Results tagged “managers” from stevenfeinberg.com

While working with a Director of Marketing the question arose, not about their immediate boss but the management team. It's a fair question. We are placing our bets and our livelihoods on their know how and good judgment.

Consider the Big 3 Automakers. We certainly can't have more of the same expecting different results.

There are on doubt competent people in management and it may not be their fault for this crisis.

However, the same managers will unfortunately make similar decisions, unless they are Advantage-Makers.

Let's not pretend Advantage-Makers never make a mistakes. It's simply that the are profound learners.

They learn faster, make mistakes quicker, engage more fully in unexpected solutions, work the probabilities and the possibilities and rearrange the scope to create value. Their thought process systematically leads to game changing decisions.

Assess their ability to shift time:

Does the executive know how to shift rapidly in these trying times or are they using the same words doing the same old same old. Are they acting like Eeyore, woe is me. We all feel it but how are they acting. These folks are not strategic, nor are they using tactical ingenuity. They are duck and covering. Survival is at stake. Defensive moves are important. But if they are only driving defensively you will be at an even bigger disadvantage. Time shifters are able to rapidly adjust to the circumstances, resolve issues early, and shift time horizons. For Advantage-Makers, 'there is no time like the present to create the future'. 

Assess their ability to shift interactions:

Does the executive know who to change the game. Do they know how to uncover viable options in the midst of all the cost cutting. Are they just cutting across the board or are they focused on specific strategic interactions and spectific tactical decisions that they adjust to move with the winds of change. This is no time for platitudes, like stay the course. But it is time for rapid adaptation and knowing how to uncover viable options. 

Assess their ability to shift perception to influence outcomes:

Does the executive know how to persuade the remaining employees to reengage? Do they know how to make the case compelling for your products and services. Are they leading? Have they differentiated your brand in the minds of the prospects? If your company is not differentiated your company is failing now. Everyone is paying attention to your leaders command presence in this time of crisis. Both the advantage they create in products as well as their non-verbal, their tone of voice, and the language of influential leaderships.

Assess their ability to shift structure to shape behavior:

Does the executive know how to create structures that succeed? I'm not speaking about the org chart. I'm speaking about the forces at play that drive behavior, make decisions, produce momentum, align the teams and generate movement. Has the executive made command decisions that root out structural conflict, that is, competing objectives between teams and departments that are causing delay. If your executives are not determining the hierarchy of importance and making the hard decisions they are contributing to a structure that will fail. 

 

If they are Advantage-Makers, keep them, endorse them, support them.

If not, change them or get them help now.

Now is the time for the Board to act, for the executives to perform, for the leaders to lead.

Every executive I've partnered with has consistently said there is always fat, and on an ongoing basis we should find ways to do more with less. No brainer.  The economic shock has managers cutting across the board. Is that wise or otherwise?

Throwing good money after bad practices is what you want to cut. But you don't want to let the GM finance people design the cars. They've actually done that in the past, cut costs and no one bought the cars. Saving money is not the game. Making cars that make money is the game winner. 

Our economy works because of cash flow. If everyone or enough people take their money out of the flow it not only reduces the existing cash flow, it makes it harder to rebound. Fear takes hold and accentuates the original problem. 

Structurally there are some fundamental shifts that must be made. I think the new Obama administration has an economic team that is sharp enough (pragmatists rather than ideologues)  to reduce the rate of the fall and build confidence to get people and companies into the game again. That's step one. The next step is the time frame. How long will it take and how will you respond in the meantime? 

20% cuts across the board will provide expense controls. Even in academia, department heads and program heads are being asked to simply cut. But from where? If you want to drive more business, cutting marketing and sales seems like a counterproductive practice, unless you don't think you have new customers. The innovators will create value, the Advantage-Makes will spot the opportunities. 

CFO's are the keeper of the cost control levers. They know their job, and the great ones are particularly skilled at managing the ROI. The problems is short term controls that manage cash flow now, but reduce or worse miss opportunities that pay for themselves over time. 

Too many company executives are inadvertently contributing to their own pain by playing duck and cover. Again this might not be there fault given that they won't get beat up for following orders. Take for example a client who typically get a 3% response rate from a marketing campaign to the Fortune 100 CEO's. If they took the usual route they'd play duck and cover, and be glad they achieved the 3%, who could fault them. But on the other hand,  working with the Advantage-Making principles we devised a campaign that actually achieved a 30% response rate. 

From 3% to 30%. Which result would you pay for? And more importantly you must invest in your people who are Advantage-Makers. Not all people operate the same. This is akin to the old 80/20 rule. Your stars will shine now.

The disadvantage of cost cutting with Advantage-Makers is treating everyone equally. It's really important to consider what is an expense that can be cut and what looks like an expense that is actually an investment and will keep both the Advantage-Makers in your company and your company in the money. 

Getting rid of 'dead wood' whether people who aren't rowing with you, or processes that are logjams, or organizational practices that are redundant or create role conflict, or products and services that don't produce are all solid cost cutting practices. But please be careful of playing duck and cover, rather than creating advantages that generate cash flow and revenue.