 If you’re on your company’s leadership team, you know first-hand that the pandemic has shown how a sustained crisis adds urgency and weight to just about every decision you make. These tough economic times bring into focus flaws and gaps that were tolerable and even unnoticed in “easier” times – but not any longer.
Whether you know it or not, your company’s culture has taken center stage as a concern because the workplace has changed in huge and likely permanent ways which threaten to disrupt the “largely taken-for-granted beliefs and practices that underpin how people work together,” Jennifer Howard-Grenville points out in MIT Sloan Management Review.
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6/26/2020 0 Comments Davos Man Needs A Rethink By Andrew Green & Kevin McDermott
[reprinted from Medium.com, June 23, 2020] Among the many people handing out opinions about life after this year’s multiple emergencies are those predicting the end of globalization. The chaos of the last six months, they argue, will throw globalization into reverse. Goodbye to the free movement of goods and people and ideas. In moments of crisis predictions about the future are seldom accurate. But it’s safe to say Davos Man, the creature of globalization, isn’t going anywhere.  By Andrew Green & Kevin McDermott [reprinted from Medium.com Apr 29, 2020] Our pandemic has revealed the desire of nearly all of us for a shared sense of mission, a better version of ourselves. Put another way, it has accelerated a reckoning with our broken systems that has been on its way for a long time. In the United States we are used to politicians boasting that America is "the greatest". According to the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation, since 1990 the United States has fallen from sixth in the world in math and science education to number 27. In 2019 infant mortality was 5.7 deaths per 1000 live births in America—significantly worse than Malta, Croatia, Latvia and almost double every member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. Median wealth per adult in the United States is $65,904, according to Credit Suisse. That puts the country 22nd in the world behind Taiwan, Austria, Spain, Belgium and Iceland.  By Andrew Green & Kevin McDermott [reprinted from Medium.com Feb 7, 2020] Some days it feels like we’re living through an era in which every problem is a problem from hell—unprecedented, monstrously large, ramifying wildly, with no obvious solution. For such an age our ideals of leadership are a bad fit.  In 1848 Karl Marx remarked of his time “all that is solid melts into air.” 2019 is hardly 1848. But when we read Marx muttering about “constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty” the mood can seem awfully familiar. In the United States and in other capitalist countries around the world there is a feeling of uncertainty, of broken institutions, of unfairly distributed opportunity. We’re at a moment when we’re asking ourselves a direct question: In the economic system we’ve built, what—and who—gets optimized?  Contrary to what we usually hear, about 80% of small businesses do survive the first year, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy’s 2018 Frequently Asked Questions. But only 50% make it through the first 5 years. Of course, these stats don’t tell the whole story about those early growth years. And I was curious to find out what, if any, blanks I could fill in that would be valuable to companies in the midst of scaling. So I began an investigation, and have some early insights to share after our first dive into the data.  Image thanks to 123rf photo/ Daniil Peshkov
"Where do I start?” It’s a question I hear a lot from clients in growth mode. “Problems keep popping up and they’re taking up all my time. We’re not making progress fast enough!” What I find with many of my growth-mode clients is that they’re overwhelmed by all the things that are demanding their time and attention. It can feel like – and you backpackers/campers know what I’m talking about – setting up a tent in storm conditions. Everything’s flapping in the wind and nothing’s nailed down. Once you’ve got that first tent corner staked down, the next corner is easier to deal with…  Image thanks to 123rf photo_lightwise In a webinar I recently gave I was talking about the importance of cultural resiliency for growth-stage companies. “ ‘Cultural resiliency’ sounds like consultant-speak,” one of the attendees posted in the chat box, “What do you mean by that?”
I welcomed the question. As a startup, everyone on the initial tight-knit team has a clear idea of its culture – the values and behaviors that the team lives by. They may not be explicitly stated but with a small team, the values and behaviors that tie everyone together are the implicit norm. Anyone who steps outside of the norm can be assured of pretty quick feedback.  “Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple.” ― Pete Seeger
Growth doesn’t always mean “adding more.” Sometimes simplifying the business and doing it really, really well is the way to go. CNN Business writer Paul R. La Monica gives a great example of how this can happen, and how one company turned it around - with better wine and fewer breadsticks.. . Five years ago, assessments of Olive Garden – the primary contributor to the overall Darden Restaurant portfolio - were brutal. “Too many breadsticks. An abundance of items on the menu that weren't Italian dishes -- like tapas and hamburgers. Gloopy sauce. And perhaps the worst culinary sin of all -- failure to salt the boiling water for the pasta."  Image thanks to 123rfphoto/alphaspirit Companies accelerating up the growth curve are achieving increased market traction…more customers, higher sales. That’s great news! But many companies discover that their scaling journey is accompanied by operational breakdowns that cause rework, errors and, if the breakdowns involve core product delivery, customer complaints and attrition. When that happens, finger-pointing and frustration inside the company isn’t far behind. What has happened here? Well, back in the startup days, the founders were a small team who shared knowledge on all aspects of the business. They not only had an implicit understanding of the operational processes - they helped create them! |
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