A Happy Holidays to my American clients, prospects, investors, business partners and friends. May you have a wonderful and peaceful day.
Archive for November, 2019
Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 28th, 2019
ATDQ
Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
ATDQ: “Answer The Damn Question.”
A human condition that is prevalent amongst poorly prepared individuals, those masters of complexity and the dishonest (politicians, public servants, academics, economists and business leaders). Visible nightly on our television screens in every locality.
Yet it is also something you can witness daily in board and management meetings, and critically, when entrepreneurs are seeking capital or selling their businesses. How many discussions, end right there because the entrepreneur failed to answer the buyer or investor’s damn question? In my experience, a shocking 60% of occasions, the other 40% the buyer or investor wasn’t convinced by the response.
Entrepreneurs vs. Managers
Tuesday, November 26th, 2019
I was listening to a London sports radio station this week when a journeyman football manager pointed out to the radio host, the huge difference between an Assistant Manager’s role and the top job (accountability, skills, expertise).
I am reminded of the same when I meet professional managers, who have ridden on the coattails of a successful entrepreneur, and project a know-it-all attitude when they take the plunge in their first venture. “I worked for X and Y and learned there is a better way to do this….. You don’t need to tell me.”
Of course, at the end of each month, they were guaranteed a pay cheque, took 5 weeks holiday with the kids and had close to zero “skin in the game” other than the options that they were gifted, largely out of loyalty.
Welcome to the stark reality of clicking weekly onto your corporate bank balance.
Inclusion
Thursday, November 21st, 2019
Why do we have to point out gender and racial differences in the workplace or in society?
Two incidents this week. I dined at a new upscale restaurant, 14 Hills, in the City of London, where there is one block of bathrooms, one tribe (male, female and disabled). No fuss. The next morning, at a media event for the under pressure Lloyds of London insurance market and its’ leadership, which has been in the firing line since lurid headlines of sexual harassment in March, I sat through 3 hours of tribalist talk and sensitivities.
We are constantly asking people to speak up against incidents and behaviours that seek to exclude or demean others, in order to reinforce certain warped tribal beliefs (male superiority etc.).
Yet when we assertively draw others attention to our differences, off we go again, in projecting tribes. Stop the nonsense.
Check Up
Wednesday, November 20th, 2019
My dentist is not flashy, nor operates in a flash building. He is an expert. A 6-month check-up is 20 minutes of intense examination, remedial action, preventative and contingent dental care advice and polishing. Small talk is eschewed. With good fortune, I have had no significant need for treatment in the past decade.
When you review your clients’ existing and future needs, can you explain why it should take hours, days and weeks to impart your wisdom to your customers (insurance, wealth management, legal)? Have you considered “speed” as well as “quality” as your metric for customer satisfaction? If you haven’t, there is your competitive advantage.
Trials and Tribulations
Tuesday, November 19th, 2019
When you are a digital platform that offers interested prospects a trial of your product or service (“window shopping”) but refuses them entry and the opportunity to experience it, you remind me of the store that is still hanging the “closed” sign, long past 10 o’clock on a regular trading day.
“That is a shame, let’s go next door!” Then again, perhaps the management have never shopped their own business.
Pragmatism
Tuesday, November 19th, 2019
Are we actually becoming fooled by randomness as it pertains to our forgiveness of others’ past indiscretions and reported “outrage” (politicians, business and civic leaders)?
Business Divorce
Tuesday, November 19th, 2019
There are times in a Client-Adviser relationship where it feels like both parties are “going through the motions”. Doing what is contractually agreed but without any passion or great competency to accomplish the desired outcomes.
That manifests itself in what might be termed as “deal fatigue” in capital raisings, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions. The “well” of reciprocal value (contacts, advice, ideas etc.) is close to or has run dry. The smart thing to do is to confront it, acknowledge the situation and agree a disengagement process.
To not take it personally but to accept the reality of the actual situation, not how you imagine it to be. To put aside commercial motivations and to be intellectually honest with each other. For there is nothing worse than others, who you seek to attract as future clients, employees, investors and business partners, seeing you “cheating a living” on someone else’s pay or feigning interest in working together.
If you insist on doing that with an existing alliance, why would a prospective partner assume your behaviour would differ with them?
Referral Clarity
Tuesday, November 12th, 2019You cannot demand that you are introduced to someone unless they possess such power and control over you (employer/employee) that the consequences of saying “no”, outweigh the benefits. You might be able exert some peer pressure “X has kindly offered if I need it, it would be better coming from you”. In most instances, there is a need to appeal to others’ self-interest. “What is in it for them in acceding to your request?” (financial or non-financial benefit). If that is opaque or definitively not in their self-interest, they won’t help.
You’d be wise to remember this the next time you approach me for help.
12 Traits of Britain’s Finest Entrepreneurs
Tuesday, November 12th, 2019
There are many copycat awards but tonight’s awards ceremony really is the pinnacle of UK entrepreneurialism.
Do you aspire to be recognised for your own entrepreneurial success, at a future date? First, you might want to see how you personally score in this litmus test.
As a judge of this year’s cohort for the Inflexion Private Equity Entrepreneur of the Year Award, there are 12 distinct traits that all of the finalists have demonstrated to varying levels in building their businesses.
- Intellectual agility. They are sharp and fast-on-their feet. Their intellect has enabled them to become people of growing interest to others, in their wider markets and communities that they live in.
- Enthusiastic. They are passionate and vocal in their own distinctive style about what they do and transfer that largely to others by force of their personality, ownership of issues and actions rather than words.
- Flexibility. They are quick to make mid-course changes of direction, based on changes in customer or market demand. If it is not working, they change. They understand procrastination is a deathknell. They keep their eye on the goal, not the particular growth alternative.
- Time and historical awareness. They have an acute understanding of the change agents and evolution in the sectors they are active in and those they may enter at a future date.
- Self-determined. They haven’t relied heavily on the largesse of others to achieve success. Their energies are focused on what they can control, and influence and they don’t beat themselves up about external factors (politics, taxation, competition) that they must readily accept.
- Empathetic. They easily relate to the human problems they are seeking to meet or address. They eschew conceptual studies in favour of pragmatic attempts at improvement. In so doing, they grasp that their success is strongly correlated with their abilities to appeal successfully to others’ self-interest, where change is a critical element.
- Character. They are socially adept and exude confidence in diverse situations. They possess a rare depth and breadth of intellectual curiosity.
- Humour. They are skillful at using humour in dark and uncomfortable situations. They are able to keep an equilibrium in the tough and the thrilling times. To laugh at their personal misfortune and good fortune in equal measure.
- Stoic. They don’t rejection as a “black mark” on their character rather a life lesson for future application. Persistence and perseverance are their hallmarks. They understand success is really about working smarter, not harder.
- Wealth. They don’t confuse the accumulation of money as an “end” in of itself. Rather the fuel to turn their vision into an organisational and personal reality. Whether that it is greater personal freedom, more unfettered time, or larger contributions to others’ well-being.
- Managing Time. They excel at organising themselves around a small set of personal priorities and success. They are steadfast at deflecting non-essential requests for their time.
- Support system. They have created for themselves groups of family, friends and others, who will give them honest, unfiltered feedback. Who will pushback and point out unreasonable behaviour, as well as celebrate success with them. Who give them perspective on all personal and professional matters.