Thank You Board of Advisors!
September 3rd, 2010
We wanted to use today’s Blog post to thank our new team! We are honored to have 7 highly talented, professional and generous individuals agree to join our board of advisors. Over the past 4 months we have been recruiting exceptional men and women to fill roles on our board of advisors team.
We formed the board to be able to guide our high level decision making and company direction. Even though we are consultants we believe there is tremendous value in receiving a level of consultation and accountability ourselves. It is important to be able to receive outside perspective on our company at the macro and micro levels. Many things are difficult to see when you are operating in the day to day. It helps to receive outside opinion on the 30,000 foot view.
Our first meeting with the board is going to be in October and we are excited to kick off the next phase of growth with an excellent team. Thank you to our advisory team for volunteering for this position and helping us; we are truly grateful.
The 7 Headed Chicken Problem…
August 3rd, 2010
Have you ever worked for a company and felt there was no CEO running the show? And that leadership was scattered among several executives acting like CEO’s? 7 Chickens are leading the show and attached to one body. It’s not very easy to move in one direction if you are a chicken with 7 heads.
Here is the problem: Over time a CEO’s position may be eroded because of other executives with more dominating leadership qualities or personalities. If a CEO is not operating effectively and strongly others will recognize those weaknesses and try to become a stronger and stronger force in the company.
The problem is that it deteriorates the leadership structure in the organization because people come forward thinking they can do a better job than the CEO. This can cause little cliques within departments and small uprisings. This lack of leadership at the top can lead to major frustration in the business because of CEO ineffectiveness, lack of confidence, or lack of direction. When nothing is happening and the company becomes stagnant the CEO becomes a target.
Whenever the CEO becomes a target the 7 Headed Chicken appears and these several leaders all become empowered leaders in the company. This creates even more confusion and stress and will eventually lead to the business fighting internally and making little to no progress.
Avoid the 7 Headed Chicken by being a strong leader that takes care of his employees, makes decisions and takes action towards achieving the mission/goals. A stagnant leader is a dead one. Do not let the tail wag the dog.
How important is Marketing Research???
June 3rd, 2010
Managers need information in order to introduce products and services that create value in the mind of the customer. But the perception of value is a subjective one, and what customers value this year may be quite different from what they value next year. As such, the attributes that create value cannot simply be deduced from common knowledge. Rather, data must be collected and analyzed. The goal of marketing research is to provide the facts and direction that managers need to make their more important marketing decisions.
To maximize the benefit of marketing research, those who use it need to understand the research process and its limitations.
Marketing Research vs. Market Research
These terms often are used interchangeably, but technically there is a difference.
Market research deals specifically with the gathering of information about a market’s size and trends. Marketing research covers a wider range of activities. While it may involve market research, marketing research is a more general systematic process that can be applied to a variety of marketing problems.
The Value of Information
Information can be useful, but what determines its real value to the organization? In general, the value of information is determined by:
- The ability and willingness to act on the information.
- The accuracy of the information.
- The level of indecisiveness that would exist without the information.
- The amount of variation in the possible results.
- The level of risk aversion.
- The reaction of competitors to any decision improved by the information.
- The cost of the information in terms of time and money.
The Marketing Research Process
Once the need for marketing research has been established, most marketing research projects involve these steps:
- Define the problem
- Determine research design
- Identify data types and sources
- Design data collection forms and questionnaires
- Determine sample plan and size
- Collect the data
- Analyze and interpret the data
- Prepare the research report
The Pain of the Business Owner…
May 3rd, 2010
The Small Business Owner: Time For A Change
“The Appeal: Work for yourself, and you’re automatically the CEO. You get to make all the decisions, set your own hours, and keep all the profits. And you’re inspired by the stories of other entrepreneurs who became wealthy.
The Reality: Most new businesses fold within a few years. There are good reasons. For one thing, running a small business requires you to be good at many jobs: salesperson, buyer, accountant, marketer, operations manager, even janitor. Few people can do it all.”
- Marty Nemko: US News and World Report
Small business owner’s need real help; not some lofty-sounding, theoretical business model, a brand new pinstriped suit, and a warm smile. In every bookstore and library across the globe, there are entire sections devoted to the analysis of small business progression and digression. Each book implies the same message just as strongly as the next: viable success. There is no doubt that most of these works are extremely valuable, providing information and advice on small business issues that have yet to be solved.
But, as clearly illustrated by the following statistics, there is still something missing. According to the following table, of the 649, 700 new firms in 2006, a shocking 564,900 failed. This statistic indicates a failure rate of over 86 percent.
Interestingly enough, two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years, while only 44 percent survive another two years. So what is the problem here? In order to fully understand the issues that these numbers represent, we must dig deeper into the mind of the small business owner.
In the Staples Small Business Survey, the catalysts lurking deep within these statistics were revealed. Data suggests that over “98 percent of U.S. small business owners and managers are working during their time off, including nights, weekends, and vacations—and nearly 54 percent expect to work even harder in the following year.” Slightly more than 38 percent cannot remember the last time they took a vacation. But why? According to the survey, the two most influential factors in the downfall of any small business were organization and teamwork. Fortunately, the very essence of The Octopus Solution is based upon creating and perpetually improving these components.
Without a solid framework for these systems, there is only one inevitable end: chaos and subsequent failure. In fact, when asked to compare their businesses to a track and field event at the Olympics, a mere “14 percent said their business operates like a relay race, with everybody working in tandem toward the same goal, whereas 26 percent think of business operations as a 100-meter dash, always sprinting and trying to do everything quickly.” In addition to this nightmare, if given a choice, nearly 52 percent said they would accept comparable business results if they could have twice as much free time, while 48 percent said they would work more hours if they could double their company’s sales.
In the end, if all of the other small business books really worked, these statistics would be different. Unfortunately, there is not one small business book available at this moment that offers a precise, step-by-step solution to structuring, controlling, and growing a small business. While some competitors hint at a process for managing a small business, all of them ultimately rely on theoretical models and scattered pieces of “insider” advice that are virtually impossible to implement due to their intangible nature.
Instead, we offer you a step-by-step process for maximizing efficiency and production. The results of having a well-organized, systematic small business are for you to realize and luckily enough we have been given the opportunity to help you in manifesting these successes.
The Octopus Solution provides a performance based management system based on the detailed implementation of several principles. Each employee will come into work every day knowing exactly what needs to be done, leaving the small business owner time to focus on growth and expansion, and eventually, the onset of remote management. With the implementation of these detailed processes, failure will no longer be an option.
“People acquire small businesses in many ways, but all are faced with one common challenge: taking charge of everything involved in running a business.” – This Life Advice® material about Running a Small Business was produced by the MetLife Consumer Education Center.
You don’t have to run around anymore.
Change your business. Now.
It’s ALL about Team Work!!!
March 3rd, 2010
The Goose Story
Next fall, when you see Geese heading south for the Winter….
Flying along in V formation… you might consider what Science has discovered as to why they fly that way.
As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on it’s own.
People who share a common direction and goal will get where they are going more quickly and easily traveling on the thrust of one another.
When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone… and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.
If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in information with those who are headed the same way we are when the goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.
It is sensible taking turns doing demanding jobs or changing point with the people on your team Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up there speed. What do we say when we honk from behind?
Finally… and this is important… when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshots, and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies:
only then do they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their own group.
If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other and watch each others back.
Real World Experience vs. College
February 3rd, 2010
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