More than twenty years has passed now since I started my first company. In that time, I’ve worked for major corporations, helped to start three other companies, bought companies and even sold companies. I’ve built high energy teams, I’ve worked with countless offshore teams, I’ve spent years consulting and I’ve run IT for billion dollar businesses. I even ran ops for a government travel agency.

In that time, I’ve heard it all and seen even more. What have I learned, you might ask? I’m glad you did. It’s really quite simple. Pick one thing and excel at it. As a person, as an employee, as a department and as a company. That’s not a guarantee of success, it just gives you a fighting chance, and a fighting chance is all we can ask for!

Mark Cuban has a piece out about the patent system. To be clear, the patent system is not designed to make rich people. Per Wikipedia and the US Constitution. Patents are designed to “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”. My paraphrase?  Patents are designed to drive growth and research by making investments in research and production safe. Many people, including Mark Cuban and me, believe that patents are a bit in left field right now.

This piece is by Mark Cuban, so it doesn’t pull many punches, gets right to the point and may go just a smidgen to far. To paraphrase, stupid patents are hurting us, not helping us and there are simple ways to fix the system. He may be right. I agree with him, but as we should all know, I’m not always right. Mark’s rules are simple, and time-boxed. They lean towards the use of patents, vs the storage of patents. In his world, patents are, and should be, a defensive weapon, not a hidden offense, so his solution begins by looking at the overall goal more than the current problem.

Mark has some interesting ideas about the stock market too. I like his ideas there. He has similar ideas. He believes that the stock market needs to be pushed back to creating capital for business. A few straightforward rules designed to make the stock market an investment arena and not a poker game. Basically, he wants stocks to be held for long periods of time, so trades on a stick that has been held for less than five years get taxed at personal income rates vs no taxes on long term investment. In addition, he would outlaw leverage. He has more detail in his blog post. Seriously. Read his stuff. Always off the cuff, but pretty well thought out.

I haven’t heard what he thinks about testing in schools, but I’d guess it’s fairly sane and to the point. That is because Mark does two things very well. To be clear, I’ve never met him, nor worked with him, but from a distance, this is what I see. First, he listens well and studies the existing systems, rules and processes in depth. Second, once he has an understanding, he doesn’t start by building on the top of the house of cards. He figures out what the key learnings should be from the existing house of cards, and then incorporates those learnings into his new thoughts, which he begins at ground level. This is about identifying the goals first, strategy second and finally implementing solid tactics.

As a society, we have a tendency to add rules and regulations on top of existing ones. An example is a check box on the 1040 asking us if our investment losses are related to the oil and gas industry. Use that box much? Over time, this builds a system that can be very complex and cumbersome. In my business career, I’ve seen this a lot. I can’t count the times that I’ve been in a meeting and the discussion is revolving around adding to a process. Often, what we’ve learned can take a 14 step process and add two branches to make it a 32 step process.  OR.  We can build a 6 step process that brings the same result.

Seriously. I run in to this ALL THE TIME! Not just in business either. A friend was taking a medication. Side effect brought on another. New side effect brought another. Finally, it got to the point that I had to take them to an appointment for discussion of a new side effect. Now I was the outsider. BUT. I did speak up when a new drug was being added to the mix. I asked a simple question. Since the original condition was temporary, and cured, couldn’t we consider an end to ALL of the medication. Long silence. Upshot. No prescription. NONE! And I’m not a doctor, but I look at systems and strategies for a living. No one was thinking about the underlying goals or strategy, ALL THOUGHT was on tactics.

As a society, we need to have a system that has a method of identifying goals, deciding on strategy, then implementing tactics. When goals change, we shouldn’t be looking at new tactics. We should review the strategy, then look at tactics.

Thanks to @kentlewis for pointing this article out on Inc.com. The list is essentially about wanting to empathize with and being on the same level as your employees.

My experience is that this is a list of items that younger, more “Gen-Y”, managers feel very comfortable sharing. This can make more “traditional” (code for older??) employees uncomfortable. That’s OK though! discomfort bring growth!

10 Things Bosses Never Tell Employees | Inc.com.

A few months ago I was chatting with a very successful friend and I asked her about her strategy for success. She only took a few seconds to answer. When she takes over a new group she figures out the one or two things that they can maximize that will drive success. Just two things that they can do well. Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM’s CEO, is retiring and as he tells the NY Times, he developed four questions to ask his senior managers to drive them:

1. “Why would someone spend their money with you — so what is unique about you?”
2. “Why would somebody work for you?”
3. “Why would society allow you to operate in their defined geography — their country?”
4. “And why would somebody invest their money with you?”

So what are your questions? What are the one or two things that you can always do to a perfection? I like Sam’s questions from IBM. I’m not certain that number 3 applies to the vast majority of small to mid-sized companies. However, they aren’t the questions that I’m going with for myself…

I’m going with:

1. What is the problem that you solve? What is your single differentiator?
2. What is the thing one thing you do better than anyone else?
3. How do you make a profit and how does your profit relate to your customer’s ROI?

We started WaveQ two years ago, and it has been a wild ride. So it has been almost two years without a post. Hanging on for dear life at times, pushing hard the whole time. Christmas is a great time to reflect though. A time to look back, a time to peer into the future. As we look forward into 2012, what is on the horizon? Or more importantly, what can we do to have an effect on what is on the horizon? It is hard enough to look back and figure out how you got to where you are, much less look forward and figure out where you are heading.

So often people say pat little things like, hindsight is 20-20. Really? My experience is that hindsight is filled with the same pitfalls that accompany foresight. The farther away from RIGHT NOW that we get, the foggier our vision, in either direction. What would you have done differently? Can you project where it would have lead you with any more accuracy than your predictions on the path that you took?

Big choices are still big. So what is it that I’m trying to say? I’m saying that wherever you are, there you are. That’s the beauty of the human condition. We have spent the last two years growing a business in the most difficult of times. But it sure didn’t feel that way. Rent prices and office availability were amazing. Competition was down, if not out. Cash flow finance was difficult, for us and for our customers, but attitude allowed that to become our advantage.

Looking back, is there a 20-20 view? What is your prediction for 2012? Mine includes lots of hard work. Fun, but still hard work. I can predict with 100% certainty that I will get up early, put in fulfilling, long days, and come home to help out with family, food and friends.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays,
Ben

Just what is a brand? How does it relate to customer loyalty? Can you control a brand? Can you build customer loyalty? Does it matter?

I argue that brand is what happens when your customers become loyal. A brand is the name that encapsulates customer loyalty. Amazon didn’t have a brand until they had customers who were loyal. That’s the moment when they became Amazon, and were no longer just a cheap bookseller. That brand allowed them to buy into the world of publishing AND while the customer loyalty allowed them to begin selling cleaning supplies.

A brand is like a savings account that pays interest. You make deposits by delivering on your promises. Just like a savings account though, you can draw the funds down. Apple did this in the 90’s by breaking promises. By the time Jobs walked in to rescue the day, Apple’s brand balance was negative. In fact, he used his own “Steve Jobs” brand to loan a bit to Apple.

He was able to take that tiny balance and by sheer force of will, energize the whole company. As a group, they then focused on a single thing. Quality of experience. That is the Apple promise, and that is what they deliver.

Amazon promised a great book buying experience and that’s what they deliver. To this day, buying a book on Amazon is fun. It is painless. So is buying a new home theater. That is their promise and they deliver.

Dell’s promise is very different. Dell promises to be the best deal. They promise to never be a waste of money. They aren’t the quickest. They won’t even guarantee a delivery date, but you always know it’s a good deal. They are the Honda of the PC world. It may not be the flashiest, but damn if it doesn’t start every time!

My experience is that when you tell people what they want to hear, it never works out. Brand is what happens when you tell people what you believe and then you deliver it. Not everyone will want to hear it, but those who do will buy and they will love you.

Two cents worth…