from the inside out. Then start your own business.  With the right experience under your belt, build your team with people that fill out the strengths that you need to run your business. Pick only the best people that can get the job done. Avoid hiring friends and family.

Reverse the Mentoring Stereotype

In its most common context, mentoring is understood as someone with experience (and a few grey hairs!) showing someone younger how to perform key job functions. Yet, one of the hottest trends in human resources is termed “reverse mentoring.” Whether due to job loss and the need for new training, or “Second Act” entrepreneurship, or simply the precipitous amount of change being introduced in organizations trying to compete globally, there has arisen a need for this practice where younger workers are now showing the older ones “the ropes.”

While the concept is that exposure to those outside the corporate suite may be good for staying in touch with the values held by newer workers, there are several other benefits. Higher employee retention rates among younger workers are cited as an unexpected, but welcome outcome. Exposure to management issues and how decisions are made are additional upsides.

When Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric, he  was mentored on how to use the internet by a young employee in her 20s. He saw such promise from the process that he mandated that 500 of his top executives reach out to younger employees to do likewise. These days, mentees are learning how to use social media effectively from their younger mentors. Even at top ad agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, a worldwide managing director admitted that his more youthful mentors had shown him how to enhance his Twitter posts to be less boring. His eyes have been opened to new possibilities and he now plans to utilize Skype and videoconferencing to facilitate distance mentoring across the firm’s 450 offices. HP & Cisco also have reverse mentoring programs in place.

Michelle Rafter, in a blog post entitled “8 Ways to Make a Reverse Mentorship Work For You,” suggests the following guidelines:

1. Find a compatible partner –someone with skills in areas you’re lacking

2. Set expectations- create ground rules for what you want out of a partnership, such as how often you’ll meet and what both parties will get out of it

3. Get your boss’s OK- A lot of reciprocal mentoring can happen on an informal basis. But if you want or need to set up a formal program, you’ll need your manager’s or company’s approval.

4. Be open to suggestions and criticism- learn in days from someone else what one could take decades otherwise by having a thick skin

5. Make it more than just about tech- maybe a younger person could help you learn about sushi, Chinese, popular music, or even how to lead the next generation more effectively

6. Give as much as you get-the relationship should be mutually beneficial

7. Experiment with approaches– a single department, a program that crosses departments, and a multitude of variations

8. Don’t stereotype- not every 45-year-old has the same knowledge or expertise, so don’t assume every Gen Y worker does, either.

Better Mousetraps Require Divergent Thinking!

One of the people I follow in leadership blogs is Dan Rockwell, aka Leadership Freak. His post this morning cautions against working hard versus working smart:

It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you’re working on the wrong things.

He goes on to discuss how doing business without thinking strategically can be harmful to your business and personal health. While it’s needful to get work out the door (think lawyers focusing on billable work, carpenters hammering nails), to only do so is to lose sight of the bigger, value adding activities that distinguish great businesses from ordinary ones. Your efforts are not as productive as they could be because you are displacing the benefits of your focus and inertia that could be applied to thinking about what would make you more successful and pursuing those activities that promise reward for another day–not just the current one!

Some of the activities that suffer when you are not working on your business include:

  • Planning
  • Goal-setting
  • Brainstorming
  • Delegating
  • Organizing
  • Dreaming
  • Alliance building
  • Networking

When our attention is shifted to “working on the business” (thanks Michael Gerber for the E-Myth insights), we are thinking innovatively. Our efforts are building something that will stand the test of time. Net worth/business value soars as we are refining the business model instead of just trying to work harder. Think about franchise systems. The value is in the documented processes and controls. Even if you never plan to sell through a franchise agreement, you would do well to consider the genius behind the movement. Instead of being the person who only makes money off the sweat of his or her brow, you find a way to make money off others’ labors.

Rockwell suggests the following to help you get unstuck and more productive in creating a business with greater value:

  1. Create a weekly “working on” appointment with yourself. Identify and take a next step.
  2. Make small adjustments. You’ll never shift toward working on your business in one giant leap.
  3. Find new eyes. Discuss systems, strategies, and vision with experts outside your field.
  4. Listen. Many leaders and business owners have too many answers and too few questions.
  5. Try something. Waiting for stunning success prevents progress.
  6. Delegate more even if it takes longer at first.
  7. Follow-up and follow-through. Frustrations inspire conversations regarding improvements but follow-through changes things. Perhaps some form of accountability would help?

For entrepreneurs, mentors can be extremely valuable in holding one accountable to a process like the one commended.  Going it alone, without the benefit of outside advice and counsel, makes us technicians without hope of escaping the rat race.  You can change your future today–be daring to do so!