So let’s tackle some of these common issues that most small businesses face today. Let’s cut to the core and admit that unless the business works for us – all we really have is a job. Let’s admit that if things don’t go on when we are away – if we are tied to the pda or phone or email when we are supposed to be coaching soccer for our kids or have our family away on vacation – or even worse can’t remember the last time we were on vacation – let’s admit all we have done is put lipstick on a job and really don’t have a business at all. So that is step one. Evaluate whether or not you really have a business at all. There is nothing wrong with having a reliable job that provides for your needs by the way. Just don’t call it something it isn’t. Let’s get our terms straight. If you have a business – it is not dependent on you to proceed and operate. If you have a business – you can get away and have a life. If you have a business – it is not about YOU.
OK – so those who are left with me – let’s address the first issue that I see most business owners have failed to tackle. The “WHY” of their business. So many businesses today focus on the who, what, when, where, how – but they totally skip the why. WHY is the reason your business exists in the first place? It is where your passion comes from. And by the way, if you aren’t passionate about your business, if you can’t wait to get started each day, you probably have a job. Why did you create this business? What is the PURPOSE it was designed to serve? What do you want to accomplish through it? Do you know the “why”? Answering that question is a key part of writing a business plan. It is core to the motivation for everything else that will happen as part of running your business. It IS the key to success and happiness. Without the “why” you can’t possibly know where you are going or how you will get there. You are directionless and wandering in the wilderness. So make sure you know the “why”.
Do you need a business plan? The short answer is yes. You need it for a few reasons:
1. It is the basis to hold an owner accountable. You run your business because you want to be your own boss. That is good in some ways but very bad in others. You need to be accountable and a business plan is part of it.
2. If you participate in any kind of peer group – your group members have to have it. Without your business plan they can’t really give you any meaningful guidance because they have no idea where you are headed.
3. Your employees need it as well. They are on the journey with you. They can’t really do their job until they know what the destination is. The business plan is not about you. It is about the business and the “us” that make it up.
4. Your family should know so they can understand what it will take for you to succeed. That also should give them some opportunity to provide feedback on just how often you will be gone and miss important family activities and events.
5. Your banker should care. Unfortunately many never ask for it – but you should offer to share it and set yourself apart from the majority of small businesses by doing so. And if you don’t have a banking relationship – get one. It is far easier to ask for money when you don’t need it than when you do.
6. Your vendors should care too. Part of your business plan should include key vendor relationships and how that will look in the next 12 months. You may write an individual plan with key vendors – but I suggest you include some parts of it in your overall business plan.
One key reason to know “why” is that it is essential to have any hope of achieving life-work balance. Without the “why” there is likely nothing that will keep you from working all your waking hours in your business except pure exhaustion. The “why” needs to also address your life. It is a key component of writing a life plan. You have to know what the purpose of your life is. Why do you get up each morning? What is it that you want to accomplish through living? Not through your business – but as a result of living your 168 hours this week? Do you know those answers? Have you thought about it? Once you put it on paper and share it with peers or even your spouse – someone can begin to hold you accountable to make sure your actions match your goals. Without accountability life will always lose to business. We are wired that way as entrepreneurial business owners. We can’t afford to let life lose. It has to be top priority.
Life-work balance involves a lot of areas. That is why HTG uses a life planning document to help give some direction on areas you should consider. There is so much to ponder and it is the important stuff. Business is so fleeting. Life is so eternal. Life matters and how we live it matters a lot. No one will wish on their deathbed that they had spent more time in the office. Many will say they missed far too much life by spending too much time working in their business. You can’t change it at that time. The change has to happen now and it can’t be postponed. Do you have it balanced?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
CEO Forum II Focuses on Strategy
This past week we also hosted our second HTG CEO Forum in Denver. Our initial meeting was talked about here. We had 14 companies represented and we had an amazing time together. Our time began with a checkup on goals from the last session. Some work still to be done there, but folks are working hard to make that transition to the CEO role. It is a very big change of mindset and thinking for most of us.
We had a special visit from Colleen Abdullah who is CEO of WOW – an Internet, cable, telephony provider. It was a very engaging hour and a half as she shared her transition into that role and the success she has had as she created a culture of being focused on the customer – both internal and external. That is the secret sauce – paying attention to people. Colleen is a great role model as she took over a company that was doing $9 million and today is doing many times that in revenue – over $500 million as I recall. She has done it by excelling in the people business. She admitted that her products were not all that different or unique – hard to differentiate in a market where everyone pretty much has the same tools and offerings. But where WOW wins is in the hearts of their customers and people as they provide a level of service and caring that is unique to their industry. They “WOW” their employees and end users and win in the markets they serve.
She also challenged us to stay close to customers and our teams. Her approach is to take time monthly to ride in the trucks and be on the phones with her staff. She stays connected to what is happening. She is also active in the association representing smaller cable providers. A great lesson here – we need to be engaged with our industry in watching legislation and other influences that will impact us. Silence is not golden when it comes to lobbying the legislative process.
We shifted gears after that as my son Pete shared about the importance of process. He taught us about Six Sigma and Lean as tools that can be used to help create standardized methodology and take cost out of our businesses. These are enterprise level tools but they contain many facets that will work effectively for us in small business. We just need to learn and understand how to use the things that fit to help keep us competitive in the marketplace. As commoditization ramps in managed services and cloud solutions – efficiency and taking cost out will be the name of the game. These types of skills will be important for us to compete effectively.
Day two was spent with Ryan Morris from MMP. He led us through a full day workshop on strategic planning – one of the key roles a CEO needs to fulfill. Ryan broke things down and helped us understand the basics of strategy. It isn’t necessarily rocket science, but rather a persistent and total focus on a single objective. Not the scatter gun, throw it up on the wall and see what sticks, hope I guessed right, sell to whoever will write a check kind of approach. Those don’t work as you grow a company. He assured us that we will not always get it right, but we need to set and then monitor and change our strategy on an ongoing basis.
The reality is that strategy is really only effective with about a 3 year look forward. Beyond that it is more of a general goal. His guidance is a detailed 6 month plan, followed by an 18 month set of objectives that point to a three year strategy. It must be evaluated and tweaked every quarter and is not failure if it needs adjustment. We learned that key factors that impact our strategic plan – like resources and external factors – are outside our control and will change. Sometimes that change will require us to tweak our strategy and we need to be on top of it so we get that done.
It was a great combination – discussion around strategy and process – as those are the two keys to running a successful long term organization. Both need to be on the radar of the CEO. They both are a lot of hard work, so job security is built in. But as we listened to our trainers, and to our guest expert, we had to have heard those words a few hundred times. Success is not accidental. Luck and timing can play a part for sure – but success happens when leaders plan and execute and tweak and execute and revise and execute. If things are not going well in your company – time to go look in the mirror. You may need to have a talk with yourself!
We had a special visit from Colleen Abdullah who is CEO of WOW – an Internet, cable, telephony provider. It was a very engaging hour and a half as she shared her transition into that role and the success she has had as she created a culture of being focused on the customer – both internal and external. That is the secret sauce – paying attention to people. Colleen is a great role model as she took over a company that was doing $9 million and today is doing many times that in revenue – over $500 million as I recall. She has done it by excelling in the people business. She admitted that her products were not all that different or unique – hard to differentiate in a market where everyone pretty much has the same tools and offerings. But where WOW wins is in the hearts of their customers and people as they provide a level of service and caring that is unique to their industry. They “WOW” their employees and end users and win in the markets they serve.
She also challenged us to stay close to customers and our teams. Her approach is to take time monthly to ride in the trucks and be on the phones with her staff. She stays connected to what is happening. She is also active in the association representing smaller cable providers. A great lesson here – we need to be engaged with our industry in watching legislation and other influences that will impact us. Silence is not golden when it comes to lobbying the legislative process.
We shifted gears after that as my son Pete shared about the importance of process. He taught us about Six Sigma and Lean as tools that can be used to help create standardized methodology and take cost out of our businesses. These are enterprise level tools but they contain many facets that will work effectively for us in small business. We just need to learn and understand how to use the things that fit to help keep us competitive in the marketplace. As commoditization ramps in managed services and cloud solutions – efficiency and taking cost out will be the name of the game. These types of skills will be important for us to compete effectively.
Day two was spent with Ryan Morris from MMP. He led us through a full day workshop on strategic planning – one of the key roles a CEO needs to fulfill. Ryan broke things down and helped us understand the basics of strategy. It isn’t necessarily rocket science, but rather a persistent and total focus on a single objective. Not the scatter gun, throw it up on the wall and see what sticks, hope I guessed right, sell to whoever will write a check kind of approach. Those don’t work as you grow a company. He assured us that we will not always get it right, but we need to set and then monitor and change our strategy on an ongoing basis.
The reality is that strategy is really only effective with about a 3 year look forward. Beyond that it is more of a general goal. His guidance is a detailed 6 month plan, followed by an 18 month set of objectives that point to a three year strategy. It must be evaluated and tweaked every quarter and is not failure if it needs adjustment. We learned that key factors that impact our strategic plan – like resources and external factors – are outside our control and will change. Sometimes that change will require us to tweak our strategy and we need to be on top of it so we get that done.
It was a great combination – discussion around strategy and process – as those are the two keys to running a successful long term organization. Both need to be on the radar of the CEO. They both are a lot of hard work, so job security is built in. But as we listened to our trainers, and to our guest expert, we had to have heard those words a few hundred times. Success is not accidental. Luck and timing can play a part for sure – but success happens when leaders plan and execute and tweak and execute and revise and execute. If things are not going well in your company – time to go look in the mirror. You may need to have a talk with yourself!
Monday, June 14, 2010
HTG Vendor Peer Groups Kick Off Successfully
As announced by The Var Guy a week or two ago, this past week we hosted our inaugural vendor peer group. Seven of our HTG sponsor vendors answered the bell and we had a great couple days together in Denver. A special shout out for IBM, SonicWALL, CA ArcServe, Great America Leasing, ConnectWise, E-Folder and Xerox. Lisa Jenkins from Xerox won the best practice contest. Each company had two participants in the room, and we gave them as much of the HTG experience as possible. It was a very exciting couple of days.
As is always the case, everyone was a bit tentative leading up to the meeting. The first time a new group meets is like going on a first date. People start out with some tentative positioning and want to make sure it all comes across the way they want. After all, this is far from the way their day jobs have been – sitting in a room over two days with folks who at some level could be considered competitors. Not what most are accustomed to. But after we did introductions and people began to share a little about life – important facts like being on the hunt for a husband or having 13,000 emails in their inbox – the laughter broke down the walls and people moved past their fears and the ideas and sharing began to flow.
We tackled issues that were specific to their roles in working with partners. How do you engage and activate partners? How should they communicate effectively without overloading our inboxes? What does a good partner program look like? It was great learning as ideas were shared and best practices exchanged. Everyone came prepared and ready to share – homework was done – which already sets this group apart from their solution provider peers. We struggle to get HTG members to get that homework done and posted – so thanks to our vendor group members for keeping that bar high.
It was enlightening to me to be able to facilitate and be part of the idea exchange. I was able to interject the voice of the partner and offer some tips and ideas that will hopefully help share the landscape for these companies as they interact with the partner community. That is part of the value – we all learn from each other when we spend time together – and I certainly learned much from this group.
Some may be wondering why we would create a peer group for vendors. One of the things we find about our HTG peer groups is that unless you experience them, it is extremely difficult to understand the value of a close knit community that becomes invested in each other. So we decided to create this group to help deliver that experience for our vendor sponsors – to let them be part of what we do every quarter – and to create the same kind of close community that can share life together. We are using most of the same objectives and goals as we have for HTG – planning and goals and execution and accountability – it is all part of this program.
So what was the outcome of the two days? The feedback was extremely positive and everyone who attended is ready to proceed and meet in Q3. But the best way to share how things went is to hear from one of the attendees himself. Ted Hulsy from SonicWALL shared this: “Ever since my first ‘seat at the table’ with an HTG group, I realized that working with peers is one of the best ways to learn and change. Now that I am in HTG, I feel so fortunate to be working with peers who have passion for their work, are trusting, and are willing to share the secrets of their success.”
That is what it is all about. Becoming part of a community that you can share with and help one another achieve more than you can do on your own. We believe in our mission. Get involved in a community – be it in your industry, your church, your community – just find one and get involved. It will change your life if you let it!
As is always the case, everyone was a bit tentative leading up to the meeting. The first time a new group meets is like going on a first date. People start out with some tentative positioning and want to make sure it all comes across the way they want. After all, this is far from the way their day jobs have been – sitting in a room over two days with folks who at some level could be considered competitors. Not what most are accustomed to. But after we did introductions and people began to share a little about life – important facts like being on the hunt for a husband or having 13,000 emails in their inbox – the laughter broke down the walls and people moved past their fears and the ideas and sharing began to flow.
We tackled issues that were specific to their roles in working with partners. How do you engage and activate partners? How should they communicate effectively without overloading our inboxes? What does a good partner program look like? It was great learning as ideas were shared and best practices exchanged. Everyone came prepared and ready to share – homework was done – which already sets this group apart from their solution provider peers. We struggle to get HTG members to get that homework done and posted – so thanks to our vendor group members for keeping that bar high.
It was enlightening to me to be able to facilitate and be part of the idea exchange. I was able to interject the voice of the partner and offer some tips and ideas that will hopefully help share the landscape for these companies as they interact with the partner community. That is part of the value – we all learn from each other when we spend time together – and I certainly learned much from this group.
Some may be wondering why we would create a peer group for vendors. One of the things we find about our HTG peer groups is that unless you experience them, it is extremely difficult to understand the value of a close knit community that becomes invested in each other. So we decided to create this group to help deliver that experience for our vendor sponsors – to let them be part of what we do every quarter – and to create the same kind of close community that can share life together. We are using most of the same objectives and goals as we have for HTG – planning and goals and execution and accountability – it is all part of this program.
So what was the outcome of the two days? The feedback was extremely positive and everyone who attended is ready to proceed and meet in Q3. But the best way to share how things went is to hear from one of the attendees himself. Ted Hulsy from SonicWALL shared this: “Ever since my first ‘seat at the table’ with an HTG group, I realized that working with peers is one of the best ways to learn and change. Now that I am in HTG, I feel so fortunate to be working with peers who have passion for their work, are trusting, and are willing to share the secrets of their success.”
That is what it is all about. Becoming part of a community that you can share with and help one another achieve more than you can do on your own. We believe in our mission. Get involved in a community – be it in your industry, your church, your community – just find one and get involved. It will change your life if you let it!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Roundtables4Roundtables Part III
One of the obvious facts from my couple days in NY with other mastermind group organizations was that the issues members face in every case are very similar. One might be tempted to think that doctors and dentists have it easy. They charge high fees and drive fast cars. But they still have to deal with the one common wildcard – PEOPLE. I have said a few thousand times before that if I didn’t have to deal with people my job would be perfect. That's not really the case but some days it sure feels like a good option. I wouldn’t really have a job any more, but somehow all the pain points would have vanished and boredom would have set in. PEOPLE are part of our current situation and will be part of our future. It is the way it is so we might as well accept it.
So what are some of the common issues that businesses face and these peer groups tackle:
So what are some of the common issues that businesses face and these peer groups tackle:
- Life – work balance
- Hiring and managing people
- Delegation and creating a leadership structure
- Becoming a sales and marketing organization
- Developing process
- Plan and set measurable goals
- Have financial accountability and controls
- Have an exit strategy
- Train their team
- Communication in every form
The list is much longer but these areas are certainly ones that are cross every roundtable peer group. These are all PEOPLE issues. No where do you see any mention of learning to be a better technician or eye doc or dentist or personal trainer. Those things get done because most owners already have a passion for them. They started their business by being good at that stuff and they continue to enjoy it. The problem is that no one likes the things on this list so they want to ignore it. After ignoring quits working – they want to push it on someone else without giving any guidance.
The sad fact is that many small businesses fail because they just don’t deal with these items. After all they were in business yesterday so it will be the same today. Right? Well that is true most days. And the reality is that the problems they ignored yesterday will be there when they show up for work today and tomorrow and forever until they get frustrated and quit or the business self-destructs. You cannot ignore PEOPLE stuff forever and get away with it. Things will blow up in your face. The day will come when you have to become a grown up and meet the challenges head on.
That is one of the dilemmas we face. No one ever told us we would have to deal with all this stuff when we started our business many years ago. After all, we were good at what we did. We fixed things and made it happen. It seemed so easy to hire a few more good people like ourselves and make this thing called a small business grow. That works for a while – the honeymoon period can be really fun – but one morning reality will call and then the issues have to be addressed. Peers are the best way to address them along with a steadfast commitment to be accountable to execute. As Edison said: “Vision without execution is hallucination” and there is a whole lot of hallucination going on in every vertical or small business.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Roundtables4Roundtables Part II
This is part II of an ongoing report from my time spent in NY. We were hosted by Cleinman Performance Partners in Oneonta who focuses on optometry organizations. Their focus – help build business skills into the docs who run these practices. Hmmm….that sounds vaguely familiar. That tended to be THE common theme across all groups. In every case the people who run the businesses they serve were primarily technicians – be they docs or dentists, builders or health care trainers – or in our case IT technicians. Same stories – they were good at what they did and one day woke up running a business and leading a team of employees without any idea what that really meant. So they struggle with sales, marketing, HR, finance, training, service delivery, management and on it goes. Same list with a few different focuses, but still the same list.
So the common ground was huge – we all need to help our members (and every one does refer to their clients as members) build their business acumen and skillset. No one has time to do that – they are all working IN their business rather than ON it. I get lots of pushback from our HTG members that they are too busy to really focus on leading their business. They are billing and generating income. “C’mon….you can’t ask us to stop that just to take time to have a sales pipeline review or write up a business or leadership plan”. It is worse in some of the other industries. Other organizations get told it costs 5K a day in lost billing when they “waste” their time doing “office tasks” rather than billing. Wow….that really sounds familiar….at least the last part. There aren’t many IT companies who have people generating 5K a day in revenue but the issues are the same. Time is money and most people running a business feel that making money directly through billing a client is far more important than making money by running their business. After all – they hire people to do that don’t they?
Actually some do hire people to do that and then expect them to figure out what “that” is and means by some sort of osmosis. No one takes time to define what the business is to be. No one tells them how to use the systems that are there. There are few if any written policies or procedures or processes. It should just “work” because the owner spent a few bucks hiring someone to do that. Maybe they even hired a team to do it. Owners don’t have time to be bogged down with the details – they are billing and making money so they can pay these folks.
Whoa Nellie…..this model doesn’t work. Not in IT, or optometry, or dental, or health clubs, museums or remodelers. If the owner doesn’t lead….there is nothing to follow and the children end up playing in the creek and weeds totally missing the goal that the owners never shared in the first place. Why do we do that? Why do we think that people can read our minds and just figure it out. They can’t, they don’t, they won’t – just like you spouse can’t or won’t or doesn’t. The way information like that is transferred is called communication. This is another area all of us talked about – we have issues here amongst the ranks that need some help.
If you feel like I am talking to you specifically – I am. You are a PEOPLE. You have problems and you need help. That is why roundtables are so successful. We all need each other. We need to share our issues and learn from folks who have been there and done that before. There is no reason for each of us to make every mistake on our own. We will still make plenty of those, but we don’t have to make all of them. So gathering in a safe community to share and learn is a shortcut. It takes us to success faster and with less pain than going it alone. So many small businesses fail without ever discovering the power of their peers. So many focus on running their business in secret so a competitor doesn’t figure out what is going on. Hello – have you seen the Internet? In 15 minutes it is pretty easy to get most of the information your competitor cares about. And a few bucks and hours spent with a former employee can give them the rest. Competition is a reality in business. Get over it and get on with learning from peers.
If you believe for a minute that you have some secret sauce (OK McDonald’s may have since they advertise it in their commercials: two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun) you are delusional. Sort of sad that I have that memorized isn’t it? There is someone out there doing it faster, cheaper and better than you. If not today, then watch over your shoulder because they are rapidly approaching. So quit worrying about protecting what you believe you have and start focusing on what matters – building and growing your business faster, better and cheaper than the competition. That is the secret sauce. Learn to leverage the power of peers to get to the new things that are going to change your world faster than they do - technologies, methods, tools, services etc. I believe competitive advantage is most significant when it happens in how the business is operated – not in what it does. Those are the things that really matter.
So the common ground was huge – we all need to help our members (and every one does refer to their clients as members) build their business acumen and skillset. No one has time to do that – they are all working IN their business rather than ON it. I get lots of pushback from our HTG members that they are too busy to really focus on leading their business. They are billing and generating income. “C’mon….you can’t ask us to stop that just to take time to have a sales pipeline review or write up a business or leadership plan”. It is worse in some of the other industries. Other organizations get told it costs 5K a day in lost billing when they “waste” their time doing “office tasks” rather than billing. Wow….that really sounds familiar….at least the last part. There aren’t many IT companies who have people generating 5K a day in revenue but the issues are the same. Time is money and most people running a business feel that making money directly through billing a client is far more important than making money by running their business. After all – they hire people to do that don’t they?
Actually some do hire people to do that and then expect them to figure out what “that” is and means by some sort of osmosis. No one takes time to define what the business is to be. No one tells them how to use the systems that are there. There are few if any written policies or procedures or processes. It should just “work” because the owner spent a few bucks hiring someone to do that. Maybe they even hired a team to do it. Owners don’t have time to be bogged down with the details – they are billing and making money so they can pay these folks.
Whoa Nellie…..this model doesn’t work. Not in IT, or optometry, or dental, or health clubs, museums or remodelers. If the owner doesn’t lead….there is nothing to follow and the children end up playing in the creek and weeds totally missing the goal that the owners never shared in the first place. Why do we do that? Why do we think that people can read our minds and just figure it out. They can’t, they don’t, they won’t – just like you spouse can’t or won’t or doesn’t. The way information like that is transferred is called communication. This is another area all of us talked about – we have issues here amongst the ranks that need some help.
If you feel like I am talking to you specifically – I am. You are a PEOPLE. You have problems and you need help. That is why roundtables are so successful. We all need each other. We need to share our issues and learn from folks who have been there and done that before. There is no reason for each of us to make every mistake on our own. We will still make plenty of those, but we don’t have to make all of them. So gathering in a safe community to share and learn is a shortcut. It takes us to success faster and with less pain than going it alone. So many small businesses fail without ever discovering the power of their peers. So many focus on running their business in secret so a competitor doesn’t figure out what is going on. Hello – have you seen the Internet? In 15 minutes it is pretty easy to get most of the information your competitor cares about. And a few bucks and hours spent with a former employee can give them the rest. Competition is a reality in business. Get over it and get on with learning from peers.
If you believe for a minute that you have some secret sauce (OK McDonald’s may have since they advertise it in their commercials: two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun) you are delusional. Sort of sad that I have that memorized isn’t it? There is someone out there doing it faster, cheaper and better than you. If not today, then watch over your shoulder because they are rapidly approaching. So quit worrying about protecting what you believe you have and start focusing on what matters – building and growing your business faster, better and cheaper than the competition. That is the secret sauce. Learn to leverage the power of peers to get to the new things that are going to change your world faster than they do - technologies, methods, tools, services etc. I believe competitive advantage is most significant when it happens in how the business is operated – not in what it does. Those are the things that really matter.
Can't Miss Events for 2010
We are just about a month from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, and I thought it would be a good time to remind you why events like this are so important to us as partners. I wrote an original post on this topic in 2009, and have updated my thinking here based on my focused role as CEO now. There are only a few events on my “cannot miss” list any more:
1. Quarterly HTG meetings
2. ConnectWise Partner Summit
3. Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference
4. CompTIA Breakaway
Certainly there are a number of other quality events that occur in the channel each year, but to be honest, if I don’t pick and choose I will be attending an event or two every week. And as my role has matured, it has become more important to select the events that will make the largest impact on our company from my seat as CEO. There is a real cost, and a significant opportunity cost to be out of the office, on the road attending events. So why are these my picks and what has changed?
First, let’s talk about roles and how that should impact the events we attend. From my perspective – there is a vast difference between the role of CEO and President/GM. I am finally figuring that out. The CEO role should be heavily focused outside the company – on relationships and industry – externally looking. The President or GM is more internally focused and responsible for the day to day management. CEO’s are strategic while President’s are responsible. Those differences should drive the types of events we attend. Another role we have within companies as they grow is managers. These are the folks who carry out the tasks and make sure the work gets done. They own execution and need to be in the weeds figuring out how to make it happen. As a CEO I stay out of the weeds as much as I can. That is not where I belong.
That said I realize that maybe as many as 90% of the people reading this post don’t have the model of CEO and President as roles split between different people. I know that the singled-bodied CEO/President/GM has to serve many masters. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary at HTS, we have finally moved to a place where we have a different person responsible for strategy vs. operations. I remember all too well how it was when I went to events as the lone leader with strategic and operational focus. So understand – my focus is now from the seat of strategy – that of a CEO.
I have really not spent any time attending operational meetings for a while now. It didn’t fit my job role even as President. That is where we need to start as we determine how to make investments in meeting attendance. I may be unpopular with some because of these views. Everyone wants to attend every meeting. Every meeting sponsor wants you at their event. But it just doesn’t make sense to do them all. So what will I be doing for the balance of 2010?
HTG quarterly meetings are the backbone of my community involvement. At those meetings each quarter I get updated on our business. Connie now owns the responsibility to prepare and present as President but I try to sit in and check out the benchmarking numbers that show how we did relative to the group we participate in, HTG as a whole, and the industry. This also gives me a big batch of fresh ideas to evaluate, as well as a quick pulse on the industry and marketplace which is becoming increasingly important for my role of strategic leader. I also am able to bounce ideas off the best and brightest about pending business model hurdles and required changes – like the cloud – a sort of think tank environment to help solidify thoughts and directions because of deep relationships and an environment that is tailored for those kinds of activities. The days spent at HTG are the best investment I can make in terms of working on my business from a strategic vantage point.
One of the new wrinkles for HTG this year has been the CEO Forum where a handful of companies are gathering every 6 months to focus solely on strategy and the role of CEO. Our next meeting is next week in Denver – and we will be diving deep in to strategic planning and preparation for the next big thing in our industry. I find the chance to sit in a room with 18 brilliant other CEO’s as stimulating and valuable as it gets.
Since ConnectWise is the platform we run our business on, attending their partner summit is a no brainer. There is no one single thing that can impact my business as deeply and quickly as tweaks made to the PSA tool we use. So attending their event, rubbing shoulders with the other users there, and learning how to get the most from that product is a great investment of time. But realize that my time is spent primarily in advisory council, presentation, vendor meetings, press and other modes – while we have other members of the HTS team there focusing on the actual utilization of the product. ConnectWise is the operating system of our business, and I need to be close to all aspects of that eco system to assure success in our business. We need to have a strategic relationship with the company on as many levels as possible as no other part of our infrastructure has the impact that ConnectWise has.
Microsoft WPC – the next large scale event I will attend – is all about building relationships broadly across a large organization. It would take weeks of time on campus in Redmond and airplanes flying back and forth across the country to be able to see and meet with the number of people I am able to connect with during 4 days at WPC. There is no other gathering where I can get access to the quantity of a vendor’s staff that Microsoft provides at WPC. Mornings allow access to executive keynotes that provide a roadmap for the future. Afternoons are filled with breakouts, but sprinkled in all of the open spots are one on one’s and small meetings with program managers, product folks, field team and a variety of others from Microsoft. If you just attend WPC for the content delivered from main stage and breakouts, it is a good value. But if you really take advantage of the time to connect with people, it is an unbelievable opportunity to build relationships with key people across that organization that can be fantastic resources for you to leverage and work with to grow your company.
CompTIA is a new focal point for me as I sit in the the role of CEO. CompTIA provides a lot of great content, but the reason I feel strongly the need to connect is all the things they focus on in an advocacy role for our industry. They are working in politics and thought leadership and will be a significant force in defining what the IT industry looks like. I want to be involved and part of that process. I see it as a significant part of strategy.
HP and SonicWALL are also key partners for HTS and thus on my list of must attend events except when they either don’t hold them or lay them over other events that are more strategic. This year SonicWALL has not held an event, and HP held theirs right on top of the HTG Summit so I skipped it in lieu of what I felt was far more important. That is happening more all the time which forces us to make choices and the need to change how we spend our time. And that is really the message of this blog – you have to really think about what you are going to invest your time in and not just attend an event because it is offered.
Distribution affinity groups like VTN are bubble meetings for me as a CEO, but must attend for those in the day to day roles within a company. I attended VTN for many years, but now have passed that torch to my management team in most cases today.
So the real question is – which events are on your “must attend” list? Mine has changed over the years as my company has grown and my role has changed. My advice is to take a hard look at what your job really entails for your company and then be sure to send the right people to the right events to get the information first hand they need to achieve their job success. Sometimes, often in fact, that is not likely you. I realize it is hard for many to send an employee to a conference or training. Who will monitor them and make sure they are actually doing what they are supposed to? How can I be sure they won’t sleep in or make the company look bad? You can’t know, but if you hired the right people that is not an issue.
1. Quarterly HTG meetings
2. ConnectWise Partner Summit
3. Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference
4. CompTIA Breakaway
Certainly there are a number of other quality events that occur in the channel each year, but to be honest, if I don’t pick and choose I will be attending an event or two every week. And as my role has matured, it has become more important to select the events that will make the largest impact on our company from my seat as CEO. There is a real cost, and a significant opportunity cost to be out of the office, on the road attending events. So why are these my picks and what has changed?
First, let’s talk about roles and how that should impact the events we attend. From my perspective – there is a vast difference between the role of CEO and President/GM. I am finally figuring that out. The CEO role should be heavily focused outside the company – on relationships and industry – externally looking. The President or GM is more internally focused and responsible for the day to day management. CEO’s are strategic while President’s are responsible. Those differences should drive the types of events we attend. Another role we have within companies as they grow is managers. These are the folks who carry out the tasks and make sure the work gets done. They own execution and need to be in the weeds figuring out how to make it happen. As a CEO I stay out of the weeds as much as I can. That is not where I belong.
That said I realize that maybe as many as 90% of the people reading this post don’t have the model of CEO and President as roles split between different people. I know that the singled-bodied CEO/President/GM has to serve many masters. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary at HTS, we have finally moved to a place where we have a different person responsible for strategy vs. operations. I remember all too well how it was when I went to events as the lone leader with strategic and operational focus. So understand – my focus is now from the seat of strategy – that of a CEO.
I have really not spent any time attending operational meetings for a while now. It didn’t fit my job role even as President. That is where we need to start as we determine how to make investments in meeting attendance. I may be unpopular with some because of these views. Everyone wants to attend every meeting. Every meeting sponsor wants you at their event. But it just doesn’t make sense to do them all. So what will I be doing for the balance of 2010?
HTG quarterly meetings are the backbone of my community involvement. At those meetings each quarter I get updated on our business. Connie now owns the responsibility to prepare and present as President but I try to sit in and check out the benchmarking numbers that show how we did relative to the group we participate in, HTG as a whole, and the industry. This also gives me a big batch of fresh ideas to evaluate, as well as a quick pulse on the industry and marketplace which is becoming increasingly important for my role of strategic leader. I also am able to bounce ideas off the best and brightest about pending business model hurdles and required changes – like the cloud – a sort of think tank environment to help solidify thoughts and directions because of deep relationships and an environment that is tailored for those kinds of activities. The days spent at HTG are the best investment I can make in terms of working on my business from a strategic vantage point.
One of the new wrinkles for HTG this year has been the CEO Forum where a handful of companies are gathering every 6 months to focus solely on strategy and the role of CEO. Our next meeting is next week in Denver – and we will be diving deep in to strategic planning and preparation for the next big thing in our industry. I find the chance to sit in a room with 18 brilliant other CEO’s as stimulating and valuable as it gets.
Since ConnectWise is the platform we run our business on, attending their partner summit is a no brainer. There is no one single thing that can impact my business as deeply and quickly as tweaks made to the PSA tool we use. So attending their event, rubbing shoulders with the other users there, and learning how to get the most from that product is a great investment of time. But realize that my time is spent primarily in advisory council, presentation, vendor meetings, press and other modes – while we have other members of the HTS team there focusing on the actual utilization of the product. ConnectWise is the operating system of our business, and I need to be close to all aspects of that eco system to assure success in our business. We need to have a strategic relationship with the company on as many levels as possible as no other part of our infrastructure has the impact that ConnectWise has.
Microsoft WPC – the next large scale event I will attend – is all about building relationships broadly across a large organization. It would take weeks of time on campus in Redmond and airplanes flying back and forth across the country to be able to see and meet with the number of people I am able to connect with during 4 days at WPC. There is no other gathering where I can get access to the quantity of a vendor’s staff that Microsoft provides at WPC. Mornings allow access to executive keynotes that provide a roadmap for the future. Afternoons are filled with breakouts, but sprinkled in all of the open spots are one on one’s and small meetings with program managers, product folks, field team and a variety of others from Microsoft. If you just attend WPC for the content delivered from main stage and breakouts, it is a good value. But if you really take advantage of the time to connect with people, it is an unbelievable opportunity to build relationships with key people across that organization that can be fantastic resources for you to leverage and work with to grow your company.
CompTIA is a new focal point for me as I sit in the the role of CEO. CompTIA provides a lot of great content, but the reason I feel strongly the need to connect is all the things they focus on in an advocacy role for our industry. They are working in politics and thought leadership and will be a significant force in defining what the IT industry looks like. I want to be involved and part of that process. I see it as a significant part of strategy.
HP and SonicWALL are also key partners for HTS and thus on my list of must attend events except when they either don’t hold them or lay them over other events that are more strategic. This year SonicWALL has not held an event, and HP held theirs right on top of the HTG Summit so I skipped it in lieu of what I felt was far more important. That is happening more all the time which forces us to make choices and the need to change how we spend our time. And that is really the message of this blog – you have to really think about what you are going to invest your time in and not just attend an event because it is offered.
Distribution affinity groups like VTN are bubble meetings for me as a CEO, but must attend for those in the day to day roles within a company. I attended VTN for many years, but now have passed that torch to my management team in most cases today.
So the real question is – which events are on your “must attend” list? Mine has changed over the years as my company has grown and my role has changed. My advice is to take a hard look at what your job really entails for your company and then be sure to send the right people to the right events to get the information first hand they need to achieve their job success. Sometimes, often in fact, that is not likely you. I realize it is hard for many to send an employee to a conference or training. Who will monitor them and make sure they are actually doing what they are supposed to? How can I be sure they won’t sleep in or make the company look bad? You can’t know, but if you hired the right people that is not an issue.
Someone Else Who Gets It
I write often on the importance of working strategically and through partnerships with vendors. HBR (Harvard Business Review) posted a great piece from Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, that made me stand up and cheer. Zappos sees it the same way as HTG does. Vendors are not the enemy and need to be treated like our best friends – as partners we cannot live without – as keys to our success – as critical components to a winning strategy. This article entitled “A Lesson From Zappos – Follow the Golden Rule” really hits the key points and says it better than I – so take the time to go and read this in full.
I do want to call out a few key statements in this article:
I could not have written this article any more clearly than Mr. Hsieh has done it. We truly grow and succeed based on how well we are able to build and maintain and nurture our relationships. We want to focus on the customer, but I am here to scream that there are equally important relationships with our vendors and distribution partners. And the sooner you learn that – the sooner you will start to truly grow and succeed. If you don’t get it – as the article states – you will like find the “death spiral” most retailers find.
Relationships matter; and few are as important as those you build with your key vendors. Get them right, invest in them wisely, and they will take you far. Fail here and you can start planning for your next job!
I do want to call out a few key statements in this article:
- Ultimately, each party is out for the same thing: to take care of the customers, grow the business, and be profitable.
- We found it much easier to create alliances when partners aligned themselves to the same vision and committed to accountability
- It all begins with the Golden Rule: Treat others as you'd like to be treated
- We realize the importance of communication, and if our partners are trying to reach us, we need to be responsive
- If we created true transparency in our business, not only would they help us, they'd benefit as well
- Negotiations at Zappos are a bit different as well. Instead of pounding vendors, we collaborate
- We know there’s no way we could’ve achieved our success as a company without our vendor’s commitment and passion, so every year, we like to show a little gratitude
- All of this is because of the trust we’ve built….we respect and value our relationships
I could not have written this article any more clearly than Mr. Hsieh has done it. We truly grow and succeed based on how well we are able to build and maintain and nurture our relationships. We want to focus on the customer, but I am here to scream that there are equally important relationships with our vendors and distribution partners. And the sooner you learn that – the sooner you will start to truly grow and succeed. If you don’t get it – as the article states – you will like find the “death spiral” most retailers find.
Relationships matter; and few are as important as those you build with your key vendors. Get them right, invest in them wisely, and they will take you far. Fail here and you can start planning for your next job!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Roundtables4Rountables Part 1
I spent the last few days in scenic Oneonta, New York. It is a small town in upstate NY – middle of farm country – with a down home feel and a wonderful view. Our trip from Albany was about an hour through more trees than there are in the entire state of Iowa I think. If we leveled the hills a bit, took off the trees, and put pigs where the dairy cows were it could be home. I will be posting a series of blogs on this topic over the next days. It was a very enlightening couple days.
My trip was to participate in the roundtables4roundtables forum. It was a group of groups – a mastermind group for those who provide mastermind groups. There were six companies represented at this event. What makes this group unique is that each organization focuses on a specific vertical – so unlike the Vistage/Tec/C12 model where business decision makers cross industry meet regularly to share – these organizations all focus on a specific vertical with very narrow focus.
We had orgs that served dental, optometry, home remodelers, museums, health clubs and of course IT which I represent. I had some concern going in that there would be too much difference between us to get enough value from the time and expense investment. Boy was I wrong. As is almost always the case in life – 80% of what we all do is pretty much the same – and the 20% that is unique to our industries was still close enough to add value.
In the end we are all dealing with the same thing – PEOPLE. That is the challenge for all organizations. People that are too busy, don’t execute, fail to get things done on time, are slow to pay, have life issues, struggle getting buy in from partners and staff, don’t take time to plan or set goals…..you know the drill. It is you and me. All of us struggle in a lot of ways which is why wisdom sharing/roundtables/mastermind groups/peer groups/affinity groups/bull sessions – you pick your term of the day – it is the fact that we are people with all those needs that make these groups so powerful and necessary.
One thing that was unique about this group is that the HTG experience of 10 years made us one of the youngest companies in the room. That is not something I get to see often. It didn’t make me one of the youngest guys – just leading one of the younger organizations. But there was a big wealth of experience as we shared with each other. Some of these folks have been doing this over 20 years and there is nothing that replaces experience in getting great advice to help a business grow. So I was really blessed to be part of this event and learn from some real pros.
Bottom line – we all have problems. We can learn a lot from one another by being transparent and sharing life together. If you are trying to go the journey alone – you are missing the greatest tool available to you – the power of peers and community. It does make a difference if you let it!
My trip was to participate in the roundtables4roundtables forum. It was a group of groups – a mastermind group for those who provide mastermind groups. There were six companies represented at this event. What makes this group unique is that each organization focuses on a specific vertical – so unlike the Vistage/Tec/C12 model where business decision makers cross industry meet regularly to share – these organizations all focus on a specific vertical with very narrow focus.
We had orgs that served dental, optometry, home remodelers, museums, health clubs and of course IT which I represent. I had some concern going in that there would be too much difference between us to get enough value from the time and expense investment. Boy was I wrong. As is almost always the case in life – 80% of what we all do is pretty much the same – and the 20% that is unique to our industries was still close enough to add value.
In the end we are all dealing with the same thing – PEOPLE. That is the challenge for all organizations. People that are too busy, don’t execute, fail to get things done on time, are slow to pay, have life issues, struggle getting buy in from partners and staff, don’t take time to plan or set goals…..you know the drill. It is you and me. All of us struggle in a lot of ways which is why wisdom sharing/roundtables/mastermind groups/peer groups/affinity groups/bull sessions – you pick your term of the day – it is the fact that we are people with all those needs that make these groups so powerful and necessary.
One thing that was unique about this group is that the HTG experience of 10 years made us one of the youngest companies in the room. That is not something I get to see often. It didn’t make me one of the youngest guys – just leading one of the younger organizations. But there was a big wealth of experience as we shared with each other. Some of these folks have been doing this over 20 years and there is nothing that replaces experience in getting great advice to help a business grow. So I was really blessed to be part of this event and learn from some real pros.
Bottom line – we all have problems. We can learn a lot from one another by being transparent and sharing life together. If you are trying to go the journey alone – you are missing the greatest tool available to you – the power of peers and community. It does make a difference if you let it!
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