Create Value Innovation

Please, stop the Benchmarking!

Winning attracts imitation.  So companies like Apple, Google, Nintendo, Toyota and others are studied in minute detail to capture a bit of their magic, their secret sauce.  But what happens when everyone blindly copies the winners? 

Study after study shows that companies who simply copy others either fail or, at best, achieve parity.  The companies that truly excel, the ones that are significantly and consistently more profitable, are those that create their own spaces - a la Blue Ocean Strategy. 

Other studies demonstrate that successful firms consistently manage and resolve paradox and contradiction.  Success comes not from blind imitation, but from systematically rethinking assumptions and choosing where the firm uniquely needs to be next. 

Toyota is a great example of a company that both chooses its own path, while deftly managing paradox.  It balances the "hard" of manufacturing with the "soft" of culture.

Authors Hirotaka Takeuchi, Emi Osono and Norihiko Shimizu studied Toyota Motor Corporation for six years from the inside out.  Part of their conclusions are featured in a must-read article in the June 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review.  From the introduction:

Stable and paranoid, systematic and experimental, formal and frank: The success of Toyota, a pathbreaking six-year study reveals, is due as much to its ability to embrace contradictions like these [discussed in the article] as to its manufacturing prowess.

What are some of the contradictions?  Here are a few, paraphrased:

• Move slow to create big leaps
• We are cheap, though we invest big in people and capability
• We main hierarchy, yet we welcome "friendly fights"
• We communicate efficiently, though we actively encourage social networks
• We are efficient, though at times we invite "extras" to the conversation

I am looking forward to the authors' upcoming book (Extreme Toyota:  Radical Contradictions that Drive Success at the World's Best Manufacturer) to learn more about how Toyota strikes its balance.  I am especially eager because of their concluding advice:

People often ask us, “Tell me one thing I should learn from Toyota.” That misses the point. Emulating Toyota isn’t about copying any one practice; it’s about creating a culture. That takes time. It requires resources. And it isn’t easy.

In other words, don't implement TPS because they do.  Don't guarantee lifetime employment because Toyota does.  Don't copy their play book.   Start with your people and customers.  Figure out where your organization needs to go next to be successful - and then relentlessly create the culture that will take it there!

If you are going to play Green, make sure it's real

OK, everyone, left foot green!

Twister was released by Milton Bradley in 1966.  Few companies at that time focused on the environment as a differentiator.  Today, many companies are jumping onto the vinyl with an emphasis on anything green.  The question is, what could drive real impact and what is just a game?

For example:

• Look at the entire system, not just the end point.  New compact fluorescent light bulbs use less energy, but contain mercury.  How do we make it easy for consumers to safely dispose of burned out or broken bulbs?  Are we trading coal emissions for landfill contamination?
• Come clean on cost versus earthly motivations.  I have stayed in hundreds of hotel rooms that have little signs next to the sink that ask me to re-use towels and linens in the interest of saving the environment.  Let's be clear, unless the entire hotel operation is focused on green-ness, the only reason this sign is on the counter is to reduce the cost of washloads and slow down the wear and tear of bath towels.
• Clarify political vs. environmental interests.  In the US corn belt, ethanol-induced demand for corn has pushed up grain prices, helping improve farm incomes.  What is the net environmental impact if we use more fertilizer to grow the corn while using lots of groundwater to grow the corn and process the ethanol?  Ethanol support has come form the positive emotional response to reducing oil imports.

The lesson here is to look at the facts and assumptions behind the green motiviation and give yourself a bit of a reality test.  Is it real or just cool for the moment?  Is your organization committed to full focus on environmental impact or just riding a popular wave?  For the moment, customers "buy the headline."  If it's green, it's good.  Over time, expect buyers to become more sophisticated as they get beyond the headlines. 

Firms who are not clear about their motivations could tie themselves in knots when trends shift and the spinner reads, "Right hand blue!"

Who is the Change Agent?

The Change Agent Group is led by me, Greg Krauska. I have over 25 years of sales, marketing, leadership and strategic alliance experience with both start-up and established B2B organizations. I have also served as a consultant to leaders in software, communications technology, imaging, hospitality, distribution, consumer goods and agribusiness.

As a Change Agent, I serve as consultant, facilitator, adviser and coach to executive leaders of sales and marketing teams, their team members and their customers. I have helped organizations develop customer strategies that enabled them to win deals measured from thousands of dollars to strategic wins of over 40 million dollars.

Clients hire me to sort priorities, bring new options, make sense of change and initiate action.  They consistently give me high marks for my willingness to quickly and deeply understand their business, their objectives, their customers, and then bring fresh perspective that helps quickly realize value.  I have worked with clients from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia.

Throughout my career as an individual contributor, as a leader and as a consultant, I have consistently placed myself in the center of change to drive higher orders of business value, at critical moments of business model transitions.  I live at the edge of what is proven and what's next - and build practical, usable solutions that reflect the best of both worlds.

What we believe

You should know what to expect when working with us.  We believe you have to be passionate about your work.  We are passionate about these founding principles. 

We strive to have every engagement, every interaction, a reflection of these principles.

1. We insist on measurable customer success and delight.  No excuses.  Every engagement has defined goals.
2. We focus on building your organization's capacity.  Our role is to help you self-solve your challenges by giving you usable principles, tools and skills.  You make the decisions, you steer the change, you win the deals.  We help you do it faster, more effectively and more consistently.
3. We strive for simplicity.  Our solutions, tools, approaches and playbook must always be easy to understand and easy to use.  They must also be robust enough to yield real insight.
4. We customize.  Our work is tailored specifically to your goals, your culture, your budget and the rhythm of your business.
5. We make it fun!  Humor, innovation and insight have a common core:  unexpected connections.  Besides, it's good for the soul.
6. We provide service with the highest standards of ethics and integrity and we model that approach to your people.  We subscribe to the Institute of Management Consultants Code of Ethics.
7. No jerks!  Life is too short to work with anyone we do not respect, with anyone who is not serious about serving others or with anyone who is simply no fun to be around.  Period.

Competing Values and First-Rate Intelligence

It is cold in Minnesota and although the days are getting longer, the weekend forecast is for single digits.  If I weren't heading to Milwaukee to watch Marquette take on Providence, I might consider finding time to curl up with a book.  Since I won't be reading, at least I can offer a qoute for today from St. Paul, Minnesota native, F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time. . . (The Crack-Up (1936))

This quotation is often quoted, but mostly "under-quoted."  I suppose it is fairly easy for most people to consider the notion of holding two opposing thoughts.  Deeper and richer perspective comes when you include the 26 words that follow . . .

F. Scott Fitzgerald, photographed by Carl van Vechten