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September 2008
Take a look around
Motorcycles are the equivalent of freedom. Ride them and you can see the entire road. Turn your head and you have full view. You feel the rain on your face, you can smell the engine. When you ride you can sense the cond ition of the engine from it’s sound and you can see your own turn signals blinking. No need to ask someone in the passenger seat “is it clear?” When you are riding a motorcycle, the driver is clearly in control.
Kinda like running a small business. The similarities are astounding. Freedom, not being accountable to anyone, and every experience is felt by the owner.
But as your business grows, that sort of “drive by feel” experience disappears and before you know it you are flying a jet airliner (with hundreds of people aboard), and your only sensory experience is a small window staring out in front and you are DEPENDANT on instruments to give you your up to date condition reports… the gauges… damn those gauges.
Whether you like it or not, that is the way it goes, and if your desire is to run a large business, the complexity increases and the need to “fly by wire” becomes more critical and your dependence on others is as well. So here are the lessons…
Gauges are critical.
Like the 767 pilot you need up to the minute reporting on performance from all key areas of your “ship”. How is the sales department doing, is spending under control, is the company running efficiently, are you are the right “altitude”? In your business the buzzword is KPI (key performance indicator) and quite frankly, you should have a bunch of them. Fill your cockpit with them… feel free to microwatch… just don’t micro manage.
Tap on the gauges that are stuck.
If a gauge looks stuck… tap it and if it loosens up great, but if it doesn’t, call maintenance an have it replaced. Don’t fly your airplane if you don’t have accurate information and gosh, golly, gee… if the gauge is reporting the correct information and the information says you are going to crash take immediate corrective action!!!
Practice cockpit management.
If there is a problem during the flight of commercial airliner one person in the cockpit has to focus on flying the plane at all times, otherwise everyone may become fixated on the problem and lose sight of the main task, (landing safely). In your business it is important to focus on problems, while at the same time focus on running the business. In many cases everyone must wear multiple hats.
Cheers, Chuck
chuck@baxterbean.com
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book review: death to sacred cows
Not that we should be thinking of death on a regular basis, but the book – Death to all Sacred Cows, just does that. 170 pages and a quick read, this book explores the idea of keeping the past from running or even worse, destroying your future.
The axiom - “a pioneer is someone face down in the dirt with his back full of arrows” can be true, but the opposite idea that we should rest on our successes can be a death blow.
Authors David Berstein, Beau Fraser and Bill Schwab explore typical Sacred Cow ideas in the workplace and provide us with the mental tools to “rethink our thinking”.
Ideas such as: “teams create the best solutions” and “it’s ok to put up with jerks if they are talented” and “success breeds success” are ripped apart with case study examples. Citing example after example, the authors provide a compelling argument to keep our eyes focused forward and our minds open to new ideas.
The futurist Joel Barker has always said – “when a paradigm shifts, everything goes back to zero” and in this book the constant theme is just that. Zero based thinking is the root of success (or maybe that is a Sacred Cow too!!)
Bottom line… go ahead and screw up, it is better than doing nothing.
Cheers, Chuck
chuck@baxterbean.com
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event update: opera on steven ave at noon
 This summer, we put an opera singer on Stephen Avenue Mall for the lunch crowd.
Danna MacMillan was the star of our event and not only did she draw spectators from blocks away, she moved some to tears. I noticed familiar faces in different suits on the second day – they had come back to hear her sing again.
What does creating this emotional connection have to do with selling our business? As we imagined it, this unexpected event captured our ideas about innovation, creativity and delighting an audience. The fact that people were so moved will, we believe, create a vivid memory firmly fastened to the name Baxter Bean.
I recently read a book called A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. In it, Pink paints a convincing portrait of the future skill set required to excel in business. Put away all notions of purely linear and logical thinking, says Pink. What will create success in the future is our ability to create a deeper aesthetic and meaning – a symphony as he describes it. We’ll have to rewrite the usual “left-brain” scripts and give emotion and creativity larger parts to play.
For a lot of us, that’s a stretch. I’ve trained accountants, for example, who have told me their presentations are boring because the topic is simply boring. I wonder and ask them, why are they accountants? There must be something that excited them about the profession. Why are they presenting this topic? There must be a reason they believe it’s important and relevant to their audience. Inevitably, they have answers and ones that light their enthusiasm. Ahhh, so now let’s put that enthusiasm into the presentation!
Why approach anything any other way? Why does an accountant’s presentation have to be boring? Why can’t it be as wonderfully unexpected as a soaring soprano slicing through the downtown bustle?
Pink would argue that our future success depends on a stronger marriage between logic and feeling. We are inundated with information. Rote tasks are being off-shored. Computers do the calculations for us.
For your work and vision to reach us, to move us, to live on in our memories, it must reach us on a different, more emotional level.
We’ve started posting talks at the Stand and Command website as examples of great presentations. I’ve found three recently that speak to the urgent need for all of us to tap into our creative sides and nurture this side in those we influence. View them online now. I hope you take the time to experience the symphony of their ideas.
Colleen
colleen@baxterbean.com
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Welcome Niki
Niki Poscente has recently joined Baxter Bean Creative as a Marketing Specialist. She will be working with Lynette Lefsrud and Chuck Bean to provide key marketing and communications services to clients.
Niki has always wanted to make an impact. Since a very young age she subscribed to the principle that a venture is not worth the time if the results aren’t astounding. It is this belief that led her to marketing and communications, where even the smallest choice can have a major effect.
As a graduate of the University of Calgary’s communications program, Niki has the education to tackle the job, combining marketing, communications and business into a package that delivers results to the client. Her experience in diverse work environments has given her a wide range of skills and has taught her the importance of efficiently prioritizing tasks.
Niki is a team player with excellent interpersonal skills who thrives in a fast-paced environment. Her enthusiasm and capabilities allow her to deliver unique solutions that leave a lasting effect.
Call Niki to make an impact with your marketing plan. Call (403) 283-2225 or e-mail niki@baxterbean.com.
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Congratulations Colleen
Colleen Henderson, husband Andrew and son Sean welcomed a new baby boy into their family on August 14. They named the new baby Julian Charles.
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