entrepreneurial thinking

Aug 26, 2014

Americans want to be Bill Gates. Canadians want to be careful

Originally published on July 15, 2014 as a Guest Column in The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-digital/innovation/why-improv-comedy-is-the-key-to-business-success/article19072177/

Someone recently asked me if I found any differences between the audiences I speak to in Canada and the U.S. The answer is yes. “Americans want to be Bill Gates. Canadians want to be careful.”

I’m not sure why this is. While Canadians are known for their more conservative approach in general, our entrepreneurs were at least as daring as the Americans’ in opening up the West, building the national railway, and pushing back the frontiers of communications, medicine, and technology. Still, when I speak about entrepreneurship and innovation in the U.S., there’s buzz about success and fortune; you can almost hear the American Dream springing to life. In Canada, however, the word entrepreneur is still painfully associated with the term ‘small business.’

Across Canada, at cocktail parties and banker’s offices, our should-be heroes of industry and innovation are still too often dismissed as wild risk-takers who needlessly put their savings and financial security on the line. But entrepreneurship is so much more than that. Businesses that employ fewer than 500 people in North America have accounted for two-thirds of job growth in the past 10 to 20 years. The dreamers and the risk-takers are the growth engine that drive our economies. So let’s not label the entrepreneurs behind these businesses and the opportunities they pursue ‘crazy.’ Rather, let’s go with ‘crazy important.’

Still, there is something to be said for the Canadian approach to entrepreneurship. While we need more people to take initiative and champion change, there’s merit in doing so conservatively. I like to advise entrepreneurs to dream big, but proceed with caution. What exactly does this mean? There is never a shortage of opportunities in business; they’re everywhere. The key to success lies not in putting all your hopes — and life’s savings — into the first Big Idea you see, but in taking time to define the very best venture you will actually choose to pursue.

In last month’s column, I addressed the process of bringing together your team to generate great new business ideas. We talked about the power of the group dynamic and the “Yes, and…” process that enables your team to generate a wall of Post-It notes full of ideas.

Once you’ve done that, however, you need to begin culling those ideas into a manageable short list. More importantly, your ideas should be relevant to you, your business and your prospective customers.

Sounds obvious, I know, but judging by the number of times that I read about companies selling off non-core assets or dropping unprofitable clients, I realize that dreams of glorious short-term returns too often overcome solid analytical thinking.

I approach opportunity assessment with a rigorous, three-pronged approach. I like to rank each business opportunity according to three criteria: global (which includes ensuring that each new idea aligns with your company’s high-level, strategic direction, its vision, its mission, and so on), sales and marketing (rigorously identifying the ideal customer, target markets, time-to-market, and the competitive landscape) and financial (analyzing the projected top-line revenue, contribution, productivity ratios, net profit, and so on). The bracketed examples are, of course, only a few of the concepts you need to think through; there are many others that your team will think of or may already have in place.

Before anyone on your team gets carried away by a shiny new idea, it’s extremely important that you rank each opportunity you are considering against all three of these criteria. Don’t fall into the trap of saying, “this is a great idea, even though it’s not in keeping with the long-term vision of the company. I’ll worry about getting back on-strategy next quarter.”

Unless you rank new opportunities thoroughly and objectively, ruthlessly matching them to your strategy and capabilities, you will have little chance of converting even the best new ideas into successful and highly profitable new products.

The moral of the story? Embrace the American dream, believe in the possibility of success, but exercise good old Canadian caution along the way.

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Category: Entrepreneurship, Icicle, Spyder Works

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Jun 17, 2014

Want to build a better team? Consider the rules of improv

Originally published on June 10, 2014 as a Guest Column in The Globe and Mail.
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I was out with a friend when he announced that he was taking an improv course. He can be pretty humorous, but no one would mistake him for George Carlin. Or even Jerry Seinfeld. So, as politely as I could, I asked, “Why?”

His answer was surprisingly insightful: “Because improv comedy is about teamwork,” he said. “It’s about working together to build rapport, conversation, and a story that is engaging and compelling for the audience. If one member of the team tries to steal the spotlight, then the whole story unravels.”

He went on to say: “If I can become better at engaging and building on the ideas of others around me, then I will ultimately be more successful in my work.”

He seemed to be addressing one of the biggest challenges we all have as owners and managers; that is, building positive consensus in the face of individual dissent.

You know what I’m talking about: those brainstorming naysayers who pop up like jabbering jack-in-the-boxes with their bold proclamations like “that’ll never work,” “that’s too hard,” or “we’ll never be able to afford to do that, so why waste our time even trying?”

As an entrepreneur, nothing is more painful than hearing the words “no” or “can’t.” So the notion that improv comedy could somehow relieve my pain was enticing.

I immediately did what all inquisitive minds do these days: I Googled it. I searched the rules of improv comedy to see if I could re-purpose those principles to fit the world of business.

Naysayers beware: what I found is that ‘Yes’ is the new ‘No.’

I came upon many concepts from the art and discipline of improv that closely relate to business. They are similar because improv, like business, thrives on lively conversation, clear communication and seamless collaboration. Ultimately, both arts hinge on tapping the talents of all team members to generate bold, original ideas.

Consider a few of these rules and how they can practically apply to your work: The first rule is to agree. Ban the word ‘no’ at your brainstorming and ideation sessions. No is a full-stop. It not only quashes specific ideas, but discourages the flow of conversation in general. It makes people think, “why open my mouth to express an idea when somebody in the room is automatically going to say no to it?”

Learn to say yes to all new and different ideas. On a practical level, write all of the ideas down on Post-It notes and stick them on the wall in thematic groupings. For example, you might group them as ideas that relate to new products, new services or new processes. Or you could group new ideas by the functional areas of the business that they will impact most – sales, marketing, R&D or administration.

Once you have dozens of ideas on the wall, it’s time to use the second rule of improv: Say “yes, and…” Agree with the idea, but then add some new twist of your own. This is how we add value and substance to these original, random ideas.

Break the full team into four or five mini-teams and assign them to work on one of the identified groups of sticky notes. Their task is to review these ideas to see if they can be fleshed out, built on, embellished or combined. Bottom-line: their role is to take the original slew of ideas and translate them into three to five clearly articulated opportunities for the business to consider.

This process is not just about innovation – it’s empowering for your team as a whole. It demonstrates that everyone’s opinions, ideas and insights matter. It helps your team think more freely and openly, and not be afraid to voice what sounds like a radical idea. Crazy, stupid things such as “what if we could slip the power of the original supercomputer that filled a whole room into our coat pocket?” Some things may never happen in our lifetime, but others may surprise you and lead to offbeat new opportunities.

“Yes, and…” is powerful and empowering. It enables your team to generate a wall full of ideas and then narrow them down to more manageable numbers.

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Category: Business, Icicle, Spyder Works

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Apr 22, 2014

Five ways to generate ideas for your business

Originally published on April 16, 2014 as a Guest Column in The Globe and Mail.

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I was recently asked what I considered the best practices a business owner can adopt to stimulate growth. Full disclosure: I struggle with the term ‘best practices.’ It seems so absolute. For any of us who have been in our own businesses, we know that there’s nothing definitive about the best ways to get things done.

So instead of best practices, I like to think of these as the five steps that I have found helpful in stimulating ideas, change and growth in my own businesses, and those I have worked with. Let me frame these steps with one overriding thought: “Great ideas aren’t found in your screensaver. If you tilt your head up, just a little bit, there is a world of opportunity right in front of you.” Stimulating growth is a proactive, everyday activity involving all your senses.

1. Get out of the office. It’s tough, I understand. We all get caught up in our business’ front-burner issues. But you need to make time to regularly break away, get out of the office and get inspired by what others are doing. It’s simple. Attend conferences. Not just those for your industry, but those serving other industries to give you fresh perspectives, go to a workshop or join a peer mastermind group. If you manufacture consumer goods or are a retailer, look for clues about what consumers are thinking, saying and doing. Walk, don’t cab, when visiting another city. Take time to window – or mystery-shop, to see what product leaders in other categories are doing. Above all, join relevant LinkedIn groups and read the latest industry news and comments. This torrent of industry intelligence provides immediate inspiration and feedback, as well as resource experts and potential prospects to exchange ideas with.

2. Listen more, speak less. When I shifted from running a manufacturing business to being a consultant, I was told that if I was speaking more than one-third of the time, I wasn’t doing enough listening – and that meant that I was going to miss the challenges and pain-points my clients were expressing. Learn to do the same thing in your business. Listen to your customers. Take them for lunch every quarter or so, just to talk. Ask them what’s keeping them up at night and what they are worried about six, 12 and 18 months down the line. There’s no better way to grow your business than to solve your customers’ challenges before your competitors do.

3. Realize that you are not an island. Most entrepreneurs start their businesses as one or two people, often out of their homes. But as business grows, you must recognize that you have a team – employees, advisers, friends who see and hear things different things on a daily basis. They generate ideas and from these ideas come opportunities. Make sure you have a system to solicit and capture their input. Remember, when you choose your advisers (or set up a formal advisory board), make sure that some of them represent industries other than your own. You can always benefit from additional perspectives.

4. Don’t forget to change the oil. You wouldn’t change the oil in your car once a year. The engine would sputter and die. Ditto for a business. Its engine needs to be continuously primed with ideas for new, better and improved products, processes and services. These keep your customers engaged and buying (more) from you. The days are long gone when you could make the exact same product for years, or confine innovation to once-a-year corporate retreats.

5. Set up an ideas board in your office or business meeting room. As ideas come up, don’t write them on the back of napkin, put them up on the board. Monthly, run these ideas by your internal team and your advisors. Choose a couple that you believe make the most sense. Then run the ideas by your customers at your next quarterly lunch. These are the people who buy what you sell. Let them weigh in. If they like your new ideas, you might just close your first sale.

Keep your ears and eyes open. Stay engaged. Listen. Relevant opportunities are being offered to you every day. They are your next step forward.

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Category: Innovation, Spyder Works

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