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Archive for the ‘Google Waypoints’ Category

The recently introduced Apple iPad is the latest wowing of the world by the pioneering computer company. Taken in totality, with its iPhone, iPod, MacBook laptops, and the original Macintosh computer itself, Apple’s ability to hit innovation home runs has changed technology — and the way people relate to electronic devices, and thus, each other.

What was the inspiration behind these products? How does a man — CEO Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak — foster such an upwelling of inspiration? How does leadership’s vision motivate teams in the organization, and ultimately transform consumers into loyalists? More importantly, how can you foster such inspiration in your organization?

Start with the question: How inspired is your organization? In a survey on InnovationCoach.com website, we asked, “Which elements of an Innovation Process and/or culture are in place today?” Only half the respondents answered “Inspiration.” The good news was that half of those responding realized the need for inspiration. The bad news was that just as many don’t — or haven’t put the process in place.

From the C-suite on down, can you honestly say that your company encourages inspiration and welcomes vision? Or does your organization “play not to lose?” Is it a pulse that beats constantly.

Inspiration goes beyond the thinking that brought us various Apple products. Inspiration is about how people think, collaborate, and then put new ideas into motion. Inspiration comes in an open forum for all involved and not involved. It reaches from the CEO to the customer service help desk, from the factory floor to the retail showroom, from the longest-tenured employee to the newest hire to the customer submitting concepts via a “Suggestions” box or a phone call. Savvy innovators even welcome partners, suppliers, and vendors into the process.

To my way of thinking, no one in the organization gets a “free pass” from thinking creatively about how to improve the company, its products or its processes.

While thoughtful leadership has fueled innovation for other businesses, inspiration remains the spark that drives the creative process. How can your organization inspire innovation? I suggest these seven tips:

Make inspiration an imperative. In Robert’s Rules of Innovation, it states that successful innovation in an organization is driven by 10 imperatives, including — among others — leadership, ownership, accountability, risk and reward, and value creation. None is more important, though, than inspiration. An inspired leader, organization and process engages the team, welcomes them into the act of innovation and heightens chances for success. Install and empower a chief innovation officer. The processes of inspiration and innovation need a champion, someone who helps develop the ideas, fosters an environment that encourages creative camaraderie, feeds esprit de corps, and steers the organization toward greatness. In the small or mid-sized companies, this should be the owner or CEO. In large organizations with an especially thoughtful or charismatic leader — such as Steve Jobs — the CEO can serve this role as well. But generally in larger organizations, the CIO should be someone empowered by the CEO. The CIO (not to be confused with the Chief Information Officer) has the perspective of the organization to envision inspiration, and drive to push projects through the various necessary pipelines, and the power and purpose to see projects through. Set goals and create enthusiasm. Where do you want your organization to go today? Tomorrow? Does the company need one new product this year, or a new process management or workflow initiative? Inspiration is the daily communication that steers such direction. Though the CIO is the leader (after the CEO or other top exec), the team must embrace the challenge as a shared goal to be met together. Buy-in comes with smaller, incremental wins that need to be recognized. Failures must be tolerated, not penalized. Measure achievements, and use a reward system of monetary or recognition awards. You’ll find sometimes, especially with your most creative people, that recognition is reward enough to keep troops engaged and motivated. Create the right culture. Inspiration is bigger than individuals: It resonates throughout the organization. This is more than hanging motivational posters on the walls. Host regular brainstorming sessions to welcome new ideas. Hold team-building exercises, where inspiration is the focus, and new ideas — again for products or processes — are the goal. Successful inspiration that fuels innovation transcends hierarchy and silos. It’s not the just CIO’s job. It’s everyone’s job. Together, the team enjoys success and learns from the lessons of failure. Encourage the entire organization to become “Inspired” and to embrace the challenge of inspiration. Make inspiration a start-to-finish endeavor. On its album Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd laments, “plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.” Life and business are littered with unfinished tasks. Set deadlines, and use rewards to help ensure they are met. Strive for the completed task. Observe, measure, and know. Inspiration — like innovation itself — doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It must be measured to gauge performance and ensure a chance at success. Each project team must have a leader in charge of shepherding projects to their respective waypoints and end goals. Set up processes and milestones. Establish checkpoints to weigh accomplishments. As Ronald Reagan famously said: “Trust, but verify.” Never relent. Inspiration is about the journey, not the destination. It’s not a one-time endeavor, but a life-long calling. Herb Kohler, the 70-year-old bearded chairman of the plumbing fixture company that bears his name, still heads Kohler’s monthly new product development meetings — that is, when he’s not collaborating with legendary golf course designer Pete Dye on a new development or leading the company’s acquisition of Scotland’s famed Hamilton Hall in St. Andrews — at a time when his contemporaries are content to just hit the links, Kohler remains committed to product innovation — and helping to provide the inspiration behind it.

Inspiration sparks, propels, and steers creative thinking, which leads to innovation and, thus, new business development. Establishing, maintaining and fostering a culture in which this thinking can thrive not only motivates teams and encourages shared goals — it ultimately drives value to the bottom line. Inspire and keep the beat.

© 2010 Robert F. Brands, author of Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival

America’s 25 million small business owners are entitled to the same turnaround help as the Fortune 500. Unfortunately, they don’t receive it because turnaround consultants are expensive and their methods are not readily known by small business owners. A turnaround roadmap can remove some of the mystery about turnarounds and provide a guide for small business owners to fix their companies by themselves. Like GPS, a turnaround roadmap uses waypoints to help the user navigate from here to there. The seven major waypoints on a turnaround roadmap are listed below. If you can follow a map, you can turn your business around. STABILIZE. The first action in any crisis is to stabilize the environment so you can make good decisions.

The key to stabilizing a small business is to maintain a positive cash balance at all times. Never spend more in a week than you had at the end of the previous week. This simple cash control budget works like a tourniquet; it keeps you alive while you determine what went wrong and what to do about it. Control the cash by personally signing every check that leaves the building. Also, sign every purchase order so you don’t buy anything you don’t absolutely need. Prepare a cash flow budget for 13 weeks. It usually takes this long to diagnose the problems and reorganize your business. You must create enough cash to move through this phase. Persons inside and outside your business will look to you for leadership. Step up and lead by example, manage by walking around and talking with people, know your numbers and business processes, and be solution oriented. DIAGNOSE. There could be a number of reasons why your business is in trouble, but generally one of the following is the culprit: 1) sales are down, either taken by new competitors or lost to a decline in market demand caused by an economic downturn, 2) gross margins declined while fixed costs remained the same, or 3) the business has become top-heavy from an acquisition, or from adding new plant and equipment. You can quickly isolate the causes through financial analysis. Look at your company’s performance ratios for the past three to five years. Next, compare your ratios to those of other companies similar to yours.

You can purchase this information from the Risk Management Association (formerly Robert Morris Associates). Study the numbers and variances. You’ll see where others are doing well and you are not. Close the gaps. Once you’ve analyzed your company, review your industry and what’s going on with your competitors. The results of this company and industry analysis will help you determine what caused your cash crisis and what you must do to fix it. Remember, the lack of cash is an effect, not a cause. As you move on the next waypoint, you begin eliminating the causes. REORGANIZE. Every sustainable business has a core division, product or service that produces positive cash flow. Rank your units in descending order by the amount of positive cash flow each produces. Draw a line where the cash flow turns negative. The products or services above the line become your new turnaround company. Everything below the line is discarded. That means facilities, inventory, and people. The rule is: if it produces positive cash flow it stays; if not, it goes. PLAN. Write a simple turnaround plan to get through the next year and convince your creditors to stick with you. State your objectives in measurable terms. Describe your core business, sales plan, staff reductions and cost saving actions. Include a cash budget and a set of monthly financial projections. Prove that you can stay in business while you turn things around. Be brutally honest in your assessment of how you got into this situation and how you intend to get out of it. This will help restore your credibility. You will need this to obtain concessions from your creditors. NEGOTIATE. Sort your creditors into two groups: Group A creditors (those you need to do business with in the future, like banks and critical suppliers), and Group B creditors (those you can replace and don’t need to survive). Meet with Group A creditors and sell them on your turnaround plan. Be factual and positive. Show them how they will be repaid from your successful turnaround. Most will go along with you. Don’t waste time with Group B creditors. Hire a debt negotiator to obtain a settlement for you and move on. EXECUTE. Once most business owners get past the crisis and calm their creditors down, they fail to execute and the wheels come off the wagon. Don’t let this happen to you. Set up a weekly agenda and stick with it religiously. Do all the tasks called for in your turnaround plan and remain accountable. Success is won or lost through execution. GROW(or Sell). If you like what you do and can you see yourself happily doing it for another three to five years, you should keep your company and grow it. You now have a profitable company and staying on course should be easier this time around. You certainly know what to avoid. If you are tired, you probably should sell this company and do something else. The good news is your company is now worth something, whereas before you turned it around, it was worth little or nothing. Manage it well while you have it on the market. Any business owner who chooses can learn how to fix his business, keep his job, and protect his home. Use a turnaround roadmap to guide you.

Wavering back and forth about buying an in-game Warcraft guide can use up a lot of good playing time. Instead of sitting on the fence and slogging through the levels, check out these top ten features that any quality in-game Warcraft guide should have. By the end, hopefully your decision will be made.

One: Faster leveling. This is a given with any Warcraft guide, but of course needed to be mentioned.

Two: No alt+tabbing! With an in-game Warcraft guide, you do not have to continually minimize the game to check the next step. It’s all on the screen.

Three: Coordinates and map waypoints. No more hunting around is necessary.

Four: Directional arrows. You don’t have to keep opening the map to see where to go, the arrow points the way.

Five: Clustered quests. A quality Warcraft guide groups all quests, turn ins and objectives in one area so that you don’t run back and forth across zones constantly.

Six: Helpful hints. For example, these Warcraft guides tell you what to buy and when so you don’t find yourself in a remote location without the quest item you need.

Seven: No missed quests. A Warcraft guide will make sure you grab important quests, such as those that start long quest chains for later levels.

Eight: Completely automated. As you complete an objective, the next one pops up on the screen. No searching for next steps.

Nine: Detailed quest information.  Some quests are tricky, but the best Warcraft guides include helpful information on locations, spawn times and best strategies

Ten: No more grinding!  Forget killing the same mob over and over and over. An in-game Warcraft guide plots everything out so carefully that quests alone take you to the level cap.

While the benefits of an in-game Warcraft guide are many, it is just one of several options to choose from. These ten features of in-game Warcraft guides are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how helpful a quality guide can be.