Business Genius E-Book

Peter Fisk

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 411

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

At last, a more inspired approach to business. Business Genius describes how to grow your business more effectively through intelligent strategy and imaginative leadership, radical innovation and sustained change. Combining the entrepreneurial passion of a start-up with the commercial rigour of large enterprises... this is for everyone who seeks the inspiration to think and act differently. Business Genius helps you drive more profitable, sustainable growth in today's fast changing and connected markets. It explores the challenges of strategy and innovation, leadership and change as you grow your business, and yourself, in order to achieve high performance. From the craze for Crocs to the cool of Diesel, the secrets of Kikkoman and energy of Red Bull, the vision of Google and disruption of Current TV, the revolution of P&G and the phenomenon of Umpqua - the book captures the best insights from around the world, and a new agenda for today's business. Seeing things differently is the foundation of genius. Connecting your left and right brain to think more holistically, exploring opportunities from the future back as well as now forward - then doing business from the outside in rather than the inside out, in order to turn radical ideas into practical action.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Credits

About the Author

Inspiration

PART 1: Right Brain, Left Brain

TRACK 1: FAST GROWTH

1.1 THE SEVEN LIVES OF BUSINESS

1.2 THE ENGINE OF VALUE CREATION

1.3 PLATFORMS FOR ACCELERATING GROWTH

TRACK 2: BUSINESS BUBBLES

2.1 RIDING THE GROWTH WAVES

2.2 BUSINESS HOTSPOTS

2.3 UNLOCKING THE GROWTH DRIVERS

TRACK 3: ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERS

3.1 SEVEN LIVES, SEVEN LEADERS

3.2 ENTREPRENEURS, LEADERS AND MANAGERS

3.3 THE NEW BUSINESS LEADERS

PART 2: Future Back, Now Forward

TRACK 4: GROWTH MARKETS

4.1 FINDING NEW MARKETS FIRST

4.2 GROWING WITH ADJACENCY

4.3 THE BEST MARKETS

TRACK 5: SMARTER STRATEGIES

5.1 BUSINESS WITH A HIGH PURPOSE

5.2 MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES

5.3 BUSINESS JAZZ

TRACK 6: BUSINESS INNOVATION

6.1 GETTING A NEW WORLDVIEW

6.2 THE POWER OF CONCEPTS

6.3 DISRUPTIVE CREATION

PART 3: Outside In, Inside Out

TRACK 7: CUSTOMER POWER

7.1 DEEP DIVING FOR INSIGHTS

7.2 GETTING A CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE

7.3 BEING A CUSTOMER BUSINESS

TRACK 8: BRAND PROPOSITIONS

8.1 BRANDS THAT DEFINE YOU

8.2 PROPOSITIONS THAT ENGAGE YOU

8.3 EXPERIENCES THAT DO MORE FOR YOU

TRACK 9: MARKET NETWORKS

9.1 THE POWER OF NETWORKS

9.2 CUSTOMER NETWORKS

9.3 NETWORK MARKETING

PART 4: Radical Ideas, Practical Action

TRACK 10: ENERGIZING PEOPLE

10.1 BUILDING A PASSION FOR PEOPLE

10.2 LIVING THE NEW WORKSTYLE

10.3 IGNITING YOUR OWN POTENTIAL

TRACK 11: INSPIRING CHANGE

11.1 THE AGENDA FOR CHANGE

11.2 MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN

11.3 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS

TRACK 12: DELIVERING RESULTS

12.1 BUILDING THE INVISIBLE BUSINESS

12.2 MANAGING FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE

12.3 SEARCHING FOR THE EDGE

The Genius Lab

BUSINESS BRAINSCAN

MORE GENIUS

Index

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Guide

Cover

Contents

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Business Genius

A more inspired approach to business growth

peter fisk

Copyright © 2008 by Peter Fisk

First published in 2008 by Capstone Publishing Ltd. (a Wiley Company)

The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, PO19 8SQ, UK.

www.wileyeurope.com

Email (for orders and customer service enquires): [e-mail]

The right of Peter Fisk to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [e-mail] , or faxed to ([phone].

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Other Wiley Editorial Offices

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Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fisk, Peter (Peter Robert)

Business genius : a more inspired approach to business growth / Peter Fisk.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-84112-790-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Industrial management. I. Title.

HD31.F5364 2008

658.4’063--dc22

2008001338

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 13: 978-1-84112-790-3

Credits

To Alison, Anna and Clara.

And to all the people around the world in organizations large and small, who believe in creating a better approach to business, and have ideas they would love to make happen.

I hope, in some small way, that this book inspires you.

About the author

Peter Fisk is a highly experienced business strategist, consultant to business leaders worldwide, an inspirational business speaker and a business entrepreneur. He has spent many years working with the likes of British Airways and Coca-Cola, Marks & Spencer and Microsoft, Virgin and Vodafone.

He is author of the best-selling book Marketing Genius, which has been translated into 24 languages, and The Complete CEO. He is described by Business Strategy Review as ‘one of the best new business thinkers’.

Peter started his career as a nuclear physicist, before getting into the supersonic world of marketing at British Airways with roles in brands and marketing, strategy and leadership development.

He was CEO of the world’s largest professional marketing organization, the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He also led the global strategic marketing consulting team of PA Consulting Group, was managing director of Brand Finance, and a partner of strategic innovators The Foundation.

He is founder and CEO of The Genius Works, helping business leaders around the world to think differently – to develop and implement more inspired strategies, innovation and marketing. He recently launched The Marketing Fast Track and hosts CNBC’s The Marketing Show.

He is an accomplished international speaker on all aspects of business strategy and leadership, innovation and marketing, customers and brands. He is thoughtful and considered, provocative and entertaining – capturing what’s hot, what works, and what’s next.

He defines the emerging agenda for business, working across the world with companies and their leaders, to make the best ideas happen practically and successfully.

For more information visit www.thegeniusworks.com or email [e-mail] .

Right brain, left brain

PART 1 Right brain, left brain

‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time’

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The human brain is an extraordinary result of natural evolution, and of course its structure is far more complicated than a simple left-right division. Indeed neuroscience has developed rapidly in the last few decades, and we are continually learning how to interpret our thoughts and actions, and improve them.

Left and right brain thinking is still a useful metaphor in considering how we think. ‘Right brain’ is the more ‘imaginative’ side – subjective, intuitive, holistic and divergent – whilst ‘left brain’ is the more ‘intelligent’ side – objective, interactive, analytical and convergent.

We approach the future of our business and markets with our eyes wide shut. We need to open our minds to the bigger picture – the world around us, what other companies do, what will drive and sustain our growth, and our role in it. This is a right brain opportunity.

Business has become too focused and mechanical (left brain), not giving enough time and space to think more broadly and holistically (right brain). Of course we need both – left and right brain, intelligence and imagination – but it is the connections between the two that make the difference.

If we want to succeed in business today – to make sense of our changing and confused, fast and fragile world; to be effective entrepreneurs and business leaders in it; and to create and sustain profitable growth – we need to think with our whole brain, not just part of it.

TRACK 1: FAST GROWTHDriving and accelerating business growth

‘You either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety’

Abraham Maslow

Growth is easy, isn’t it?

Discount your prices and your revenue goes up. Recognizing that you also need to make a profit, you cut your costs and the margins quickly improve. Wanting to drive even more dramatic growth, you acquire another company and you can double your size in no time. But it doesn’t last.

Sustaining growth is not easy. Sustaining profitable growth is hard. Creating significant and sustainable growth is the imperative for every small business, and indeed the challenge for every large business today.

Achieving great results creates the expectation that you can do it again and again. You need to sustain it. Investors want to see evidence of the future profit streams that will give them a decent long-term return on their investments. Customers recognize that growing companies are doing something right and want to be part of it. Employees know that growth creates a bigger pie in which they can take a thicker slice.

Yet few companies manage to sustain profitable growth. They appear to reach a stumbling block when they reach the perceived limits of their current world, their existing markets and models, capabilities and ambitions, energy or inspiration.

With their heads down and spreadsheets buzzing, they seek to squeeze more out of their existing markets – an extra point of market share, another derivative product development or a more efficient process, that might secure a slightly greater margin. These things matter, but they don’t create growth that is significant and sustainable.

The obsession with doing more of the same, through optimization or small improvements, is a significant obstacle growth. Fractions of market share or profit margins will help, but won’t make the real difference. The danger is that we plough the same furrow, exploiting what we know best, delivering the same products, doing what we have always done slightly better.

We lose sight of the changing world outside.

We end up playing the old game, whilst oblivious to a new game – a new market, a new customer desire, a new business model. And because we prefer to make the most of what we have, we become hindered by our existing business, locked in our past and current success. The real danger is that incrementalism leads to irrelevance.

So how does a business, large or small, create and sustain profitable growth?

The answer is already in our heads. As human beings we have an enormous capacity to think, to sense and respond, to innovate and change. We each have 100 trillion brain cells, and probably use about 1% of them at any time. At an incredibly simple level we can categorize our brains into left and right sides – reflecting our ability to think intelligently and imaginatively, analytically and intuitively, sequentially and holistically.

Yet it is the connections between these that really matters. In Einstein’s case, his brain remained the object of fascination and research for many years, scientists concluding that it was in some ways different – not simply bigger, but better connected. The grey matter in our heads is connected by white matter. So it is perhaps this white stuff, the connective tissue, that holds more clues to our own genius, and the best opportunities for personal and business growth.

The successful growth business is firstly an imaginative business. It then intelligently focuses on the best opportunities. Whilst most of today’s businesses are dominated by left-brain thinking, it is the right-brain thoughts that unlocks newness and enables them to start new things, and make the leaps forward.

Growth businesses succeed by thinking more broadly – seeing a bigger picture, a more holistic view of the market challenges and opportunities. They see a broader context, and by doing so they see more opportunities to exploit, more ways to be different, more sources of future profit.

And the more you have to choose from, the richer your options, the more likely you are to find the best, and the more sustainable you can be in exploiting them.

This might seem overly ambitious, particularly for a small business struggling to survive. Yet, even a few people with dedicated time can apply enormous brainpower to thinking more broadly, deeply and clearly – new thinking that could deliver extraordinary results.

Large businesses need a mix of people with left- and right-brain preferences, or ideally both. Small businesses must choose their colleagues with even more care. The visionary, creative, intuitive entrepreneur – from Richard Branson to Bill Gates – has always sought a more focused, analytical manager to be their side-kick.

More intuitive, more divergent, more holistic thinking enables us to see things differently, and thereby to think and do different things – to challenge conventions, to explore new possibilities, to hypothesize alternatives. More logical, more convergent, more focused thinking then enables you to choose the best markets, products, customers and approaches to focus your resources to be successful in this wider world.

Today’s high growth business is an inspired business, fusing imaginative stretch and intelligent focus in order to deliver extraordinary results.

Imaginative with your right brain. Intelligent with your left brain. Inspired whole brain thinking.

1.1 THE SEVEN LIVES OF BUSINESSThe challenge of growth, the challenge of change

The origins of business thinking go far back. Three thousand years ago, the Chinese developed their word for ‘business’, based on two ancient symbols – the first refers to ‘birth’ and ‘life’ and the second to ‘meaning’. It seems that the Chinese recognised that growth, sustained with an enduring purpose, is fundamental to business success back then, just like we do today.

Growing businesses have different characteristics, challenges and opportunities, as they evolve from start-ups into much larger organizations. Most companies don’t recognize the growth phases that they move through; they suffer from the growing pains without recognizing what to do, and they miss the best opportunities which each phase uniquely offers.

What is required to sustain a growing business?

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at each phase?

What are the most appropriate styles of leadership and management as it grows?

There are typically seven stages in the life of a business. Of course, every organization and market is different, and some companies will choose to stay small, whilst others will grow huge, and may well be split up to become small businesses that can grow again. Just like the mountaineer setting out from base camp, the gentle foothills will require very different skills, different clothing and a different pace from climbing the icy peaks.

THE SEVEN LIVES OF BUSINESSES

While each life-stage is partly a result of the business’s age, size and performance, it is also distinguished by its structure and sophistication. Some companies will evolve rapidly and others slowly, some will leap through life. Some evolved companies will still be small, maybe virtual, whilst some large companies might still be quite primitive. You can probably think of a few.

Their challenges are different. Small businesses want to get noticed, capture a new market, gain customers, and ensure that they drive enough cash flow to survive, and hopefully thrive. Large companies have an equally tough challenge in seeking to remain innovative, find new markets and to take their organizations with them.

The objectives of each life-stage are different and, therefore, the approach is too. Unlike the natural world, this is rarely a natural evolution. It requires deliberate thought and desire, hard choices and decisive management. Moving from one phase to the next will require change – in strategy, people, activities, leadership and even ownership.

Some of the changes as companies seek to evolve will be painful.

Entrepreneurs love their small, chaotic, personal worlds. Small teams don’t like being torn apart or having more structures and processes imposed on them. Large companies don’t like having to make choices, to delete certain product lines, pull out of certain markets, make people redundant.

Yet we choose to evolve because each life-stage brings new opportunities for growth.

Additional investment allows the company to extend its offerings, recruit more people, launch new ventures. Clearer structures and processes improve focus and efficiency, giving people their own teams to run and markets to manage. New leaders bring valuable experience and fresh ideas, and often allow the founding entrepreneurs to focus their creativity, without the admin.

Growth brings its rewards too, and part of the skill is linking the right rewards to the growth model so that it encourages the positive, evolutionary behaviours that the organization needs. Ensuring that all employees, and even wider business partners, have a stake in the business is one effective way of ensuring that everybody focuses on the same goal, supports growth, and shares in the rewards.

CHALLENGES AT EACH BUSINESS LIFE-STAGE

The potential characteristics of each life-stage are illustrated in the table, although there will obviously be variations on the theme. Where is your business? Maybe different parts of it are at different stages, with your structure lagging behind your market ambitions, or your investments out of kilter with your strategic opportunities.

The life-stages flex between periods of rapid growth, where innovation and extension are important, followed by periods of consolidation where the organization has to regroup in order to build a new platform for another stage of growth. The focus and culture of the business will therefore differ by stage, and the challenges in moving to the next stage will be different each time.

Stage 1: ‘Create’ reflects the birth of a new business, driven with entrepreneurial ambition. The founders shape their ideas and establish the business. The focus will be on creativity, whilst big obstacles to growing to the next stage will include funding.

Stage 2: ‘Enter’ is about getting the business going, launching itself into markets, building awareness, delivering its services, and generating some income. The focus will be on building, whilst obstacles to evolving the business will often include the founders’ own relentless passion.

Stage 3: ‘Stabilize’ seeks to bring some order to a small, probably fairly chaotic business. The founders might not notice, but others are struggling. The focus will be on consolidation, whilst the obstacles to growing will include learning to empower people.

Stage 4: ‘Expand’ marks a second phase of rapid growth, extending the business in new ways, reaching out to new products and extending the range. The focus is on innovation, whilst the obstacles to moving on will now include the resistance to more formal control.

Stage 5: ‘Optimize’ takes stock of all of this expansion to focus resources on the markets, products and customers that matter most. It may also involve stopping doing other things. The focus is on prioritization, whilst obstacles now include the bureaucracy that inevitably creeps in.

Stage 6: ‘Extend’ is back on the innovation track, looking for more strategic ways to innovate the business, shaping markets and business models. The focus is on strategic innovation, and the obstacle now is size, lacking the agility and single-mindedness of small business.

Stage 7: ‘Evolve’ is the alternative to death. There is no limit to how far a business can evolve, how high it can fly, the focus is on deciding where to go next – to sell, merge, break up, or keep extending into new domains, limited only by the imagination of its people.

Most companies die young. They should be able to live for 200 to 300 years according to Arie de Geus in The Living Company, yet few organizations survive this long, falling victim to blinkered strategies in changing worlds, or the inability to evolve as they grow.

Imagine the changes that a company like Kikkoman, the Japanese soy sauce company, has lived through, from the days as a family business on the banks of the Edo River to the global corporation of today. Consider the journeys of some of the world’s oldest companies, together with the relative youth of some of the best known companies today:

THE LIVES OF BUSINESS LEADERS

Source: Centuries of Success, William O’Hara

Insight 1: CROCSFast growth by three men in a boat

The growth of Crocs is phenomenal by any measure. Not the rough skinned, wide jawed reptiles, but the slightly ugly, multicoloured variety that have taken the footwear world by storm.

Islas Mujeres, Mexico. 2002.

Three guys from Boulder, Colorado decide to go sailing. Lyndon Hanson, Scott Seamans and George Boedecker take off from their stressful jobs and head for the Caribbean. On arriving at their boat, they unpack their bags, including a pair of foam clogs that one of them found whilst in Canada.

As the days, waves and beers pass by, they are inspired to build a business around the funky, foam-made shoes with the Swiss-cheese perforations. They are incredibly comfortable, nonslip, lightweight, washable and never smell. The perfect boat shoe.

They need a name. ‘Crocs’ is chosen because crocodiles are tough and strong with no natural predators. Equally good in the land and water, they live for a very long time.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 2003.

The three friends are staggered by their astonishing success: $1.2 million sales in their first year, and they are still treating the business like a part-time job. They launch their shoes at the Fort Lauderdale boat show – but soon everyone from doctors to gardeners to waiters wants them.

They lease a warehouse in Florida, so that they can combine business and pleasure, but are struggling to cope with demand. Celebrities like Brad Pitt and Britney Spears adopt them. Kids adore them.

Crocs are not just functional but suddenly the height of fashion too.

Sydney, Australia. 2004.

Crocs are growing incredibly quickly with $13.5 million turnover by end of the second year, although with a small loss. Word of mouth continues to spread the desire for Crocs like wildfire.

Ron Snyder, a former college friend, has joined as CEO. He previously ran the global business of Flextronics and oversaw its growth from $3 billion to $16 billion in four years. He sees similar potential with Crocs.

Snyder decides to buy the Canadian company, Foam Creations, who make Crocs from a special ‘closed-cell resin’ called Croslite. In the past Crocs had basically distributed their products; now it has its own unique process, material, design and distribution.

Crocs are now ready for even faster and more profitable growth.

Beijing, China. 2005.

Revenue leaps to $108.6 million and profits to $17 million. The rubbery clogs and flip-flops can now be found in over 40 countries. The range and colours diversify too – and with prices ranging from $30 to $60 a pair, they are cheap enough for people to buy two, three or four pairs.

Strong branding and high profile sponsorships that link closely with target audiences help to raise curiosity, visibility and desire further – from baseball, football and motor racing, to the latest kids movies from Disney.

‘Think bigger than you are’ is a lesson Snyder brought with him. He registers Crocs as a trademark in countries around the world, and establishes manufacturing capability from Mexico to China to support still faster growth. However they are still struggling to keep up with demand.

Wall Street, New York. 2006.

Now a global phenomenon, everybody wants Crocs. Shops sell out before new supplies arrive.

Sales are phenomenal too, selling 20 million pairs, and tripling revenue to $354.7 million and profit margins growing to 18%.

People love their Crocs. Jibbitz, for example, started as a tiny, home-made collection of clay and rhinestone that clipped onto the shoes and enabled people to customize them. It grew even faster than the shoe company, so much so that Crocs snapped up the kitchen company for $20 million.

Crocs goes public, with an IPO initially valuing the company at an eye-catching $1 billion, and grows rapidly on trading. Some say it is an outrageous valuation, the company is riding on a fashion trend that cannot last, and investors have been seduced by a funky brand. Only time will tell.

FAST, PROFITABLE GROWTH OF CROCS

Niwot, Colorado. 2007.

On the Lovemarks.com website, Crocs has rapidly become a popular choice with consumers in selecting their most loved brand. Rachel is a typical advocate:

‘Absolutely the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever experienced. They soon adopted the shape of my feet, support my back, are so easy to take care of, and are created in the most detailed and beautiful rainbow of colours. One for every outfit.’

However, no brand can be loved by everyone:

‘Oh nooooooo, I can’t stand Crocs! Despite arguments that they might be comfortable – I think they look totally hideous. I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing them.’

But as Scott Bedbury, the marketer behind Nike and Starbucks points out, ‘a great brand polarizes people – it has attitude, it provokes people – some will love it, and others hate it.’

Back in Colorado, the three buddies have a whole boat load of ideas and innovations to develop, to further accelerate their growth. Sales continue to increase rapidly and profitably, and the market cap closes in on $5 billion. Not bad for a company less than five years old.

1.2 THE ENGINE OF VALUE CREATIONRevenue and profits are not enough, value is what matters

Growth is the imperative for almost every CEO. In the long term there is no option but to grow. Yes, you can improve profits through efficiency and optimization, and shrink to a smarter shape, but then it’s about growth. We all want to do better this year than we did last year.

We typically measure growth in revenue – our sales turnover, product volumes. Of course, it feels good to sell more and more – but not if it’s ultimately unprofitable. Sometimes, you will decide to sustain unprofitable sales in order to establish yourself in a market, but at some point it has to turn positive.

Continuing to sell unprofitably is a recipe for disaster. Yet lots of people do it, at least in parts of their business if not all. Finding the products, categories, segments and markets for profitable growth is therefore a priority – as is eliminating the unprofitable ones.

Similarly, stock markets work in a way that rewards companies that deliver beyond expectations. If you are a shareholder, then you expect a return significantly better than you would get it if you kept it securely in a long-term savings account. This is your basic requirement. You want a return more than this. Therefore, growth needs to be even more profitable and significant.

And it needs to be sustainable too. There are plenty of one-trick ponies. Any fool can discount the prices and sell lots. Any fool can take a huge loan, buy a competitor’s business, and double revenue in the short term. But is that sustainable? Not often. This is why organic growth, growth driven by improving and extending your core business is what succeeds.

Source: McKinsey Quarterly, 2007 (based on the 10 year performance across industry sectors)

% of companies

Market/book ratio

Outperformers on revenue growth or profitability

12.8

Outperformers on revenue growth

2.8

1.9

Outperformers on profitability

9.2

3.0

Outperformers on both

0.8

4.1

Sustainable, profitable growth is incredibly elusive, yet research shows that companies that can outpace their rivals in terms of both growth and profitability achieve the best stock market performances. Revenue growth alone is not enough, it needs to profitable too.