tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49126350871740019042024-02-21T11:26:23.839-05:00Corporate BraveryKeeping the Fear Contagion Out of Your Corporate CultureDarrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-10404030114642894052019-01-12T11:04:00.000-05:002019-01-12T11:04:08.492-05:00As a Founder, How do you Build your Startup Team?<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
We have been very strategic in assembling our startup team and it all starts with your cofounder. I have written an <span class="qlink_container"><a href="https://www.quora.com/In-what-order-would-you-rank-your-major-factors-in-choosing-a-business-partner/answer/Darrin-Murriner" style="background: transparent; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">answer to previous question about what I was looking for in a cofounder</a></span>, but in short I wanted someone that had complimentary set of skills and strengths but the same level of commitment that I did to the vision and our partnership. These two factors carry over to the rest of the team as well.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Additionally, we knew there were a few key functional roles (positions) that we would need to support clients and future clients through their entire lifecycle using our product, which included:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 2em 1em 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Marketing</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Sales</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Customer Success</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Product (engineering)</li>
</ul>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
We spent some dedicated time thinking not just about what we needed in these roles at that early stage but also about how the roles would evolve. We needed to define the competencies and skills for day 1, but also for day 360 and year 3.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Understanding how the role was likely to evolve allowed us to not only find someone for today, but someone that was most likely able to evolve as the demands of the business dictated new approaches. We were also able to communicate this to candidates and get their commitment that it was something that would still interest them as the role evolved.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
This also highlighted the cultural values that we needed from our employees. Curious people that had a growth mindset and were persistent at pushing through obstacles were a few of the factors that emerged for all the roles. I elaborate a little more on our <span class="qlink_container"><a href="https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-people-with-what-skills-are-needed-for-early-stage-startups/answer/Darrin-Murriner" style="background: transparent; color: #2b6dad; text-decoration: none;">approach to defining this in another answer I provided here</a></span>.</div>
<br />
To see the <a href="https://www.quora.com/As-a-founder-how-did-you-build-your-startup-team/answer/Darrin-Murriner">original question and answers on Quora click here</a>.<br />
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-51279915199785046382019-01-04T08:19:00.002-05:002019-01-04T08:19:35.452-05:00Are Remote Teams Less Effective Than Onsite Teams?<br />
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Remote teams are not necessarily less effective than onsite teams, but there are unique challenges to managing or being in a remote team.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Before we talk about those unique challenges, it is important to point out that most research on remote workers seem to indicate that they are much more productive than workers coming to an office everyday. Here are a couple links to studies that point to that evidence:</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="hbr.org" data-tooltip="attached" href="https://hbr.org/2014/01/to-raise-productivity-let-more-employees-work-from-home" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background: url("//qsf.fs.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-7f84ed22dfd7e97b.svg") right 0.3em / 10.5px no-repeat; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">To Raise Productivity, Let More Employees Work from Home</a></span></div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="forbes.com" data-tooltip="attached" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2016/05/02/are-remote-workers-happier-and-more-productive-new-survey-offers-answers/#5fbcbf686663" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background: url("//qsf.fs.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-7f84ed22dfd7e97b.svg") right 0.3em / 10.5px no-repeat; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Are Remote Workers Happier And More Productive? New Survey Offers Answers</a></span></div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
You can google more but an overwhelming amount of evidence points to greater levels of satisfaction and productivity of remote workers.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
The downside or challenges of this stem from creating a common culture and creating a sense that you are part of a team. The isolation of working remote can be a challenge to building relationships that are critical to building team trust and establishing a commitment to the larger mission of the team / organization.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Communication technology (Slack, MS Teams, Skype and Zoom) can help keep the flow of communication working well but oftentimes establishing relationships with others occurs in the day to day interactions had around the proverbial water cooler. It is face to face or across the cube that you learn about the unique challenges that people are faced with on a day to day basis in their personal lives or the meaningful relationships they have outside of work. This helps build empathy and understanding that working remote doesn’t often afford.</div>
<br />
To see the original <a href="https://www.quora.com/Are-remote-teams-less-effective-than-onsite-teams/answer/Darrin-Murriner">Quora question and answer</a> you can click here.<br />
<br />
To see more about how Cloverleaf can help you build empathy, understanding and <a href="http://www.cloverleaf.me/">trust in remote teams click here</a>.<br />
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-9003939958614979392018-12-29T07:14:00.000-05:002018-12-29T07:14:15.334-05:00What is the Ideal Company Culture?<br />
<div id="wnFKtzmt71" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="u-serif-font-main--regular" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.6; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="ui_qtext_expanded">
<span class="ui_qtext_rendered_qtext" style="tab-size: 4;"><div class="ui_qtext_para" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
The ideal company culture is the one that allows you to execute your strategy in an effective way.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
I know that is a bit of a cop out, but the reality is there is no one ideal company culture and each culture should be the right mix for the people that in your organization and is built to allow your people to do the best work they were hired to do.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
This means each organization should have a different culture. After all, culture is created by people and every organization is made up of a different set of people. We founded<span> </span><span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="cloverleaf.me" data-tooltip="attached" href="http://www.cloverleaf.me/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background: url("//qsf.fs.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-7f84ed22dfd7e97b.svg") right 0.3em / 10.5px no-repeat; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cloverleaf</a></span><span> </span>on the premise that culture is created by the collection of individuals that are a part of the organization. And at the most basic level a team has its own unique culture. This is why even in large, established organizations you will find many subcultures exist across the organization. IT and Sales often have completely different cultures inside the same organization.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
Oftentimes I see teams or organizations try and emulate other cultures. This happens frequently with organizations in the midwest that try and create “startup culture” by adding beer kegs and ping pong tables. But the reality is it is the mix of day to day to motivators that influence decisions that often have the biggest influence on culture.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
For example, a manager that says quality is most important but when confronted with production targets places efficiency over small decisions that contribute to a quality process / product. Employees notice these subtle shifts or incongruence and it will impact morale and ultimately culture.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
Oftentimes organizational culture is heavily influenced by the founders and reinforced with hiring practices. When we started<span> </span><span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link" data-qt-tooltip="cloverleaf.me" href="http://www.cloverleaf.me/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background: url("//qsf.fs.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-7f84ed22dfd7e97b.svg") right 0.3em / 10.5px no-repeat; color: #2b6dad; padding-right: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cloverleaf</a></span><span> </span>we invested time early to identify values we wanted in the people we hired. After all, these values are key factors in creating the culture you want. We looked at ourselves and the characteristics that had been instrumental in getting us to key milestones as an early stage startup and identified the following values and embedded them in hiring practices to ensure we hired people that could reinforce this on a day to day basis:</div>
<ul style="list-style: disc; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 2em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Relationships Matter - We are interdependent.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Authenticity - the whole person matters.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Optimistic Persistence</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Bring delight to work.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">Curiosity for growth</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Candor</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You can read the <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-ideal-company-culture/answer/Darrin-Murriner">original Quora post here</a>. </div>
</span></div>
</div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-83010431743691619122018-12-28T07:20:00.000-05:002018-12-28T07:20:22.750-05:00Are Your Coworkers Distracting or Helpful?<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Yes. They are both helpful and distracting.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
The idea of building relationships is that there has to be a balance between what I get from someone and what I give to someone and that middle ground is where trust and shared experiences lie. The cost of relationships is a loss of personal time and sometimes choice, but we often agree it is worth it in the long run.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
In a work context this balance is also important. You want to accomplish great things but you need others to do so. What comes with that is distraction is an opportunity to leverage your coworkers experience, skill, knowledge and capabilities to create something better than you can do on your own.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
If you were to plot each of these interactions along an axis (see chart below) each of them would lie somewhere along a line where some interactions were more distracting than productive and vice versa but more often than not a good work relationship allows each of you to be more productive than distracting and finding this balance is key.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla58q_ISVP9UdPgMk4nLJp0s5BFKF7lwBWUSSiI9skrSv_URVoRXxDssMcnj_Z1jfZDVKpwl37Fr07-xlpg9gti7ZbP2xG6ckZ01lQT9Z87vSjqwUC4ecKw2ZH7Kqu_KUYBnSc0EjYcw/s1600/Scatter-plot-productive-distracting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="600" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla58q_ISVP9UdPgMk4nLJp0s5BFKF7lwBWUSSiI9skrSv_URVoRXxDssMcnj_Z1jfZDVKpwl37Fr07-xlpg9gti7ZbP2xG6ckZ01lQT9Z87vSjqwUC4ecKw2ZH7Kqu_KUYBnSc0EjYcw/s320/Scatter-plot-productive-distracting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Also, what can masquerade as distraction can also be the creative process. Who knows how many of those conversations become the next product or process breakthrough? I find that oftentimes what starts out as a disruptive conversation can lead to tips on how to be more productive with my own time. Small ways to use the technology or tools that I use each day a bit more productively.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
Bottom line, learn to embrace a little of the distracting for the hope of being more productive and more satisfied with your work. Most research indicates that strong relationships at work are a key to being engaged in your work.</div>
<br />
To see the original <a href="https://www.quora.com/Are-your-co-workers-distracting-or-helpful/answer/Darrin-Murriner">post on Quora click here</a>.<br />
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-15949012964203812202018-12-26T08:11:00.000-05:002018-12-26T08:11:20.716-05:00What factors are most likely to change when a company grows very rapidly?<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
One of the biggest changes that happens with companies that grow rapidly is a sense of loss of control of the company culture. This happens because of a few key areas:</div>
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 2em 1em 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">New people are added to the team frequently. For those employees that were there in the early days they feel a sense of loss of control. They may ask themselves questions about these new employees such as ‘what is their role?’ These people also don’t typically have the history and the context on why some things are the way they are at the company, which is why onboarding new employees effectively and accumulating organizational knowledge in a way that tells a story for new employees is increasingly important.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">New strategies aren’t as widely known. In the early days any shift in strategy or new process / approach is often widely known because it is a small team that can be involved in that process. However, as the team grows larger and you add layers of management early hires lose proximity to decision making and an understanding of new strategies.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;">New locations or remote workers. As the company grows larger geographic proximity can start to become a barrier. New locations or remote workers mean there are more people who may not be connected to day to day decision making or have opportunities to build relationships with each other. This can cause the levels of camaraderie or trust to erode.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; position: relative;">More process and control. Bigger organizations also need more process and control to make sure that information moves up and down and throughout the organization and that decisions are aligned with organizational strategy. Also, as organizations get larger there is more to lose and risk management becomes more important. This can cause less autonomy and more people that need to be involved with decision making.</li>
</ol>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
These are just a few of the ways that fast growing companies can change, and not always for the better in the eyes of employees that feel a sense of loss for the changing culture.</div>
<div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
See the original question & <a href="https://qr.ae/TUtEky">answer on Quora</a></div>
</div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-43234433254815506472018-12-26T08:07:00.001-05:002018-12-26T08:07:36.636-05:00How can a small business compete with a much larger one?<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
In short, be nimble and faster.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
As a small business you have something the big co’s don’t have - Nothing to Lose. This makes you dangerous.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
The bigger a company gets the more it has to lose and the more their decision making is based on protecting what they have and less about capturing new ground. Often, these companies lose track of what is even happening in the larger environment because they build their sales processes, operational control functions, marketing approaches, etc around keeping others from taking what they have and completely lose track of or unable to go after other opportunities.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
But this isn’t your problem. You can be focused and try things the others would never be able to try.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
One of my favorite examples of this is the early days of AirBNB. As a two-sided marketplace they needed supply of great homes / apartments to rent. They got so desperate to build their supply that they literally walked around NYC knocking on doors with a professional photographer to enlist people to rent some part of their home to complete strangers. And it worked. Before long they were growing fast, reached $1B in market valuation (unicorn status) and in just a few short years had passed Marriott in market valuation.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
This fearless nature allowed them to try things they never could have done on their own and it paid off handsomely.</div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
You can read more about how to fully capture this spirit in my book <span class="qlink_container"><a class="external_link tooltip_parent" data-qt-tooltip="corporatebravery.com" data-tooltip="attached" href="http://www.corporatebravery.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url(https://qsf.fs.quoracdn.net/-3-images.new_grid.external_link.svg-26-7f84ed22dfd7e97b.svg); background-position: right 0.3em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 10.5px; color: #2b6dad; outline: 0px; padding-right: 15px; position: relative;" target="_blank">Corporate Bravery</a></span></div>
<div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="ui_qtext_para" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; widows: 2;">
See the <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-can-a-small-business-compete-with-a-much-larger-one/answer/Darrin-Murriner">original post at Quora</a>.</div>
</div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-31305261823592643222016-08-28T14:44:00.004-04:002016-08-28T14:44:58.563-04:00What CEO Pay Says About Your CultureThis week I was reminded of Chapter 4 on Trust in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Bravery-Eliminate-Fear-based-Decision/dp/0692492291">my book <i>Corporate Bravery</i></a> when I saw two very disappointing news stories in the headlines.<br />
<br />
While the two headlines may seemingly be unrelated that couldn't be more about the same issue - a culture of trust in business organizations. Or sadly, what has become a culture of mistrust.<br />
<br />
The first story was the incredible arrogance of Mylan, the company that manufactures and has the patent for the Epipen, the shot used to treat severe and life threatening allergic reactions. While the news story of its apparent accelerating price increases has been bubbling to the surface for some time, it hit a crescendo this week when the CEO of Mylan Heather Bresch appeared on CNBC to answer questions.<br />
<br />
What happened next was, well just see for yourself...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2016/08/25/103893058-5ED1-SB-MylanCEOFULL-082516.600x400.jpg?v=1472132923" height="213" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85098); color: white; font-family: "Gotham Narrow SSm 3r", Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; line-height: 20px; text-align: start;">http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000545943</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One of the things Heather was confronted with in the interview was her sizable pay increase to over $18 million. To which, like most of the other questions, she changed the subject and failed to answer the questions.<br />
<br />
My feelings regarding the entire <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/workinglife/highest-paid-ceos-least-likely-to-be-liked-by-rank-and-file/2291137">Mylan saga was punctuated by a study released this week by Glassdoor,</a> the online recruiting site that allows employees (and former sometimes disgruntled employees) to rate their employers. In the study they found that, "No matter how you look at the data, we found a negative link between CEO pay and CEO approval ratings."<br />
<br />
The report continues by saying,<br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Then, Glassdoor's researchers controlled for other factors, such as the company's financial performance, CEO demographics and how the culture was rated by employees on Glassdoor. After doing so, researchers still saw a clear link between the lowest approval ratings and the highest-paid leaders, though the effect was lessened in companies that also had a good corporate culture."</blockquote>
And it all goes back to trust and CEO pay is a major barometer for the kind of trust being established all the way down to the lowest levels of the organization.<br />
<br />
In addition to mistrust, I document in Corporate Bravery how this disproportionate increases in pay packages at the top also cause fear based decision making that is clouded by protecting the growing pay they are receiving. "When focused on protecting what they have or what they can continue to accumulate, executives are far less likely to make good, bold decisions that create lasting, long-term value for the organization."<br />
<br />
The same thing appears to be happening at Mylan as Heather and the executive team has clearly lost focus on the long-term impacts of their ability to raise prices past a point the public is willing to tolerate.</div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-51413479460296950502016-08-01T13:44:00.003-04:002016-08-01T13:44:55.055-04:00The Bravery of IKEAThis weekend I returned two Ikea chest of drawers, which could have been any weekend for any family. But this trip warranted a blog post on the bravery of Ikea.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Ikea_logo.svg/2000px-Ikea_logo.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="114" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Ikea_logo.svg/2000px-Ikea_logo.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
As you may have heard about in the news, <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/062816-recall-chest-and-dressers">Ikea is voluntarily recalling many of the chest of drawers</a> produced since 2002 because of the risk of tipping over and harming or even killing children.<br />
<br />
Safety recalls are a regular occurrence in the retail / consumer products world so why is this one so special? It really comes down to the unprecedented response by Ikea on the issue.<br />
<br />
Most people recognize that this isn't an issue that is specific to Ikea, but haunts much of the furniture industry. And despite many efforts to educate consumers and provide anchoring brackets with their products they went to unprecedented lengths to keep additional children from harm.<br />
<br />
Included in the options provided to consumers were the following:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Free wall anchoring kit</li>
<li>Free installation of the wall anchoring kit on existing products</li>
<li>Free pickup of existing Ikea products</li>
<li>Full refund without receipt with clearly identifiable products (requires a bar code still be attached)</li>
<li>$50 in-store credit for non-marked products</li>
</ul>
<br />
I received $265 in cash for the two products, both of which had been damaged over time by my young children.<br />
<br />
As I remarked to the Ikea associate during my return process, this is the first recall or class action type situation where consumers actually won. Typically many attorneys get involved and consumers only see a fraction of the sum paid out by the company.<br />
<br />
<br />
A fearful company would have continued to offer the anchoring kits and refused to do anything which could have offered a hint of responsibility for the deaths but Ikea went above and beyond the call of duty and set a new standard for how to handle product recalls. They truly put consumer safety above the bottom line. But I would say they still put the long-term bottom line first as they continue to acquire and retain satisfied customers that are loyal and will continue to buy their products.Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-5375267393198440752016-06-15T12:53:00.002-04:002016-06-15T12:53:53.088-04:00The Nestle Noodle ExampleAt Corporate Bravery we highlight examples of bravery but we also highlight epic examples of fear-based failures. Lost in the details of major corporate blunders is the role that fear played in management decisions and how the culture of fear or elements of a fear-based culture contribute to major losses.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.freevector.com/uploads/vector/preview/18116/FreeVector-Nestle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.freevector.com/uploads/vector/preview/18116/FreeVector-Nestle.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Fortune</i> magazine's May 2016 provides one such example. While we don't typically think noodles when we think Nestle, the international conglomerate is in a lot of food lines beyond chocolate and sweet confections.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://fortune.com/nestle-maggi-noodle-crisis/">The <i>Fortune</i> article dives into the problems surrounding their Maggi line of Ramen Noodles</a> sold in India and issues it had with the Indian version of the FDA. If I could sum the problems up in a few words I say that pride, dismissiveness and fear created a host of problems.<br />
<br />
In the words of the <i>Fortune</i> author, "a violation punishable with a fine of up to $4,500 - had Nestle paid it, the story might have ended there." But they didn't and after a series of blunders ended up costing the company 1/2 billion dollars.<br />
<br />
Nestle's culture was to avoid using the press because of fear resulting from a past experience. As the story states, "Chalk it up to a natural Swiss reserve, but Nestle's aloofness also has to do with the long shadow cast by the company's notorious baby formula scandal." A scandal from 1974 had informed the company approach some 40+ years later. The author continues by saying "Nestle executives lost their appetite for broad public engagement. It has taken a generation to overcome this feeling."<br />
<br />
This aversion to engaging the press caused many problems with public perception.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Why wasn't Nestle more proactive? Partly because , as a general rule, the Nestle way is to deal with authorities directly rather than through the press. To outsiders, Nestle appeared paralyzed - or worse, guilty. Rumors spread in the hinterlands that Maggi contained glass particles - a mix-up due to the linguistic similarity of the words "lead" and "glass" in Hindi."</blockquote>
<br />
What followed was a succession of fear-based decisions that led them to fighting regulators in the legal system. This was based on words used in a statement by regulators that the product was "unsafe & hazardous for human consumption."<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"They felt the phrase exposed them to legal action. Millions of people in India ate Maggi. What was to stop anyone who had health problems from blaming Nestle's noodles?"</blockquote>
<br />
To recap, at this point Nestle has violated several key tenants of a brave organization. This includes aversion to media engagement, use of the legal system as a weapon, uncooperative approach to regulators. That is 3 of the 8 fear factors we outline in the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Bravery-Eliminate-Fear-based-Decision/dp/0692492291?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0"><i>Corporate Bravery</i></a>.<br />
<br />
Ultimately the issue would get swept up into a larger national debate in India about multinationals. The case went all the way to the nation's high court where they would side with Nestle but not before fear-based decision making led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder value, new competitors and a tarnished reputation among consumers.<br />
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-51358767092779701682016-05-04T12:16:00.001-04:002016-05-04T12:16:04.988-04:00Trump Feeds on Fear<br />
"Fear is limiting. It is content with living small, constrained and underwhelmed. Fear doesn't accomplish. It defeats. Fear plays the short game. It masquerades as momentary success. But then, once it has infected your culture, it destroys you in the long run."<br />
<br />
This is the quote from my book, <i>Corporate Bravery</i>, published last year. It was written for businesses and organizations to free themselves from negative cultures that create sub-par returns and are full of demoralized workers.<br />
<br />
But a year later it could have been written for the Trump campaign and the man himself. I don't know the culture of his business organization. By many accounts there seems to be some success - there are even good people that work inside of Trump's many businesses. But that is the way it is for many cultures run by fear.<br />
<br />
This is not, nor was it ever intended to be a political blog, website or think tank. But as I sit silently watching the theatrics and mud wrestling that has become the 2016 campaign I keep getting reminded of why I wrote Corporate Bravery.<br />
<br />
Going back to the quote I started this post with, I want people to live lives that are not limited, small, constrained and underwhelming. I want people to have a long-term perspective, not satisfied with short-term victories at the expense of their future.<br />
<br />
But this is exactly what Donald Trump offers as President. And by proxy I don't want this for the people of the United States.<br />
<br />
Take this tweet for example:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4dJeWl1VaerPVx4HfBfYqb7PMSrxP3NFGZEsmcC8uvoDPqyTrYTMQvIKw52ke2GoTNLMkzSR2Jah5JWn5XQnKaxTYyakx6NyxaX5hc3q_aM0ej9SVbDrNRv694Y2IJIdFLzTcJFrZd2I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-04-01+at+10.23.58+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4dJeWl1VaerPVx4HfBfYqb7PMSrxP3NFGZEsmcC8uvoDPqyTrYTMQvIKw52ke2GoTNLMkzSR2Jah5JWn5XQnKaxTYyakx6NyxaX5hc3q_aM0ej9SVbDrNRv694Y2IJIdFLzTcJFrZd2I/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-04-01+at+10.23.58+AM.png" width="306" /></a></div>
Yes Trump is striking a chord with terrorism. He is also striking a chord with immigration because in both cases he is preying on American's greatest fears. His campaign slogan may be "Make America Great Again" but you can't make any organization or culture great by playing to its members' greatest fears.<br />
<br />
What happened to <strike>real men</strike> presidents or presidential candidates that led with slogans like "The only thing to fear is fear itself"? Notice the massive shift that has happened to our culture in a few decades?<br />
<br />
Despite the campaign slogans, Trump doesn't offer any real hope, only escalation, litigation and anger. When I think of the motivations behind Trump's rhetoric I am reminded of a recent quote from Seth Godin's newest book, "<span style="background-color: white; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">People in power have taken advantage of glitches in our personalities and errors in our instincts to create an environment where they profit and we come out behind."</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While publicly he uses slogans such as "Make America Great Again" his entire history has been motivated by his own personal gain. I would challenge anyone reading this post to point out anything he has accomplished that has been for the greater good, yet suddenly his only motivation is to make America great again?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A recent <a href="http://qz.com/653524/trump-supporters-are-operating-on-biological-instinct/">article in Quartz discussed in more detail how Trump is tapping into these primal instincts</a>.</span></span><br />
<div class="annotatable" style="-webkit-transition: 0.5s ease 0s; border: 0px; line-height: 30px; padding: 16px 0px; position: relative; transition: 0.5s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit;">These ancient instincts explain why so many are instinctively drawn to Trump, says Shenkman. Less educated voters are particularly vulnerable to Trump’s demagoguery, he says, as they have no alternative source of knowledge to counter their biological instincts. “His base is low-information voters and he’s just coming right out and saying it: ‘<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/politics/trump-i-love-the-poorly-educated-144008662.html" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I love the poorly educated</a>,’” he adds.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">One of the strongest instincts is tribalism, says Shenkman, as we instinctively favor those with shared ancestry:</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit;">"Since Donald Trump began his election in June, he’s been activating an ancient instinct in human brains, which is fear of the other. For many people, who lack other knowledge on which they can make their judgments about Mexican immigrants of Muslims coming into the United States, this winds up becoming a powerful trigger for their political beliefs."</span></blockquote>
</div>
It takes a brave leader to provide real solutions that considers the potential, far-reaching impacts. To rise above organizational fear factors and to sow seeds of hope instead of fear.<br />
<br />
Lets revisit the eight fear factors as outlined in my book Corporate Bravery:<br />
1. Mistrust<br />
2. Squashing individuality<br />
3. Politics<br />
4. Competition<br />
5. Regulation<br />
6. Control<br />
7. Media<br />
8. Legal system<br />
<br />
While regulation isn't exactly relevant to this discussion, Trump uses each of these as a weapon to move up the polls. A dysfunctional organization could exhibit a strong tendency toward three, but seven out of eight is a level of dysfunction that is unprecedented.<br />
<br />
Going back to these primal instincts, we may not be able to just ignore them all together. But as the article points out,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Shenkman adds that we have the means, through culture and education, of countering our instincts. “We’re not slaves to our instincts,” says Shenkman. “We do have higher-order cognitive thinking.”</span></span></blockquote>
But we must all step back and ask what type of culture will we create by allowing these primal instincts to lead us toward a possible President Trump. I have seen the outcome from leaders like Trump and I am confident in saying - that is not a culture I want to raise my family in.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-5520192034926556872015-12-09T21:04:00.002-05:002015-12-09T21:04:24.461-05:00What Morgan Spurlock Can Teach Us About Brave Business<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y2jyjfcp1as" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
I recently watched this Ted Talk by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Spurlock">Morgan Spurlock</a> that is an oldie but a goodie (released in 2013). For those of you that may not be familiar with Morgan he came to fame with his documentaries the most famous of which is Super Size Me. He parlayed that success into a series on A&E entitled 30 Days in which he walked in other people's shoes to provide a perspective on issues that were controversial at the moment.<br />
<br />
What I like so much about his Ted Talk is how he exposed the fearful decision making in the Advertising industry. But this isn't a hit piece on that industry and the same decision making processes and cultures exist in any industry and in most organizations.<br />
<br />
One of my favorite moments in the talk involves a clip at the 10 minute mark where he is meeting with the Ban deodorant marketing execs and asks them what the one word they would use to describe Ban and there is silence. Then the first answer is superior technology... for deodorant!<br />
<br />
Some of the takeaways from the talk include:<br />
1. The brands that were obviously brave and took a risk with Spurlock's movie were ones that cut out the middle man (advertising agency) because they understood that they may not have the brand's best interests at mind. This is a theme covered in my book Corporate Bravery.<br />
2. Spurlock's summation of what he experienced with trying to make the movie was, "When you train your employees to be risk averse, then you train your whole company to be reward challenged."<br />
3. It is remarkable that EMC won the rights for his Ted Talk with just over $7K. A small sum for the millions of views that this clip has experienced.Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-66463878980739579782015-11-29T17:10:00.003-05:002015-11-29T17:10:51.266-05:00Fearful Business Examples to End the Year<!-- Begin MailChimp Signup Form -->
<style type="text/css">
#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
</style>
<br />
<div id="mc_embed_signup">
<form action="//corporatebravery.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8&id=b2ecaabb75" class="validate" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" method="post" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" novalidate="" target="_blank">
<div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://crescenzocomm.com/wp-content/uploads/Bad-words2-150x150.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://crescenzocomm.com/wp-content/uploads/Bad-words2-150x150.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL">1. I recently read an article in <a href="http://m.fastcompany.com/3048908/lessons-learned/the-4-ways-ceos-accidentally-mess-up-company-culture?utm_campaign=trueanthem:+trending+content&utm_content=5623f4e904d3012fa5000001&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter">Fast Company about the 4 Ways CEO's Accidentally Mess Up Company Culture</a>. The article highlights four common actions that can begin creating a toxic culture including</label><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Micromanaging</li>
<li>Being inconsistent </li>
<li>Outsource too much</li>
<li>Don't embrace new employees</li>
</ul>
<br />
These aspects are all ways that coincidentally can create a culture of fear. When the author wrote the headline for 'mess up' the culture a typical by-product can be fear and it keeps employees from contributing their best work. To read more about how this can happen and its affects read my book entitled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Bravery-Eliminate-Fear-based-Decision/dp/0692492291">Corporate Bravery - available on Amazon.com</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-uploads-prod/2013/09/Mark-Zuckerberg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-uploads-prod/2013/09/Mark-Zuckerberg1.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
2. Another recent news story that has generated headlines is the upcoming paternity leave for Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook. More specifically, he announced that the upcoming birth of his first child would prompt him to take a leave and that he would be taking two months as a result.<br />
<br />
The move was hailed as an example for other executives and employees to take the time for your family and overall it sounds like a brave example but when you look a little deeper at this example it has the potential of impacting culture in a negative way.<br />
<br />
This potential negative impact isn't because Facebook is giving their employees additional benefits or because they are giving men an additional benefit but rather because of the context of this new benefit. If you <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/25/pf/jobs/facebook-international-paternity-leave/index.html">read the story</a> you will notice that the change to the policy occurred after or simultaneous to Zuckerberg's announcement of his intent to take two months. This indicates that the policy change only happened because it was real to Zuckerberg despite the fact that it had been a real issue to other working parents since the beginning of Facebook. A subtle nuance I know, but one that is likely understood by Facebook employees and just reiterates the divide between management.<br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Subscribe to our mailing list</label>
<input class="email" id="mce-EMAIL" name="EMAIL" placeholder="email address" required="" type="email" value="" />
<!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->
<br />
<div style="left: -5000px; position: absolute;">
<input name="b_9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8_b2ecaabb75" tabindex="-1" type="text" value="" /></div>
<div class="clear">
<input class="button" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" name="subscribe" type="submit" value="Subscribe" /></div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-10868374282801363272015-11-16T10:19:00.001-05:002015-11-16T10:19:05.799-05:00Lessons in Bravery from In the Heart of the Sea<!-- Begin MailChimp Signup Form -->
<style type="text/css">
#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
</style>
<br />
<div id="mc_embed_signup">
<form action="//corporatebravery.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8&id=b2ecaabb75" class="validate" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" method="post" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" novalidate="" target="_blank">
<div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll">
<label for="mce-EMAIL">You may have seen the following trailer for the upcoming move In the Heart of the Sea, about the whale ship Essex. If you haven't give it a look.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K-H35Mpj4uk" width="560"></iframe>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label><label for="mce-EMAIL">Most of you are probably familiar with the fictionalized story this move depicts known as Moby Dick, but the real story is more gripping and holds many important lessons for anyone in management.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">I use these lessons as a through line for my book, Corporate Bravery. </label>Its application to our subject matter is the role fear played in decision-making by the townspeople, the ship’s owners, and the ship’s crew.<br />
<br />
Was the town afraid of losing its status, pressuring citizens to work where they weren’t equipped? Were the owners afraid of losing profits, making them rush the ship to sea? Was the crew afraid of coming back empty-handed, pushing them to take reckless risks? Beyond any single decision, many small decisions can create a culture of fear and negatively influence our ability to make the best decision in a crucial, potentially life-threatening (or profit-maximizing) situation.<br />
<br />
Leadership, management styles, team political environments, the role of investors, and competition — these and other factors are explored in depth throughout Corporate Bravery along with some practical ways to rise above fear-based management and decision-making and become the bravest manager you can be.<br />
<br />
Some of the critical leadership lessons that this story raises include:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>What unique combination of factors in your corporate culture could lead you down a route that feels safe only because it’s familiar? </li>
<li>Are you clinging to any broken and tattered whaling ships? </li>
<li>What imaginary fears might actually lead you into even greater dangers?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Subscribe to our mailing list</label>
<input class="email" id="mce-EMAIL" name="EMAIL" placeholder="email address" required="" type="email" value="" />
<!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->
<br />
<div style="left: -5000px; position: absolute;">
<input name="b_9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8_b2ecaabb75" tabindex="-1" type="text" value="" /></div>
<div class="clear">
<input class="button" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" name="subscribe" type="submit" value="Subscribe" /></div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-18451670672341068242015-11-09T10:27:00.002-05:002015-11-09T10:27:24.150-05:00GE's Sad Recruiting Campaign Lacks Bravery<!-- Begin MailChimp Signup Form -->
<style type="text/css">
#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
</style>
<br />
<div id="mc_embed_signup">
<form action="//corporatebravery.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8&id=b2ecaabb75" class="validate" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" method="post" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" novalidate="" target="_blank">
<div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://content.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/talent-solutions/global/en_us/blog/2015/02/GE-blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://content.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/talent-solutions/global/en_us/blog/2015/02/GE-blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">I was listening to the radio this past when I heard a recruiting ad for one of the largest companies on planet earth - General Electric. This particular recruiting ad is part of a much broader campaign to recruit younger high tech workers into their company and for a <a href="https://marnsmarket.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/ge-presents-itself-as-a-disappointment-in-odd-new-campaign/">full recap of the campaign I suggest you read this post from the blog Marn's Market</a>.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Suffice it to say, I believe this campaign is a giant dud. The particular radio spot I heard was actually offensive to me - because it communicated something about the culture at GE and the people that this spot will undoubtedly attract.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">In this particular radio spot that I heard</label> a newly hired GE employee is talking with his girlfriend about an upcoming family gathering. The girlfriend proceeds to coach him about what to say about GE and what he is doing for them. She repeatedly suggest that he portray his new job as “working on a trendy app” and
insists he leave out the “machines” and the “GE” part when they meet her
parents that evening. In other words - at best misrepresent what he does and at worse lie about his job.<br />
<br />
My guess is the only people this message resonates with are potential employees that don't have a strong sense of who they are, can be easily influenced (manipulated) to meet an outcome and lack integrity.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ge.com/careers/culture/life-at-ge">According to GE's website</a> they have the following mission for their culture:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: ge-inspira-1, ge-inspira-2, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">Our culture is about providing everyone who works here with opportunities to exercise their responsibility, integrity, and creativity while growing themselves, their careers, and our business.</span></blockquote>
The word integrity sticks out to me in this statement and appears to be opposed to the person I hear in the radio spots.<br />
<br />
You may be wondering, 'why does it matter?' - because it is incredibly important to GE's future. I am guessing that GE is spending millions of dollars on this campaign because they are having difficulty attracting millennials. Anyone that has studied millennials or that is a millennial will tell you one of the things <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/07/15/millennials/">they value the most is authenticity</a>. Neither of the people in the ad are authentic. If they can't be authentic with their own family their is no way they can be authentic in the GE culture.<br />
<br />
Which is exactly the problem with most traditional large corporations. I write extensively about this in my book Corporate Bravery - available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Bravery-Eliminate-Fear-based-Decision/dp/0692492291/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">Amazon.com</a> and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/corporate-bravery/id1046403164?ls=1&mt=11">iTunes</a>. In chapter 11, I talk about communications and how effective cultures (and hiring strategies) start with an alignment of values, people and communication (internal & external) - depicted by the graph below.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizll8zFePQhloXFI7x_6dIf5E0Z_q5ms28mK6c6ZDeiz6ILg6uiT3gU6Nqip_NjjRiNIvHcz5m93S9UEKgxsisziMyuN6J1Ik62vgV4P5Hzxjz5zX1-oJgf9i0C4MzCyEnZxZco6RaLyc/s1600/Page210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizll8zFePQhloXFI7x_6dIf5E0Z_q5ms28mK6c6ZDeiz6ILg6uiT3gU6Nqip_NjjRiNIvHcz5m93S9UEKgxsisziMyuN6J1Ik62vgV4P5Hzxjz5zX1-oJgf9i0C4MzCyEnZxZco6RaLyc/s400/Page210.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Brave companies are tightly aligned and fearful companies have little alignment between the three. Put another way, </label><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The totality of our communications is the external manifestation of who we are — and it’s bigger than just what we say. Throughout Corporate Bravery, we have talked often about core values and about how hiring and management practices should reinforce those core values. Any misalignment between these elements lets fear creep into your organizational culture.</blockquote>
Given this circumstance - how effective do you think this campaign will be for GE and what type of culture are they likely to create?<br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Subscribe to our mailing list</label>
<input class="email" id="mce-EMAIL" name="EMAIL" placeholder="email address" required="" type="email" value="" />
<!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->
<br />
<div style="left: -5000px; position: absolute;">
<input name="b_9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8_b2ecaabb75" tabindex="-1" type="text" value="" /></div>
<div class="clear">
<input class="button" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" name="subscribe" type="submit" value="Subscribe" /></div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-23354149964103790092015-11-01T15:43:00.001-05:002015-11-01T15:44:09.318-05:00Interesting Aspects of Bravery - Slack and Diversity Edition<!-- Begin MailChimp Signup Form -->
<style type="text/css">
#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
</style>
<br />
<div id="mc_embed_signup">
<form action="//corporatebravery.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8&id=b2ecaabb75" class="validate" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" method="post" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" novalidate="" target="_blank">
<div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll">
<label for="mce-EMAIL">The Corporate Bravery post for this week focuses on two interesting areas of thought around management concepts.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">1. The first is a <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/11/ceos-with-daughters-run-more-socially-responsible-firms?utm_campaign=Socialflow&utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet"><i>Harvard Business Review</i> spotlight of a study</a> on the results of companies led by CEO's with daughters. According to the researchers, of the 367 public companies where personal information could be identified for the current chief executives there was a strong correlation between the social responsibility of those companies and the fact that the chief executive had a daughter.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1q530ZnOVPwwgSQEnd6kuxL0AzLzk8-VKiwcx9d1aum8cyfs7sYoozLyrbEuHAM8GbshAONKrMdExt6LmZEpzCiNnxWBfypytwQvHUUppjf0-lh2hgbd2ZpSPmfH961R4D-r4k9ZdJQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-11-01+at+12.04.30+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd1q530ZnOVPwwgSQEnd6kuxL0AzLzk8-VKiwcx9d1aum8cyfs7sYoozLyrbEuHAM8GbshAONKrMdExt6LmZEpzCiNnxWBfypytwQvHUUppjf0-lh2hgbd2ZpSPmfH961R4D-r4k9ZdJQ/s640/Screen+Shot+2015-11-01+at+12.04.30+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">You can see some of the aspects reviewed and the results were impressive for most of the areas reviewed. The strongest being a more diverse workforce and the lowest being human rights with even still a 1% improvement.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>In <i>Corporate Bravery</i> we talk about the trust of leaders and having leadership that cares about the individuality of the team goes a long way toward building trust, eradicating a culture of fear and improves performance.<br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label><label for="mce-EMAIL">2. The second piece was a <a href="http://time.com/4090762/slack/?xid=tcoshare">Time Magazine piece on the company Slack</a>. For those of you not using slack, it is a team messaging app that is helping teams and entire organizations communicate more effectively and in real time. I find myself using it more with my startups and it has been helpful. </label><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://typo3.org/fileadmin/t3org/images/FM-news/2015/ThisWeek/week6/slack-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://typo3.org/fileadmin/t3org/images/FM-news/2015/ThisWeek/week6/slack-logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The article mostly paints a picture of typical fast growing start-up culture. But some of the quotes from a recent company gathering brought to mind the question about how it is possible to keep a company moving toward a culture of bravery when so many new people are being added and ultimately shaping the culture of the startup every day.<br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">The article concludes focusing on a plan that the founder, Butterfield, has to spread the wealth from an increasing valuation and ultimately an IPO or acquisition, to the rank and file. While ultimately not a cure all for culture it speaks to some core values that they are creating as a company.</label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Do you have any thoughts or experiences you would like to share around keeping your fast growing company's culture strong? </label><br />
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL"><br /></label>
<label for="mce-EMAIL">Subscribe to our mailing list</label>
<input class="email" id="mce-EMAIL" name="EMAIL" placeholder="email address" required="" type="email" value="" />
<!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->
<br />
<div style="left: -5000px; position: absolute;">
<input name="b_9c2eb804d31d35b8d883c33d8_b2ecaabb75" tabindex="-1" type="text" value="" /></div>
<div class="clear">
<input class="button" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" name="subscribe" type="submit" value="Subscribe" /></div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
<!--End mc_embed_signup-->Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-23225691551179610672015-10-22T16:19:00.002-04:002015-10-22T16:19:24.526-04:00Corporate Bravery - Fearful Business ExamplesWe have been on hiatus for a few weeks while we launched our book - Corporate Bravery (now available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Bravery-Eliminate-Fear-based-Decision-ebook/dp/B014VGS1P4/">Amazon</a> and<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/corporate-bravery/id1046403164?mt=11"> iTunes</a>). But we are back and this week we feature a few recent examples of fearful management.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.opusfidelis.com/uploads/images/Facebook-Vs-Google-Plus1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.opusfidelis.com/uploads/images/Facebook-Vs-Google-Plus1.jpg" height="186" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
1. First we begin with the slow death of Google+, although many will be quick to point out that Google+ hasn't been killed (yet), as documented by a <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/08/02/google-plus-history/#NpdMpXGIdPqE">Mashable article entitled "Inside the Failure of Google+</a>"<br />
<br />
I also want to point out that Google is typically a brave company (coming in at <a href="http://www.corporatebravery.com/the-brave-rankings.html">#2 on the Brave Rankings</a>) but this was a clear example of a fearful manager talking a brave leader into a fearful decision.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to ruin much about the article for you but this quote stood out to me and highlights the fear-based decision making that led to the birth of Google+:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="t1"><tbody>
<tr><td class="td1" valign="baseline"><div class="p1">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">"Vic was just this constant bug in Larry's ear: 'Facebook is going to kill us. Facebook is going to kill us,'" says a former Google executive. "I am pretty sure Vic managed to frighten Larry into action. And voila: Google+ was born."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="p3">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
2. There is a very cool example from <a href="http://www.popsci.com/crazy-ants-cooperate-carry-food"><i>Popular Science</i> about ants</a> and the biological example of how conservatism (often based out of fear) can keep organizations from meeting its full potential </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/crazy_longhorn_ants_carrying_object.jpg?itok=WPKU7mdQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/crazy_longhorn_ants_carrying_object.jpg?itok=WPKU7mdQ" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="t1"><tbody>
<tr><td class="td1" valign="baseline"><div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The article chronicles studies of ants and how they cooperate together to carry larger pieces of food for long (relative to the spatial sizes of ants) distances. It was partially due to the ants conformist mentality, but there was much to be learned about their group leadership and efficiency.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">Specifically, the group think of the group required that individual leader ants from outside the group get involved to re-direct them to the best, direct path until they lost track and then another leader ant would join the pack.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">The conclusion of scientists?</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">In effect, says Feinerman, the larger groups were collectively too conservative, which prevented them from completing the task."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span>Read the whole report, there is a very cool video of the scene to kill some time as well.</div>
<div class="p3">
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="t1"><tbody>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-8372283240480389292015-08-26T13:24:00.000-04:002015-08-26T13:24:47.619-04:00The Point of the Amazon NY Times ArticleThere has been a lot of conversation about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?mwrsm=Email">recent New York Times piece on Amazon.com</a>. While there has been some negative backlash from Bezos and insiders at Amazon, it appears, based on other accounts that the author's perspective on the culture at Amazon is closer to reality than fiction.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/4/11/1334147459693/Amazon-chief-Jeff-Bezos-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/4/11/1334147459693/Amazon-chief-Jeff-Bezos-008.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
But as <a href="http://f-st.co/bnNNqWT">this Fast Company article points out</a>, why has this article about work culture in the tech industry created so much buzz? Isn't it true that Amazon's culture just mirrors that of silicon valley or other great technology centers in the United States?<br />
<br />
For many in the business press it is seen as yet another example of a 'win at all costs' culture that typically drives disengagement and an unhappy workforce. Typically I would decry the kind of behavior and attitudes embodied in the Amazon culture. For example, take a look at this early quote in the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others.</span></blockquote>
This is the kind of fear inducing behavior that creates corporate politics run amok - similar to what I discuss in this my <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/DarrinMurriner/corporate-politics-turning-a-negative-into-a-positive">Slideshare on corporate politics</a>.<br />
<br />
However, I have a different perspective on this particular story. Understand that I am not condoning this type of behavior or even the culture that has been created but it can make sense for a company like Amazon. Take a look at this quote from the story about the conflict that employees feel about the culture:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">However, more than 100 current and former Amazonians described how they tried to reconcile the sometimes-punishing aspects of their workplace with what many called its thrilling power to create.</span></blockquote>
I contend that Amazon has actually done a wonderful job of creating alignment with the culture, hiring & people practices and the brand they are creating in the eyes of their customers.<br />
<br />
In my forthcoming book, Corporate Bravery, I argue that one of the hallmarks of fearful vs brave organizations is alignment of these three aspects of culture.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcshJA33BXbZmfjEXWFQebttbbMRcqtr7UxA11ifz_y-6R6X1hqplxCG5rboZQEXCixYFvR_hfrrHi-GK7d7_ZfOUHyz3VdCf9X_Xtos6dKL4MzGiCUQBBvZ8c95QghsnocbIBaXTj0U/s1600/Page210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcshJA33BXbZmfjEXWFQebttbbMRcqtr7UxA11ifz_y-6R6X1hqplxCG5rboZQEXCixYFvR_hfrrHi-GK7d7_ZfOUHyz3VdCf9X_Xtos6dKL4MzGiCUQBBvZ8c95QghsnocbIBaXTj0U/s400/Page210.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
According to the article Amazon has very clearly defined core values (of which they are quizzed and expected to be able to recite and they have a clearly aligned hiring process as shown in the following two quotes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">To be the best Amazonians they can be, they should be guided by </span><a href="http://www.amazon.jobs/principles" style="color: #326891; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;" title="The Amazon principles. ">the leadership principles</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">, 14 rules inscribed on handy laminated cards. When quizzed days later, those with perfect scores earn a virtual award proclaiming, “I’m Peculiar” — the company’s proud phrase for overturning workplace conventions.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">The process begins when Amazon’s legions of recruiters identify thousands of job prospects each year, who face extra screening by “bar raisers,” star employees and part-time interviewers charged with ensuring that only the best are hired.</span></blockquote>
<br />Which leads to a process where employees begin to internalize the culture. According to one person interviewed for the article "she and other workers had no shortage of career options but said they had internalized Amazon’s priorities."<br />
Again, I am not advocating Amazon's culture or the individual aspects of the culture that has made it what it is today. I am just saying that the article paints the picture of a company that has one of the most aligned core values, hiring practices and communications that I have ever seen.<br />
<br />
Where Amazon runs into criticism (and the article chronicles), is in the moral / human cost of this culture. If you could only have this type of alignment that values the employee as a human and recognizes their own individuality (coincidentally another fear factor chronicled in Corporate Bravery) then you have a great example of building a corporate culture.Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-49007925837619304242015-08-13T10:31:00.001-04:002015-08-13T10:31:20.185-04:00What Nature Teaches Us About Fear & Microsoft Being BraveIn Chapter 13 of my forthcoming book Corporate Bravery we talk about Reprogramming the Core of your organization. I begin the chapter by using a human biological example of what this is like,<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The body, in fact, is built for reprogramming, even down to the cellular level. Physically, reprogramming can come through workouts. Mentally, it can happen through education. Emotionally, it can come through relationships or therapy.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-4c31f149-2273-9579-3865-a6686bc72345"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re also susceptible to environmental factors. Being infected by viruses and bacteria or suffering an injury can — and usually does — happen to everyone. But our bodies frequently withstand these external factors. That is why diet and exercise are so important. Daily disciplines that strengthen the core improve our survival, not to mention attitudes and sheer enjoyment of life. </span></div>
<br />
There is a biological impact from protecting or keeping yourself from harm in small doses as it often results in larger reactions later on.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/gut-brain.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=940" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/gut-brain.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=940" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="t1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="baseline">
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I introduce this as a lead-in to the latest example of this from <a href="http://qz.com/474523/is-your-gut-really-the-second-brain/">an article in <i>Quartz</i> about how your gut feeling isn't just a metaphor</a>.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
The article talked about a study in mice that simulated traumatic (fear inducing) events and using bacteria (in this case a tape worm) in the mice stomach prevented them from neurological shock that can often present itself in humans as neurological diseases such as MS. The article concludes:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">"This kind of effect is called “biome depletion,” where a lack of exposure to infections causes immune systems to overreact to infections later in life. Thus exposure to some microbes can help avoid such a response, and, in the case of the rats, help prevent memory loss."</span></blockquote>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s2"></span>Yet another example where our desire to shield ourselves or others (children, employees, etc) from bad experiences creates more harm in the long run.</div>
<div class="p3">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><u>Microsoft Being Brave</u></b><br />
The second article that points to how to be brave in the face of possible fearful situations comes from Microsoft of all people.<br />
<br />
I am hesitant to hail this as a victory for bravery because every time there is a new major release of Windows they say they are doing it differently and it still ends up being the monstrosity that Windows applications become.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/29/9060891/microsoft-windows-10-myerson-belfiore-aul-spencer-interview">story of Microsoft's development of Windows 10</a> marks a big departure from their traditional approach - and not just because they are offering free upgrades.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://az648995.vo.msecnd.net/win/2014/09/Windows_Product_Family_9-30-Event.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://az648995.vo.msecnd.net/win/2014/09/Windows_Product_Family_9-30-Event.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The biggest change is their change in approach. Take a look at how things were done in previous iterations from a Microsoft exec in charge of the development process.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px; line-height: 24.75px;">"During the days of Vista, Microsoft’s lawyers ended up at my doorstep because I dared to write about prerelease versions of Windows. And while Windows 8 had a few public previews, it was largely developed with little consideration to feedback. Windows 8 shipped despite user concerns about fullscreen apps and a lack of attention to keyboard and mouse users. Microsoft’s management seemed to spend more time explaining every new feature in sprawling, technical blog posts instead of understanding why users hated the changes."</span></blockquote>
Contrast the fear and legal overlording to the approach that they are taking with the current development:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px; line-height: 24.75px;">Microsoft now solicits feedback directly from users in a very public way: over the past nine months, the company has been testing Windows 10 with 5 million "Windows Insiders." Anyone can sign up to test, and the results of Microsoft’s work will go on display today as Windows 10 launches to millions of people around the world.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.5px; line-height: 24.75px;">Initially, "there was a lot of hand-wringing around what was that going to be like and were people going to form opinions too early," explains Gabe Aul, engineering general manager for Microsoft’s operating systems group. "I think we just decided to go for it."</span></blockquote>
Does that mean that Microsoft suddenly 'gets it' and is a changed company? Doubtful, but changing the culture from one of fear to one of making bold bets on doing things differently than they have in the past is a great start.Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-26125200464174162462015-07-29T11:58:00.003-04:002015-07-29T11:58:48.183-04:00Corporate Politics - Good or Bad?Often the phrase corporate politics leads to emotional reactions. It could be greeted with eye rolls or a sinking feeling inside your gut.<br />
<br />
In the forthcoming book Corporate Bravery we spend a chapter on corporate politics and its role in creating a fear based culture. While there are many examples where corporate politics has gone wrong, I have created the embedded slide share to talk about how corporate politics doesn't have to be a culture killing practice.<br />
<br />
<br />
I have embedded a slideshare below and I would love to hear your personal stories, feedback on the approach or other ways you have seen corporate politics play out in a good way. The comments section is below.<br />
<br />
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/dHiXyC0OkydyvD" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/DarrinMurriner/corporate-politics-turning-a-negative-into-a-positive" target="_blank" title="Corporate Politics - Turning a Negative Into a Positive">Corporate Politics - Turning a Negative Into a Positive</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/DarrinMurriner" target="_blank">Darrin Murriner</a></strong></div>
</center>
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-48524954946152178792015-07-22T14:51:00.003-04:002015-07-22T14:52:23.783-04:00Jerk Bosses and Their Successes (or failure?)I recently came across one of my <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/why-it-pays-to-be-a-jerk/392066/">favorite news articles of the year in the <i>Atlantic</i></a>. The article, entitled "Why It Pays to Be a Jerk" is a long read and includes some great photos like the one below:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2015/05/jerk03/90e8645aa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2015/05/jerk03/90e8645aa.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>
<br />
The article looks at scientific (and unscientific anecdotes) evidence regarding jerk-ish behavior - primarily in the workplace - and its impact on your ability to have success in the short and long-term.<br />
<br />
This is relevant at Corporate Bravery because we spend a lot of time in the forthcoming book of the same name discussing bad managers' role in creating a culture of fear. Trust is at the heart of good managers and creating a culture that isn't fearful but brave in attacking new business opportunities and growing a long-term, sustainable business.<br />
<br />
If that is so why does bad behavior that erodes trust persist in Corporate America? The article cites a few reasons. The first is embodied in the following quote.<br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 30px;">But “to the extent that innovation and risk taking are in short supply in the corporate world”—an assertion few would contest—“narcissists are the ones who are going to step up to the plate.”</span></blockquote>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Grant argues that many takers are good at hiding their unpleasant side from potential benefactors—at “kissing up and kicking down,” as the saying goes. The article mentions a video series experiment where regular people were shown two different management styles to gauge their preference in managers.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 30px;">And in a series of follow-up studies involving different pairs of videos, participants, responding to prompts, made statements such as “I would like this person as my boss” and “I would give this person a promotion.” <b>The conditions had to be right</b>, but when they were, rule breakers were more likely to be put in charge.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 30px;">In fact, it’s easy to see how an initial advantage derived from a lack of self-awareness, or from a deliberate attempt to fake competence, or from a variety of other, similar heelish behaviors could become permanent. <b>Once a hierarchy emerges, the literature shows, people tend to construct after-the-fact rationalizations about why those in charge </b></span><i style="font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 30px;"><b>should be</b></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 30px;"><b> in charge.</b> Likewise, the experience of power leads people to exhibit yet more power-signaling behaviors (displaying aggressive body language, taking extra cookies from the common plate). And not least, it gives them a chance to practice their hand at advocating an agenda, directing a discussion, and recruiting allies—building genuine leadership skills <b>that help legitimize and perpetuate their status</b>. </span></blockquote>
The commonality for most of the examples provided in the <i>Atlantic</i> article is a lack of trust.<br />
<div>
Should something go wrong, jerks don’t have a reserve of goodwill to fall back on. The article tells the story of Howell Raines at the <i>New York Times</i> and how a scandal broke on his watch in 2003 when a <i>Times</i> reporter, Jayson Blair, had been fabricating material in his stories.<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Lyon Text', Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A town-hall meeting that was intended to clear the air around the scandal, during which Raines appeared before staff members to answer questions, turned into a popular uprising against his management style. “People feel less led than bullied,” said Joe Sexton, a deputy editor for the Metro section. “I believe at a deep level you guys have lost the confidence of many parts of the newsroom.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Raines himself had acknowledged as much earlier in the meeting. “You view me as inaccessible and arrogant,” he said. “Fear is a problem to such an extent, I was told, that editors are scared to bring me bad news.” It was an attempt to show he was a listener, Seth Mnookin reported in his book <i>Hard News</i>. But after listening to Sexton’s comments, Raines blew up. “Don’t demagogue me!” he shouted.</blockquote>
</div>
The article concludes - being a jerk will fail most people most of the time. Yet in at least three situations, a touch of jerkiness can be helpful.<br />
<br />
1. leadership involves a series of onetime encounters<br />
<br />
2. at the moment after a group has formed but its hierarchy has not.<br />
<br />
3. when the group’s survival is in question, speed is essential, and a paralyzing existential doubt is in the air. (when fear is driving behavior)</div>
</div>
</div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-59660337340995289542015-07-01T06:00:00.000-04:002015-07-01T06:00:03.284-04:00Weekly Brave Roundup - Blackberry, Steve Kerr and Soundcloud<div class="tr_bq">
<br /></div>
1. I am a sucker for a good sports analogy and <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/17/risk-taking-steve-kerr-forged-the-perfect-team.html">this article about Steve Kerr and his leadership of the Golden State Warriors this year is a great read</a>. Even the title of the article speaks to his fearless leadership of the team to a title - "<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Risk-Taking General Who Led the Golden State Warriors to Victory".</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.utsandiego.com/img/photos/2014/05/19/b4016bf3bb3ebc13540f6a706700dcb0_r620x349.JPEG?75d51d0aea2efce5189afce216053cbc530c46a8" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media.utsandiego.com/img/photos/2014/05/19/b4016bf3bb3ebc13540f6a706700dcb0_r620x349.JPEG?75d51d0aea2efce5189afce216053cbc530c46a8" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The primary point of the article was a focus on his lineup decisions. Specifically the decision to move all-star and all-defensive veteran Andre Iguodala to the bench at the start of the season and then to scrap the lineup that had gotten Golden State to the championship round in favor of a smaller lineup.<br />
<br />
The primary reason given for the last minute change was a suggestion by their video manager, a 28 year old that had been studying film. According to the article,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"So Kerr decided to wipe the blackboard clean, taking All-Defensive Second Team, rim-protecting center Andrew Bogut out of the rotation altogether, and going to an uber-small-ball unit anchored by the 6-6 undersized power forward Draymond Green. He also resuscitated David Lee, like Iguodala, another mothballed, highly paid former All-Star before Game 3, a ploy that kickstarted Steph Curry’s game in the midst of what ended up being a failed comeback effort.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Considering the stakes, this was a downright radical move on Kerr’s part, and one that easily could have blown up in his face."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As the article points out, it is unique that an NBA coach (or any business executive) would listen to an entry-level employee over the high paid executives and assistants.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Outside of Gregg Popovich’s Spurs, this just doesn’t happen. Video assistants don’t get to pitch the man in charge, let alone get the credit, and the vast majority of head coaches are far too small-c conservative and risk-averse to even contemplate such a move, let alone </span>admit that he lied about it."</blockquote>
But that single decision isn't the thing that ultimately made Steve Kerr a great leader, a championship leader. Rather it was the culture and the tone that he set before the season even began. He created a culture that made it not only OK to accept a lesser role for the good of the team, but even encouraged it.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kerr demanded that they have fun. That in and of itself is revolutionary. More to the point, he was willing to speak to his players not like soldiers or faceless office drones, but like... well, people that he trusted and legitimately liked. That’s why Iguodala bought in early on, and Andrew Bogut and David Lee did the same.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
2. I was able to recently read an excerpt from a new book about Blackberry entitled "Losing the Signal: <i>The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry</i>."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://crackberry.com/sites/crackberry.com/files/u3/evo7BlackBerry7210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://crackberry.com/sites/crackberry.com/files/u3/evo7BlackBerry7210.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></div>
<br />
The book looks to be an extraordinary read about the fall of a high-tech highflier and the individual decisions that led them to a struggle for survival.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The excerpt focused on the role that the Apple iPhone had on the precipitous decline in Blackberry's fortunes. More specifically, the executives at Blackberry's insistence on keeping the keypad and not adjusting to consumer tastes when Apple innovated well beyond what Blackberry was capable of.<br />
<br />
This is a consistent theme for Corporate Bravery and how to respond to the competition when they take the lead. The following quotes highlight some of the issues companies can encounter when faced with a competitive threat.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"But there was no going back. Apple was setting a new agenda for the wireless industry. RIM, like others, were now followers."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Now RIM was forced to play catch up. Unlike RIM, Apple had an army of outside developers who had already built consumer apps for its computers and iPods and were primed to do the same for the iPhone. By the time Blackberry launched its app store in spring 2009, iPhone customers had already downloaded 1 billion apps."</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
3. Lastly, there was a <a href="http://firstround.com/review/how-soundcloud-keeps-communication-flowing-across-4-offices-in-4-time-zones/">great article in <i>First Round</i>, a resource for start-ups about how Soundcloud has focused on keeping good communication</a> despite rapid growth and multiple offices in multiple time zones.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/92/SoundCloud_logo.svg/1280px-SoundCloud_logo.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/92/SoundCloud_logo.svg/1280px-SoundCloud_logo.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The article has a primary focus on All Hands Meetings or Town Hall Meetings and how to keep them relevant and an open dialog between management and employees. Among the thoughts and ideas....<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Two days before, they convene the speakers for a test run to make sure
they've done their homework and that their content will be valuable.
“It’s an opportunity to make sure we have a cohesive narrative, and also
give feedback on the content, style, format and overall delivery.”
Little things get tweaked because every detail matters to the
credibility, caliber and polish of the event. Maybe one person is
running over time on his part of the presentation, while another
presenter could use design help on a few slides. All of these changes
are important because they add up to every employee feeling great about
working at SoundCloud and doing their best work.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Attendees can ask questions in person, but there are also moderators who
surface questions that come in via the company’s intranet or chat or
Slack. This allows people in other offices to participate in a seamless
way, and caters to people with differing communication styles.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
In general, SoundCloud employees (especially senior managers) are highly
encouraged to travel to the other offices to promote face-to-face
communication, context-setting and to help more people connect the dots
across the company. In fact, the company offers a Global Exchange
Program where employees can apply to work in another office for a
quarter if it will add value to their development or output. It's turned
into an incredibly popular program that employees cite as a key perk.</blockquote>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-43573703885270475802015-06-24T06:00:00.000-04:002015-06-28T22:04:07.853-04:00Weekly Fearful RoundupThis week we feature two excellent examples of how fear can and has been used both in the public domain and in business.<br />
<br />
1. The first example is the tussle between startup Benefits and ADP. By way of background, Zenefits is attempting to shake-up a sleepy industry for HR, Payroll & Benefits software. While most think of ADP as being a payroll company they have become a dominant force in HR and benefits as a result of the relationships they have in corporations big and small.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.zenefits.com/static/home-9-17/img/jobs/team.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.zenefits.com/static/home-9-17/img/jobs/team.png" height="109" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Zenefits relies on ADP for Payroll to provide a full service technology suite to HR organizations and recently ADP turned off access to ADP technology that is publicly available to other accounting and small technology providers.<br />
<br />
Zenefits was not content to sit back and let this happen and after trying to resolve the issue <a href="http://blog.zenefits.com/adp/">they went on the offensive which is documented in this blog post</a>. The campaign was complete with a hashtag, a petition.org account and targeted media coverage.<br />
<br />
One of the statements that stood out to me in the blog post includes this quote that is all to familiar to us at Corporate Bravery:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"we believe ADP is using a tried and true tactic in enterprise software:
whenever a new, innovative company enters a market, the incumbent tries
to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about the new market entrant. This
tactic is so common it even has an acronym—<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt" target="_blank">FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt)</a>."</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-ceo-adp-threatened-me-like-dirty-harry-2015-6">ADP subsequently filed suit against Zenefits for "defamation"</a> as a result of this and other public cries for help that Zenefits used to get ADP to change their approach. According to the Zenefits CEO a 'dirty-harry like' phone conversation preceded the lawsuit.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/davechase/2015/06/10/adp-fud-campaign-against-zenefits-shows-perils-startup-face/">This article from Forbes</a> has a great summary about how this can and has played out in the past along with how the upstart can gain the upper hand in these fights. All are points covered in my forthcoming book - Corporate Bravery.<br />
<br />
<br />
2. <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/15/414615258/fueled-by-fear-how-richard-nixon-became-one-man-against-the-world?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=books&utm_term=artsculture&utm_content=20150616">NPR recently ran an article and an interview</a> with an author of a new Richard Nixon book by Tim Weiner named <em>One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon</em>. The article is entitled "<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fueled By Fear, How Richard Nixon Became 'One Man Against The World'"</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RNx%2BkXmhL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RNx%2BkXmhL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
Included in the interview are new insights into some of the more infamous events of the Nixon presidency including the motivations behind wiretapping his aides, the Watergate burglary, and his Vietnam War decisions (he sabotaged negotiations of a peace deal prior to winning election to get the glory for ending the war - leading to another 25,000 lost American lives).<br />
<br />
The genesis of these decisions? Fear. It is interesting insight into what can happen on a personal level when fear drives your decision making.Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-61150956724001982812015-06-10T06:00:00.000-04:002015-06-28T22:04:31.493-04:00Weekly Roundup - Auditors, Regulation & DisneyThis week's roundup doesn't really include any brave examples, rather some recent stories that represent some common themes from my upcoming book on Corporate Bravery.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.dailyfinance.com/media/2013/01/disney-bracelets-615cs010813-1357765754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.dailyfinance.com/media/2013/01/disney-bracelets-615cs010813-1357765754.jpg" height="191" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
1. The May 2015 issue of <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3044283/the-messy-business-of-reinventing-happiness">Fast Company profile's Disney's attempt to completely reinvent the guest experience</a> at their theme parks. The initiative was 'green lit' in February 2011 and was centered around the use of technology, specifically the park wristbands as a part of the MyMagic+ project.<br />
<br />
The project started out as a grand vision of using the wrist band to not only get a fast pass to the best rides but create a digital infrastructure that allowed all park employees to create a tailored experience for each individual guest. However after many setbacks along the way it has found only limited usage and primarily as to buy things at the park.<br />
<br />
The article chronicles the political struggles inside Disney that challenged the project's original vision and has ultimately prevented the project team from getting the types of ROI that were possible. Some of the quotes from the article that highlight these political struggles include:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Franklin managed to get some teams to collaborate well on the project, but most describe the internal politics as fierce."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Other divisions expressed themselves passive-aggressively. "They might see a problem coming, but they don't do anything about it, like, 'Let them figure it out!' says a former Disney manager. 'Then, late in the game, these folks came in going. We knew this was going to be a problem.' We were like Really? Where have you been for the last three and a half years?!?"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The endless finger pointing and glory hogging slowed the ambitious project. "Almost half the work was to support a political situation," says one executive at an NGE partner company. "At the beginning, we could move really rapidly, but when it got public within Disney, it changed the way we worked. It became more about fighting to survive another day."</blockquote>
Reading these quotes bring to mind my experiences as a business sponsor for a large multi-year, multi-million $ project that I lead a few years ago. I am sure my experiences and Disney's are not isolated examples and the role that politics plays in creating an organization that is driven by fear is universal.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
2. There was an article from the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/missing-in-financial-rules-debate-hard-numbers-1431545139?KEYWORDS=cost+analysis+missing+in+bank+rule+debate">Wall Street Journal last week regarding the cost of bank regulation</a> and its impact on the industry. The thesis of the article is that no one has stopped to study the impact of increasing amounts of regulation on the banking industry as the inertia of regulation rules the day.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-CF788_CAPACC_9U_20150513154809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-CF788_CAPACC_9U_20150513154809.jpg" height="183" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The article included the chart above which indicates only 4 new bank charters have been created since 2011, after the Dodd-Frank regulation went into full effect.<br />
<br />
Having spent years either in banking or serving the banking industry I have had an appreciation for the levels of fear regarding regulation and regulators but the thaw in dynamism of such a critical industry took me by surprise.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately we are no where near the end of the impact that regulatory fear will have on this industry. As the article says,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The costs of financial regulation go beyond what banks and their shareholders must pay for more compliance personnel. By making credit more expensive and restricting its supply, new regulations can ding growth."</blockquote>
<br />
3. Lastly, one more recent article from the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/outside-auditors-get-asked-in-1431390916?KEYWORDS=outside+auditors+get+asked+in">Wall Street Journal entitled "Outside auditors get asked in" </a>that I am all too familiar with.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The article profiles the recent hiring by Lumber Liquidators of a former audit partner as their new CFO. While not against SEC rules since the hiring was outside the 18 month rule (meaning he hadn't worked directly on their audit in over 18 months), the article talks about the cozy relationship it creates when firms hire members of their audit teams to serve in high profile financial positions.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
According to the article from 1985 - 2002 over 6% of public companies had hired a former auditor into CFO or senior accounting type roles. My experience at a past employer included a CFO, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer and Chief Audit Executive all formerly of that company's outside auditors. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At Corporate Bravery we talk often about the role outside auditors have in creating a culture of fear and while cozy relationships may not sound like a fear inducing cultural aspect it likely leads to additional work by these outside advisors over time and a strengthening of the power influence of those former auditors within the organization. This is supported by the following quote from a professor at UC Berkley quoted in the article,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The only reason outside auditors exists is because they are independent of management," added Don Moore. "Every auditor has to make lots of subjective calls, and when it is your friend on the other side of that call, it makes it more difficult to get tough."</blockquote>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-86321691402151209552015-06-04T06:30:00.000-04:002015-06-28T22:04:49.985-04:00Weekly Brave Update - Chip Kelly, Campbell's Soup EditionThis week I am focused on examples of brave leadership in two industries that nearly all of us have experiences with - food and football.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/usatsi_8224235.jpg?w=1000&h=665" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/usatsi_8224235.jpg?w=1000&h=665" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>First lets start with Chip Kelly & the Philadelphia Eagles.</b> There was a great story this past week in <a href="http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/05/27/chip-kelly-philadelphia-eagles-offseason-moves">Sports Illustrated about Chip's overhaul of the Eagles</a>. While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of his complete overhaul of the team - one thing that is confirmed is Chip's bravery. In fact the title of the article is "Chip Kelly's fearless coaching mind."<br />
<br />
Despite presiding over arguably two successful seasons that culminated in 10-6 records, he went 'all in' on his vision for success this past offseason. He let walk or traded his top 3 offensive weapons, including his starting quarterback, and made some big name free agent signings. Listening to sports talk radio during the free agency period you would think that everyone was bi-polar based on the daily reactions to Chip's moves.<br />
<br />
You might be thinking 'why are we talking about sports on a business blog?' but coaching an organization like the Eagles is as complicated as being the CEO of any Fortune 500 company and we can find some strong lessons in Chip's mindset toward fearless management.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Either Kelly is a forward-thinking genius, in the mold of Bill Walsh,
Jimmy Johnson and Bill Belichick—or he’s just another coach who never
should have left the college ranks. Whichever it is, <b>the word <em>bold</em>
doesn’t begin to define the transformation that Kelly has put his team
through this off-season</b>, his second since jumping from Oregon to the
NFL."</blockquote>
Part of what makes his moves so bold is the fact that he has a very clear vision for his team and is confident in knowing the types of personnel he needs in that system to be successful.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Certainly he has his strategy and the way he wants to build his team,”
says Stephen Jones, executive vice president of the Cowboys. “You’ve got
to respect him for that. He seems very convicted in how he wants to do
his roster.” At every position he knows exactly what type of player he wants, from physical description to mental makeup."</blockquote>
This vision and understanding of who the organization is and complementing that with the right personnel is the hallmark of a truly brave organization. Another key aspect of corporate cultures that operate in a brave way instead of out of fear is that they are not easily influenced by the media. Despite a preponderance of critics of these moves Chip has been undaunted. Not in a way that is stubborn but in a way the conveys confidence in his strategy and what he wants to accomplish. According to the article,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It’s impossible to say whether Kelly’s method will thrive long-term in
the NFL, but he’s made all the right moves at every level of his career
while naysayers shook their heads and said, That’s not the way things
are done. He sets his own course and, so far, it’s been one that
everyone else ends up following."</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.whatifinnovation.com/uploads/slide/image/152/IMPACT_Hersheys_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.whatifinnovation.com/uploads/slide/image/152/IMPACT_Hersheys_large.jpg" height="157" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Secondly, there was a great in-depth look at the <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/05/21/the-war-on-big-food/">rapidly evolving US food industry in Fortune Magazine</a>. The article provides a great summary of the wrenching changes that are accelerating in the way Americans buy food that is having massive implications on how food is grown, processed, marketed and sold.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
The primary driver of this revolution is the impact of changing consumer tastes with a much stronger focus on all-natural foods. As a result it is causing 'big food' manufacturers to reformulate iconic brands, change how they package their food products and buy their way into these new markets to stoke any growth.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s3"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Big Food is suddenly looking like an underdog."</span></b></span></blockquote>
According to the article, to underscore the crisis facing big food, an analysis by Moskow found that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion in market share since 2009.<br />
<br />
The article goes on to profile two iconic companies; Campbell's Soup and The Hersey Co. that are grappling with these changes in different ways.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Hershey's</u></b></div>
Despite making products that everyone knows is 'bad for you' or is an indulgence, Hershey vowed to not get caught flat footed by the changing consumer tastes. The article had the following to say about the thought process of Hershey's executives.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It might seem, then, that Hershey had no cause to be worried over the food revolution. But executives at this all-American chocolate maker could see the tumult happening all around them. In February, Hershey took a mammoth leap to get ahead of that trend when it announced it was starting to transition its products to “simple ingredients.” What’s more, the makeover would start with two of its most venerable products—Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar and milk chocolate Kisses. Rather than, say, remove just artificial flavors—or only GMOs or milk from cows raised with the growth hormone rBST—Hershey was going to spike all of them. In their stead would be only ingredients that people understand: milk, sugar, vanilla, etc. Both the milk chocolate bar and Kisses will have “clean labels” by the end of the year.</blockquote>
A brave step by a company that by all counts was humming. Over the past 5 years their revenues were up 30% and profits were up 67% - making the prospect of monkeying with their namesake product risky for any organization more focused on protecting what they have rather than staying ahead of the pack.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Campbell's Soup</u></b></div>
Campbell's CEO Morrison had similar vision for the changing consumer trends and its potential long-term impact on the company but had to work to convince others at the Board level that making bold bets on the future was critical.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Morrison tells <i>Fortune</i> that she knew she had to “<span class="s3">shift the center of gravity at Campbell”</span> w<span class="s3">hen she took over the company in 2011. </span>True enough, Morrison’s board was skeptical at first. “Carrots, Denise? <i>Really</i>?” asked one director. The acquisitions have also, as intended, shifted Campbell’s center of
gravity—moving it closer to what the food industry calls “the
perimeter,” the outer ring of the supermarket where fresh foods are
stocked. Executives now even talk a bit differently, infusing a
more wholesome-sounding vocabulary in day-to-day conversation. The
company “cooks” and “preserves” rather than “processes” and
“manufactures”; employees follow “recipes,” not “formulas.”</blockquote>
The problem however for a company like Campbell's facing dramatic shifts in the market, there isn't enough time to build their own brands or risk reformulating their 'bread and butter' product to take advantage of these trends. As a result most of the big brands are buying their way into relevancy with these new consumer needs. The article has the following to say about the risks of this approach:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The inherent risk with such acquisitions is that the parent company
swallows up the scrappy upstart into what food industry veteran Alan
Murray calls “the machine”—a hidebound, groupthink corporate
enterprise—rather than learning from its entrepreneurial culture.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Kellogg<span class="tickershortcode quotecard_hook" data-symbol="K"> </span>made the mistake of relocating Kashi from the San Diego area
to its parent’s headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich., but moved Kashi’s
operation back after the brand’s sales slipped. “They tried to bring it
under their corporate umbrella, and it lost its cachet,” says Erin Lash
of Morningstar.</blockquote>
So if buying their way into these fast growth markets present risks - reformulating your core products, like Hersey's has started, can be equally perilous. With the newer all-natural offerings margins are much thinner and with investor pressures for ever larger profit margins on a quarter over quarter basis the pressure on margins can cause 'big food' to let fear drive their decision making on remaking their companies.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That’s why, no matter how serious the rebellion among American shoppers
is, Campbell can’t completely remake itself as Bolthouse Inc. It’s also
why Mark Alexander, the Campbell exec who oversees the rows and rows of
Warhol-celebrated cans on U.S. supermarket shelves, has such a tough
job. He can’t risk doing anything to those classic soups that might hurt
margins or sales, because Campbell needs that “big economic engine,” he
says, to invest in fast-growth areas. Says Alexander, “It’s not an
either/or.”<br />
<span class="s3"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If your products are non-GMO, organic, and have no
artificial ingredients, says Simon, you’re always going to give up 10%
to 15% on margin. He questions whether the hungry giants are really
willing to leave that on the table. “The big companies today, they want
to have Annie’s and Small Planet, but on the other hand they want to
sell genetically modified ingredients,” he says. “You can’t go both
ways. You’ve got to put your stake in the ground.”</blockquote>
<span class="s3">Once these big food companies have staked our their strategy and positioning and started to move forward with the desire to go more natural than their mass produced pasts, there is one last thing that a brave organization has to do. Fight the temptation to fight regulations which are only supported by the same consumer behaviors you have staked your future to. Running out ahead of the pack requires that you do the same thing on the regulatory front as well, otherwise you can end up alienating those very consumer tastes you are chasing.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s3">Indeed, the polarizing and emotional GMO-labeling issue
may best illustrate the dilemma facing big food companies today. Polls
show that the vast majority of consumers say they support labeling
products that contain GMOs, even though regulators—and established
scientific organizations—have declared such modifications safe. Big food
companies, however, have poured millions of dollars into overturning
state initiatives that require labeling. </span>“The smartest thing you can do as a CEO right now is to side with the consumer,” says Stonyfield’s Hirshberg.</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/foo-06-01-15-spread.jpg?quality=80" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/foo-06-01-15-spread.jpg?quality=80" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s3">Campbell Soup has been caught in the middle of the
controversy. It helped fund industry anti-labeling efforts in two states
before backing off. Morrison says she has always supported letting
consumers know which products have GMO ingredients, but she wants one
piece of federal legislation rather than 50 state laws.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s3">For the old-school titans, says Boulder Brands CEO Steve Hughes, “It’s a classic case of winning the battle and losing the war.”</span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912635087174001904.post-9687515993836580862015-05-18T08:30:00.000-04:002015-06-28T22:05:18.150-04:00Weekly Roundup - May 18<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is our latest installment in our weekly series on fear in the marketplace and specifically how to be Brave in business decision making. Each week we post a few reads along with a synopsis of a few current business stories and how executives and managers are letting fear play out in decision making.</span></i><br />
<br />
1. Recently <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/anheuser-cans-controversial-bud-light-slogan-1430347201?KEYWORDS=at+bud+light+plenty+of+%27yes%27+before+a+%27no%27">Bud Light ended up with a black eye and controversy on its hands with a beer label</a> with the tag line 'The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night.'<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.timesunion.com/dowdondrinks/files/2015/04/Screen-shot-2015-04-29-at-12.39.49-PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blog.timesunion.com/dowdondrinks/files/2015/04/Screen-shot-2015-04-29-at-12.39.49-PM.png" height="229" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Despite using possibly one of the worst ideas ever, (especially in light of recent high profile cases of domestic violence such as Ray Rice in the NFL) what was potentially even more startling was the fact that this label was green lit only after going through 5 approvals inside Anheuser-Busch including marketing, legal, corporate social responsibility division and an advertising code committee.<br />
<br />
At Corporate Bravery we talk often about the role that hierarchy and internal compliance teams have on creating fear in corporate decision making and this is a classic example. Even when pressed on how it decided against a recall their response was that the bottles didn't 'pose a health or public-safety concern'. The response shows that the culture isn't strong enough to allow individuals to use their best judgement and instead it is easier to hide behind protocol and layers of bureaucracy.<br />
<br />
The article goes on to mention how AB InBev 'spread the blame' first to its advertisers BBDO for writing the label and then to the US Alcohol Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau. The latter is laughable since the government agency can't possibly regulate stupidity.<br />
<br />
<br />
2. In the lead-up to the <b>NFL Draft</b> I ran across an interesting take on how teams draft quarterbacks that is an interesting corollary to what often-times happens in our business organizations.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fd/NFL_Draft.png/250px-NFL_Draft.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fd/NFL_Draft.png/250px-NFL_Draft.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
The <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-nfl-drafts-quarterback-problem-1430339884?KEYWORDS=the+nfl+draft+has+a+problem+with+quarterbacks">article in the Wall Street Journal talks specifically about the quarterback position</a> and how the position has evolved tremendously in the past decade but NFL teams continue to want to force those being drafted into the position in the NFL into a certain type of quarterback. To summarize the NFL's track record on innovation the article says, "True aficionados of football strategy would roll their eyes at the NFL game. It was, for all its revenue and viewers, not the place for innovation."<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
The article spotlights Marcus Mariota as the example in this year's draft of a potential victim of this one size fits all view of the position that permeates the NFL.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"This is one of the many tweaks that college players are asked to make, but it can be a very bad thing. No one is telling Martin Scorsese to direct an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" and no one should ask Mariota to huddle. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mariota will be drafted high on Thursday night - possibly as high as the second overall selection. Then comes the hard part: making an "NFL" quarterback. That means huddling, taking a snap directly from the center and running less with the football. None of those are Mariota's strengths. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But Mariota will not, barring a trade find a home with a team that will run the right offense around him. This square-peg-in-a-round-hole game will continue. Marietta needs [Chip] Kelly or a like-minded coach. Instead, he could get NFL lifer Ken Whisenhunt as a head coach. He's as fine a coach as there is in the NFL but he has never had any experience with the new style of quarterbacks. The NFL will try to NFL-ize Mariota rather than a team letting themselves get Mariota-ized."</blockquote>
<br />
Read the article and leave comments on ways you have seen this play out in your business organizations. People in the wrong positions? Marginalized employees contributing only a fraction of their capabilities because of managers forcing them into a certain approach.<br />
<br />
<br />
3. Now instead of fear-driven decision making, we bring you a good example of corporate bravery - <b>Mars Inc.</b> Last week <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/m-m-maker-wants-labels-for-added-sugar-1431057661?KEYWORDS=M+M+Maker+Wants+Labels+for+Sugar">Mars made headlines by joining support with US regulators regarding a proposal to include measurements of added sugar</a>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cookiesandmoreinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mandm-mars.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cookiesandmoreinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mandm-mars.gif" height="171" width="200" /></a></div>
At Corporate Bravery one strategy that we advocate to release fear-based decision making regarding regulators is to get out in front of regulation. That is exactly what Mars has done in this situation.<br />
<br />
Sure, the support is self-serving but it beats banging your head against the wall of an inevitable regulation. And why not curry favor with regulators and be a resource for them in shaping the regulation rather than fighting and then reacting to a final regulation that may not be advantageous to your interests over the long-term.<br />
<br />
According to the Global Head of R and D in the Wall Street Journal article the reason Mars has taken this position is because of the following,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It might appear to be counterintuitive, but if you dig down a bit more, we know candy itself is not a diet. It shouldn't be consumed too often, and having transparency of how much it should be consumed is actually quite helpful to consumers."</blockquote>
The result of this position is good publicity like the article linked above, but the impact on regulators can be just as good. In the article an FDA official was quoted as saying,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The FDA appreciates the support and engagement of Mars and other companies in the important effort to reduce added sugar in the American diet."</blockquote>
<br />Darrin Murrinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02709971418196348027noreply@blogger.com0