Richard Citrin Blog | Citrin Consulting
Strategy: Your Business Model
February 20th, 2012It makes no difference if you are a start-up company, a non-profit organization or an established franchise looking to grow in new ways; You better have a business model that works and is understood by your customers and employees.
Three key questions help frame the question of your business model (the who, what and how):
- Who we are?
- What we do?
- How we make money?
Who We Are?: Most companies address the who question with their mission and vision statement but many of these miss the mark because they are too focused on the product side of who they are and not on the outcome they strive to achieve. Take a look at the mission statement for Ralph Loren:
“Ralph Lauren’s mission is to redefine American style, provide quality products, create worlds and invite people to take part in our dreams.”
Walk into any department store around the world and you will see people striving to join Ralph Loren’s dream of style and to have the opportunity to pay a premium for it.
What we Do?: Build your product line with a focus towards what will serve the organization’s mission. Too often companies may engage in multiple activities hoping to hit a home run with one while covering their bases with another. Establishing a list of what we do and what we don’t do helps to clarify the specifics of our products.
Salesforce.com built a disruptive technology by offering a subscription based software product that ran a great customer relationship management product. While there were plenty of good CRM products, Salesforce’s differentiator was being able to make the software available on-line anywhere, anytime freeing sales people from the burden of going back to the office to track their contacts.
How We Make Money?: Many years ago before I sold my first company, I introduced the concept of Open Book Management to my staff based on the work of Jack Stack and his book, The Great Game of Business. Using this approach, I proceeded to provide my staff with complete financial reports on the status of the 
company (except compensation) and educated them on reading spreadsheets and P&L statements. The result was a greater sense of ownership and engagement that helped our staff understand how their actions on both the revenue and expense side contributed to our and their success.
Most companies delegate off the financial component of business success to the CFO and accounting department but I would suggest that it is way too important to be relegated there and that the question of how the company makes and spends money is everyone’s business.
As business changes at the speed of light, revisiting your business model and how you and your staff understand who you are, what you do and how you make money can only help strengthen your success.
Call us for some ideas on putting these models into play for your organization.
Talent: He’s “Lintastic”
February 17th, 2012Last year, the movie MoneyBall talked about how the old traditions of baseball’s talent management system grossly misunderstood important factors that should be considered when looking for an all star baseball player. Today we know that another professional sport “stumbled upon” a potentially great player more by luck than intent.
By now the entire world has heard about Jeremy Lin. An unheralded undrafted New York Knick basketball player whose resume highlighted his Harvard education more than his professional basketball prowess. While he helped his high school team win a California championship, he received no Division I scholarships and “settled” on Harvard as his number 2 choice.
After an outstanding career at Harvard, he wound up signing a contract with his hometown Golden State Warriors where was heralded for his Asian-American roots more so than his basketball play–something that seemed to bother him as he wanted to prove himself as a basketball player. But he was waived by the Warriors and then went onto Houston where he played 7 minutes in 2 exhibition games before getting the send off.
It was just this past December that the Knicks picked him up as a third string point guard and he spent his first month with the Knicks playing well for their farm team before being recalled since their players at that position were still rehabbing from injuries.
Given that Lin had not played much in his first month, the Knicks were planning to waive him on February 10 but after a devestating loss to the Boston Celtics on February 3, the Knick head coach, Mike D’Antoni decided to give him a chance.
191 points, 60 assists and seven victories later, Jeremy Lin is hot. He’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the New York Post has run out of “Linisms” for their headlines and his #17 Knick jersey and t-shirts have increased on-line sales for the Knicks 3000%.
In the talent world, Jeremy Lin would be described as a “diamond in the rough”. Smart, hardworking, focused and committed on improving his craft and a man who works with a sense of perseverance and purpose.
His story, while still new and fresh portrays a great message for both employers and employees. For the boss, always keep your eyes open for that person in the background at the end of the bench who has a secret desire to contribute and who keeps working at it. For the rest of us, keep at it and when your turn comes go for it big time.
Leadership: What Do You Say?
February 16th, 2012I was talking with a thriving business owner today and he shared with me that he sometimes gets into a really negative place with himself. When he does he becomes very negative and “hyper critical” of himself. He gave me a description of the words he uses to describe himself and it is inappropriate for this “G” rated blog.
He describes himself as being very competitive and that he thinks his self denouncing language is a way to pump himself up and that pushes him to do better. I could agree with him if he had been able to tell me about the ways that his approach worked. But the more he talked, the more it became clear that he was not pushing forward but instead was pushing backwards and actually keeping himself down.
It was not as if he didn’t have his fair share of challenges with a growing business, a young family and a small workforce that he had to train and oversee while he was out growing and building business but I couldn’t help but ask him, “what his option b to pump yourself up”?
We talked about the words he uses to describe himself and I asked whether he would consider using less inflammatory language even if he wanted to describe his performance as less than acceptable to him. He was honest about not being sure that he could or that he wanted to but agreed that he could see how the way he was talking to himself about himself might not always have the motivating power that he would like.
He told me that he remembered a quote from Mahatma Ghandi that he always thought he should try to apply in his life but that he did not often put into play
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes”.
Ahhhh, Vacation
February 7th, 2012I’m back from vacation and feeling pretty pleased with how great a holiday it was for us. I usually don’t measure the quality of my holiday time off but this time we had such a well-balanced vacation that I couldn’t help but pat myself on the back for a great week.
There were three keys that made this vacation so pleasurable for us. The first is that we got to see great family and friends. We made two stops, one in Austin for the wedding of the daughter of one of our oldest friends and then onto Sarasota to see my brother and sister-in-law. The second was that we kept a full schedule of activities and rest including some new fun things we hadn’t done before like renting a power boat and driving up and down the Intracoastal exploring dolphins, birds and
restaurants and third we enjoyed getting a little work done in the mornings before adventuring out.
Maybe I’m a workaholic but I see nothing wrong with spending time getting some work things done when “on vacation”. I was able to stay connected with email, make some important calls and work on some writing that was due the week I returned. I like being in touch with clients and the time between writing and relaxing gave me some new perspectives on what I would talk about in my monthly newsletter.
Of course, no vacation is complete without a trip to some kind of museum and a visit to the Edison/Ford estate in Fort Meyers helped me connect with these two giants of 20th century leadership. More about them in the next blog
Five Keys For CEO’s
January 17th, 2012There is a seismic shift happening in the “C” suites of organizations. New and younger leaders are stepping into the Chief Executive Office role and are finding that they want to do things differently than their predecessor and are not only charting new paths but are also going about it in a different way.
As I’ve been meeting with senior leaders, many of whom are in their 40’s, they are bringing a completely different perspective to their role. They don’t see themselves as “heroic leaders” capable of running and leading their organization on their own like a lion who is king of the jungle. Instead they want to create a working organization where responsibilities are shared more evenly and decision making can be made more easily and nimbly.
As a result, they recognize that their skill set must be different. As I’ve interviewed a number of them, I’v coalesced their ideas into five keys:
- Philosophy: When I’ve asked successful leaders about their approach to leadership, they’ve been able to successfully share their ideas. Many of them talk about being genuine, following up on their word and modeling effective behaviors.
- Communication: The workplace is more complex than ever and people are smarter than ever. They ask questions, take nothing for granted and infer solutions in the absence of certainty. Not maintaining a clear line of communication and keeping the flow of information open is an essential quality that these top CEO’s demonstrate. Many advocate the use of multiple channels including town halls, emails, social media and face-to-face visits. Not only will staff appreciate the information but these CEO’s report getting more information than they give.
- Understand your Talent: The prime job for any CEO is to make sure that he or she has the best people working for them doing the best job they can. Taking time to assess top performers and finding a way to help them grow means that the organization is creating a pipeline that ensures that your best performers will stay around and make key contributions
- Show your Humanity: One CEO told me that the most important thing he ever did was to apologize to his staff when he screwed up on a big project that cost his company millions of dollars. His acknowledgement showed everyone that he was capable of recognizing and acknowledging his errors and that he could recover from that and move on. His honest sharing made a tremendous difference in his team’s commitment to him as a leader and the organization’s mission.
- One Life: Several CEOs told me that they could not separate their work life from their home life and that their best efforts at maintaining that balance was to embrace the fact that they loved working in their jobs and fulfilling the mission inherent in their job. They took time for family and their personal life as a matter of course and did not “carve out” specific time. The result was that they lived “one life” which allowed them to move easily and comfortably between work and home. Surprisingly, this created a healthier balance for
them and helped them maintain an even keel within their life.
All the CEOs I’ve spoken with tell me that they think that shifting ideas of leadership are bringing about new ways that CEO’s will be interacting with their organization and their employees. In a changing world, change the ways.