The Name’s Bond … James Bond

“An organization’s ability to learn, and to translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”~ Jack Welch

You may never have had experience with business and competitive intelligence. Most small and mid-sized companies either do not have the resources for an internal competitive intelligence department, or they farm out those needs to a third party. Regardless, they certainly do not readily advertise they are gathering actionable intelligence on competitors. Thee process of gathering competitive intelligence is not as James Bond as it sounds. Professionals in this space sift through mountains of open-source data to predict the movements of competitors. Most competitive intelligence deals with strategic competitive trends, but you can take advantage of some of the same open-source data that drives the larger predictive competitive models.

On any level, social media is a boon for intelligence gathering. Follow your competition on all the major social media platforms. If you are familiar with a competitor’s movers and shakers, follow their professional and personal social media feeds if they are publicly accessible. By paying close attention, and sometimes reading between the lines, you can infer quite a bit. For example, if a competitor’s main social media feeds are talking about making a big announcement soon and the head of their real-estate department is grousing about working late, your competition might be making a big move. If your competition is dealing to end users, social listening might help you gauge the overall satisfaction of their customer base.

The drawback to performing your own competitive intelligence is that it can be time-consuming, depending on how far down the rabbit hole you wish to take it. If you sneak a peek at your own social media during the day or at lunch, replace that with checking out the competition. Any of this information that is publicly accessible can give you an advantage and assist you in making better decisions about your own business.

Consider this …

1. What open sources of competitive intelligence data do you have or can you get access to?

2. In what ways can you consistently gather “competitive intelligence” in your market?

3. What kind of process can you establish to enable you to keep a finger on the pulse of your industry, market, and/or competitors?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)

“People like you to be something, preferably what they are.” ~ John Steinbeck

José came back from lunch completely stoked. The young engineer had been hired straight out of college into a small firm that embraced innovation. One of the company’s principals, Mike, told José during his interview the firm looked for recent grads who could inject fresh ideas into their processes. Six months into the job, José saw that Mike had been true to his word. Mike often came to José asking his thoughts on work processes and design tools to keep his perspective fresh. With these experiences in mind, José didn’t stop by his cube before running up to Mike to describe his lunchtime discovery.

On one of his news feeds, José had seen an article describing the HR initiatives Reed Hastings at Netflix had implemented. The chief point on José’s mind was the “take time off when you need it” policy. The usually receptive Mike soured at José’s suggestion the firm implement a similar policy. Crestfallen, José went back to his cube. Another one of the firm’s principals had heard Mike and José’s exchange and asked Mike why he had shut down the young engineer’s thoughts. Mike launched into a litany of reasons ranging from the disparity between their small shop and the talent pool of Netflix, but the final emphatic point was that for the last thirty years he had to schedule vacation time and by Ned, he wasn’t going to let a rookie take off on a whim.

Someone like José will be far less likely to present new ideas in any area after an exchange like that. We cannot simply turn an innovative workplace off and on like a light switch. Either we foster an environment that craves new ideas and evaluates them on the basis of their true merits, or we cling to our outmoded biases and work processes. True innovators do not pick and choose what topics are fair game for innovation. Either you’re an innovator, or you aren’t.

Consider this …

1. On a scale of one to ten (one being low and ten being high), how would you rate the “spirit of innovation” in your project, business, or workplace?

2. Unless your rating was an eight, nine, or ten, what things must be changed to increase that “spirit of innovation” to nine or ten?

3. What three actions can YOU take right now to positively impact this situation?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)

“Wisdom is a treasure; the key whereof is never lost.”  ~ Edward Counsel

The Bible tells us there was no wiser man than King Solomon, and most days we wish we had a tenth of his gifts. As happens with persons of Solomon’s status, legends pop up that are outside scriptural texts. Possibly one of my favorite Solomon tall tales is about a miraculous ring. Solomon called his most trusted advisor and requested he find a certain ring for his king. Before asking any questions, the advisor agreed to find whatever ring Solomon wished for. The advisor then asked why this ring was so special. The king responded, “The ring has the power to make a happy man sad and a sad man happy just by looking at it.”

Solomon knew that no ring held that power, but the advisor was a haughty man, and the king wanted to give him an object lesson in humility. A timetable of six months was set for the quest, and Solomon sent the advisor on his way.

The advisor combed through the finest markets Israel had in search of the ring but turned up nothing. The day before the advisor’s time limit was up, he dejectedly went through Jerusalem’s poorest markets. He asked a grizzled old jewelry merchant if he had ever heard of a ring with the power Solomon described. The aged huckster picked up a plain gold band and engraved something on it before handing it to the king’s advisor. The advisor broke out into a grin when he read the inscription and rushed to the palace.

Solomon, seeing the advisor, chuckled asking, if the ring had been found. Without saying a word, the advisor handed the ring to Solomon. The king looked down at the elder merchant’s engraving, which said, “this too shall pass.” Solomon grew instantly morose. Wisdom, riches, wives, and all the kingly powers he possessed meant nothing, for Solomon would one day pass from this earthly plane just like anyone else.

Consider this …

1. On what circumstances or things do you tend to commonly dwell, to the point of obsession?

2. In the grand scheme of things, how important are these circumstances or things?

3. Where might you best affix your focus so that the circumstances or things you focus on have a lasting impact?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)

“The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing—building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help.”~ David M. Kelley

An insurance provider that caters to senior citizens was revamping its identification-card system. The thirty-something who oversaw the technical aspects of the project presented a new soft ware system that integrated ordering physical cards with electronic card maintenance on a new smartphone app. Amidst the talk of efficiencies and cost savings, a customer service representative noticed that a function to order multiple physical cards had been dropped from the new soft ware. When questioned, the project manager didn’t understand why anyone would want multiple physical cards. The customer service representative explained that many of their policyholders had multiple caregivers who rotated taking the policyholders to the doctor’s appointments. Multiple cards were ordered for emergency situations or as a convenience for each caregiver. The lack of a quantity order function would create inefficiencies for frontline staff and customers alike.

The project manager incredulously replied that “I’d just use the app,” and quashed bringing back the feature. Many seniors are wary of technology, and giving caregivers passwords to accounts that contain financial information is not always a safe alternative. While the new integrated card system was implemented per specifications, was the project manager successful? One could argue that in the efficient execution of her task, she had met her goal. However, the project manager was not guided by either the company’s core values or customer’s needs. In that respect, and certainly in my mind, the project manager underachieved. Empathetic design considers the users and customers and builds their natural inclinations, wishes, and desires into the design of the product or service.

How often do we lose touch with our end users or customers in a rush to achieve our goals? The next time you have a project, work backward from the end user’s perspective. Begin by asking, “How can this project or innovation enhance our customer’s experience?” and then merge your project’s goals with those answers. With the customers’ interests at heart, there’s really no way to lose.

Consider this …

1. What assumptions have you made about your customers’ or stakeholders’ needs, wants, or natural inclinations?

2. How might you go about validating or invalidating those assumptions? (Research the terms “Customer Discovery” or “Talking to Humans” for some ideas in this regard.)

3. In what three areas might the process of “Customer Discovery” help you right now?

4. Create a process and an action plan to test these three most significant assumptions under which you, your business, and/or your team have been operating.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

““The best revenge is massive success.” ~ Frank Sinatra

CNBC’s co-host of The Deed, Sean Conlon, has a “typical” rags-to-riches story. The Irish immigrant worked a five-dollar-an-hour janitorial job while breaking into the highly competitive Chicago real-estate market. Working one-hundred-hour weeks, developing a nasty ulcer because of his dogged attention to detail, and coming up with a new formula for developing and selling commercial real estate netted Conlon $55 million in sales four years after putting down his broom. But that’s not what is “atypical” about Sean Conlon.

The real-estate business is acutely cutthroat and getting the shaft on commissions is not uncommon. According to Conlon he’s been on the ethical underside of deals thousands of times. One particular time he showed a “for sale by owner” house to a client just because he thought the house might fit the client’s needs. Come to find out the house was owned by a real-estate broker. The client bought the house, and Conlon gets stiffed on the commission. Conlon let the slight go and adopted the philosophy of:

Don’t put all of your energy into trying to get them back. Keep winning. Get up and go back at it every day.

Professional malice does you no favors. The effort you spend seething only hurts you. In fact, it’s been said that failing to forgive is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

As for Conlon, six years later his company worked a deal with the broker who had not cut him a commission check years earlier. Conlon was looking over the deal’s paperwork, recognized the broker’s name, and shaved his commission accordingly for the six-year-old slight. Your own personal success is the best revenge you can ever exact.

Consider this …

1. Against whom do you hold a grudge or hard feelings that have proven difficult for you to overcome? What were the offenses that caused the grudge(s)?

2. What success(es) would be the greatest, most constructive “revenge” you could have in those situations?

3. Develop and implement a plan to make those successes a reality. Once you start working on the plan, make a decision to forgive and forget those past offenses.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”  ~ Helen Keller

When Barbara looked at her phone’s screen, she saw a text message she never thought she would see, “Mom, I’m being called to the principal’s office, and it’s not good.” After rushing to the school, Barbara saw her daughter in tears and was informed that she had been caught cheating on two assignments. The principal went on to explain she had turned the same paper in for her English and history classes. Confused, Barbara further probed and found that the work filled the requirements for both classes and the essay had not been plagiarized. There was nothing in the classes’ instructions or school honor code that forbade turning in the same work for two different classes. The principal countered that two distinctive assignments required unique work and Barbara’s daughter had manipulated the system to get out of doing two papers.

In a collaborative business environment, we often assume the principal’s mind-set. Somehow using a team member’s work product for our own ends means we’re cheating. There’s never a need to reinvent a pivot table or write a new report when the work had been previously completed. Individual achievements don’t matter a whit if your team falters. Hoarding your work product from the team can be extremely damaging by wasting time and resources through duplicative effort. As leaders, we should praise efficiencies rather than viewing true collaboration as skating by on someone else’s work.

By the way, Barbara was a top performing business executive. After a vigorous discussion with the principal, her daughter was sent on her way without further repercussions.

Consider this …

1. Where does your project, business, or workplace need more efficiencies?

2. What work products already exist that can be leveraged or repurposed to solve other issues?

3. Where might you encourage greater collaboration and sharing of work in order to make the entire team more effi cient or eff ective?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)

“When you need to innovate, you need collaboration.”  ~ Marissa Mayer

Westmoreland, Tennessee, is not where one would expect to find success. On average the unemployment rate of this Middle Tennessee town has trended above the national rate since 1990. Decades of mistrust between the Westmoreland haves and have-nots fostered division and a profound lack of cooperation. These splits created 30 churches and non-profit organizations in an area where less than 10,000 people lived. Each group had its own food pantry to try to meet the needs of the low-income residents of the area, and still many in Westmoreland went hungry.

All of that started to change ten years ago, when a collaborative effort was set up almost accidentally by an outsider. Minister Charlie Millson worked to find common ground among the disparate groups. Millson appealed to the one thing these different groups had in common—they all lacked funding. Within one week of moving to the area, Millson devised a plan and explained it by saying:

We knew that the small churches didn’t have the funding, manpower, or sometimes even the space to stock a pantry. Many of the churches didn’t even have telephones where those in need could reach the pantries.

Millson called a meeting of some of the town leaders and proposed that they pool their resources into a new organization, the Westmoreland Food Bank. He found an inexpensive place to rent in the downtown area and opened a food bank with regular hours and trained volunteers. Soon churches started sending volunteers and resources. Now almost every church in the area participates in the food bank, and it serves over 600 families each month. All of this was financed and staffed by locals in a town where collaboration was unknown until someone helped the people see the benefits of working together.

Consider this …

1. Identify the areas in your business or organization where there is uncoordinated activity (at best) to vast disagreement (at worst).

2. Prioritize those areas from the most critical to the least critical according to their impact on your collective success.

3. Develop a plan to address the most critical by pulling everyone together and building a plan that requires collaboration—one that everyone buys into.

 For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

A friend of mine owns a small business and found herself in the enviable position of having excess liquid capital. Her business was currently supporting her and fed her soul, but would have been considered a flyspeck on the commercial accounts of her bank. Currently, her excess funds were sitting in a savings account drawing next to nothing in interest. Not being that familiar with investments, she asked her bank’s branch manager what the bank could do to help her money grow. The branch manager promptly replied that one of their commercial specialists would call her to discuss her options.

 A week went past and then two without a peep from the bank’s specialist. My friend closed her account with that bank telling the branch manager the institution obviously didn’t have need of her funds. The bank had a chance to grow with her, and they choose not to. As far as the bank was concerned, the loss of her account appeared to be insignificant. The commercial specialist, if contacted at all, triaged his or her calls to the largest accounts first and my friend obviously drew the short straw.

“Now a promise made is a debt unpaid,” is a line penned by Robert Service in his poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee.” (Coincidentally, Service was working at a bank when he wrote that.) When we don’t deliver to a customer, we remain in their debt. Like any business, when our debt to equity ratio gets too high, there can be dire consequences.

Another similar analogy is the one of an emotional bank account. Whether we recognize it or not, when we enter into a relationship with someone, we open an emotional bank account with them. When we make more deposits than withdrawals (give to the relationship more than we take), our balance remains positive. When we make more withdrawals than deposits (take more than we give), we become “overdrawn,” and experience the associated negative consequences. We all should take some time periodically to evaluate our personal customer service debt to equity ratio, or the balances of the emotional bank accounts we have with our customers, stake-holders, and teammates.

Consider this …

1. Make a list of the people who are important to your success—clients, stakeholders, teammates, etc.

2. Now, place “A+” (to denote a positive bank balance), or “A-“ (to denote a negative balance) next to their names.

3. If you have outstanding debts or negative balances, clear them up as soon as possible. 

 For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

“Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.”~ Emily Bronte

The brilliantly mad genius of Orson Welles scared the nation into believing martians had invaded the Earth, produced one of the greatest films ever made, and hawked no wine before its time. If War of the Worlds, Citizen Kane, and cheesy 1970s wine commercials weren’t enough, Welles was also a world-class magician. Welles was so talented at prestidigitation, he harbored secret anxiety about magic. Sideshow magicians have long called what Welles feared, shut eye. The term is attached to someone so adept at weaving illusions, the performer begins to believe she or he truly possesses magical powers. It’s difficult to believe someone would wake up one morning believing himself or herself to be a spell waving wizard, but there wouldn’t be a term for the behavior unless it existed.

Anyone in business has a modicum of the carnival spirit coursing through their veins. We’re cheerful for clients and team members when we’d rather go back home and hide under the covers. Doubts are often swept away by a mental shot of “you can do anything” bravado. Those pick-me-ups are a necessary part of our professional existence. The danger comes when we become shut eye to chasing our goals at the expense of our family, friends, or faith. Did Orson Welles really fear in gaining the world he could lose his soul in the bargain? He had racked up more awards and notoriety before he was thirty than most of us will see in a lifetime. It seems more likely Welles’s trepidation lay here versus believing he was magical. The fact is, top performers sometimes begin to feel as though they are invincible.

When we become so prideful that our ambitions hold no consequences, the reckoning of a fall is likely just around the bend. The magic lies in moving forward with those who matter to you. Let those people in your life be your touchstone for where ambition ends and an ego-driven success at all costs begins. Open and honest communication and the willingness to be held accountable by your loved ones holds that key. Be sure you guard against the shut eye to that.

Consider this …

1. In what ways and at what times do you sometimes feel as though you are invincible?

2. With whom do you have a loving, accountable relationship that you can leverage to keep you grounded?

3. Have an open conversation with that person or people and give them permission to help you keep both feet firmly planted on the ground.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” ~ Yoda

The Force was not with George Lucas when he pitched Star Wars to Universal Studios and United Artists. The executives at both studios thought the market wouldn’t support such an expensive science fiction film and politely shuttled Lucas out the door. Hoping the third time would be the charm, Lucas pitched Twentieth Century Fox and got their acceptance by the skin of his teeth. Lucas didn’t receive the budget he needed to bring his full vision to the screen, but he’d make due with what he had. He had originally written Luke Skywalker’s home planet as a jungle, but filming in the Tunisian desert was cheaper, so Lucas adapted the script.

Due to the worst rainstorm in Tunisian history, filming got off to a less-than-auspicious start. Many of the set pieces and props were damaged or destroyed. If that wasn’t bad enough, the crew and actors weren’t even behind Star Wars. Harrison Ford thought Princess Leia’s hairdo was ridiculous and Chewbacca looked like a giant in a monkey suit. The man inside R2-D2, Kenny Baker, foresaw the movie flopping as did the rest of the crew. To top off Lucas’s problems, most of the required special effects for the movie didn’t exist and had to be invented. Production schedules waned, actual expenses burst through the budget’s seams, and George Lucas flirted with hypertension and depression.

At the end of the day, the innovation and determination of George Lucas won the day, and so it is with you! Knowing the backstory of Lucas’s tribulations to get Star Wars into theaters, we hear the words of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

Consider this …

1. What major obstacles are facing your business, project, or workplace right now?

2. What things have you “tried” in order to overcome them? What has worked and what has not?

3. How can you emulate the innovation and determination of George Lucas to win the day?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)