Oct 04 2010

Everyone, Pull Together Now

Randy Joy @ 1:58 pm

 

Walking along riverbanks near college towns, one can see the sight of a boat gliding quickly, with purpose, multiple rowers all synchronized as they paddle quietly and efficiently.  This synchronization is achieved by the help of someone who is helping them get to the same beat, directing and coaxing, calling out and goading, so that every oar and every muscle is bent to the same goal.  No shallow oar-splashing of one time boaters, the oars of the boating team dip in and out with beauty and precision to move the boat forward. 

One of the best values you can give your customers is by creating an experience where everyone at your company is working towards the same goal, aligned with similar values and energized to achieve the company vision.  When this happens the customers experience is seamless: every employee is saying the same thing, the buying and selling process is smoother, the product is delivered more timely as the team is working in sync with each other. 

Then, the company glides on, past the splashy one-time companies, to smooth, quiet upstream success.

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Category: Leadership,Strategic Planning

Sep 27 2010

The Intelligence of the Fall

Randy Joy @ 11:00 am

 

Fall and the change of season reminds me that this too shall pass.  The visual change of the colors of the leaves, the brisk breeze on a cold evening, and the self imposed change in my home of the seasonal fruits I choose, like apples and pears, reinforces the changing season.  It gives me transition time, to savor the memories of summer and to prepare for the upcoming winter in enjoyable and tangible ways.

As your business grows and changes, as things pass, what visuals do you use to show your customers and employees your progress? And what do you use as transition cues, helping all those experiencing those cues to savor memories and move forward to new goals?

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Category: Leadership

Sep 21 2010

A Childlike Curiosity

Randy Joy @ 1:00 pm

 

A child walks into a park and notices everything: the birds chirping, the smell of the flowers, the balance-beam-like ledge that she eagerly seeks to climb.  A child’s innate curiosity, natural excitement for what is new and awareness of possibilities, allows a child to grow rapidly.

In your business may you see your company with a childlike curiousity, a new observant eye open to new possibilities and realities.

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Category: Clarifying Your Vision

Sep 14 2010

Attracting YOUR Market

Randy Joy @ 9:07 am

 

Selling hacksaws on Park Avenue, even diamond encrusted ones, will not work for hacksaw manufacturers.   And selling those same saws to the appropriate country folks will only work if you speak rustic/country lingo in your ads and in your sales pitches.  Therefore, ads promising the hacksaw will get its buyers into the next soiree will not do it for a marketing campaign.

Leadership is the ability to accept that not everyone will want your product or services.  True leaders know whom they can lead and whom not.   Your product and services will be a perfect fit for some customers.  As a business leader your job is to focus on learning who that ideal customer is…and then figuring out how to speak your customer’s language.

You know your product.  Do you know who wants it?  And do you know how to speak the language of that user?  Take the time to know this, as such knowlege will guide your marketing and selling plans.

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Category: Strategic Planning

Aug 20 2010

Dealing with Unhappiness

Randy Joy @ 11:00 am

 

There are children who are scared of being hit by anything thrown at them.  These kids, if you lob even a soft, bouncy balloon at them, will crouch down and cover their heads and cower.  Then, there are the children who want to catch anything sent their way, even if it means jumping in the air to catch a hardball…without a mitt (ouch!).

Customers will lob much at you many times.  As a business owner, you will soon find out that not every customer will be happy all the time.  It is our job as business owners to “catch” what is lobbed our way, instead of curling up and cowering from the onslaught. 

In fact, we can learn from every interaction with our customer all the time.  Dell triumphantly did just that.  One unhappy customer wrote a blog called IHateDell.com.  Dell took the high road and learned from its customer and changed the way it operated.  One customer made a huge impact because of Dell’s ability and value to learn from everyone.  Dell “caught” the ball. 

How much of your time do you spend listening to your customers and employees?

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Category: Clarifying Your Vision,Leadership

Aug 09 2010

Success Tuition

Randy Joy @ 9:00 am

 

“Failure: the tuition you pay for success.” – Chinese fortune cookie

Ever envy someone that seems to have it all?  Feeling like a failure because you do not have what they have?

It took me many years to learn that usually it is not the person that I envy or their position but rather something specific they’ve got which I do not.  This new awareness that it is something they have helps me strive to get it.  By doing the hard work to get that which I don’t have – I earn what I once envied.  The pleasure and happiness of working hard and earning something is far greater than if I would have started out with it and been successful already.

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Category: Clarifying Your Vision

Aug 04 2010

Vibrantly Alive

Randy Joy @ 10:00 am

 

Numb, closed, apathetic, complacent – these terms represent the majority of souls out there just getting by.  That zone where today is similar to tomorrow; this year to next; and one decade shuffles into another.  Hopes and dreams fade and courage to take the next step are stifled by realities.

On the other hand, a truly growth oriented person will seek the education, support and guidance needed to make unfathomable changes.  What seems risky to most – is in fact seen by a grower that not to take that risk might be even riskier.

According to Wikipedia failure is “… the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.”  Thereby, not taking the risk ensures the failure.  Failure becomes defined as a missed opportunity.

Likewise, a true growth company feels everything and chooses to morph from every good and bad experience.  Opening itself up to learn from every customer and employee experience is seen as the only sure way toward success.  Systems are put in place to catch new information and create scheduled flexibility to change.

And carefully calculated risks allow it to remain vibrantly alive.

 

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Category: Clarifying Your Vision,Leadership,Strategic Planning

Jul 29 2010

Falling Allowed

Randy Joy @ 2:00 am

 

Childhood is a time of wonder, learning new skills and experiencing new ways of interacting with the world.  In order to get to that place of “anything is possible” wonder, though, children have to be open to scraped knees, water in their nose and bumps and bruises, depending on which skill they are trying to learn.

Run a bit, you might fall and scrape some skin off.  Wobble on a bike without training wheels and you might earn a few bruises.  Jump into the deep end of the water in an attempt to dive and water might go up your nose.  Such is the life of the child.

Business owners, don’t be scared of a few scrapes, tumbles and falls.   It might take you 10 trials or 100 to get what you are trying to do and learn exactly right.  However, if you are consistent and keep working at it and are not scared of the scrapes along the way, your awareness to what works and what doesn’t will finally lead you to a place where that mistake is no longer possible.  Where bikes ride smoothly and each dive is a perfect swan one.

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Category: Clarifying Your Vision

Jul 21 2010

Protect Their Innocence

Randy Joy @ 11:33 am

 

Children are only young once.  Free to dream and imagine new worlds and believe in this one.  This purity opens the mind, allowing its owners to live fully in  the present and dream bigger than big.

Just like a child, a company in it’s infancy dreams great dreams and can see larger visions because it is not confined to dreams based on where it is now but rather can dream from a clean white paper.

In my startup experience, it takes a good three years for an active company to start coming out of it’s infancy – to fully start stabilizing cash flows, employee structure and controls.  It’s the chaotic growth, just like when an infant is born, that empowers the tiring beginning.  When a child turns three they are usually out of diapers, dressing  themselves and talking and walking.  So, too, for a company at three, the baby starts to become a child and the painful growth becomes just growth.

If your company is less than three years old, enjoy the unbelivable growth rate and changes and protect the innocence of the entrepreneur  to enjoy a free hand at dreaming in the beginning.  If your company is older, enjoy the less painful growth and the order you are beginning  to create.  But don’t “age” your vision -keep that purity of vision still innocent, believing all is possible.

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Category: Leadership,Strategic Planning

Jul 20 2010

Cold Lemonade on a Hot Day

Randy Joy @ 10:00 am

Pity the poor kid who just doesn’t get it and sets up a stand selling cold lemonade in the winter.  There won’t be many sales that way.  Hot cocoa in the winter, now that’s an idea.  And, as any enterprising little kid knows full well, cold lemonade on a hot day is what does the trick.

In fact, most intelligent lemonade kid-sellers even know that location and timing make a difference.  They’ll put up their cardboard sign and put themselves out there in the afternoon, when friends are cruising by on bikes and some folks are out walking and jogging.   Our little lemonade seller figured out a key to sales, that you have to provide what the customer needs.  

If kids get it, why do so many business entrepeneur’s not?  In business, owners must first define a customer’s need and desire and then sell the value of that perfect solution.   

Just like a nice cold glass of lemonade on a sweltering day.  Or a nice, piping hot one on  the cold ones.

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Category: Leadership,Strategic Planning
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