On Friday 9/18/09, I led a half-day workshop entitled Perfect Your Pitch. As a part of developing the content for a successful pitch, I took the participants through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. When we were evaluating Strengths and Weaknesses, I advised the group to explore their strengths and ignore their weaknesses to determine potential priorities and challenges. One participant asked: "Shouldn't we try to fix our weaknesses instead of ignoring them?"
Completely ignoring the things that your organization doesn't do well is not the whole truth. Every organization should know what they do really well. It takes an honest, objective analysis for them to know what they do poorly.
Unfortunately, many organizations waste precious resources on training, infrastructure development, and human resources to prop up an offering or line of business that is actually dragging the organization down. They do this for a number of reasons, including to look like a "full service" organization, to capture what looks like low hanging fruit, and/or to foster a culture of ownership and refuse to let go of lost causes. Inevitably, clinging to these resource drains will remove capacity from the areas in which the group is strong. This refusal to avoid weaknesses eventually appear in the form of dwindling net profits.
The way to address this is to first acknowledge the weakness. Know that it is something that you do rather poorly. It's okay if, for example, you're a law firm and do not handle criminal cases. There are plenty of capable attorneys out there who would appreciate the referrals so that you can stay focused on business law and estate planning.
Once you acknowledge the weakness, determine if it is absolutely critical to the survival of your organization. If the answer is yes, then you have a major issue. That weakness isn't really a weakness: it's a threat. Instead of throwing resources at it to enhance it, you should be doing everything possible to stamp it out. If the weakness is NOT vital to your survival, then just ignore it. Be aware of it, but find a solution that does not tie up your organization's resources.
To acknowledge what you don't do well and need to improve starts the conversation regarding whether each weak spot is a weakness or a threat. A weakness is a feature, offering, or characteristic which the organization can comfortably ignore or hire out to someone else. If your strategy integrates abilities on which you cannot profitably deliver, the entire strategy is flawed. The organization needs to take a harder look at strengths and reshape offerings to leverage only the strengths and opportunities.
Any strong organization stays focused at all times on exploring their strengths and exploiting opportunities. Threats must be confronted, and weaknesses should be avoided. If you find that you're confronting or exploring weaknesses, you're wasting your time. These fruitless activities are as tragic as avoiding opportunities. Stop fixing your weaknesses and expend those resources on exploring your strengths. Your bottom line will be so glad that you did.
Keeping the world connected through issues that impact urban and regional policy and development.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Please welcome Mike Stephens, Customer Relationship Builder
There's a new face at TsuluWerks, Inc. You might have seen him roaming the town or heard his friendly voice on the other end of the phone. If you haven't met him already, I would like to introduce Mike Stephens, our new Customer Relationship Builder. A natural people person, Mike joins us from the IT hardware industry, bringing his management and relationship building skills from companies like EMC and Sun Microsystems. He volunteers with First Step Community Support Center to help families in need. His commitment to people and community made him the perfect fit for the TsuluWerks, Inc. team.If you want to meet Mike, please join us on Wednesday, 9/16/09 at the Smart and Simple Strategies for Small Business Conference at Microsoft Conference Center or at the Perfect Your Pitch workshop on Friday, 9/18/09. Or check out his profile on our web site and give him a call at 206-782-4040 x101. He would love to meet you!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
An Event for Securing Small Business Capital: Perfect Your Pitch Workshop
enterpriseSeattle and Tracy A. Corley & Associates (a division of TsuluWerks, Inc.) will host Perfect Your Pitch on September 18, 2009. The event, sponsored by Towers Perrin, runs from 8:00 am to noon, with registration starting at 7:30am. The informational workshop is designed to help new and growing businesses secure venture and angel funding to launch and expand their enterprises.
"Capital is tight for all businesses from all sources," says enterpriseSeattle clean energy and technology specialist Steve Gerritson. "Small businesses have to be able to quickly and clearly get their messages across to potential funders. This workshop, specially designed for us by Tracy Corley, will help them communicate their value proposition and handle any open ended questions that might come their way."
The event will be held at the enterpriseSeattle offices at 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2500 from 8am to noon and is limited to 50 participants. The event cost of $95 ($125 at the door) includes the program presented by Tracy A. Corley, workshop materials, continental breakfast, and a half hour coaching session with an enterpriseSeattle consultant.
The program will cover:
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"Capital is tight for all businesses from all sources," says enterpriseSeattle clean energy and technology specialist Steve Gerritson. "Small businesses have to be able to quickly and clearly get their messages across to potential funders. This workshop, specially designed for us by Tracy Corley, will help them communicate their value proposition and handle any open ended questions that might come their way."
The event will be held at the enterpriseSeattle offices at 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2500 from 8am to noon and is limited to 50 participants. The event cost of $95 ($125 at the door) includes the program presented by Tracy A. Corley, workshop materials, continental breakfast, and a half hour coaching session with an enterpriseSeattle consultant.
The program will cover:
- How to present with purpose
- Telling your story with clarity
- Organizing your presentation for maximum impact
- Selecting language that commands the room
- Deliver with confidence, even in 10 minutes or less
- Preparing for anything in open-ended sessions
- Building buy-in with stakeholders and investors
About enterpriseSeattle
For over 35 years, enterpriseSeattle has provided client-based economic development services to businesses throughout King County and its 39 cities. enterpriseSeattle's mission is to be a "difference-maker" in the community by growing the jobs and tax base in King County, its 39 cities and the greater Puget Sound region. It accomplishes its mission through a customized client services program focused on business retention, expansion and recruitment. It's objective is to become the premier economic development organization in the US. It supports businesses in the areas of Life Sciences, Clean Technology, Information Technology, International Trade and Logistics, and Aerospace. www.enterpriseseattle.orgAbout Tracy A. Corley & Associates
Using Vision Driven Results, Tracy A. Corley & Associates aligns individuals and organizations with simple, actionable strategies and precise execution for change and growth. They offer consulting, speaker services, and media content to improve cash flow, enhance competitiveness, increase efficiencies, and build confidence in their clients and their communities. The organization is led by Chief Strategist, Tracy Corley, who simplifies the strategic planning process for small businesses, nonprofits, corporations, and public agencies. Its parent company, TsuluWerks Inc., has been providing strategic consulting and marketing services to organizations since 2000. www.tsuluwerks.comAbout Towers Perrin
Towers Perrin provides global human resource consulting services that help organizations effectively manage their investment in people. We offer clients services in areas such as executive and employee compensation, employee benefits, communication, change management, employee research, and the delivery of HR services. www.towersperrin.com
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Importance of Interdependence in Politics
Last night's Washington state primary results were surprising in many of the races. Some of the surprises, in my opinion, were good ones whereas others leave me wondering what's really going on. It takes me back to the presentation put on by Express Employment Professionals that I attended a few weeks ago. The presenter hit on another very relevant topic, interdependence (I talked about another one in my last blog post).
I first read about interdependence in Steven Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The concept is that all of us are born as dependent beings. As we grow older many of us discover our independence and work really hard to define ourselves and declare what makes us unique. Highly effective people, Covey explains, move beyond independence to interdependence. Like dependence, the individual relies on others, but does so consciously, without losing sight of the things that make him unique. Interdependent folks retain their individual identity, but use it in a way to work together with other people and their communities.
I think that our political races bring a lot of surprises because our local community is made up of a large number of independent people. I applaud the Northwest's emphasis on independent thinking and forming your own opinion on issues (though not everyone is willing to express them). Where our region falls short is in interdependent thinking. When people have to come together to benefit the greater good, either the fierce thorns of independence surface, causing passionate friction and factionalism, or the dictates of "political correctness" coats over the real issues so that everyone can feel good about the uninformed decision that is being made. In interdependence, individuals have the ability to step outside of their own self-focused needs and look at how the decisions being made today affect our region as a whole, now and in the future. We're lacking that in a region where folks vote on everything, yet are making decisions based on their own commutes or religious preferences and are not thinking about the benefits or detriments that their choices will make on other people, the neighborhood, region, country, or global community in the long term. This unwillingness to work together and find common ground on disparate issues brings many surprises.
We have some great finalists in the upcoming races who have the ability to look beyond partisan issues and make tough, informed decisions based on long-term impact. On the flip side, we have some finalists who are finalists because of their hard-lined, myopic focus on popular hot-button issues. It's the difference between being a politician and being an effective, results-oriented politician. I look forward to the next two and a half months of campaigns and hope that our region will make the tough decisions and choose candidates who are committed to interdependent leadership instead of independent factionalism.
I first read about interdependence in Steven Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The concept is that all of us are born as dependent beings. As we grow older many of us discover our independence and work really hard to define ourselves and declare what makes us unique. Highly effective people, Covey explains, move beyond independence to interdependence. Like dependence, the individual relies on others, but does so consciously, without losing sight of the things that make him unique. Interdependent folks retain their individual identity, but use it in a way to work together with other people and their communities.
I think that our political races bring a lot of surprises because our local community is made up of a large number of independent people. I applaud the Northwest's emphasis on independent thinking and forming your own opinion on issues (though not everyone is willing to express them). Where our region falls short is in interdependent thinking. When people have to come together to benefit the greater good, either the fierce thorns of independence surface, causing passionate friction and factionalism, or the dictates of "political correctness" coats over the real issues so that everyone can feel good about the uninformed decision that is being made. In interdependence, individuals have the ability to step outside of their own self-focused needs and look at how the decisions being made today affect our region as a whole, now and in the future. We're lacking that in a region where folks vote on everything, yet are making decisions based on their own commutes or religious preferences and are not thinking about the benefits or detriments that their choices will make on other people, the neighborhood, region, country, or global community in the long term. This unwillingness to work together and find common ground on disparate issues brings many surprises.
We have some great finalists in the upcoming races who have the ability to look beyond partisan issues and make tough, informed decisions based on long-term impact. On the flip side, we have some finalists who are finalists because of their hard-lined, myopic focus on popular hot-button issues. It's the difference between being a politician and being an effective, results-oriented politician. I look forward to the next two and a half months of campaigns and hope that our region will make the tough decisions and choose candidates who are committed to interdependent leadership instead of independent factionalism.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
From Expense to Asset: How Layoffs Can Kill Your Organization
Thank you to Express Employment Professionals for hosting an educational event led by Russ Moen, VP, Human Resources. The 4-hour event, "The Leader's Role in Creating Fulfilling Jobs", took its lead from the book Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni.
One topic discussed was the value of people. In financial terms, human resources usually show up under "expenses" when looking at a balance sheet. In today's economy, many businesses are hyper-focused on the bottom line, looking at where they can best cut costs. For many businesses, employee-related costs result in 65% to 95% of all expenditures within a fiscal year. From a bottom line point-of-view, employees are a financial disaster. When times get tough, it looks like the fastest, most effective way to trim costs is to let folks go.
Our economy has changed significantly in the past 40 years. According to Moen, a review of a company's stock value in 1982 could be tied 65% to tangible assets (i.e. equipment, real estate, cash) and 35% to intangible assets (intellectual property, patents, systems). As we shifted from an industrial society into the information age, 2002 brought an average of 80% (yes, eighty) of stock value tied to intangible assets.
What happened? People took on growing value. In an information-based economy, innovation, service, and intellectual property contain the majority of a company's assets. Where does innovation, service, and intellectual property originate? In the minds of people. The information age has turned people from expenses to assets. People are your bottom line. Without them businesses cannot create value.
I think that choosing the right people for your organization applies not to the tasks that they can perform, but to the way they think. Diversity of race, religion, and gender don't matter as much as diversity in thought, creativity, and problem solving. The value of the people on your team has less and less to do with the cost of acquisition and benefits costs, but rather with the return on investment due to increased productivity, surge in innovation, increase in filed patents, and ability to be nimble and responsive to changing market economies.
The current market correction is showing how come companies have over-inflated the value of commoditized tangible assets and downplayed the value of the people and their innovations. I regularly see small businesses struggling to survive who are sitting on a wealth of intellectual property or innovative systems that they could share with the market to increase cash on hand and business value. Conversely, I have also seen many organizations bloat their books with intangible assets that don't exist.
What is the value of people to your organization? Where does their contribution to your success show up in your financial statements?
One topic discussed was the value of people. In financial terms, human resources usually show up under "expenses" when looking at a balance sheet. In today's economy, many businesses are hyper-focused on the bottom line, looking at where they can best cut costs. For many businesses, employee-related costs result in 65% to 95% of all expenditures within a fiscal year. From a bottom line point-of-view, employees are a financial disaster. When times get tough, it looks like the fastest, most effective way to trim costs is to let folks go.
Our economy has changed significantly in the past 40 years. According to Moen, a review of a company's stock value in 1982 could be tied 65% to tangible assets (i.e. equipment, real estate, cash) and 35% to intangible assets (intellectual property, patents, systems). As we shifted from an industrial society into the information age, 2002 brought an average of 80% (yes, eighty) of stock value tied to intangible assets.
What happened? People took on growing value. In an information-based economy, innovation, service, and intellectual property contain the majority of a company's assets. Where does innovation, service, and intellectual property originate? In the minds of people. The information age has turned people from expenses to assets. People are your bottom line. Without them businesses cannot create value.
I think that choosing the right people for your organization applies not to the tasks that they can perform, but to the way they think. Diversity of race, religion, and gender don't matter as much as diversity in thought, creativity, and problem solving. The value of the people on your team has less and less to do with the cost of acquisition and benefits costs, but rather with the return on investment due to increased productivity, surge in innovation, increase in filed patents, and ability to be nimble and responsive to changing market economies.
The current market correction is showing how come companies have over-inflated the value of commoditized tangible assets and downplayed the value of the people and their innovations. I regularly see small businesses struggling to survive who are sitting on a wealth of intellectual property or innovative systems that they could share with the market to increase cash on hand and business value. Conversely, I have also seen many organizations bloat their books with intangible assets that don't exist.
What is the value of people to your organization? Where does their contribution to your success show up in your financial statements?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
When Manufacturing Flounders: How Montreal spurred growth when key jobs evaporated
In the latter years of the last century, Montreal economic development specialists were in the midst of a dramatic change: their manufacturing sector was about to experience serious decline. The Canadian dollar was depressed against the US dollar, and outsourcing made manufacturing facilities move across borders and overseas. Like many of the world's wealthiest nations, Canada was watching its manufacturing sector shrink. Between 2004 and 2008, one in seven manufacturing jobs had disappeared.
Montreal was determined to not become a victim of outsourcing and other changing market forces. Montreal business and policy leaders became proactive in its actions, working to move manufacturing sector workers from the factory floor to other jobs. Montreal worked with higher education programs -- universities and technical schools -- to provide unemployed manufacturing sector workers with access to career opportunities and retraining. they surveyed their industry landscape and noticed that they had growing clusters in other market areas that had not yet been accessed. The business and policy leaders worked together with small businesses, nonprofits, corporations, governments, and support organizations to craft policies and programs to enhance those heretofore under appreciated industries. In 2007, manufacturing lost 19,000 jobs while service sector jobs increased by 97,000. This positive growth was due in great part due to a rapidly-growing video game industry.
The resulting public/private partnerships encouraged growth in these sectors by supplying a home-grown pool of talent and development-friendly policies. It was initiatives such as these that led to market stimulation and support for creative businesses like world-famous performing arts venue Cirque du Soleil. The creative sector now accounts for 30% of the region's jobs. All service sectors are growing at 34%.
Like Montreal, our local, state, and federal governments should be crafting policies and encouraging public/private partnerships when major industry segments start to decline in certain areas. Such proactive measures could have stalled and even offset the damage inflicted on Michigan as a result of the auto industry collapse. I applaud the Seattle City Council Bill 116574 for raising the minimum Business & Occupation tax threshold for businesses from $50,000 to $100,000. It will only serve to stimulate small business growth and development in these tough times as manufacturing jobs decline and major corporations implemented hiring freezes and layoffs and cut back on outsourcing to local manufacturing and other vendors.
Our own under developed industries with high growth potential will be able to keep a bit more cash in their businesses for creating jobs, marketing their services, and adding much needed capital resources to their fledgling organizations. More actions like these are needed to keep our communities focused on rebuilding a job-growing economy. Just because some jobs move south, north, east, or west doesn't mean that all is lost. If we look around a bit, we might find, like Montreal did, that we have thriving industries already blossoming in our economic gardens. We just have to tend to them and encourage them to grow.
What is your region doing to support business and create jobs? I want to hear from you!
Montreal was determined to not become a victim of outsourcing and other changing market forces. Montreal business and policy leaders became proactive in its actions, working to move manufacturing sector workers from the factory floor to other jobs. Montreal worked with higher education programs -- universities and technical schools -- to provide unemployed manufacturing sector workers with access to career opportunities and retraining. they surveyed their industry landscape and noticed that they had growing clusters in other market areas that had not yet been accessed. The business and policy leaders worked together with small businesses, nonprofits, corporations, governments, and support organizations to craft policies and programs to enhance those heretofore under appreciated industries. In 2007, manufacturing lost 19,000 jobs while service sector jobs increased by 97,000. This positive growth was due in great part due to a rapidly-growing video game industry.
The resulting public/private partnerships encouraged growth in these sectors by supplying a home-grown pool of talent and development-friendly policies. It was initiatives such as these that led to market stimulation and support for creative businesses like world-famous performing arts venue Cirque du Soleil. The creative sector now accounts for 30% of the region's jobs. All service sectors are growing at 34%.
Like Montreal, our local, state, and federal governments should be crafting policies and encouraging public/private partnerships when major industry segments start to decline in certain areas. Such proactive measures could have stalled and even offset the damage inflicted on Michigan as a result of the auto industry collapse. I applaud the Seattle City Council Bill 116574 for raising the minimum Business & Occupation tax threshold for businesses from $50,000 to $100,000. It will only serve to stimulate small business growth and development in these tough times as manufacturing jobs decline and major corporations implemented hiring freezes and layoffs and cut back on outsourcing to local manufacturing and other vendors.
Our own under developed industries with high growth potential will be able to keep a bit more cash in their businesses for creating jobs, marketing their services, and adding much needed capital resources to their fledgling organizations. More actions like these are needed to keep our communities focused on rebuilding a job-growing economy. Just because some jobs move south, north, east, or west doesn't mean that all is lost. If we look around a bit, we might find, like Montreal did, that we have thriving industries already blossoming in our economic gardens. We just have to tend to them and encourage them to grow.
What is your region doing to support business and create jobs? I want to hear from you!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
When Big Corporate Decisions Make Huge Local Impacts: Boeing Purchase Impact on Puget Sound
Today has been a very intense day. I gleaned all of this by consuming 7 minutes of news coverage: Nearly 1 billion people tuned in or turned out for the funeral of pop icon Michael Jackson. Human rights organizations around the world are calling for the release of Iranian election protesters. The Taliban is buying children for suicide attacks. The District of Columbia will recognize same sex marriages. Nobody knows what's going on with soon-to-be-ex-Governor Sarah Palin. SC Governor Mark Sanford is still dominating with embarrassing headlines. And Boeing has announced the purchase of a 787 fuselage assembly vendor in North Charleston, SC.
Being a SC native, it's interesting to see the state garnering so much attention (I didn't see any serial killer updates in the 7-minute stretch). But having lived in Seattle for 13 years, I am vested in the success of the Puget Sound Region, small businesses in particular. Any big news that takes jobs to another region is putting strain on an already flailing small business environment in the Greater Seattle area.
When a major corporation decides to move part or all of its business from one region to another, it doesn't just affect that company and its workers. The surrounding community is impacted by relocating employees who sell their houses. The region is impacted by individuals who lose their jobs and rely on social services to survive. These impacts dent a housing market struggling to recover and stomps on already overburdened state government budgets (or should I say deficits?)
Small businesses are impacted by the diminishing buying power of their consumer base. Other small businesses are impacted by the loss in potential first- or second-tier supplier contracts with the corporation and its major suppliers. When these small businesses lose their revenue streams, their employees start losing their benefits and wages, then their jobs. Then those employees start relocating to find better jobs or have to rely on social services until they can be re-trained in another industry or find another job in their fields. Small businesses shutter their doors, leading to a decline in state tax revenues and job availability for the nation's 9.5% of folks that are unemployed (note that small business owners are not traditionally represented in that figure).
Such a simple business decision in one company has a huge impact on an entire region. A friend who recently relocated from Detroit can tell how she's upside down on a Michigan mortgage while clinging to her small business engineering job here in Washington state. With a new Seattle mortgage under her belt, can she afford to relocate if her job moves east?
I have joined the Washington Aerospace Partnership to help keep the Seattle area the world's largest aerospace cluster and to help the more than 650 aerospace businesses in our state gain access to the resources they need to sustain revenues and fuel a job-growing economy. If you as an organization or individual would like to learn more about this partnership and get involved, please visit the Washington Aerospace Partnership web site.
If you are in SC or other regions of the country impacted by the changes in the manufacturing sector, I would love to hear from you. I will be writing a post about how Montreal addressed a decline in its manufacturing cluster and is still thriving as the world's third largest aerospace cluster.
Being a SC native, it's interesting to see the state garnering so much attention (I didn't see any serial killer updates in the 7-minute stretch). But having lived in Seattle for 13 years, I am vested in the success of the Puget Sound Region, small businesses in particular. Any big news that takes jobs to another region is putting strain on an already flailing small business environment in the Greater Seattle area.
When a major corporation decides to move part or all of its business from one region to another, it doesn't just affect that company and its workers. The surrounding community is impacted by relocating employees who sell their houses. The region is impacted by individuals who lose their jobs and rely on social services to survive. These impacts dent a housing market struggling to recover and stomps on already overburdened state government budgets (or should I say deficits?)
Small businesses are impacted by the diminishing buying power of their consumer base. Other small businesses are impacted by the loss in potential first- or second-tier supplier contracts with the corporation and its major suppliers. When these small businesses lose their revenue streams, their employees start losing their benefits and wages, then their jobs. Then those employees start relocating to find better jobs or have to rely on social services until they can be re-trained in another industry or find another job in their fields. Small businesses shutter their doors, leading to a decline in state tax revenues and job availability for the nation's 9.5% of folks that are unemployed (note that small business owners are not traditionally represented in that figure).
Such a simple business decision in one company has a huge impact on an entire region. A friend who recently relocated from Detroit can tell how she's upside down on a Michigan mortgage while clinging to her small business engineering job here in Washington state. With a new Seattle mortgage under her belt, can she afford to relocate if her job moves east?
I have joined the Washington Aerospace Partnership to help keep the Seattle area the world's largest aerospace cluster and to help the more than 650 aerospace businesses in our state gain access to the resources they need to sustain revenues and fuel a job-growing economy. If you as an organization or individual would like to learn more about this partnership and get involved, please visit the Washington Aerospace Partnership web site.
If you are in SC or other regions of the country impacted by the changes in the manufacturing sector, I would love to hear from you. I will be writing a post about how Montreal addressed a decline in its manufacturing cluster and is still thriving as the world's third largest aerospace cluster.
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