Tag Archives: Strategic management

August 26, 2013 · 9:43 am

The Same But Different

At the risk of alienating a few of you who are sick of golf-related posts, I want to tell you about a tournament in which I participated over the last three days. It inspired some business thinking as I reflected on it so I feel it appropriate to share with you. I guess I’ll see the rest of you tomorrow!

Golf Anyone?

(Photo credit: Amber B McN)

The tournament was one in which I was paired with another club member for three days. Each day we played golf but the format varied by round.  The first round was what’s known as a scramble – each player on the team hits, we pick the better shot, and both hit the next shot from there.  Rinse, repeat for 18 holes.  It’s a format that encourages thoughtful, aggressive play.  One partner hits a safe shot, the other can try something more difficult since there is no penalty for failure.

The next day was best ball.  Each partner plays their own ball, handicap strokes are deducted, and the better net score is written down for each hole.  This is basic golf.  While there is some strategy, it’s not much different from the regular game one plays all the time.

Finally, there was alternate shot.  In this format, both players tee off, the best drive is selected, and then the player that didn’t hit the chosen drive hits the next shot.  Players alternate shots from there until the ball is holed.  It is a tremendously difficult format in many ways, the biggest of which is that a bad shot forces your partner to fix your mistake.  There is a fair amount of strategic thinking if you hit two good drives.  Who should hit onto the green?   Who do we want putting?  Weak players are exposed and better players often feel helpless since they can’t display their skill while trying to recover from a partner’s miss.

The similarities with business are what struck me this morning.  The rules and conditions are ever-changing even while the basic game remains the same.  One must adapt or die.  You have to build your team so that you can play under any condition.   Teams that had done well in the first two formats posted horrific scores yesterday because one player was very good while the other was pretty bad.  Attention to the strategy appropriate for the situation is always critical in golf and more so given the changes to the rules each day.   Finally, one bad hole doesn’t kill your team nor does one bad day or quarter in business.  Maintaining a good positive attitude with the big picture in mind can deliver a trophy; staying mad about the bad hole (or quarter!) can keep the negative results coming.

We won our group (by a stroke!), mostly on the basis of delivering solid results each day.  That’s not a bad thing for any business to do.  Wouldn’t you agree?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Thinking Aloud, What's Going On

Tagged as , , , , ,

August 20, 2013 · 9:06 am

Being Faster

One question I get asked from time to time by clients is about how they can be better at social media. Given social’s influence particularly among younger people, it is an excellent question. The answer is usually give is to “be faster.” For most companies, that’s much easier said than done and let me explain why.

English: Aircraft carrier in Portsmouth Harbour

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I spent most of my professional life in the corporate world.  On a good day, they make decisions slowly in that world.  Not only is it like turning an aircraft carrier in that it takes a long time but you often have a hard time finding anyone who will admit to having a hand on the wheel or to get them to turn it.  For many decisions, that’s fine.  For those wanting to be good at social, it’s fatal.

Part of the problem is no one is quite sure who controls the social sphere and it varies from org chart to org chart.  PR, marketing, customer service, and other functional areas often have their fingers in (it’s not hard to find companies with multiple Twitter accounts).  Sometimes they have different agendas.  More importantly, they’re often staffed lightly and/or by interns performing the social monitoring and updating.  Memes last hours in the social sphere.  If you respond in a week, you’ve missed the peak.  Look at all the (lame) Harlem Shake videos that are still popping up.

Being faster means having a clear set of guidelines, finding professionals to implement them, and trusting them to do so without running every tweet up the corporate flagpole.  Most of the really embarrassing social faux pas have been made by clueless staff.  Sure, there is the occasional well-intentioned failure when a campaign gets hijacked but most are the result of just being lame and not paying attention.

We can count the number of corporately-created things that have “gone viral” on one hand.  Social media seem to have a pretty good nose for a company that’s trying too hard to create that social media hit and the backlash is often brutal (and funny).  Being faster has to recognize that hasty and fast aren’t the same.  But for any company to succeed the usual decision-tree needs to be pruned or uprooted completely.

Do you agree?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, digital media

Tagged as , , , ,

July 29, 2013 · 10:18 am

Being Fearless

I played (badly) in a golf tournament over the weekend and on the heels of that I saw an article that triggered some business thinking.

Tigers fight

(Photo credit: @Doug88888)

The piece was from last week and was on ABC News’ site.  It is about a paper written, as it turns out, in 2010 by a professor at the Kellogg School of Management and concerns what the author called the “Tiger Woods Effect” (you knew it would relate to golf, didn’t you?).  The author – Jennifer Brown – explained it this way to the Wall Street Journal:

Ms. Brown argues that the superstar effect is not just relevant on the golf course. Instead, she suggests that the presence of superstars can be “de-motivating” in a wide variety of competitions, from the sales office to the law firm. “Most people assume that competing against an elite performer makes everyone else step up their game and perform better,” Ms. Brown says. “But the Tiger Woods data demonstrate that the opposite can also occur. It doesn’t matter if the superstar is an athlete or a corporate vice president. After all, why should we invest a lot of energy in a tournament that we’re probably going to lose?”

Do we set ourselves up for failure by surveying the competitive landscape and recognizing the presence of some superstars in our competitive area or is that motivation to beat them?  I always make the distinction between losing and being beaten.  The latter is easier to swallow in my book – you did your best and someone was better that day.  Losing, however, stings – we know we were capable of so much more and didn’t perform.

It’s an easy out to discount your chances due to the presence of a superstar brand or firm or individual.  Mike Tyson used to win a lot of his fights without throwing a punch because his opponents would see him across the ring and a look of fear would cross their faces.  Pre-game trash talking is, in my mind, as much about bringing the opponent down to your level as it is false bravado.

We need to be fearless.    Even superstars have a bad day.  Once Tiger’s veil of invulnerability was lifted due to him being beaten on the course and his troubles off of it, the rest of the field recognized that they could win no matter what he did.  That was the case all along, by the way – they just stopped beating themselves.

What will it be?  The choice is yours.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , ,