Helping in setting business goals by initiating personal goal setting
While setting business goals, personal goal setting also plays an important role. One cannot afford to miss the fine print and the various decisive factors influencing a business process or during setting personal goals. When the 1989 the Japanese Stock Market peaked there was a bearish market trend that followed. The Japanese restructured the entire economy and the country got revamped by setting business goals with a difference.
Due to economic slowdown London was gripped with fear and this brought back the traditional dress codes. Through personal goal setting, banks announced dress-down and the focus was on creating an impression with clients. Setting personal goals in terms of dressing down has gone over the peak in US and UK but had no influence on the rest of Europe.
The most important assets of new economy companies are people. They need good incentives to be part of a company. On setting business goals it should be assumed every employee has the power to re-price their options package.
Whether it is setting personal goals or business goals this newsletter has words of wisdom that offer clarity of vision and impact. They delve on the lives of personalities like Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter with relevance to management. Packed with illustrations there is a vivid propaganda on various management techniques. It also throws light on customer service, deals with time and money. In fact revolutionary thinking in terms of Return on Minutes (ROM) rather than Return on Investment (ROI) is also discussed. There is information on taking care of change, competition, people management and planning.
While setting business goals, there is a lot to learn. For the new economy companies human capital is the new currency. Statements like multiple revolutions will create evolution are elucidated and it talks of technology as a simple accelerator of momentum, not a creator.
Despite personal goal setting not all great leaders come out to tell who they trust to convey them the truth. With the amalgamation of personal goal setting and business goals, most private companies have greatly discounted in value because of the perceived poor economic conditions.
From Dan Peña – Executive Coach and Mentor for the New Millennium
Dear Subscriber and friend,
It’s been a while since my last words of wisdom. I’m back in Europe for an extended period. This letter will address a number of subjects including recent contest winners and to the literary scholar may seem a bit disjointed.
Firstly the stock market as a whole has made a huge rebound. For those of you who have been helped I am happy for you and your net worths. My only comment is a quote from one of the financial newsletters I receive and I have some respect for – "Unless you are 35 you probably don’t recall the Japanese Stock Market peaking in 1989 and as we all know, it has been nearly downhill all the way ever since". Only now in 2001 does there seem to be light at the end of the tunnel (an 11 year Bear Market) as Japan restructures it’s entire financial economy, including brokerage houses, banking, major corporations and the country itself. I hope this was the shortest bear market in history. Only time will tell.
I’m also happy for my friends still in the financial business who need to make payments on their large multiple homes and all the toys they accumulated over the years.
I also find it funny that "dressing down" is starting to go out of favour in the City of London. Apparently there are signs that fears over job security and the economic slowdown are causing a return to traditional dress codes. 18 months ago, bank after bank was announcing extensions of dress-down, today the focus is on giving a professional impression to clients. The consensus seems to be that lax dress codes lead to lax attitudes (Da!). Dress down may have passed its peak in the US/UK, but in the rest of Europe it has barely made an appearance. I guess when people think they might lose their job concerns of appearance take hold. Of course I’ve always said "you only get one chance to make a first impression". And for those of you that have attended dress down meetings with me – the dress downs spend the first few minutes apologising though I know a senior European with a very large company I do work with I’d like to see run a meeting in a T-shirt and jeans!
An interesting insight made by an Amazon.com spokesman "every employee has the power to re-price their options package – it’s called "I Quit" This was made apparent when confronted with an options plan that was several hundred feet under water with no prospect for ever having value any time soon. Another way to look at the tens of thousands employee option plans not worth anything today is – RISK IS THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR OPPORTUNITY. Early last year options schemes were the talk of the masses. That was the top of the market!
Speaking of last year about the time I formally cut back on my coaching efforts on the road I found some notes of a meeting.
These notes contained some extremely sage and timely advice for a person who wants to make life as a human being the best he can be or as Joe Batten, a former partner of mine and the mentor of Ross Perot, made famous, Be All You Can Be!
I can’t tell you who was at the meeting by name, confidentially you know. I can tell you the head of one of the largest consulting companies in the world was present along with the founder CEO of one of the most dynamic growth companys of the last 10-15 years amongst a couple of others of super, super status. It was a focus group of sorts, exploring ideas and change. Here’s what they said in short form:
WORDS OF WISDOM…FOR BUSINESS & LIFE
Teams with the clearest sense of vision & impact WIN! Talent base – people…are the most important assets of new economy companies. Best question to ask a CEO…why would great people want to be part of your company? Customers will constantly raise "the bar of expectation" for companies. The internet is a giant "lab experiment" for corporate America and those companies that recognise this and play well within the rules of ambiguity & fluidity will survive and win. NOTHING IS CAST IN CONCRETE… The best form of customer service is SELF service. Constantly empower customers to get their own answers themselves…this is a huge differentiator. "CLOCK SPEED" OF BUSINESS IS CONSTANTLY ACCELERATING…TIME REALLY MATTERS MORE THAN MONEY (MONEY YOU CAN SOMETIMES GET BACK, TIME YOU CAN’T) MOST EVEN BRIGHT UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF TIME…THINK MORE IN TERMS OF "RETURN ON MINUTES"(ROM) THAN "RETURN ON INVESTMENT" (ROI). Get in the digital game fast, no matter how small…"launch, listen, learn, then re-launch! SIZE IS THE ENEMY OF SPEED! SPEED TO REACT MATTERS MORE THAN SIZE OF COMPANY… Good leaders make sense of change in the world…then imparts that insight to the team. SHIFTING THINGS (CHANGE) WHEN LIFE IS GOOD IS TOUGHER THAN WHEN THINGS ARE BAD, BUT YOU SHOULD CONSTANTLY BE SHIFTING…MORPHING. People WANT to be led by strong leaders and good leaders are constant students. THE JOB OF CEO’S IS NOT TO BE THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM, BUT TO ATTRACT OTHER SMART GUYS TO WORK FOR HIM. THE "GROUP BRAIN" IS FAR MORE POWERFUL THAN INDIVIDUAL BRAINPOWER. Current accounting and measurement systems and metrics are outdated for new economy companies. Human capital is the new currency of the digital economy. Technical change is a sub-set of greater change – cultural change. GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT!! When we get good, we usually quit. GREAT DNA ENCODING OF PEOPLE AND VALUES (NOT IDEAS) IN YOUNG COMPANIES EARLY ON WILL CREATE THE TRULY GREAT AND LASTING COMPANIES LATER. IT IS NOT IMPORTANT WHAT WE DO, BUT WHOM WE DO IT WITH…GREAT COMPANIES DIDN’T START WITH WHAT THEY PLANNED ON DOING, BUT THEY STARTED OUT GREAT BY WHO THEY PICKED TO DO IT WITH! People should get on your "bus" not for where you are going but BECAUSE THEY LIKE WHO IS RIDING ON THE BUS WITH THEM. The "bus" will also change directions, but the bonds of good people won’t. ALWAYS PUT YOUR BEST PEOPLE ON THE BEST OPPORTUNITIES, not biggest problems. "STOCKDALE PARADOX"… Admiral Stockdale survived 7 years of torture in Vietnam not by being overly "optimistic" of being rescued within weeks, but by being realistic of knowing it could be years. The other "optimistic" American POW’s around him died from broken expectations and hearts…of hoping to be rescued within weeks. REALISTS ARE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH THEMSELVES…YET THEY STILL HAVE AN UNWAVERING BELIEF THAT THEY WILL PREVAIL…"FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION, EVEN IN THE FACE OF GREAT ADVERSITY…JUST KNOW WHAT YOUR ADVERSITY REALLY IS"! The Hedgehog Vs Fox…the fox is smart & cunning but gets caught up in lots of details, becoming misdirected and chasing his own tail…hedgehogs do only 1 thing and do it well and nothing else…eat. THE BEST CEO’S OF ALL TIME ARE HEDGEHOGS!!
Example: Jimmy Carter was smart, wordly, tackled many issues…and got lost in detail. Ronald Reagan had only 1 thing on his mind for 8 years…Russia…remove the "evil empire", remove the "evil empire" and remove the "evil empire"!
Reagan was a hedgehog…
All great Hedgehogs have 3 common traits:
- Passionate about what they believe in..
- Recognise that they are genetically encoded for their chosen field of endeavour…they really LOVE what they do!
- and somebody WILL pay them for what they love to do!
CEO’S MOST IMPORTANT TASK…NEVER STOP BECOMING QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB.
FLYWHEEL EFFECT…when you start pushing a 10 ton metal flywheel, it takes lots of effort to make a single revolution, but less for the next 3…momentum will start to carry the wheel forward itself…same is true in business. It’s tough and slow to build momentum and inertia, but before long, it starts spinning under it’s own force. After a while, MULTIPLE REVOLUTIONS WILL CREATE EVOLUTION!
Use technology only after you have momentum, not to create it. Technology is simply an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it
Building a great company means your building something WORTHY of lasting…QUESTION: HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR COMPANY IS WORTHY OF LASTING??? ANSWER: DOES IT STAND FOR SOMETHING GREAT TO SOMEONE?
Dream now and then, they will come true!
GREAT COMPANIES DO 2 things well:
- Preserves: core values and purpose.
- Changes: operating practices, technologies and culture as needed.
Closing comments to live by:
Human talent is the currency of the new economy.
Good is the ENEMY of great!
Time is more important than money ("ROM")
Be a hedgehog!!! Unwavering single mindedness…
Know WHO you want on your "bus" in work & life…
Build something that is WORTHY and STANDS for something to someone…
Take time to dream…
Since I’ve cut back on my new coaching schedule (not my workload) I’ve been able to devote time to a few, instead of many, of the brightest and most persevering. These range from, individuals still trying to put their first deal together to senior executives at major international corporations. It’s been an interesting experience for me. I’m sure in time all will be super-successful with or without me – all I do is shorten the timecycle and keep them lazer beam focused . But one especially has shown a lot of signs of maturity, insight, character and single-mindedness I haven’t seen in a long, long time. I can’t use his name for confidentiality reasons. This person has used QLA in a very large company even before he met me. And now he has fine tuned what his instincts had already taught him. With my assistance and guidance he has learned to trust his instincts more. Of course I believe I’ve been extremely gentle with him though he might not agree! Sometimes I’m sure it has felt like hard pushing! No, not all of QLA can be used in a company with great masses of employees when it’s first appropriate for obvious reasons, i.e. unions, seniority rules, bands on firing etc. Decades of history , and human belief systems take more time to change than optimal, but I have written and talked about men like Welsh (GE), Gestner (IBM) and Gent (Vodaphone) who certainly have used QLA methodology for many, many years. In fact their extremely super successful careers have been based on the same precepts I coach.
Remember not all of the great leaders come out to tell who their Rasputins are! But believe me, they all have at least one person they can trust to tell them the truth – no matter what! And in case you’re interested I thought Rasputin was a good guy! Wasn’t he?
On a different subject as I’ve said ad nausem before (notwithstanding the current market upturn) most private companies have been greatly discounted in value, because of the perceived poor economic conditions. When Wall Street and Main Street both lay off tens of thousands it effects all businesses but a few, i.e. cutting back and outsourcing or just cutting back becomes vogue instead of building and adding on to infrastructure to add or extend value. CEO’s realise shareholders don’t care about economic cycles so they do what’s easiest almost all the time.
I’ve recently outlined a cost cutting outsourcing program, i.e. property taxes, utilities, phone, waste disposal etc to a large company in the U.S. Hopefully they will at least test it soon. I personally was involved with a QLA devotee saving many millions in such a program for Fortune 500 companies several years ago. We ultimately were stopped or almost totally entangled because it embarrassed senior management, especially the CFO/FD. Such a program needs strong support from the CEO. Ultimately, when successful, the board will say it’s their idea anyway! Such radical shareholder enhancing policies are more prevalent in the U.S. When it’s only you it’s much easier to implement such policies.
To Your Quantum Leap
Daniel S Peña Sr
P.S. When last in the U.S. I received a GSM cell phone as a gift. This phone allows me to call and receive calls all over the world with one number. The good friend that gave it to me knew my functionality vis-à-vis such tools of the 21st Century. I’m still learning all the things you (or should I say someone) can do with it. My wife who knows him (the giver) thinks they will come up with another generation of GSM cell before I understand it fully.
P.P.S. Congratulations to the following for their achievements:
Nick Galtos Most Newsletter Referrals: February & March
Won a "Your First 100 Million" Book
Nick Galtos Most Newsletter Referrals in 1st Qtr
Won 1 hours worth of consultation
Jerry Rukavina Success Test Winner – February
Won a "Build Your Own Guthrie" book
Francis Farrell Success Test Winner – March
Won a "Build Your Own Guthrie" book
Galtos and Rukavina are QLA devotees for several years!
P.P.P.S There is a Castle Seminar planned for August this year. It will be the only one for 2001. For those of you that have asked about the various product shipped to Guthrie, it is almost inventoried. A list will be provided soon. There will be no special seminar for a taking advantage of a down trend in the economy. Apparently you all think the good times are already back and there is no need!
P.P.P.P.S. I recently sold my first thing on e-Bay for many thousands of dollars. Although not totally efficient it was an interesting experience. It operates on the premise people are honest even though there is no absolute way to hold them accountable. I’ll tell you why I did it in a later letter and my thoughts on e-Bays honesty / accountability theory.
