I'm a fan of Servant Leadership.  If you are not aware of the concept, check out this video of Colleen Barrett, CEO of Southwest Airlines or The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership to learn more.  The basic premise is that when company leadership serves their employees as their number 1 priority, the employees will be more engaged and motivated and better able to serve their customers and markets.  I love the concept because it assumes we are part of something greater than ourselves, that the whole is greater than the sum of its part when this care taking is the fabric of an organization.  This also feeds my (and others') spirtual and emotional self, in that by giving we become better beings. And there is an added bonus.  Companies that embrace a long term strategy of servant leadership are more profitable than their peers.  In turn "profits are the applause for the employees doing well."  It's a win-win for all.   

My analytical side loves to analyze the tangible implications of Servant Leadership. And that's where the term Triple Bottom Line (People Profits & Planet - or Triple P) comes in.  Triple Bottom Line management can be used to find the balance between People, Profits and Planet to create sustainable businesses that serve.  All companies have components of each element but without the right balance, one or more of the other factors may become skewed. 

Consider the 3 components as sides of a triangle, where sustainability is a board that balances at the tip of the triangle foundation  - too much emphasis on one or two will cause an imbalance - eventually resulting in a breakdown of the foundation.  Too much emphasis on profit, and employees and/or planet will suffer.  Too much emphasis on employees, and profits and/or planet will suffer.  You get the point.  Triple P allows for a measureable way to manage and grow a company based on the company and owner's unique value system with our real world business, social and environmental ecosystem.  

Want to learn more about People Profit & Planet, Triple Bottom Line?  I encourage you to join a group on linked in, or check out CNBC's series on the subject

 
When I was a student in college learning music theory & composition, one of the techniques our professors used was to teach us all the rules of composition & music theory before we could break them.  We would then better understand the full palette of musical techniques to combine.   One of the courses that was especially interesting to me was "Counterpoint & Fugue."  During this course we would be given part of a music line, around which we would build a short 4 -piece harmony.  We were specifically told to not play the tune we were writing, and would instead listen to it for the first time when we submitted it to our professor.  Following the basic rules gave great results,  and ignoring all the rules was a fast track to failure.  By following this technique we had another building block under our belts which formed the foundation for developing our own unique styles.

This technique applies to business - know the rules of business, the lessons learned through the efforts of others is tremendously beneficial.  But learning from the mistakes of others is also valuable - sometimes failures prove to be even greater lessons.  So for this post, I'd like to share two references around the topic of failure in business - How the Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins (author of the more famously referred to Good to Great), and The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives (by Forbes.com contributor Eric Jackson)

Both articles provide wonderful examples of how not to run your company, and just like my old professor, Leonard Klein taught me - learn from the good & the bad, and along the way, you'll develop your own unique and winning style!

New Jersey Business owners - want to learn more about creating great companies?  Join us, along with other business owners January 16th at our annual Business Summit "Turbo Charge Your 2012." 

As a small business entrepreneur, sales and marketing are a crucial part of making your company succeed. You may have come across the staggering sales statistics before:

            2% of sales are made on the first contact

            3% of sales are made on the second contact

            5% of sales are made on the third contact

            10% of sales are made on the fourth contact

            80% of sales are made on the fifth through twelfth contact

Organizing an effective follow-up process will help ensure you optimize sales leads; that is, close more sales. The following are a few tips to help you get the most out of your leads.

1. Be a leader: act quickly. Time is crucial when it comes to following up with sales leads. Just like a jar of mayonnaise, leads have a limited shelf life: the longer you wait to follow up, the more likely the lead has gone sour. The leadership in your company – whether that is you or the head of your Sales and Marketing department – must consistently demonstrate the importance of quickly following up on sales leads.

2. Institute a weekly inspection process, one that monitors your sales follow-up operation. It helps to have weekly checkpoint system in place.

3. Keep your sales lead follow-up process simple. Leads can be categorized as such: Purchased, Not Interested or In-Progress.

4. Set sales follow-up policies for customers (or potential customers) who are in the Purchased and Not Interested categories. For those in the Purchased category, try some of these post-sale follow-up tips. Those In-Progress leads, of course, are where you will likely spend the majority of your time and money, and represent the biggest potential return on your investment.

5. Use a software program to help your sales and marketing team keep track of the three lead categories. Your system should be easy to use and able to produce effective lead follow-up reports.

6. Give your In-Progress leads sub-categories that more deeply explain the particular sales process. What is keeping the customer from purchasing? Based on this detailed information, your sales leadership can guide salespeople on their next steps.

7. Recognize and reward great sales lead follow-up. You can do this in front of the entire sales team, which sets the tone for the importance of the follow-up process. Counsel and coach poor sales lead follow-up on a one-on-one basis. By keeping track of the entire process, and ultimately rewarding and counseling your sales team, you emphasize the importance of following up with leads.

Getting media coverage for your business can be tough. What follows are a few helpful tips to ensure local media coverage: from building relationships with journalists to formulating a pitch no reporter could resist.

Begin by building strong relationships with the media. If you have a certain item you would like to pitch (like a new product, service or location), it helps to have a good foundation already in place through various social media outlets.

1. Research journalists who cover your business market. Connect with him or her on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter months before you send your pitch or press release. (MuckRack is a great way to find journalists who cover your industry.)
2. If your journalists keep a blog, read their posts regularly. Stay updated on stories they post online. Make comments – the more engaging, the better – to stay connected.
3. Sign up for HARO, otherwise known as Help A Reporter Out. HARO sends out multiple emails a day, with reporters from all over looking for industry leaders to lend expertise to stories.

Once you’ve built the foundations for relationships in the media, your pitch will usually be better received. You still need to make the pitch transition go smoothly.

1. If a journalist asks to interview you that day, say “yes” without fail. The media world spins quickly, and reporters often face short deadlines. Even if you are busy, you should make time for quick questions over the phone.
2. Offer your journalist something of value, whether it is a connection to another industry expert, pertinent blog posts, or an idea for a follow-up story.

All the focus you’ve given to your business help make you an expert in your industry, but often block the ability to see the larger picture. What you’re pitching may sound exciting and informational to you; to a reporter, your pitch may be cumbersome and, worse, an uninteresting news piece. A few of the following tips help you help your journalist understand just how great your pitch really is:

1. Define your story in one sentence. If that sentence can engage the journalist, he or she will ask a lot more questions.
2. Present your story so that it provides value: how will your new service or product benefit the audience?
3. Include people in your pitch. Truly engaging stories (that is, stories that sell) focus on the human aspect, as opposed to a faceless company profile.
4. If possible, provide reporters with actual people who have used your product or service. Testimonials boost credibility and potential target audience – and lend that extra personal touch.

“Failure is the pain that fuels learning.” – Chris Brogan, social media expert extraordinaire

It’s a fear we all face: the fear of failure.

Smart business people recognize that failure is at times a business imperative. To understand what works, we must understand what doesn’t work. To understand success, we must understand failure. The important connection between success and failure is learning from our, and other’s, mistakes.

The fear of failure often leads us to travel the same path over and over, worn down by the footsteps of people before us. The true stars of the professional – and the personal – world are those who have stepped off the beaten path, gotten scratched and scarred in the process, but ultimately arrived at places we never imagined possible.

Consider the story of this entrepreneur: In 2004, Marco Terry decided to realize his dream of owning his own business, a financing company called Commercial Capital LLC. He had a comprehensive business strategy to secure clients, gleaned from years of industry experience, one that “could not fail.”

Unfortunately, the expected results failed to materialize. Eight months after starting his venture, Marco was running out of time and money. His well-planned, well-executed business strategy was proving to be a failure. As he had put so much energy and faith into the strategy, he began to worry: he had no Plan B, no back-up means of recourse.

What Marco had, though, was the ability to recognize when certain business strategies were failing, and when others – however whimsical – were working. Marco tells of stepping off the presumably safe path and paving one all his own:

But one day I noticed one small thing. Just tiny, but critical. A marketing tactic that I did, mostly for fun, was actually bringing in clients. As I devoted more time to it, my client base grew. And grew rapidly. So did my business success. And so did my level of fun. Literally, I transformed my business and changed a major focus, using this little tactic. And the company has been on the grow ever since. What is important – very important I think – is that I was happy with my marketing.

When we break from our fears, when we understand that failure is a necessary step to greatness, only then can we fully realize our human potential. Here’s to you doing something scary, but ultimately rewarding, today.

For decades, business leaders have operated their companies assuming they could rely on some level of stability in their assumptions.  This is no longer the case in today’s environment.  The only certainty is that uncertainty abounds.  Globalization, tax & regulatory changes, access to information and the ability to tap into resources around the world almost instantaneously has created new models of business.  While this certainly opens up new competitive models, it also opens up a world of opportunity.  You, your employees, partners and customers (who are also facing uncertainty) now have the ability to interact in ways that were previously impossible, and to create solutions that in the past might never have existed.  And one of the most powerful ways to do this is through using Social Media. 

Social Media isn’t just for friends, family, retailers or entertainment.  It is a powerful tool for business today and allows new, ongoing conversations to take place which can in turn build your brand, your solutions and your company.  If you haven’t done so already, revisit your 2011 Success Plan and see where and how you are leveraging Social Media in 2011.  Because if you’re not moving forward, you may well be falling behind!

Have a unique way that you're using Social Media this year?  Let us know - leave a comment!  And as always, thanks for your feedback.

I was speaking with a business owner recently whose business was struggling.  She shared that the economy was taking its toll and until it improved, she would continue to be in a tough position.  She’d always gotten business by referrals and never had to market in the past.  And now – sales were down, and until the economy got better, her strategy would be to hunker down and wait it out.  She wished her employees were more motivated and took more initiative to find sales or reduce costs, which in turn would help the company would be in a much better position. 

Contrast this with business owner #2, whose business has consistently grown over the last 4 years (in a down market and an industry that is facing greater and greater challenges).  His approach is to consistently credit successes to his employees and partners, and evaluate failures as teachable moments for his own leadership development skills. 

In Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, Mr. Collins talks about how great companies are led by Level 5 leaders.  These are the CEOs, Business Owners & Executives who consistently encourage and empower their employees and give credit outwardly when the company achieves success, have an almost paranoid approach to viewing future threats to the business and, when positive results are not achieved, look inwardly for what they could have done differently. 

If your company isn’t achieving the results you’d like, consider thinking like a Level 5 leader:

• What behavior can you change in yourself as leader?  Remember the adage – “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
• Have you shared why you are in business with your employees?  What are you building?
• Have you hired right?  That is, are the employees you have passionate about the “why”?  Do they believe in the why?  If not, why are they still working for your company?
• If your employees believe in the why, have you given them the tools, training and time to succeed in their roles to help achieve the company Vision?
• Are you consistently recognizing employees for, and their roles in, the company’s successes?  (Success is contagious.  Recognized success becomes viral.)
• Is your time being used for highest and best benefit/use of the company?
• Are you taking the time you need to look forward?
• Do you reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t in the past? How are you incorporating these lessons in your company’s future?

Every successful business is a culmination of not only smaller past successes, but also of lessons learned from failures.  Give credit generously and consider where there are problems and what you can do differently. Then, as they say at Nike - do it.

I recently came across IBM's white paper describing key skills and competencies CEOs will need to lead their companies in the coming years.  The biggest drivers of these revised leadership skills were speed, information and complexity.  As more information becomes more available, more quickly, CEOs must adapt. The old adage of “being able to turn on a dime” becomes more critical for businesses as they must not only execute innovative offerings, but must do so more quickly and with less information than in previous business cycles.

Instilling innovation and risk taking can seem a lofty ideal.  However, if your employees were more creative in problem solving, in improving internal processes, developing new customer services & solutions, in negotiating with vendors & customers – what would the impact be?

Consider the dental industry.  Not the most exciting (well, maybe for those in the business it is), not one traditionally known to take risks.  But while looking for a new dentist due to an insurance plan change, I came across one that struck my interest, a dental office that uses Feng Shui as its design basis.  The facility is designed to be an oasis of relaxation.  There are babbling water walls, beautiful Zen stone pieces, wonderfully calming energy, complimentary refreshments and massages.  How did the owner come up with the concept?  By innovating and creatively addressing a market need.  By disrupting the status quo. 

So often the challenge for business owners is where and how to start embedding creativity. Fortunately there is help, and there are approaches and processes to developing creative muscles.

Some of my favorite techniques include:

• Removing yourself – get away from a problem or challenge you are trying to solve
• Pairing opposites.  Think about the dental spa example above.
• Spending time learning in areas unrelated to your field.
• Embracing diversity – of ideas, people and approaches (a key aspect of The Alternative Board!). 

There are many more techniques, tips and tools that can help and a great place to start is The Heart of Innovation.    In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you.  What are you doing to create a culture of innovation?  How do you look at change – locally, globally and within your markets?

.Thanks for sharing!

Our company recently hosted a Business Owner Summit entitled "Your Company's Future:  Transition, Exit & Succession Planning."  In attendance were more than 30 CEOs, Presidents and Business Owners.  Speakers led sessions on determining your future, developing your key executives, evaluating and grooming successors (planning yourself out of your job), business valuation techniques, and the legal, tax, financial and emotional impacts to consider when structuring handing over the reins.  Although the attendees were at many different places in their business lifecycle, it quickly became apparent that the questions our panel of experts were asking were critical for every owner at any stage of their business.  Listed below are the top questions Brad Kaplan, Partner at Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein, Celso & Zitomer and Larry Leaf and Peter Engel, Partners at Leaf, Saltzman, Manganelli, Pfeil & Tendler  walked attendees through.  They find all business owners must answer these questions to build the very best succession and exit plan strategy.  See how many you can answer.

1. Will my kids want to run the business and, do they have what it takes?
2. Can my employees or partners step up if I'm no longer here?  (And, can I trust them)?
3. Who else may want to buy my business?  Competitors?  Suppliers?  Customers?  Investors?
4. How do I retain and reward employees?  When do I give them an ownership interest?  And, what are the pros & cons?
5. What is my company worth?  How much do I need to retire?  Do I need my salary and business cash flow?
6. When do I want to exit my business?  And, what is my exit horizon?
7. Can my successors afford to buy my business?
8. Will my employees buy into my exit strategy?
9. How do I market trade secrets and private information and still keep them safe?
10. What advisors shall form my succession planning team?  And, who are the key players?

How did you fare?  Have any others we can add to our list?  If you do, please post them here - we love feedback!

I am a liberal (or progressive as we like to be called).  I admit it.  I believe that the pursuit of happiness is founded in equality and in providing certain foundational services.  For our nation to thrive, we must be the example to other countries by taking care of our selves, our resources, and our children.  And I believe social, domestic and international policies can be tremendously successful enablers in the process.

So, it came as a surprise to me, at my son's conservation camp closing ceremony yesterday, that the keynote speaker would so eloquently weave conservatism with conservation,global warming, the environment and social agenda.  John is former President of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and current Board Member of the Conservation Non-Profit, and was a successful business owner who I had met years ago.  One who I respected, one who I thought I knew a bit about, but soon learned I knew very little about. 

I walked up to him after the event and reintroduced myself.  He's a frequent reader of our Tips from the Top newsletter, so while my face wasn't recognized, my name was.  And there, in the middle of a sweltering camp rec hall I learned about his passion.  Helping everyone, young and old, learn about the environment.  Learn about natural resources, learn about taking care of our limited supply.  For campers, learn as future leaders their responsibilities as stewards of this planet.  And making this affordable for all - in fact, many of the teenagers who attended camp, did so on full scholarships.

John grew up on a family farm in the 30's.  Back then it was farming first, then play or jobs or other activities.  And it shaped him.  As a farmer and a hunter, he learned how important it was to work with limited resources and to think long term about the consequences and ensure sustainable practices.  That very lesson is the basis for his thinking as a business owner today:  always consider how to make the best use of your company, your time, employees and investments and ensure that those practices are sustainable.

As we were saying our goodbyes, John turned to me and said "You know, we have to take our country back."  My first instinct was to cringe. I'd heard those words before.  From people who want to throw out our legally elected leaders, from those couch racism in taxation/big government terms, and from politicians looking to play on people's fears.  But as John continued, I heard another word.  I heard responsibility.  We have to take responsibility for our country back; this cannot be abdicated.  We have to fully engage.  We have to fully participate.  And we have to hold ourselves fully accountable, not others. 

"Taking our country back" for John isn't  about a political party.  It's smart common sense.  For our environment, for our society and for our economy.

At the end of conversation, I hugged John with hopes that it wouldn't be another 5 years before I saw him next.   And thank yous.  For helping to grow the Conservation Camp into a transformative experience for youth.  For the inspirational words he shared with the campers as keynote speaker.  And for opening my ears up a bit.  So the next time I hear something, I'll remove my filters and truly listen to what the others are saying, and just as exemplified through The Alternative Board at every meeting - remind me that everyone you meet in life can teach you.