Business Ownership and Management
Never Panic!
Panic is not a good problem-solving tool, regardless of your position or role. It is especially bad when you are in charge of people or brought in for your expertise. Panic leads to a myopic view of the problem, hindering creativity.
The point in my career when this became readily apparent was when I was working for a small software company. We had a new product (Warehouse Management System) and were launching our third deployment. This one was more complicated than the rest because it was for a pharmaceutical company. In addition to requirements like refrigeration and lot control, there was a mix of FDA-controlled items requiring various forms of auditing and security and storage areas significantly smaller than previous installations. It was a challenge, to be sure.
A critical component, “Location Search,” failed during this implementation. About 10-12 people were in the “war room” when my boss, the VP of Development, began to panic. He was extremely talented and normally did an excellent job, but his reaction negatively affected the others in the room. The mood quickly worsened.
I jumped in and took over because I did not want to be stuck there all weekend and mostly because I wanted this implementation to succeed. I asked my boss to go out and get a bunch of pizzas. Next, I organized a short meeting to review what we knew and what was different from our prior tests and asked for speculation about the root cause of this problem. The team came up with two potential causes and one potential workaround. Everyone was organized into three teams, and we began attacking each item independently and in parallel.
We identified the root cause, which led to an ideal fix a few days later and a workaround that allowed us to finish the user acceptance testing and go live the following day. A change in mindset fostered the collaboration and problem-solving needed to move forward.
But this isn’t just limited to groups. I was a consultant at a large insurance company on a team redesigning their Risk Management system. We were using new software and wanted to be sure that the proper environment variables were set during the Unix login process for this new system. I volunteered to create an external function executed as part of the login process. Trying to maintain clean code, I had an “exit” at the end of the function. It worked well during testing, but once it was placed into production, the function immediately logged people out as they attempted to log into the system.
As you can imagine, I had a sinking feeling in my gut. How could I have missed this? This was a newer system deployed just for this risk management application, so no other privileged users were logged in at the time. Then, I remembered reading about a Unix “worm” that used FTP to infiltrate systems. The article stated that FTP bypassed the standard login process. This allowed me to FTP into the system and then delete the offending function. In less than 5 minutes, everything was back to normal.
A related lesson learned was to make key people aware of what happened, noting that the problem had been resolved and that there was no lasting damage. Hiding mistakes kills careers. Then, we created a “Lessons Learned” log, with this as the first entry, to foster the idea of sharing mistakes to avoid them in the future. Understanding that mistakes can happen to anyone is a good way to get people to plan better and keep them from panicking when problems occur.
Staying calm and focused on resolving the problem is a much better approach than worrying about blame and the implications of those actions. And most people appreciate the honesty.
As the novelist James Lane Allen stated, “Adversity does not build character; it reveals it.”
Interesting Article about ADHD and Creativity
This “pocket” story is from Scientific American, originally published on March 5, 2019. The Creativity of ADHD.
Over the years, I have found that some of the most interesting, creative, and effective CEOs have ADHD-like tendencies. Strangely, they may not even be aware that they have it. Hyperfocus can be incredibly effective when attached to a driven person.
Below are links to a couple of posts that make these concepts and their benefits tangible:
These are examples of why it is best to look beyond labels, lay your preconceived notions aside, and explore each individual’s potential to contribute. The best managers and leaders tend to have this ability.
And if you want to take that a step further, let it guide you in finding the best approach to teaching, coaching, and motivating your team members. It may take a little extra effort, but the results are amazing.
Are you Thinking About Starting a Business?
The last post on Starting a Business was popular, so I thought I would share a key lesson learned and then provide links to previous posts that will provide insights as you launch your own business. If you have any questions, just post them as comments; I would happily reply.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a great deal of uncertainty and opportunity. For many, now is the ideal time to explore their dream of starting a business and jumping into entrepreneurship. That can be exciting, fun, stressful, financially rewarding, and financially challenging, all within the same short period of time.
Being prepared for that roller coaster ride and having the ability and strength to continue pushing forward is important. Something to understand is that “Things don’t happen to you. They are the Direct Result of your own Actions and Inactions.” That may sound harsh, but here is a prime example:
When I was closing my consulting business down, I trusted my Accountant and Payroll company to handle all of the required Federal, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Colorado filings – something they stated they would handle, and I accepted at face value. Both companies had done a great job before, so why would I expect any less this time?
About nine months later, I started receiving letters from Ohio and Colorado about filings due, so I forwarded them to the Accountant and Payroll company. I thought this was “old business” and was being handled, plus I had moved on. It was probably just a timing error, something easy to explain away.
Skipping forward nearly three years, I had been threatened by the IRS and the Revenue Departments from both Ohio and Colorado. I started with a combined total of nearly $500K in assessments. Slowly that dropped to $50K, and then to $10K. I spent countless hours on the phone and writing letters explaining the misunderstanding. It wasn’t until I finally found a helpful person in each department willing to listen and tell me specifically what needed to be done to resolve that situation. My final cost was around $1,000. I was relieved that this fiasco was finally over.
I blamed both the Accountant and Payroll Service for these problems for the longest time. Ultimately I realized that it was my business and, therefore, my responsibility to understand the shutdown process – regardless of who did the work. I would have saved hundreds of hours of my time and several hundred dollars by gaining that understanding initially.
I was not a victim of anything – this situation directly resulted from my own inaction. It did not seem very important at the time, but my understanding of the situation and its importance was incorrect, and I paid the price. Lesson learned. It was my business, so it was still my responsibility to the very end.
Below are the other links. You don’t have to read them all at once, but it would be worth bookmarking them and reading one per day. Every new perspective, idea, and lesson learned could be the thing that helps you achieve your goal a day, week, or month sooner than expected. Every day and every dollar matters, so make the most of both!
- Comments on and a link to an on Curt Culver about Entrepreneurship.
- Comments on and a link to an HBR article about Start-ups and Entrepreneurship.
- Innovation, Intelligent Failure, and Failing Productively.
- Acting Like an Owner – Good Preparation for Becoming an Owner.
- Profitability Through Operational Efficiency.
- What Are You Really Selling?
- Continuous Improvement and a Growth Mindset.
- The Value Created by a Strong Team.
Presentation about Starting a Business and Entrepreneurship
It is interesting how often you see ads for some franchise offering that touts, “Become your own boss.” While that may not be all bad, it is just the tip of the iceberg. The presentation below is intended to provide insight to people considering starting their first company. This was from a one-hour presentation that glosses over many things, such as the need for registrations and insurance, but it could be helpful for a first-timer.
One of the first and most important lessons I learned when I started my consulting company long ago was that paying attention to cash flow was far more important than focusing on my balance sheet. Once you understand a problem, altering what you do to manage it becomes easy. For example, using fixed pricing based on tasks where we received 50% up-front and the remaining 50% upon acceptance of the deliverable smoothed out cash flow, which was a big help.
So, take a look and post any questions that you may have. If one person has a question, many more will likely do as well! Cheers.
New Perspectives on Business Ecosystems
One of the many changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has been a sea change in thoughts and goals around Supply Chain Management (SCM). Existing SCM systems were up-ended in mere months as it has become challenging to procure raw materials to components, manufacturing has shifted to meet new unanticipated needs, and logistics challenges have arisen from health-related staffing issues, safe working distances, and limited shipping options and availability. In short, things are a mess!
Foundational business changes will require modern approaches to Change Management. Change is not easy – especially at scale, so having ongoing support from the top down and providing incentives to motivate the right behaviors, actions, and outcomes will be especially critical to the success of those initiatives. And remember, “What gets measured gets managed,” so focusing on the aspects of business and change that matter will become a greater focus.
Business Intelligence systems will be especially important for Descriptive Analysis. Machine Learning will likely play a larger role as organizations seek a more comprehensive understanding of patterns and work toward accurate Predictive Analysis. And, of course, Artificial Intelligence / Deep Learning / Neural Networks should accelerate as the need for Prescriptive Analysis grows. Technology will provide many of the insights needed for business leaders to make the best decisions in the shortest amount of time, which is both possible and prudent.
This is also the right time to consider upgrading to a collaborative, agile business ecosystem that can quickly and cost-effectively expand and adapt to whatever comes next. Click on this link to see more of the benefits of this type of model.
Whether you like it or not, change is coming. So, why not take a proactive posture to help ensure that this change is good and meets the objectives your company or organization needs.
Changes like this are all-encompassing, so it is helpful to begin with the mindset, “Win together, Lose together.” In general, it helps to have all areas of an organization moving in lockstep towards a common goal, but at a critical juncture like this, that is no longer an option.
Where Ideas, Experiences, and Lessons Learned Intersect 