What Destroys a Business?

A message from Kevin D. Crone, CEO, Dale Carnegie Business Group, Canada. Please Note: We now have a Monday Morning Mentor Blog.

Monday, October 18, 2010. What destroys a business? Last Wednesday I said hello to a vendor who was in our boardroom meeting with some of our keen, young leaders on system changes for our business.  He said "Kevin, the recession is over."  I responded with "It sounds like you found some customers?"  He replied, "Correct, it's that simple". When companies are in survival mode, finding some good customers is a great, simple answer and gives focus.  What isn't simple is determining what would cause an organization to do the simple things in the face of seemingly tougher, world wide conditions. You can improve the offering; align all your operations systems to support it; create a better story to the market using all the modern marketing tools that keep customers warm until they buy; create incentives and reward performance at all levels; attract, coach, educate and train your people; all this and your business could still be destroyed if you don't recognize and respond to building that extra ingredient of success that has been profoundly true for centuries. That ingredient is ATTITUDE. I know, I know... you don't want to hear it.  In today's world you may think knowledge is all-important.  Well yes it is.  Skills are important too.  They get you in the game.  They tell you it can be done, but doing it and/or doing it well is determined by attitude.  It has always been this way and always will be. If you don't have the factors outlined in the previous paragraph in place, you probably never will without a change in attitude.  What's the make-up of your culture?  It's made from the conversations going around the office.  Are these conversations about how you please and take care of your customers?  Peter Drucker said, that should be the main topic "for there is no other reason to be in business." Or, are they about how management is messing with employee's security and sense of importance?  How the business sucks and the business model doesn't work anymore?  Are people complaining that customers are too demanding and fickle and you can't access them anymore?  Your conversations and what has happened to the entire structure of business worldwide can affect attitudes. About six months ago a CEO of an international company said to me "I don't know where our passion has gone."  I had some thoughts but didn't think he would welcome hearing them. Maybe the reality is that management and the business model do need improving.  You can either be positive, negative or indifferent about it... your choice.  No one person or circumstance can affect your attitude without your permission.  It's your choice.   Indifference and negativity can chip away at our hope, vision, passion, enthusiasm, focus, clarity of action, confidence and of course, all of the above will show up in the actions we take or don't take and the subsequent results.  We'll expect less, complain more and achieve little and it is because of what is unknown to us.... Our ATTITUDE. Now I am not talking about some Polyanna, rose colored glasses, blind to reality, attitude.  I am talking about having an attitude that allows for new thinking, planning, actions and simple focus.  I have been in the human behavior and business improvement field for 45 years watching, listening, and studying.  One thing I've come to realize is that our minds are designed to string events into story lines whether or not there is any connection between the parts in reality.   In other words, it is all invented in our minds and we might as well invent a story and framework that shifts our attitudes and creates the conditions that support the business or personal vision for you and those around you. For example:  Our people are important to us.  What can we do to recognize, coach, train and reward them?  Our customers make us.  What can we do to offer them what they need to make their world better? My work is important.  I choose to do this work because of the impact I can have which is _____________________.  Don't assume your story.  It's all attitude.  You can't change, improve or deliver on any simple, new answer without inventing a new one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What if survival attitudes are only a product of our fears and our need to add everything up in a tight, measured package so we can pretend to have everything figured out?  What if we had the attitude that there are always new customers out there wanting to sign up, rather than the concept that money, customers, and ideas are in short supply.  When you are oriented to abundance you are more engaging, care less about having all the answers first and you will take more risks and just go for it.  You are probably missing little, are very capable and an attitude tune up will make the difference to you, your team and the business. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Actions:  We all need to think about and answer the following. How is your attitude?   What characterizes your business culture?  What are the conversations about?  What is important to you and your team?  What story have you been creating in your mind that gives you what you see?  What can you now invent that gives you other choices regarding customers and fellow associates?  Now, go have better conversations. Incidentally I am leading a small group "Wake Up Your Business" coffee strategy huddle at my office on October 28th from 8:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. at 2121 Argentia Road. It is filling so enroll now. It will be done in a workshop fashion, but we will have some dialogue. We will review the most important actions to take to prepare us for the rebound and to boost performance - now.  No cost. To Enroll: Click Here Have a great week. Kevin D. Crone CEO Dale Carnegie Business Group BusinessNext Inc. Offering Dale Carnegie Throughout Canada kevin@businessnext.ca (905) 826-7300 / 1-800-361-2032 ext. 223 www.dalecarnegie.ca www.businessnext.ca

Monday Morning Mentor - October 11, 2010

A message from Kevin D. Crone, CEO, Dale Carnegie Business Group, Canada.

Monday, October 11, 2010. Marketing Doesn't work (Like it used to) The old interruptive model doesn't work.  Customers are tuning out.  They no longer listen to 'in-your-face' messages.  What does work, more often than not?? 1)  Obviously if you go into a store you are more prone to buy brand.  Brand still matters in all markets, so building your brand still works.  It can lead to more leads and customers. 2)  In Canada, going to a website to check a company's offering is the number one way people buy.  People spend more time on the internet than watching TV, so make sure your website works.  Too many of our businesses have outdated websites that have in your face, push messages.  Instead, we must tell the prospective customer how we can change their lives.  The website alone should give prospects some value whether or not anyone buys from you.  Pretend you are talking to your best customer and you understand their needs and wants, and are always rewarding them for their loyalty.  What do they need to know to be better? What answers do you have for their real-world problems? Give them value and provide calls to action that could be of real value if they act on them. Provide call to action deals accordingly. 3) Put a face to the brand. Forge a genuine connection with your market/customers, you have to be one of your biggest fans, and it helps to be vocal about it.  Contrary to what we hear from today's gurus, marketers are not staying behind the scene.  Customers respond positively to a human to human outreach which adds a face to the brand.  By building connections between people and brands, marketing can make a product more interesting and more valuable and be the seed to long term loyalty.  Get out there.  Write blogs, give speeches, do workshops, write articles. 4)  Support a good cause, especially if it fits your brand.  Let your market know about it.  For years we have supported Athletes Canada.  We have trained and coached many of Canada's Olympic athletes.  And every year our team coaches and trains young, native Canadian entrepreneurs at Project Bayshick.  Give back in a very meaningful way.  For us, we love working with these groups. 5)  According to a Nielsen report, two thirds of the world's internet population visit social networking or blogging sites. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are used for business and personal use. Happy consumers can create a ground swell of support and free marketing. (think online Zappos - up to one billion in annual sales in just a few years), or how a few mistreated consumers can cause tremendous damage to brands. (think Dell Hell)  What consumers think is that companies should ramp up social media usage to identify service/support issues not to promote their products.  Consumers want and like to know you are listening, so listen and mean it.  Customers can tell if you don't.   However you do it, listening is more than a strategy.  If you aren't listening and responding to what you hear, you could be in trouble and missing opportunities. Google is now considered the most valuable brand in the world today, even though it spends almost nothing on advertising.  They provide great value and stand for something.  Employees want their companies to stand for something and they will give their best effort when they are working toward a cause they believe in.  No baloney!  When your marketing provides value and allows your people to accomplish their dreams, they will tolerate quite a bit.  By creating marketing that people choose to engage with and that improves people's lives, we are reaching the highest level of personal success. Actions:  Questions to answer... What is your brand about?  Does it represent changing customers lives?   How? What can you do to build a brand dialogue in-house? How does your website give your prospects value other than an 'in-your-face' description of what you do?  How could it? What can you do to build a face to face connection between you and the brand?  (speeches, blogs, etc) How is your social media strategy working for you?  Is it about listening and responding to customers? What good cause are your supporting that fits your brand and could add meaning to your brand? What is your social media marketing strategy?  Are you in the market's face as an unwelcome guest or do you use it to support, listen and respond to your customers?  If it isn't the latter, what will you do? Incidentally I am leading a small group "Wake Up Your Business" coffee strategy huddle at my office on October 28th from 8:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. at 2121 Argentia Road. It is filling so enroll now. It will be done in a workshop fashion, but we will have some dialogue so we will review the most important actions to sell for the rebound and to boost performance...now.  No cost. To Enroll: Click Here Have a great week.

Monday, October 4, 2010.

The Employees Won't be There!

A few years ago I wrote an H.R. Report titled "Leading in 2011"  It described how baby boomers by 2012 will be retiring faster than the young ones are coming in and the young ones are not keen on doing business the way companies traditionally do business.  The point is, in order for business to grow we all need to invent ways to find people to do what needs to be done.  Well the recession has now made the target date "2013."  Forget 2013, it seems that every company I know is losing its' key executives to retirement, NOW.  Some are seeing as much as 35- 45% of their total staff retiring over the next 4 - 5 years.  I am facing it with my firm. Succession planning should be at least in the top two or three priorities for every business.  Two or three years ago my accountant, Robin Wrydryk of S.B. Partners, asked me to go through a succession planning dialogue.  Initially I was bored until I went back and interviewed my key people and asked what their plans were for retirement.  I woke up in a hurry when I realized some of my senior people were already making plans.  Our succession plan began then and we are now doing many things to insure that we are facing up to the big 'baby boomer and young'en' challenge so our firm can continue to prosper with the capacity to perform and compete.  Here are a few wake-up strategies we and many other firms are doing.  Hope it helps orit's at least as a reminder of what can be done. It is going to be more expensive to hire people because there will be more demand - so hire more part timers.  A lot of boomers want to stay in touch with their challenging work and friends so hire them for 2 or 3 days a week to work on really important stuff that they are good at.  It is a great strategy for many of them, and you get to tap into their experience to grow the business.  Also, offer more flexible schedules to younger people coming in. Accept the productivity challenge and begin to operate with fewer, but better people. If you are in manufacturing or processing it could mean more automation and process improvement.  Whether you are or not, all your processes should result in better meeting the needs of customers.  Old and inefficient systems add to the customers bills.  Engage a team to take a snapshot of your business.  Analyze it from order to delivery.  You will see the processes that need to be redesigned.  Put it on paper or a whiteboard. Is each step necessary?  Does it do what we want for the customer?  Will it help us find more of them?  Put another redesigned system on the board and have the team plan out your process improvement. Use your key staff for their knowledge and competencies and then outsource anything they are not good at or that doesn't need high value work.  A lot of businesses use a combination of both local and offshore outsourcing which produces great, inexpensive results for their customers.  Make sure your key people are doing high value work and you reward them financially, give them responsibility and keep them engaged.  Outsource the rest. Another possibility is to consider hiring people to just handle special or one-time projects. Train and coach your people in what your business needs.  This is the cheapest way to improve productivity and increase the capacity of your business.    Actions This Fall: A)  If you haven't done this already, ask people about their retirement plans and what they want.  Together, build a succession plan. B)  Consider hiring them back part time on high value jobs. C)  Engage a team and take a snapshot of your business.  "How to find and keep customers and make money."  Look for processes that don't work or don't add value then re-design them. D) Consider outsourcing low value work and/or what you are not good at. Have a great week. Kevin D. Crone CEO Dale Carnegie Business Group BusinessNext Inc. Offering Dale Carnegie Throughout Canada kevin@businessnext.ca (905) 826-7300 / 1-800-361-2032 ext. 223 www.dalecarnegie.ca www.businessnext.ca An old business friend called and asked if a few of his key people could attend a "Wake Up Your Business" workshop soon.  He had been reading and sharing the Monday Morning Mentor with them and would like to get a couple of years worth put into a condensed, most important things dialogue or workshop. So I promised I would conduct one (90 minutes) at my Mississauga office one morning for a small group of like minded business people.  So I'm inviting you to join him. No cost, just register below, show up and we will buy coffee. Here we go Alan.  Let's see who wants to join you.  Wake Up Your Business Workshop and the 8 Strategies required: Thursday, October 28th, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. (coffee and pastries) No Charge (first 20 registrations) Clcik Here to register Dale Carnegie Business Group 2121 Argentia Road, Suite 104 Missisauga, Ontario Register now and tune up your business and career. Kevin D. Crone CEO Dale Carnegie Business Group BusinessNext Inc. Offering Dale Carnegie Throughout Canada kevin@businessnext.ca (905) 826-7300 / 1-800-361-2032 ext. 223 www.dalecarnegie.ca www.businessnext.ca PS:  Over the last six months I have been getting many nice complaints that some people have not been receiving the Monday Morning Mentor.  While examining the causes one that popped out is that many companies have automatic systems that block repetitive e-mails.  One of the simplest solutions is for you to enroll with your personal email address.  If you want this weekly business mentoring, then re-subscribe or white list the existing subscription.   A 3 - 5 minute a week read on actions to take your business and career forward is available.  It is up to you.  Make sure you keep getting it.

Become Part of a Historical event
 You can make history. You can be included in a potential best-seller. To commemorate the Dale Carnegie organization's 100th anniversary, Simon and Schuster is publishing a revised edition of the Business Book of the Century - How To Win Friends and Influence People. They are looking for stories around the application of these fundamentals in today's digital world. Email us your stories and we'll forward them to the publishers. If yours is accepted, they will contact you.

Email you stories to: krcrone@dalecarnegie.ca

Welcome To The Monday Morning Mentor

A message from Kevin D. Crone, CEO, Dale Carnegie Business Group, Canada.
    

Come here each  Monday to receive valuable coaching on topics like:

• Facing up to the 8 Mistakes of Growing a Business
• Implementing 21 Ways to Grow a Business
• Facing up to the 8 Mistakes of Management to Grow Your Career
• Implementing 10 Ways to Engage, Connect and Build Your People
• The One Big Missing for Management
• How to Prepare for a Slowing Economy
• Designing Your Business to succeed in an ever-changing market
• Execution - Creating a Climate of Focused Action
• How to achieve results through the willing co-operation of others
• Can Your People Change?

• Getting ahead faster while maintaining a balanced life
• The Little Recognized Secret of Success   

This will be a personal Monday Morning post from Kevin D. Crone, CEO of a national company who is committed to helping businesses in Canada grow.

Here is the launch message from your mentor, Kevin D. Crone, CEO of the Dale Carnegie Business Group of Canada.

 
Fortunate to Have Many Mentors

Like many, I know the joys and perils of owning and running a business.  I've been doing it for 44 years.  Since I was 21 years old I've been involved in helping Canadians succeed.  I started Dale Carnegie work with a small team in one county in South Western Ontario.  I had very little going for me except this mission and passion.  By the time I was 28, I purchased the largest Canadian Franchise and within 18 months became the largest franchise in our world-wide organization.  We grew 800%.  Since then, we've added 8 territories.  This sounds good and exciting but since those days, I've seen my share of business ups and downs. I now know that success, although exhilarating and fun; can be wearing on family, even though I've always had the support I needed. I wished I had given my family more time.  It takes a lot of energy and you can become worn down from the constant changes and challenges.

Recessions and market changes take a toll on your spirit and body.  I was fortunate to have several mentors who helped me along the way.  Stu Scott, a Burlington accountant who went on to own over 15 companies and become very wealthy, was a great coach.  His tough love approach and knowledge of business was passed on to me.  Stu would always say to me, "Focus on what's left in your jeans Kevin."

Lee Straughan from New Mexico, a Carnegie franchisee is another great mentor who guided me through the people challenges of running a large organization. He impressed on me the importance of investing what was left in my jeans.  God love both these mentors.

Who is your mentor?  It became obvious that as much as I thought I could do everything myself, I couldn't. We all need support and coaching. 

In the 90s I was mentored by Gunnar Floryd from Sweden and Robert Fritz from Vermont.  More on my Mentors in later weeks.

It's tough to see what's going on from the inside.  Most business people are overwhelmed with details, problems to be solved and being pulled in many directions. Chasing the right one can be the crux of how or whether we grow.  Most times we can't see what's required.  Why?  Because we're so in love with our business, our offering, the story in our head of living out the good life.  

These concepts limit what we see as reality.  Our vision can become stale and we may be more interested in other things than our original vision and our dream of how we would change our market or make a difference in our companies.  

Also, many times we get bogged down with operations or sales and lose sight of the market.  And not to mention, the many people problems that wear us out - this is where an outsider can really help.

Today it's still exhilarating to be in business, yet I see that the stakes are higher, the change is quicker and the people challenges are more complex.  The fundamentals of success are still there.  How to live those fundamentals keeps changing.

Every business and every leader has potential and the great opportunities are still there. Most companies could explode if they saw things more clearly, changed what needed to be changed and then executed and most importantly, get the help they need.

Well, you now have a mentor... me!  Every Monday I'll send you a quick email (much, much shorter than this one).  It should take about 2 minutes to read and 10 minutes to digest.  You could use it as a conversation starter with your people or partner(s) - or just something to kick start your day.  It may help to keep you inspired, not so totally consumed by problems and overwhelmed with the 'gotta do's'. Inspiration and clarity is the source of focused action. You'll get lots of that here.

It will just be me.  The business owners I mentor tell me that I am candid but engaging. I am as action-oriented as they come, and communicate in a down to earth way.  Basically, I will bring you all the research my national group digs up to help you see the trends, what's going on, and what you can do to grow your business and leadership - in a simple "how to" way.  I'll replay for you real life coaching experiences from Canadian businesses and leaders just like you on how to:

• acquire more customers
• compete with good ole "tough in the corners" Canadian grit strategies to outsmart and stay ahead of the competition
• nourish existing customers so they feel special
• engage new markets
• engage your people
• change your leadership habits so you don't inadvertently sabotage your business
• create a climate of focused action
• create a structure and design required to advance your business and
• make your strategies work

I see the need and feel the pain. I see schools, coaches, trainers, and peer group clubs failing to help people like they should.  When consultants leave, so does momentum.  I want to help where I can.

We need practical, down to earth ideas that work, sprinkled with clear direct communication that causes you to act. 

Talk to you next week,

"Kevin from Heaven" (all Irish men are this way)

Kevin D. Crone
CEO
Dale Carnegie Business Group
Offering Dale Carnegie & Business Next

kdcrone@dalecarnegie.ca
(905) 826-7300 / 1-800-361-2032 ext. 223