Strengthening the Bench

I am truly inspired by those Chicago Blackhawks. Although I would have loved to see the Leafs followed by the Habs in the Stanley Cup, I am happy that one of the original six has made the cut. It will of course be truly special if this team can erase its Cup drought and put the light once again on our Leafs to have a miracle 2010/2011 season!

One of the inspiring things about the Hawks is their Bench Strength. So far in the first two games, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines have been carrying the day. The Hawks top two scorers Kane and Toews remain off the goal sheet. Given that the team who is up 2 games to none has a historical 94% chance of winning the whole thing, the Bench has clearly done its job!

For early stage companies it is often a challenge of having just enough players on the ice to cover each position -let alone having enough talent on the Bench to substitute in. For established companies, the problem is one of building from the pool of talent that you already have and boosting your strength from within.

The Annual Performance Review process provides an excellent opportunity the Supervisor to sit down with their employees and have a "Development" conversation. This discussion should follow the review of the past performance and capitalize on the things that worked well and things that needed some improvement.

I am of course a big fan of starting with the End Goal in mind - specifically: "What are my career goals and aspirations? Where would I envision myself working and at what level 5 years from now? Are my goals realistic and possible within this time frame?"

Once the end game is established, an assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses needs to be completed. A great exercise is to have both the supervisor and the employee work independently on these lists and compare notes in a joint session. Many employees find that they are tougher on themselves when they do the self assessment. Tools such as 360 degree evaluation provide a very comprehensive approach to capture all of the components from several stakeholders.

Often to get to the next level, additional Leadership Competencies or Technical Skills need to be identified and developed to achieve the desired results. The creation of a personal Development Plan is the next step in the process. The Supervisor and Employee will need to work on this program together addressing the individual and departmental needs, time and budget. Components of the Plan could include formal training programs, on-the-job cross training, participation in special assignments, coaching services, volunteer work and gaining access to webinars on industry topics.

In a week I think that we will look back on the Stanley Cup finals and do a complete analysis of the outcome. In this review I know that we will find that Bench Strength made all of the difference.

Are you doing all you can to Win your Cup?

Targeting the Real Decision Maker

We read a lot about the selling process and how to target the real person who makes the final Purchasing decision. The problem, is that the approach may in fact be all wrong. Instead of concentrating on a Person we should in fact be focusing on a Thing - specifically the Brain.


I recently had the pleasure of attending a quarterly meeting of the CEO Global Network - an organization that provides peer to peer mentoring for CEO's. The guest speaker was a co-author of a book called Neuromarketing (Morin & Renvoise). Christophe Morin indicated that at least 80% of business self-help books purchased or given out at conferences remain unopened and on the shelf. After a couple hours with the Author I was truly convinced that this book would not be destined for the unopened faith. Let me provide some of Highlights to hook your interest and demonstrate how you will need to change your Sales Approach to increase the probability of success.


The Human Brain is composed of three distinct components which evolve as we grow. The First or Reptilian Brain is present at birth and ultimately becomes the trigger in our Decision making process. The Middle part of our Brain develops and processes our Emotions, while the Outer part develops our ability to Think. Research has shown that Reptilian Brain will make the final decision by considering emotional and rational input from the other two components.


Morin and Renvoise's research suggest that the Brain reacts to 6 key stimuli. By Mastering and Re engineering your selling proposal you clearly will increase your probability of success. These stimuli include:

1. It's All About "Me" - The Brain is motivated by anything that pertains to itself. Presentations that spend too much time talking about your company and its products without focusing on what it will mean for prospect will be wasted effort.


2. Clear Comparison - The Brain is sensitive to comparisons that provide clear differentiation. By making a product claim that is a sharp contrast to the competitive product you have speed up the decision making process of the Brain.


3. Concrete - The Brain will be stimulated by having the facts presented in a clear manner. The more thinking that has to go into the process, the slower the decision that ultimately gets made.


4. Strong Open / Powerful Middle /Strong Close - The Brain is a very efficient machine with an embedded energy management system. It will look for ways of conserving energy by forgetting about details in the middle. In sales mode the MRI studies suggest that you need to have a Strong Opening, a simple but Powerful Middle and a Strong Close. Recognizing the Brain's energy management system you will only have 10 Minutes for the complete process and your Middle section should be constrained to Three key messages.


5. Stunning Visuals - The Reptilian Brain is directly connected to the optic nerve. This means that of all your senses, sight has the most immediate and lasting impact on a decision making process. We have written in previous blogs about the importance of this item and how it relates to crisp and uncluttered PowerPoint charts.


6. Hook me Emotionally - The Brain recognizes over 16,ooo emotions which lead to chemical stimulations. It's no surprise that the most memorable commercials are those that somehow play to our emotions including Joy, Laughter, Sadness, Fear and Anger.

When we wrote about Messaging for Success the concepts were esssentially the same. The neat part here is that we can tie the Science of the Brain to understand why it works the way it does. Back to that ugly statistic on Business books on the shelf - I can assure you that this is one of my books that is already Highlighted, Dog Eared and in Active Use.

Entrepreneural Gold Medals

I had the pleasure of being at the 2010 Olympics for the Gold Medal action of the final week. We witnessed first hand the power of our Hockey, Curling, Freestyle Skiing and Sliding teams in serious competitive action. What a complete and fulfilling experience. This is something that needs to be added to any "Bucket List".

As the Entrepreneur's Entrepreneur, I am always thinking about how we can "Accelerate the Path to Commercialization" for Ontario's technology companies. As I watched the teams progress, I wondered about the profiles and journey of our medalists. Are there any key learning from their profile that could be applied to help support our early stage Companies?

With the support Shantanu our co-op student at the RIC Centre (www.riccentre.com), we pulled the profiles of our Gold Medal winners and started to do some analysis.

Shantanu researched the early Gold Medalists including:
Maelle Ricker (Snowboard Cross) - a story about attending her first Olympics in Nagano in 1998, missing the Salt Lake games due to injury, having 8 knee surgery, placing 4th in Turin and subsequently finishing up the year on the top of World Cup standings just prior to Vancouver.
Christine Nesbitt (Speed Skating) - placing a disappointing 14th at Turin in her winter Olympics debut Christine vowed to remember what "losing was all about". She turned up her training and unlike many Athletes decided not to "save" herself for the Olympics - "fighting" and pushing her "mental toughness" to a new level.
Jon Montgomery (Skeleton) - a flamboyant competitor who was a crowd favourite in Whistler Village as he auctioned off a half pitcher of "golden beer". Jon was quoted as saying: "I'd give my right eye to be able to represent Canada at something. I don't really care what it is — tiddlywinks, volleyball. As long as it's something."
Alexandre Bilodeau (Moguls) - calls his older brother -Frederic his inspiration. Alexandre burst onto the World Cup scene as a wide-eyed 18-year-old, capturing FIS rookie-of-the-year honours in 2005-06. He felt "stung" by an 11th-place finish at the Torino Olympics in 2006.

Shantanu also analysed the backgrounds of the early Silver medalists including Kristina Groves (Speed Skating), Marianne St-Gelais (Speed Skating), Mike Robertson (Snowboard Cross) and Jennifer Heil (Moguls). By the middle of the week the pattern was pretty clear and the Canadian Medals were starting to show up on the podium with significant regularity. Curling and Hockey were also just around the corner!

The patterns that emerged were very powerful and have a significant parallel for our early stage Entrepreneurs. They include:

1. Determination to Win from an early age. Many say that Entrepreneurs are born with their desire to Build, Create and Innovate.
2. Love for their sport. Without Passion in your idea, venture or team you will not succeed.
3. Inspiration from Coaches and Family. Family and Friends, Boards of Advisers and Board of Directors are important tools in accelerating venture success.
4. Disappointments at earlier events and a thirst to prove themselves in Canada. A Key trait of any Entrepreneur is their resolve to achieve in spite of the odds.

Congratulations to all of our Athletics at this year's Vancouver Olympics. I know that you will be an inspiration to many of our Ontario based companies who are driving toward the Commercialization Finish Line.

Mentors - Filling in the Experience Gaps

Fresh out of school I started my career at one of the icons of Canadian business - Bell Canada. Included in the icon group were other national brands such as IBM, Xerox, Petro Canada and Imperial Oil. At the time the world was still thinking about starting and finishing your working life with the same company. These organizations were legendary for Leadership Training, Skills Development and Coaching programs that included "a new job every 6 months".


On my first day on the job, I was given a team of 12 individuals who I had to coach, motivate and manage. To support my efforts, I was sent to leadership training courses every 6 months to fill in the gaps. In hindsight, I now realize how fortunate I was to be part of a New Graduate Training program - my education and practical on the job training has been part of my fabric ever since.


In today's world a lot has changed. Clearly, the concept of "employment for life" has a new time horizon and companies are spending less on their graduate programs. Company training and education services have also been severely cut back. Gone are the days where companies would hire you for your ability to learn and proceed to train you to fill in the gaps. Recruitment today is looking for the individuals who can do the job with their existing tool sets and hit the ground running.


Working with our new breed of Entrepreneurs has a different twist. A full 50% of entrepreneurs fall between the ages of 19 and 30. How and where do these individuals get their training and skills development in today's environment?


In a recent study conducted by OI Partners (www.oipartners.net) a number of key items were identified that were consistently lead to the failure of newly minted leaders. Five of these factors include:

1. Leadership & Delegation - the ability to get results through others.



2. Motivation - the ability to rally the troops to higher levels.



3. Communication - the ability to provide clear and concise messages.



4. Personal Skills - the ability to relate on an interpersonal level.



5. Recognition - the wiliness to celebrate the successes no matter how small.

When you scan this list you conclude these factors can be "theoretically" studied, but the realty is that they have to be "experienced". So where do Entrepreneurs get the experience to fill the gap?

In a previous blog,we chatted about the importance of Advisory Boards and their impact on improving company success. These boards are helpful to gain traction in the marketplace - but today's young Entrepreneurs will need more. To supplement the experience & training gaps, a strong prescription of Mentorship from a seasoned "been there done it" Coach is clearly warranted.

Coaches will come in many forms and range from a "certified" professional, to a relative or simply a trusted friend. Often coaches are joined together in business forums, where the Entrepreneur can open up amongst a group of peers in a "risk free" environment. Regardless of the background or format, the coach will need to add value by identifying and filling critical experience gaps. Rounding out the theoretical with practical experience, will clearly enhance the probability of commercial success.

M&M's - Paramount for Success

M&M's are critical to a company's success and I don't mean the plain or peanut kind! Measurement & Management Dashboards are important tools for building sustainable success.

A couple of months agoTerry Matthews - a great Canadian icon was speaking at a MaRS event about his success model for start-up organizations. Having started over 80 successful organizations in the past 25 years, he has a record of credibility. Terry explained that one of the keys was to have each of his organizations' create a monthly report that measured a number of indicators in the Rear View mirror (We Accomplished this, We achieved that, We we unsuccessful with this.) and out of the Front Windshield (We plan on completing this, We are Scheduled to achieve that). These monthly Dashboard reports were prepared by the CEO as if the company were publicly traded on the TSX - a great standard of Governance.

For my clients at the RIC-Centre I am also encouraging the drafting of these telltale M&M Dashboards that cover the important facets of their start-up. The CFO and CEO need to ingrain that culture of measuring and taking management action in their early evolution as an organization. Measurements should cover the basics of financial reporting but also drill down a number of layers on key indicators such as Customer Acquisition, Product Development, Human Resourcing, Regulatory Approval, Channel Development etc. The clarity of the historic indicators and forward looking statements will do wonders for the focus and accomplishment of these early stage organizations.

Many of my Followers are also curious to hear about how the High Handicapper is making out. After a couple more lessons, hours on the practice tee, a loud shirt and 15 rounds later - there is considerable improvement. "Jimmy the Genius" continues to work his magic - the hard work however is clearly in my hands. Following my own entrepreneurial advice I have implemented my own M&M Dashboard process for my journey to a lower handicap.

On the top part of the card I write down the three things that Jimmy has me working on (grip, alignment, aim) for the current week. I also articulate what I hope to Accomplish - 2 less lost balls, gross stroke reduction of 6, 5 less putts for example. This sets the tone and provides a constant reminder of what I am trying to accomplish each time I make an entry onto the card.

In the middle section I create a series of drill down measurements that allow me to manage each part of my trek down the course. Off the tee I note if my ball went where I had intended it to go with a simple check mark. If if doesn't go where it should have, I add additional indicators - did it go Left (L), Right (R)or Duff (D)? For Left and Right I also note if it went Long (LO) or Short (S). For Lost balls I count the number and location -Woods (Wo), Water (Wa) or those nagging ones lost on the Fairway (F). (I decided not to measure Deep Woods or the number of Skips across the pond!) For Putts, I count the Total including the number less than 3 feet and greater than 20 feet. At the end of each hole in addition to my Gross Score I have some interesting statistics to help me M&M at the next tee.

By the way, don't ask me to keep your score as well as mine - There is no room on the card and my M&M Dashboard is all consuming to my focus and Paramount to my Success.

Is Success Spelt with a Large S or Small s?

In our quest to commercialize Ontario's newest Innovative companies, a number of us are struggling with how to measure their progress and the definition of Ultimate Success. Many of my colleagues are big proponents of "the only measure is total number of Jobs Created" others are suggesting that "Revenue, Customers Acquired or Dollars of Investment Attracted" are more applicable indicators of achieving that Home Run.

For my clients, I encourage them to "Think Huge" and try to define their Home Run around their Vision statement. This forces them to become big thinkers and set a Large S target cannot be easily achieved by fixing one thing or completing a couple sub-tasks.

Sharon, an intern at the RIC-Centre did a little research around the Blue Jays this year. She notes that the team has had 3790 At Bats achieving 1020 hits. Of these hits, there have been 649 singles, 240 doubles, 7 triples and 124 Home Runs. The Large S target of hitting that Home Run has only occurred 3% of the times At Bat. Given this low probability, I am sure that the players in the batter box are defining a series of Small s targets like getting to first, not striking out, advancing the runner, not swinging at the the silly sinker etc.

Early stage companies are encouraged to work out a series of Small s targets in all facets of their business. These include completing the necessary business planning, building that unique set of features and services, populating a winning team, securing the first Beta customer, locking in critical financing and driving toward that first quarter of profitability to name a few. Small s successes will be easier to demonstrate short term wins and be an inspirational lift to the Entrepreneural teams. The target of hitting the ball over the Green Monster will come in its own time.

For me Thinking Huge this summer is to drive my handicap under 20. (For many of you this would simply be a Base Hit! You have no idea how big this challenge is for my game.) Now that I have posted this blog, I can head out to the first tee and try to avoid driling it into the woods......

I will celebrate my Small s accomplishments on the patio of the 19th - anyone care to join me?