Better Performance through Data

By Virgil Carter

Unfortunately, many non-profit organizations are not known for their data-based research and decision-making. Instead, it seems, volunteer leaders may often arise in a quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors, make a motion, second and vote favorably for a decision to commit sizable amounts of staff time and money for an unstudied “good idea”! This may not be the best way forward for improved organizational performance. So what about the idea of better organizational performance through data?

“The ABCs of Analytics”, a recent Strategy+Business article by David Meer argues that “big data” can drive competitive advantage if companies follow a few timeless principles. Meer writes that “any analysis of data that stops after asking “what”, which is already a big undertaking, isn’t analytics. You have to ask “why” and “what next?”
According to Meer, there are three pragmatic lessons that have always been at the core of a strong analytics program, guiding data analysis initiatives:

• Rely on theory-based approaches, rather than blind data mining: The starting point should be an explicit hypothesis about customer needs and how your organization creates value for them.

• Strive for a holistic view of customers and markets: Smart companies look holistically at their markets and customers, using at both traditional and new sources of data about both markets and customers.

• Learn by doing: As an organization gains new insights from their data gathering and analysis, it will be important to be open to new approaches and to challenge sacred cows. Start data gathering slowly, with a few pilots; learn to walk before attempting to run!

“Data gathering and analysis, properly done, can be a major investment”, the author writes. It takes finding, assembling and harmonizing the data by specialists trained to do the more advanced work, find the hidden patterns, interpret them and turn them into insights the organization can put to use.
The process can be a manageable one, Meer concludes, “in fact, it’s been my experience that once organizations start investing in analytics, and they almost never stop”. “The things they learn drive improvements in the business that more than pay for the effort!”

For the full article, go to: http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00150?pg=all

Brilliant Business Quotes

Virgil Carter
As we look to a new business year and the many challenges ahead, it may be good to listen to the experienced business advice of the world’s richest investor, Warren Buffet.  As reported in the Herald Sun, here are some of Mr. Buffet’s most common quotes and some lessons to be learned from them.

1. “Rule No. 1:  Never lose money.  Rule No. 2:  Never forget rule No. 1.”:  While even Buffet has lost money on his investments, over the long term he has benefited by being conservative with his investment and avoiding fads.
2. “It is better to hang out with people better than you…you’ll drift in that direction”:  Never be afraid to ask successful people what they did and how they did it!
3. “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars:  I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over”:  Too often investors (and leaders) go for a single big win rather than do the many small things that are already available such as having a strategy, reviewing regularly and diversifying.
4. “I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years”:  The quote is about one’s mindset and decision-making, with the ability to think long term.
5. “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago”:  A favorite Buffet quote illustrates why taking a long-term view is important.  Many of today’s luxuries are because someone else had a long-term vision and was prepared to invest for the future.
6. “Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get”:  The price of an investment can mask its true value because of factors such as emotion, market booms or busts, and even tax consequences.
7. “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy when others are fearful”:  Perhaps Buffet’s most famous quote, which is at the heart of his belief in avoiding the herd mentality.
8. “The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth”:  Many investors like to jump on an investment that’s already doing well—that’s why we have booms and busts—but they really should look to the future.
9. “Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down”:  Waiting for the right time to buy can be an opportunity within itself.
10. “If a business does well, the stock eventually follows”:  The key for sharemarket investing is to find good-quality businesses that will grow over time.

For the full article, go to:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/money/investing/warren-buffetts-wise-words/story-e6frfh66-1226496064311

Better Performance Through Data

Virgil Carter

Unfortunately, many non-profit organizations are not known for their data-based research and decision-making.  Instead, it seems, volunteer leaders may often arise in a quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors, make a motion, second and vote favorably for a decision to commit sizable amounts of staff time and money for an unstudied “good idea”!  This may not be the best way forward for improved organizational performance.  So what about the idea of better organizational performance through data?

“The ABCs of Analytics”, a recent Strategy+Business article by David Meer argues that “big data” can drive competitive advantage if companies follow a few timeless principles.  Meer writes that “any analysis of data that stops after asking “what”, which is already a big undertaking, isn’t analytics.  You have to ask “why” and “what next?”

According to Meer, there are three pragmatic lessons that have always been at the core of a strong analytics program, guiding data analysis initiatives:

·         Rely on theory-based approaches, rather than blind data mining:  The starting point should be an explicit hypothesis about customer needs and how your organization creates value for them. 

·         Strive for a holistic view of customers and markets:  Smart companies look holistically at their markets and customers, using at both traditional and new sources of data about both markets and customers. 

·         Learn by doing:  As an organization gains new insights from their data gathering and analysis, it will be important to be open to new approaches and to challenge sacred cows.  Start data gathering slowly, with a few pilots; learn to walk before attempting to run!

“Data gathering and analysis, properly done, can be a major investment”, the author writes.  It takes finding, assembling and harmonizing the data by specialists trained to do the more advanced work, find the hidden patterns, interpret them and turn them into insights the organization can put to use.

The process can be a manageable one, Meer concludes, “in fact, it’s been my experience that once organizations start investing in analytics, and they almost never stop”.  “The things they learn drive improvements in the business that more than pay for the effort!”

For the full article, go to:  http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00150?pg=all

Enduring Ideas: Understanding Your Organization

By Virgil R. Carter

What makes organizations what they are?  Why are some organizations radically different than other organizations?  As a CEO or senior staff executive, it’s up to you to understand and help lead your organization—but how do you do it?  Are you responsible for a specific outcome in your organization, for example, innovation and constructive change?  Are you thinking of a career change?  Perhaps you’re considering an organizational change, and are thinking about how to find an organization aligned with your own experience and values. 

If you fit any of these situations, a McKinsey Quarterly article may be interesting.  “A Watershed in Thinking About Organizations” is an April 2008 McKinsey article that revisits their 7-S Framework, introduced in the 1970s.  The interactive article, the first in a series, “reflects on 7-S…introduced…to address the critical role of coordination, rather than structure, in organizational effectiveness.”  Readers can click on any of the seven elements in the framework and listen to McKinsey’s description of the element.

 

The article can be found here: 

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategic_Thinking/Enduring_ideas_The_7-S_Framework_2123_abstract

The article goes on to note “While an increasingly complex business environment has rendered some (organizational) models obsolete, others have endured.”  McKinsey says the series presents “frameworks that are as relevant today as they were when first created.”

The 7-S framework “maps seven interrelated factors that influence an organization’s ability to change—shared values, skills, staff, strategy, style and systems—and shows how these forces interact”.  The framework suggests that achieving progress in any one part of the framework “will be hard to achieve without progress in the others.”

The 7-S framework provides an excellent model for evaluating and understanding an organization.  And it provides a useful method for analysis of one’s preferred individual leadership traits.

Here’s an illustration of the 7-S framework:

Trust and be patient…..

By Steven M. Worth

Sound familiar?  If any of you are like me, these wise words are often difficult to heed.  Whether you are a parent, supervisor, partner, or teammate it may be hard not to have anxiety about how others will perform.  Will they be on time?  Will they meet expectations?  In effect, can I trust them?

 

As a part of our interview process through which we created the case studies of successful partnerships that were used in The Power of Partnership—Principles and Practices for Creating Strategic Relationships Among Nonprofit Groups, For-Profit Organizations, and Governmental Entities (Plexus Consulting Group, ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership and the US Chamber of Commerce, 2008) I sometimes provocatively asked what a partner would do if their counterpart in the partnership were to try to take advantage of them in some way.  The response I got was invariably the same.  After thoughtful reflection, each one of them concluded with words like “they wouldn’t do that—or that is not something they would do.”  They trusted because they had done their due diligence prior to forming the partnership and because they had seen proof of good faith in the day-to-day performance of duties small and large. 

The public servants and business and association leaders I respect most have that same quality of equanimity when waiting upon a decision from their board of directors, the electorate, or a potential client or business partner.  We all know the type—the diligent and thoughtful worker who will spare no pains in preparing a report or presenting a case and then who can sleep soundly the night before a decision, knowing they have done all they could.  Whether consciously or not, they have taken Reinhold Niebuhr’s prayer to heart:  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

The curious thing about the lack of trust is that it tends to bring on that which we fear most.  I recall a famous experiment a number of years ago in which students taking tests were monitored for cheating by cameras that they did not know were there.  The experiment found that those classrooms that were most severely monitored by proctors walking through the rows of desks regularly had more incidents of cheating than classrooms in which the teacher had left the room or in one instance where the monitoring teacher was literally blind.  In these instances, we could see that students rose to or sank to the levels that were expected of them.        

Perhaps we should contemplate these thoughts and see if they bring us peace during this holiday season.   

Wrestling with Burnout

By Virgil R. Carter

As a CEO, and the top leadership interface between your organization’s members, customers and staff, have you experienced burnout?  Do you know CEOs who have gone through burnout?  The role of the CEO is one that consists of constant visibility and pressure for successful performance, successful communications and successful relationships.  And top leadership is a lonely position; there’s no one in the organization to share the natural challenges and tensions that are part of the job of CEO.  Thus, it’s no surprise that executive leaders, with the challenge of being responsible for planning and performance of their organizations, can become victims of burnout.  The continuous, never-ending burden of top leadership can wear anyone down.

Are there some ways to reduce or avoid burnout? 

A recent Internet article from LeaderPoint notes that while the weight of being in charge can overcome the most successful leaders, burnout is often a function of not delegating and working through others effectively.  Harvard Business Review blogger John Baldoni is quoted as stating that the “best way to overcome the drive than made (CEOs) successful in the first place—the relentless pursuit of perfection—is to shift focus from one’s own success to the success of the executive team.”

Here are some suggestions from the article to help avoid burnout:

--Leading through others:  Being a CEO widens the scope and increases the magnitude of the results to be achieved.  Assign others the significant outcomes so that the CEO is not the bottleneck, consumed with personal problem-solving.

--Knowing everything:  No CEO can do everything well.  Accepting that no one can possibly know everything allows one to ask more questions, learn more and allows the work to remain with those show should be doing it.

--Enabling others:  Motivating others is a challenge.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Instead, focus on the work to be done, the desired outcome and assign these to key staff.  Big jobs with significant outcomes tend to motivate people.

The bottom line is about getting results, consistently over time.  It’s hard to do that without the support and assistance from others. One of the best ways for CEOs to achieve success is to drop their invincibility posture.  Successful leadership and successful organizations are not a solo act.

To read the article “Avoid Burnout by Focusing on Your Team”, by John Baldoni, go here:  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/11/avoid_burnout_by_focusing_on_y.html#