Massaker.Me

When we started this year, I wrote two blogs surrounding leadership and goal setting:

Leadership & Goal Setting in 2010

Accountability – From Resolution to Reality – How Will You “Get It Done” This Year?

Now that we are 1/2 way through the year, how much have you gotten done? Are you on track to complete all of your company’s goals this year?

I can safely say that Carceron is not? Why not?

We moved offices in Q2, which is still in progress with various capital improvements like a new air conditioner for the server room, conference room furniture and other amenities, etc. Somehow, something as big as an office move never made it onto our original list of goals when we planned everything last year. Needless to say, moving into a new office is something of a time sucker. Consequently, this, along with a wave new business opportunities (certainly no complaints about that), has delayed some of our other goals that we had set to complete – especially the ones due for completion at the end of Q2.

So what happens now? Do we pout about that fact that we are behind schedule? Of course not! Things happen! Life happens! You simply adapt. If a few things get pushed into Q1 of next year…  so be it.

What I would recommend doing is going over all of your goals with your staff or at least your management team. You may find that some goals are no longer relevant and can be removed. Other goals may need to have their completion dates changed because of the unexpected life events or just because you realize that goal A is really dependent on goal B and you only just now found that out.

Don’t give up. Reassess, adapt and execute. Get everyone back in alignment and march forward!

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The concept of Time Compression was recently introduced to me by a client at the conclusion of a recent meeting. I was so enthralled by what he taught me that I did some more research that night and found several articles that further elaborated on the concept and what it means for business.

The first article I found, Technology’s Time Compression, is an excellent primer. At the bottom of that article are links to several other articles, all worth reading, but the two that were most interesting to me were It’s Time for Zero Time and We are Literally Trying to Stop Time.

What I got out of the latter two articles is that, at a minimum, we are trying to reach zero time, preferably negative time. The analogy of a track runner is quite appropriate. Track runners are constantly trying to reduce their times, with the ideal time being zero seconds. But can we achieve negative time? I don’t think a runner could, but we might able to as business owners. This is why business intelligence (BI) and dashboards are so hot right now. Dashboards are more than being able to see real time performance – they are about predicting the future and being ready to adapt to it instantly. You might argue that adapting instantly would be a definition of zero time. However, without proper business intelligence, you won’t be able to make the necessary predictions and subsequent preparations for that instantaneous switch. Negative Time is about being able predict when the change will come and changing at that precise moment (because you’re ready for it), versus reacting to the change once it has come to pass – where the first phase of the reaction is planning (what are we going to do?) and execution (doing it) both of which take time and make you late to the race.

Think about how this translates to business in terms of things like response time, resolution time, order time, processing time, or any other operational task where time is “consumed”.

In my business, Carceron, we monitor servers, networks and desktops in attempt to predict failure. These articles tell me that we can probably be doing a lot more with our monitoring and other business processes.

How can you achieve Negative Time in some of your business processes?

The experience of being a Metro Atlanta Small Business Person of the Year Finalist was an interesting one for me. While I have no illusions that I am one of the 5 best small business people in all of Metro-Atlanta, a feeling that I am sure is shared by the other finalists, we were the top 5 of those that were nominated to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce for the honor. I can rattle off several other business owners, many unconcerned and/or uncomfortable with such publicity, that could run circles around me – some of which are my clients. With that idea in the back of my head keeping me humble, I was left to think what such an honor really means to me… if anything.

While I certainly appreciate the publicity that such an honor has bestowed (…and the complimentary business class airline tickets from AirTran), it occurred to me that regardless of how important, or unimportant I found this award to be, there are others who probably consider it important, such as other members of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, my staff at Carceron, my family and others.Thinking back to the event, I recall the final seconds before they announced the honor and was so nervous and choked up (a feeling that I definitely had not anticipated having) that I was extremely relieved when Debbi won. If I had won and was forced to get on that stage, it would have been a very “un-manly” moment for me.

More than a week has passed and I have had time to reflect on all of this: my feelings of modesty relative to my being worthy of such an honor; how important I viewed the award relative to others;  the unexpected emotions that I experienced just prior to the announcement. I have found a sort of mental compromise that reflects my modest impression of the honor and the reverence that others hold the award in. Here goes:

I must now live up to the award’s name and truly be amongst the top 5 small business persons in Metro Atlanta as viewed by all of Atlanta – not just the Chamber.

It’s a lofty dream, but achievable I think.

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My article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle

My promotional video created by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Atlanta Business Video for the event.

Web Sites of the other Metro Atlanta Small Business Person of the Year Finalists:

Debbi Shapiro, Henderson Shapiro, (#1 Small Business Person of the Year)

Shelly Justice, Convention Models + Talent Agency (finalist)

Susan Bixler, Bixler Consulting (finalist)

Shannan Russo, Kinetix HR (finalist)

While at the Corporate Connections conference in Toronto, one of the facilitators brought up how certain companies had started to fail when their founding CEOs had stepped down or taken a less active role in the company.  Some recent examples include Dell and Starbucks. And who isn’t watching Microsoft more closely now given the departure of Bill Gates?

While fresh leadership can be a good thing, sometimes a required thing, it’s evident that the process of transferring it is a complex and significant undertaking.

I often dream of both a infinite future with Carceron, and, of a very different future where someone better, smarter and more innovative than I takes the reins of the company (I think we have those people working for us right now, by the way). While it may look like a proverbial “fork in the road”, it really isn’t – is it? After all, an “infinite future” is nothing more than staying on the same endless “interstate” – and so long as the ride is enjoyable, the customers are happy and employees are happy, who cares? I say enjoy the ride! But every once and a while those “exit ramps” appear, and you can’t help but wonder:

What would I be doing if I weren’t running this business right now? What if I started another business doing ___________ ? What would my business would look like a month after I’m gone? 1 year after I’m gone? 5 years?

And if the company did start to fail, would I come back to save it? As Michael Dell did? – Which I think really speaks to the question: “What does this business mean to me?”

I can tell you that the answer to that question has changed many times over the years as Carceron has grown… and will continue to change in the years ahead. I can’t help but feel that when that meaning ceases to change – ceases to evolve – the exit ramp will look more tempting.I’m not sure why I feel that way. It seems illogical that “the meaning of my company to me” must continually evolve or else I look for greener pastures – but there it is.

In Michael Dell’s case, we could safely assume that “legacy” might be his reason for returning to Dell. With a company as large as his and with so many people working for him, it’s an answer that is as easy understand as it is sincere.

Legacy might be what drives small business owners to stay in a business longer than they should, but I suspect it to be other things.

What’s yours?

So moving day is upon you.

First and foremost, you will need to get your communications up and running. This means moving the telephone and computer systems and having them hooked backed up by professionals. In the Atlanta market, for telephone systems, I recommend Robert Brock’s company, Square 1 Technology. For computers and the network, I obviously recommend my company, Carceron.

As far as moving your office is concerned, you can do it yourself of course (that’s what we did, along with an army of youth volunteers). But you may want to outsource that part, especially if you’re a bit bigger (2000 sq ft. or more). In that case, Debbie Ponder from Suddath Relocation Systems is who I would use in the Atlanta market. Regardless of who you use to move or how, you should have a space plan for the new office. A space plan is a layout map of the office that shows where every piece of furniture is going to go and how it will be positioned. It’s especially helpful to have measurements of your furniture relative to each room’s dimensions. also be mindful of the position of the door into the office relative to your desk. “L” shaped desks may not be able to go into the office just how you want it based on the position of the door into the office. If you’re getting any additional new furniture for the office, make sure to coordinate with your furniture rep on the move in as well.

You also might have a lot of loose ends to tie up here. Such as:

• Getting office and server room locks re-keyed and disseminating those keys to relevant employees
• Signage (reception area, parking, etc.)
• Touch painting after move in (hopefully not)
• Security system operational
• Interior Decoration (hanging plaques, awards, etc. – adding some plant life to soften the place up a little)
• Stocking the kitchen / break room
• Commercial Insurance is updated for the new property and you have a certificate of insurance into the landlord / lender

If you brain storm with your staff over everything that needs to get done from the very beginning, then put that list where everyone can see it (in LifeTick or SharePoint for example), you should have a very successful and relatively pain-free move.

Instead of telling you what I think, I want to know what you all think. In a commodity type business, such as IT support, you look for any distinct advantage, any method of differentiation that you can to market your business. It’s tough because there are so many strategies. If you develop a new product or service that no one has in order to differentiate yourself, you will soon be copied and lose that edge. Re-bundle your services, same thing.

When I sat down with our customer advisory council about this, we were told our biggest distinction was our customer service. However, I am finding that difficult to market because I want the message to rise above the status of a platitude. When is the last time you went to a networking function only to hear people say the same old crap:

“We pride ourselves on customer service”

“We the most reliable, dependable, etc.”

blah, blah blah. It’s all talk unless you can prove it.

What I want to market, the story that I want to tell the world, is that we are the best at what we do. Something like:

“Everyone claims to have great customer service, but we can prove it!”

Some of the ideas I have had are:

• Promoting that we are the most recommended IT consulting firm on Linkedin.com (already using this)
• Customer Service Award from the Better Business Bureau or some other type of entity (we have a competitor that has done this

I’m not thrilled with the idea of awards because I think people today realize that many such awards are shallow victories. The chance of you winning an award these days seems to be more about who you know than actually possessing the merit to deserve the honor.

I need a way to prove that Carceron is the best at Customer service and I need a way to spread the word. Can you even market customer service?

P.S. If you have any other ideas around differentiation for a managed IT services business such as mine, I am all ears.

P.S.S. I’m not looking for a marketing consultant, so please don’t reply with a solicitation.

Strategic Alliances, often little more than a business buzz phrase, can have a very real impact on your bottom line if executed correctly. Some of the benefits of Strategic Alliances include:

• The ability to compete against stronger competitors through the creation of synergistic partnerships
• Development and exploitation niche markets faster
• Increased activity throughout the entire sales pipeline – all the way from lead generation to closed business.

So what is a Strategic Alliance and how do you form one that works and lasts? I’m about to tell you:

First, let’s look at some definitions for “strategic”:

• Pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of strategy
• Important in or essential to strategy
• Of an action, as a military operation or move in a game, forming an integral part of the stratagem

Next, let’s look at some definitions for “alliance”:

• the state of being allied or confederated
• a connection based on kinship or marriage or common interest; “the shifting alliances within a large family”; “their friendship constitutes a powerful bond between them”
• an organization of people (or countries) involved in a pact or treaty
• a formal agreement establishing an association or alliance between nations or other groups to achieve a particular aim
• confederation: the act of forming an alliance or confederation

Finally, the definition for a Strategic Alliances, (as defined by Wikipedia)

A Strategic Alliance is a formal relationship between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need.

I like this definition due to its emphasis on formality and “agreed upon goals”. One thing that I think is missing from this definition is that the relationship should also be mutually beneficial – as this is key to making the Strategic Alliance last.

Some Strategic Alliances Basics

The are many kinds of strategic alliances. Most center on revenue creation. Examples include:

• Reseller / Affiliate Model: You become a reseller of a certain product or service in exchange for sales and marketing support of said product or service.
• Outsource Relationship: Over time you come to realize that certain parts of your business are better handled by another entity outside your business because it is more profitable, efficient, etc.
• Business Development: Referral Partnership, Co-Marketing, etc.

It is the last type of Strategic Alliance, business development,  that I would like to spend some time on. This can be one of the easiest to form and at the same time the most powerful. Who should you strategicly partner with? The obvious answer is professions that you naturally get referrals from already. For example, I own an IT company, so I receive a great deal of referrals from an ISP broker and telecom hardware vendor that I have allied with. Another great example of a good strategic alliance would be composed of a CPA, financial planner & estate planning attorney.

It is important to formalize this relationship as much as possible to get the maximum results. Formalization should create a culture of accountability in the alliance which is critical to the success of it. Here are some ideas.

• Meet at least once a month and share sales pipe line reports
  • What deals are you working on now?
  • What deals have you recently closed?
  • Discuss referrals that have been passed around the alliance. (status, quality, etc.)
  • Create a list of specific prospects that you would like to get into and go over the list with your alliance. Use Linkedin and other business social media sites to make connections.
  • Are you have trouble closing any deals? If so, how can the alliance help?
    • Powerful Example: If the prospect does not have the budget for your project or service, is their anyone in the alliance that can create the savings through their product or services that essentially creates the funds for your project? I use my telecom broker in this regard. He can come in and save them hundreds to thousands a month, the savings from which cover most or all of the cost of my proposal.
  • Side Note: If, when I say “sales pipe line report”, your eyes glaze over, then you probably need a customer relationship management (CRM) system, such as ACT!, or Microsoft CRM. I recommend Alanna Galiano or Emerging Technologies to get your up to speed.A good CRM is essential to making this strategy work.
    
• Develop a joint Needs Assessment
  • If you already have a Needs Assessment, this is easy, just ask each member of your alliance for the top 3 questions that you should ask when conducting a Needs Assessment on your prospect that might generate a referral for them. For example: I always ask a few questions about their phone system to see if there is a possible referral opportunity to the telecom hardware company in my alliance.
• Joint Marketing
  
  • Create a “Partners” page on your web site and add logos with link backs to each of your partner’s web sites. Make sure they do the same.
  • Co-sponsor an event together, such as a conference or tradeshow. Obviously the event should contain target prospects that you are all are going after.
  • Find other ways to cross market:
    • Drop a brochure or coupon from an alliance member into your invoice mailings.

More Advanced Strategic Alliances

Want to take this concept to the next level?

Form an alliance around a business process or event. One idea that came from my friend, Bob Hill of Hill Corporate Partners, centers around office moves. Think about it. When someone want’s to move their office, they need the following:

• A commercial tenant rep, like Bob Hill, to find the new space
• An office furniture company to furnish the new office
• A moving company to move the stuff in the old office to the new one
• An IT company, like Carceron, to restore the computer network
• A telecom broker, like Elite Telecom Services, to get the telephone lines and Internet service going
• A telecom hardware company to setup the phone system for the new location
• A printer to handle change out of all collateral such as business, cards, brochures, letterhead, etc.
• And probably a CPA

You could market the alliance with an informational web site that is search engine optimized (maybe everyone chips in for some pay per click advertisement as well). Make sure that there is good quality content on the site. In the case of the office move, perhaps some check lists, Dos & Don’ts, etc.

Getting Started

If you don’t know all of the people that you need to form your alliances, I suggest joining a BNI or Corporate Connections referral marketing program. Corporate Connections chapters, like Synergy, are developing a strong, structured program for strategic alliance creation and development. Another venue might be Vistage. I am a director for Corporate Connections in the Atlanta market, so please feel free to contact me directly with any questions about that program.

What are some other ideas for an Advanced Strategic Alliance?

Leadership

Most people that know me know that I am very goal oriented and focused on results. I was not always like this. I had always considered myself a good leader perhaps due to my empathy, perhaps due to my time in the Army… who knows? But actually using this natural leadership to any great effect has been my challenge ever since starting a business 8 years ago.

What I came to discover is that I simply had charisma – I could get people to like and respect me, but that was only half the battle (more like 25% of the battle). It’s what you do when you have this respect that matters. This what I have come to learn as true leadership: deserving the respect of those around you enough to have their confidence to lead them in a particular direction – preferably a productive one – and then actually doing it. The other lesson that I learned early on in business is that people want to be led… expect to be led, and are uncomfortable when there is not a strong leader at the helm.

Armed with this knowledge, I finally began to understand what all of the hoopla was about concerning vision, mission statements and core values. I had been through several exercises on how to develop a vision and a mission statement, but they always seemed more like “wishful thinking”. It wasn’t until I understood the bigger picture, derived from countless books, seminars and a little bit of coaching, that it all made sense regarding how to use these tools.

Vision: An ever-changing horizon affected by changes in economy, your industry personnel, etc., I prefer Kimberly Douglas’ interpretation of vision as not heading towards a single mountain to conquer, but having several mountains in the distance, and you choose which mountain as you get closer it. Kind of like a plan A, B, or C. To much changes too fast in today’s world to have a rigid vision. You need to be open and develop strong skills of adaption. The only exception to this that I can think of is if you have a patent on something so new and innovative that no one else has it.

Mission: Ours is simple “You should be able to expect us to do anything for you that an in house IT technician or CTO would do“. That’s it. It’s easy to remember and speaks to the customer service levels that I demand from my staff. It also saves a lot of time on questions like “Should we do this? Because it’s not specified in the contract“. Most times I just refer them back to the mission statement and ask them to update me as to what they decided later (mostly for my own curiosity and coaching purposes). By the way, if you’re mission statement is more than 1-2 sentences and/or is hard to memorize, it’s too long. Simplify, simplify, simplify. (Thank you, Dr. Bob for this useful bit of advice)

Core Values: Most people think this is what you and/ or the company hold’s valuable, and to some extent it can be. However, what core values really do is apply guide rails to a decision making process. Care values are an invaluable tool for a leader looking to delegate because core values provide a decision framework for your staff to work by. Every time there is a crisis, adhering to the core values that you established should handle 90% of the hard decisions subordinates need to make before ever getting to you. When subordinates make mistakes, you can always counsel them on how what they did conflicted with the company’s core values. When you write out your core values, make sure to also write an interpretation for each.  For example:

Professionalism

Carceron professionals conduct themselves in a business-like manner at all times. They dress sharp and are well groomed and aspire to higher and broader levels of technical expertise and make good ethical decisions.

Of course all of these things can and should change as the business changes, but not so often that people become confused. If you make a change to any of the above, then you should explain why to all of your employees.

Goal Setting

Once all this is in place, you have the foundation for goal setting. Indeed, it is hard to imagine setting goals without a vision, or a mission in place (what would you base your goals on?). When you’re setting company goals for the year, it is very important to involve your staff – your managers at a minimum. This is your front line and they have important information that you will need. Ideally you should spend some time brainstorming off site some where. Get a professional facilitator if it is within your budget  (I recommend Kimberly Douglas of FireFly Faciliation) otherwise have a agenda that runs something like this:

1. Ask for ideas for goals in next year. Try to do so by department – do this even if you don’t have any departments. You don’t need an HR department to set goals of establishing a 401k program or improving benefits
   • Encourage creativity and “out of the box” thinking”
   • Accept all ideas (you’re just brain storming in this phase)
   • No open criticism of ideas should be allowed… yet
2. Discuss and prioritize the goals that you have come up with, remove any that are superfluous or redundant. You may also find that some goals are subordinate to other goals or are tasks to be completed in support of the larger goal.
3. Write all of the goals in a SMART format, which stands for:
   • Specific - Make the goal as specific as possible by making sure it meets the next 4 criteria as well as any other specific criteria you feel is pertinent
   • Measurable - Define the goal line for success. Describe what success looks, smells, tastes and sounds like. Bad Goal: Make more money this year. Good Goal: Make $3,000,000 this year
   • Achievable - Is the goal actually achievable given your current resources (employees, cash, etc.). 200% growth is probably not achievable.
   • Relevant – Is the goal relevant to the vision, mission or core values? If not, then why are you doing it?
     
   • Timely – What is the timeline to complete the goal? Many people work better under a deadline, otherwise, things are too easy to blow off.
4. Now write all of the tasks needed to complete each goal. Make sure to drill down deep here and be as specific as possible. It’s best to have the person that came up with the goal also come up with the necessary tasks needed to complete that goal in most cases. For example, let’s say you that you had a goal of “Upgrade Computer Network by End of 2010″ some of the tasks for that goal might be:
   • Gather computer and network inventory
   • Assess which machines need replacement first
   • Get quotes from 3 different IT solutions providers
   • Create refresh plan with solution provider (don’t be afraid to involve vendors with your goals)
5. Have all goals and tasks in a centrally accessible location such as on a spreadsheet on a server, on your company SharePoint site or using a goal planning web site like LifeTick (this is what my company does).
6. Conduct monthly meetings that focus on goal progress. If you don’t think you’re going to make a goal within a certain time frame, then discuss what you need to do to make that happen (e.g. every one works late one night or on a weekend) or discuss pushing the goal up a quarter (don’t get in the habit of this however).
7. Repeat this process in October or November of each year.

A great resource that I would recommend to you if you plan to run your own agenda without an outside facilitator is a book called The FireFly Effect by Kimberly Douglas.

Best of luck in 2010!