Comments on: Building a Better Business Sense http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=building-a-better-business-sense Greg Strosaker on leadership, marketing, strategy, productivity, parenting autism, and running Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:39:29 +0000 hourly 1 By: Greg Strosaker http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-132 Greg Strosaker Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:54:34 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-132 Jim,<br>That's a fair enough analogy. I would argue that the curve is more skewed<br>(there are a greater number of events that are less meaningful than we<br>think, and a few that are way more meaningful). Your Toyota example may<br>well fall on the "way more meaningful" end of the distribution because of<br>the far-reaching impact of the automotive industry on local economies. But<br>on the other hand, I'd argue the Supreme Court decision on election law<br>would fall in the great mass of news events that have less impact than what<br>reading initial press accounts would have you believe. This is obviously<br>where critical thinking comes into play; the point is not to react to every<br>news story out there but rather to discriminate good analysis from opinion,<br>and seek multiple interpretations of events before reaching your own<br>conclusions.<br><br>Greg Jim,
That's a fair enough analogy. I would argue that the curve is more skewed
(there are a greater number of events that are less meaningful than we
think, and a few that are way more meaningful). Your Toyota example may
well fall on the “way more meaningful” end of the distribution because of
the far-reaching impact of the automotive industry on local economies. But
on the other hand, I'd argue the Supreme Court decision on election law
would fall in the great mass of news events that have less impact than what
reading initial press accounts would have you believe. This is obviously
where critical thinking comes into play; the point is not to react to every
news story out there but rather to discriminate good analysis from opinion,
and seek multiple interpretations of events before reaching your own
conclusions.

Greg

]]> By: jimmatorin http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-131 jimmatorin Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:41:05 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-131 Greg:<br><br>Let me propose the following: The is the bell shape curve of Global Events. Some events do impact the future of our planet, most events statiscally fall in the middle and the rest fall in the area of insignificant. An effective manager/leader has the ability to filter through all the noise out there to find those events that will impact his or her business in the near or distant future. Let's use Toyota as an example. Major impact to the automobile industry and all those industries that support the automobile industry. It will impact the Global financial markets since investment money will come back into our country to support our own automobile industry as they scamper to fill the void Toyota has created thanks to their mistakes/mismanagement. To me as a leader in the food industry, it has minimal to no impact unless I am working on a product that would benefit inplant feeding where cars are made, thus I move on from this sound bite, like I do from the fact Tiger Woods is going public Friday. Irrelevant. <br><br>Jim Greg:

Let me propose the following: The is the bell shape curve of Global Events. Some events do impact the future of our planet, most events statiscally fall in the middle and the rest fall in the area of insignificant. An effective manager/leader has the ability to filter through all the noise out there to find those events that will impact his or her business in the near or distant future. Let's use Toyota as an example. Major impact to the automobile industry and all those industries that support the automobile industry. It will impact the Global financial markets since investment money will come back into our country to support our own automobile industry as they scamper to fill the void Toyota has created thanks to their mistakes/mismanagement. To me as a leader in the food industry, it has minimal to no impact unless I am working on a product that would benefit inplant feeding where cars are made, thus I move on from this sound bite, like I do from the fact Tiger Woods is going public Friday. Irrelevant.

Jim

]]> By: Greg Strosaker http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-61 Greg Strosaker Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:54:34 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-61 Jim,<br>That's a fair enough analogy. I would argue that the curve is more skewed<br>(there are a greater number of events that are less meaningful than we<br>think, and a few that are way more meaningful). Your Toyota example may<br>well fall on the "way more meaningful" end of the distribution because of<br>the far-reaching impact of the automotive industry on local economies. But<br>on the other hand, I'd argue the Supreme Court decision on election law<br>would fall in the great mass of news events that have less impact than what<br>reading initial press accounts would have you believe. This is obviously<br>where critical thinking comes into play; the point is not to react to every<br>news story out there but rather to discriminate good analysis from opinion,<br>and seek multiple interpretations of events before reaching your own<br>conclusions.<br><br>Greg Jim,
That's a fair enough analogy. I would argue that the curve is more skewed
(there are a greater number of events that are less meaningful than we
think, and a few that are way more meaningful). Your Toyota example may
well fall on the “way more meaningful” end of the distribution because of
the far-reaching impact of the automotive industry on local economies. But
on the other hand, I'd argue the Supreme Court decision on election law
would fall in the great mass of news events that have less impact than what
reading initial press accounts would have you believe. This is obviously
where critical thinking comes into play; the point is not to react to every
news story out there but rather to discriminate good analysis from opinion,
and seek multiple interpretations of events before reaching your own
conclusions.

Greg

]]> By: jimmatorin http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-60 jimmatorin Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:41:05 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-60 Greg:<br><br>Let me propose the following: The is the bell shape curve of Global Events. Some events do impact the future of our planet, most events statiscally fall in the middle and the rest fall in the area of insignificant. An effective manager/leader has the ability to filter through all the noise out there to find those events that will impact his or her business in the near or distant future. Let's use Toyota as an example. Major impact to the automobile industry and all those industries that support the automobile industry. It will impact the Global financial markets since investment money will come back into our country to support our own automobile industry as they scamper to fill the void Toyota has created thanks to their mistakes/mismanagement. To me as a leader in the food industry, it has minimal to no impact unless I am working on a product that would benefit inplant feeding where cars are made, thus I move on from this sound bite, like I do from the fact Tiger Woods is going public Friday. Irrelevant. <br><br>Jim Greg:

Let me propose the following: The is the bell shape curve of Global Events. Some events do impact the future of our planet, most events statiscally fall in the middle and the rest fall in the area of insignificant. An effective manager/leader has the ability to filter through all the noise out there to find those events that will impact his or her business in the near or distant future. Let's use Toyota as an example. Major impact to the automobile industry and all those industries that support the automobile industry. It will impact the Global financial markets since investment money will come back into our country to support our own automobile industry as they scamper to fill the void Toyota has created thanks to their mistakes/mismanagement. To me as a leader in the food industry, it has minimal to no impact unless I am working on a product that would benefit inplant feeding where cars are made, thus I move on from this sound bite, like I do from the fact Tiger Woods is going public Friday. Irrelevant.

Jim

]]> By: Greg Strosaker http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Greg Strosaker Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:50:51 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-59 Jim,<br>Thanks for your comment. It does sometimes take sacrifice to be able to expand your horizons and not just read but think about such news of importance. For example, I couldn't tell you half the names that are expected to be on the Cleveland Indians roster for the start of the baseball season, nor name any movies that are expected to come out soon, but can certainly engage in a debate on the potential impact of China re-valuing the yuan. I'd argue that being able to do so makes me a more effective manager (unless I ran a Major League franchise). I won't share my opinion on the Supreme Court ruling (trying not to get political) other than to comment that, in general, such events produce more noise than actual impact. Jim,
Thanks for your comment. It does sometimes take sacrifice to be able to expand your horizons and not just read but think about such news of importance. For example, I couldn't tell you half the names that are expected to be on the Cleveland Indians roster for the start of the baseball season, nor name any movies that are expected to come out soon, but can certainly engage in a debate on the potential impact of China re-valuing the yuan. I'd argue that being able to do so makes me a more effective manager (unless I ran a Major League franchise). I won't share my opinion on the Supreme Court ruling (trying not to get political) other than to comment that, in general, such events produce more noise than actual impact.

]]> By: Greg http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Greg Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:50:13 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-58 Jim, Thanks for your comment. It does sometimes take sacrifice to be able to expand your horizons and not just read but think about such news of importance. For example, I couldn't tell you half the names that are expected to be on the Cleveland Indians roster for the start of the baseball season, nor name any movies that are expected to come out soon, but can certainly engage in a debate on the potential impact of China re-valuing the yuan. I'd argue that being able to do so makes me a more effective manager (unless I ran a Major League franchise). I won't share my opinion on the Supreme Court ruling (trying not to get political) other than to comment that, in general, such events produce more noise than actual impact. Jim,
Thanks for your comment. It does sometimes take sacrifice to be able to expand your horizons and not just read but think about such news of importance. For example, I couldn’t tell you half the names that are expected to be on the Cleveland Indians roster for the start of the baseball season, nor name any movies that are expected to come out soon, but can certainly engage in a debate on the potential impact of China re-valuing the yuan. I’d argue that being able to do so makes me a more effective manager (unless I ran a Major League franchise). I won’t share my opinion on the Supreme Court ruling (trying not to get political) other than to comment that, in general, such events produce more noise than actual impact.

]]> By: jimmatorin http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-57 jimmatorin Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:48:49 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-57 Greg:<br><br>Your second point really resonated for me. I am really amazed how poorly informed people are because they are not taking timeout from their daily routine or either are relying too much on online content to get their information. Case in point. I could not stimulate one conversation after the recent Supreme Court ruling and its potential impact on our future business landscape. Greg:

Your second point really resonated for me. I am really amazed how poorly informed people are because they are not taking timeout from their daily routine or either are relying too much on online content to get their information. Case in point. I could not stimulate one conversation after the recent Supreme Court ruling and its potential impact on our future business landscape.

]]> By: Greg http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-56 Greg Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:21:22 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-56 Kevin, Thanks for your comments. I agree that the analogy approach is a good one for starters, and to get your point across. And all the better if you can get the colleague to advance their thinking to the point where they are assessing tradeoffs within the company; using financial analysis to prioritize activities or to just evaluate if an idea is anywhere near a profitable one is a key element of "business sense." One argument I might make is that every company may need a few employees who are the "dumpster divers", per your analogy - ie, if they are really that passionate about an idea, they are willing to make the sacrifices to get there. This assumes, of course, that it doesn't drag the whole company down. A lot of good start-ups probably certainly came from those who were willing to live from the dumpster for a while in order to pursue their passion. Kevin,
Thanks for your comments. I agree that the analogy approach is a good one for starters, and to get your point across. And all the better if you can get the colleague to advance their thinking to the point where they are assessing tradeoffs within the company; using financial analysis to prioritize activities or to just evaluate if an idea is anywhere near a profitable one is a key element of “business sense.”

One argument I might make is that every company may need a few employees who are the “dumpster divers”, per your analogy – ie, if they are really that passionate about an idea, they are willing to make the sacrifices to get there. This assumes, of course, that it doesn’t drag the whole company down. A lot of good start-ups probably certainly came from those who were willing to live from the dumpster for a while in order to pursue their passion.

]]> By: Kevin Harper http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-55 Kevin Harper Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:09:30 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-55 I've come to think that the clearest path towards achieving this goal is to create as straight of a path between the decision being discussed and the what everyone will be able to eat for dinner that night. For instance: "Ok, Walter. We could spend 2/3 of your development time to optimize the data model for transactions and reporting in the beta release, but then you will have to eat dinner from the Panera dumpster for the next 6 months." Might sound uncivilized and unnecessary, but it is actually the only method I have ever found that actually works. There are certainly people that 'have it' innately, but if they don't, nothing better than putting it into clear understandable terms. The real problem is the people that passively (or actively) choose the dumpster diving option. And I suppose there issue can be looked at individually (like above) and also organizationally. Organizationally, first you have to make sure you have few if any dumpster divers. Another way to build the institutional knowledge is to not be afraid of talking about the money. A more advanced version of the example above: "Ok, Walter. We will be selling the beta release of the product for 6 month. We sell it for $1,000 a license, and we are looking to sell 500 licenses before the next release. Optimized reporting is likely to play a role in 5% of the sales cycles and be decisive in 1%. Making the UI and transactional performance 2x better will increase the potentially customer base by 2x. What do you think you should focus your time and energy on?" I’ve come to think that the clearest path towards achieving this goal is to create as straight of a path between the decision being discussed and the what everyone will be able to eat for dinner that night. For instance:

“Ok, Walter. We could spend 2/3 of your development time to optimize the data model for transactions and reporting in the beta release, but then you will have to eat dinner from the Panera dumpster for the next 6 months.”

Might sound uncivilized and unnecessary, but it is actually the only method I have ever found that actually works. There are certainly people that ‘have it’ innately, but if they don’t, nothing better than putting it into clear understandable terms. The real problem is the people that passively (or actively) choose the dumpster diving option.

And I suppose there issue can be looked at individually (like above) and also organizationally. Organizationally, first you have to make sure you have few if any dumpster divers. Another way to build the institutional knowledge is to not be afraid of talking about the money. A more advanced version of the example above:

“Ok, Walter. We will be selling the beta release of the product for 6 month. We sell it for $1,000 a license, and we are looking to sell 500 licenses before the next release. Optimized reporting is likely to play a role in 5% of the sales cycles and be decisive in 1%. Making the UI and transactional performance 2x better will increase the potentially customer base by 2x. What do you think you should focus your time and energy on?”

]]> By: Building Future Leaders http://gregstrosaker.com/2010/02/building-a-better-business-sense/comment-page-1/#comment-53 Building Future Leaders Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:52:42 +0000 http://gregstrosaker.com/?p=156#comment-53 [...] [...] [...] [...]

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