Weird Or Just Different? The Flip Side Of Your Business

Weird Or Just Different? The Flip Side Of Your Business

“There’s a flip side to everything,” the saying goes. Or, as Derek Sivers makes clear in his two-minute TED speech, “Whatever brilliant idea you have or hear, the opposite might also be true.” Take just two of your own minutes, and think about it: What is the flip side of your business? How can turning your world upside down, even as a simple thought experiment, offer unexpected inspiration?

You can watch Derek Sivers himself demonstrating the truth behind this old saying, here.

The minds behind the book Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, suggest we think about our businesses this way as well. For example, if you were in the restaurant business, try imagining what your business would become if you didn’t have menus? It’s not such a far-fetched idea: here in Chicago there is a highly successful restaurant called Next that doesn’t use menus — and sells tickets rather than making reservations! (I can hear the Zagat reviewers gasping about now.)

What would (could) your business look like if you no longer included what you now believe to be an essential element of your product or service? In other words, what is the flip side to your business?

Elisa K. Spain

Positioning For Results: How Will You Act When Other CEOs Lose Confidence?

Positioning For Results: How Will You Act When Other CEOs Lose Confidence?

It’s probably no surprise that the results of last week’s Q3 Vistage CEO survey show a steep drop in confidence among small business leadership.

However, you may also have forgotten that during previous challenging business cycles—including the U.S. Great Depression in the 1930s—many companies prospered. What do you think made the difference?

On Thursday, Vistage International released the results of last month’s survey of U.S. small business CEOs. Not unexpectedly, CEOs foresee a continued slowdown in the pace of economic growth and, amid record-high economic uncertainty, anticipate weak economic conditions to persist during the year ahead.

The Q3 Vistage CEO Confidence Index, which surveyed 1,710 US small business executives between September 8th and 19th, was set at 83.5—down from 92.9 in Q2 and substantially below the Q1 index of 105.2. In fact, the 20% decline over the past two quarters brought the Confidence Index to its lowest level in two years.

University of Michigan’s Dr. Richard Curtin, who has directed the survey since 2003, noted, “While firms do not expect an outright recession, they anticipate that the economic growth will be very slow during the year ahead. As a result, they have curtailed investments and hiring, and anticipate smaller growth in profits. And considering that small business has been responsible for 75% of net new job growth in the U.S. over the past 15 years, if the current trend continues, it’s unlikely the employment picture will improve between now and the 2012 election.”

While it’s tough to put a rosy spin on this, haven’t some companies prospered during every economic downturn—even companies that aren’t typically seen as “recession proof?”

Perhaps we should start by asking ourselves some deeper questions:

To what degree is it possible that our beliefs are fueling the current economic situation and the stock market? We know that group and individual psychology play an important role in stock-market fluctuations. Is the broader economy so different?

And even if history reports this period as the second great depression (or the first lingering great recession, or the same stagnation experienced by Japan for the last 20 years, or…),

What if it is the transformation decade? (see blog post The Economic Shift, 9/20/11)

What actions can each of us take—what can we do—to position ourselves to prosper? Today and tomorrow?

To read the full report, go to:

http://www.vistage.com/media-center/confidence-index.aspx

Elisa K. Spain

Make Your Own Rules: Adapting Warren Buffett’s “10 Rules For Success”

Make Your Own Rules: Adapting Warren Buffett’s “10 Rules For Success”

Make Your Own Rules: Adapting Warren Buffet’s “10 Rules for Success”

Warren Buffett’s 10 Rules for Success have become part of our lore. They first appeared as a list in a 2008 article in Parade Magazine and were based on an interview with Alice Schroder, author of Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Buffett’s own story is inspiring, and his ten rules have helped many entrepreneurs take positive action in their own lives and businesses.

Below is the list. I encourage you to read it with the following five (OK, seven) questions in mind.

  1. What are my personal 10 rules of success?
  2. Is there something I would add to or remove from this list?
  3. So far this week, have I operated in accordance with my rules for success?
  4. Have I shared my rules for success with my team? If so, what has been the result? If not, what might be the result if I do?
  5. Have I paused lately to celebrate my successes?

Warren Buffett’s 10 Rules for Success

1. Reinvest Your Profits. 
When you first make money, you may be tempted to spend it. Don’t. Instead, reinvest the profits. In high school, Buffettt and a friend bought a pinball machine to put in a barbershop. With the money they earned, they bought more machines until they had eight in different shops. When the friends sold the venture, Buffettt used the proceeds to buy stocks and to start another small business.

2. Be Willing To Be Different. 
Don’t base your decisions upon what everyone is saying or doing. When Buffett began managing money in 1956 with $100,000 cobbled together from a handful of investors, he was dubbed an oddball. He worked inOmaha, not on Wall Street, and he refused to tell his partners where he was putting their money. People predicted that he’d fail, but when he closed his partnership 14 years later, it was worth more than $100 million.

3. Never Suck Your Thumb. 
Gather in advance any information you need to make a decision, and ask a friend or relative to make sure that you stick to a deadline. Buffett prides himself on swiftly making up his mind and acting on it. He calls any unnecessary sitting and thinking “thumb-sucking.”

4. Spell Out the Deal Before You Start.
 Your bargaining leverage is always greatest before you begin a job – when you have something to offer that the other party wants. Buffett learned this lesson the hard way as a kid, when his grandfather hired him and a friend to dig out the family grocery store after a blizzard. The boys spent five hours shoveling until they could barely straighten their frozen hands. Afterward, the pair received less than 90 cents to split.


5. Watch Small Expenses.
 Buffett invests in businesses run by managers who obsess over the tiniest costs. He once acquired a company whose owner counted the sheets in rolls of 500-sheet toilet paper to see if he was being cheated (turns out one time he was). He also admired a friend who painted only the side of his office building that faced the road.

6. Limit What You Borrow.
 Buffett has never borrowed a significant amount – not to invest, not for a mortgage. He has gotten many heart-wrenching letters from people who thought their borrowing was manageable; but became overwhelmed by debt. His advice: negotiate with creditors to pay what you can. Then, when you’re debt-free, work on saving some money that you can use to invest.

7. Be Persistent. With tenacity and ingenuity, you can win against a more established competitor. Buffett acquired the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983 because he liked the way its founder, Rose Blumkin, did business. A Russian immigrant, she built the mart from a pawn shop into the largest furniture store in North America. Her strategy was to undersell the big shots, and she was a merciless negotiator.


8. Know When To Quit. 
Once, when Buffett was a teenager, he went to the racetrack. He bet on a race and lost. To recoup his funds, he bet on another race. He lost again, leaving him with close to nothing. He felt sick. He had squandered nearly a week’s worth of earnings. Needless to say, that mistake was never repeated.

9. Assess the Risks. 
In 1995, the employer of Buffett’s son, Howie, was accused by the FBI of price-fixing. Buffett advised Howie to imagine the worst- and best-case scenarios if he stayed with the company. His son quickly realized that the risks of staying far outweighed any potential gains, and he quit the next day.


 10. Know What Success Really Means.
 Despite his wealth, Buffett does not measure success by dollars. In 2006, he pledged to give away almost his entire fortune to charities, primarily the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He’s adamant about not funding monuments to himself – no Warren Buffett buildings or halls. “When you get to my age, you’ll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. That’s the ultimate test of how you’ve lived your life.”

Elisa K. Spain

The Economic Shift: Un(der)employment, Technology And Opportunity

The Economic Shift: Un(der)employment, Technology And Opportunity

Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent. The unemployment rate for workers with college degrees was 4.4 percent.

This statistic has been on my mind ever since. A significant percentage of college-educated workers are underemployed, and unskilled, uneducated workers are facing a shrinking pool of available jobs. This isn’t just a downturn; my gut says we are in the midst of a fundamental shift in our economy. So does one of our Vistage speakers, David Houle, who calls this the Shift Age. Then why do I remain hopeful?

Here’s why: technological changes, as always, are a driving force behind the economic shift. As we move out of the information age, we are facing many of the same social, political and economic transformations that we faced when we exited the industrial age.

As business leaders, as people who have an opportunity to have a positive effect on the un(der)employment situation, our task is to gain a clearer understanding of what is happening to our economy, and then to act accordingly. Let’s start by asking some questions about this transformation:

  • What does this mean for our society overall?
  • What does this mean for the future of work?
  • And, most important, what opportunities does this create for each of our businesses?

For more food for thought, check out this Vistage White Paper and this video by David Houle, “The Transformation Decade.”

Elisa K. Spain

Nothing Wasted: Making The Most Of “Down” Time

Nothing Wasted: Making The Most Of “Down” Time

Nothing Wasted: Making the Most of “Down” TimeWhen I read this blogpost from Seth Godin today, it made me pause and think. And, as always, ask myself some questions.

What if we followed his advice? What would be the outcome of creative contribution to our lives?

When was the last time you wasted time? When you were “wasting time,” did you feel joyful and creative, or — if you’re like me, did you feel even a tiny bit guilty for “being unproductive?” How much better might it have been, how much more would you have enjoyed your time — how much more would you have gotten out of it — if you didn’t feel guilty about it or feel the need to explain it?

Here’s the full post from Seth: Wasting time is not a waste

Here’s a fact: wasting time is a key part of our lives.

However, wasting time poorly is a sin (or whichever word you prefer), because not only are you forgoing the productivity, generosity and art that comes from work, but you’re also giving up the downtime, experimentation and joy that comes from wasting time.

If you’re going to waste time (and I hope you will) the least you can do is do it well and find inspiration in it.

Elisa K. Spain

Precipitous, Wrong And Dangerous: What To Do When “Those Who Know Best,” Don’t

Precipitous, Wrong And Dangerous: What To Do When “Those Who Know Best,” Don’t

Precipitous, Wrong and Dangerous: What To Do When “Those Who Know Best,” Don’tBill Miller, Chairman, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager for Legg Mason shares his point of view on the recent S&P change in the U.S. credit rating: “The downgrading by Standard & Poor’s of the credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA+ on August 5th was precipitous, wrong, and dangerous. At best, S&P showed a stunning ignorance and complete disregard for the potential consequences of its actions on a fragile global financial system.”

We know what Standard & Poor’s has done. What are you going to do?

Here is Bill Miller’s full commentary.

For what it’s worth, I agree with Bill. And note, the ratings of Moody’s and Fitch remained unchanged, while Northern Trust and other financial institutions have announced “no change” in their investment policies.

As far as S&P’s rating is concerned, the deed is done. The questions now are:

  • What does this mean for each of us in our businesses?
  • Will this be a blip and we will all move on?
  • Is this the beginning of a serious focus on the U.S. deficit (now equal to GDP) and what will be the challenges and opportunities that show up for each of our businesses?

I really liked what I heard yesterday from my *Vistage CEO members — to a person, I heard:  “I plan to be mindful of what is happening in the world and at the same time be mindful of 1) opportunities to grow my business and seize opportunities, and 2) my cash reserves.” This commitment to growth and innovation by business owners has gotten this country to new levels of prosperity throughout its history, and I remain optimistic that we will see the same result this time around.

*Note: I am the chair of a CEO peer group as part of Vistage International. For more information, please visit http://www.elisaspainvistage.com

Elisa K. Spain