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Recognize the Heroes
October 18th, 2010
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Shortly after the Chilean miners were all safely above ground again, stories of their experience began to surface. In the days immediately after the cave-in, there was understandable fear, stress and anxiety. Without a clear plan of how to survive, there was fighting, dissension, differences of opinion and the reality that even if they were to be rescued, it would take time and there were insufficient food supplies to last more than a few days. Some miners even questioned what would happen if some of the miners died – would they be forced to resort to cannibalism?
Their foreman stepped-up and took a leadership role explaining that without solidarity that their chance of success would diminish significantly. The miners rallied and became an organized and mutually supportive group that kept themselves emotionally and physically strong.
Shortly before they were rescued the group made a pact agreeing that any money earned as a result of their experience would be shared equally among the miners. After their rescue and return to civilization they have found themselves as media stars and negotiating the rights to movies, books and interviews. Already some of the miners have argued that their pact does not apply if they negotiate an individual book deal or receive an interview request. In the end, the media spotlight and attention that they are receiving will likely be more harmful than their experience in the mine collapse.
While we can’t blame them for taking advantage of their 15 minutes of fame, the true heroes are the foreman who took the leadership role and rallied his troops, the engineers, drilling crews and medical staff who worked around the clock for more than a month with professionalism, speed and precision so the miners could once again see the light of day. Most of the true heroes will fade back to their jobs without any interviews, book deals or recognition in a movie.
Similarly, the real heroes in a successful business are often the unassuming person who takes a leadership position, and the individuals who roll-up their sleeves and take an active role toward the business achieving their vision and goals. Be sure to recognize the real heroes.
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Money for Small Business: Kick-starting the U.S. Economy
October 13th, 2010
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Given the fact that it’s an election year, it’s no wonder that we’ve heard about small business being the key to the economic recovery. Small business accounts for approximately 75% of new jobs. A representative from the Philadelphia mayor’s office stated that small business will account for 92% of new jobs in that metropolitan area.
Job creation is the key to recovery from the recession. The economic stimulus package failed to create new jobs. You may ask why the politicians have not worked together to create jobs. Perhaps that’s a question that you should consider on Election Day, but that’s not the purpose of this article.
For those who are not in business or are fortunate to have a business that does not rely on loans, you may not be aware of the difficulty obtaining a business loan. I often speak to university business classes about entrepreneurship, business sustainability, social responsibility and business strategy. When the topic of financing is discussed, at least half of the students routinely indicate that they were not aware that funding can be such a challenge.
The students and business owners are often not aware that the Small Business Administration (SBA) does not actually loan the money; that is done through various financial institutions. When the banks significantly tightened their lending criteria, very little of the SBA money was actually being loaned by the banks. That is now beginning to change.
On September 27, President Obama signed into law new legislation that will help to kick-start the economy and will specifically help small business.
The new law has two components – financing and taxes. The part that will be of the most help to small businesses is the financing.
The law established a $30 billion fund earmarked for community banks to increase their SBA lending. This is significant because the smaller banks, credit unions and community banks are the banks that most small businesses prefer to work with. Since the SBA guarantees the loans, the banks are taking on lower risk.
The loan limits have also been increased. The micro-loan size has been increased from $35,000-$50,000. The maximum loan size for the larger loan program had been increased from $2 million-$5 million. There are also intermediate loans available.
The smaller banks and community banks are very willing to expand their SBA lending programs. It is reasonable to expect that the increased availability of money to small businesses will help to further stabilize and improve the economy by allowing small business to expand their operations and create new jobs.
A second financing option that may appeal to some business owners is a new and unique community lending program. “Crowdfunding” is a unique lending platform that is currently being introduced as an option to U.S. businesses by Profounder (http://www.profounder.com)
ProFounder provides a program of assistance for businesses to pitch their business to potential investors. The investors include local investors as well as public investors. The investors can invest $100, $1000 or more toward your fundraising goal.
Although this is a new option to businesses in the U.S. the concept has been around for several years and is highly successful. The founders of Kiva.org became the world’s first microfunding organization and provide a means for people around the world to invest in businesses in third world countries. Kiva and its investors have now loaned more than $165 million to those businesses. As a result of the success of Kiva, and realizing how the recession has hurt small business in the U.S., Kiva’s founder recognized an opportunity to help businesses in the U. S.
ProFounder has been in the planning, organizational and testing stages for more than a year and will be active this fall.
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Building Brand Loyalty
September 20th, 2010
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The lack of focus on customer service exhibited by some businesses never ceases to surprise me. Frequently, they are the same businesses complaining about business being “down” or a lack of customers. Meanwhile, many businesses that have a customer centric focus are doing well during these economic times and are even growing. This excerpt from Alan’s Morning Memo sums it up:
“Do you feel like a welcome customer of your credit card banks, or someone they’re trying to ring every last dollar from in late charges, interest fees, foreign transaction fees, and penalties? Do you feel like a valued customer of the airline that’s charging you for checked bags, carry-on bags, slightly larger cramped seats, simple food, and even rest room use? How are they doing building brand loyalty with you? Think about that with your own customers. They are valuable assets in competitive times, not ambulatory ATM machines.”
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Business Lessons Learned from 2 College Coaches
August 11th, 2010
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Earlier today a business colleague asked about athletic coaches who are held in high esteem and are frequently quoted. She asked if I felt that there was a legitimate parallel between athletics and business.
First, allow me to explain how the conversation began. My friend saw a blog in which legendary college basketball coach John Wooden was quoted about his view on leadership qualities . As our conversation digressed, we also discussed Joe Paterno, the legendary football coach at Penn State University. Earlier this week, Paterno (or JoePA, as he is know by his fans), was nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, the highest civilian award in the US.
My colleague asked why a college athletic coach, or any athlete for that matter, deserved such a highly regarded award. She was quite surprised when I told her that earlier recipients of the award include Muhammad Ali, tennis great Arthur Ashe, football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, baseball great Joe DiMaggio, golfers Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer and yes, basketball coach John Wooden.
Coach Wooden passed away earlier this summer. One of his many awards was an Outstanding Leadership Award that he received from Claremont McKenna College nearly 10 years ago. During his acceptance speech for that award, he stressed four lessons for leaders:
• Lesson One – Always display sincerity and humility. Remember that as a business executive it’s not about you, it is about your employees, your customers and your vendors.
During the awards dinner, Wooden took the time to speak directly with every student who approached him. During the introduction, the master of ceremony for the dinner referred to the college students as “our kids”. Wooden corrected him gently and in a good-natured way, “kids are baby goats, professor”. To this day, that professor refers to his students with a different respect and he had the day before he met John Wooden.
• Lesson Two – Be transparent. Leaders should be both teachers and positive role models
• Lesson Three – Present your true self to others.
• Lesson Four – Focus on your people. If you study the various leadership styles you will understand exactly what Wooden meant. Leadership is about the people being lead, not about the leader.
Joe Paterno has many of the same characteristics as John Wooden. During his long tenure at Penn State, his teams have had among the highest graduation rate of any Division I football program in the country. He is a true believer in education. Joe Pa and his wife Susan have donated millions of their personal funds to the libraries at Penn State. There’ve been several occasions over the years in which I have been the vicinity of Paterno. On one occasion my wife and I took our two sons to a Penn State football game. Unfortunately Penn State lost the game that day. After the game we went to The Creamery, where some of the best ice cream in the country can be found. (Penn State brags that executives from every major ice cream company in the U.S. have graduated from the Penn State ice cream school, including Ben and Jerry). It was a warm day and The Creamery was crowded so we took our ice cream and sat under a tree near a small parking area behind the Creamery building. To our surprise, Joe Paterno and his son Jay walked up to us on their way to the post game interview. Paterno stopped and asked how the ice cream was. We commented on the loss that day. He replied that the loss was unfortunate but would make the team better. He then pulled out a pen and offered to sign both of my sons’ hats. My older son happened to be wearing a Notre Dame hat and probably owns the only Notre Dame football hat with an authentic Joe Paterno autograph.
Periodically I see an article about a successful executive or business owner who played football for Paterno many years earlier. In every instance, they remark about the lessons learned from Paterno and attribute their success in life to those leadership lessons. As Paterno left the Creamery parking lot for his post-game interview, we finished our ice cream and I couldn’t help but think that while others may think of Paterno’s success as a coach; I am sure that he will prefer to be remembered for the way that he has influenced so many young lives and for his qualities of sincerity, humility, transparency, his true self to others, and the way that he focuses on others, not on himself.
So while you may not be a college sports fan or a Penn State fan my answer to my business colleague is “yes”, there are some athletes and coaches who are good role models, who are great leaders, and who can teach us lessons that we can use in athletics, in our personal life, and in business.
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The Age of Knowledge and Information
July 28th, 2010
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Business is both an art and a science:
• There are things we know that we can influence. This can be of various types, such as within your business, in local industry associations, in national or international industry associations, and in various organizations to which you may belong, etc. The key is that you often must take an active role in order to have an influence.
For example: you may have heard of LEED certification which has gained importance in the construction industry in recent years. One of my clients is president of a commercial and residential engineering & construction company. He is very interested in green energy and renewable energy sources. Several years ago he became active in the US Green Building Council, joined a committee and was able to provide input (influence) on LEED certification standards. Then, about two years ago, the Green Building Council decided to update the residential LEED standards and he was able to take an active part in that process, again having an influence.
• There are things we know that we can’t influence. This could include engineering principles that have been used for decades, an economic formula on which the government relies, or the U.S. Constitution. (Keep in mind that although there are things that we cannot directly influence there may be a way to indirectly influence them. For example: politicians can write an amendment to the Constitution which, if passed by the majority of Senators and Congress, could become law. In economics, I recently read an economics book that explained three economic concepts and formulas that did not exist 10 years ago.
• There are things we don’t know that we can find out. Information or new knowledge may be gained through our interaction with friends and colleagues, through news sources, journals, articles, workshops, business advisers, coaches, trainers, and management consultants. In this information age, there seems to be an infinite number of resources and information available on the Internet – the challenge may be finding the time to search all of those resources.
• There are things we don’t know that we’ll never find out. It’s may be difficult to fathom but in this information age, there is such a massive amount of information and knowledge available that it is virtually impossible to find it all. However, there are resources that can help you to find the information that is necessary to you or your business.
Come to think of it, aside from your business, this is a pretty good approach to life!
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