Influencing People

Weird couple of days that's had me reflecting on my connections, work and getting things done. Some basic observations on what seems to help get things done with people:

• being helpful
• being sensitive
  
• being patient
• being available
• being clear
• being proactive
• being provocative
  
• being firm
• being a hardass

And some basic observations on what gets in the way with some people:

• being clear
• being firm
• being a hardass

Clarity seems to scare some people all the time - and scares others mostly when it conflicts with their vision, goals and beliefs (duh).

That's when patience works well.

I've noticed that timing is everything and what's right always/usually/mostly becomes obvious over time.

Wired Wednesday Non-post

Here are the notes I took on Blackberry at last night's Wired Wednesday event in Toronto. Overall a very worthwhile, well-run and informative networking event.

• green my apple
• power maps
• invoke the hero
• content as raw material for remixing
• before: send a message
• now: connect two people who want to cure cancer
• what can you learn from Grand Theft Auto? Paris Hilton?
• see the theme - don't get moralistic
• not-for-profits are good business too

There was way more. Questions I didn't ask but wanted to: 1) what's the org structure look like - where do the 'web' guys go? 2) it's nice that passion has got you where you are - how will you overcome being entrepreneurs to run your businesses at the next level?

Job Wanted - Consultant, Sailor, BBQ Instructor

Hockey isn't over. It's 10 (Celsius) degrees. Windy as hell. Maybe we'll get summer.

Which reminds me. I don't want to be in Toronto this winter.

I am not a winter person.

Any more.

When I was five, skiing in Ontario was fun. When my kids were five I had a few good winters on a snowboard. Now that I'm the big five (oh), I have as much interest in snow as flying to the fricking moon. Actually, I have more interest in the moon.

My ideal winter job would be:

• somewhere south of Miami
• working on a bathing suit shoot for SI
• all expenses paid
• rooming with Kathy Ireland
  

What I would really, seriously consider would be:

• somewhere that's only had snow once or twice in past 10 years
• consulting, crewing on a sailboat, taking pictures of sunsets or selling tickets for the snorkeling tour
• steady if modest income enhanced by some sort of 'performance incentive' (free beer or internet time)
  
• some challenge, some excitement and a winter experience that doesn't include sliding, shoveling or filling the windshield wiper fluid

What I have to offer:

• what do you need? (I don't play guitar)
  

Seriously, I'm open to a reasonable opportunity that takes me south for a few months. I'm good with boats, dogs, clients and beer. I'm not bad on the internet. I can show you a thing or two about social media, brand building, sales and turning your business around. I can write your blog for you and be you on Twitter.

Being somewhat flexible, if it's necessary to commute between the condo in Aspen and the yacht in the Mediterranean, then I can overlook the winter part. I was a pretty darn good ski instructor in my past.

If you're interested, just send the plane. I can be ready just after labor day, or tomorrow depending on the opportunity.

I'm really looking forward to hearing from you (really, really).

PS. I know it's early. I'll repost this a little closer to bathing suit shoot season.

Green with Envy

On Tuesday I got together with a friend to talk governance and board roles. Important but mundane stuff. While we were together, he updated me on the progress of his new venture.

To me, PickupPal first sounded like it might be an on-line dating service (Plenty of Fish?; PickupPal?). It's not (maybe that's just me).

PickupPal is a ride share program. Carpooling. As in - you drive, I ride shot gun. We save the environment, talk celebrity gossip, kill some time and split the gas.

What's fascinating about this venture is the unexpected relevance, logic, and great execution that makes ride share and PickupPal something way more intriguing than I first imagined. Carpooling is cool? I kind of missed that one.

For those into green, social media and getting from a to b, it really is.

Here's PickupPal's website. You go there, sign up and create a profile. Using Facebook Connect it takes no time. Profiles can be created without using FB but a FB profile adds credibility and reassuring background to someone you may end up spending three hours in a car with.

When you want a ride somewhere in North America (or you're going somewhere and want company), simply post the details of your trip. Find a match (location, interests, timing) and fasten your seat belt.

Makes sense?

It's gets bigger and better when you add Groups. Think Church. Concerts. Companies. Colleges and universities. Anything with lots of like minded people going to the same place, same time.

One that got my attention was rock concerts. You don't think concert promoters aren't aware of the green impact, publicity and perceptions that bringing 50,000 people to the same venue has? Through it's partnership with Reverb, PickupPal is the ride-share sponsor for acts like the Dave Mathews Band, The Dead, Crowded House, Fall-out Boy, Kelly Clarkson and many more.

Marketing-wise, PickupPal has an active biz dev effort that is forging key relationships with green organizations, ride share users and partnerships all over North America. Following developments is easy on Twitter.

Talking to my friend, I suggested that perhaps the only thing better that could do is get more public exposure. Yesterday he sent me a copy of this email (details omitted to protect the innocent, but you get the point):

My name is ------ and I am a producer with ------(big news channel). I
am based in our Big US City Bureau and am hoping to connect with someone
from Pick-up Pal. We are interested in producing a feature story on the
website and service. Please call me at your convenience at -----.

Guess I'm not the only one who thinks maybe PickupPal is onto something interesting.

Hunkering Down and Competing

There's lot's of soul searching going on right now as businesses hunker down to make it through the downturn. Most CEO's seem to be coming to grips with the notion that a turn-around isn't imminent and more, stronger action is likely necessary in order survive/thrive.

If survival is the priority then cash flow and cost containment are imperatives.

Cash flow starts with getting receivables in fast and payables out carefully. For many that surely seems like a no-brainer. However, experience suggests many CEO's would be well-advised to sit down with their CFO's and make sure everyone is on the same page - that there is a daily effort to collect - and a clear, formal strategy around who, what and how fast to pay.

Cost containment starts with strategy. What are the operating priorities in the downturn (marketing? sales? people?) and how will those priorities be protected? From there, managers can identify spending that isn't currently consistent with the operating priorities and cuts can be made.

My observation on cost containment is that it's seldom done well. Frequently, strategy is lacking and some cuts hurt more than they help. Cuts that could be made but aren't hurt the most. Obvious misses send the wrong message on priorities. Finding and implementing process efficiency gains can sometimes have big upfront costs. Careful analysis is required if this is the case to understand the financial benefits and cash flow implications.

Lots has been written about the extended downside of laying off people to save money. I get it. To a point. Lay-offs aren't free and it would seem the cultural, expertise and overall disruptions to the business could be both significant and lingering.

In actual fact, I've seen few companies suffer extensively from downsizing. Creating fat and straying into luxuries is wide-spread in good times. Being forced to refocus on core priorities, businesses, people and customers isn't necessarily a bad thing. Laying off the wrong people and cutting into muscle is a mistake so knee-jerking into a lay-off strategy is dangerous. But a thoughtful, proactive and strategic approach is a good thing for lots of businesses.

Lots of companies are struggling to maintain sales momentum through this downturn. Decision and spending paralysis is widespread right now. With fierce competition for every deal, CEO's are getting a great opportunity to understand the true competitiveness of their organizations. How's your organization batting on competitive deals? .100? .250? .500? When this is over, will your organization have lost or gained market share?

I worry that many organizations will see an upturn in the economy before they fix the lessons from this downturn. High tides float all boats and survival for many will feel like success. Short term it is. But CEO's who merely hang on risk jeopardizing their businesses longer term. Question: what have you learned about your organization's ability to compete in this downturn and what do you need to do about it? Changes that increase success now will have significantly more impact when things turn. Is your organization just hanging on or are you taking advantage of the current situation to implement good long term changes?

Check out this YouTube video for more thoughts on managing through a downturn and succeeding long term.

Toronto Gas Prices

With retail gas prices rising again to almost $1/litre I did some quick digging to try and understand how that compares to crude pricing and margins in the past. What the #'s say is what we're all feeling - compared to a year ago, current retail pricing is being inflated significantly beyond the price of crude.

Some simple numbers.

This year 2009, retail prices/litre were 2.87 x the price of crude/litre in January, 2.84 x in February, 2.24 x in March and 2.27 x in April.

For the same four months last year, retail prices to crude prices were 1.71 x, 1.75 x, 1.6 x and 1.56 x the price of crude.

So, in January 2009 retail to crude prices were 1.16 x more expensive than in January 2008, 1. 09 x more than in February 2008, .64 x more than in March 2008 and .71 x more than in April 2008.

That's what you're noticing at the pumps.

Interestingingly, taxes on gasoline have only varied a couple of cent's/litre from 2008 to 2009 - which given the difference in retail prices, seems surprising but reflects the system of taxation.

In January through April this year 2009, the average taxes/litre in Toronto were 28.65 cents on an average retail price of 82.5 cents (34.7%).

In January through April 2008, the average taxes/litre were 29.82 cents on an average retail price of 106.75 (27.8%).

To increase margins, gas retailers have all the incentive in the world to increase prices - which seems logical. However, that doesn't mean more $ to government, especially if demand drops.

Interesting business. Oil companies are doing really well.

Keep bending over.

Fortune Teller

Reading the May 11, 2009 issue of Fortune - aka the Bernie Madoff Special. All sorts of interesting stuff.

Page 12. 'Gun Money'. Bizarrely, the gun and ammunition business in the US has exploded (sorry) over the past year. Remington just announced a backlog of almost $300 million. Up from $115 million a year ago. Smith and Wesson shares are up 338%! There is a backlog of 1.3 people waiting for background checks to purchase firearms. WTF? Should we all be worried that the bottom line is more prematurely dead people?

Page 13. 'Golf Gets Handicapped'. Great first sentence - "ever since the roster of PGA tour sponsors started resembling the list of TARP recipients....". Yeah, point is, sponsors are a LITTLE tougher to come by for the PGA. Poor Tiger.

Page 16. 'Chuteless in Detroit'. Applauding Rick Wagoner and GM for doing the right thing - not building Rick a golden parachute. According to Fortune, poor Rick may come away with almost nothing after taking GM down. Fortune seems to be in agreement with itself that that seems appropriate. For once.

Page 18. 'Can My Boss Eliminate My Bonus?'. Fortunately, I don't have a boss. The answer is yes. Unless it's part of an employment contract. Which most aren't. You may want to get on that.

Page 22. 'Trouble in Travel Land'. Guess what? Class action lawyers are trying to f. up cheap travel by going after on-line travel companies like Travelocity and Expedia. Their beef? That these OTC's haven't been paying enough local occupancy taxes. Go ahead. Put Travelocity out of business. Collect some back taxes. And watch travel to your crappy little burgh (even your not-so-crappy big one) drop even more.

Page 25. 'Viewpoint' by David Gergen, the CNN dude who worked for a bunch of US Presidents on 'How Can Business Stand Tall Again'. His advice for building a positive perception and keeping the feds a little more at bay:

• business should acknowldege it's role in the current mess
• get back to fundamentals - like tying pay to performance, and meausuring performance over something longer than 3 months
• work for, not against social reforms - like global warming and health care reform
• embrace the concept of corporate management becoming a true profession, like lawyers and doctors.

Um. Question. Will making executives more like lawyers really improve their public perception?

Page 27. The 'Investing' section. 800,000 properties received foreclosure notices in the first quarter of 2009. That seems big.

Hang on, there's more.

From the Technology section. Page 37. 'Who's on Deck in Tech?' Nobody. Very few of those great tech companies like Google, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, etc have identified a successor to the CEO. Reminder again that governance is a nice concept.....seldom practiced.

Also in technology. Page 39. Last one.

'Apple Apps Store Thinks Small'. An article about Apple going after small business and entrepreneurs with the i-phone. I'm biased on this one. I don't believe any serious business person will ever use an i-phone. For one simple reason: you can't type on it. And there....last sentence of the article. In Fortune. "I use my i-phone to reactive to information, but not for active tasks" says Robin Dhar. "Typing on it is really hard."

Case closed.

By the way, the Bernie article is good reading too. Buy your own Fortune.