ValuExecBlog

Making Sense of it All

Nature is a wonderful teacher. If you have ever witnessed a fire, fanned by gale-force winds, race across a bushland, you will know that the resultant destruction is often swift and devastating. Anything that is dry and brittle is devoured with a ferocity that defies belief. The direction of the fire can change quickly as it is guided by winds over which we have no control. The heat and the roar of the fire can be felt and heard meters away and the smoke and the ash can be seen for miles providing a warning to those not immediately in its path to prepare for its impact. At its very centre, there is nothing that you nor anyone can do for the heat is just too intense. So you concentrate around the edges, beating back the feeder flames so that they don't become monsters in their own right. In addition, you work quickly to build a buffer by back-burning a barrier over which the flames can not cross. You work fast, and untiringly willing the wind to die down and the heavens to open up so that you can restrain the fire. Eventually, the fire devours itself and dies as there is no more fuel that it can feed off. Your buffer has kept it in check. All that is left now is a devastated landscape, a scorched earth and smoldering trees that once stood tall. You are exhausted, and you go home too numb to count the cost.

But whilst you lie exhausted, the process of birth begins almost immediately. Nature begins to rebuild. Green shoots of grass break through the earth's crust and a few months later what was once a blackened, charred earth, is now littered with green tufts of grass. New trees are emerging and those trees that had been healthy and strong before the fire, although scarred, are showing signs of growth again as new leaves appear on its branches. The landscape has indeed taken on a different appearance from what it once was. Not only is it marked by burnt monuments of trees that once stood tall but it is also marked by new varieties of flowers, grass and saplings. You grieve over the burnt monuments but as you look at their charred remains, you realize that they were hollow and that they were dead internally long before the fire; a fact that nature knew a long time ago. Then you marvel at the growth and the beauty around you.

As Nature teaches us - despite outside appearances, companies that are internally weak or hollow on the inside, will be destroyed by the current crisis. Companies that are healthy and strong internally will, although scarred - survive. Throwing money at the weak is like throwing more wood on the fire. The landscape is changing but just as Nature begins the building process immediately, so too must we.

We need to review our current business models of growth. We need to review our strategy within the changing landscape. We need to review our processes and our internal systems and be ruthless in discarding those that are monuments of landscapes of long ago. We need to review the talent that we have left in our company, and know how we will retain them. We need to plan for the day we will need to attract the best of talent back into our fold when growth occurs and it will. We need to review how we are going to keep our loyal customers who are lying exhausted and who have lost so much. We need to find ways to strengthen our companies so that they will in fact grow because through growth will come confidence. Importantly, we need to review shareholder and investor expectations of what is considered reasonable growth. 

So, I ask you - now that you have made all the cuts and have laid off people by the droves; reduced your advertising and administration spend; downgraded travel and closed unprofitable branches and knowing that as one business journalist put it, 'the hangover from 2008 will last long after the last firework is heard exploding in the night sky.' - I ask you, 'What's next? and have we in fact learned anything from what Nature teaches us.

ian

The Web of Execution Excellence ~ What Nature Teaches Us

Picture if you will, a spider's web. Arising from a central core, are a few large, strong vertical strands that spread from the centre of the web to its outer fringes and which are attached to the external environment (be it a tree or a branch etc.) Each of these core strands in turn is connected horizontally by smaller strands similar to the rungs of a ladder, starting with the smallest strands at the bottom levels and moving to the larger horizontal strands at the top of the web. The larger vertical strands spreading from the core and attached to the environment determine the size and shape of the web whilst the smaller strands however, provide access for the spider to move from one end of the web to another. Together, both the vertical and horizontal strands provide the net with which to capture unsuspecting prey. 

Should one of the core vertical strands break, the web waves around in the wind and if not fixed and attached quickly to a branch or anything external, the whole web crumbles and folds like a deck of cards in the wind. Break any one of the smaller horizontal strands however, and the web although not broken, does nevertheless have a weakness, a gaping hole which if not fixed, allows prey to exploit it and to escape leading eventually to starvation and ultimately to death of the spider.

When looking at execution excellence within their corporation, CEO's would do well to see their organization as a spider's web connected to the external environment by core processes and with a number of support activities providing access and agility. Too often our leaders focus all their execution efforts on ensuring that the core strands are strong and firmly in place, but leave the management of the smaller execution strands to others. The argument being that, as we have seen with the spider's web, any destruction of the core strands will have immediate and dire consequences. But as we have also seen with the spider's web, the consequences of a broken smaller strand, although not immediately dire can, if not fixed, be as severe as the destruction of a larger strand. The adage being the web is only as strong as its weakest link.

The lesson being execution excellence requires that every aspect of the organization works together, is connected to the core processes, and is flexible to withstand gale force winds and change. If one strand is broken be it vertical or horizontal, it will impact the rest of the execution equation. It is simply not a question of "if" but merely a question of "when?"

Have a wonderful and prosperous 2008.

ian

Nature's lessons # 1: Get Rid of the Weeds

Nature has a way of providing us with simple lessons that we would do well to embrace and remember. Although I do not have 'green fingers', I do find working in the garden relaxing and an excellent tonic for being in the present.

Quite a few months ago I decided to get rid of all the weeds in my lawn, and so armed with weed-killer, I proceeded to spread it across my lawn. In my haste to get the job done and because my eyesight is probably (OK, definitely) not what it used to be, I failed to read the small print on the label that happened to mention that not only did the weed-killer kill off all known varieties of weed, but it also killed off various strains of buffalo grass (which just happened to be about 95% of my lawn). Within 10 days, I had no weeds, neither did I have any lawn. 

The good news was I could now start my lawn from scratch. I prepared the soil, laid the turf and watered the new lawn regularly. Soon, I had a lawn that looked far better than it had previously (which wasn't hard) and I was happy to say the least.

It wasn't long before I noticed a few weeds making their uninvited appearance on my lawn again. This time I quickly dealt with the offending culprits; not with weed-killer but by hand. A few weeks would go by, the weeds would appear again, and they would be dealt with. Soon, I realized the first of Nature's lessons:"Getting rid of weeds is an on-going process."

Weeds are like our bad habits. If left unattended and unrecognized, they will consume our lives. We may get rid of them through various shock treatments like attending a 3-day seminar, or other personal self-help programs (in my case it was the weed-killer), but if we do not continuously monitor our environment or our progress, they will reappear and keep on reappearing until we have developed new and better habits. 

How often have we enthusiastically started a goal or task only to be way-laid at the first major hurdle and then find ourselves retreating back to our comfort zones and the safety of our bad habits? How often have we felt we could have done better at a particular task or activity if only we had not procrastinated or wasted time and energy focusing on unimportant issues? 

So, persevere with those weeds; make no mistake about it, they will keep popping up, but by continuously dealing with them when they do raise their unsightly heads, you will win in the end. Nature is a wonderful teacher.

What have been some of the lessons that Nature has given you over the years?