Four Steps to Beating Your Competition

The economy is growing, so logically there are more people doing business.  More competition is still competition (even if it’s bad competition) — you end up distracted by figments instead of attracted to substance.

In this new year, on this day of “manifesting the best” in each of us, we should each focus on revelations that make us better.  Today’s topic is competition.

This isn’t a B-school SWOT analysis or a social media storyboard.  It’s a fundamental shift in your approach.  Buzzwords like schema, perception, analysis are great only when you take these small details and incorporate them into large game-changing practice.  See the trend about you and your application of knowledge rather than checkboxes or scorecards.

It’s day six of the new year (the fourth business day), and here are the four things you should have already done this week:

• Make sure you understand the industry tomorrow.  There are direct, indirect and substitute types of competitors, but that’s only looking at what exists today.  Don’t look at the gorilla in your sector; instead, look at the tiger cubs.  There are resources focused on VC recipients and patent registrations - use them.  Don't be shocked when a truck you didn’t see overtakes market leaders.  Look beyond the easy answers (like Silicon Valley players falling to hype) to those with a hunger to get ahead (like Syrian girls in new industries).

• Learn how language is shifting, both at companies and by consumers. Though you may read a lot, if you aren’t in the trenches at some point on a regular basis you will lose your communication edge.  Don’t leave it to an agency to tell you what keywords matter!  You should be defining the topics that will resonate in the market that position your brand as the solution.  Trends don’t matter in and of themselves; trending topics occur because there are people looking for solutions to problems. 

• The Internet of Things is still a function of human design.  The electronic web is still fueled for growth by people making decisions.  While cars may drive themselves, they are not free from human monitoring, programming or intervention.  Design is attractive and what draws business.  Consumers may be irrational, but if you figure out a new way to use the box or build a better mousetrap, connecting via the internet remains a tool for consumers rather than a limited decision tool.  Figure out how you use what you know in the next 18 months. 

• Scope and scale are critical to success.  Like the introductory paragraph notes, your business isn’t competing with everything; it’s only taking on those organizations which you identify as worthy of effort.  Typically, this is the big pitfall of new managers and established leaders — emotional decisions to protect turf override common sense.  This isn’t saying ignore a “gut feeling.” Don’t confuse an ocean with loyal customers’ purchasing habits; know who you are before you pick fights with insignificant non-competitors.

It was 2016 when we were reminded to understand who you are before you decided where you are going.  As you finish with the fourth business day of the new year, if you haven’t truthfully considered your strengths and direction, complete a cram session this weekend so you don’t miss out on next week’s deliverables.  

The next few weeks of articles will address core topics for improvements to focus time efficiently and sort through the noise  — stay tuned for more ways to improve the things in your world.

Heather M. Hilliard is Principal and Chief Strategist for R. Roan Enterprises, LLC, a professional services consulting firm supporting businesses in pointed areas of expertise as well as with individuals for targeted projects or career development. For more articles like these, visit her posts on LinkedIn or on G+. 

#seizetheday, #makeithappen

Using All The King's Horses When Up Against A Wall

Children's nursery rhymes have fantastic origins and were actually created to deliver lessons to children and the lesser-educated population.  For instance, "Ring Around The Rosey" continues to the next phrase with "pocket full of posey", or herbs and flowers, which was a method used to try to keep germs away during the plague in London in the mid-1600s.  Another English story created "Humpty Dumpty", who was likely an allusion to England's King Richard III (a rather portly and humpbacked fellow) when he was defeated in battle even though there were many soldiers around that should have won the fight, and the English learned they had a new leader.

Creative ways to deliver a message - even with death, the posey tries to put a positive light on things can be done in the fight of "good versus evil" - gives encouragement and provides a ladder for building energy for more creative solutions.

In more recent times, the media prefers to sensationalize everything, and many times the good news is lost or buried or never even investigated.  Media loves a good train wreck, and the public falls for it every time.  No demands for strong writing, investigations, or "homework" pieces.  Bah, humbug!

But if you look, you can find success stories - even ones that were built in response to one brick wall and seemingly continued to hit brick walls.  Another childhood activity, a game rather than a story, encourages children to be creative.  "Let's go on a bear hunt" reaches multiple states of "Can't go over it... can't go under it... can't go around it..." and has teamwork to "let's go through it!"  The power of creativity, teamwork and the promise of a brighter tomorrow should enlighten and empower even the toughest of Scrooges.

I know this story below was published a few months ago, but as all of the "stats" are coming out now with the Fed meetings, campaigning, as well as it being federal budget time, we cannot forget the great lessons of our past (even our recent past).  People are mud slinging and pointing fingers to remind of all the failures.  Taking something that was coined "a spectacular failure" and using common sense, expertise and creativity to turn around a hot-mess-train-wreck is a staggering accomplishment that should be celebrated (regardless of your opinion on why the project was necessary, this was a great fix-it job!)

When all the king's horses and all the king's men not only can't fix a problem but fail to admit they made the problem worse, take your creative confidence and know that you can achieve whatever you decide you want to do.  Focus on what you can do rather than what you can't do, and you'll surprise yourself at how much you get done.  Make sure you spread good news, too, so that success can be shared.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-secret-startup-saved-healthcare-gov-the-worst-website-in-america/397784/

Crack the Code

There are puzzles that seem to just not be solvable - until the right piece fits into place.  When we are young, the pieces are huge and portray very simple pictures.  As we get older, the pieces get smaller, the designs more intricate.  Things get more difficult to solve because of the many distractions that surround us.


But when you invent something new - start a business, create a new device, write a book - there isn't a "script" from which you can start.  Many professions have a template for "do x, then y" and only slight details change each time a new project starts.  But what if you are starting from the very beginning?


The American forefathers started our country from the very beginning, and had to take precautions that their early plans weren't intercepted by foreign spies. We all know that in today's world, the NSA and others have a network that feeds information to keep track of criminals as well as companies encode things so that proprietary information doesn't get into the competitions' hands.


Would you have ever imagined that Thomas Jefferson was probably the first cryptographer for our nation?  He had to invent a way to keep our young country's secrets from the wrong hands.  Protecting lives required careful planning and ingenious planning.


Just because something isn't done before doesn't mean it can't be done.  If you are in a tough spot, take inspiration from nearly 250 years ago - look for brand new ways to solve your problems. Jefferson's new idea is now one of the "foundations of our infrastructure."  Be a leader with your new idea, and avoid disasters by planning ahead.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/ygrauer/2015/08/31/encryption-thomas-jefferson/

What's In Your Risk Basket?

Perception is very important. In graduate school, where we had a lot of international students in the program, one of our first non-credit "personal enhancement" sessions was a cultural education class. Here, we learned which classmates' cultures may have been offended by a wave hello (surprise!) or what country's business person would expect presentation of our business card in a very formal manner when first meeting (good to know). 

Considering the "place where you are" is important. Even if you are in a city where you've spent a lot of time, you should consider that it's always changing. We kindly joke that Pittsburgh doesn't change because the road work signs just move around the city, but how many people living outside the western Pennsylvania region realize that Google has a huge base here and Apple's newest offices are located here, too? Not the steel mill image that first comes to mind, huh? Second only to Silicon Valley for technology innovations, it's not the Smoky City any longer. 

Jokes around New Orleans, Louisiana are that even if it changed, most tourists don't get past Bourbon Street so wouldn't remember if there were any changes. Southern California droughts typically bring wildfires and conservation warnings - but El Niño is about to bring some major changes, the first of their kind since 1950... Get out your rain boots!

You change as a person, too, and you have risk-shift. When younger, you may have been willing to "take more risks" when playing sports than you are now. But, maybe now your risks include traveling to new places or meeting new people when your younger years were not as adventurous outside the friends you knew from school. What risks are you willing to take now - either for fun or by educating yourself and venturing in a new direction?

You can't just lump things together with your old glasses anymore. In the article below, there are some very interesting changes to the world maps when looking at data in new ways. Slice and dice new information for your old ways of thinking - you may be pleasantly surprised and more prepared for the community around you. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/eiu-global-risks-maps-2015-8 

Too Busy Being Busy?

Sooooo many cutsie phrases trying to show people just how busy one worker bee is over another... but there's no meat on the bone.  "The hamster wheel of email" - does this describe your feelings about the device on your hip? Ha!

This nine minute video is worth your valuable time, especially if you don't work in the actual "mother ship" of your company (or "Death Star" as one senior leader called his headquarters recently).  The Digital Revolution has rocked our world... but some people are too busy being busy rather than being efficient, losing their work/life balance and reacting to "over-exposure" in the process.  However, by opening your eyes and taking control of technology, you can be happier again at work.

I use the RSA videos for my graduate students; they are excellent tools for adult learners as they both entertain AND get the point across the first time.  The discussion raises a good point - that we should be working on creativity rather than sheer productivity.  Competitive advantage will best be generated by employees being encouraged to think, to imagine, and to create a better future.


On an inside note to some of my connections linked through Milwaukee - I also laughed and must disclose that to my knowledge RSA has no affiliation and is not influenced by "the meatball".


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G11t6XAIce0

Who Are You?

And who are they?  Well, thanks to mathematics, you can know yourself and others a little better - no long genealogy journey televised with shocking revelations, no blood draws or mouth swabs.  It is a computer algorithm, formatted to look like a "translation" screen- thoughts on the left, transparency on the right.


Don't write something special for this test, because that's akin to counting cards.  Take a sample of your writing - a work email, a grant report, a training description - and enter it into the box.  Out of the box comes the description.  You can see how easy it would be to run this on your coworkers, too.  You could even run the test for different points in time, or with writing samples intended for different audiences.


Who's to say you couldn't run your sales material and your client communications to check the pulse on how you may come across to those market segments???  Or what could happen with political speeches or press releases as they are run through the "truth filter"?


Mercedes Benz used a great graphic in its advertising several years back, depicting the left brain versus the right brain.  Familiar to many people as it was in vogue to try to fit yourself into a right brain or left brain workplace. From that advertisement:


Left brain
I am the left brain. I am a scientist. A mathematician. I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear. Analytical. Strategic. I am practical. Always in control. A master of words and language. Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers. I am order. I am logic. I know exactly who I am.


Right brain
I am the right brain. I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion. Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter. I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet. I am movement. Vivid colors. I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas. I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel. I am everything I wanted to be.


You have two halves of the brain - you use them both.


As you take a journey to the center of your world, remember that you are more than "they" say you are.  You are a work in progress - having a touch-point is always helpful to make sure your progress is in the right direction. You can't be confined to a box.  And, after all, this is artificial intelligence.

https://watson-pi-demo.mybluemix.net

Beyond "Hello, Dolly"

The ebb and flow of a person's focus can be influenced by group-think; if we don't talk about cloning, maybe it isn't happening.  Here, the ancient "game of kings" has found itself on the forefront of technology.  Avid horse lover that I am, there are troubling implications for this practice in the article below - but I guess we need to chalk it up to science, new product applications, and the polo governing body allowing "experimenting with any breeding technology that might elevate the level of play." The game of kings uses 10 mounts per match - no wonder polo has earned that description, and cloning will likely only reinforce it.  I wonder what Mr. Ed would say... http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/07/polo-horse-cloning-adolfo-cambiaso

The Great Wide Open

We clamor for information to make better decision; we expect religious leaders to be forthright and pious; we demand real transparency of public officials. But this all focuses attention on how other people act with no accountability regarding our own actions. Personal beliefs and expectations shape how we see other people's actions, both in our private lives and our work lives, but rarely do we look at ourselves. This physician author accurately states "Americans thrive on choice."  But we have to remember that there are personal choices as well as professional choices, and they aren't always as compartmentalized as we would prefer. Development of self enhances development of you as a professional, too. Opening your mind to different cultures, other opinions, or new technology may allow you to learn something that will help you when you least expect it. 


http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/07/hacked-big-deal-i-made-my-most-personal-data-public-000140?hp=b1_c3

Have You Needed To Change...

but don’t have time to figure out what would work best?  Perhaps you bought a new software program that someone else recommended to you, but you aren’t sure how to use it.  You don’t have time to dig into all that it can do, but you know it should do more than what it is doing for your team.  Process management is as important as time management, though it’s not the same thing.  Make sure you know the difference.


http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7740986