Cronies, How They Can Hurt Your Business.

Cronies Become Part Of Your Inner Circle Of Trust

Every business has a network.  Every business develops a small set of people that 'hang-out' with what that business model tends to represent.  Take a short walk through the halls of every business model and you will find a small group of people who are there to support what that business model represents.  Each model has its own group of frequent supporters.  Small sets of supporters come packaged with every business model.

Good or bad, these strong supporters come to our side.  They can be found standing next to the ugly stuff we do in our business models.  Trust me, every business model practices doing some ugly stuff, somewhere, somehow.  No exception.  There is no perfect model.  Perfect business models just simply do not exist.  They all have faults somewhere.  Mine do.

Even the business models that are suffering and failing in business, the ones who are spinning out of control, have developed a small network of supporters.  That group of supporters can often be found dressed with armour that builds up their support and protects how they feel about that failing business model.  They will step out and protect its leader from criticism and ridicule.  These supporters are the cronies that come packaged with the things each business model ultimately does.  They become the cronies that stick by the side of every failing business model.  I have mine, you have yours.

Even the worst of business designs will have a small group of supporters who will come to its aid when the chips are down.  We all develop small circles of these supportive cronies.  They become our friends.  They become our confidants.  They become our protection.  They support what we are doing wrong.  They cover our bad trails with creative deflections that whisk away the ugly stuff we all do once in awhile in our business models.  Every business model has this small segment of crony support when the chips are down.  We lean on them when the weather gets ugly.  We appreciate their protectionism.  We feed what keeps their support alive, even if it hurts the future of our winning potential...even if it supports what will not correct our ruined ways.  We circle around the cronies we find.  They become our special friends.  

This is often where a few business leaders host some of the most trouble in their leadership ways.  They pick out their supporters in counter-productive ways.  They are not as careful with whom they bring close to the inside halls of what they do.  They struggle with the development of their inner circle lines of support.  They allow the selection of their group of cronies to build at a random pace with mistaken interpretations and ill-fated energies of effort.  Crony support can hurt how the leader attempts to correct what is truly going wrong with the activities performed by the business model they guide.  Cronies can become the hidden distraction that interferes with good design.  I have seen it occur hundreds of times.  I have seen it infect some of the greatest business minds.

Every business model occasionally develops some form of incorrect practices.  We all get caught up in doing wrong things.  We decide to do what will not work.  We decide to make what will not sell.  We decide to practice what kills our growth.  We decide to ignore some changes that must be made.  We decide to avoid what cannot be avoided.  We decide to deceive what is not deception-able.  Every business model steps in the poop once in awhile.  We all are guilty from time to time.

During those wrong times of practice we find out who our best cronies are.  They are the ones who stand by our side.  Come heck or high water, there they are. standing right next to the ugly stuff we are finding to do.  They are supporting our ways with that supportive thing that comes with how a crony behaves.  They seem not to mind how deep the mud becomes just as long as they are allowed to offer what they show support to do.  They come to our side when the hurricane is at its worst.  They are our cronies.

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Adapt To Change, Properly.

My wife and I have gone back to reading Alvin Toffler's classic of the 70's, "Future Shock."  We treat the read as a little reminder project.  We sit down each day and read a small segment from an old paperback copy we found in our basement archives of old books.  We find time each day to read it to each other out loud, one small segment each day.  It has been an interesting project.

First of all, one thing is for sure.  The human condition does not accept change very well.  It will process change, sometimes by force more than by choice, but to embrace that process comfortably is another deal altogether.  Just because a music enthusiast does not prefer to accept cassette tapes or digital recordings does not mean they are able to remain where eight track equipment was onced processed.  Eight track formats simply disappeared!  The change was forced upon those who preferred to remain with eight track music.  It was not a choice.  Change happened with or without the acceptance of the user.

The human condition has been faced with this kind of process for a few decades.  I remember when the cover of a popular trade publication several years ago, I think it was Business Week, showed a picture of a business guy who had a deer in the headlights look on his face with the caption reading, "Change Or Be Changed!"  As sophisticated as we might like to be, we do not accept change very well.  We often times wait until it is forced upon us.  Then with no useful choices remaining, we comply.  What's more, our compliance is covered with bits and pieces of sprinkled dissatisfaction.  We are not easily convinced to buy in.

Welcome to business leadership.  The art of convincing groups of people, stakeholders, institutions of finance, customers and associates all coming together at one time producing the growth of synergy that is required to help the model win big.  Getting the whole lot to buy-in at each changing corner of strategically timed movements that include all of the elements of change so they can become the call of the day to mold out the final 'look' that represents success...this becomes the deal.  Welcome to the art of business leadership.

There is no crystal ball to help business leaders manage their changing futures properly.  Alvin Toffler's book proved that many predicted and useful outcomes did in fact occur.  However, it also found that some of the more telling scenarios that were once predicted never saw the light of day.  If a business leader was to choose one of those specific scenarios to follow they would have become dead wrong in their business plans.  The future holds too many uncertainties.  Analyzing all of the variables correctly is a serious crap shoot.  Business leaders truly recognize this complicated process.  Missing the mark is very doable.  Ask Mr. Johnson of J.C. Penney's about this truth.  It can become extremely common.  Many business leaders face this challenge on a daily basis.  It plagues their efforts to grow and prosper well.  Even the smart ones can easily miss the mark.

The landscape of planning for business success today is beginning to reveal how abstract it can truly become.      Very few winners circle the streets with loads of success and these losers are easily found in every living community.  They are not rare commodities.  Struggling business models are everywhere.  In fact, much more are losing financially than are winning.  The files of finance are chocked full of millions who struggle each day to move forward.  The world is littered with hurting business models.  Even the big establishments that have institutionalized their winning ways are fighting to find the next successful corner.  Just take a look at Microsoft, Dell, Chase, Disney, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Boeing, Apple, Proctor and Gamble...the list can fill a bathtub with reams of paper that reflect the strategies of how much these business leaders work on keeping away from the potential for failure.  Their futures are uncertain.  At least Toffler got that part correctly predicted.

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Which Entrepreneur Are You? #1 or #2?

Hal Gregersen is a respected author and professor of innovation and leadership.  He does his teaching through Insead, a private graduate business school.  Insead specializes in MBA programs.  They are among the many platforms available for business minds to find useful ways to expand and prosper.  Hal Gregersen is one of the leading teachers of business innovation that harbors his work around this platform.

About a week ago or so, Hal was reported in a story written by The Wall Street Journal.  It described how the DNA might appear similar in the common 'profile' for entrepreneurs.  I believe the piece was written as an excerpt Hal delivered at an innovation conference.  Anyway, the gist of the story centered around the common links entrepreneurs have that are identifiable and predictable.  Hal described the similar types of characteristics found in entrepreneurs.  His focus was aimed to identify what makes a successful entrepreneur.

I liked the article.  It was useful.  My interest was peaked when he described how successful entrepreneurs foster innovation, creativity and a culture of winning.  These are common traits to those who win often in the world of business.  Unfortunately, the world is full of entrepreneurs who do not possess these kinds of traits. They do not honor creativity.  Many do not like to risk their patterns of work with innovative experimentation.  They therefore, remain non-innovative.  In fact, most lose more often than they win.  This is not a good representation of producing a winning culture.  It would be safe to venture a comfortable guess and report that most entrepreneurs lack these three special sets of skill Hal described in his presentation that was reported in The Wall Street Journal recently.  His description of common traits that produce successful entrepreneurs is not very common.

Let's call his defined three traits the #1 set of successful traits.  Entrepreneurs who are #1 carry these behaviors.  They push for a culture of winning.  The expect to win, at all times.  This is true even when they are currently losing.  They believe beyond doubt that their ways will win out long term.  They believe in what they know, do and seek.  They question their path, direction and patterns with constant adjustments for moving closer to winning big.  They are bent towards adjusting to win.  That is what they do best.  It is very difficult to teach this style of leadership.  Successful entrepreneurs know when to turn, when to change and how to do it with better sets of reasonable results.  They harbor some magical sense that tells them when, where and why.  They have a nose for winning.

Let's go one step deeper on this subject.  Successful entrepreneurs may not actually be able to write a book on how to win big.  In fact, most might not even be able to articulate how they saw what they saw that gave them the insight to move in the ways they moved to win.  They may only be able to report how they could 'feel' the win coming and what it would take to make that win happen.  What might come up missing is the measurable indications that fell on their path of success that caused them to move in the ways they finally moved.  The pure logic might be hard to find.  This slippery pattern is very common territory for entrepreneurs who live in the #1 pattern for winning traits.  Their instincts work overtime without much to telegraph why they do what they do.  They just have a unique sense for producing winning cultures.  It is more magical than definitive.

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When Business Leaders Search For Help, What Do They See?

Madness comes in all shapes and all sizes.  In the business world, madness comes a lot from the sheer fact that many of us get quietly trapped into doing a lot of things that hurt the most.  Even deeper yet, a far larger cause for madness comes from not doing the things that help the most.  We commonly avoid what hurts the most because it will obviously hurt the most.  It is within this kind of business leadership that eventually causes the most madness.

I am usually hired by business leaders who have become terribly trapped inside the walls of this kind of world.  Their business leadership has run off the course of healthy patterns.  It has gone off that course in a very subtle but serious manner.  Furthermore, they are business leaders who believe they are not off course.  They are also business leaders who know something is going very wrong with their business models but they do not believe they are the source of that misdirection.

This kind of pattern is as normal as the sun comes up and sets each day.  I witness misdirection and failed leadership on a regular basis.  I see terrible leadership patterns rooted deeply in the souls of the business leaders asking for help.  They come to the request and repair table with preconceived notions about what is going wrong with their business models.  Most of the time, none of the notions they carry reflect anything true about how misdirected they have become in their own leadership patterns.  That kind of view is not in sight.  It is missing from the landscape of described problems.  They do not usually see themselves as part of the problem.

Therefore, most of the madness we find as we begin the work to determine what has gone really wrong with their business models, is not really found.  We usually do not begin to nibble on the real problems of the business affairs until much later in our repair work.  It takes time to finally discover the true source of the leadership errors.  The mirrors do not come out in the early part of business repair.  Self discovery usually comes to the table of repairs at a later time.  It must come to that table in a more carefully orchestrated fashion.  Most business leaders operate inside a firm pattern of established ways.  They usually believe they are in charge, on the right track and doing their work in the correct fashion.  Very few believe they are the source of their troubled business ways.  It is what it is.

I have listened to hundreds of business leaders describe what is going wrong with their business models.  Not once have I ever met one that has described how wrong their own leadership has become part of why they are missing the mark.  Not once.  Never.  Yet, when my work is deeply entrenched inside the repair process I discover the sources of their most challenging ways and those challenges are often times caused by the poor leadership patterns those business leaders are initiating and employing.  This happens every single time. It has been one hundred percent true.  That observation includes me.

Therefore, as much as I do not desire to become one of those advisory assistants in the repair process of their troubled business models that stereotypes each one of them as a misdirected leader...I continue to end up standing on the very things they are doing wrong in their own style.  My efforts to avoid those natural tendencies to stereotype all of them as misguided leaders is usually wasted by the sheer fact and plain truth that the source of their ills is coming from them.  It is usually true.  They are commonly the source of the problems their business models face.

Guess what?  My business models suffer the very same challenge.  We as leaders become the key source of our own misguided plans.  We are the problem.  Time and again.  We cause the wrong things to happen.  We protect our ill-fated ways.  We support the inconsistencies that hurt the most.  We devise the best protective killers of our business potential.  We are the culprits.  We are the source.  We do the most damage.

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How Does Your Business Stay Relevant?

Examine How Relevant Your Business Has Become.

I think back through all the years of my business career and can imagine living almost seven lifetimes.  What about you?  How many lifetimes of business patterns can you examine in your own business career?  A few? I can think of my first set of business patterns.  Let's take a walk through history and examine some of those life patterns.  Let's see how each pattern was able to remain relevant to the business.

In the beginning, I was the son of an entrepreneur who directed me to practice all of these particular things to help out in the family business.  That was my first set of business patterns.  My first job was to deliver the furniture my family sold.  My business life began listening to how things should be done to please the process for attracting consumer sales.  These relevant and particular things were a major part of my first impressions to business leadership.  Please the customers.  That was the bottom line.

I remember being told to hold my hands on the outside of the furniture while I was delivering their new furniture so my hands hit the door jams instead of the customers new furniture.  We were never supposed to make any marks or cause any damage to the new furniture the customer was having delivered.  Scratching the back of our hands was far more desirable than placing an unwanted scratch on the back side of a new piece of furniture.  This was one of my first delivery lessons.  Consumers must be pleased at all costs.  That was the message.  My first lessons were related to the policies of customer attraction.  Look good, act professional, be polite, show ultimate care in the products they purchased, compliment their choice when it was delivered and thank them for their newly purchased items.  This was my first introduction to business relevance.

That was my first life in business.  I was young and specifically taught how to do these simple things.  My current question...how many business leaders continue to practice today this first rule of business relevance?  How many business owners have forgotten this simple step?  How many business models skip treating the consumer as someone very special.  In fact, let's go further into that line of questioning.  How many business models treat their customers as something they would scratch the back of their hand to please?  Is your current business model doing everything it can do to make certain your customer feels special and appreciated?  How far has your business traveled away from being this kind of close to this kind of relevance?  Think about this deeply.

I read the Wall Street Journal daily and I witness thousands of large corporations each month describe how they work to 'take' more advantage of the opportunities they can discover that their customers will be willing to support.  Is this kind of approach the same thing as scratching the back of your hand?  I think not.  These two approaches to customer attraction policies are completely separate scenarios.  Customer service has drifted away from where it used to be.  I see the current treatment of customer service as something quite a bit different than what it used to be.  Customer service has become modified to lower its level of consumer treatment.  It is now strategically designed to protect the energy and cost of the business offering the consumer tolerance of treatment policies.  It is very calculated in the world of business today.  How relevant is this method of approach?  To the consumer, not very.  To the shareholder, very.

I rarely see a business model treat all customer relationships as loyal and special.  When exemplary customer treatment is practiced all of the time, it is extremely rare.  That is exactly what helped my parents, who were self-taught entrepreneurs, to become a relevant piece of early business success in their community.  They began their trek with the consumer treatment well above what anyone could have expected.  Their customers were treated with respect, honor, dignity and expected in all cases to be loyal...even when they were not.  Loyalty was never a prerequisite for treating their customers well.  All customers got treated well.  No exceptions.  Good 'extra-mile' service was not just offered to the loyal ones.  It was offered to all of them.

Does this sound like any business model you shop with in today's marketplace?  I certainly do not see it.  I shop a lot in my travels.  I am rarely thanked for my purchases.  I am rarely given any special extra treatment.  I have rarely been given an extra mile piece of added on service with my routine buying patterns.  I am like everyone else in the confused market place of today, I am just another number.  Business models do not have the time nor the human resources to practice the things of extra effort in today's fast paced markets.  And as a result, those models are no longer relevant.  Where does your business model land on this scale of comparison?  Is it a one or is it nearing a ten?  Maybe it lands somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Maybe it is a five...average.

How does your business stay relevant?

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What Makes Work Become News?

What makes work become news?  Everything.

Each day upon arrival in your work environment new challenges show up.  Even though there are current challenges in process...new ones pop up.  For example, maybe an employee conflict between two staff members has been lingering in the halls for a little while.  Although simple to understand why this stuff flirts with continuing issues here and there, the conflict between the two just never seems to go away.  It occasionally takes control of your desk time when you least expect it.  You finally decide to nip this one in the bud today.  As you examine the facts and get the details to settle the score between these two nagging challengers, it leads you to some new areas of issues and determinations related to this challenge.  The bickering between these two employees is larger than you first imagined.

News takes over.  A new discovery becomes more important than the issue you first began to solve.  Now you discover the problem is much larger.  Time for more digging.  The need for more accurate information is pressing.  Sometimes these issues cannot be solved immediately.  Many of your daily challenges cannot be resolved and removed on the same day they arrived.  This one may be one of those continuing issues.  Time is not always in your favor when news of new challenges arrives.

Then another day gets started.  Yesterday's challenge between two bickering employees is still waiting for some answers about more details.  The search for additional details to help resolve that issue is in progress.  Yet another somewhat related employee issue comes to light in the research process spent on this issue while gathering more facts.  Now a third employee challenge of similar nature is on your table.  A line up of brand new news!  Work is all about processing news.  What once was nothing a couple of days ago is now a building pattern of possible problems in your system of employment.  Some unfriendly stuff is happening in the rank and file of employment sharing.  News is driving your day at work.

Before you know it, another day goes by.  With both feet firmly placed in the middle of this employee issue, you arrive to work to get this challenge finally resolved.  As you sit down at your desk, one of your major supplier representatives has notified your business that they plan to change the terms on some fees they charge for delivery.  The cost of delivery will increase 3%.  It appears as though they are making a policy change in this income stream.  This is how they plan to add income to the streams they currently share with you.  Unfortunately, you are one of their largest customers and this small increase of 3% means quite a bit of money to your business.  You ask your staff to gather some information to prepare for the phone call you plan to make with your representative from this supplier.  News again, takes over.

You quickly forget about the employee challenge on the top of your pile.  An annual increase of about $30,000 in cost just showed up with this 3% supplier adjustment news.  Thirty thousand dollars down the drain trumps a tiff between disgruntled employees, easily.  You shift gears and begin the work to prepare to salvage as much of that $30,000 increase in cost.  The news of that increase moves front and center.

At the end of the day, the employee issue was placed on hold.  Too many other supplier related challenges consumed your time.  While trying to resolve that increase in fees it was discovered that your alternate suppliers were not able to fill the gap of orders if you cancelled using your main supplier.  Your trump card to cancel vanished from your hand.  This was brand new news!

Switched suppliers is not an option.  Not yet.  The rest of your day was spent looking for a better supply line to fill your needs.  Your focus was pointed in the direction of saving $30,000 in the coming year.  It was work that was filled with a lot of news.  Some of your department leaders are not doing the kind of work to protect this business from issues and challenges facing the security of competitive supplies.  Again, new news.  Work becomes news.

At the same time all of this stuff is occurring some new information is coming in from your secretary.  She informs you that the president of your board of directors has requested a special executive session with you and your other board members.  The new subject for discussion in that session will be the idea of closure for one of your neighboring facilities.  It happens to be a facility that relates to the employee issue that has recently surfaced.  The news on that subject goes from bad to worse.  She sets the meeting time with you.

As you meld through the news on your employee challenge, the possible board proposal and the supplier increases in cost...you request the agenda for the up-coming executive session subjects.  Your secretary does not have that information.  You call the chairman of the board to gather that news so you can prepare the materials they plan to discuss.  The chairman shares the information with you.  The board is considering the closure of one division that has been a part of your strategic plan to dovetail into another department.  You have been working on this plan for a couple of months to bring the working concept of this idea to the board.  It is also part of the internal riff that is suddenly unfolding with your employees.  All of this news is channeling itself down a familiar path.  Stuff is happening that was not planned or anticipated.  It has become part of the daily news.

Work becomes news.  We manage news.  Every business leader is faced with news that unravels in each moving day.  News is how we see our working plans.  News is how we find the paths that work.  News is where the best discoveries find the surface.  What makes work become news?  Everything.

A great business leader has a firm grip on how to manage brand new news.  It simply is the thing they do best.  The business leaders who manage news in the best fashion are the ones who make the best decisions.  They are also the ones who come out with the best results.  Work becomes news.  They accept this role.  News becomes work.  This is usually how a day unfolds in a fast moving business model.  News travels parallel with the duties of the day.

Let's examine the alternative.

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