Posts in Innovation

Spot the risk!

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What’s wrong with this picture? Can anyone spot  the risk? Why do we care about pans in business? 樂

If you’re a cook, or a parent of young kids, you probably noticed the potential issue.

For many, this obvious flaw might have gone unnoticed.

See the handle of the gold pan? See how it protrudes out in front of the stove?

This presents a potentially unsafe situation. Someone could easily bump the handle and knock the hot pan and its contents onto themselves or the floor. A child, being ever inquisitive, might reach up and grab the handle.

So, to be safe, you keep the handles turned to the side to help prevent an avoidable bad situation.

Why is this important in business?

How often do you take the time to study your company and assess your potential risks?

Do you have any pans on the stove that might be accidently bumped and burn someone?

Disaster, crisis, and risk management is a very important part of running a business. Unfortunately, business owners often have trouble seeing the forest through all the trees.

Annually, a business should examine its company and the environment, identify risks, determine likelihood and impact, and establish mitigation strategies.

Are their any pans protruding in your business?

#business #success #incubator #coaching #consultants

Is consistency key?

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Pre-COVID Boss to Employee: We need to be consistent in our operations, processes, and products.

Post-COVID Boss to Employee: Consistency in our operations, processes, and products is killing us.

Consistency is Key   — Right?

But, what if it isn’t?

What if Consistency is Killing  Your Business?

Consistency essentially means to do things the same…right? And that’s a good thing! Or is it? 樂

As businesses all over the world ran headlong into COVID-19, many of them tried to continue doing what they’ve always done…regardless of the changing environment.

Innovative companies — maybe not so consistent companies — quickly adjusted and continued to operate.

So, is consistency really key or what?

Many a business has been left behind due to consistency … Blockbuster, Kodak, KMart, etc.

Standard work is good…yes. Having consistency in operations, processes, and products is good. As long as your constantly evaluating effectiveness and can quickly change with the environment.

Is it time to reevaluate consistency?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
#consistency #covid19 #coronavirus

Reopening

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What’s your plan  to reopen your business? Do you even have one? 路‍♂️

Do you feel you even need a plan?

What’s a business to do…just reopen their doors and start serving customers again?

What precautions should you take?

Will your employees come back or do you need to hire and train new ones?

Will you be busy or slow?

How will people know you’re open?

Last week, I visited a restaurant that has reopened. It was lunch on Sunday.

Everything shined it was so clean.

On every table, they had paper napkins, a clear spray bottle of some liquid (unmarked), and a bunch of individual hand sanitizer gel packs.

I could see that some if the tables had been moved — probably six foot rule.

Our waiter wore a mask (all employees did)…no gloves. The bartenders wore gloves.

All total, aside from the two of us, there were nine patrons — yea, I counted.

Visible employees were a hostess, two waiters, two bartenders, and a manager.

The manager came by to thank us for visiting…he wore his mask under his nose to breathe better.

Do you think they had a plan?

If they did, do you think they were following it?

Should a business, reopening after the COVID Lockdown, have a plan to reopen?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
#covid19 #coronavirus #reopening

Best approach to sales?

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Pre-COVID Boss to Sales Employee: “Call as many people as possible, we don’t have time to get to know them.

Post-COVID Boss to Sales Employee: Get to know as many people as possible, it’s a waste of time just calling people you don’t know.

Is there an aggressive shift in sales?  Moving from a ‘numbers game’ to ‘relationship selling’?

I see a lot of talk about the importance of relationships when it comes to selling.

However, I still get the same amount of canned emails and messages going for volume click bait over connection.

I still see people wanting to get more views on social media than actual engagement.

Let’s face it, relationship selling takes time. You need to learn about your prospects…spend a lot of time getting to know them.

What’s easier, getting a, “No,” response on the 15 minute phone call, or after 3 weeks of getting connected with someone?

I’ve worked in the Bullpen, making 100 calls a day for a couple of leads.

In that same company, I’ve researched 100 people and made a few great long-lasting connections.

I’ve also spent months connecting with clients and developing long-term relationships. I prefer this approach.

What works best for you?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
#sales

Does Your Internet Suck?

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How’s your internet service holding up during these times?

We live out on our horse ranch, north of San Antonio TX. I wouldn’t say that we live in the country, but we’re certainly not in any city limits.

Right now, internet service is massively important.

And honestly, our service could be a lot better.

Last night, we were doing a group mentoring session over Zoom and my connection was horribly unstable and kept dropping.

How many other people are finding their internet service has become their Achilles Heal during these trying times?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants #internet #wireless

Innovation in Crisis

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Has your company come up with an innovative value or completely changed what they do in this crisis?

We have seen some very quick changes in business because of COVID-19.

Manufacturing plans moving quickly to producing masks and ventilators.

Distilleries producing hand sanitizer.

Restaurants switching to a dine out operating model.

Many businesses moving to online interaction. We even are seeing online happy hours and networking events.

Is your business one of the ones stuck in the old way of doing business? Or, were you able to make a quick shift to something profitable?

So many businesses are stuck in their old way of doing business.

Which are you?

If you’ve changed, hiws that working out for you?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants

Contingency Planning

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How important is disaster and contingency planning for your business … now? 

In 2016, my wife and I opened our horse farm. We also started an equitherapy-for-vets nonprofit.

One of the requirements for accreditation of the nonprofit was to establish contingency plans to mitigate potential risks.

After 21 years in the military and 7 years as a war planner, I fully understood the importance on risk mitigation through disaster and contingency planning.

Even though we’re a small business, we have plans in place for Flooding, Freeze, and Fire. The Flooding and Freeze plans have been used every year since we opened.

We never imagined that Pandemic would be on the list!

However, what we found is that we were able to pull out our plans and were able to quickly pull key aspects of the existing plans to create a quick response to deal with this crisis.

Did your business have any formal contingency plans going into this? Have you ever considered business risks and devised mitigation strategies.

No one could have planned for a Pandemic, except maybe the World Health Organization. However, planning is still quite important.

If you don’t have any contingency planning, what are you going to do about it today?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants

Getting Up To Speed

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How do you quickly become an expert at work? 👨‍🎓🚇 And what does a subway have to do with it?

I’ve been in subways before, in Washington, DC, and in Paris, France. So, I have some experience with them.

However, the subway in New York City definitely provides a different level of understanding and expertise.

I took a little time to study the subway map and to research online how to navigate the subway.

This allowed my wife and I to be able to effectively navigate around town over the last two days. Numerous times, my wife was lost or would have got on the wrong train, but I was confident and got us where we needed to be.

Last night, she commented on my ability to quickly learn the system and get us around easily. The trick, she pointed out, was that I took a little bit of time to learn about the system.

Trust me, there’s no better school than doing something, as there were things I continued to learn riding the subway. But, I knew enough to start and be successful and that helped me learn from there.

How do you quickly get up to speed on something and how does it work?

Any tips or tricks you would care to share?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

Enter the matrix

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Do you, or have you operated in a Matix Organization? 🤔🤓

I have seen, recommended, and used the matrix approach in several organizations over the past 30 years.

Most recently, I led a team of process Improvement experts and, although they worked for me, they were matrixed out to support different clients. This gave me the flexibility of economies of scale, but also deeply embedded them with clients (product lines).

I’ve found that a matrix approach is very effective in many but not all situations.

If you’ve been in a matrix organization, can you share your experience?

What were the benefits?

What were the challenges?

Was it a success or failure?

If you’ve never seen a matrix environment before, let me know too. What are your thoughts about one?

How are you organized now?

If you’re a professional in organizational design, what experience have you had creating matrix orgs?

What are your thoughts and cautions on them?

Thanks for your discussion. Very excited to hear from everyone.

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com