High Growth Businesses – How to…….

I have spent the last four weeks reading strategy documents about the new system for supporting enterprise and innovation – to be honest the whole experience has left me feeling somewhat punch drunk. I certainly hope that in the next few months we start to see support at the coal face that delivers what high growth entrepreneurs and businesses really need. The issue is this – growth businesses are set up and nurtured by human beings with courage and a determination to succeed, they also have a viable commercial idea (although not always 100% brilliant). However, why are there so few truly high growth companies ? Most I have met have a thirst for practical advice from others who:

1. Have been in their position
2. Have experienced similar challenges and got some answers
3. Can signpost to trusted advisers and networks (suppliers and customers)
4. Can open doors to new opportunities
5. Can help set out a business game plan and make it happen

Myself and the network of other business people I know just want answers on, How to……

• Get more focus into their business
• Create a plan that delivers the results
• Get all directors and stakeholders wanting the same thing
• Build a high performing team (thinkers, doers, controllers and sellers)
• Select, recruit and retain effective people
• Incentivise high performance
• Find more customers and sustainable revenue streams
• Find effective routes to market
• Get better financial controls into the business
• Run more efficiently
• Overcome the rollercoaster emotional feelings that go with running a business
• Stand out from the crowd

It goes on, I have a list of over 300 how to’s catalogued over the past 5 years. I find it amazing that so many policies and strategies for SMEs are divorced from the day-to-day of how to.

Only 6% of our nations SMEs are truly high growth – they create some 50% of new jobs. The reason why these organisations are scarce is two fold – firstly, its hard work with few willing to take on board the emotional and financial stress of it all and secondly, assistance so often needed is not easy to come by – it must be specific (often granular), tailored and delivered by individuals with the licence to do so! Its more than going to web site!

Discover Your Uniqueness

Every person has their own set of unique talents and gifts. However, many people have great difficulty in articulating or displaying what they are – it is these nuggets that help to build a point of difference. Communicating what is special about us or what we offer is particularly pertinent in competitive situations. Standing out from the crowd is often a critical driver for success.   All too often our authenticity is masked by our inability to clearly define our personal and professional proposition. In the business world entrepreneurs refer to their unique selling point, this concept is transferable to many situations we find ourselves in life – for example, being interviewed for a new job, auditioning for a role in a play or applying for a university course. Our ability to win can be reliant on us differentiating ourselves from the competition. When you find yourself in one of these situations just remind yourself that others probably want exactly what you do! So what will you do to gain the edge?

You must condition your mindset to understanding what makes you unique – it is a question that at some point in your life you will be asked – your success may depend on your answer! You need to deliver a response that is powerful, engaging and passionate. When you have a clear appreciation of your authenticity it gives you confidence to pursue your goals and accomplish your mission in life. Work out your Unique Proposition Statement by exploring:

• What is it that makes you unique?
• What are your unique talents?
• What makes you special?
• Why should others listen to you?
• What attributes do others value?
• The successes you have already
• The impact you have had on others

Summarise in 300 words your reflections on the above. By going through this extremely powerful process you will gain greater insight to your personal competitive advantage. Once defined and clear in your mind what exactly makes you different – just observe how much more success you attract!

Doing more than enough

Putting in the minimum amount of effort to a task to achieve a satisfactory result is a behaviour associated with people who have little or no ambition. Successful individuals take nothing for granted, they realise that through hard work and loyal commitment to their goals they may from time to time have to put in extra hours or do things that may feel punishing to either their mind or body – quite often both. The reality is that very few people are willing to push themselves physically and emotionally to over deliver. This maybe work a weekend to complete an important project, staying late at the office to help colleagues complete a critical bid or a teacher spending more with a pupil struggling to grasp a learning point. Going the extra mile to please others is an extremely admiral behaviour, you become respected by your peer group and the opportunities for personal progression is enhanced because others become engaged by your level of commitment

You will place yourself well ahead of the competition when you do more than what was expected of you. It is also extremely rewarding both professionally and personally. The mindset of going the extra mile helps when:

• You don’t want to let someone down
• You want to influence a customer or stakeholder
• You have an ambition to achieve
• Someone needs your help
• You see an opportunity others have missed
• Potential that has not been realised

Think deeply about what you want to achieve and accept that by conditioning your mind to embrace the philosophy of doing more you will become evermore successful purely by outperforming others. This mental programming becomes an integral part of your behaviour and winning becomes a habit.

The Big Silence

There is a BBC 2 programme on tonight at 7pm called The Big Silence. It features the former Abbot of Worth Abbey Father Christopher Jamison. It’s a three-part documentary following five people who attempt to put silence at the heart of their everyday busy lives and learn what to do with it once they get there.

I know Father Christopher – he’s a great bloke who has written two best-selling books – much of his thinking is reinforced by the research findings of management and leadership guru Jim Collins. Father Christopher has spoken to me about the power of meditation and stillness – I picked up two of his quotes the other day which reinforced his thoughts:

“Most people have a real contemplative urge but it is being suppressed by contemporary culture”

“When people enter their contemplative space beautiful and remarkable things happen in their lives”

This is so true, but so damn difficult to get into the habit of doing – there is a school of thought that says this is how we access our true creativity, which I personally believe in – with a 14 hour day, six day a week job, three kids and dog that needs 7 miles a day walking this can be so hard to do. Maybe getting up an hour earlier 4.30 will do the trick!

How did we win such a big project?

I have been asked so many times how we won a £10M project when our turnover was a fraction of the size of the contract we secured. Against international competition we won the largest European programme supporting 1,800 ambitious SMEs in the North of England. The nature of the contract was to assist entrepreneurs release their full potential for growth. The process of winning such an important piece of work involved us applying a formula for great selling one that has now been embraced by a number of financial and professional service companies.

Breakthrough selling is significantly enhanced when a company has a clearly differentiated offering – one that stands out from the crowd. This is the starting point, however on its own it’s not enough – sales supremacy is achieved when an organization can exhibit three core pillars, these include:

Functional Mastery – an intimate understanding of the market place, customer needs and how the products and services offered can solve problems.

Customer connectivity – an effective process for finding, reaching, winning and keeping customers

Momentum – fire in the belly and the desire to succeed at and individual and team level

Delivering great selling is based on FM x CC x M – score zero in anyone of these and the result is no new orders. Excel in each one and transformation soon follows!

Personal change is so difficult

Change in behaviour is so difficult at a personal level. As I wrote in my last blog, 80% of people want more out of life but the challenges are firstly, deciding what more is and secondly taking action to do something about it! Even when change means the difference between life and death many fail to change behaviour – here’s a shocking piece of research. In studies of patients who have undergone heart surgery, typically for a coronary bypass, only one in nine (11%) of people on average adopt a healthier lifestyle – the others see value in the need to change but do nothing about it. No wonder organisational change is like treading treacle!

On contemplating these facts and experiencing them on a day-to-day, basis personally and within my own network – I wonder if the need to change is based to a degree on self-awareness and the need to work it out for yourself? – sort of self discovery. It’s an area I find quite fascinating – to the extent that this weekend I put the finishing touches to a self assessment questionnaire aimed at getting individuals closer to three big issues:

1.Do I need to change?

2.What is it that specifically needs to change?

3.What I am going to do about it?

If anyone reading this would like a copy, I will gladly email it to you

Time to rethink how you think

There are a set of principles and philosophies that I believe lead to a winning mindset – one that delivers a fulfilling career, balancing both professional and personal aspirations. The scary thing is 80% of individuals want more from their business, career or profession, however the majority of people can’t define what more means to them. The starting point is to critically and honestly appraise your thinking and mindset in order to work out what needs to change – what is holding you back? How can you overcome the hurdles that are stopping you achieve more? We all must take time to rethink how we think – this means creating space to reflect on what your life and career means to you! Don’t leave it too late because time soon catches up with you.

When you find time to assess your values, attitudes and motivations it helps identify areas in need of transformation. If you want more from your life then you must define clearly your intentions, plan, then take action. Without these foundations, frustration and anxiety along with a feeling of being stranded in the wilderness soon take hold. In time, inertia and loss of direction soon overwhelm the way you think. This can be an all-consuming leaving you with a sense of emptiness – a mindset that can only be described as being a million miles away from success or winning.

I believe the following areas are vital as part of your reflective exercise:

1. Clarity – Do you  know what you want?
2. Mental Toughness – Do you keep going in difficult times?
3. Take Control – Do you control your own life or do others?
4. Take Action – Do you talk or do?
5. Be a team player – Do you have a collaborative approach?
6. Effective leadership – Are you a good leader?
7. Build a great reputation – Do people respect you?
8. Connectivity – Do you recognise that you are selling to get want you want?
9. Creative spark – Do you make time for new thinking?
10. The Extra Mile – Will you go where others won’t?

Your journey of discovery and change could start by asking some simple questions…..

Strategy by Sat Nav

In times of turbulent economic conditions and market uncertainty much of the strategy stuff you read in management text books just does not apply. What I see at the moment is very much a survival approach with long-term strategy not featuring on the agenda of board meetings I attend. (The strategy is actually the tactics). My own research has found that a good proportion of the entrepreneurs who come through challenging phases have faith in what they are trying to achieve and remain firmly fixed on their destination. They operate a bit like a sat nav system in the car – when we lose our way we take a new path, different road and a detour –  a re calculation of the coordinates eventually put us back on course – we maintain faith in the software to get us there! This is probably a good way to think when things are not going to plan. We have to deal with the short and immediate term issues without losing sight of the destination, however plotting a new course is vital. This often means putting yourself about in the market, nailing what you already have as well as keeping your eyes open to new ideas, reinvention, diversification and forging new partnerships and relationships to generate new opportunities.

Keep the strategy sat nav on!

Don’t take it too seriously!

Don’t take life too seriously and have fun. Life is too short not to make time for a laugh and enjoyment. When we work in an environment where a sense of humour overarches the culture we are far more likely to be creative and innovative. In controlled measures a sense of humour can be an extremely motivating force  (Tim Smith thank you!) that gets the best out of individuals and teams. Humour and laughter are the most undervalued and underrated tools in society. It makes bad times feel better and there are schools of thought that believe health benefits can be derived from laughter, the importance of keeping a sense of humour and having a regular laugh is paramount to our existence.

You must allow room for humour in your workplace and life as it helps to build communication and trust between colleagues. Successful people and high performing individuals are all characterised by having a strong sense of humour. A self-deprecating sense of humour can be an extremely engaging to others and it helps to break the ice when we meet new people.

When things don’t go to plan, smile and apply a reflective and humorous perspective to help yourself cope with difficult situations. We spend so much of our life trying to build a platform for success, when the fun stops and the humour disappears then it is time to rethink, maybe reinvent or go and do something else

Remember it takes far more energy to frown than smile – have a laugh it works wonders!

Advice from swimming star

Ian Thorpe one of the most successful swimmers of all times spoke this morning on Radio 4 about his attitude towards winning. I think he has won more medals than any other swimmer. He spoke about his secret for success – firstly he acknowledged that he had natural talent but so did many others. He put his success down to mental toughness and the ability to just keep going – he referred to it as a “mental thing”. Secondly, he stated that simply he trained harder than his competitors! This reminded me of a quote from Zig Ziglar – “there is no traffic jam on the extra mile”

This philosphy of thought resonated with what came out of a conference I spoke at the other week – a group of entrepreneurs referred to their success coming as a result of – tenacity, courage, determination, not taking no for an answer, innovation! All issues relating to having the right mindset!