I liked the piece in today’s Wall Street Journal by Elizabeth Holmes and on how three different companies deal with Twitter. My old personal favorite was Sea World, where they had Shamu tweeting. It took a while for me to “get” Twitter, but I love the service and along with HootSuite, I find it one of the indispensible tools to keep me up-to-date on the world of business…and other things as well. For example, during football Sunday’s, I keep my iPad next to me as I watch games as I follow the former head of NFL officiating Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) as he tweets about officiating issues regarding the games and gives his followers the correct information on why calls were or were not made.
From today’s article:
This week AMR Corp.'s American Airlines found itself caught in a public spat after actor Alec Baldwin vented on Twitter after being removed from an American flight. "Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS," Mr. Baldwin tweeted, referring to a Scrabble-like online game.
American replied via Twitter asking for his contact information. A day later, American tweeted, "UPDATE: Facts about yesterday's removed passenger" along with a link to a statement giving a less-flattering account of the passenger's behavior without mentioning Mr. Baldwin's name. Mr. Baldwin deactivated his Twitter account after the incident and apologized to his fellow passengers.
Companies are adopting a variety of strategies for navigating Twitter's pitfalls. One of the biggest issues is how many people to trust with a company's account, known as its handle. Spread the authority too thin, and the burden can be overwhelming. Authorize too many people, and the risk of mishaps multiplies. Here's how three very different companies—Southwest Airlines Co., Whole Foods Market Inc. and Best Buy Co.—are approaching the task.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
From Drucker to Zuckerberg With a Little Page For Good Measure
Over the past three months, I hadn’t gotten my Fortune magazine. Based on a combination of moving from Syracuse to Boca Raton and that my subscription expired, I hadn’t read the publication for some time. So this morning, sitting outside drinking coffee and eating Cote France’s wonderful almond croissants, I had the chance to renew my longstanding love for this magazine. The magazine (which I now also have on my iPad) gave me a chance to read stories that started with Peter Drucker and ended up with the epic battle between on going between Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page in the Battle for the Future of the Web. My only wish is that the Fortune website would make it easier to find the articles from the print pub so I can make sure that my students and friends can read them.
I particularly liked the short piece on Francis Hesselbein, who reminded me again of one of Drucker’s five questions:
1. What is our mission?
2. Who is our customer?
3. What does the customer value?
4. What are our results?
5. What is our plan?
For Hesselbein, who used to be the CEO for the Girl Scouts of USA, the mission was “short, powerful and compelling: To help each girl reach her own highest potential.” You have to love that mission, and it isn’t something that would be spit out of the Dilbert Mission Statement generating machine.
I particularly liked the short piece on Francis Hesselbein, who reminded me again of one of Drucker’s five questions:
1. What is our mission?
2. Who is our customer?
3. What does the customer value?
4. What are our results?
5. What is our plan?
For Hesselbein, who used to be the CEO for the Girl Scouts of USA, the mission was “short, powerful and compelling: To help each girl reach her own highest potential.” You have to love that mission, and it isn’t something that would be spit out of the Dilbert Mission Statement generating machine.
Monday, October 31, 2011
On Dancing with the Stars, Hiring and Never-Ever Giving Up
On an overcast and rainy Sunday morning, after reading about Stanford’s amazing win on ESPN.com, some interesting things from the paper over a couple of cups of coffee:
But my first smile of the day came from seeing JR Martinez on the cover of People magazine. While most of you know JR from Dancing with the Stars, he is also a graduate of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program…a program that I am proudly associated with...pick up that magazine and try not to smile when you read about this amazing young man. Here is a link to a story on the People magazine piece from JR’s home town Dalton Daily Citizen. Congratulations JR!
From the NY Times…while it’s much easier said than done, In a Big Company, Make Everyone an Entrepreneur. The article, a recurring weekly feature by Adam Bryant, is an interview with Lynn Blodgett. president and chief executive of ACS, an I.T. services subsidiary of Xerox.
From the article:
A. One of the ways that we do it is we drive the P.& L. as deep into the organization as we can. We have a P.& L. at a customer level, that’s mandatory. We have to be able to see how we’re doing with that customer. A lot of companies can’t do that. In our business we drive the P.& L. down to the people who are actually doing the work. So if we can make a P.& L. for a $10 million business, we’ll give that guy the P.& L. and he’ll have profit accountability, revenue accountability and customer satisfaction accountability. And as they grow, they make more money. That results in a higher performance, in my opinion.
So you give people control, hold them accountable, give them control of their resources, and then monitor what they do. And if you do that, you’re going to tap into, in our business, the highest level of drive — entrepreneurial drive. I want ACS to look like a whole bunch of sole proprietorships. Because that way, people are thinking to themselves, “If this was my money, if I was doing this, would I really spend it? Do I have to buy that computer right now or can I get by with my one that’s two years old?”
Q. What else is important to your leadership style?
A. Another is that nobody is above being moved, being touched, being influenced by a small gesture. I’ve experienced it myself. Somebody might call me or send me an e-mail to say, “Hey, I got that bonus and I just want you to know that really means a lot to me.” We have 85,000 employees, and I don’t get 85,000 e-mails. So when I get one it means a lot.
So it’s the little things. Like writing a note that says, “You did a great job,” or: “I’m sorry I got after you. You’re a super performer, and I lost my patience with you, and that’s my error, and forgive me for doing that.” We also set up phone calls when we win a deal, and we’ll get the team together and say: “Hey, tell me about that. What was the hardest thing? How did it come together?”
From the same article on hiring:
How do you hire? What questions do you ask?
A. The very first question is always “Tell me about yourself.” And not the résumé — I don’t want the résumé. Just tell me about yourself. What do you like? What do you enjoy doing? Because I think you can tell a lot from very open-ended questions.
Then I will say, “If you had the perfect job, what would you do?” And then I always ask: “Why do you want to come here? What is it about us?” Then, finally, “What do you think you could do to help us?” In the positions that I’m looking for, when you ask people what they can to do help, you often get some great answers and insights.
Q. What are the qualities you’re looking for?
A. People who are honest. That’s the No. 1 thing. I don’t have a test for that. I think that’s one where you have to go with your gut for a lot of it. And this is my prejudice because I didn’t go to college, but their intellect, their ability to think, is more important to me than any degrees they might have. And are they loyal? Will they take risks? Do they have integrity? Frankly, the technical aspects of it are way, way down on the list.
And in the Opinion section, What Tax Dollars Can’t Buy, Did you Hear the One About the Bankers and Our Unpaid, Extra Shadow Work give somewhat different perspectives on the current economic discussion.
But my first smile of the day came from seeing JR Martinez on the cover of People magazine. While most of you know JR from Dancing with the Stars, he is also a graduate of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program…a program that I am proudly associated with...pick up that magazine and try not to smile when you read about this amazing young man. Here is a link to a story on the People magazine piece from JR’s home town Dalton Daily Citizen. Congratulations JR!
From the NY Times…while it’s much easier said than done, In a Big Company, Make Everyone an Entrepreneur. The article, a recurring weekly feature by Adam Bryant, is an interview with Lynn Blodgett. president and chief executive of ACS, an I.T. services subsidiary of Xerox.
From the article:
A. One of the ways that we do it is we drive the P.& L. as deep into the organization as we can. We have a P.& L. at a customer level, that’s mandatory. We have to be able to see how we’re doing with that customer. A lot of companies can’t do that. In our business we drive the P.& L. down to the people who are actually doing the work. So if we can make a P.& L. for a $10 million business, we’ll give that guy the P.& L. and he’ll have profit accountability, revenue accountability and customer satisfaction accountability. And as they grow, they make more money. That results in a higher performance, in my opinion.
So you give people control, hold them accountable, give them control of their resources, and then monitor what they do. And if you do that, you’re going to tap into, in our business, the highest level of drive — entrepreneurial drive. I want ACS to look like a whole bunch of sole proprietorships. Because that way, people are thinking to themselves, “If this was my money, if I was doing this, would I really spend it? Do I have to buy that computer right now or can I get by with my one that’s two years old?”
Q. What else is important to your leadership style?
A. Another is that nobody is above being moved, being touched, being influenced by a small gesture. I’ve experienced it myself. Somebody might call me or send me an e-mail to say, “Hey, I got that bonus and I just want you to know that really means a lot to me.” We have 85,000 employees, and I don’t get 85,000 e-mails. So when I get one it means a lot.
So it’s the little things. Like writing a note that says, “You did a great job,” or: “I’m sorry I got after you. You’re a super performer, and I lost my patience with you, and that’s my error, and forgive me for doing that.” We also set up phone calls when we win a deal, and we’ll get the team together and say: “Hey, tell me about that. What was the hardest thing? How did it come together?”
From the same article on hiring:
How do you hire? What questions do you ask?
A. The very first question is always “Tell me about yourself.” And not the résumé — I don’t want the résumé. Just tell me about yourself. What do you like? What do you enjoy doing? Because I think you can tell a lot from very open-ended questions.
Then I will say, “If you had the perfect job, what would you do?” And then I always ask: “Why do you want to come here? What is it about us?” Then, finally, “What do you think you could do to help us?” In the positions that I’m looking for, when you ask people what they can to do help, you often get some great answers and insights.
Q. What are the qualities you’re looking for?
A. People who are honest. That’s the No. 1 thing. I don’t have a test for that. I think that’s one where you have to go with your gut for a lot of it. And this is my prejudice because I didn’t go to college, but their intellect, their ability to think, is more important to me than any degrees they might have. And are they loyal? Will they take risks? Do they have integrity? Frankly, the technical aspects of it are way, way down on the list.
And in the Opinion section, What Tax Dollars Can’t Buy, Did you Hear the One About the Bankers and Our Unpaid, Extra Shadow Work give somewhat different perspectives on the current economic discussion.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
From Dugout Phones to Netflix
I’ve been enjoying reading newspapers and magazines on my iPad, and in the last couple of days there were more than a few articles that caught my eye.
First, especially after the problems last night in the World Series with the dugout telephones, I went back and re-read the NY Times story in the Sunday paper on the use of that old relic of an instrument of communication in the dugout Ironically, Tony LaRussa was the cover photo for the story. From the article:
While landlines in homes collect dust and serve increasingly decorative functions, the attitude among baseball clubs is a familiar one in a sport tied tightly to old-fashioned ways: why change what works?
“The same old phones, the same old process,” said Derek Lilliquist, the bullpen coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. “I guess they’ve been that way forever.”
In today’s Wall Street Journal, there were a couple of articles about entrepreneurs that caught my eye; one dealing with China and the restaurant industry and the other dealing with entrepreneurial bankers.
A Secret Recipe in China details the story of an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry who did what some of the major chains couldn’t do…succeed in China. From the article:
Shanghai's hygiene bureau objected when Scott Minoie tried to build an open kitchen in his first Element Fresh restaurant nearly a decade ago, saying it would be unsightly: "too foreign."
But the Boston native persuaded officials to let him press ahead, confident that Chinese consumers, concerned with food safety, would appreciate a Western-style bistro that lets diners see their laffa-bread salads and raspberry smoothies while they're being made.
Now he has a chain of 11 restaurants. Sales are on track to hit $30 million this year, up 40% from last year, according to Element Fresh's managing partner, Frank Rasche. The chain's profit margin hovered between 10% and 15% last year, he says. They plan to open about 40 more outlets in China by 2015.
Go West, Investment Banker, tells the tale of one particular gentleman who went to KeyBank from Bank of America. From the article:
In July, though, the 42-year-old Mr. Fowler left the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, where he was a director covering private equity, and moved to Cleveland. He joined KeyCorp, a regional bank with a loan portfolio a tenth the size of Bank of America's, to do a similar job.
The deals at KeyCorp are smaller—and so is the paycheck—but becoming a big fish in the relatively small pond of regional banking has its advantages. In his new role, he can take on a larger role in the bank, while enjoying the benefits of living in the Midwest.
"It's very entrepreneurial," says Mr. Fowler. At Bank of America, he says he was one among legions of bankers focused on "elephant hunting" for billion-dollar deals that have become increasingly scarce. By contrast, at KeyCorp, "there's a real energy and excitement here," he says.
This week, I also sat in on Professor Brian Sommer’s Managing Organization class. Students did presentations on various companies, and one of them was Netflix. It was particularly interesting to hear about the problems of this company, given the press they’ve been getting lately. Today’s paper followed the problems of this company with a piece, Netflix Shares Sink 35%...never the headline you want to see for your company.
Now, back to my iPad.
First, especially after the problems last night in the World Series with the dugout telephones, I went back and re-read the NY Times story in the Sunday paper on the use of that old relic of an instrument of communication in the dugout Ironically, Tony LaRussa was the cover photo for the story. From the article:
While landlines in homes collect dust and serve increasingly decorative functions, the attitude among baseball clubs is a familiar one in a sport tied tightly to old-fashioned ways: why change what works?
“The same old phones, the same old process,” said Derek Lilliquist, the bullpen coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. “I guess they’ve been that way forever.”
In today’s Wall Street Journal, there were a couple of articles about entrepreneurs that caught my eye; one dealing with China and the restaurant industry and the other dealing with entrepreneurial bankers.
A Secret Recipe in China details the story of an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry who did what some of the major chains couldn’t do…succeed in China. From the article:
Shanghai's hygiene bureau objected when Scott Minoie tried to build an open kitchen in his first Element Fresh restaurant nearly a decade ago, saying it would be unsightly: "too foreign."
But the Boston native persuaded officials to let him press ahead, confident that Chinese consumers, concerned with food safety, would appreciate a Western-style bistro that lets diners see their laffa-bread salads and raspberry smoothies while they're being made.
Now he has a chain of 11 restaurants. Sales are on track to hit $30 million this year, up 40% from last year, according to Element Fresh's managing partner, Frank Rasche. The chain's profit margin hovered between 10% and 15% last year, he says. They plan to open about 40 more outlets in China by 2015.
Go West, Investment Banker, tells the tale of one particular gentleman who went to KeyBank from Bank of America. From the article:
In July, though, the 42-year-old Mr. Fowler left the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, where he was a director covering private equity, and moved to Cleveland. He joined KeyCorp, a regional bank with a loan portfolio a tenth the size of Bank of America's, to do a similar job.
The deals at KeyCorp are smaller—and so is the paycheck—but becoming a big fish in the relatively small pond of regional banking has its advantages. In his new role, he can take on a larger role in the bank, while enjoying the benefits of living in the Midwest.
"It's very entrepreneurial," says Mr. Fowler. At Bank of America, he says he was one among legions of bankers focused on "elephant hunting" for billion-dollar deals that have become increasingly scarce. By contrast, at KeyCorp, "there's a real energy and excitement here," he says.
This week, I also sat in on Professor Brian Sommer’s Managing Organization class. Students did presentations on various companies, and one of them was Netflix. It was particularly interesting to hear about the problems of this company, given the press they’ve been getting lately. Today’s paper followed the problems of this company with a piece, Netflix Shares Sink 35%...never the headline you want to see for your company.
Now, back to my iPad.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
HP's Interesting Move
Will HP’s move to hire Meg Whitman cause corporate CEO’s to decide not to keep strong exec’s on their boards? While I haven’t been following the last few months of HP particularly closely, I was surprised to see the way that they handled the firing of Leo Apotheker. What I find interesting now is the question of whether, if you’re a corporate CEO, would you want a strong unemployed or retired executive on your Board? Now I know that any strong CEO shouldn’t be intimidated by having strong exec’s in the boardroom, but I wonder now if many will find that tempts fate a bit too much and decide to take the safe route and have pals on their Board. After all, if you’re a young head football coach, you don’t generally have as offensive or defensive coordinators seasoned coaches who could step in and take your place the minute the owner becomes displeased. In the same manner, unless you’re a Jeff Immelt or Bob Lutz, with the notion of HP in your mind, you might want to not have your successor sitting there tempting the rest of the Board to make a move. And having a weak board is a move that will almost always hurt the company and its stockholders.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
US News yesterday ranked Lynn University number 4 in USA for percentage of international students attending with 17 percent of its student body coming from other nations. By the numbers, Lynn University students come from 87 countries (and 44 states in the US). This also means Lynn is number one for international students among schools who appear in the publication’s listing of “Regional Universities” in the South—this was the list Lynn appeared in for the 2011 rankings. We’re in some very good company here with schools in this ranking including Purdue, Columbia University, Carnie Mellon, Northeastern and Princeton.
Now, as a student or parent…why is this important? The reason this international focus on campus is so important came through loud and clear to me this week when I sat in Professor John Cipolla’s Managing Organizations class. John was leading an outstanding discussion about the intersection of management decisions and ethics. What made that discussion so rich was that students from North America, South America, India and beyond all were able to bring their own unique perspectives to the conversation…so rather than it just being a discussion from the US perspective, we were able to hear directly from students who have grown up and lived elsewhere. This diverse student population will provide our graduate with a distinct advantage as they will see their jobs and responsibilities from a truly global perspective.
Now, as a student or parent…why is this important? The reason this international focus on campus is so important came through loud and clear to me this week when I sat in Professor John Cipolla’s Managing Organizations class. John was leading an outstanding discussion about the intersection of management decisions and ethics. What made that discussion so rich was that students from North America, South America, India and beyond all were able to bring their own unique perspectives to the conversation…so rather than it just being a discussion from the US perspective, we were able to hear directly from students who have grown up and lived elsewhere. This diverse student population will provide our graduate with a distinct advantage as they will see their jobs and responsibilities from a truly global perspective.
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Business of the Gym Business...Gym Jones is Interestingly Different
Yesterday’s NY Times had several interesting articles and retrospectives. On the business front, I particularly enjoyed the piece on the Gym Jones, a unique fitness gym that has nothing that most of the modern gyms have…but is doing very well. The article addressed so many of the topics that we like to talk about in the business school including opportunity recognition, customer retention, growth, customer service and all from the perspective of the fitness industry.
A willingness to take on famous clients has actually been problematic for Gym Jones. The studio cash is nice, and the “300” notoriety was rewarding; a version of a 300-rep workout designed for the cast as a graduation test has gone viral and was even plugged by Men’s Health. But the Twights prefer privacy. They aren’t angling for their own line of protein powders or a reality show, and accept only 30 to 40 clients at a time. If you are hearing about them through their work with stars, a tiny part of the gym, your chances of getting in are pretty much zero.
The Twights generally require an interview or a referral from a current Gym Jones client, the completion of a written application that’s more of a fitness SAT than anything and, if you pass that step, a workout with Mr. MacDonald, a world champion mixed-martial-arts fighter. “If I’m surrounded by substandard people, I’m not going to work that hard myself,” Mr. MacDonald said. Again, it’s right there on that full-of-itself Web site: “We choose clients. Clients don’t choose us.”
Gym Jones has another reason to guard its privacy: its military customers like it that way. Although the Twights refuse to talk much about this side of their business, which occurs inside the gym and in the nearby mountains, it appears to be considerable and to involve people who are supposed to be invisible. Six of Mr. Twight’s former students, for instance, were among the 30 Americans — most of them Navy Seals, including members of the team that killed Osama bin Laden — who died in Afghanistan in August when their helicopter was shot down.
Theater is a big part of Gym Jones, which the Twights founded in 2003 in a garage with no air-conditioning and no heat. (The couple moved to Utah from Colorado in 2001 to operate a climbing-equipment company and later started Gym Jones as a side project. Eventually, the Twights decided to go full time with Gym Jones.)
Everything about the gym’s current configuration screams hard core, from the Web site (“Don’t complain if the work is too hard, or if you pass out, drop a barbell on your head, a kettle bell on your toes”) to cold décor: cinderblock walls, black rubber floor mats, fluorescent lights, no mirrors or windows. Outside magazine described the gym as “part martial-arts dojo, part smash lab, part medieval dungeon.”
Gym Jones calls clients “disciples” and prominently displays a quote from “Fight Club,” the 1999 film starring Brad Pitt. It reads in part: “Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive.”
But once you’re past all that, the mood at the gym is surprisingly warm. Mr. MacDonald, 33, has a daunting physical presence (at 6-foot-3, he can dead-lift 550 pounds) and blunt speaking style, but he also once taught kindergarten. The pixie-ish Ms. Twight, a 50-year-old jujitsu practitioner, has a quick, infectious laugh. A celebrated mountain climber, Mr. Twight, 50, is direct and aggressive but also quite polite and generous with his time
As an educator and a parent who used to struggle with the kids and homework, I also liked the article The Trouble With Homework.
From the article:
The quantity of students' homework is a lot less important than its quality. And evidence suggests that as of now, homework is not making the grade. Although surveys show that the amount of time our children spend on homework has risen over the last three decades, American students are mired in the middle of international academic rankings: 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math, according to results from the Program for International Student Assessment released last December. A new study, coming in the Economics of Education Review, reports that homework in science, English and history has "little to no impact" on student test scores. (The authors did note a positive effect for math homework.)
A willingness to take on famous clients has actually been problematic for Gym Jones. The studio cash is nice, and the “300” notoriety was rewarding; a version of a 300-rep workout designed for the cast as a graduation test has gone viral and was even plugged by Men’s Health. But the Twights prefer privacy. They aren’t angling for their own line of protein powders or a reality show, and accept only 30 to 40 clients at a time. If you are hearing about them through their work with stars, a tiny part of the gym, your chances of getting in are pretty much zero.
The Twights generally require an interview or a referral from a current Gym Jones client, the completion of a written application that’s more of a fitness SAT than anything and, if you pass that step, a workout with Mr. MacDonald, a world champion mixed-martial-arts fighter. “If I’m surrounded by substandard people, I’m not going to work that hard myself,” Mr. MacDonald said. Again, it’s right there on that full-of-itself Web site: “We choose clients. Clients don’t choose us.”
Gym Jones has another reason to guard its privacy: its military customers like it that way. Although the Twights refuse to talk much about this side of their business, which occurs inside the gym and in the nearby mountains, it appears to be considerable and to involve people who are supposed to be invisible. Six of Mr. Twight’s former students, for instance, were among the 30 Americans — most of them Navy Seals, including members of the team that killed Osama bin Laden — who died in Afghanistan in August when their helicopter was shot down.
Theater is a big part of Gym Jones, which the Twights founded in 2003 in a garage with no air-conditioning and no heat. (The couple moved to Utah from Colorado in 2001 to operate a climbing-equipment company and later started Gym Jones as a side project. Eventually, the Twights decided to go full time with Gym Jones.)
Everything about the gym’s current configuration screams hard core, from the Web site (“Don’t complain if the work is too hard, or if you pass out, drop a barbell on your head, a kettle bell on your toes”) to cold décor: cinderblock walls, black rubber floor mats, fluorescent lights, no mirrors or windows. Outside magazine described the gym as “part martial-arts dojo, part smash lab, part medieval dungeon.”
Gym Jones calls clients “disciples” and prominently displays a quote from “Fight Club,” the 1999 film starring Brad Pitt. It reads in part: “Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive.”
But once you’re past all that, the mood at the gym is surprisingly warm. Mr. MacDonald, 33, has a daunting physical presence (at 6-foot-3, he can dead-lift 550 pounds) and blunt speaking style, but he also once taught kindergarten. The pixie-ish Ms. Twight, a 50-year-old jujitsu practitioner, has a quick, infectious laugh. A celebrated mountain climber, Mr. Twight, 50, is direct and aggressive but also quite polite and generous with his time
As an educator and a parent who used to struggle with the kids and homework, I also liked the article The Trouble With Homework.
From the article:
The quantity of students' homework is a lot less important than its quality. And evidence suggests that as of now, homework is not making the grade. Although surveys show that the amount of time our children spend on homework has risen over the last three decades, American students are mired in the middle of international academic rankings: 17th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math, according to results from the Program for International Student Assessment released last December. A new study, coming in the Economics of Education Review, reports that homework in science, English and history has "little to no impact" on student test scores. (The authors did note a positive effect for math homework.)
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