Advice for startups: There’s always a better way

Advice for startups: There’s always a better way

“There’s a way to do it better – find it.” – Thomas Edison In recognition of National Small Business Week earlier in May, small business owners were celebrated for turning their innovative ideas and passion into successful business ventures.

It is richly deserved recognition. In fact, research by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy and others suggests small business owners outperform larger companies when it comes to driving innovation.

Specifically, considering patent issuance as a measure of innovation, it is estimated that small businesses produce sixteen times more patents per employee than large firms. While small firms’ cumulative patents account for only eight percent of total patents granted, they contribute a fourth of the patents in the top 100.

Patents, however, are only one aspect of innovation in small business activity and success. Management science guru Peter Drucker notes that innovation is the specific instrument of start-ups. The question becomes, what else is important for us to consider that drives innovation and transforms our start-ups into successful ventures?

Let’s examine three critical aspects of small business start-ups as each relates and applies to the role of innovation and entrepreneurship: 1) growth over time; 2) tThe critical path of innovation, and 3) small business in a global economy.

Growth over time. Innovation is not the exclusive providence of fastpaced scalable growth ventures. The eminent entrepreneurship scholar, Alan Carsrud, visiting research professor atbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, recently spoke at the University of Cincinnati. He, along with co-authors Malin Brannback and Niklas Kiviluoto, note that while we tend to over focus on the “gazelles” that seek rapid, accelerated growth, the reality is that 97 percent of all firms are more accurately described as “mice” that seek slower, incremental growth over time.

For example, a local company, Cincy Tool Rental, personifies the value of steady state growth over time.

Founded in 1971, by retired 33-year veteran firefighter George Bruner, he spent the next 44 years innovating business practices, hiring employees, opening new locations and more. In talking recently with his daughter, Barbara, it is clear that his vision, insights, passion and drive were key factors in taking his ideas to practice and grow the business her two brothers now successfully run.

Innovation. While a complete treatment of innovation is beyond the scope of this column, Bruner typifies three critical dimensions of entrepreneurs: curiosity, creativity and connections.

Be curious always, both within and outside a given topic area. While it is often good to avoid distractions, sometimes our best learning occurs when we take a divergent path while pursing information in another area (e.g., making the leap from firefighting to tool rental). Innovators develop a sense of the value of creativity to facilitate change, break with the norm and challenge conventional wisdom.

Finally, look for and make connections. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
Small business in a global economy.
At its core, innovation is about new methods, ideas, products, and services that create value for people. Marshall McLuhan, the late professor and thought leader from the University of Toronto, notes that innovation in practice does four things: It enhances something. For example, Google, Apple, GoPro all enhance how we live, communicate, and capture memories.

It eliminates something. For example, smart phone applications make direct connections often eliminating once established connections.

It returns us to something from our past. What goes around comes around. Think Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, craft beer.

Over time, it reverts to its opposite. That is, innovation is specific to the situation that propels it to prominence, but it is then destroyed by it. Innovation in this sense is both transformative and relentless. For example, the telephone has not completely disappeared, but its transformation continues apace. In the words of the Austrian economist Josef Schumpeter: creative destruction. Innovation has a shelf life – who knew!

Our operations may be local, but our markets no longer need be. Moreover, our universe of knowledge that feeds curiosity and innovation is virtually limitless. Small business in a global economy is only limited by our imaginations.

Just like Bruner, innovators and entrepreneurs challenge traditional definitions of value and seek to solve market inefficiencies. Time to heed Edison’s advice: find it! Till next time, all the best for continued entrepreneurial success!

CHARLES H. MATTHEWS

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Independence doesn’t mean going it alone

Independence doesn't mean going it alone

You worked hard in your career.

You put in the long hours, missed family events, changed cities, and made sacrifices so that you could move up the corporate ladder. And it worked. You took on roles of increasing responsibility and achieved a lofty position with a Fortune 500 firm. Man, you were somebody who had it all. Then one day, it was all gone.

Perhaps you got “downsized.” Perhaps you were tired of all the sacrifices and then decided to chuck it all and not “work for the man anymore.”

OK, so now what?

There can be a sense of loss going from a big job to being your own boss.

First let’s talk scale ... you are the entire staff, at least in the beginning.

You make the coffee and the travel arrangements. You are the senior (aka only) sales representative for your business and you are the marketing department as well. You don’t have anyone coming into your office asking you to fix a problem or give them career advice. Many of your work “friends” have already deleted your number from their contact list.

Your spouse helps with the back shop functions at night around the kitchen table. You are, in fact, alone.

You are no longer “the Big Cheese” and you’re dealing with the reality that you, in fact, are dispensable.

Even if you planned the exit from your last company, you can’t really prepare for what is coming as an independent business owner. You have to live it to appreciate it. But it isn’t gloom and doom.

Here’s the really cool thing. You will meet wonderful people out there who are all willing to help you succeed. For me, that has been one of the most gratifying aspects of owning my own business. Of course, growing your business into a successful enterprise is tops, but enjoying the ride along the way is so important.

There is this fantastic community of other independent business owners out there, fighting the same fight like you. They are your new friends and colleagues. Relationships are genuine because they don’t want your job.

They want you to succeed. And they will help.

It is very gratifying knowing that you had what it takes to build a sustainable business. Not everyone can do it. You also learn to measure happiness in life by the mark you leave, rather than the title on your door. The struggles make you appreciate the small successes like never before.

And you develop a sense of gratitude about life and things, learning to never take anything for granted.

Yes, moving from the corporate world to being your own boss can be a real slap in the face. But what you learn about yourself on the journey, and what you get from your success, makes it all worthwhile.

Take the plunge. It will be the best move you ever made.

By Mark Matthews, owner of NuVision Strategies, developed the first version of the STAR Process training program in 1992. 

Inflate Gate and Leadership

Inflate Gate and Leadership

You may be asking yourself what does Inflate Gate have to do with leadership.  I say it has everything to do with leadership.

Leadership is all about accountability.  Leaders choose accountability.  They do not simply accept it or take the responsibility, they want it because they know how important it is.

The current situation

By now, everyone knows about Inflate Gate; the fact the New England Patriots were playing with game balls inflated below the standard set by the NFL.  That the footballs were checked by officials and found to be up to standard prior to the game and at a point later in the game it was determined the game balls the Patriots were using were underinflated. 

What followed was a firestorm of reaction from all sectors.  Everyone (as usual) wanted to know what people knew, when they knew it and who was the most likely guilty party.

This set the stage for a moment of brilliant leadership action.  However, for the many that have seen or read Coach  Bill Bellicheck's public statements know he missed that opportunity.  The fact is, he raised more questions about himself, his team and especially his quarterback.  Leaders do not do this.  Leaders do not cast a shadow on the integrity of their organizations.

Being accountable does not mean confessing to guilt or claiming responsibility for an act.  It is choosing accountability over all else when a crisis hits.  I will not recount the whole of Mr. Bellicheck's responses, but to simply say he did not come even close to stepping up as a leader during this crisis. Think about all the articles and TV hosts that you and others have seen that have played a part in casting a shadow over the Patriots and the all time sporting event the Super Bowl.  None of this had to happen even though the facts of the deflated footballs remain.

Mr. Bellichek is not alone.  Leaders for whatever reason step over huge opportunities to be accountable and incur the consequences that come with it.  There was a moment and it was missed.

How could Mr. Bellicheck have done that you may ask?

Simply by taking accountability. What he did versus taking accountability stand in stark contrast.  Here is an example of what Mr. Bellicheck could have said.  You will quickly notice the difference.

First, I want to apologize to all the fans, the audience and most of all to my players. I have failed you.  I'm accountable for what has happened and will do my utmost to find out what happened, why and when.  That is my promise.  How did I fail?  I failed in allowing the desire to win to destroy the integrity of the game and especially my team that has worked so hard this year to reach the Super Bowl.  I have in some way behaved in such a manner that it has allowed one or more people to think that winning at all costs is acceptable.  This is never acceptable.  Somehow, that must have happened.  I would like to think it did not.  However, as the leader of this team on and off the field and until I discover reasons why not, I am and will remain accountable to the public, the owners and to the NFL.  I regret this happened and as I said before will not stop until I can stand before you with the final analysis of the situation.

This, is leadership.  This is what real leaders do.  They know that doing otherwise destroys confidence in their own integrity and those around them.  It is like a cancer that begins to rot and organization from the inside out.  That, while it destroys the brand that a company has spent years creating.  It only takes one crisis and one failure of leadership to destroy.  Leaders know that integrity is earned over time and one failure to step up to accountability can destroy what was worked for so hard.

Actions for You?

Choose accountability as a leader.  Pay attention to your behaviors and the messages it may be sending to the organization and people around you and take accountability for that.  Look for opportunities to step up and claim your leadership accountability when things go wrong.  People will respect your for that. That and you might even gain a new respect for yourself!

LEADERSHIP'S FIRST COMMANDMENT

LEADERSHIP'S FIRST COMMANDMENT

 Know Thyself

What does 'breakthrough leadership' mean? Why is it personal? And why is it the subject of the first special issue in HBR's 79-year history?

The term 'breakthrough leadership,' as we define it, is multivalent -it points in several directions at once. Certainly, it involves breaking through old habits of thinking to uncover fresh solutions to perennial problems. It also means breaking through the interpersonal barriers that we all erect against genuine human contact. It's leadership that breaks through the cynicism that many people feel about their jobs and helps them find meaning and purpose in what they do. And it breaks through the limits imposed by our doubts and fears to achieve more than we believed possible.

Those who would lead these voyages of inner and outer discovery face extraordinary demands on their time, energy, and intellectual capacities. But the emotional demands are just as daunting, argue Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee in “Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance”.  Goleman, whose concept of emotional intelligence is surely one of the breakthrough ideas of the past decade, and his co-authors synthesize the latest research in psychology, neurobiology, and anthropology to show how the leader's mood can energize or deflate an entire organization. They also offer tools to help leaders gauge their own moods accurately and project the positive energy that inspires people to surpass themselves. But as the authors make clear, no tool can help the leader who lacks self-knowledge. That’s part of what we mean when we say that breakthrough leadership is personal. The personal nature of leadership is also the focus of  “All in a Day's Work”.   The participants in this roundtable discussion bring vast experience and varied perspectives to the everyday business of leadership, but on one central point they agree: Leaders must help their followers discover what they are good at. Leaders enable self-knowledge.

Like the participants in the round- table, historian and Harvard Business School professor Richard Tedlow defines leadership as a personal quest, one that can produce blazing triumphs even as it plunges the leader into the darkest, most mysterious reaches of the self. Tedlow profiles some of history's most accomplished businessmen and probes why, despite their wealth and great achievements, they continually drove themselves and their organizations to achieve even more. His conclusions are as unsettling as they are illuminating by the handful of lessons we can learn from Titans:

·       They didn’t blame others – or the universe - for their problems

·       They didn’t whine that life was unfair.

·       They believed the world was essentially a just place that would reward their effort and ultimately yield to their genius.

·       Any setback was a temporary misunderstanding by the cosmos

Great leadership itself, like the need for it, is timeless.