The only companies or products that will succeed now are the ones offering the lowest possible level of complexity for the maximum amount of value.

A fascinating trend is consuming Silicon Valley and beginning to eat away at rest of the world: the radical simplification of everything.

Want to spot the next great technology or business opportunity? Just look for any market that lacks a minimally complex solution to a sufficiently large problem.

The irony of simplicity is that it invariably lets you do more. Simplicity isn’t about giving up any value--it’s a movement around designing technology or products thoughtfully to make them substantially more useful and attainable. Some of the simplest solutions on the market are equally the most advanced--Square beats out any other form of retail payment service; Nest offers the most compelling and powerful thermostat ever invented.

Here are just a few ways to get started in achieving minimum complexity:

• Think end to end.  Simplicity relates to the entire customer experience, from how you handle pricing to customer support.

• Say no.  Kill features and services that don’t get used, and optimize the ones that do.

• Specialize.  Focus on your core competency, and outsource the rest--simplicity comes more reliably when you have less on your plate.

• Focus on details.  Simple is hard because it’s so easy to compromise; hire the best designers you can find, and always reduce clicks, messages, prompts, and alerts.

• Audit constantly.  Constantly ask yourself, can this be done any simpler? Audit your technology and application frequently.

Companies that will win in the long term are those that can continue to simplify experience while simultaneously tackling harder and harder problems. Sure, it’s novel and powerful that Square can accept payments for a 10-person retail store, but when they start to do it for Gap, the game is radically changed. Amazon succeeds by continuing to charge into all areas of infrastructure delivery--consistently launching new tools and platforms that would otherwise cost developers an arm and a server closet, all with the same focus on abstraction and simplification.

When technology was unavoidably complex, it was forgivable that solutions weren't elegant and simple. It was understandable that finding and visiting a new doctor could take weeks, or searching for enterprise information wasn’t successful. But with a myriad of elegant and simple solutions entering the market, users expect far more from their products. 

Simplicity has become a virus that will either destroy you or catapult you to the front of the market.

Above is the title of a thought provoking article. Instead of opining, I'll share snapshots, below. If they interest you, read the entire article at fastcompany.com. 

I reinvented my own business trajectory - from merchant/marketer at IKEA, Pottery Barn and fixer of PE-owned wholesale businesses in various stages of transition, to consumer business builder. Now I build multi-million dollar profitable revenue platforms for PE-owned businesses in the USA and China - in 2011 I added 17% EBITDA (as % of sales) to a business within 10 months, and built another that quickly and cheaply launched significant volume of a new product into 10 major retail chains and 3700 doors - so I 'get' change, and I understand how to create order out of chaos and deliver innovation and profitable new revenue streams by aligning both worlds. 

Fast Company will have you considering new perspectives for your business. If it sounds a bit chaotic, that's because it is. Deal with it.

"You're going to have businesses rise and fall faster than ever."

You Don't Know What You Don't Know.

Within GE, she says, "traditional teams are too slow. We're not innovating fast enough. We need to systematize change." - "There's a need to be less hierarchical and to rely more on teams”

Organizations have structures and processes built for an industrial age, where efficiency is paramount but adaptability is terribly difficult. We are finely tuned at taking a successful idea or product and replicating it on a large scale. But inside these legacy institutions, changing direction is rough. From classrooms arranged in rows of seats to tenured professors, from the assembly line to the way we promote executives, we have been trained to expect an orderly life.

Yet the expectation that these systems provide safety and stability is a trap.

…a revolution…(at) America's leadership factory. "We talk about how to get and apply external knowledge, how to lead in ambiguous situations, how to listen actively, and the whole idea of collaboration."

"work on a mission: use mass platforms to change the world. It's a mission, not a job title, not a career."

"If we don't change our structure, we'll get less relevant," Greenberg tells me. "We won't be able to grow." This time, he's integrating 12 new capabilities, "People talk about change and adaptation, but they don't see how fast the competition is coming. We have to move. We have no choice."

"Command-and-control hierarchical structures are being disintegrated. There's a difference between the old broadcast world and the networked world."

"The Agile Manifesto" stated a preference for "individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; [and] responding to change over following a plan."

The key is to be clear about your business mission. In a world of flux, this becomes more important than ever.

To flourish requires a new kind of openness. More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin foreshadowed this era in his description of natural selection: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." As we traverse this treacherous, exciting bridge to tomorrow, there is no clearer message than that.

For Johannes Gutenberg, his famous invention of the printing press "transformed his knowledge of wine presses into a printing machine capable of mass-producing words." For those of us developing disruptive innovation that build new businesses, the idea of attacking problems as a beginner, to "let go of all preconceptions and fear of failure" has the familiar ring of an old battle cry: there is nothing more gratifying than facing challenges to discover big opportunities and then deliver them. 

Before I share the book review of The Innovator's DNA, a joke heard this morning offers succinct insight on the subject: "A scientist and a philosopher were being chased by a hungry lion. The scientist made some quick calculations, he said “it's no good trying to outrun it, it's catching up”. The philosopher kept a little ahead and replied “I am not trying to outrun the lion, I am trying to outrun you!”

Now for the more academic explanation... the five skills of successful innovators, all of which have to be present together, are 

• associating (linking ideas that aren’t obviously related)
• questioning
• observing
• networking
• experimenting

The first is a thinking skill and the others are behavioral skills. The authors stress the behavioral aspects of innovative entrepreneurship, saying that usually, innovators act differently in order to think differently. 

The ability to innovate usually has its origin in the entrepreneur’s profound dissatisfaction with the status quo, which is likely the result of early life experiences. Innovative ability thus cannot be easily acquired (but certainly can be hired on a project basis). Further, the five skills concern the discovery of value as opposed to its delivery, which is usually taught in business schools and rewarded by many organizations. This, the authors say, is the primary reason so many large companies fail at disruptive innovation: People with discovery skills have been driven away. 

At the team level, the authors cite the benefits of having members with complementary skills and note the important role that trust plays in innovation that drives bottom line performance. As business builder who discovers opportunities for innovation and then delivers new revenue streams, EBITDA and increased enterprise value to (re)ALIGN clients, I tend to agree. 

A recent HBR article (click here) provides insight how you can begin to transform your company, by bridging external needs with internal capabilities and getting ideas from the market before taking them to market. 

Some firms will invest to integrate the strategy into the "way we do things" so they are prepared to find and develop innovations in unfamiliar environments. 

Others will choose to hire an expert business builder to build a new business for them—one that fits, that profitably integrates into the main business, one that will dramatically increase the overall enterprise value.  

For PDF, click here.

I love this eloquent reminder to search for purpose and articulate to others the big idea of where we're going. In a narrower sense, this quote is also about motivation and leadership. A couple months back I blogged about Dan Pink's book "A Whole New Mind"; now I came across a video in which he talks about the surprising science of motivation. David Belden writes about Dan’s latest book "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" (2010) that the "more significant revelations in Drive are:

1. A description of the Conceptual Worker – a person who not only possesses the skills to accomplish a task, but understands the relevance of that task to the larger vision of the enterprise.
2. The movement in organizational structure from Information Workers (skill set) to Conceptual Workers (mindset); allowing organizations to hire fewer workers at a higher level.
3. Implementation of Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), which eliminates the need for over-the-shoulder supervision of the workforce.

What this means in practical terms, of course, is a major shift from management to leadership. Dan writes “Perhaps it’s time to toss the very word ‘management’ into the linguistic ash heap alongside ‘icebox’ and ‘horseless carriage.’ This era doesn’t call for better management. It calls for a renaissance of self-direction.” Listen below to Daniel Pink speak on the surprising science of motivation, focusing on three areas:

• Autonomy - the urge to direct our own lives
• Mastery - the desire to get better and better at something that matters
• Purpose - a yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

Management is a 20th century concept that works great for compliance, but leadership that attempts to establish self direction works better if you want engagement and innovation. A well-known example is Google's "20 Percent Time", which provides employees a day a week to work on whatever they want. What innovation results from such autonomy? Half of Google's new products originate from employees' use of "20 Percent Time". Maybe lesser-known than Google but equally significant to (re)ALIGN clients is the success they enjoy when they hire us to build a new business. We develop the game plan that fits their needs and then execute it - autonomously and collaboratively - to add to clients' enterprise value both in the USA and in China. We conceive a better mousetrap that creates and harvests more demand more profitably. Sometimes we rebuild businesses (in a recent case turning a double-digit EBITDA loss (% of sales) towards profit within 8 months), or we build new profitable businesses in record time (in another case we defined, refined, and scaled a new business from nothing to an eight figure revenue stream within about 18 months). Our clients give us autonomy, we give them innovation and new business. Give autonomy. Get innovation.

If its brilliant author were to tone down his obsession with statistically proving the obvious, and replace it with more examples illustrating the effectiveness of his clear idea, he might share an example like the "girl meets boy" video I found below. In fairness, Mr. Hall set out to jump start our brain, and you'll find he accomplishes that mission.

If you ever worked with me and allowed me to help conceive, build and grow new profitable revenue streams for you, chances are you heard me describe effective marketing as analogous to happy dating. Both require self awareness and ability to articulate your DNA (what are my values - or in business what's my unique value proposition), they require authenticity (don't ever deliver a fake "pick-up line" - or in business don't just imitate your competitor), and they require target marketing and the confidence to be different (in dating as in business, a bit of uniqueness and standing out go a long ways to being well remembered and respected).      

This short "girl meets boy" video illustrates both - the book's three key points about how to attract customers and its similarity to happy dating. 

Ana Chia from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

• OVERT BENEFIT: More than features, you have to communicate "what's in it for me" (WIIFM), and you have to communicate those benefits overtly and obviously. -- In the above video, the girl attracts the boy's interest by letting him know she shares his interest in Tonka trucks - if that isn't a benefit to a little boy (target market), what is?
• REAL REASON TO BELIEVE: In a world cluttered with messages both true and false, we have to present an overt benefit backed up with real reasons to believe. -- Here, girl convinces boy that she is really interested in his Tonka trucks, and proves it by providing a garage for his toys. 
• DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE: Alas, providing an overt benefit with real reason to believe is not enough, you also need to be unique and different. -- After you clicked on the short video, you can't tell me she's an average girl. Nope, she's different, she overtly communicates with the boy, and guess what, she gets the boy. 

At the end of the day, in business as in life... know who you are and what you love to do, become better at that than anybody, be yourself and enjoy life (and never stop dating - your spouse, or if single that person you have been curious about). In business never stop refining your unique value proposition and never stop attracting new potential customers. 

But they're nothing compared to the story I witnessed over the past two years, culminating in victory last Saturday. 

My 11-year-old daughter was bullied in 2009, unprotected by her (now former) teachers. My then 9-year-old reacted admirably, better than some business people I know: she toughened her mind and body, readied herself with Martial Arts skills almost daily, and faced her bully - in a Tae Kwon Do sparring tournament that rewards fierce and measured strikes that require crucial body part protection. 

She (red helmet, left) did not win the contest against the 3" taller bully. That doesn't matter. She faced her fear, survived, and moved on to win against her nemesis in other categories. She was liberated. Exhilarated. Absolutely on top of the world, for she faced her fear, and she overcame. She spoke of a broken cage when I tucked her in that evening. 

When was the last time you faced your enemy, your big competitor or most debilitating weakness - preparing, practicing, strategizing, and squarely facing him or it, ready to be counted and measured? 

We learn most when we face our weakness, look in the mirror and say: 

"Of all the people that have given me trouble over the years, I had the most trouble with myself."

 Whenever I have done just that, I learned and grew and became stronger. Built a bigger relationship, developed a better business. 

Facing Goliath is tough - whether a fierce competitor or personal weakness. Facing adversity and overcoming fear makes life worthwhile. And it makes your business more valuable. 

You'll feel on top of the world. As my daughter (sitting, right) did last Saturday, an hour after the sparring match with her former bully. 

The book's introduction makes a bold statement about the future: Leaders with traditional business school skills and traits are now a dime a dozen. There is a new sheriff in town and he/she is in high demand. The author says that the future belongs to those with a rightside mindset—creators, artists, empathizers, pattern recognizers and “meaning makers” (I take that statement a step further and say the future belongs to those with a blended rightside and leftside mindset, those who can build an engine and fuel people's passions for success). We are moving from the logical, linear, computer­based Information Age to a “Conceptual Age” in our economy and society, one where creativity, innovation, empathy and big­ picture thinking will be rewarded and recognized.

He offers two reasons for this major shift in business thinking: 

1) Jobs the MBA used to do are now being done overseas through outsourcing and 

2) Business leaders have recognized that the biggest competitive differentiator they can have for their products is to be “physically beautiful and emotionally compelling”.

The author does a quick analysis of left­brain (L ­directed) versus right­brain (R­ directed) thinking. He believes we need to maintain our L­ directed skills, but master six essential R ­directed aptitudes, or “Six Senses”: 

• Design - good design is essential to good products 
• Story - described as “context enriched by emotion”
• Symphony - “... is largely about relationships”
• Empathy - being more successful being able to enter someone else’s “shoes”
• Play - the Conceptual Age will allow us to combine both work and play
• Meaning - as a society, we are on a high energy search for meaning

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has tapped into a trend that is still simmering beneath the surface. It may start as simply as valuing creative types, but it will end as a seismic shift. 

In ancient times, we valued the artisan and craftsman as evidenced by the legacy of incredible works of art and architecture. The industrial and information ages later stimulated us to explore the left sides of our brains to such an extent that we developed computers to take our logical thinking to unimaginable heights. It’s only fitting that the pendulum would swing back to the right side of the brain when we once again realize the value of creativity and innovation. 

Our true breakthrough will come when we combine R­ directed and L ­directed thinking in equal parts - when we build an engine and fuel a passion for success.

People who think differently often inspire. I don't have to become Gandhi or Einstein or Jobs or Branson, but I must do what I believe in, for businesses I believe in and people that matter. I challenge myself and my clients to create and harvest more demand more profitably, with a unique formula of best practices assembled from the experience working with some of the most successful consumer brands in the U.S.

This never-before-aired 1997 commercial for Apple's Think different. campaign inspires. We succeed when we think differently and when we care to define our purpose.  Check out the video below or click here.

Yes I contributed to Pottery Barn—moving it from $70 million to $175 million in 4 years (and now over 10x bigger). Yes I contributed to putting stars and stripes on IKEA's blue and yellow, and yes I recently launched a new business inside an established PE-owned top supplier that will reach another impressive milestone in its 2nd year... the volume is confidential, but I can say it's far above budget and we're adding man and woman power to fuel its growth. (re)ALIGN creates everyday multi-million dollar successes—but none are yet $700 million big. So until then, here's a brief article about a simple start-up that impressed me and I bet the entrepreneur in you will learn a thing or be inspired.    

His business tips:

No. 1:  Keep your product simple.  Know what you do and do it better than anybody.

No. 2:  Invest in your core.  For him it was capacity, taking a yogurt plant from a capacity of 50,000 cases to 1.4 million.  Invest in the backbone of what you do and treat it that way.

No. 3:  When you go to market, know that you can fool almost nobody anymore.  There is too much information available to anybody who wants it.  Be real.  People can tell—or easily find out—when you’re not.

No. 4:  Focus on profit.  I run my business like a mom and pop store.  Cash is everything.  Without it you can’t increase production and it’s hard to be innovative.

No. 5:  Lead by example.  If you make yogurt, go to the plant.  Work with your people; if you want people to work on Sunday, be there next to them.

Washington, D.C. may well be the poster child of misleading sound bites that attract wrong questions and dysfunctional chaos - but a closer look at our own lives, our own company or employer will likely uncover helpful examples how rash (or no) analysis, and the ensuing rush toward quick yes/no, for/against decisions can move us down the wrong track. 

Earlier thoughts about "Creativity vs. Innovation" (6/18/11 blog below), and "Winning Hearts and Minds" (building an engine AND fueling a passion for success - 4/23/11 blog below), addressed seemingly binary choices, which suggested either a wrong question in the former, or one better answered with "yes and" instead of "either or" in the latter. 

I don't know Dr. Miron, but found his perspective worth sharing. He got me thinking about the importance of having your answers questioned, and asking unconventional "what if"questions.

• Is being pro-business and pro-capitalism the same? 
• Does capitalism generate an unfair distribution of income? 
• Was capitalism responsible for the most recent financial crisis? 

Miron answers these questions by exposing what he calls three common myths of capitalism.

Our work is about igniting the imagination and executing processes our markets reward. Connecting people and ideas with integrity. Some would call that innovation ("the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods"), or simply being open-minded, balancing the tried and true with the relentless pursuit of new and demonstrably magic combinations.

As a consumer business innovator and lifelong student of innovation we all learn from legendary consumer business success stories. Some I have watched from the outside, like Apple, Starbucks, Zappos, or Procter & Gamble (check out A.G. Laffley's article on P&G's Innovation Culture, with insights how to apply A.G.'s phenomenal innovation lessons to mid-sized businesses). 

Others, like IKEA or Pottery Barn or The Home Decor Companies I know intimately through being part of the team and contributing for many years, providing a firm foundation and first-hand innovation know-how that helps me combine what works - the tried and true - with the new. I build new businesses, ignite and sharpen existing ones to better compete. It's a matter of open minds (in equal parts mine and my clients') and balancing what might with what does work for my clients in the USA and Asia.

Just as TR eloquently advocated bringing your convictions to life, so Steve Jobs turned his quest to innovate and his determination to "build bicycles for the mind" into one of the globe's most valuable companies... and along the way, I grasped a simple truth: some excel at the mechanics, others understand how people behave and feel - but if you want to succeed in consumer business, you have to master both.

It's a quick and recommended read about declaring war on yourself, committing yourself to replace rudderless leadership, to avoid the lust-to-lax syndrome, to face incompetence, and to embrace unconventional thinking. Declare war on anything that results in a less than "thrilling" experience for your customer. You'll find his visual image for "thrilling" customers clever and memorable.

Mark makes sharp and insightful observations with illustrative real world examples about ways to Capture customers, to Amplify your relationship with them, and to Maintain them for life (a foundational concept he formularized into C+A+M=PG, as in perpetual growth, before concluding that a formula is not quite as memorable as a phrase like 'your company sucks').

I saw much of my own business philosophy reflected in his pages. Maybe more provocative than I ever was, and less politically correct than I strive to be. Call it potAEtoes, potAAtoes, C+A+M is akin to my commitment to create and harvest more demand more profitably, a commitment I'm happy to report is being etched into a growing list of clients' P&L's and Balance Sheets. Together with strategic partners (re)ALIGN continues to build new businesses and sharpen existing ones to better compete in the U.S. and Asia.  

I'm a big fan of IKEA, because I learned in five years as marketing manager there the power of questioning conventional wisdom, of breakthrough innovation and of differentiating your business. Democratic/affordable design, unconventional/innovative management, disciplined branding (based on a 9-word commitment: "To Provide a Better Everyday Life for the Many") made IKEA the world's largest furniture retailer. 

Innovation drove the making and selling of millions of side tables for $7.99, with profit (and the help of lots of up-sell products totaling over $30 billion in sales). The below TED talk encourages similar thinking.  "Ghandian Engineering: Get more, for less, for more... "

Innovation is not limited to technology, iPads or GPS and such. Like IKEA furniture, there are countless examples of highly innovative products, services, and consumer business models, some of them my best clients. Take cars, not as revolutionary in innovation as computers in the last few decades, still: innovation cut costs by almost 90% since Ford's (by 1909 standards extremely innovative) Model T retailed for $19,000 (in today's dollars). The 1951 VW Bug was $11,000 (in today's dollars), and today's Nano (a new car Made in India) is $2,000.  Get more, for less, for more people.

You can indeed achieve what has never been achieved, by using methods that have never been used before (or using proven methods in never used combinations). 

How many organizations do you know that do GREAT stuff, but people don't know? Maybe they don't articulate "it" (their promise, that great stuff, whatever) succinctly, so a less-than-well-articulated vision isn't compelling and slows acceptance from the people that matter: customers and employees. 

The amazing golf courses and pro shops of Hamilton County Parks (around Cincinnati, OH) deliver "it" alright. But I felt the public (and certainly local golfers) would benefit if they articulated the vision more succinctly so they could deliver it more effectively. We devoted just a few hours into articulating it together.

Now the team is laser focused on "Offering Neighborhood Golf Enthusiasts a Memorable Experience", launching training programs, energizing with competitions, and building excitement with promotions that celebrate the essence of the parks and its neighborhood pro shops. Financial metrics offer the proverbial proof in the pudding on the well articulated vision.

Last week Channel 5 aired a short segment about the Park. A heart warming story, around the very idea that exemplifies the vision, the idea we articulated so the team can deliver it even better. Click here for a quick TV video and then you tell me the Park doesn't "Offer Neighborhood Golf Enthusiasts a Memorable Experience"!

Articulate it and deliver it: programs around the "Golf Enthusiast" theme increased the pro shops' market share despite a rainy spring. Conversations around the idea that (re)ALIGN builds new businesses and sharpens existing ones to better compete, opened many new opportunities: my clients and I are having a great year. No coincidence, I'm sure. 

Yogi Berra said "if you don't know where you're going, you might wind up someplace else." I'm no Yogi, and I say articulate it and deliver it.

Motor City. Birthplace of the Model T, the assembly line that made products cheap and workers middle class. If 19th century industrialization boasted textile mills as icons, the 20th century story of American manufacturing supremacy could point to "best-in-class" companies like GM. Or at least right up to the moment that taxpayers stepped in and saved their sorry butts in 2009. 

What happened? Maybe arrogance killed curiosity, maybe bloated bureaucracy displaced entrepreneurial hunger. Maybe decision makers were internally focused and blind to external trends, ignoring their customers' and workers' needs and wants around the world. 

Or maybe the story of the U.S. auto industry is simply one of companies (unions included) that didn't align their organizations around what matters. They didn't align both worlds - analysis and creativity, manufacturing might and marketing genius through good old leadership. Crisis might open eyes to make this happen again. Not just in the auto industry, but across America, entrepreneurs and corporate managers might align both worlds again. 

In consumer businesses, you have to align the head and the heart. You have to build an engine for profitable growth, and inspire and fuel a passion for success. 

Here's some helpful content on building an online community and going social...

1) What is your business' current level of participation on the internet?

For example, do you have an internet website that includes not just directory or brochure-type information, but that also has e-tailing capabilities so that customers can buy products or services online (maybe not all products, but a carefully edited selection of items)?

If not, your first task before venturing into social media is to raise the bar on your existing web presence.  You need to set up shop in cyber-space, creating a virtual store front where internet-empowered shoppers can visit, select items and make purchases.

Brochure-only informational websites won't cut it in a social media world, so you should talk to your ecommerce provider about expanding the purchase capabilities on your site.

2) Do you have an email list of contacts and customers that you regularly update and use to mail out notices, newsletters, or press releases?

If you answer "No" then this is another critical need you must address before launching a social media initiative.  Social media is all about making personal connections, i.e. making friends online.  That means you need to start with a bunch of friends that already live in cyber-space and that you can meet in the online world.

You will need to start building and expanding your online list, by asking people who visit your shop to share their email address.  You will also need to activate those on your list by inviting them via email and regular communication to share their time and attention with you.

3) Do you have something important to say to people in cyber-space?

Answering in the affirmative to this final question is ultimately the essential thing you need to launch your efforts in social media.  The previous two show only that you have command of the tools, but this requires content:  information that people will be interested in and will want to share with other like-minded people.

While in cable television it appears that the person who shouts loudest and longest gets the attention, that same dynamic doesn't operate online.  People have to tune into your special message, they have to search you out and want to share your news and views with others.  So it is content that will grab their attention, not slick packaging, fancy programming or colorful graphics.

Social media requires that you provide meaningful and important content that other people are interested in.  You need to commit to developing such content and sharing it regularly and frequently in order to build a connection with friends online.

Written by Pamela N. Danziger    http://unitymarketingonline.com/wordpress

The goal is likely not perfect balance. Rather, the goal is to become aware when we're off balance, and to strive for balance. 

In my work I build new businesses, and sharpen existing ones to better compete. Here, I constantly work to balance analysis with creativity, arts with science, top line with bottom line, long term with short term, perfecting the mechanics with due consideration for how people behave in order to help my clients create and harvest greater demand and profitability.

In my private life I enjoy time with my wife and daughters, a reward for work well done. Here, we balance body and soul, comfort and safety, relaxation and striving ambitiously. 

These two photos from my wife's BlackBerry the other day inspired thoughts on balance: at left, my daughter daydreaming in the morning (maybe preparing for her test, after countless hours of tough physical and mental practice), and at right, being awarded the green belt at Tae Kwan Do that same afternoon. 

A day well balanced. Now if my six-year-old daughter can do it... 

A recent s+b article (click here) shared insightful research and concluded that supporters of the status quo, not the creative types, are seen as more effective leaders. Mention creative types, and our mind wanders to people maybe brilliant or arrogant and often not quite predictable. Mention leaders, and a very different image appears: pictures of square jawed demigods and business visionaries come to mind. The s+b article concludes that "because of conflicting stereotypes about creativity and leadership, stakeholders prefer the prototype of a leader they see as fostering a stable and secure environment. However, creative people who are also charismatic stand a better chance of advancing." I smiled at the last sentence... suggesting as it did that creative types can redeem themselves through charisma...

... or success, I say. Boy, catch one of those creative types with a million dollar idea, or a billion dollar company, and miraculously they're no longer called creative types. Now they're innovators. In fairness, the upgrade to innovator usually requires both creative talent and operational discipline, the ability to build an engine for profitable growth and fuel a passion for success (and compensate for potential weakness in one or the other)... but certainly creative types need more than charisma to become effective leaders. 

So largely the difference between a creative type and innovator, and ultimately an effective leader, is economic success. I wonder how many creative types we discourage with our cultural (okay, human) bias towards the status quo and against change and innovation.  

Steve Jobs was a creative type techie in the 1970's. He persevered to reinvent entire industries with his creative, innovative genius and ability to get thousands of employees and millions of customers to follow him, and now we call him an innovator. 

By nurturing creative types and developing their leadership toolbox, could we foster innovation and profitable sales growth in our businesses and the economy as a whole? 

After fixing the back of the house, the chief merchant/GM got out to look at other great stores and came back... energized, creative, jazzed... and then... she hung Chinese lanterns... crafted color paper flowers... arranged them in simple clay pots... planned events and...

... most of all, she is spreading her spirit and sharing fun and customers walk by the windows and walk into the store... and listen to the music... and find those new pants.... or that cool hat... and they just 'gotta have this summer outfit'. 

Strategically speaking, she is building the engine for profitable growth AND fueling a passion for her customers and her products. Looking at these pictures and knowing how she's making it happen, she is creative and passionate and she's got energy. Of course you need a strategy - but you gotta have energy in this business. 

I am passionate about creating the brand experience, so I often think about Great Brands. Commercial ones, for sure - brands I learned to understand intimately and helped build, like IKEA and Pottery Barn; brands I experience as a consumer, like Starbucks and Apple; brands I toil to create and deliver, like (re)ALIGN; and then there is a brand from which I graduated... 

...25 years later and I feel as strongly about Cornell today as ever. I would venture to guess 99% of graduates feel this loyalty. I remember this brand, I remember my audacity to apply (living alone as a 19-year-old sales rep in a new country), my gratitude to those who helped me pursue it, and I am thankful for having been exposed to big thinkers on campus, and learning they put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us. 

Here, a recent graduate made this 4 minute video about "This is....Cornell." Any of us - entrepreneurs, customer service gurus, merchants and marketers, CEO's, sales people, and company owners would be proud to have a customer (or a student in this case) document their experience with our brand this way. Enjoy! 

After viewing this video, we ask ourselves: what story would our clients tell to describe the experience with our brand? What would that video look like?

This Is from Alex Silver on Vimeo.

We have more opportunity, transparency, more products and channels, also more messages, distraction and competition than ever.

Following last week’s blog about differentiating the needle in a haystack, I asked a Chinese exhibitor yesterday if she considered the tradeshow a success. She reported “fewer write orders at the show than in the past. Buyers check competitors online before emailing to place an order.” Because there are more options, we have to fight more noise. My challenge will be to build a marketing and distribution strategy for the U.S. market for this vendor, based on rational competitive advantages and emotional connectors that can effectively reach and connect with the right buyers  to profitably double her revenue.

Because there is “more” of everything today (in a commercial sense) than ever, it is crucial to focus on the "vital few” and make them count – "vital few" words to describe our unique value proposition, "vital few" objectives to execute profitable sales growth, vital and vivid, inspiring and thought provoking, engaging and connecting interactions with customers and business partners.

You have limited resources (time, money, actions, words, objectives), so choose the "vital few" wisely.

The concentrated mass is a powerful reminder: if you can’t differentiate yourself from your competitor, your customer is as likely to find you as she is a needle in a haystack.

I sat down in a corner of one of many huge exhibition halls, and talked for an hour with one of the sellers. We talked about their product, retail markets, how to connect with its most desirable slice, and the fact there are no silver bullets, no pre-packaged answers, except the hard work of studying the market, innovating product, analyzing sales and customers, and fine-tuning value proposition and execution.

That hard work of driving profitable growth requires many tools, the kind of tools needed to create demand, align for profit, and harvest demand. I found three basic questions to be a good starting point and useful guideposts in this quest:

• What am I (or is my company) really good at – capabilities or skills?
• What do I (or does my team) love to do – passions or guiding principles?
• What is the need or want – market demand?

Henry Ford famously said the secret to a successful business is to simply “find a need, and fill it” (last and first bullet point); I would add that without passion and guiding principles, we risk addressing a need we're capable of filling, but lack the conviction to fill better than anyone. Without passionate execution we and our employees risk becoming flags in the wind instead of market leaders.

In competitive markets, it’s essential to differentiate yourself so customers find you and come running to you. These three questions help me define and build (re)ALIGN, guide me to build and sharpen my clients' businesses (and my repeat business), and helped you find me in a haystack.

You are reading this blog, aren't you? Now how can you attract more of the right customers?

It takes both rational and emotional connectors to move us ('us' the human species) from talking to doing. As a supplier to your client, or boss to your team, you can't be fully effective unless you consider both.  When working with retailers and suppliers, I build engines for profitable growth, and fuel a passion for success – I align and win “hearts and minds”. Think about winning hearts as sincerely as you do checking facts and winning minds, lest you appeal to emotions insincerely and allow a lie to destroy your reputation and your business.

A year ago I conducted extensive retail research across the U.S. and factory research up and down the east coast of China. I delivered a presentation of the “riddle solved” – a rational business model with all six sides of the rubix cube (product function/style, price/margin, consumer needs/wants, retailer demands, factory capabilities, and logistics parameters) magically aligned. The client was impressed. A significant business was born. Action points were clearly and logically expressed. Then action stalled.

Until we focused on fueling a passion for success. Just when we aligned internal cultural needs with the business model, and overcame fears and made people feel confident about next steps, the new business became reality at warp speed. Now, the rational business model found its way into the human nature and hearts of team members, and buy-in ignited the business for take-off. Now, a staggering amount of containers are flowing through retail stores into consumers’ homes.

Next time you focus on “just the facts”, remember that business is all about aligning both worlds (the head and heart, the analytical and creative). Some excel at the mechanics, others understand how people behave and feel – to succeed in consumer business surround yourself with people who master both.

A close colleague of mine has little patience, and shorter conversations, with more people and with more success than most. He's a freakin' machine, good natured, smart, and a machine. I now know to jot down points to discuss before reaching out to him, then we connect, decide, and move on. We do this repeatedly and make lots of good decisions, with phenomenal results. The fact we work in different states seems to help our communication be that much more efficient and effective.

Recently we needed to agree on direction for the next six months, in interdependent areas like marketing, sourcing, sales, operations, etc. Not topics that lend themselves to simple yes/no answers. More like topics that managers conduct two-day offsite meetings to resolve. Focused on the need for brevity, I wrote a one (1) page document (truly a “brief”), and sent it to him a day before I asked to talk to him. It contained four (4) topics:

    • Successes – top 3
    • Challenges – top 3
    • Last 6 months – issues we addressed
    • Next 6 months – issues to be addressed

The outcome was powerful – right away we agreed even on contentious and touchy issues, and our discussion focused on how we could best address them and succeed. 28 minutes later, we were ready to move on. Ready for the business of marketing, sourcing, developing, buying and selling more in the exhilerating climb to build a new business.  

Keep it short and to the point.

Your business is at risk, unless you’re growing. If you don’t, your competitors will. The right profitable growth rate depends on many factors, but less than double digit growth could create risk. Many say you should grow 20 to 30% per year. That’s often tough to come by with organic growth alone. So Build a New Business.

Recently, a highly successful distributor asked me to build a new business. They are # 1 due to sourcing, product, and distribution excellence, and still growing organically. They are open to acquisitions. Yet, building a new business in new channels and categories offered more diversification than organic growth alone; guaranteed a better strategic fit than acquisition; and allowed scaling the investment (mostly inventory, market research, sourcing, and development costs) during the start-up in a way you can’t scale most acquisition investments.

In addition to sharpening and growing your existing business, building a new business in related channels and categories raises enterprise value. 

Today, this highly successful distributor is even more successful. A start-up entrepreneur focused on building new profitable revenue streams; leveraged infrastructure of the core business (without distracting it); allowed management to focus on profitable growth of its core business; planned, adapted and executed the new business with a sure hand, small resources, and no preconceived notions.

As the start-up entrepreneur for this successful distributor, I am able to develop the power of this third option to organic growth and acquisition – building a new business with (re)ALIGN offers low risk and high ROI for prime retailers and top suppliers.

Last Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City, we visited a large manufacturing conglomerate. A 26-year-old, low-key “Assistant Marketing Manager” greeted us. He seemed friendly and engaging, if a bit measured. He exuded confidence above his age, very comfortable making decisions. He calmly stated his products’ strengths, as well as a couple weaknesses. He understood the business foundation. Toward the end of the meeting, I learned he was the owner’s son, who proabably learned the business over countless dinner table conversations.

This young man was not “caught between greed and fear”. He knew there are safe decisions that are dangerous, and aggressive moves that can save the day. He understood his business’ purpose and value proposition, and therefore could execute accordingly. I'm willing to bet good money that his decisions will grow a large business even bigger and more profitable.