Steve Yastrow » Invent Your Future

Quiver in Your Boots

Amanda Cullen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:07:07 +0000

When was the last time your company made a daring, bold decision that turned out to be wildly successful? Not that recently? Not ever?

But how likely is it that your company’s boring, middle-of-the-road decisions will ever turn out to be wildly successful? Probably never.

Steve’s newsletter challenges you to “Quiver in Your Boots” from time to time– only risky moves have the chance for great reward!

Read the newsletter: “Quiver in Your Boots”

And here’s a link to Apple’s famous “1984″ ad referenced in the newsletter.

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To Achieve Success You Need To Create Success

Steve Yastrow — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:12:56 +0000

As Shakespeare wrote in Twelfth Night, “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

In our day and age of meritocracy, greatness usually comes only from achievement, not from birth or happenstance. So, we then have the question: “How do you achieve success?”

In today’s newsletter, To Achieve Success You Need To Create Success, I share a an insight I heard recently that sheds light on this question. On the surface, it’s simple, but, then again, sometimes the most important ideas are simple.

Read the newsletter: To Achieve Success You Need To Create Success

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Why would they love you? Do your customers love you? Do you know why they would love you? Can you...
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What businesses can learn from non-profits Steve has a very interesting newsletter today about What businesses can learn from non-profits. His...

Reinventing the Brand Called You

Steve Yastrow — Tue, 31 May 2011 14:30:23 +0000

In 1997 my mentor/guru/client Tom Peters published a ground-breaking article in Fast Company titled The Brand Called You. Let’s take a new look at the concept of personal branding with today’s newsletter, Your Powerful Personal Brand.

What are you doing to reinvent, reinvigorate and renew your personal brand?

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What businesses can learn from non-profits

Amanda Cullen — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:07:23 +0000

Steve has a very interesting newsletter today about What businesses can learn from non-profits. His list of six takeaways include defining results as “What’s at stake,” and striving for win-win situations with customers and partners. Yastrow & Company has worked extensively with non-profits, so it’s exciting to bring some of our insights to our readers.

So what do you think? Has your business learned anything from the non-profit world? If you are with a non-profit, what else do you think the business world can learn from you?

Read the newsletter: What businesses can learn from non-profits

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So, what should you do this week?

Steve Yastrow — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:10:51 +0000

Ah, early January, and the whole year stretches out before us. Plenty of time to do the right things, plenty of time to do things right.

So, how do we get started? What should we do now to ensure that 2011 is a winning year?

This week’s newsletter, What should you do the first week of the year? explores this issue. Hint: If you want to know what to do at the beginning of the year, think about what you want the end of the year to look like.

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Who do you intend to be?

Steve Yastrow — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:25:19 +0000

So what are you focusing on today, the little questions or the big ones?

When you focus on the big questions, what is the most important one?

Read today’s newsletter, Who do we intend to be?, and tell me if you agree with me.

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Success is Self-Inflicted

Steve Yastrow — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:03:58 +0000

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?

Steve Yastrow — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:14:27 +0000

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

Steve Yastrow — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:17:38 +0000

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

Steve Yastrow — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:42:44 +0000

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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