Ideas don't change the world!

Contrary to what we have always been told, ideas don't change the world; it is products and services that change the world.

Maybe you have even acquired the discipline of writing down your ideas in that dog eared ideas book like I have; sorry that I have to bust your bubble - What is important is not how many breakthrough ideas we get, not even how many we write down. What is important is how many of those ideas move us to positive and consistent action which create products and services.

Everyone can hit bull's eye in their minds but only the guy who shoots a gun gets the bounty. It is a pretty frustrating existence to live for just ideas. The most important index for an ideas enterprise is their conversion rate; how many ideas become products or services? without conversion, ideas are DOA - Dead on Arrival

What is your conversion rate?

Is Your Enterprise Growing Old?

Enterprises are a lot like human beings in their aging process. The longer an enterprise/organization has been around, the more likely it is to show many of the signs of aging that humans display; a bureaucracy that bogs down like rheumatic limbs, slow take up on new tools and techniques, a tendency to quickly pooh pooh every innovation as gung-ho lack of experience.

You cannot take it for granted that the ideas that you espoused when you launched your enterprise are still valid today. Old enterprises like old people insist on the good old days. Guess what! It's a brand new day. However good you might have been with a typewriter, you are no use to anyone today except perhaps in a museum.

As your enterprise grows older as it inevitably will, don't let your mind set into certain patterns. Stay open to new ideas.

Which future is your staff seeing?

Do two People walk hand in hand if they aren't going to the same place? (Amos 3:3)

Many enterprises are not seeing much movement because they are like a cab travelling at right angles to its trailer: leadership is headed one direction, staff in another. Truth is, you may be doing your best to convey the vision but many times, your staff is also doing its best to pursue theirs; real movement starts only when the the two coincide.

The dilemma very often for an enterprise developer is that his staff do not believe in the dream as much as he does: while he is trying to build a life, they are typically just trying to make a living.

Arguably, the most important job of the enterprise developer is to sell the vision to his team. If you want to unleash the potential of a bricklayer, you must help him to realize that his job is much more than laying some miserable bricks, he must believe that he is building a house that will become a home for some family.

It is unreasonable to expect your staff to have your level of passion for the enterprise's objectives if they do not see the same vision as you see.

Sell the vision.

Is your leadership Scalable?

I am convinced that everyone is a leader - unfortunately, most of us wait for the crowd to prove it.

If you woke up tomorrow and you were announced as the leader of the world's most influencial country, do you think that would be an opportunity or a disaster? To put it another way, is your leadership scalable?

The quality of a leader is not necessarily seen in the size of his following but in the values that shape his motives and actions. Jesus taught that if a man proves himself unfaithful in a small task, he declares himself unworthy of bigger ones.

Maybe you run a small enterprise, you can't even afford a cash register but if you handle your money with the correct values, you won't get into a big mess when you become as big as Cadbury.

The Biblical record of Joseph's life reads like a classic on scaling leadership: he was as fantastic a leader in Potiphar's house as he was in the prison and as Prime Minister of Egypt. More importantly, he didn't need 'time' to settle into the new position - the same principles, driven by the same values is what leadership requires at every level.

Similarly, Mordecai who transmuted from being merely someone that sat at the kings gate to the king's (for a territory that covered significant portions of present day Asia and Africa) second in command in a matter of days demonstrates his readiness to assume leadership at any level because a short while earlier, the only person he was leading was his relative - a young Jewish girl called Esther.

The size of your following is irrelevant, lead like you are leading the world. No matter the size of your enterprise, run it like you own the oxygen franchise.

Let us call a spade a brand

Brand is the new new name for spades; never mind the old maxim.

like all other fads (I know. Some will have my scalp for calling branding a fad) that dominate our enterprise lexicon for a time, Branding will someday go the way of the rest; it will no longer be a unique selling proposition, but merely a common feature of enterprises.

More effort seems to go into creating better brands these days than creating better products or services yet when Omo became the generic name for detergents, it wasn't as much about creating a brand as it was creating a product. Here is a test; if I say 'detergent', you'd probably think Omo. How about if I say 'happiness', I doubt that Coca Cola sprang into your mind just as quickly. Why then is Coca Cola branding as open happiness?

The first thing that used to come to mind when you say branding was hot iron, pungent air, mooing cattle - and a mark that distinguishes mine from yours. Branding used to be putting a mark on cattle so that we can tell which belongs to who. Now if you put your sign on a sick looking cow - all bones on wobbly legs, that wasn't going to make me buy it, just because I recognize your sign.

Much of today's branding effort is not about identifying/differentiating the product but creating an impression. It works for a while but people are not iredeemably stupid, they catch on after a while. This was what Jesus referred to as Whited Sepulchres (Manicured grave plots, grass clipped and flowers bright, but six feet down, it is all rotten bones and worm eaten flesh.)

Worse than being a fraud, it is possible to brand yourself out of existence; when your branding effort leans towards creating an image that consumers can not relate to your product easily, you are branding yourself out of reckoning. As much as you may want to believe that people are buying image, the reality is that majority of people are buying products and services. If I am thirsty, what I want is water not open happiness ( what is that by the way).

RECOVERING FROM A 'KAITASTROPHE'

Sani Kaita, a hitherto level headed utility player in one moment of unexplainable agitation stamps the studs of his boots on the thigh of another player in an off the ball situation and instantly earns a red card and at last count over a thousand death threats.

The event spurred creativity and launched a slew of new words; one in particular stands out - kaitastrophe!

What do you do when an enterprise suddenly tumbles from its respectable height to the lowest ebb; when your brand becomes a metaphor for failure overnight?

1. Tender an unreserved apology and mean it.
2. Ignore the chatter - people will criticise you even if you are doing the right thing.
3. Rest assured that human beings are fickle and that you can regain your position by consistent brilliant performance. Read a striking account of how you can instantly shore up your brand equity.
4. Work harder than ever before to surpass every positive record you have ever set.
5. Accept that some people will never forgive or forget - learn to live with such people.

Who's in? Who's out?

One of the most difficult choices an enterprise leader makes is who is in, who is out? It is always a tough decision and rightly so to determine Who is in as a partner? who is in as an employee? etc.

Jerry Porras and Jim Collins in their book 'Good to Great' talked about getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off it before even deciding where the bus is headed. While they are right about choosing the right people to travel with, it is necessary to point out that where you are headed quite often determines who the right people are.

While established corporations typically have exhaustive criteria for choosing who is allowed on the bus, new enterprises are typically not equiped enough to make this critical choice which dramatically raises the risk of their becoming a part of the 'failed startup' statistic.

Knowing that it is a lot easier to make the hire decision than it is to make the fire decision, enterprise leaders should from the initial develop detailed criteria for evaluating the suitability of prospective partners and employees.

Even Jesus wouldn't let the rich young ruler join his team without meeting His criteria.

The Diabolus Code

The instincts that drive life are the same ones that drive enterprise; it is very important to ensure that your enterprise is not run by the diabolus code.

The Diabolus Code is a spiritual gene (some would like to call it a social gene) that drives three basic (base if you like) instincts:

1. wanting your own way


2. wanting everything for yourself


3. wanting to appear important

If you have the diabolus code, you tend to think that your enterprise is the centre of the universe - everything revolves around you and your objectives. You want to be number one or nothing else; you want 100% of market share.

In reality, you don't need to strive to be number one, you are the only one (see Red Ocean Strategy); you dont need market share, you've got your own market all to yourself.

The Diabolus Code casts other enterprises as competitors to be conquered - in reality, they are co-travellers to be helped.

Define your rules of engagement.

One of the toughest parts of consulting in an unstructured market is pricing and payment; clients hardly ever believe that the service you are going to render them is worth as much as you are proposing to charge them. In a market where supply far outstrips demand, the consultant tends to get the short end of the stick.

One way to improve your chances of striking a fair deal with clients is to set up clear 'rules of engagement'. As difficult as it might seem to require that clients sign a service agreement with you even before you render them service, I have come to believe that it is the best direction in which to head. On your part though, you must exhaustively detail what exactly you are going to deliver and where available, provide clients samples of your past work.

Of course your first few attempts to get clients to sign agreements will be met with stiff resistance but after a while of saying the cryptic "it's company policy", you will find your own pool of clients... of course you can choose the alternative of sticking with the headache of argueing over terms after you have rendered the service.

It is critical to your well being to always agree before proceeding.

Lose Weight

Enterprises are like star athletes; they need to stay in shape to stand any chance of staying in the lead, which brings us to the question, is your enterprise overweight?

Your enterprise is overweight if:

1. You cannot write your 'about us' in one sentence (if you wanted/needed to).
2. You've struck out 'no' from your dictionary; every client is welcome.

3. Urgent work always interrupts important work.

4. You only remember your mission, vision at the quaterly/annual retreat.

Hebrews teaches that the wise thing to do when running a race is to strip yourself of every weight; makes absolute sense if you ask me. I mean just look at sprinters, they wear next to nothing. You simply don't carry excess weight if your intention is to move swiftly.

Start cutting out the excess baggage today!

Sell Convinience

No matter what you sell, sell convinience; this is the one enduring strategy that gives you the edge over your competition. I know business schools probably have this strategy done up in some fancy language but I learnt it in the simplest form.

I used to buy call cards from a particular vendor just outside my office for a long time but didn't quite notice when I made the transition to buying from a cleaner in my office who delivers to my desk; I made the 'convinience' decision.

Selling convinience gives your enterprise that edge. This concept is evident in the practice of real estate developers to offer mortgages to prospective buyers of their products. People are simply more likely to make the 'buy' decision not because it's a cheaper or better product/service, but because the seller makes it easier for them to do the transaction. Even Jesus sold his 'yoke' as 'ease'.

The question which answer must be every enterprise developer's quest is, how can I make this easier for them?

Enterprise Productivity Model

Your Enterprise Productivity Model (EPM) is a critical factor which profoundly impacts on how much results you see from your efforts. Your EPM is simply the production model that drives your output.

There are essentially two major EPMs namely; Production EPM and Reproduction EPM. There are off course several sub-models but overall you can only run either the Production or Reproduction model.

In simple terms, the production model requires the same level of input everytime you require a certain output, while the reproduction model allows you to generate the same output using a far reduced or removed level of input.

The critical difference between the Production and Reproduction Models is that one bear fruit and the other bears fruit/seed respectively . To put it in more quantitative terms, the first is Arithmetic Progress and the second Geometric Progression.

God's EPM is the Reproduction Model; when he made the trees as recorded in Genesis, they bore fruit that bore seed that grew trees that bore fruit that bore seed that.... essentially creating an everwidening cycle.

What EPM does your enterprise run on?

Red Ocean Strategy

Every once in a while someone writes a book that attempts to change the way we think of business or some aspect of it. I imagine W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne fit this position. Their book "Blue Ocean Strategy" aims to change the way we think about competition.

Without taking anything away from their submissions (it's true for the generality of the population) I think the more accurate position about the competition that threatens your market share the most is the one taken by theory of the "Red Ocean Strategy".

Red Ocean Strategy: To gain greater market share, kill self! You are your own most powerful competition. If anyone can stop you from getting ahead and arriving at your destination, that person has to be you. Paul of Tarsus said "...part of me covertly rebels..." .

Our own internal contradictions are the most powerful competition we have got. It's extremely hard to get ahead without internal concensus; whether you are a person or an enterprise, a house divided against itself will fall.

Thinking inside the Book

When you really think about it, there's nothing like thinking outside the box. When you get out of the box, you are simply getting into another box; getting out of the box of tediuos conservatism puts you in the box of tedious irreverence (read Branson). Whatever it is you decide to do, the population sample is so huge that the possibility for absolute originality is nil. Soon enough even being unpredictable means people simply don't know what to expect from you. isn't that being predictable?

We can continue to chase an unreachable ideal or we can simply decide which box suits us fine and just think inside that one. I have found one box that gives me all the originality that I can use in 200 lifetimes; it's the Book (read bible).

Making a kill VS Squandering goodwill

when you sell a bottle of coke for thrice the standard retail price just because you can - that sounds a lot like impunity to me.

I went to the galleria last night to see a movie (it was a wonderful movie by the way titled 'the blind side') and had to buy a bottle of coke for N300. The only reason I or most other people just pay and get their drink is because there is simply no where else to buy it cheaper in the galleria. Essentially, it is a monopoly and it simply fixes whatever price that suits it for a basic retail commodity - not some designer item. This pricing model is also very popular at the airports but am not sure even they carry their extortion this far.

Shall we charge an amount for a product simply because we can (make a kill) or shall we take care of our costs and then charge a decent profit? Perhaps this is not one of those dilemas that one can find a trite verse for but where that is the case how about the golden rule? Would you like to buy that product at the price that you are offering it for sale? Just switch places with the customer or client and see how you feel about things.

when you have a pricing model that says 'get as much as you possibly can' you progressively squander goodwill. All it will take to topple you is just another shop opening down the block.

If you wanna be great

It's great to know all the business buzz words; strategy, TQM, B2C, ROI, Innovation, ROE, etc. (no that's not a business buzz word it's good old et cetera), but building a great enterprise boils down to one simple word - SERVICE.

Enterprise is not built on a series of transactions but on a collection of relationships and relationships can only be sustained by continuous satisfactory service.

Jesus puts it unequivocally: "if you want to be great... you have to be the servant of all". Typically, we are averse to the thought of being servants. No doubt it connotes several realities that most people would rather not have and I guess that's why we don't have that many great people or enterprises. In reality, to offer service is not equal to being servile, the first is an attitude the other is a personality.

The human soul is embedded with a programme that expects service; everyone wants to be treated with respect and given honour. If your enterprise continuously meets this intrinsic human need, you are on the path to greatness.

PPP 101

I was in Lagos sometime ago and attended a basic course in structuring Public Private Partnership projects.

Getting from Ayobo to Igando (don't worry, these are at the unglamorous backsides of eko) can be a 2 hour nerve racking bus ride through mud filled craters and bumper bumper crawling traffic or it can be a short few minutes bike ride across a wooden bridge over a swampy canal.

The sign board at the toll gate reads "Road Link Ventures" we paid a toll (not too sure how much now, perhaps 5o buck or so) and pronto, we were within strolling distance of Igando. I don't know if these guys had an MBA but they sure thought me the basics in structuring a PPP project. Here's what I learnt;

1. A viable opportunity has to provide consumers a preferable (better, faster or cheaper) alternative.
2. Every failing of government is an opportunity; if they can't provide power, health, security, you can.

Make room - here comes the gift.

I am mid-level management; I conduct dozens of interviews. I meet all kinds of people: those who think their affected diction and the country of origin of their educcational certificates equates competence, and the ones who think the scribbled note on the powerful complimentary card is enough qualification. I also meet the ones who clearly have a gift and it is to them that I am not only willing to engage but to bend backwards and if possible a few rules to secure their services.

Many things can open doors for you, but it is only your own demonstrated gifting and competence that will keep the door open.

When a gifted man begins to make his way everyone shouts 'make room - here comes the gift'.

Carbon Heartprint

Carbon Footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event or product.

Although I am concerned about your enterprises' carbon footprint, my real worry is the moral equivalent of your carbon footprint. It's typically human to worry about the ozone layer depletion and the threat that it presents to our physical existence while we indifferently go on ignoring the damage to our non-physical existence by all the pollutants around.

Does you enterprise produce content for media? What self censorship procedures have you got in place. My observation is that society has degenerated to the extent that 'if it's not lewd, it's not viewed'.

Here's a fail proof test for self censorship... just click here

Reason is overrated!

It doesn't make sense to move your family and business to guess where... a town you are yet to decide; give your wife, staff no prior notice, just load up your stuff, ask them to hop in and off you go to no where in particular.

It doesn't make sense even if you are a retired fisherman to step out into a lake for a walk. Off course you can swim, but take a walk? That don't make sense.

If you want everything to make sense before you do them, perhaps you aren't looking to rock the boat - you don't want to achieve any remarkable thing. Bible MBAs aren't afraid to step into the dark sometimes, what's important is who is asking them to step out.

How about you do that thing that doesn't exactly make sense today that's been nagging at your heart lately?

Built To Last.

When I read Jim Collins'and Jerry Porras' book Built to Last, I thought the research was deep and the conclusions if not obvious, credible.

However, I have a much older book which has a major chapter conclusion "built to last" and this book has been around for centuries. What's more, the conclusions are not only credible, they are timeless.

You bet I am talking about the Bible. Jesus said in Mathew 7:24-26 that you can either build your house to last or for a season. His idea of 'built to last' was:

• Be a solution (Matt 5:13-14)
• Follow perfection, You must do better than 'fulfill all righteouness' (Matt 5:20)
• You are what you think - so think right (Matt 5:27-28)
• Don't rebrand problems - deal with them (Matt 5:29-30)
• Make your word your bond (Matt 5:33-36)
• Don't invest in getting even, get ahead instead (Matt 5:38-41)
• Let your bottomline be people (Matt 6:19-22)
• Don't follow the crowd (Matt 7:13-14)

Build your enterprise on these principles and you have an eternal warranty.

hsirebbig

Gibberish is the English word for communication that makes no sense. When spelt backwards as I have done in the title, I guess it drives the point home stronger.

Communication is the heart of Success in any enterprise; project or business. If you miss it in the communication, you might as well just pack it up; communication is the linchpin.

Think about it, perhaps man would have reached outer space millenia ago if only something didn't go wrong with the communication. I am talking about at the site of that BHAG (big-airy-audacious-goal) project at Babel. Man was going to build a tower that will make the 828m Burj khalifa seem like a puny model and they were well on their way until communication broke down.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you could just get the communication right in your enterprise - here, let me help you, U-N-I-M-A-G-I-N-A-B-L-E!

The Devil is Grey!

I know you grew up thinking the devil was black so this must be a bit surprising to you. The devil isn't black (atleast not in the sense that you've been told). If he is anything darker than brilliant white, he is Grey.

In business, the line that separates what's right and what's wrong can be unimaginably thin. There are not many instances when things are in black and white. Usually they are in grey and that's where the devil resides.

Here's my rule of thumb; if it smells like dog rap, I don't need to taste it to prove it.

Is your Strategy yours?

Conventional strategy: Go to where the market is.

Unconventional strategy: Let the market come to you.

In starting a people focused enterprise like a church, conventional wisdom is to target densely populated communities so you can reach the most people. John Zacharias adopted a completely different strategy, he went into the wilderness and drew the city out to himself.

Strategy is not something you should buy off-the-shelf. It is not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing. Don't get on the internet because every other company on the block now has a website. Don't get the "the competition is doing this or that and so we have to do the same mentality"; there are indeed many ways to skin a cat.

Is your strategy yours?

LEADERSHIP!

Leadership is ultimately two words: Compassion and Integrity, no more no less.The two feet of a leader are planted firmly on these two bedrocks. Without any, leadership has nothing to stand upon; with either missing, leadership teeters precariously.

No one can lead successfully without caring about the people/course he is leading or seeing the change that the people desire to happen. As is popularly quoted, "no one cares what you know until they know that you care". Nonchalance is clearly not the stuff of leadership, if you don't care, you can't lead.

Now integrity is the other thing that compels you to lead. Integrity is staying true to what you believe to be right. You can't believe people are headed in the wrong direction and not seize the occassion to lead them aright.

Compassion and Integrity are an amalgam of all leadership values;

Compassion = Sacrificial+Selflessness+Service+Love+Hope....

Integrity = Honesty+Courage+Persistence+Faith....

Starting a business is often a strong indication that a person is a leader because both are fundamentally about birthing change. The critical question then is, can you say that your business is built on the two leadership bedrock values of Compassion and Integrity?

Ultimately, success in business is only sustainable when built on these two core values of leadership.

NEEDED! BUZZY BUDDIES

Just finished reading Mark Hughes' Buzzmarketing and it was worth every cent of the $15 price tag? I enjoyed the book a whole lot, little wonder it got the kind of rave reviews it attracted.

Mark's definition: Buzzmarketing captures the attention of consumers and the media to the point where talking about your brand or company becomes entertaining, fascinating and newsworthy.

The book was well researched and well written; packed full with a lot of nice humorous stories and anecdotes. However, Mark completely missed out on stories about Brand Jesus like the one in Mark 5:8-20.

...and when He had stepped into the boat, the man who had been controlled by unclean spirits kept begging Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus refused to permit him, but said to him, go home to your own (family and relatives and friends) and bring back word to them how much the Lord has done for you, and (how He has) had sympathy for you and mercy on you. And he departed and began to publicly proclaim in decapolis (the region of the ten cities) how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were astonished and marveled.

Talk about buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

He also didn't get to tagging people who have a natural inclination for spreading buzz. Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point calls them Mavens, but to tag them in a name that syncs more with Buzzmarketing, I'd like to suggest calling them Buzzy Buddies. while busy bodies are people who make other people's business theirs in a negative sense, Buzzy Buddies are the guys who make it their business to create and spread good buzz about your enterprise.

This blog needs a whole lot of Buzzy Buddies - guys like that one in Mark 5:18-20 who can take on ten cities on their own. Any Buzzy Buddies out there?

Walk on water

How about we use the title of this blog as the new metaphor for "thinking outside the box"? If there ever was one person who lived and thought completely outside the box, it definitely has to be Jesus the Christ. Here are a few instances;

• Headed for Gennesaret but stranded on the shore of the sea , he didn't wait for the next boat out of the harbour ... he walked on water!


• He always had unpopular opinions... he advocated following the path of greatest resistance.


• He stood logic on its head ... The first shall be the last; if you want to be great, you have to be a servant.


• Its plausible to die for a good man... he chose to die for wicked men.

The most valuable currency

The most valuable currency is vision! It is a universal currency, a legal tender anywhere in the universe. It's value is infinity - you can exchange it for as many of any other currencies as you want. With the 'V', you actually can name your own price.

Only a few people spend this currency - but all of the economies of the world depend on them to survive. On the shortlist you may find people, companies and organizations like Jesus the Christ, microsoft, merck, RCCG, wal mart, walt disney and intelpre.

3 things vision must be

So many things get passed off as vision these days that many despair as to wether they can recognize what true vision is. Here are three things to look out for;

Vision must be written (write the vision on tablets)

Now I don't strictly mean that you must put it on some fancy plaque and place it prominently in the lobby of your headquarters, I mean that in whatever form you it is written it must carry the weight of a contract; to write a vision means to put down a comittment. When Habbakuk was told to write the vision, he was told to put it on Tablets - just like the ones that the ten commandments had been written upon.

Vision must be clear (make it plain)

There is absolutely no room for ambiguity in writing a vision. In capturing our vision in words we must be extremely cautious to ensure that the words that we use clearly describe what it is. Typically, effective vision statements are not wordy, they are instead punchy and succint. Here are a few to learn from;

• John Zacharias: I am the voice of voice of one crying in the wilderness
• Jesus the Christ: I am the way, the truth and the life

Vision must be compelling (that he may run that readeth it)

If your vision is unable to compel you to move, then it is either not your vision or you have not written it yet (given it the weight of a contract/commandment). True vision has the intrinsic ability to move the bearer. Think of anyone that you consider to be a visionary leader and you will instantly recognize that there is that thing about them acting like a 'driven' person.whether they are super athletes or political leaders or business gurus or spiritual leaders, every visionary leader lives a driven life. Again another sampling of the drive of visionary leaders.

• Churchhill: Never, Never, Never give up
• Jesus the Christ: I must be about my father's business
• Paul of Tarsus: woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel
• Jesse Owens: A lifetime of training for just ten seconds

enVISION STATEMENT

Chevron

"to be the global energy company most admired for its people, partnership and performance"

AT& T

"we aspire to be the most admired and valuable company in the world.."

Most company vision statements are crafted as an aspiration to a certain position or reality in the future. This is somewhat a departure from what a vision statement should really be. To give a rather simple and literal definition of a vision statement, it should be a description of what you see yourself as sometime in the future.

For me a vision statement envisions you/your company at some point in the future; ideally, a vision statement should read as an introduction of yourself/your company at that point in time in the future. While the practice is to describe what you hope to become, I am convinced that we should rather affirm what we are (in the future).

Examples of this kind of vision statement abound in the bible, here are a sampling;

1. Let the weakling say 'I am strong'
2. Ye are the light of the world
3. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram; but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee.

The weakling is not to say "I aspire to be strong", he/she is to affirm their vision of the future The concept is that you call the things that be not, as though they are.

So if I were to help Chevron and AT&T rephrase their vision statements, it will sound something like this;

Chevron

the global energy company most admired for its people, partnership and performance.

AT&T

the most admired and valuable company in the world.

These sure beat those aspirational stuff anyday. Don't just aspire, affirm!

Do you know this man?

Ever heard of Trey Hardee? Well, I thought not. Google him up and you'll find out that he is the current world decathlon champion... read world's 'greatest' athlete.

How about this other man? Yeah I figure I don't need to tell you his name.You probably consider him the world's greatest athlete.

Ironically, the guy in the blue shirt accomplished a lot more than the guy in the yellow shirt but somehow the entire world thinks more of the guy in the yellow shirt. This is so because the guy in the yellow shirt is focused on the significant stuff.

What's critical is not our ability but the course that we pursue with our ability. Having worked in several project development companies, one factor that I have identified as a major contributor to ineffectiveness, low profitability is the inability to identify and focus resources on a few viable options. The dissipation of resources on several projects at once highly increases the chances of failing.

Although Trey Hardee can hardly be described as a failure however uncharitable you may want to be, he yet pales into insignificance when viewed beside the guy yellow (I bet you know his name).

Don't just succeed, succeed in the significant!

Saving for the sunny day

Conventional wisdom is to save for the rainy day but conventional wisdom is usually way off the mark. If we are to believe the validity of the theory of self fulfilling prophecies (pymaglion effect) then saving for the rainy day is a very poor strategy for managing your personal or business financial assets as you are invariably asking for a downpour.

Think of saving for the sunny day instead; saving up so that you have the financial muscle to take on projects and acquisitions when the sun of opportunity shines on you. There is perhaps nothing more frustrating than watching opportunity degenerate (its half life is really short) while you wring your hands wishing you just had some money to invest.

Queer thing is, the rainy day for most people is also the sunny day for the discerning. Throughout history, times of unprecedented economic crisis have also been times of unprecedented opportunity to acquire the most value for the least amount of money. However, the market is open exclusively only to those who have saved for the sunny day.

The 'Dawn'fall of a man...

I saw this popular adage scratched on the wall of a hut in a village in the suburb of Abuja last week. I guess it was the spelling error that first made the quote remarkable but on closer examination, I thought, ''hey! this is right in its own right''.

We are often inundated with statistics about how most business start ups fail in the first year of operation but not many of those statisticians bother to follow up on the entrepreneur who failed at their first business to find out what else they went on to make a fantastic success of.

As I wrote in ''1/6 is a good score'' (you can request a free e-copy by the way) ''greatness is not measured merely by where we are, it is measured more by how far we have come, not by what we have but by what we have given up, not by the exploits of our strengths but by the victories over our handicaps''.

If you haven't learnt anything from watching movies, you must have atleast learnt that however much they may suffer, the good guys always win at last - you are the good guy.

The Two Economic Mindsets

There are essentially two kinds of players in every economy. They are typically represented by the two ends of the economic see-saw; demand and supply.

Generally, human beings can be categorized into either of these groups based on their economic mindset; there are producers and consumers. In many respects these two economic mindsets also align closely with Seth Godins' Hunters and Farmers just as well as they do with Mensah Otabil's Jacob and Esau in his book "Buy the Future''.

We clearly must have players on the two ends of the see-saw to have any economies at all. Imagine that everyone was a producer or alternatively a consumer; that is clearly not sustainable given the level of sophistication of our living systems. Perhaps in the primitive world, everyone could have survived by producing what they needed and consuming it.

In our world it is not tenable to simply say be a producer or consumer, you must be both. What's critical to your survival and building wealth is to ensure that you produce what people want and you consume what you need.

Drink Responsibly!

I was talking with a friend who works with an international consultancy firm yesterday and she went on about how it is getting tougher for the firm because of the melt down on one hand and the corruption in the public sector which is the only sector where consultants can still earn a decent living on the other.

Corruption is everywhere, it is just more in-your-face when you engage with the public sector. Another friend of mine who works with a quasi-government agency tells of how rather than give brown envelopes to media men as the general odious practice is, they engage some 'media consultant' who takes care of such shoddy business from his fees (which has of course factored in such payments).

No doubt ethics can be a really grey issue for most people and organizations; it can indeed be challenging to determine where to draw the line - to give or not to give. Here's the rule that I try to live by and which I highly recommend. If it looks and smells like dog rap - what's your business tasting it to confirm?

Trying to find a way to rebrand a bribe is as contradictory as the title of this blog. There's just no way to drink responsibly - it's irresponsible to drink.

Knee Jerk Management

If you have been around management circles for a bit then you should have heard just about enough buzz words. But I'm sure one more wont hurt.

The Knee Jerk Management style is unfortunately one that we all fall back on more often than we should. My worry is however not about those of us who fall back on it intermittently as it is about people who never shift out of this management mode.

Here are a few pointers you are stuck in the Knee Jerk Management mode;

1. You can not clearly state your Mission in one sentence.
2. The last time you looked at your plan for the year was when you wrote it down (if you wrote it that is)
3. The reason your company is on the internet is that everyone else is (a symptom of the reason you do most other things).

Knee Jerk mangement condemns you to reacting to the urgent when you ought to be pursuing the important. Quit being a knee-jerk manager.

Being CEO

Recent events in Nigeria, particularly the long AWOL of the president and the interplay of forces it has thrown up has got me thinking again about what it is like being CEO.

I am not as particularly concerned with the many shades of opinions on what the president should have or should not have done as I am concerned about the actions/inactions and utterance/silence of Mr President himself.

The entire fiasco has led me to draw and reinforce the following conclusions:

1. It's not about you; the organization, company wasn't created 'ços you are CEO, you are CEO 'cos the organization exists. If the organization isn't better off with you as CEO - quit!


2. Character shows; eventually, character does show up. Character for me is being able to live beyond the human instinct. Under pressure, Mr President and the FEC have prooved to be just another group of sit-tights.



3. Conflict is Valuable; difficult situations throw up scenarios we never thought about. If we seize the opportunities, we can build better frameworks for our lives/organizations.

BREAKING NEWS! I just acquired the Oxygen Franchise.

That sounds like the most fantastic news, doesn't it? To imagine that any one person can acquire the exclusive rights to market oxygen to humanity, that gives me what... a monopoly of 6 billion clients?

As extreme as it might sound, I actually do have the exclusive rights to market oxygen to mankind ... well something to that effect. The whole concept that each one of us has a unique purpose to fulfil on earth literaly translates that we each have something that nobody else has to offer to the rest of the world. It can be further deduced that if the rest of the world didn't need what we exclusively have to offer, we wouldn't be here.

Purpose is like spiritual DNA - no two people have the same purpose. Realising that you have a unique purpose is discovering that you just inherited a secret recipe to solve a global problem. Building a business out of that recipe is entirely up to you. It will be a shame to just let that recipe go to waste and leave the world deprived of the solution that it needs.

Build a business around your purpose and get ready for six billion customers.

Who is your boss?

Have you ever signed a form committing you to exclusively serve your employer during the period of your employment? I have at every place where I have worked. Employers generally want to be reassured that you are working exclusively for them. They don't want you distracted by other jobs or faced with conflict of interest issues. Well that rule seems to have always been around.

Jesus taught that "no man can serve two masters"; it's categorical, man just wasn't designed to serve two masters. So the question again is, who is your boss? Bear in mind that ultimately, there are only two bosses; God and the Greenback. Which one of them are you working for? Who sits in the corner office?

As a business owner, the fundamental question you must answer is ''why am I in business''?...

...There is only one right answer!

What's faith got to do with it?

For the majority of business people, we'd sooner rely on hard facts and critical analysis in taking business decisions but experience has shown over and again that faith is perhaps an even more important factor in achieveing business success.

In dealing with what we like to call "cold hard facts" we forget to reckon as George Soros argues in his recent book The New Paradigm for Financial Markets that the interpreters of the data cannot disspassionately evaluate the data as they are themselves a part of the data. Consequently, whatever decisions we take strictly from the data we have is tainted by our own prejudices.

Writing in Management of the Absurd, Richard Farson argues that you can't research the future; in essence, it's only in laboratories that yesterday's data is sufficient basis for predicting the future; an educated guess is still really just a guess. In real life as in business, one singular event can and often does throw years of data into the trash can. Imagine the impact for instance that 9/11 had on businessess in the united states.

The prospects for business success instantly leaves the realm of probability and enters into infinitely positive certainty when our decision leaves the realm of information based prognosis and enters into revelation steeped prophecy.

God controls facts and in consequence, he controls outcomes. That is why his prophecy in 2kings 7 that the economy of Israel will experience unprecendented deflation in 24 hours came to pass. He knew what events to trigger to create the facts that will result in the outcome that he had spoken about.

Picture Isaac Gen 26 sowing in a dry parched land that hadn't seen rain in a while because he got revelation to stay back while everyone else was shipping off to Egypt. That's like getting revelation to buy a stock everyone is dumping, or invest in a dilapidating neighbourhood- you get the drift; it may not make sense when you consider the data but sure puts some girth on your bottomline.

What's faith got to do with it? Everything!