Everybody seems to like small, digestable bits of advice, so here are some principles I've developed over the years...
1. Keep Answers Simple: The more obvious the answer, the more powerful it is in the marketplace.
2. Never trust anything (or anyone) your “common sense” doesn’t support: Common Sense always appears as a suddenly self-evident (“slap to the head”) truth to a previously confused audience.
3. Use “good” strategy when planning: Good strategies focus on “what to do” rather than “how to do it.”
4. Customer-centric businesses succeed by focusing on two goals: Treat customers so they want to (1) buy more and (2) complain less.
5. Avoid design arrogance (i.e. “build it and they will come”): Establish and manage clear and reachable objectives that are specifically designed to achieve sales revenues.
6. Short-term focus foreground, Big Picture focus background: What is generally required for start-up success is good solid business logic and an ability to address the real near-term issues... not committees, brain trusts or long-term initiatives. These things certainly have their place in overall business success, but don’t try to "build the bridge from the other side of the river."
7. If you are not a Research Center, don’t spend money like one: Limit the pursuit of every cool technology or service idea that might be important to "someone someday" and exert sound investment principals and self-control.
8. Emphasize success through collaboration: Embrace the idea that “Nobody should feel individually successful if we are not collectively successful” to drive every team member to align their professional goals with the company goals of revenue and profitability
9. Create a Discipline of Execution: Build a culture that values productivity over procedure. Fundamentally, execution is the discipline of exposing reality and acting on it.
10. Cultivate a culture of openness: Foster an atmosphere of honesty and candor and lay the framework for collaboration and communication amongst team members and partners.
11. Don’t be afraid of the Negatives: Honest, open exchanges will show the balance between optimism, motivation & realism.
12. Just signing off on a plan is not enough: Leadership means drilling down for explanations until every key answer is clear, defendable and achievable.
13. Lead by example: "Do as I say, not as I do" cultures rarely succeed. Every team member should feel that, “unless I make this happen, our collective efforts won’t matter.”
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Five Principles of small business success
1. Be Value-add, not value-take.
- Profits at the expense of others will doom you. Are you a company that prides itself on drawing value FROM your clients, or one that adds value TO your clients, and expects a piece of the added-value? If you are the former, you will quickly build a reputation for being self-serving and non-collaborative, regardless of your "bedside manner."
- It helps to remember that you must "own" the experience you have with clients and partners, both theirs and your own. Rather than thinking its their job to accept you for what you are, remember the marketing rule of "control the message" and, since you are your product, be accountable for how you are perceived and understood.
2. Marry Partners
- Are you proud of each other? If you are not as proud of them as you are of yourself, find a new partner... better yet, help them grow to become the partner you want them to be and then you can both "own" the success.
3. Keep It Simple
- Complexity is the enemy of results. Avoid photo-speak or tech-gibberish. If you need to describe something complex or obtuse, try to speak in metaphors that are relevant to the client. Colors and texture analogies often work well.
- The Simplest rules are golden. Every great business partner I've ever known sets great examples by how they treat others. Follow this rule with a passion.
- Simplify by outsourcing. Do what you do best so you can get better. Outsource the rest so you can do what you do best. Don't compromise this princple for the illusion that, because you work for "free," its better if you do it yourself. You are the only one who can sell and market your business, and time is the only resource you can't afford. Don't waste it.
4. Listen Hard, Talk Straight
- SHHHHHHHHHHHHH - wait for them to tell you what THEY think is important BEFORE you tell them what YOU think is important.
5. Talk the Walk
- While actions speak louder than words, both together are best. When you do a great job, tell the world. Blogs, news releases, editorials, bragging, spray-painted messages on the side of your Camry... whatever! Sing your own praises (mindful to appear proud, not arrogant.)
Above all, remember that you have to believe in your business success before anyone else will.
- Profits at the expense of others will doom you. Are you a company that prides itself on drawing value FROM your clients, or one that adds value TO your clients, and expects a piece of the added-value? If you are the former, you will quickly build a reputation for being self-serving and non-collaborative, regardless of your "bedside manner."
- It helps to remember that you must "own" the experience you have with clients and partners, both theirs and your own. Rather than thinking its their job to accept you for what you are, remember the marketing rule of "control the message" and, since you are your product, be accountable for how you are perceived and understood.
2. Marry Partners
- Are you proud of each other? If you are not as proud of them as you are of yourself, find a new partner... better yet, help them grow to become the partner you want them to be and then you can both "own" the success.
3. Keep It Simple
- Complexity is the enemy of results. Avoid photo-speak or tech-gibberish. If you need to describe something complex or obtuse, try to speak in metaphors that are relevant to the client. Colors and texture analogies often work well.
- The Simplest rules are golden. Every great business partner I've ever known sets great examples by how they treat others. Follow this rule with a passion.
- Simplify by outsourcing. Do what you do best so you can get better. Outsource the rest so you can do what you do best. Don't compromise this princple for the illusion that, because you work for "free," its better if you do it yourself. You are the only one who can sell and market your business, and time is the only resource you can't afford. Don't waste it.
4. Listen Hard, Talk Straight
- SHHHHHHHHHHHHH - wait for them to tell you what THEY think is important BEFORE you tell them what YOU think is important.
5. Talk the Walk
- While actions speak louder than words, both together are best. When you do a great job, tell the world. Blogs, news releases, editorials, bragging, spray-painted messages on the side of your Camry... whatever! Sing your own praises (mindful to appear proud, not arrogant.)
Above all, remember that you have to believe in your business success before anyone else will.
Emracing Faliure
Sometimes, you just need to be wrong.
I operate on some pretty simple philosophies, one of which is: I rarely learn much from success, so I embrace failure. TO be clear, I don’t seek failure, nor am I particularly happy when it occurs. I actually very much like success… a lot. A LOT. However, when I am unable to achieve the success I had anticipated, I remember this and am buoyed by the premise of new and exciting knowledge that I expect to glean from examining the details of it. In a way, this allows me to turn every failure into some form of “forensic success.” Kind of a CSI/Unsuccessful Victims Unit - without the murder.
These days, I spend real energy explaining this concept to new team members when they join www.Pictage.com – because without a clear explanation to reveal its basic logic, I suspect it sounds pretty defeatist. In truth, it’s exactly the opposite. In large part, learning new lessons by embracing failure begins with losing the fear of being WRONG – which can be an incredibly empowering experience. For me, that first step started almost two decades ago in France, when I had the great opportunity to be at a dinner party with David Ogilvy, who is considered one of the great leaders in advertising. While everyone else at the table spoke operational French, I did not. They all made wonderful efforts to speak in a mixture of French and English, for my sake. However, as the night wore on and the wine poured out, their ability to maintain this graciousness quickly diminished into French gibberish and, near dessert, I was getting desperate for some form of inclusion.
In retrospect, I must admit that I was also pretty well socially-lubricated by the spirits, or else I doubt I would’ve had the courage to pick up my glass and move to an empty seat next to the Great Ogilvy. Flushed by the wine and crazy from the marzipan sweets, I spent a few minutes gushing and introducing myself repeatedly, finally giving him my business card. He took it all in stride – I doubt that I was the first or last to make an ass of myself at his doorstep – and at some point, I even worked up the nerve to ask him my favorite “celebrity” question, as it always elicits an interesting response, “What would you tell your kids about success, if you could only give them one bit of advice?”
Without missing a beat, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pen and scribbled something on the back of my card, handing it back to me face-up, with his writing hidden. As he did so, he looked me straight in the eye. “Whenever you are in passionate disagreement with someone whose opinion you respect,” he said, “And, you are positive you are right and cannot understand how they could be so damned wrong – read this card.” Putting his pen away, he continued, “If you do that, you will always find the way to communicate. Communicating is success.” With that, he drained his glass and I could tell I was dismissed. I gushed a bit more, shook his hand like it was a car-jack and I was away.
Floating back to my seat before reading what he had written on my card, it took me several moments to decipher his chicken-scratch by candle-light. When I did, it hit me like hammer and I went immediately sober, as I knew I’d be telling this story for the rest of my life.
It said, simply, “maybe, they’re right.”
I knew instantly that, for these words to be truly meaningful, I’d have to acknowledge that - in spite of conviction, passion and my aggressive personality – I'd have to consider that I am WRONG, even when I KNOW I'm RIGHT. And, “wrong” equates to “failure”… doesn’t it? How in the world could failing help me succeed? I’ve thought about this a lot, since then.As a result, I’ve since come to believe that the right and wrong of a thing isn’t as important as getting the maximum experience out of it. And, while both “right and “success” most often simply reinforce the stuff I already knew, being WRONG and FAILING always leads me down paths I may never have considered… even when I turn out to be “right,” after all.
I operate on some pretty simple philosophies, one of which is: I rarely learn much from success, so I embrace failure. TO be clear, I don’t seek failure, nor am I particularly happy when it occurs. I actually very much like success… a lot. A LOT. However, when I am unable to achieve the success I had anticipated, I remember this and am buoyed by the premise of new and exciting knowledge that I expect to glean from examining the details of it. In a way, this allows me to turn every failure into some form of “forensic success.” Kind of a CSI/Unsuccessful Victims Unit - without the murder.
These days, I spend real energy explaining this concept to new team members when they join www.Pictage.com – because without a clear explanation to reveal its basic logic, I suspect it sounds pretty defeatist. In truth, it’s exactly the opposite. In large part, learning new lessons by embracing failure begins with losing the fear of being WRONG – which can be an incredibly empowering experience. For me, that first step started almost two decades ago in France, when I had the great opportunity to be at a dinner party with David Ogilvy, who is considered one of the great leaders in advertising. While everyone else at the table spoke operational French, I did not. They all made wonderful efforts to speak in a mixture of French and English, for my sake. However, as the night wore on and the wine poured out, their ability to maintain this graciousness quickly diminished into French gibberish and, near dessert, I was getting desperate for some form of inclusion.
In retrospect, I must admit that I was also pretty well socially-lubricated by the spirits, or else I doubt I would’ve had the courage to pick up my glass and move to an empty seat next to the Great Ogilvy. Flushed by the wine and crazy from the marzipan sweets, I spent a few minutes gushing and introducing myself repeatedly, finally giving him my business card. He took it all in stride – I doubt that I was the first or last to make an ass of myself at his doorstep – and at some point, I even worked up the nerve to ask him my favorite “celebrity” question, as it always elicits an interesting response, “What would you tell your kids about success, if you could only give them one bit of advice?”
Without missing a beat, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pen and scribbled something on the back of my card, handing it back to me face-up, with his writing hidden. As he did so, he looked me straight in the eye. “Whenever you are in passionate disagreement with someone whose opinion you respect,” he said, “And, you are positive you are right and cannot understand how they could be so damned wrong – read this card.” Putting his pen away, he continued, “If you do that, you will always find the way to communicate. Communicating is success.” With that, he drained his glass and I could tell I was dismissed. I gushed a bit more, shook his hand like it was a car-jack and I was away.
Floating back to my seat before reading what he had written on my card, it took me several moments to decipher his chicken-scratch by candle-light. When I did, it hit me like hammer and I went immediately sober, as I knew I’d be telling this story for the rest of my life.
It said, simply, “maybe, they’re right.”
I knew instantly that, for these words to be truly meaningful, I’d have to acknowledge that - in spite of conviction, passion and my aggressive personality – I'd have to consider that I am WRONG, even when I KNOW I'm RIGHT. And, “wrong” equates to “failure”… doesn’t it? How in the world could failing help me succeed? I’ve thought about this a lot, since then.As a result, I’ve since come to believe that the right and wrong of a thing isn’t as important as getting the maximum experience out of it. And, while both “right and “success” most often simply reinforce the stuff I already knew, being WRONG and FAILING always leads me down paths I may never have considered… even when I turn out to be “right,” after all.
Snapshots and your shots, together or never?
A couple of weeks ago, Jason Kiefer (CEO of www.Pictage.com) and I attended the annual Infotrends’ (www.infotrends.com) Digital Imaging conference in No. California - two days of panel discussions from the industry’s top thought leaders. The attendees seemed to largely be those involved in the Online Photo Sharing “retail” space, and focused on new ways to make money from that vast world (as opposed to our "tiny, focused" world of Online Photo Commerce, where monetizing, rather than just “sharing,” is the basic premise.) I found it an enlightening event that I will no doubt continue to draw from and comment on in this blog over the coming days and weeks.
Overall, it appears that, while the interest in the “sharing” part of online photo sites is still strong, the resulting retail sales of (ever cheaper) prints is flattening or even declining. I think this is great news for our industry in that it indicates some movement away from DIY digital fad and back to the higher expectations that only professionals can deliver consistently. However, this change in direction is causing some radical ideas to surface.
For instance, at the top of my “I’m not sure I heard that right” list was a statement made by the CEO of a category competitor, indicating his belief that, in the near future, professional photographers will need to learn to live, and even promote, the blending of consumer-snapshots and their professionally-captured images into the same bound albums and coffee table books.
I immediately lept onto the table and bellowed, “TRAITOR!" (well, at least in my mind, I did. )
Over the course of the conference, this theme of “blending” Pro images and non-Pro images (aka snapshots) came up a couple more times, with its advocates indicating that this hybrid result would be a requirement for “future success” and the main reason Professional photographers were “afraid” of it was because an increasing number of snapshot images could equal or exceed the quality of their Pro images – thus making consumers aware of this and driving a devaluation for Pro images, and photographers.
As a detractor of this idea, I feel its biggest problem aren’t those rare occasions that snapshots looks as good as Pro shots, but the overwhelming occasions when they DON’T and they’re still bound into the same page or book. Why should you care? Well, I figure it this way: a large part of your business growth success is based on referrals and, noting that the printed and bound result of your expertise is often a key indicator to these potential referrals, the LAST thing you’d want to reinforce is the assumption that you supplied the snapshots as well as the Pro shots. When it comes to books and albums, I believe in the “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel” theory.
Overall, it appears that, while the interest in the “sharing” part of online photo sites is still strong, the resulting retail sales of (ever cheaper) prints is flattening or even declining. I think this is great news for our industry in that it indicates some movement away from DIY digital fad and back to the higher expectations that only professionals can deliver consistently. However, this change in direction is causing some radical ideas to surface.
For instance, at the top of my “I’m not sure I heard that right” list was a statement made by the CEO of a category competitor, indicating his belief that, in the near future, professional photographers will need to learn to live, and even promote, the blending of consumer-snapshots and their professionally-captured images into the same bound albums and coffee table books.
I immediately lept onto the table and bellowed, “TRAITOR!" (well, at least in my mind, I did. )
Over the course of the conference, this theme of “blending” Pro images and non-Pro images (aka snapshots) came up a couple more times, with its advocates indicating that this hybrid result would be a requirement for “future success” and the main reason Professional photographers were “afraid” of it was because an increasing number of snapshot images could equal or exceed the quality of their Pro images – thus making consumers aware of this and driving a devaluation for Pro images, and photographers.
As a detractor of this idea, I feel its biggest problem aren’t those rare occasions that snapshots looks as good as Pro shots, but the overwhelming occasions when they DON’T and they’re still bound into the same page or book. Why should you care? Well, I figure it this way: a large part of your business growth success is based on referrals and, noting that the printed and bound result of your expertise is often a key indicator to these potential referrals, the LAST thing you’d want to reinforce is the assumption that you supplied the snapshots as well as the Pro shots. When it comes to books and albums, I believe in the “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel” theory.
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