Maidsfield Blog - Partnering and Business Development

I thoroughly enjoyed Jerry Kennelly’s talk last night at the it@Cork Summer Event in Murphy’s Brewery.

In StockByte, Jerry established a clear vision and opportunity early on and went after it fabulously and whole heartily with great success. That is $135M worth of success when Jerry sold his companies last year.

With the vision at the very start and quickly establishing that they were ahead of the market, Stockbyte established themselves as market leaders and acted accordingly. StockByte were innovative on business model, marketing, delivery of their offering and collecting feedback from the market.

I really really liked:
1) how they marketed the ‘personality’ of the business to set them apart.
2) the constant objective to drive more streamlined scaleable business across the entire business
3) the fast response feedback loop to generate new product directions
4) the focus on high quality, high value and premium service at a relevant high margin price
5) the fast pace
6) the fun of it all, constant innovation coupled with constant business growth, there’s nothing better!

Well done Jerry.

This story and how Jerry delivers it should be bottled and used by Enterprise Ireland as one potential model in building an international successful business. BUT it’s definitely a lesson that it’s well achievable with the right mindset to start with.

I’m going back to work.

also see great write-up on the event at http://www.waveson.com/itcork-and-jerry-kennelly/trackback/

To carry on the theme of certainty from a previous blog post, facing reality allows us to plan for making the best of it. Being more certain is about leaving less to chance or luck. Reality is the best basis to build our plans on. (Definition of Reality: When you stop believing in it, it’s still there)

Reality can frighten the life out of people. Courage is required. (Definition: Courage is not the absence of fear, but realizing there’s something more important). Ignoring realities leaves things to chance. Facing realities provides greater certainty.

You can only prepare for what’s to happen if you accept that it can happen, good and bad. You are more certain to make things happen for you if you face reality early and prepare.

- Understand the client need
- Understand how your offering solves that need
- Understand the buying decision and process, the decision makers, influencers etc
- Define how will implement your solution

When you face realities early you can appreciate possibilities and act fast.

We can always reap greater rewards if we are prepared for all the good things that can happen and conversely if we are prepared for the bad things we can manage it better.

The two sides of not facing reality are, probably, Over Optimism and Panic, whereby we are over-reacting to some information that may not be reality that brings us to bad decisions and missed opportunities to progress.

I am currently reading Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’. I really really like it.

In discussing the “Hedgehog Concept” in deciding your business direction, the question of ‘What you can be best at’ is raised. The question emphasizes taking a reality view based on facts, rather than based on a challenging aspiration. I think its probably a healthy balance of both facts based and aspiration as collecting all the necessary facts may be time consuming and costly. Gut Instinct should come into it also.

If you want to be a market leader then what would you do if you were leader? If its 5 or 10 years from now, how would your company look? What type of people are part of the team?
How would you act? How would you market? How would you sell? What partnerships would you have? How would you deliver your solutions? What does the market see and think about you?

You would no-doubt operate to a set of uncompromising standards.

Start today, act like it today, carry out all actions as the leader you have in mind.

Dress for where you’re going, not for where you’re coming from.

In running a business there are a number of stakeholders including Customers, Staff, Suppliers, Shareholders and Government Agencies.

What makes it all work is getting the balance right:

This list is not quite in the right order, but the measurements are interrelated and a balance should be sought.

We are driven or motivated by many things.

Have many times had you felt really good after a very satisfying days work only to ask yourself “What have I achieved today to put more cash in my bank?” Then you realise that you were happy for the wrong reasons.

We all love appreciation and are proud of ourselves when we do a good job. Your shareholders and/or employers are happy when you’re happy but they’re happier when you’re making money for the company.

Many people enter their companies or themselves for awards and seek to gain press time when it offers no value to their company’s objectives at all. So why do the do it?

They’re not all wrong reasons, but they may not be valid company reasons.

When you feel good about how you are progressing, then ask yourself is it reflected or recognised in how you are measured in your job?

There’s a saying: “Tell how I’m measured and I’ll tell you how I act?”

Lost Opportunity Cost is typically the lost revenue while doing one thing as opposed to earning cash someplace else. The cash that would have been earned someplace else is the Lost Opportunity Cost.

I’m not saying that we should respond to every opportunity. I believe in quite the opposite. Pick your focus and move fast.

It’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that Pace is imperative and not acting with a sense of urgency causes you to lose out. Particularly as a small company on a growth path, you need to act fast when you see a relevant opportunity.

The core of the problem is this:

When we estimate the time to complete a task, we rarely try to do it faster, thus losing that time forever.

Completing the task faster is reducing your lost opportunity costs.

This is why I’m becoming a big fan of Eli Goldratt’s “The Theory of Constraints”. Part of which is about estimating individual tasks to be completed under ideal conditions with 50% certainty and manage the uncertainty at a more all encompassing level.

A construction company was commissioned to build a really grand five star hotel in New York. They decided to use their best engineer, a founding partner with the firm, Jim O’Reilly (he was originally from Cavan, Ireland). The managing partner, Chuck Houlihan (of Irish ancestry) was a strong business man but a little hard headed.

In building the hotel, Jim was at the core of engineering design and construction until business differences separated Jim and Chuck. Jim left the company.

The hotel was completed and all went well and opening with a grand celebration.

Then one day, there was a problem with the air conditioning. This became a big problem and all the expertise with the company couldn’t pin point the cause. Chuck was forced to call Jim to ask him back to check it out, whatever the cost. Chuck asked his engineers to follow Jim everywhere in finding the problem.

Jim toured the hotel checking the system at different points, asking questions and moving on. Then after about two hours he stopped. He had found it. Taking our a piece of chalk marked an X on a piece of equipment. The other engineers saw instantly what we meant.

Jim sent in a bill for $50,000 dollars to Chuck. Chuck nearly had a heart attack and smartly replied to Jim for his billed to be itemised.

Jim responded:

$1 for the chalk, $49,999 for knowing where to put it

Being able to do forecast sales and meet them is magic. Isn’t it?

Recently, I’ve being reading many books on sales management. Many of theses books were from a large company point of view, with 268 sales reps and such. They were typically public companies with quarterly results to report and shareholders expecting the continuous growing sales and profitability. These companies would talk about the certainty required in the measurement of the sales process. “Having a few in the bag, just in case” was always a safety being used. “You must be paranoid”, another would say repeatedly.

When you can pay for the best of everything:
1) You have strong market intelligence of what the buyer wants
2) You know what the markets’ purchasing plans for the coming year
3) You know what you can produce and can move fast to add capacity for contingency reasons
4) You know your sales cycle and lead time to sales
5) You have a pipeline and understand the probabilities at the various stages
6) Your team of 268 sales reps are well trained and managed by the best

So what if you have none of these.

The principles still apply. Do what you can do.

Progress is everything.

Case Studies are an invaluable sales tool. Nothing can explain your value clearer than showing how a similar company gained by using your product and/or services. Being able to show all the concerns being alleviated and typical challenges overcome goes a long way to removing barriers to a sale.

When you struggle to understand what a company does, A Case Study shows it very quickly.

With every new client engagement is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your capabilities. Collect the before picture precisely, both the financial and emotional measures.

With good case studies in your arsenal your proposal for business is much more believable as a future vision of success for your client.

Treat every opportunity on the basis that the world is watching how you perform.

Very little of what we do in life is incidental. Everything we do goes towards what we build up to be what defines us as a person. This defines what we represent. This is our personal and individual brand. Companies are similiar but are defined by the collective behaviours of the team. Communicate focus on values that deliver long-term value for your company.

While at Disneyworld Florida at the ISPE conference we were told that 70% of Disney customers are repeat customers. In our businesses we should adapt this as a principle by which we do business.

Act with the long-term in mind - don’t be happy with just gaining revenue today, build value in the experience that enhances your company. Learn by the experience that betters the next time your organisation must do a similiar task.

Dont just focus on the quick sale and say “next” - I read somewhere that US based department store, Nordstrom, have a principle that every customer coming through the door should be treated as such that they will potentially spend $50,000 with them in their years of custom.

Beware of throw-away tasks - On first carrying out a particular business task for a customer, document it sufficiently that you are creating a piece of knowledge that can be reused by you company more effectivley at a later date.

Focus on the long-term value for your customer. Think beyond the current project to understand long term value for your customer then you will better understand what is required of your company in the long-term in delivering on your customers’ needs

I spent the past few days (Nov 6th to Nov 8th 2006) at the ISPE annual meeting in Orlando, Florida’s Disneyworld.

It is absolutely amazing to realise the enormous detail to which Disney people go to, to ensure they think of everything possibility to ensure that their guests get the fullest experience possible on their visit to Disneyworld. There is very little left to chance. They believe in premium pricing and well above premium service. 70% of the guests are repeat visitors. They treat everyone as an ongoing repeat visitor year in year out. They charge well and deliver value.

The photo was taken by Jeff Masten of Genentech. (Thanks Jeff)

On stepping up for my photo, I addressed the Disney pair with “Well Ladies”, mistakenly recognising Donald as Daffy (how could I!). Of course Donald took offence which I had to rectify with an apology and correctly addressing him as “Gent”. Well after all, 70% of all management decisions are wrong. The good managers know when to rectify their decisions quickly.

Disney’s manner of doing business by offering the fullest experience is a guiding principle that cannot be encompassed in a standard operating procedure. It is in the manner in we engage and are engaged as people. Disney is a great business guided by strong principles.