Steve Yastrow

Success is Self-Inflicted

I was listening to an executive explain his company’s dismal results to a group of people: “The recession of 2008 and 2009 caused us to have our first year-over-year sales decline in the company’s history.”

“No,” I thought as I heard this.  “The economy didn’t cause your poor sales results. You had bad sales results because your customers didn’t buy as much from you.”

Be careful about inferring causes for your business results.  All you know for sure if your sales decline is that your customers paid you less money.  But you may not know why.

Of course, the economic situation may have been one reason that this company’s customers purchased less. But to reflexively assign blame to the recession instantly leaves the company off the hook. Was it only the economy that depressed sales, or was it something the company did, or did not, do that affected customer behavior?

Maybe the economic situation just exposed how weak the company’s customers’ loyalty is.  Or that this company is not as agile as its competitors.

The direct drivers of your results are, for better or worse, the actions your customers take.  There are many things you do that affect how your customers act, many (most) of which have a stronger influence than external factors.

Success is self-inflicted.

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Where are you in the dark?

You know that 37% of the customers in your restaurant buy wine, but you don’t know why they buy it.

You know that the customers in your clothing store who spend the most time with  salespeople end up buying the most merchandise, but you’re not sure if their returns are higher.

You get a lot of new visitors to  your website, but you’re not sure how many are from past  customers and how many are from non-customers.

What do you know about your business, and what don’t you know?

What’s in the light … and where are you in the dark?

It’s very important to understand what you know, but it’s also really important to know what you don’t know.  What key information are you missing?

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Sailing lesson

My flight landed in Grand Cayman at 3:05 yesterday afternoon. Since my schedule is packed with meetings for today and tomorrow, I knew I only had a short window of beach time on this visit.  I managed to breeze through immigration, the car rental and hotel check-in (at the amazing Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman), and I was renting a Hobie Wave sailboat by 4:15.

The wind was dying, and the sun was waning, but I was really enjoying myself.  As I sailed a little farther out from shore, I was treated to some ocassional gusts of wind that had the catamaran moving pretty quickly.  The gusts would die, and then return, but the unevenness didn’t bother me. After all, the calm moments let me just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

During one of those lighter winds, I had the sheet (the rope that is connected to the sail) jammed into a cleat, which pinches the sheet between two cams so you don’t have to hold it all the time.  Suddenly, a strong wind came up and started to put the boat up on one pontoon.  Actually, this is where the fun begins, and I started to get myself in position for some real sailing.  But, the wind came on pretty strong, and I couldn’t get the sheet out of the cleat.  Before I knew it, I was REALLY up on one pontoon, and the Hobie Wave tipped over.

No real problem – Sam and Dave from the Ritz-Carlton’s watersports operation shot out in their powerboat, and we got the boat up, and me sailing, in minutes. But what an interesting lesson.

The first thing I said to myself was that the wind didn’t tip me. I tipped myself. Gusts of wind will come along, just like bad economic conditions will come along, or new competitors will come along. We can’t control the weather, and there are many market conditions we can’t control.

The key is to be ready to adjust to the wind. If I’d been more alert, I could have used this wind to great advantage, but instead, I tipped over.

Enjoy the wind, but always be ready for it to change.  When it does, act so it works to your advantage. It’s great that 2009 is almost over– most businesses will not look back on 2009 fondly.  But 2010 will bring with it many strange winds. Don’t get your sheet stuck in the cleat.

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Waking ourselves up

As a consultant, I have this recurring opportunity to feel smart. I go into a company, and in the first half-hour I’m able to say, “Look at this missed opportunity,” or, “Here’s big problem you haven’t noticed yet.” Big things are not that hard to see.

So, imagine how I felt the other day when I sat down with my long-time associate, Diana Lackner.  Diana is returning to work with us after a hiatus, so Caroline and I met with her to review what’s been going on in the business.  Within minutes Diana was peppering me with the kinds of perfect questions and insightful observations that I always pat myself on the back for making, when I’m with my clients.  I kept thinking, “That’s been right in front of my eyes. Why does it take Diana to tell me this?”  I didn’t feel so smart. (At least Diana’s observations were mostly about big opportunities!)

Now, of course, part of the story is that Diana is really smart.  But there is an overriding issue that we can all learn from: Being hyper-aware of your own personal business situation is a key to success.

It’s easy to become de-sensitized to your immediate business environment.  We get used to things the way they are, and often stop questioning the obvious. A manager stops looking at the reports that show his business is falling off a cliff. Another stops looking at other reports that reveal major opportunities with a certain type of customer.  Customer service people hear about major issues from customers, but management doesn’t pay attention.  The factory has created awkward work-arounds to accomodate production problems, and the operations VP isn’t aware of it.  Sales reps are losing sales do to a glitch in the pricing process, and the sales VP writes it off to another case of sales people whining.

Try this:  Be hyper-aware of your personal business situation.  Notice what’s going on in your immediate vicinity. Put on the fresh eyes of a consultant, and see what’s really going on in your business.  Don’t wait for me to wake you up. Wake yourself up!

A complete understanding of the present is a critical step to inventing your future.

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Strategic Kavanah

Imagine if you could think about your business for the next hour with the focus and intent of a person deep in prayer. Think you’d come up with some great ideas?  You bet you would!

Have a look at today’s newsletter, Strategic Kavanah, for thoughts on bringing direction and intention into your business thinking.

Please share your comments below.

(P.S. Happy birthday to Caroline!)

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Choose Your Future

There are an infinite number of possible futures for you business.  Choose one!  Today’s newsletter, Choose Your Future, continues the them of “Invent Your Future” from the last few issues. Here’s an excerpt:

“Who do we intend to be?” is a question you should ask now and continue asking every day you are in business. Our ability to accomplish things has less to do with skills and abilities and more to do with the choices we make.

Choose to read Choose Your Future. It will help your business (and your career).

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Self-Reliance, Emerson Style

Steve took inspiration from the great transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson for today’s newsletter, Invent Your Future- Now.

Here’s an excerpt:

Circumstance affects our results, but we cannot let a blame of circumstance distract us from what we need to do. On the contrary, circumstance should inform what we do. Look out the window at the outside world, and study closely what is happening. Then, turn and look in the mirror and say to yourself, “Ok, now it’s time for action.”

Steve advocates we take charge of our futures and invent them (now!). So, what are you waiting for? Read the newsletter, and Invent Your Future- Now.

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The Things That Matter

If you decided to focus on the top 5, 10 or 15 things that are most important to your business, would you know what they are?

Today’s newsletter, The Things That Matter, addresses this question.  What is most important to your business’s future?  How do you sort through thousands of issues to find the Things That Matter?  How do you create your business’s “To-Don’t” list?

Have a look at the newsletter, and then please share your comments here.

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Who’s in your way?

Today’s newsletter, We have seen the enemy, and it is …, explores a truth that confronts most companies: We are a much bigger obstacle to our own success than any competitor or economic hardship ever could be.

Does your company get in its own way? Are there ways to fix this problem? Want to discuss it? Share your comments below!

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What The Bleep Should I Do With My Future?

This week’s theme has been “inventing the future” … it’s been cropping up at every turn. I spent a full-day early in the week with a group from a client company, helping them navigate from a powerful past, through a treacherous present, to create an even more powerful future.  I spoke with three prospective clients, each of whom is a business owner who wants to create a future for his business over the next few years that will allow him to pursue important life goals.  And, I ran three CEO workshops, between California and Texas, in which “Invent Your Future – Now!” was a major theme.

The entire week came together for me early this evening, on a flight from Dallas to Miami.  Due to a faulty hydraulic valve on the airplane, we took off two hours late, giving me a 50/50 chance of missing my connecting flight to Grand Cayman. After take off, as I was wondering if I would make the connecting flight, I thought of Shrodinger’s Cat. In 1935, physicist Erwin Shrodinger wanted to illustrate the bizarre implications of something called “quantum superpositions.”  Quantum physics posits that all possible states for a system exist simultaneously until they collapse into one state at the moment of measurement or observation.  Shrodinger used the following story to describe how strange this is: Imagine a cat inside a box, along with a small amount of radioactive substance, a Geiger counter, an electrical relay, a hammer and a vial of cyanide.  There is a 50/50 chance that one subatomic particle will be emitted in the course of one hour, setting off the Geiger counter, relay and hammer, shattering the cyanide and killing the cat. You don’t know which of the equal probabilities exists, living cat or dead cat, until you open the box. So, before you open the box, is the cat dead or alive?  Both dead and alive, says quantum physics.  The cat doesn’t settle into one state until you open the box.  All probabilities exist, until the observer’s observation causes one state to manifest itself. Pretty strange, eh? (One basic example from quantum physics can help us understand the powerful role of the observer:  You can’t measure both the position and speed of a particle at one time, because your measurement of one parameter affects the other.  Observation is not passive; we affect reality when we observe.)

Applied to my situation, which I pondered at 35,000 feet, Shrodinger’s Cat implies that I was both catching my flight and not catching my flight. Huh? How could that be true? Would my observation of the situation really have a bearing on the eventual outcome, on which of the possible states actually comes to be? How could it?  This is a tough concept!

Then, I pulled a DVD out of my briefcase to watch on the fight.  On recommendation from a friend, I had rented the 2004 film,“What the Bleep Do We Know?” not really aware of the topic of the movie. This is an amazing film. It starts with a very accessible description of quantum physics, described by a group of perspicuous experts, and then, through a dramatic narrative starting Marlee Matlin, shows how this theory of multiple probabilities plays itself out in our lives. There are an infinite number of possible futures for each of us, so how do we settle on one?  Through an equally accessible description of biochemistry, the What the Bleep group of experts show how our brains manufacture chemicals, millions of times every second, that create the reality of our lives. For example, if we have a victim story going on in our minds, we will produce chemicals that addict us to the feeling of victimhood, and cells throughout our body will go through physiological changes that make them crave this victim chemical, shutting out other chemicals, such as nutrients.  The victim complex, in this example, actually turns one into more of a victim. Of an infinite number of possible life scenarios, the victim changes his physiology to create a reality of victimhood.  I suddenly understood the sea-change I have created for myself, over the past few years, in how I handle anxiety.  I have learned, thankfully, to produce chemicals in my brain that stop the feeling of “The sky is falling!” and, instead, tell myself that life is pretty wonderful. Of many possible life-states, I chose one.

So, back to Shrodinger’s cat. Was I missing my Miami flight and catching it, both at the same time? Yes. “What?” you ask?  How could that be?  Quantum theory says that all  probabilities exist until the observer observes. I accepted, sitting on this American Airlines 757 somewhere above the Gulf of Mexico, that both of these realities existed, and I let my observer perspective determine the single outcome I wanted. Of course, I couldn’t influence American Airlines to hold the flight to Grand Cayman for me. But, instead of letting the situation dictate my mood, as I would have done in the past (make the flight = happy, miss the flight = pissed off), I decided to “be chill.”  I recognized that there were a near-infinite number of possible scenarios for the rest of my day, and I chose one.  By actively deciding how I would react to the situation – what chemicals my brain would release – I, as the observer, determined the outcome. No matter whether the cat was dead or alive, or, in my case, if the flight was waiting or had departed, I would feel the same.  Both states were equal.  Right now, I am sitting in the Sofitel Hotel by the Miami Airport as a “distressed passenger,” with no change of clothes or power cord for my phone. I am as calm as I would be if I were sitting in the lobby bar of the Westin Grand Cayman (where I was supposed to be by now).

In “What the Bleep,” physicist Amit Goswami says, “To acknowledge the place where you have choice is to be enlightened.”  A very important lesson as you invent the future of your business.

There are an infinite number of possible futures for your business. At every point in time, one of those futures will have manifested itself.  You – yes, you – will determine that outcome. Whether you are one employee at a 30,000 person company, or a sole proprietor, your actions will determine the exact future your business finds itself in at any point in time.  It can’t be any other way; you are not a passenger, you are a creator.

So why not choose the best possible future for your company? Why not acknowledge what you can choose, and what you cannot choose, and choose to create the best possible future you can for your company?

You cannot choose for the economy to improve, just like I could not choose for American Airlines to stall the departure of my connecting flight.  But there are many things you can choose.  You can choose to focus on certain business outcomes, and not others.  You can choose to focus on certain customers, and not others.  You can choose how you allocate your time and resources.  You can choose how you interact with customers.  You can choose the behavior you model for the people who work for you.  You can choose to ignore your competitors and focus on addressing the challenges within your company that influence your performance much more than the damage a competitor can do.

Pre-dating Shrodinger by 94 years, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the following in his 1841 essay, Self-Reliance: “The picture waits for my verdict.”  You can choose which of an infinite number of possibilities will happen.  Be enlightened.  Acknowledge the place you have choice, and then choose to create your best future.

Invent your future – now.

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