HSM Inspiring Ideas

What is the Purpose of Your Business? Why Should People Care?

"The best leaders hire over their head every time...they sit in a group at a team meeting and everybody in every position on that team is better than them. And they relish that moment where they look across the table an they say, 'Everyone at this table is so much better than me. I'm pumped; I'm a helluva leader.'" That's SAP's iconic leader and co-CEO Bill McDermott waxing on leadership at World Business Forum 2010 in New York City. Watch the video below; you can't help but get pumped yourself and want to work for the guy, or someone like him or, if you are a leader, to mimic his enthusiasm.

McDermott says his philosophy of leadership is premised on two foundations:

1. You need a compelling vision for your business--what is the purpose of your business? Why do you matter in this world, and why should people care?
2. Put people first and build great teams.

The leader who can't answer the first questions probably can't execute on team building and, well, then why be there? Understanding the business is more than simply knowing what it does and how it works--it's the understanding of why the business matters in the world, to your customers, to society and to you. The questions can be answered for Fortune 500 companies and mom and pop stores alike.

Anyone who has worked with a leader who doesn't understand fundamentally the purpose of the business knows that there is generally also a people problem. And managers know how disheartening it is to have leader who doesn't understand the business because they generally cannot revel in the brilliance of their teams. These are the leaders who would, for some reason, prefer to show up their managers and rank and file for the sake of their own egos. No matter how good managers and staff are, under that regime, they will eventually lose focus and move on or, worse, end up just going through the motions, marking time until they are pushed out. That leadership style reveals a fundamental insecurity in a leader, and as McDermott says, "Show me a leader that's insecure, and I'll show you a bad leader."

  If you consider the great business leaders of any era, you know that they understand why the business they are in exists, and believe in it passionately. And because of that, they revel in their people. The one follows from the other like night and day. If something seems missing in your business, start with McDermott's first questions--you might find the answers make all the difference in leading you to be inspired by your people, who will no doubt reward you in turn with their best.

Weekly Bloggers Hub Cap #WBF10

WBF10 Bloggers Hub members had another busy week...check out what they're talking about: 

• Mitch Ditkoff (Heart of Innovation): Here's to the Crazy Ones
• Jim Estill (CEO - Time Leadership): Conscientious Equity Book Report
• Terry Starbucker (Ramblings from a Glass Half Full): Can Charisma Be Taught? The 90% Theory and Why That Can Be Enough
• Phil Stott (Vault's Careers Blog): Career Lessons from the 2010 World Business Forum
• Stephanie Susman (Fleishman-Hillard Innovation): World Business Forum Recap, Jack Welch on Management
• Elizabeth Glagowski (1 to 1 Media Blog): New DMA CEO Makes it a Family Affair
• Mike Myatt (N2Growth): How Dumb is Your Business?
• Carol Roth (Unsolicited Business Advice): Is Anyone Laughing at your Goals? If Not, Think Bigger
• RP Siegel (Triple Pundit): How the Government Looks at Green Jobs
• Faith Fuqua-Purvis (Ponderings & Insights): The Elephant Whisperer: Owning Your Own Elephant
• Maureen Matcalf (Metcalf & Associates): James Cameron at World Business Forum 2010: The Power of Innovation, Creativity and Passion
• Rohit Bhargave (Influential Marketing Blog): Life and Marketing Lessons from LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman
• David Allen Ibsen (Five Blogs Before Lunch): Betty White on Brands and Leadership
• Bret L. Simmons (BretlSimmons.com): The Power to Lead Effectively
• Denise Lee Yohn (Brand as Business Bites): Dick Lynch on the Turnaround at Popeyes
• Jason L. Baptiste (On Startups): 16 Ways Your Startup Needs to Be Getting Customers
• David Klein (The Popped Kernel): Nando Parrado: Survival is a Choice
• Andrea Meyer (Working Knowledge): AG Lafley, Jim Collins, Al Gore: First Step in Innovation
• Lauryn Franzoni (ExecuNet): Finding the Will to Survive...and Thrive
• Monika Mitchell (The Economy of Trust Blog): Joseph Stiglitz: America Has Created Two Economies
• Bob Silver (MWW's Return on Reputation): Miner, Hero and Born Leader: Leadership When it Counts the Most
• Larry Ossei-Mensah (My Global Hustle): Vijay Govindarajan: Managing the Present While Creating the Future
  

Thanks Bloggers Hub Members for a great WBF10!

Leadership, Crisis Management, Collaboration on Display in Chile at a Place Called (Camp) Hope #wbf10

And just like that, there were no more miners under the ground near Copiapo, Chile. They had all become temporary residents of Campo Esparanza (Camp Hope). Of course, the 24-hour, smooth as butter, rescue process now hides the 68 days of grueling, often halted, work that preceded it. Yesterday, I quoted David Gergen on leadership: "We have a crisis of leadership today. Business has failed. Governments have failed. People don't know who to trust." But watching Chilean President Sebastian Pinera drive the rescue efforts at the stricken mine, staying around the clock and then whooping and cheering and hugging every last miner who exited the torpedo-like escape pod, I decided that Gergen wasn't casting a wide enough net. Certainly, there are oceans where a crisis of leadership maintains today, but within those oceans are islands of cretive and decisive stewardship. And nothing proved that more than watching President Pinera. Already, commentators are asking what other leaders can learn from him. And while they're at it they can learn something about leadership from the miners as well. Their collective story says a lot about leadership, organizations and teamwork.

It was ironic that the recurring symbol of the rescue efforts in Chile was the turning of the wheel of the winch holding the rope attached to the rescue pod. As each miner entered the pod, the wheel would begin to turn, slowly at first, then steadily, as the pod made its way up the half-mile of rock to the surface. And Jim Collins WBF10 presentation kept coming to mind. What is leadership? What makes success? It's turning that flywheel (the wheel of your business), no matter how difficult the task, but slowly at first and then again and again until the momentum sustains itself, and even then, you don't stop. There was just something about that wheel over that mine.

When word of the mine disaster first hit the newswires, the presumption was that the miners were dead or would be soon. But President Pinera marshaled the forces of the world mining community, and he started turning that wheel, making the drive for success a collaborative one as well. Chile is a world mining powerhouse; its engineers designed and built the escape pod. But Pinera opened this rescue operation to the world. What is that Collins said (and fellow WBF10 speakers Jack Welch and Carlos Brito echoed)? Get the right people on the bus. That brought in a unique drill bit and drill rig manufactured by a couple U.S.-based companies; a Canadian company to transport the drilling equipment to Copiapo and an Australian drilling consultant, among others, to work alongside Chileans. And in the end, when the last miner (and the two rescuers who had descended into the mine to supervise the exit) stepped out into the night, the world was able to rejoice in the possibilities of collaberative effort. And it all started with truly inspired leadership.

 

MWW Group Publishes #WBF10 Leadership Survey Results; Panel: Are Today's Leaders Up to the Task?

Leading up to WBF10, we urged attendees to participate in the MWW Group's leadership survey. More than 130 executives from around the world participated. On October 11, MWW released the complete results of its survey along with highlights of the VIP luncheon on "Sustainable Leadership" it sponsored with HSM during the Forum. If you recall, the survey sought answers to four questions: 

1. What has been the biggest leadership "game changer" over the past five years?
2. Where does "leadership" come from?
3. What do you think the most important skills/qualities will be for leaders in 2025?
4. Is it more important for a leader to be visionary or decisive/action-oriented?

And the survey says...

• Speed of Information (33%) was cited as "the biggest game changer for leaders today, according to one third of the respondents, closely followed by the economy (26 percent)." Eleven percent said leadership has not changed at all. 
• "Leaders are Born, Not Made" -- 68 percent of survey takers believe you either are a leader or are not. But "the panelists [at the leadership event] were split as to whether leadership can be a learned skill versus solely an innate ability."
• 25% believe that "Leadership has been Democratized." That is, "the power lies with those who follow. Only six percent of respondents place the power of leadership within the position -- automatically conferred upon assuming a role."
• "Innovation and Nimbleness in Leaders are Valued More than Character, Salesmanship or the Ability to Build Consensus." Two-thirds of the survey respondents picked innovation and flexibility (i.e. nimble and anticipatory) "as the single greatest quality for future leaders, ahead of traditional leadership traits such as character, salesmanship and consensus building."
• "Visionary vs. Execution -- a Toss Up."  Survey takers viewed visionary leadership as preferable by a small margin (55.6% to 44.45) to decisive or action-oriented leadership.

Panelists at the VIP luncheon included WBF10 speaker and Former White House Adviser David Gergen; Michael W. Kempner (President & CEO, MWW Group); Jim Quigley (CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.); and Arkdai Kuhlman (Chairman & President, ING Direct USA), each of whom offered their view of what leadership requires of leaders today. Key quotes from each:

• Kempner: "In this economy and times of doubt, those companies, those brands, those leaders that can re-establish trust will be the winners on a going-forward basis."
• Quigley: "Sustainable leadership is leadership that works through the entire business cycle. It's an approach to leadership that is effective during a downturn when you're trying to reset a cost structure and it's effective during sustainable expansion, when you're trying to capture share."
• Kuhlman: "To be a leader, you need to eliminate doubt. *** The way out of this (economic crisis) is for leaders to step forward."
• Gergen:"A reputation for excellence matters. That excellence is about trust and it is also about a continuous refreshing of your organization so that you're innovative and entrepreneurial and so that people know that you are going to keep moving ahead. It's too easy in this world to be seen as yesterday, and an effective leader needs to continually adapt to new conditions.

In the end, Gergen may have expressed the sense of the times best, asserting, "We have a crisis of leadership today. Business has failed. Governments have failed. People don't know who to trust."

#WBF10 If You Smash Your Brand, and People Still Want You, You May Be on to Something

If you ever think that you don't get valuable information from all the conferences you attend, think again. At WBF10, the audience spent an hour with neuro-marketing guru Martin Lindstrom, and the value of what he was selling (that 83% of your marketing is, by default, going to be an appeal to the subconscious) is manifest in today's news.  News Flash from AP: "Gap is back to blue. The casualwear chain will keep its decades-old white-on-navy blue logo after all. The move comes just one week after the company swapped it online for a new logo without saying a word. The new logo irritated fans, spurring them to complain about it online." We all know Gap's logo--nothing special. And yet...gap aficionados felt so strong an attachment to it that the company's decision to swap it for a new, yet equally "meh" logo caused an online ruckus. Why, and do Gap customers have any idea why? Do any of us have any idea why we react to stimuli?

 

The thrust of Lindstrom's WBF10 presentation was that we are in an era where the sensory clutter is so intense that companies have to do more than simply slap their logo on a product to cut through the clutter. Effective brands--those that get inside the heads of consumers--are smashable. Say what? Smashable.  Take Coke, for example. Lindstrom explains:

Back in 1915 Earl R. Dean, who was working at the Root Glass Company, was given a brief to design a bottle, which firstly could be recognized in the dark. And then, even if broken, a person could tell at first glance what it was. *** He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. This led to the Coca-Cola Company’s contourization strategy, which used the shape to emphasize the very brand. The bottle he designed was the classic Coke bottle, which has become one of the most famous glass icons ever. The bottle is still in service, still recognizable, and been passing the smash test for every generation over the last 80 years.

Lindstrom urges that all brands should be able to pass this test. That is,"if you removed the logo from your brand, would it still be recognizable? Would the copy stand up to it? Would the colours, graphics and images standing alone pass the text?"

So ask yourself whether your brand is smashable as is that of McDonald's. Lindstrom showed the WBF10 audience images that used the design and color scheme of the chain's logo (red/yellow stripes) but didn't say "McDonald's." And yet, the audience instantly identified the image with the brand. The idea behind smashability, then, is to remove that "logo-fixated mindset [which] brings you closer to a philosophy valuing all elements that create the brand that it is. Two black ears from a well-known mouse are instantly recognizable as Disney. A Singapore girl suggests Singapore Airlines. These are only components of the brand, and yet they’re unmistakable."

We can haggle over whether what happened to Gap today indicates it has a smashable brand. I would say "no," except the company has clearly some kind of emotional/sensory connection to its logo, judging by the outpouring of i-rage over its attempt to replace it. Maybe it's in the blue box that the company retained in the new, scrapped logo? Perhaps, then, Gap is partially smashable--like it can be chipped a little. If so, the company is at least on the road to getting beyond the clutter. Is your brand?

 

The #WBF10 Weekly Bloggers Hub Cap--Post-Forum Edition

More than one speaker at WBF10 made reference to the Bloggers Hub. Charlene Li, in particular, highlighted the work being done on the third mezzanine of Radio City. During the Forum, the preferred outlet of Hub members is Twitter, and the WBF10 hashtag was consistently in the top-ten of all hashtags during the two days of the event. Bloggers Hub members initiated and/or spurred some 7,700 tweets from over 1,400 individulas during the Forum. Wow! Now Hub members are starting to generate their post-Forum thoughts, and we'll chronicle them here:

• Mitch Ditkoff (Heart of Innovation): True Blue Sky Thinking
• Ramon Ray (Small Biz Technology): Social Media Recipe for Success: 3 Parts Creativity, 1 Part Execution
• Jim Estill (CEO - Time Leadership): Blue Ocean Strategy
• Terry Starbucker (Ramblings from a Glass Half Full): From the World Business Forum: The Enduring Leadership Lesson From Good to Great
• Phil Stott (Vault's Careers Blog): The Politics of Unemployment Numbers
• Stephanie Susman (Fleishman-Hillard Innovation): World Business Forum Recap, Day 1; Day 2
• Ginger Conlon (1 to 1 Media Blog): Go Ahead, Smash Your Brand
• Mike Myatt (N2Growth): World Business Forum--Top 10 Speakers
• Carol Roth (Unsolicited Business Advice): An Example of Breaking Through the Marketing Noise
• RP Siegel (Triple Pundit): World Business Forum: Al Gore Comes Out Swinging for Sustainable Capitalism
• Paul Dunay (Buzz Marketing): Facebook Can't Be Stopped and Here's Why
• Faith Fuqua-Purvis (Ponderings & Insights): Being Lionhearted
• Maureen Matcalf (Metcalf & Associates): Nando Parrado: Crisis Management and Living Life
• Rohit Bhargave (Influential Marketing Blog): 4 Insights from the World's Biggest Business Conference
• David Allen Ibsen (Five Blogs Before Lunch): World Business Forum Recap: Time Well-Spent
• Bret L. Simmons (BretlSimmons.com): Too Busy to Care
• Denise Lee Yohn (Brand as Business Bites): Six Themes from the World Business Forum
• Jason L. Baptiste (On Startups): Answering the "Should I Go to College/Drop Out?" Question for Young Entrepreneurs
• David Klein (The Popped Kernel): Steve Levitt: Find Your Niche
• Phalana Tiller (DruckerApps): News from the Institute: WBF Day 1; WBF Day 2
• Andrea Meyer (Working Knowledge): Getting CEOs on Board with Social Media
• Diane Berard (Le Fil de Diane @ lessafffaires.com): Jour 2 des Grandes lecons du World Business Forum
• Robyn Greenspan (ExecuNet): Early Diagnosis and Intervnetion Lead to Organizational Logevity
• Monika Mitchell (The Economy of Trust Blog): Charlene Li Creates a Socially Sustainable Business Model
• Julie Cottineau (Brand Twist): The Power of "I Don't Know"
• Sally Hogshead (Hog Blog): Good Branding is About Fascination
• Daniel Leidl (Washington Post/My Generation Leader): The World Business Forum Day 1 (Second Half)
• Christian DE NEEF (Fast Track): Is there a Secret Sauce of Innovation?
• Bob Silver (MWW's Return on Reputation): Top 10 Quotes from World Business Forum 2010
• Ken McArthur (Marketing Thoughs Blog): My Top-5 Traffic Sources
  

Thanks Bloggers Hub Members for a great WBF10!

#wbf10 HSM Announces Lineup for WBF11 and Big Move to Javits Center...Video

The bigM news droppes at WBF10 is that we are moving for WBF11 to Javits Center North. WBF11 (October 5-6, 2011) will feature more speakers and exhibit space and facilitate more interaction between speakers, attendees and sponsors. There will be more exhibit space and breakout space as well. We've already started lining up a stellar roster of thought leaders. The speaker list already includes Gary Hamel, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Bill George, Ben Zander, Martin Feldstein, Tamara Erickson, Tal Ben-Shahar, Patrick Lencioni, Marina Gorbis, with more to come. Check out the video!

   

 

Forum Wrap--#WBF10 (and Nando Parrado) Brings Radio City to its Feet...So Human

What is business? What is leadership? How do you distinguish your business in an ever-more competitive world? How do you deal with a new normal that is anything but normal and in many cases is downright uncertain? These and other critical questions were posed and examined by the truly all-star roster of speakers at World Business Forum 2010. But regardless of the issue, if you listened to the presentations closely enough, there was a common thread holding them together... a whisper or implication from some, a bold call from others. Hey...it's the people. We're in business, but business is people. Leadership is about dealing with people and building relationships with people. The new normal is about how we, as people, cope with changed circumstances. Social media is about connecting with people. Sustainable energy is about the sustainability of people. (Ok, lions and tigers, too.)

From Jim Collins', Carlos Brito's and Jack Welch's exhortations to make sure you have the right people on the bus before you start to drive it to A.G. Lafley's, Vijay Govindarjan's and Brian Goldner's discourse on revitalizing down and out brands; from Renee Mauborgne's blue ocean strategies to Al Gore's and Charlene Li's takes on the new technologies of alternative energies and social media, the message was about the people. Joseph Grenny has spent a career analyzing how to influence people for positive change. And Martin Lindstrom makes his life work trying to figure what it is about people's subconscious brains that makes them buy what they do. And of course, the economists, Steve Levitt and Joseph Stiglitz, and political analyst/adviser, David Gergen, have spent lifetimes assessing how incentives, decisions and leaders impact people. And James Cameron...well, he is nothing without his people, be they designers, writers, actors, even the gaffers and stunt men.

Which left WBF10 to Nando Parrado, the ultimate person, to explain why. Crisis is a great leveler. When your plane has crashed somewhere in the Andes, killing your mother, sister and many of your best friends, leaving you stranded on a glacier at 14,000 feet without proper clothing or food, and where death surrounds and stalks you, who are you? When all your pretensions to success and civility are stripped away, what is the measure of you? In business terms, how will you react when the 'you know what' hits the 'you know where'? Parrado, whose story was made famous by the book and movie Alive, and whom we have highlighted before has a unique way of answering those questions.

 

While his narrative is putatively about crisis management (and we've all needed a good dose of that in the last few years), Nando Parrado's story is about being human--about redemption, second chances, courage, fath and....luck. He brought the WBF10 crowd to its feet after moving many to tears with his story, still heartrending nearly 40 years after it began to unfold. In the end, Nando just wanted to go home, to his father, to his home in Uruguay, to build his life again, to marry, to start a family and, yes, to build successful businesses. But, as successful as he has become, you drown in his humanity; you hear it as he breathes heavily, recounting the crash and then the avalanche that buried what was left of the airplane that was his home for 10 weeks. And you revel in his humanity as he recounts his harrowing, death-defying journey out of the mountains, on foot, with his friend Roberto Canessa, and then back to the glacier to rescue the remaining survivors.

You get a sense that Parrado is sometimes still on that glacier; he brings the esperience to life so vividly, you'd think it happened yesterdaym and not in 1972. Certainly, an experience like that forever marks one, "somatically," as Martin Lindstrom would say. Nando says that in comparison to what he's been through, anything difficult that happens in business is "just issues." But no matter how much we know that's true, too often we forget. Our businesses are important; they are, after all, our livelihood and they help "make the world go 'round." Even Nando admits he likes the good things in life--travel, fine food, etc. But they are, in the end, just material things, and without the people they have no meaning. Ditto our businesses. Without the people, they aren't worth a dime.

So by all means--get the right people on the bus; commit yourself and your team to excellence; drive a blue ocean strategy; explore new media and technology to connect, influence change, build a culture of excellence. But don't forget that you're doing it for the people--for your colleagues, your vendors, your customers, and for you and your friends and family. We'll have more on the Forum in the days to come, but for now, thanks to all the speakers and attendees, and thanks, Nando,, foe being so human.

Day 2 Agenda at #WBF10

Here is the rundown of speakers at Day 2 of World Business Forum 2010:

• 9:00 Steve Levitt
• 9:40 Joseph Stiglitz
• 11:00 Marvin Odom
• 11:15 Al Gore
• 2:00 A.G. Lafley
• 2:15 Renee Mauborgne
• 3:15 Vijay Govindarajan
• 4:20 Luca Majorski
• 4:30 Nando Parrado
• 5:05 James Cameron

Great Lineup!

 

Social Media and Your Business--Charlene Li Explains How to Give Up Control But Stay in Command #wbf10

One of the highlights of WBF10 Day 1 was social media guru Charlene Li. She explained that "the shiny new toy" was on the way to being a fundamental business tool that your business needs to begin to explore in earnest--and not as a throw away. And building a social media strategy means more than hopping onto Twitter and Facebook. It means reorienting how you deal with the business/customer relationship. That means you'll have to let go just a little bit. That is, the way to stay in command is to give up control.

Companies are beginning to find ways to make social media work. They can engage their customers in new ways, broadening the relationship, building trust, and cementing loyalty. One example Li cited from her own experience with it was My Starbucks Idea, which enables customers to submit ideas on hnow to make Starbucks better.