may 2008

	Strength and Weakness	Ron Crossland
	Bluepoint Wins Innovation Award	IMPACT 2008
	Economic Slowdown: What Does It Mean for Your Business and Brand?	Ron Strauss

Strength and Weakness

By RON CROSSLAND

I moderated one of the concurrent sessions at the 31st annual HRPS conference this past April. My topic was Next Generation HR Leaders. I worked with an amazing group of young, energetic, knowledgeable HR professionals to craft the session – Chris Powell, Jennifer Meder, Stephanie McDonald, Deneen Johnson, Danielle Haskard, Maggie Curcio, and Simon King.

The overall theme of the conference was “Succeeding in a World Without Boundaries: A Whole New Mindset.” The stage was set by the first two keynote speakers – Adrian Wooldridge, the Washington Bureau Chief for The Economist and Marcus Buckingham of First Break All The Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths fame. Wooldridge painted a rather jittery, anxious picture that was focused on the current, uncertain world economy. Buckingham focused on his main theme of finding and focusing on your personal strengths as an answer to immediate and long-term personal and corporate success.

After these keynotes, the Next Generation committee had an invigorating lunch with Buckingham, his delightful father, and two of his cohorts. The conversation at lunch preceded by the keynotes caused me to consider whether uncertainty and difficult times should be met with strengths alone or as an opportunity to discover new strengths (including strengthening weaknesses).

When Republican John W. Gardner was appointed as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) by Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, he was taking charge of an agency in disarray – there had been five secretaries appointed over the previous fourteen years. Secretary Abraham Ribicoff who quit the office in 1962 said, “I feel sorry for the so-and-so who is going to take my place.” Gardner was one of those so-and-sos. His portrait was on the cover of Time Magazine on January 20, 1967. In the article, when asked what he thought about his situation, he replied that it was “a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” Gardner was 54 when appointed and knew his strengths. But Gardner’s general disposition was to face all new challenges as opportunities to discover new strengths, not just strengthen known abilities.

But I believe we can go farther with the idea of building on strengths. Learning occurs more rapidly when we apply ourselves to unfamiliar things. Substantial evidence suggests our ability to self-renew and grow stronger requires that we tackle new activities – explore and test ourselves against abilities and situations that cause us to feel like beginners. Which means that while our current strengths might be engaged, it is as likely, if not more so, that our lesser strengths get the harder workout.

For example, during our luncheon, Buckingham several times compared Giuliani and Obama in terms of public speaking. He suggested that for Giuliani to focus on his lesser strengths of public speaking as a means to furthering his ambitions would be less wise than focusing on his strengths. Let’s assume that Obama rates a “10” and Giuliani a “4” on the public speaker ten point scale. What if the right kind of experience or training could get Giuliani to a 6 or 7? Would that be worth his effort? (You may want to remember Giuliani’s public speaking ability after September 11, 2001 reignited his public service career).

The basic idea I am suggesting is not that Giuliani should seek to arrive at Obama’s level of public discourse, but that Giuliani by focusing on a lesser strength becomes a better version of himself. (Indeed, what if his September 11 “voice” could have been sustained over time?) I personally believe that focusing on strengths appears both sensible and enormously appealing in a world without borders. But I also believe that daring the difficult, applying pressure to strengths and weaknesses, in the end develops a person more than simply building on strengths or focusing on weakness. Over time a person who focuses solely on strengths and allows lesser strengths to atrophy, may narrow the ability to learn or tap latent talents and strengths that only emerge when tested.

So my thought for next generation HR managers is this: Our collective experience at focusing more on deficits is unbalanced. But let’s not overcorrect and become unbalanced by focusing exclusively on strengths. There are such things as latent talents, and our minds and abilities are more fluid and malleable than we often imagine. It usually takes “great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems” to truly discover all our strengths.

Ron Crossland is Chairman of Bluepoint Leadership Development, and can be reached by email.

He is also the Co- author of The Leader’s Voice, and The Leadership Experience.

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Bluepoint Wins Innovation Award

IMPACT 2008 Conference

Bluepoint was honored at the IMPACT 2008 conference in April by winning the Vendor Innovation Award. Over 350 HR and Training professionals attended the two-day Business of Talent conference hosted by Bersin & Associates in St Petersburg, FL. The award was for outstanding work in customizing, deploying and driving client results from The Leadership Experience workshop.

Other organizations recognized for excellence in training and development included HP, SAP, Wachovia and Rockwell Collins. “These Learning Leaders represent the best of the best,” said Josh Bersin, President of Bersin & Associates and presenter of the award.

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Economic Slowdown: What Does It Mean for Your Business and Brand?

By RON STRAUSS

Prudent business leaders will plan for the slowdown by re-thinking their budget projections, and planning for a 10-15% drop in revenues and a 5-10% increase in costs. What are the implications if that were to happen? What steps would you need to take to keep your cash flow positive? The answers to these questions may address the shorter-term financial implications of a business slowdown, but there are other, non-financial, long-term implications.

For example, what are the implications of a slowdown to your company’s brand reputation among various stakeholders?

As a leader, acting early you can engage the employees throughout the organization in the best way to cope with the situation. Challenge them to come up with alternative action plans that will enable the company to not only survive, but to come out of any slowdown stronger than ever.

Vendors: Your vendors will be experiencing the same pressures you are. One way to create a ‘win-win’ situation is to proactively approach them to find ways to get costs out of your mutual business relationship, and put greater value in. Look at the activities and steps that their organization and your organization engage in for each significant piece of business, and ask “What value does this add?” If there is not a clear-cut answer, you should see if that activity can be avoided or modified, and resources shifted to higher ‘value-add’ activities.

The threat of a looming slowdown adds a sense of urgency to this process. When times get better, your vendors will remember how you worked with them to get through tough times, and your brand and reputation will be burnished as a result.

Customers: Be proactive in doing the above, only as the vendor to your customers. Tell your customers what you’re doing to maintain service and quality levels, and what you’d like to do to control or reduce costs while creating more value. This is where your sales force needs to ‘carry the mail’ by delivering this message to your key accounts, and actively work to set up teams to diagnose each situation, develop proposals, and execute as agreed to. Measure the results and share with all participants.

Since most companies ‘pull in their horns’ during a downturn, and cut back on their marketing activities, this is an opportunity to step up your marketing activities and add selected high margin new customers while your competitors are relatively less active. Keep in mind that most customers leave their current suppliers due to ‘perceived indifference.’ This perception of ‘perceived indifference’ tends to heighten a slowdown.

Investors: You certainly want to keep the folks who have an equity stake in your business fully informed. Many of your equity investors may also be your employees, vendors, and members of the community who own your stock through a mutual fund or 401K plan. Again, communicate early and often. By sharing what the organization is doing to proactively meet the challenges of a slowdown, you can manage expectations and protect your and the company’s brand integrity.

Remember, analysts project P/E multiples and PEG ratios that compare your free cash flow performance to your peers in your business category. Even though the overall category may suffer in a downturn, what’s important is your performance relative to your peers in your category.

Community: Community activities and contributions are often among the first victims of budget cuts when times turn tough. This is where you have an opportunity to shine by simply not eliminating activities and contributions. During a downturn, the media is often looking for good news, and by keeping programs in place (albeit at a reduced level) you may have an opportunity to get some positive coverage, and have members of the community think well of your brand long after any slowdown has run its course. Again, the key here is to proactively communicate with your community ‘partners.’

By now you’ve noticed that a pattern has developed. The golden rule for your brand is to treat each stakeholder in your company so that their experience with the brand closely matches your brand’s promise. This is the essence of maintaining brand integrity and, therefore, your firm’s ability to create value.

It turns out that in a slowdown, financial implications and brand implications are joined at the hip. Do what’s needed to protect your brand’s integrity, and you’ll have done what’s necessary to get the best long-term financial outcome.

Ron Strauss is a brand expert and co-author with Bill Neal of the book ‘Value Creation: The Power of Brand Equity.’ www.valuecreationbook.com. Ron is President and Founder of Brandzone, LLC and can be reached by email

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