Tag Archives: foreign markets

Purpose before Self-Your mission as a leader

August 23, 2009 – 9:24 am

In an era when many business leaders seek celebrity at the expense of their companies, others are quietly focused on something else entirely: the business.

What they care most about is carrying out the mission of the business, delivering the promised results, and building an organization they can be proud of.

They have a sense of purpose that goes beyond their own personal desire for extraordinary wealth, status, self-aggrandizement, or power. They put a broader purpose before interests that benefit only them.

Magnetic Leadership

Look around your organization and you’ll likely see leaders who are always thinking of what’s best for them or what will make them look good.

Then there are others who are driven to create something meaningful and enduring. Their purpose might be to make the organization the most respected in its industry, or to develop the best workforce in the world. One CEO I know has made it his purpose to recast his company as an innovation-driven organization.

These are the leaders people typically gravitate toward. The ones we trust, and who we want to be more like — not because of how much money they make, how much power they have, or how well-known they are, but because of who they really are, their inner substance.

Given the public transparency of the 21st century, leaders who put purpose before self are the ones to follow — and to emulate.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Some leaders make impassioned speeches about their glorious mission or lofty goals, but their actions reveal their true motivations. They want their own fame, power, and fortune more than anything.

Are you the type who says the right things, or the type who does the right things? Is your self-interest served by meeting a higher purpose?

Put yourself to the test by being intellectually honest in answering the following questions:

1. Are you willing to give up some of your turf for a broader purpose?

In 2005, a $20 billion company underwent a major reorganization, and one of the senior executives approached the CEO to tell him a portion of the executive’s new job really should belong to someone else.

What was he thinking? He was in a horse race to succeed the CEO and already had the smallest scope of all his peers and fellow contenders for the top job. Under those circumstances, many leaders would try to expand their span of control. But he believed the organization would work better if certain areas went to someone else.

This leader was not naïve or unambitious. It’s just that he truly wanted the business to succeed. Of course he hoped that his thinking would be recognized and appreciated. When his boss and the board get close to the succession decision, no doubt they’ll remember that this person revealed he’s not a greedy empire builder.

Caring about the good of the organization can mean ceding a portion of your span of control, voluntarily agreeing to cut back on projects in order to meet a budget goal, or sharing part of your leadership responsibilities with an up-and-coming leader who needs a development opportunity.

It might also mean giving up valued team members who would better serve the organization in a different capacity. In today’s global organization, letting go of good people is almost an imperative.

2. Do you place a high value on relationships?

Leaders who lead with a purpose understand that they must build and sustain relationships — with customers, suppliers, employees, colleagues, and others whose favor or contributions are important to their organization’s success.

They don’t see relationships as an immediate exchange of benefits. Their primary concern is not “What’s in it for me?” In fact, it may not even be clear exactly how a relationship could ultimately prove beneficial. Nonetheless, they’re happy to devote the time and energy.

One legendary leader who understood this was John Weinberg, the former head of Goldman Sachs. He was famous for regularly calling to check in on clients, even when he had nothing to sell them. He just wanted to be available to them to help with any issue he could.

The payoff was that he built deep, trusting relationships with his clients, who would often turn to him for advice. These relationships in turn helped solidify the reputation and strength of his business. It’s part of what brought him recognition as a great leader.

3. Can you value — and leverage — different perspectives?

If you lead with purpose, you understand that there’s little value — and much short-sighted paranoia — in dismissing or deflecting viewpoints that differ from your own.

If you try to create a picture from a higher altitude, namely the corporate viewpoint rather than a departmental or divisional viewpoint, you’ll be better able to reconcile conflicts. To do that, you have to be able to step into someone else’s shoes and see things through their eyes.

Are you given to clashing with other leaders in your company, or do you seek to build strong working relationships with them based on your shared commitment to the common good of the organization? Do you automatically push back on customer demands for earlier delivery dates, discounts, or more favorable credit terms, or do you try to understand why these requests are being made and work with the customer to arrive at solutions that benefit both parties?

Leaders who put purpose before self can recognize, accept, and even leverage different perspectives — often to tremendous advantage

4. Are you comfortable with transparency — because you have nothing to hide?

Transparency is the order of the day, and people are more willing to work with, work for, and partner with people they trust. Trust is, after all, the crucial glue of collaboration.

Those who are narcissistic, who cut corners, and seek the easy path when the right path appears too difficult, and who clearly put themselves first, are less effective because they’re held in much lower regard.

If, on the other hand, a higher purpose guides your actions, others will know where you stand and what you’re about because you have nothing to hide.

Mark Twain observed that if you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything. He offered this as a humorous observation, but as a leader you should take the spirit of the message seriously. If you put purpose before self, you’ll spend little time covering your tracks, “spinning” bad news, brandishing your image, or seeking to rebuild trust with others. And, as a result, you’ll have that much more energy to devote to your purpose.

Disclaimer: source and author unknown.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics, Sales Management, Strategy and Leadership | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Competing with the BIG BOYS

May 23, 2009 – 4:54 am

If you are concerned with maintaining your competitive advantage, or simply staying alive like the rest of us, you most likely have considered alternative sources of revenue in the last eighteen to twenty four months. You might be a one person outfit selling a better mousetrap, or a Fortune 500 executive launching a new division to rev up growth. Discovering new markets must be part of your overall growth strategy.

Whatever the case, at some point you’ll need to go back to basic- thinking like an entrepreneur — whether it’s to launch a new product or service line, extend to a new market segment, or establish a beachhead in a new geographical territory.

The reality, as every entrepreneur knows, is that most markets already have existing competitors. Even the largest companies in the world sometimes find themselves the small fish in a big, new pond. And the bigger fish already know the territory; they have the scale, connections, and market share to make life difficult for newcomers.

Still, there are tried-and-true ways to swim with the sharks, and start and grow a business. What I will share with you, and what other readers have provided, are not only classic cases of market penetration, but some unconventional ways and some examples of how to leverage the tools that avail themselves to you.

There are three steps to effectively entering a new market in spite of what players are on the scene:

1.     Don’t buy into swinging for the fences, try for singles and doubles:

 Big companies are accustomed to hitting home runs every time they step up to the plate. They generally do not venture anywhere unless they know for certain the ROI is in place and waiting. For they have the research, the channel partners, and the consultants. What they lack as a result of their size are flexibility to change courses quickly and efficiently, flexibility to work with customers on specific needs, and the quickness necessary to meet deadlines.

As a new player, you may not have the resources some of the BIG BOYS have in place. Do not despair. There is a clear advantage to being small, cross functional, and flexible.  You can create pilot teams throughout your company, each composed of people from all the departments. Their mission: Getting a revenue project up and running in a ninety days. That is what I call “small ball” strategy, to use one of Baseball’s favorite terminologies.

90 days? I can sense some skepticism as you are reading this.

What you need to keep in mind is the purpose of the 90 day goal-line: The 90 days forces everyone in the team to confront issues that would keep you from succeeding. The clear focus and short time frame force team members from different departments to break down the walls that literally and figuratively keep them separate.

On a personal note, I always try to enlist the help of at least one stake holder from the customer side. If that is not possible, make sure the customer’s wishes are well represented through the sales representative.

2.     Be creative with execution.

There is so much to cover in this section. I want to instead focus on small organizations with scarce resources and smaller budgets.

You probably remember the case of how Red Bull decided to compete. They did not go after the soft drink market and compete head to head with the giants of that industry. They instead went after the college and athletics crowds, and distinguished themselves as an energy drink. As they established their name brand, customers, like liquor stores and super markets came calling. The rest of the story is well known to all. My point is, you need to know your competitors. You need to know your market, or a segment of it. Taking the road less traveled is often times the safer way to go.

On a recent trip, I came across a customer that was hesitant to pull the trigger on a solution that was certain to help his organization. He was reluctant due to timing, budgets, and all the reasons you are all too familiar with. I offered we customize a solution for him, provide him a sampling of our offering at no charge to his company. I needed to validate to him and his shareholders the benefits. Our down side was insignificant vise a vise the trust I needed to create. I am certain that if he does not go forward with it, it will not be because he failed to see the benefits our solution will offer his company.

3. Change your moneymaking approach to be different from the market leaders.

By not playing in the same soda markets as Coke and Pepsi, Red Bull didn’t have to compete on price, where it probably couldn’t have won.

By working with our prospects on finding unique solutions for their needs and offering proof of concepts, and even providing the hardware they need to “play with”, we have essentially increased our chances of landing future contracts exponentially.

The Game has just began

If the good news is that you’ve successfully entered or created a market, the bad news is that you’d better be ready for a competitive reaction. If you’ve been successful, you’ll almost certainly wake the sleeping giants and draw in newcomers.

Be prepared to fight

There may be times in which a new entrant’s growth stalls even though it does everything right. Innovating, moving quickly, and offering something unique — be it customer service, technology, value, brand association, or a different mix of attributes — should give the entrepreneur a good start.

But giants have a lot of power in their scope (i.e., bundling different products and services together), brands, relationships, and customer bases. Think of Microsoft’s successful battle with Netscape over the web browser market. Clearly, not every big company is slow or can’t innovate. Some are very good at figuring out new market segments and can shift huge amounts of resources — both capital and great talent — to defend whatever turf is under attack.

Not all big companies are afraid to take risks, either; indeed, because of their size and resources, they can afford to take them. GE, for example, brings those advantages to almost every market in which it competes.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics, Sales Management, Strategy and Leadership | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Size does not matter

May 19, 2009 – 10:41 pm

I have recently returned from a trip abroad researching new markets for our company. I visited three countries to be exact. I have found that in our domain expertise, there are already several key players embedded in to the fabric of the local markets. At first glance, I was discouraged – who wants to deal with a small custom software solution provider with no real fooprint in this part of the world. I began my usual recon mission about the potential, customers, existing vendors, the solutions they are selling, the business model they are offering, the service packages they claim to support. I realized that we can play in this arena, and possibly give the big boys a real competitive game. (Sorry, too many playoff games)
Competing against the BIG BOYS will be the subject of my next post. I am hoping you will share your own ideas and personal experiences, what side were you on, and how did you deal with it. Please send any posts directly to me and I’ll put them on the site: lotfisaibi@gmail.com

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)