Break The Pattern

I attended a great event last week on using chess strategies in business.  It was presented by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, New York Chapter, and held at the famous Marshall Chess Club.

Speaking were chess buff and business guru Bob Rice as well as international chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley.  Ashley showed us various chess positions and laid out strategies to enhance those positions, and then Rice would give us real-life business examples of how a company successfully employed those strategies in business.

One such strategy is called “Break The Pattern”.  Typically, chess players and people act in a natural progression.  Let’s call it 1, 2 and 3.  However, what if, we instead broke that pattern and moved in a different pattern such as 2, 1 and 3?

To illustrate the point from a chess perspective, Ashley showed us a chess board where the white player’s natural move would be to move one’s Knight so that it would be able to capture the opponent’s Rook and, then, exchange Queens.  In Chess, a Rook is a much higher valued piece placing the advantage in these series of moves with white.

However, Ashley shows how one simple change (albeit unorthodox) places the white player in a dramatically superior position.  He explains that instead of moving the Knight to take the Rook, white should use his or her Queens to take the Rook.  Now most players would not make this move because a Queen”s value is much higher than a Rooks.  However, Ashley shows how by making this move first, white is able to take black’s Queens thereafter and avoid losing its Knight.  Instead of being equal, white has a Knight advantage, a vastly improved position.  You can watch this series of moves on my 888 Red Light Facebook page.

Rice then explained how Groupon used this same “break the pattern” strategy to created a $6 billion business in two years.  Prior to Groupon, companies for years tried to crack the group-buying market losing millions of dollars in the process.  He explained that the model of accumulating buyers and, then, trying to get a bulk deal just didn’t work.  Groupon broke the pattern by first securing the steeply discounted deals from the sellers on the condition of getting an agreed minimum of buyers and, then, looking to locate the buyers.  Buyers assist in meeting the minimum by blasting their social networks.  This one simple move allowed Groupon to succeed where its more conventional predecessors were not able to do so.

As you think about improving and innovating in your business, see if the “break the pattern” strategy makes sense.

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What “Best Workplace” Really Means

I have a few friends whose companies have won “best workplace” awards.  Most of these awards involve self-nomination and self-promotion.  Now I am sure the winners of these types of awards do indeed have great workplaces.  However, I recently had an experience which is a much better Litmus test of whether I am doing a good job in creating an “award-winning” work environment.

One of our most valued employees, Giselle, was offered a higher paying job with a national organization. She wasn’t looking for a new position but a cousin who worked there recommended her and she was pretty much offered the job without even an interview. When she approached us about the opportunity, we had mixed feelings. We valued her as employee and didn’t want to her to leave, but also were happy for her that she had a new opportunity which could improve her standard of living.

Hoping she would stay, we tried to make staying here as attractive as possible. Ultimately, she decided to leave and we wished her luck and have a farewell celebration.

After one day (yes, that’s right one day) she called us up. Not only did she miss her work “family” but she was bored. The new, higher paying job was not intellectually stimulating and the day moved for her in slow motion. I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to make that call. We encouraged her to give it a few more days. But, the very next day, she called again. She had made a mistake. She missed her co-workers and her responsibilities. She wanted back and really hoped we would re-hire her. The earnest emotion in her voice was palpable.

As you can imagine, this was an easy decision to make. Our work family missed her as much as she missed us. Even some clients were disappointed to hear about her departure.  So you can imagine how pleased I was to see her back at home just one week later.

I think she now has an even deeper sense of loyalty and commitment to our firm having experienced work life outside of 888 Red Light. When I hear about “best places or work” awards, I wonder how many of those places have employees who would return if it involved a pay cut and swallowing one’s pride. To me, that is what makes a great place to work!

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Up, Up And Away!

Earlier this year, I wrote a post entitled “Why I Didn’t Jump Off The Lighthouse“.  The premise of this piece was that I was too complacent and needed to challenge myself to take more risks.

Well this month we embarked on a major project to improve our company.  It’s something which I have thought about for months but only recently was I ready and willing to pull the trigger.  Specifically, we ditched our Microsoft Outlook and Exchange server in favor of a Google Enterprise cloud system.  In just a few days our email, calendar and contact were all moved into the clouds.  By the phrase “cloud computing”, I mean that these functions were all made web-enabled.

The Google Enterprise system looks like and works similar to Gmail so it is a pretty easy transition.  More importantly, it is totally free.  As I am learning, it is a powerful tool with many bells and whistles.

The benefits from the switch were immediate.  A large part of my firm’s infrastructure was made easily and directly available on any computer with a web connection.  No more need to GoToMyPC.com.  Google’s built-in spam filter also allowed me to cancel my anti-spam vendor.  Finally, we no longer need to pay for a third party to back-up our data.  These benefits represent a huge upgrade in convenience and a substantial monthly savings.

Further, I no longer need to create folders, sub-folders and file away emails.  Instead, I simply Archive any email worth savings, and use the “Search Mail” button if I need to find an email.  You can search anything such as a date, word, sender’s email, etc.  While Outlook has a search feature, it is way too slow to be routinely used.  Google Search works much better, similar to using the Google search engine but it’s limited to your archived emails.  I cannot over-emphasize the time-savings from this one feature.

But our flight upward was not without turbulence.  First, when my emails, contacts and calendar were migrated from Outlook to Google, I ran out of space.  Google only gives you 7,498 mega bytes and you must pay $50 per year per user for extra storage (25 mega bytes).   More importantly, when you use up your Google storage your ability to send or receive more emails is suspended.  For two days, many of my emails were rejected which, as you can imagine, caused me heart-burn.  Lesson:  Check out how much data your migrating prior to doing so.

Another issue involved my website.  We needed to change our server location as part of the transition and, as a result, emails from my website’s “contact us” form got lost.  People send me emails got an “un-deliverable” message.  Again more heart-burn.  I fault my vendor in part for not checking my “contact us” form when he “flipped the switch” opn our server location.  Lesson:  Test your “contact us” form when making this change.

Fortunately, these issues were resolved relatively quickly.  Overall, my whole office is very excited about the new functionality and has been embracing the change.  But we’re not done yet.  More upgrades are planned which I look forward to sharing with you.

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Therapy For Business Owners

One of my all-time favorite business books is Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. If you haven’t read it, run (don’t walk) to get and read it. It is the single best book on networking and business relationships.

Keith’s new book (and best seller) is called “Who’s Got Your Back” and takes the Never Eat Alone principles a step further discussing how they apply to a few key relationships in your life; the people who will be there to help you achieve your goals. I am proud to have been quoted in Who’s Got Your Back (p 242) discussing the value of the program run by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization called “forum”.  The Forum program allows entrepreneurs to have a group of peers to support them and help them. It has also been called business therapy for business owners.  Other say it is like having your own board of directors.

So why is forum one of EO’s highest rated programs?  Because it answers Ferrazzi’s question of “Who’s got your back?”.  Participants meet monthly discussing their challenges and sharing experiences.  Everything discussed during the forum meetings is treated with the utmost of confidence.  The primary rule is that no one may give advice as this would destroy the peer-to-peer nature of the group.  Instead, after hearing the issue, participants can ask insightful questions (as long as you are not giving advice in the form of a question) as well as well share relevant experiences that may help with the presenter’s issue.

It takes training and practice to refrain from giving advice as people naturally like to tell others what to do.  Without it, however, you avoid creating issues among participants.  For instance, if a member tells another what to do, and it doesn’t work out, then there can be “baggage” between those people. Further, when someone tells you what to do you, you destroy the peer-to-peer relationship.  This simple rule has allowed some forum groups to thrive sometimes remaining together for well over a decade.

It is lonely as a business owner.  Everyone looks to you for the answers.  But where do those at the top of the pyramid obtain answers?  Consider participating in a support group so that you have peers who can say “I got your back”.

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Are You Truly Committed?

Last month, I started blogging for the New York Enterprise Report.  The NYER is a New York publication devoted to small business owners, and my blog is called Business Learning Junkie and tackles any business topic which might help an entrepreneur.

Recently, I wrote the below post of which I am very proud.  I now share it with you.

With the New Year upon us, many of us have made resolutions to improve our lives and businesses. Most of us will make initial efforts to achieve them. But, as you all know, eventually most of us will continue to eat poorly and fail to sock away reserve cash.

So how do people who make resolutions actually KEEP them? The answer lies in commitment. Are you willing to make your daily run even in freezing, blustery weather? Are you willing to give up a costly dalliance like your morning Frappuccino?

The reason I write about resolutions and commitment is because of Kevin Daum. Kevin performed one of the bravest and most vulnerable acts of commitment that I have ever witnessed, and it provides an amazing business lesson about achieving goals.

You see Kevin is recovering from financial disaster in the wake of the recent real estate collapse. He plans to overcome his misfortune by releasing a sales and marketing book in April called Roar! Get Heard In The Sales And Marketing Jungle, and engaging in consulting and speaking.

But Kevin has a loftier goal. Kevin desires (no correct that) intends for Roar! to become a New York Times best seller.  He lives and breathes this goal. All of his efforts are focused on achieving it. If there was any doubt as to his commitment, Kevin has something to show you. It is on his chest and reminds him every morning of his goal.  Just ask Kevin to open his shirt and you’ll see the words “New York Times Best Seller” tattooed backwards in Old English. Backwards, of course, so he can read it when he looks in the mirror. 

To put this in perspective, less than 400 unknown business authors hit this accomplishment annually. Yet Kevin has permanently inscribed this goal for his book on his chest even before he has made one sale.

The brilliance of this act is that it makes him remarkable. To paraphrase Seth Godin, Kevin is a walking purple cow. Anyone who is hears the story remembers it and, more importantly, repeats it. It is a marketer’s dream which can only serve to help sell his marketing book.

The tattoo also leaves Kevin with no choice but to achieve his goal. He courageously and openly shares his commitment. It is one thing to have a goal. It’s another to post it on your body for all the world to see. Like Hernando Cortes when he burned his boats at Vera Cruz, Kevin is past the point-of-no-return. You think he’s committed? You think he’ll make the list?

I have no doubt that Kevin will achieve his goal and it all lies in his at-all-costs attitude. How many of us can say that we’ve made THAT kind of commitment to our goals? Give this some thought as you make your 2010 plans.

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Got Idea?

Idea Light Bulb

Earlier this year, I was asked to be a Featured Guest Advisor on Idea Blob. At this site, entrepreneurs with a business idea can post their concept and receive advice and feedback from others. Users of the the site can give advise and vote on the ideas with $10,000 being awarded every month to the idea which garners the most votes. The site is sponsorsed by Advanta Bank.

Ideablob.com Allows Entrepreneurs To Give And Get Feedback About Their Ideas

Recently, I was asked to be a full time Featured Guest Advisor and, under the ID “mjweiss” have been enjoyed contributing my 2 cents.

I really like the site as it provides a home for truly “early stage” entrepreneurs. It is often during this formative stage that ideas can be shaped, tweaked or enhanced and truly become successes. It is also the single best time to make sure your idea has merit. Through this vetting process, you can learn if you have thought through all the angles and make sure that your idea is worth pursuing. Some of the best business deals that I have made were the ones which I haven’t made.

Ideablob Founder Ami Kassar also is taking this concept on the road with Blob Live. Blob Live is basically an open-mic night for budding entrepreneurs.

Blob Live is an open-mic night for entrepreneurs

Participants get 90 seconds to pitch their idea and, then, are asked questions and given feedback by others in the room. Mr. Kassar has stated that no one’s idea has ever been stolen and explains that it is all on the honor system. A Time.com video shows Bloblive in action. Below is the official Blob Live promotional video.

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