The crisis presents an opportunity to dream up new ideas, learn from others, and take bold action. When the pandemic abruptly threw life into disarray, many companies went into triage mode to adapt. If companies are treating this period as a short-term adjustment, they’re likely setting themselves up to fail. But customers have started getting used to these adaptations—virtual meetings, touchless interactions—even preferring them in many cases. The first step, dream, means coming up with concrete goals for the short, medium, and long term. This involves convening a multi-functional team that can jointly create these new goals instead of a top-down approach from leadership. The next step, learn, means looking at what is working both within and outside your company. The bulk of a company’s time—roughly 90 percent—should be spent on the final step of doing. The idea is to get it roughly right quickly, rather than precisely wrong. Read More >>
Monthly Archives: August 2020
THE PANDEMIC FORCED THIS FOUNDER TO SLOW DOWN SO HE COULD ACCELERATE LONG-TERM GROWTH
I was staring out at a sea—or should I say a grid—of blank faces. It was the town hall portion of our weekly all-company meeting, and an employee asked me directly how long I thought this work-from-home arrangement would last. I gave my unfiltered opinion: I did not see a return to life as we knew it for a couple of years (if ever). I had made a concerted effort to keep spirits high and energy positive in our weekly all-company Zoom calls, but it felt like despite all the positive momentum generated from previous responses to the crisis, with that one revelation, I had just killed the mood of the entire team. As an entrepreneur, working around the clock with the team to save the company was in my blood. Those long days and weeks in March, April, May, and June came naturally to me and to many of my team members who had self-selected to work at a startup. What’s been more challenging is determining how to navigate the transition to this next phase—where working from home is the norm rather than a novelty. In a world where everyday feels like Groundhog Day, and weekends aren’t much different than weekdays, I’m trying my best to provide as much certainty as I can for the team and placing a renewed emphasis on making sure priorities for my direct reports are clear and manageable, and that we expend energy on solving the right problems. We spent a few months building the plane while we were flying it and now it’s time to go back and write the manual. Encouraging employees to work at a more manageable pace (and dismantling the culture of stress and burnout) starts with just talking about it openly. We all have a chance to reset the stage and make work better for our teammates—more flexible, accommodating, and accepting of employees’ full selves and personal lives, including crying babies, screaming kids, and barking dogs. I want to be mindful about preserving the best parts to set us up for future success. Read More >>
THE INNOVATOR’S IMITATION DILEMMA: TIKTOK AND FACEBOOK IN CONTEXT
Even with a backer like Microsoft, innovators must outrace copycats like Facebook and others who share the spoils of imitation among themselves. At first glance, TikTok is facing an existential threat. Not only is the wildly popular short video-sharing app banned in India and now forced to be spun off in the United States from its Chinese owner Bytedance, it also has to fend off copycats like Facebook’s Reels. But TikTok may have a secret sauce that allowed it to thwart Facebook’s earlier imitation attempt, and that may yet secure its future: the ability to recombine existing know-how in a market as complex and fast-moving as tech-based entertainment. In the game of digital innovation, imitators often outrace the original innovators. Spotify is another great example of a firm that has outsmarted copycats with complex continuous innovation. Its music streaming service manages to combine a dynamically changing user-interface, behavioral prediction algorithms and a bulging music catalog. Spotify learns its customers’ preferences and uses predictions to suggest content that will keep them coming back. Recombination is but one of three types of in-house knowledge mobilization that can facilitate innovation. The other two are transfer (employees teaching one another) and collaboration (employees working together). Whether to invest in innovation in the face of imitation continues to be one of the most important problems that companies face. It is recommended that firms grappling with the innovator’s imitation dilemma consider the sort of in-house knowledge mobilization they invest in; the nature of the technology and whether it may lead to knowledge spillover-sharing by rivals; and the pool of rivals itself. The solution to the dilemma requires a deep understanding of the complex interplay among these factors. Read More >>
THE ONE LEADERSHIP HACK WE’VE ALL BEEN LOOKING FOR
Imagine there was a technique you could learn and practice that would display respect for others, promote trust and contribute mightily to individual and group performance. The behavior with the almost magical relationship and performance outcomes is nothing more than listening. While a better term might be “fierce listening,” it’s something most of us play at, and many of us can stand to get significantly better at. There are eight steps to develop fierce listening skills. First is to commit: internalize the need to strengthen your effectiveness as a listener. Second is to assess: establish a baseline for your listening skills. Third is to recognize: learn to identify your listening traps. Fourth is to frame: set your days up for listening success. Fifth is to engage: employ listening tactics in the moment. Sixth is to strengthen: train your brain. Seventh is to tune in: look for weak or dissonant signals. Eighth is to extend: teach your groups fierce listening practices. People will go as far as they can communicate, and great communication starts with fierce listening. Read More >>
HOW TO NEGOTIATE VIA EMAIL
Across most of the world, face-to-face negotiations—with your boss, with a colleague, or with customers and clients—have been replaced by Zoom invitations and Teams meetups. In this “new normal” of primarily virtual work interactions, composing an effective and persuasive email has never been more important. There are two kinds of conversational tones: positive and negative. Positive-toned communication is conveyed in phrases such as “This is great,” “I really like . . . ‚” and “Thank you so much,” through greetings (“Dear so-and-so”) and closings (“Best wishes”), and also in emojis such as smiley faces and the use of exclamation points. Negative-toned communication is conveyed through negations and other phrases like “I don’t think . . .” and “This is a problem” and the even harsher “I am not happy with . . ..” When it comes down to it, it is the ratio of positive to negative that is really important for our e-communication, not the absolute number of each per se. Given the ubiquity of e-communication, people must be proactive about cultivating and enhancing our communication style. People who rely on autopilot to compose and reply to emails, texts, and phone messages are likely to fall prey to one of the e-communication whammies, with poor outcomes. Read More >>
AIRSIDE RAISES MILLIONS FROM BAIN CAPITAL FOR DIGITAL IDENTITY TOOLS: TRAVEL STARTUP FUNDING THIS WEEK
This week, startups relevant to the travel sector announced more than $24 million in funding. We define a startup as a company formed to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet that definition. The rare ones that do often attract venture capital. Their funding rounds come in waves. Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family. Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy. Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster. These fundraising rounds can assist in recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing. Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate. Series D, E and beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate. Read More >>
HOW TO DESIGN THINKING BETTER
Design thinking has, perhaps, reached peak popularity. Businesses in every industry talk about ideating and iterating. The design-thinking approach loosely follows a four-step process that involves observing a problem, reframing it, designing solutions, and testing them—all with the end goal of improving how humans experience a product or service. The first step in the design-thinking process is to observe a situation and notice what is actually happening. Humans are really bad at observing a situation and noticing what is actually happening—despite having a lot of confidence in our own abilities. Understanding a customer’s motivations for using a product or service are important for developing something that works for the customer. But setting social and emotional goals—like gaining the ability to walk a 5K or dance with your daughter at her wedding—activated a promotion mindset and actually motivated people to change. When it comes to actually building and testing solutions—the final step in design thinking—a successful designer must understand that failure is simply an expected part of the process and will ultimately make the work better. Read More >>
AMID THE PANDEMIC, ENTREPRENEURS CAN STILL FIND OPPORTUNITY
The crisis provides fertile ground for startups in spaces like telehealth and touch-lessRead More >> payment. Other startups will need to get creative. Business can be divided into two categories: those that have COVID headwinds—think restaurant suppliers whose customers are struggling to survive—and those with COVID tailwinds—think telehealth technology firms that have never seen more demand. But that doesn’t mean that startups with headwinds are doomed. Instead, entrepreneurs must harness the innovative spirit that drives them and adjust to the moment. Overall, fewer businesses are started during recessions. And the ones that are start smaller than those formed during boom years. The good news, however, is that recession-born businesses tend to be more productive, as measured by revenue per employee. And startups during a recession tend to be grouped into industries that rely heavily on innovation. In the last financial crisis of 2008, society’s growing distrust of financial institutions led to startups like Venmo and Square. Today, people should expect to see innovations in a wide range of industries. For example, healthcare innovations will likely address both drug development and telehealth delivery. There will likely be new types of automation in manufacturing to allow for social distancing between employees. And, for supply chains, she anticipates more real-time monitoring, so companies can manage customer expectations in the event of disruptions. Investors are approaching startups and saying, ’I know you’re not planning on raising for 12 months, but I want to preempt that round.’ What they’re really saying is, ‘I have FOMO. I have fear of missing out. I want to get my money into your company because it’s going to grow so fast and I want to get it in now. I’m willing to take the additional risk because I see the future.’
THE TWO FACES OF LEADERSHIP
The first face is heroic. It’s what leaders use to inspire and motivate, role-model behavior and express an enthralling vision. The second is more practical. It’s the face leaders assume behind the scenes as they preside over the processes that keep the organisation running smoothly. For their plans to succeed, leaders must face in both directions at once. The problem is that as leadership development ballooned into a global US$366 billion industry, it has fixated on the public face at the expense of the process-oriented one. Leadership is a hotter topic than ever, but its popular image only brings half the picture into focus. Star leaders should do the following heavy lifting in the background of their organization: scanning and sense-making, building and locking in commitment, handling contradictions, harnessing culture, and developing talent and capabilities. Scanning and sense-making allows leaders to reality-check their strategy. Building and locking in commitment to a strategy requires more than a dynamite PowerPoint presentation. First and foremost, generating consensus, or at least a good-faith acceptance, hinges on the level of openness involved in the process. Handling contradictions consists of trade-offs to help leaders cope with contrasting mandates, e.g. the need for hierarchy vs. the comparative agility of decentralized decision making, the wisdom of thinking long-term vs. the imperative to deliver quarterly shareholder returns. Harnessing culture occurs through indirection. Developing talent and capabilities encompasses more than spotting superstars in the making and giving them opportunities to shine. Read More >>
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