So, you want to own a business. You have an idea for a product or service that the market needs. You want to be rich. You have studied other successful startups and understand the factors for success. You have moved past friends and family who have tried to dissuade you from your goal. You have the funds and a plan to get your business off the ground. You are confident of success. But have you considered everything you need to know?
Many successful entrepreneurs begin by forming a Board of Directors. An Advisory Board will provide a broader perspective, improving the effectiveness of your decisions. The advice you receive will minimize costly mistakes which could otherwise doom your business. Board members may receive a stipend, or they may be volunteers. Voluntary advisory boards have become commonplace for many startups. Talking with organizations like Score and finding a mentor are additional resources to consider.
Find Low-Cost Ways to Advertise
Now Hear This!
Getting the word out about your business doesn’t need to cost much money. Begin by establishing an online presence. Potential customers will want to visit your website. Be proactive. Provide answers to common questions, making it easier to convert their interest into sales. If you have not done so already, create social media channels for your brand. Facebook and Twitter are popular places to start. Depending on the demographics of your target market, you may want to try others, too. If you are targeting older individuals, a direct mail campaign could be the most cost-effective solution.
Consider Running a Special
To increase the probability of generating a sale, offer a special one-time deal, like a two-for-one promotion or a gift. You might do the same for current customers who refer friends or family members. When someone purchases your product or services, please give them a reason to continue trading with you. Consider offering discounts for future purchases. These sales tactics can kickstart your business and give you the financial boost you seek.
Determine Which Functions to Outsource
Savvy entrepreneurs know that managing labor is a critical component for success. They live by the principle of “do what you do best and let others do the rest.” We are fortunate to live in a time when we can contract relatively inexpensive outside resources. To ensure accuracy and minimize risk, outsourcing financial management and payroll is advisable. Outsourcing recovers time to focus on more urgent tasks. Using an automatic payroll solution provides other benefits, like automatic calculations and paying taxes. Payroll apps are available for both iOS and Android. Taking on too much responsibility can lead to burnout and costly mistakes. Think about outsourcing to reduce stress and improve your productivity.
Improve Your Business Acumen
As your business grows, your focus will shift to your management and leadership skills. Taking college-level business courses or earning an MBA could be a difference-maker. Unlike a traditional college experience, online degree programs make it easier to maintain your business while you learn. Continually update your skills to ensure long-term success.
Financial setbacks can happen to anyone. They can be incredibly distracting when you are trying to establish a new business. You may feel discouraged and lose confidence in yourself. Well-meaning family and friends may pressure you to get a traditional job and forgo your dreams altogether. Don’t let setbacks discourage you from pursuing your dreams of entrepreneurship. Expect to suffer difficult situations. Build contingencies into your plan to weather challenging times.
New Century Dynamics provides excellent executive search and management consulting to the service industry. To learn how New Century Dynamics can help your business, contact James E. Weber at JimWeber@newcenturydynamics.com.
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This week I had an interesting conversation with a senior executive recently released from a major brand. Let’s call him John. He has the benefit of an Outplacement Program, which will be helpful as he has not had to look for a new job in a very long time. He reconnected with me to discuss his situation and to seek my help. John was interested in my opinion of his goals relative to the current market for his skill set.
John gave me the background on his separation, saying that it related primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic. His former company is restructuring to better adapt to the competitive situation, eliminating his position. He went on to say that their culture has deteriorated. He said it had reached a point where he no longer felt comfortable working there. He was upbeat about his prospects, however.
John’s recap surprised me as his company has executed a successful re-positioning program. It has been rocking the market. I was disappointed to hear about their current situation. I had thought their culture was far stronger given their recent success.
When I ask job seekers to describe the ideal situation they seek, I usually hear the same response. People are looking for a growing brand with products they respect. They want to join a company that is a good corporate citizen with a healthy culture that rewards excellence. You know, utopia. More precisely, a major brand like the one they just left, only better. John was not an exception. He is looking for the same thing. However, he will soon learn that his opportunity is with emerging brands, not established companies.
The demand for people like John is with companies that can only aspire to his ideal at some future date. Even before the effects of the pandemic, employers were more focused on maintaining their competitive position and profitability than building a culture for long-term success. These companies are struggling to remain relevant.
I do not mean to say that no one is trying to create a great work environment. I have several clients, albeit mostly startups and emerging brands, that are making an effort to build distinctive cultures. They are following established models that support standard management practices. I applaud their wisdom and enjoy helping them staff their team.
Other clients have become spectacular failures, in part because they did not make it a priority to create a culture supportive of their ambitions. In some cases, the culture was rotten at the very top of the organization. In one situation, the Executive Team was so out of sync regarding strategy and execution that they inadvertently created a chaotic environment. The result was Chapter 11 reorganization and, ultimately, liquidation of the business. I could write a book about that situation, but the short story is an excellent concept destroyed by incompetent leadership.
Maintaining a culture to support success through each stage of a company’s life cycle is not easy. Share on XOften, the people who helped you through startup, for example, are not viable as you move into rapid growth employing professional managers. Some people will be able to adapt to the challenge, but others won’t. How do you tell an employee that helped the brand achieve the initial success that they cannot go to the promised land? All you can do is make their separation as positive as possible, recognizing them for their contribution to the company.
Having completed a bit of research, I found a rich bibliography for your consideration. Much of what I found describes how to build a culture of excellence. I have provided links at the end of this article if you are interested in further reading.
Healthy cultures do not just happen. It requires a concerted effort. I have seen the powerful effect of a rigorous focus in this regard. Companies that build their cultures enjoy the benefits of sustained success, including a definite recruiting advantage. If you believe you have a competitive product and an effective strategy, ensure success by focusing on your culture. This effort will probably require the help of outside resources. There are many firms to consider that will enrich your process with credibility and expertise. Their experience will help you proceed at a quicker pace while avoiding common mistakes. If you want to build a culture of excellence, I suggest you get started immediately and reach out to professionals for help and guidance.
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“But pattern-matching doesn’t equal comprehension.” Peter Watts
Stephen H Dawson, DSL
The thought of finding a perfect job applicant to fill any role in any organization seems impossible. It seems impossible because it is impossible. It is impossible because people are imperfect. They are imperfect as they tend to change over time.
The matching work at hand involves much more than only considering a suitable match between the job applicant and each role you have to fill. It also involves considering the match between the job applicant and the organization. Remember, your organization includes any matrix-supplied folks involved in doing work with your people, your customers, your strategic partners, and your supply chain network. The job analysis we discussed last week may not have included these attributes. However, they need to be in there. If they are not, then the job analysis must be revised to include them as applicable.
OK, let’s proceed from the point of having a satisfactory job analysis as we consider job applicants to see if you have a viable candidate for each role you need to fill. We need to first look at some terms before looking at applicants. These facts may seem harsh, but they are a crucial part of your assessment work.
ORGANIZATION ANTIBODIES
An antibody does the work to neutralize either a pathogenic bacteria or virus. The intent of the pathogenic is to help, but it instead causes harm. An organization antibody is a person who does not want to follow your leadership. They resist your leadership either passively or actively.
Nicholas Evans described how an antibody could suffer the pursuit of innovation. Evans cited an article by Mitra Best, who described antibodies in a corporate setting. Both Evans and Best provided recommendations about how to remediate each antibody form. What they did not do address in their writings is why an organization antibody has so much power over their boss.
Think about the folks in your organization who have been there a long time. They have not been promoted to a senior role because they have either a character deficiency, a skills deficiency, or both. They hold the belief they know it all and tell anyone who will listen to them they know it all. This person is an example of an organization antibody. Deep down, they believe they are running the organization. They believe they are doing what is best for the organization. They refuse to listen to reason. Therefore, they have no ability to have cognitive awareness to know they are causing harm. They are as cancer is to the body.
CANCER
Cancer is a disease defined by abnormal cell growth. It is possible cancer could be misinterpreted as a nodule, a small bump. A small bump could occur due to one of several conditions. The indication of a cancer being present does not appear until cancer grows to be a problem. Untreated cancer spreads in a condition known as metastasis. Early testing for cancer helps to overcome cancer unawareness. The value of proper testing here is beyond measure.
I shared several weeks back, “I cannot say a person is evil, as I do not believe it is possible. I can say their actions are or are not evil.” I maintain this position. I shared a few weeks later about evil. The attributes of organization antibodies and cancer have considerable overlap with one another. They both have no ability to have cognitive awareness to know they are causing harm. They both consume a massive amount of resources as they spread. They both spread through the host, either the body or the organization, in a progressive manner. The rate of spreading is inconsistent, so not relative to objective analysis. They both have a high mortality rate, both literally and figuratively.
An organization member allowed to mature into an organization antibody is an event that does not occur overnight. It is without question the presence of an organization antibody is the result of a failure by leadership, human resources, and learning & development. Note I do not identify either a manager or a team leader as responsible here. I hold this position because their roles are not able to have an overarching view of the organization. The reasons for such failures are endless, but the leadership, human resources, and learning & development staff hold collective responsibility for the damages caused by an organization antibody.
I hold the position the only way to treat an organization’s antibody is to remove them from the organization and place their leader on a rapid performance improvement plan. If I do not see substantial adherence to the performance improvement plan by their no-longer leader in my eyes, then their no-longer leader is no longer a part of my organization. The corrective action to address the human resources poor performance is to replace the human resources business partner serving my organization immediately. The corrective action to address the learning & development staff performance is to replace their leader serving my organization and place all learning & development staff on a rapid performance improvement plan. All activities and I mean all activities, performed by the learning & development staff for my organization cease until there is credible evidence they are each qualified to perform learning & development work. The support necessary for the human resources and learning & development staff corrective actions may require support from your boss. You should be able to get it without difficulty since you have credible proof of the harm caused to the organization by their respective failures to deliver quality work.
SKILLS
The term credential is the combination of work experience, education, degrees, certifications, and licenses earned and held by an individual that each has relevance to each role you need to fill in your organization. These individual credentials then feed into forming organization credentials. All aspects of any credential must be validated during the job application process by your organization. You must hold, without a doubt, a clear understanding of the abilities each job applicant holds today. What credentials they held in the past may be nice to know, but that was then. You are evaluating now.
Gaining credentials from a source that is not accredited is possible, but the validation process becomes much more costly to accomplish. It may not be possible to validate a credential that is not from an accredited source. A non-validated credential is termed as hope but not a credential.
PERSONALITY
We discussed last week the value of third-party testing. The cost of testing each applicant may not be worth the expense. The need is still present to know the personality of each applicant. If you do not have the ability to fund personality testing a job applicant you advance to candidate status to know if they are a viable candidate, then your ability to advance applicants through your evaluation process is reduced. How much of a risk can you afford to take at this point in the assessing-to-matching process?
You have rooted out those job applicants who do not hold the skills necessary to fill each role you need to be filled in your organization. You know you cannot afford to interject harm to your organization by bringing in an organization antibody. You are wondering if you can afford to measure a personality without an objective third-party test. The answer is you cannot. You will have to bear the risk of going forward without measuring personality should you chose not to use third-party personality testing. This risk will have to be managed as any other risk.
WORLDVIEW
We discussed worldview a few weeks back. You are wondering how the applicant’s worldview matches both your worldview and the worldview held by those in your organization. You can get this information from the screening call. I addressed last week how to go about this action during the interview you conduct with them. Specifically, you are looking for their position on social and political matters. You must follow fair employment laws to be a credible leader. So, how do you get this information?
You get this information by asking three questions. One question focused on a social aspect. One question focused on a political aspect. Then, one question overlapping both a social and political aspect. Use three different aspects in these three questions. Write the questions to be as figurative as possible. Look for timeless topics common across all cultures, present in all points of history, having reasonable belief they will be present in the future. These answers will provide you enough information to know if you have an applicant that can advance to a candidate.
RECOMMENDATIONS
If you are matching applicants without a third-party personality evaluation, then you must accomplish this evaluation in the next step of your interviewing process. You cannot experience success in finding a suitable candidate without performing a clear personality evaluation. Prepare for the costs of third-party personality evaluations.
Record all screening calls. Have the calls transcribed. Read the entire transcript. Listen to the parts of the audio recording you find interesting by way of the transcript.
Match the notes of the person conducting the screening call to the call transcript. Identify any mismatch in what the caller observed in comparison to the response of the applicant. This mismatch will help you understand if there is a personality or worldview mismatch with your organization. It will also help you qualify the work of the person conducting the screening call. This collective understanding will arrive because you have a satisfactory job analysis, you wrote the questions for the screening call, and you placed boundaries on the screening call. This reasoning is found in the plan we discussed last week.
I recommend you take time this week to consider the impact of an organization antibody in your organization. Prepare your screening call questions based on the material we covered this week. Finally, look for providers of counseled results interpretation to assist you in selecting applicants to become candidates based on the plan we discussed last week.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” John Rockefeller
Let’s talk today about you as a leader. You seem to be a good leader who is looking to become a great leader. You are not operating in fear. You are working to accomplish your strategic planning, but it is not going so well. We have discussed at length you have decided you need to swap out some of your people to have the work finished with excellence. Your power as a leader is about to be challenged in a way that you may not be prepared to handle. It will be challenged because you are implementing a construct to your leadership style that involves loving your followers. My friend, prepare to be soon hated by more people than you realize now.
Love, hate, power. These are big words that will take many conversations to cover appropriately. Today, let’s focus on the term power.
There are many types of power. You know this is true, or you would not be in a leadership role now. The essence of power is possessing some form of harnessed energy. We need to focus our conversation about power on the aspects of social combined with political and then economic. Let’s have a conversation today based on the power attributes of supply, demand, and outage.
You supply leadership to your followers through three components. First, whatever higher power you may have helping you do whatever it is you do to live this thing called life. Second, you possess concise, tangible, relevant skills transferable to many roles to do endless amounts of work. Finally, the enablement assigned to you by your boss is commensurate with your role in your organization. You then take these components and do your work as a leader. All components are not equal among all people, as not everyone has the benefit of the same higher power, obtained the same skills, and have the same enablement assigned to them. Therefore, all leaders are not able by this construct to be as effective. Some leaders may be more effective than others, while other leaders may be less effective.
Note I did not say you need an office, telephone, a budget, or any other tool necessary to accomplish your role as a leader. These items are conditional based on the state of your work environment. What you need is a suitable combination of skills and choices applied to your leadership role. The higher power and enablement parts are not from you, as they are delivered to you.
The doing part of your role is the manifestation of your leadership components. Doing your leading by way of humility encapsulates the power components in a manner greater than any combination I know of to accomplish leadership. There may be a more effective combination out there, but I have not found it.
How does humility fit into the power aspect of leadership? Compare the definition of humility with the definition of power. They are both nouns. A noun is accomplished through a verb. So, what verb to use to accomplish both humility and power? I recommend doing what we discussed in the verb of love. There is no prideful act of love, only a humble act of love. So, our conversation today will match power, humility, and love in accomplishing your role as a leader.
Preparing your humility to deliver love could be a larger effort than a single discussion will suffice to accomplish. You need to tell me about your humbleness for me to know how to best equip you for success. I leave it to you to tell me about your humbleness.
DEMAND
I shared a few weeks ago you are now in organization design mode as you move to replace some of the people in your organization. You will find out quickly who in your organization wants to do their work by way of the plan you have shared with them to use love to accomplish the strategic planning work, along with all of the other work performed in your organization. I make this statement based on the social and political power struggle present in many nations today. If you need me to cite some examples of this struggle, then I doubt you would be in the leadership role you fill now.
The demand for your leadership by followers could come as acceptance, rejection, or conditional acceptance. The acceptance-rejection-conditional combination is the same layout as the love-hate-ambivalence combination we discussed a few weeks back. You will find leading and loving people are an inseparable pair. Note I did not say leadership. A leader may be successful or unsuccessful in their leadership. A successful leader always leads. An unsuccessful leadership effort means the leader is not leading.
Your leadership power supply is being refused by two of these three options. Take the actions I shared with you recently to resolve any refusal by your followers. The rest of your folks want the leadership you are supplying, as they have accepted your Love Action Items list. Furthermore, they processed effectively your communications involved with you teaching your people the four definitions of love. This group is now your organization. The folks who have either rejected or accepted conditionally your new construct to your leadership style that involves loving your followers are on the way out of your organization. They are trying to usurp your leadership with their power, per their choice not to follow you any longer. This condition does not exist in a productive organization. It is at this point your hope of finding suitable applicants for the roles you wish to fill becomes larger than it was before you realized who else must leave your organization.
Sure, it is great to look for replacement people without telling anyone. This approach is both unrealistic and not advised. The power held today by text messaging, instant messaging, and social networking is greater than any individual ability to stay ahead of such communications. Do not try to overcome either of these powerful forms. I encourage you to execute the plan we covered last week.
Finally, be prepared to have healthy demands placed on your leadership that you did not expect to occur. The demands could come from either your people or people outside of your organization. Preparation for this likelihood is best accomplished by having a qualified executive leadership team ready to assist your leadership efforts. Remember, you may need to be more humble during this unexpected demand to help those needing your leadership to be sustained while you move to supply them the leadership you did not expect you would need to deliver.
OUTAGE
The loss of your leadership supply by demand for anything more than you can supply in terms of either quantity or quality results in a leadership power outage. An outage can be either intermittent or sustained. Your people during a leadership power outage are unable to work because they have no leader supplying them the power they need to do their work, all while doing it humbly through love. The means to overcome this outage is to add more power to your Love Action Items list. This outage condition could occur for several reasons. It is not a skills problem, as you acquire the skills you need before you need them to serve as a qualified leader…don’t you?
I am not saying a leadership power outage means you are bankrupt as a leader. Neither am I am saying your leadership is unequivocally a toxic debt held by your followers, your organization, or your investors. I am saying that those in demand of your leadership power are having to wait to take delivery of your leadership power supply. They may be able to work for a while in the absence of your leadership power supply, but they will not be productive for long without your leadership power supply to them. If they could last without your leadership power supply, then you are no longer needed in your leadership role.
I discussed the topic of leadership power with my strategic partner David Daniels. Dave shared judicious insight on the topic. “I have been in situations where over half of my leadership team needed to go. Now, I didn’t feel that it was prudent to let them all go at the same time, so I had to prioritize my decisions and approach. I rarely found that demotions worked, so I tried avoiding this tactic at all costs. However, I did find some people a fit for other positions if they shared my values and goals.” Dave went on to say, “I would insert strong external leaders who share my vision and values. I would not place them in any position right away, as I would want them going through a thorough onboarding process over a couple of months that would allow them access to every aspect of the business. The input that you would receive from this group will prove to be invaluable when assessing your final executive leadership team make-up.” Dave and I agree the executive leadership team is a crucial resource for any leader of an organization.
JUDGMENT
Sure, the best-case scenario is to have your leadership power supply in balance with the demand for follower leadership power consumption. We see this balance in just-in-time manufacturing, teaching, and learning. The Wall Street Journal reported recently the automotive industry has abandoned this half-century methodology due to present economic climate turbulence. However, this balancing is rare in the practice of leadership. It is best to plan for leading an organization that needs help to stay balanced due to unforeseen obstacles introduced to your organization.
The realization of fame and fortune by leadership occurs after doing the work of leadership, as do all forms of payment for accomplished work. The social and political power struggle present in many nations today not only impairs your ability to lead by adding more voices to consider, but it also makes your work much easier to accomplish. It is easier to accomplish because love delivered through humility during the practice of leadership encapsulates the three identified power attributes of supply, demand, and outage in a manner greater than any combination I know of to accomplish leadership. You now have greater clarity of your leadership work than in recent years due to this social and political power struggle.
The world is forming to a great struggle of one side versus the other for the acquisition of power for almost all aspects of humanity. Humanity has seen this before, and it will most likely see it again. This time it is a different struggle, as there is the presence of significant information technologies assisting each side. This struggle is not going to be an easy experience for anyone. Use the energy concept we covered a few weeks back to leverage the social and political struggle to your advantage. You have plenty of room in this landscape to realize success even though others around you may not be operating in either humility or love. If you are sold this combination is the best means for you to succeed, then now is the time to use them as the form of power you need to wield to realize success as a leader. Finally, since there is no reason to stop being humble or to stop loving people, this combination comprises the bulk of your leadership strategy henceforth.
I encourage you to spend time this week completing your materials summary, your Love Action Items list and schedule the first meeting with your boss based on the plan we covered last week. Also, spend some time thinking about how those both in and those working with your organization want to gain power over you as a leader. Finally, think about how you can defeat such attempts to overcome you by responding with love. Remember, there are four definitions for the term love. Use all of them as appropriate to lead with excellence.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
There is an old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.“ 2020 was a difficult year, surreal even. We were challenged in ways we never imagined. Without a doubt, we have been living in interesting times.
Suffering life challenges can be difficult, notwithstanding your financial situation. Issues of life and death are a primary example. The burden of many challenges, however, is relative to one’s financial situation. One’s ability to easily navigate adversity depends upon how you have structured your life and prepared for predictable challenges. Share on X The more resources available, the better you can weather a surprise. You can mollify a crisis or avail yourself of opportunities. Do you have enough physical and financial resources available if required? It is good to have options.
This past week I was confronted with a non-life-threatening situation which is, nevertheless, a disruption. I learned that my favorite ride, my Nissan 350 Z Roadster is kaput. It is a sad situation as it is a well-maintained, clean machine. The body is in excellent condition, with no dings or scratches, and new tires all around. I must admit, it was fun to drive, and it complemented my image.
The problem is the transmission. It requires repairs that cost more than the fair market value of the car. To be honest, this wasn’t a total surprise as it is a 2005 model, with 175,000 miles of drive time. Other components need to be replaced, as well, including a new AC compressor, and a motor for the retractable top. I am happy that I deferred those repairs. They would have been a total waste, throwing good money after bad. Even so, I expected to enjoy the Z a few more years. After all, as a two-car family, it was driven less than 11,000 miles per year.
If this had occurred earlier in my life it may have caused greater concern. Fortunately, I have flexibility and options. Neither my wife nor I must commute to a job requiring each of us to have a car. We are both entrepreneurs managing home-based businesses. That fact alone moderates the temporary loss of one car. Yes, we need transportation to meet with clients, vendors, and colleagues. However, as we control our schedules, we can work around that issue. We do not have children at home, especially teenagers who need transportation. If so, I would be a bit more stressed. Today, we have additional options such as Uber and Lyft. I can even contract a short-term car rental. Clearly, I have options to cope with the situation.
The loss of my Z is a minor inconvenience. We have a lifestyle that reduces our dependence on automobiles, and the resources to recover. It can be instructive, however, for businesses and families especially with the Covid-19 pandemic fresh in our minds. We have heard about companies hammered by the lock-down because their business models could not adapt. Conversely, other businesses were perfectly situated to thrive in the lock-down. Still, others adapted with minor adjustments. Understand, the pandemic and related mitigating factors were not a complete surprise. Prominent people had predicted that a pandemic was an imminent threat. Even so, I have not heard of a single company that took the warning seriously enough to develop contingency plans.
As you have deduced by now, this post is not about the loss of my Z. It is about the way we organize our personal and professional lives to cope with risk. Life’s challenges are unavoidable and come at you fast. Fortunately, most are predictable. Given recent experience, you may want to perform a risk assessment. Maybe even segregate risks by time frame, i.e., one to three years, three to five years, and over five years. Then, determine the actions required to minimize those risks and their associated costs. With that information, you can determine the funds to set aside. If the risk is insurable, you will know how much insurance to buy. At the end of this process, you will have the framework of a disaster recovery plan.
It is good to have options! I will miss my Z. Life goes on.
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Art and Bart were college buddies at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!). They both graduated from the school of Landscape Architecture and went on to work at various companies to gain experience and knowledge. In 2014, they each embarked on opening their own Landscaping business, Art on the Northside of Atlanta and Bart on the Southside of Atlanta. Each started slowly, but by the end of 2018, through hard work and talent, they had each established very successful businesses with the following financials at the end of 2018:
ART’S LANDSCAPING
BART’S LANDSCAPING
Revenue 2018
$4,800,000
$4,800,000
Number of customers 2018
500
500
Revenue per customer /month
$800
$800
net adds / churn per month*
0.5%
0.5%
At the beginning of 2019, a large landscaping company, Grass R Us, established 4 new franchises in the Atlanta area with a heavy advertising campaign and an initial price offering 10% lower than Art and Bart. This resulted in a change of net adds/churn to -2.75% per month. Through the end of June, Art and Bart had each lost about 75 customers and over $60,000.
Art felt confident that he knew his business and knew the market. He had anecdotal information from some of his crew that the lower prices offered by Grass R Us was the issue. So, as of July 1, Art lowered his prices across the board by 10%. This did have an immediate effect of decreasing net adds/churn to -1.5% per month. The overall result for Art’s business at the end of the year was a loss of about 114 customers and over $90,000. He wasn’t happy about the outcome, but by swiftly lowering his prices, Art believed he had averted a much larger hit on his business.
On the other side of town, Bart was faced with the same issue. But Bart remembered another old friend from UGA, Suzanne, who was in the Master of Marketing Research (MMR) Program. Suzanne was now working for a small research agency in Atlanta. Bart called Suzanne and asked her if she could help him with his problem. Suzanne designed a marketing research study for Bart to identify the core issues causing his customers to move to Grass R Us. Although the cost of the research was $30,000 and would take 6 weeks to complete, Bart felt that having good information would help him make a better decision.
The research was executed by Suzanne’s company, and the results indicated that the most important issue was NOT cost. Bart’s customers were satisfied with Bart’s service and pricing but were drawn to Grass R Us by fancy marketing and a highly promoted 100% guarantee. Bart decided, that, unlike his friend Art, he would not lower prices, but started to promote his own written 100% guarantee in September. Not only did the loss of customers stop, but net adds soared to +4.0% per month! By the end of the year, Bart had lost only about 32 customers and just over $25,000. Including the cost of the marketing research, Bart lost about $15,000 less than his buddy Art!
Projecting out to the next year, if everything remains equal, Art will continue to lose customers at a rate of about 5 per month and will lose an additional $50,000+. Bart, on the other hand, will gain about 20 customers per month and increase revenues over the year by over $200,000!
Although this is a hypothetical example, we are left with two important lessons. First, the cost of doing marketing research is justified by the savings in cost or increases in revenue experienced through better, data-based decisions. And second, whenever possible, hire a graduate of the UGA MMR program to lead your marketing research!
Carl Fusco
Carl Fusco is an accomplished Marketing Research Consultant who helps businesses more effectively solve problems by applying research techniques and data-based insights. For more information, email him at carl_fusco@yahoo.com or call him at 770-364-7160.
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“Truth is like the Sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” Elvis Presley
Dr. Stephen H Dawson
Ah, the search for truth. I see the term truth as a singular term. There are parts of the truth we understand, but never all of the truth. If someone understood all truth, then they would be omniscient. We covered our understanding of truth last week when we considered the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue. Today, let’s talk about how to assess the folks who have applied to work in your organization to help accomplish the strategic planning work that you need to be accomplished by your organization.
I have encouraged during our time together that appropriate research be accomplished when considering all things. I shared research is part of how I have worked for years in a research-before-action mode. I provided examples of this belief. I cautioned against analysis paralysis. I described the differences between looking and reading. You now need to read through the applications submitted by the folks who want to come work for you. Let’s go through some of the facts you face, and see how you can best identify some qualified candidates.
ROLE CONSTRUCTION
The means to define a role in your organization begins with the job analysis. Work is performed to understand what each role needs to accomplish, how each role needs to accomplish the work, and the resources used by each role. The job analysis work is then finished and termed as the job analysis asset. A subset of the job analysis asset then forms the job definition asset. A subset of the job definition asset then forms the job announcement asset. A person is then sought to fill each role in your organization to do the job required by each role.
APPLICANT TRACKING
An applicant selected for consideration to fill a role you have in your organization is then called a candidate. The applicant tracking system is valuable for keeping track of applicant information. It alone is not valuable to evaluate applicants for their match to any role. A resume or CV can be padded with loads of terms, matched with a fake cover letter, only to waste much time. I have found no resume parsing technology worth using. The screening call must occur by telephone to know with any degree of certainty if a candidate is a potential match to a role. The screening could occur in person, but it has been my experience this screening step best occurs by telephone conversation. Meaningful applicant screening cannot occur until after the screening call when a qualified subject matter expert can speak with the candidate and find out how much truth resides in their application package.
Now, all of these laws, requirements, and guidelines can be averted with ease. Person A has a job to fill. Person B applies for the job to work for Person A. Person A tells Person C to read through the many social networking options available to accomplish research on Person B. Person C then tells Person A verbally what they found out about Person B.
This plan has been around for millenniums. It provides plausible deniability to Person A that they have not violated an employment discrimination law. This plan also introduces the possibility of improper research occurring along with the possibility of incorrect interpretation of either the proper or improper research. It also furthers the possibility Person B did not maintain the necessary confidentiality of Person A. The hassles here are not worth the risks. I do not endorse this plan. My linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue would not consider this plan, but the plan is possible for anyone to perform.
THIRD-PARTY TESTING
The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator and the Strong Interest Inventory are workable options to help meet your needs to understand the personality held by each candidate. The ProfileXT assessment includes an assessment of candidate’s cognitive ability. A suitable personality assessment helps to understand a candidate, but personality testing alone is insufficient to understand the potential match between each role you need to be filled and each candidate’s ability to fill each role. This testing could be used in combination with other applicant evaluation methods. I am leery of using a third-party test alone to evaluate anyone or anything. I hold this concern because there are still too many gaps in the picture to get to the truth of an applicant’s ability to join my organization and do the work I need to be accomplished.
I look at the pile of job applications and wonder if it is possible to find a candidate suitable to meet my needs. I get tired from reading the applications. I get overwhelmed by the work I need to be accomplished by my people getting further behind. Sound familiar? I experienced this pain for years. I finally said enough to this way of working and decided to gain the help of someone who is qualified to meet my needs by paying them to fill a short-term role in my organization.
COUNSELED RESULTS INTERPRETATION
A podiatrist is someone who I do not need all of the time in my life. However, should I need work performed on my foot, then I want to talk to someone who knows how to help solve my foot problem. I also want someone qualified to work on my foot. Do you remember our discussion about heavy equipment operation? The same principles from that discussion hold true to your need for help to find suitable applicants to consider.
I do not see a straight line to finding a suitable applicant for any role in today’s world. There are too many changes occurring in global commerce, social, and political landscapes to plan for an organization to have any worker remain their entire work career with any organization. I cannot afford to endorse any candidate for a role unless I have credible research supporting my endorsement.
I do see the need for strategic foresight. I am both a scholar and practitioner of strategic foresight. Anyone can do some meaningful form of strategic foresight. Just ask a single mother who raised her kids to graduate from school, stay off alcohol and drugs, and stay out of jail. She is living proof strategic foresight can exist at all levels of society.
I do see the need for succession planning. I am both a scholar and practitioner of succession planning. Ask anyone who lived through the changes that occurred during 2020 to tell you their version of succession planning. This planning has a lot to do with contingency planning. Sometimes these planning efforts also benefit from the help of strategic foresight, should strategic foresight be accomplished before it was needed.
What you are trying to avoid is more problems coming to you. You cannot escape the truth your linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue combination must have a suitable overlap with the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue combination held by everyone you bring into your organization. Furthermore, that overlap must also be suitable for those in your organization now to have the inclusion effect occur productively across the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue found in your organization’s culture. Remember, your organization includes any matrix-supplied folks involved in doing work with your people, your customers, your strategic partners, and your supply chain network.
What you are hoping for is the reality of truth helping you both find and select a suitable job applicant for each role you need to be filled in your organization. You are hoping one candidate will stand out among the rest, or at least find you have no appropriate candidates. Light helps with eliminating darkness, yes?
My recommendation to help you find some qualified candidates from the job applicants you have now is to evaluate their personality and worldview. This consideration will help to diversify your organization by walking out the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue held by everyone involved in working with each role you need to be filled by your selected job applicant. You are going to face their personality and worldview eventually. It is best to understand both of them during the assessment process.
You do not need a counselor to help you interpret the skills held by an applicant. The skills form a clear set of credentials. If applicant skills are not clear, then they are not qualified to become a candidate.
A match by personality to a role is realized by also matching skills and worldview. An espoused worldview is the most straightforward means I have found to understand more about a person. Their personality and skills may help me understand their worldview, but it is not a guarantee. Personality may be situational. Worldview is often continual. Skills are often temporal.
I urge keeping the screening call bound to a list of predefined questions prepared by you. This approach will help assure the person conducting the screening call does not attempt to interject an interview approach you do not approve of. It will also help assure all applicants are evaluated fairly.
If I were you, then I would select someone who can prove to me they can help me accomplish the candidate assessments and interpret the results of each assessment by their provable work history along with the education and certifications they hold. I would check their references. I would ask for examples of their already accomplished relevant work. I would also take their assessment of the first person they assess and run it by some other qualified professionals. I know the second person will want to do their own assessment, but it is worth an objective review by an objective person. If the second person refuses to interpret the first person’s work results, then I would not ask for any further help from the second person. I know my family doctor and podiatrist share their research and findings. So, other qualified professionals can do the same sharing of materials they are qualified to interpret.
I recommend you take time this week and consider how you desire to gain a deeper understanding of the personality and worldview of each applicant you are considering for each role you need to fill. The best means I have found to understand a person’s worldview is to ask them the following question: what is your worldview? I also recommend you select some third-party personality testing sources to use with your applicant after they pass their first interview with their potential boss.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
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“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” Max De Pree
Stephen H Dawson, DSL
There is only one person who matters when defining what must be done in any situation. That person is our self. The reality of our impact both now and tomorrow is the challenge of living what we believe by doing what we believe. This impact is the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue.
We are working to resolve your delay in accomplishing your strategic planning work by swapping out some folks in your organization. You have decided to become what you need to be by not remaining what you are now. You are completing your materials summary, your Love Action Items list, and scheduling the first meeting with your boss based on the plan we covered recently. Today, let’s cover what I, in both a dignified and proper manner, call…the stuff. The stuff is the linear combination of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue. Think of them as indispensable blocks to build your life, your organization, your society, your country, and our world.
I held off discussing the stuff with you earlier, as I did not want to overwhelm you with too much to process at one time. You are growing as a healthy leader by going through the process we are working out together. We are not late discussing the stuff, as you are now working on completing your materials summary and your Love Action Items list. Now is the time to discuss the stuff, to help round out your writing and prepare it for your first stop: your boss reviewing your written forthcoming leadership plan.
I will not bore you with the background of the Greek philosophers who became famous from their perspectives on worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue. They did not invent the terms, they do not own the terms, but they did much to help people understand the terms. I appreciate their help in my learning these terms. Yet, we do not answer to them. We answer to reasoning that can withstand scrutiny.
Here is how I see the stuff: No one cares about what I care about in life unless they are willing to pay me for what I care about in life. Their payment to me can come through countless options. I urge you to adopt a similar perspective. I will now teach you all there is to learn about the stuff in less than five minutes, holding our shared understanding that it takes a lifetime for everyone to do the stuff to prove to our self’s we know our stuff.
WORLDVIEW
What a person believes. It is a singular term. It is the list of items a person believes. The listed items do not need to be defined clearly to the person believing them. There is no mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Worldview defines the subset of truth to the person but does not define truth entirely. Share on XOne does only need to believe something for it to be a part of their worldview. Worldview is nothing more than what a person believes.
ETHICS
What a person does. It is a plural term. It is the list of items a person does. The listed items do need to be defined clearly to the person doing them. Each ethic is performed both consciously and purposely. There is a mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Ethics are nothing more than what a person does.
MORALS
What a person must do based only on their worldview. Morality defines right and good. It is a plural term. It is the list of items a person must do as the subset of what they could do to fulfill their worldview. The listed items do need to be defined clearly to the person doing them. Each moral is performed both consciously and purposely. There is a mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Morals are nothing more than what a person believes they must do.
VIRTUES
The items at the top of a person’s morality list. It is a plural term. It is the list of items a person must do as the prioritized subset of what they could do to fulfill their worldview. The listed items do need to be defined clearly to the person doing them. Each virtue is performed both consciously and purposely. There is a mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Virtues are nothing more than what a person believes they must do before doing anything else.
Congratulations. You just mastered understanding the terms worldview, ethic, morality, and virtue. I hold the worldview more folks in this world should master what you just learned.
Please understand it is not my intent to trivialize these terms. It is my intent to keep them from causing you harm. You have been doing the stuff since the moment you took your first breath. You will continue to do the stuff until the moment you take your last breath. It is best, as with all doing, one knows what they are doing after a suitable period of learning occurs. We talked about this consideration when I asked if you wanted me to use heavy equipment before I learned how to operate the heavy equipment.
A common phrase in social and political circles today is moral responsibility. I struggle to find a meaningful definition of this phrase as a term, so I do not identify this phrase as a term. A moral can only be held between two people when they perform similar ethics based on their similar worldviews. What the verbal assailant is doing with this phrase is attacking your virtues, not your morality. It is a form of intellectual cowardice, as they refuse to learn the terminology they use in their statements.
I encourage you to remember the linear relationship between worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue the next time someone tries to push you around with their demand that you supply them your morality as they see fit. Think back to our discussion on power when you hear them place such a demand on you.
CONCLUSION
I know we covered some heavy topics this week. Fear not, for indisputable facts help strengthen your leadership ability. Take the stuff for what it is: your stuff. Remember, there is only one person who matters when defining what must be done in any situation. That person is our self.
I encourage you to spend time this week completing your materials summary, your Love Action Items list and schedule the first meeting with your boss based on the plan we covered recently. Also, consider how your followers speak and act in light of what you have now learned about the stuff. Finally, consider how much of an overlap there is between each follower’s worldview and your worldview by considering what they do…their ethics. We will look at their morality and their virtues during future discussions.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
Standing in the spotlight can be a scary experience. The focus is on the person or persons in the spotlight, while many others view using some form of judgment. Many people in the world today are prepared to attack anyone in any spotlight. It is becoming more and more popular to be nameless and faceless while seeking fame. This combination results from group thinking, not individual thinking, leading to group identity serving as individual identity. This combination is not only silly, but it is also impossible.
Leadership is achieved by people who lead. Group leadership is a flawed concept resulting in a toxic leadership style. It is flawed because the leader-follower relationship involves specific people following a specific person serving as their leader. Team leadership is a viable means to build an organization, either small or large. The definition of team leadership is not the same as the definition of group leadership. Furthermore, both the team and group leadership constructs eradicate the power of signing paychecks. The power is lost because people work for a mysterious team or group definition, not a boss in whatever form a boss exists in the organization structure even though wages are paid every pay cycle. Neither the team nor the group leadership condition forms the employer-employee relationship. Leadership is only successful when a productive leader-follower relationship is present.
We have been working on resolving the impediments suffering the accomplishment of your strategic planning. We concluded you have a people problem, not a worker skills or workspace problem. We have covered many topics preparing for the action item necessary to resolve your most significant impediment: your need to get different people assigned to the work. We talked about the definitions of love. We considered a concept for how to harness the energy supplied to you by love so you can combine the topics we have discussed to help you form a plan to evaluate the candidates you have as you consider offering them a role in your organization where they will help complete your strategic planning work. We acted last week to capture your action items for how you will deliver love to your followers in a table called the Love Action Items list. Today, we will review your work from last week and further prepare it to be understood by those who will report to you in the operation of your organization’s future structure.
YOUR BOSS
Your Love Action Items list requires the support of your boss to be enacted successfully. You require their support and approval for the following reasons. First, you report to them. They must know what you are doing to run your organization. Second, if you hold a similar worldview as the rest of the world that values reason, then you would do well to honor your boss by coming to them for their input, support, and approval of your efforts to run your organization. Third, their role can help provide you access to more resources to develop further your Love Action Items list than the resources you had access to when you built the list you hold in your hand now. Finally, they may shut down your entire effort to run your organization by way of your Love Action Items list.
It is probable your boss will ask how each HOW item matches the organization’s objectives to accomplish the organization’s goals in pursuit of its mission statement. Have a direct match connecting each HOW item to your organization’s objectives presentable in a flow diagram. The diagram can be as simple as boxes with connecting lines and arrowheads showing flow directions. A picture states a thousand words, so use your flow diagrams to your benefit.
It is doubtful your boss will be willing to step through the detail of the materials we have covered up to this point. You will need to summarize in writing the materials we have covered for them to understand better what you are bringing to them. They will most likely need to take some time to step through your materials summary and your Love Action Items list. The best-case scenario is they meet with you a few times to cover your materials summary and your Love Action Items list.
TEST IT OUT
Take your Love Action Items list and run it by some people who are not in your organization. Take it to people who will not share the Love Action Items list with anyone in your organization at this point. This anonymity empowers both you and them to be as transparent as possible in your discussions with them. I am not saying they must agree 100% with everything you have contained in your Love Action Items list. I am saying listen to their reasoning and modify your Love Action Items list by further development as appropriate.
If your Love Action Items list does not contain wording sufficient to satisfy all cognitive levels present in your organization, then you must wordsmith your Love Action Items list to the point all members of your organization can understand clearly the message of each HOW item, understand how each HOW item matches a specific love definition, and why they will benefit by doing the items on your Love Action Items list. The items are your words stating your leadership plan. This Love Action Items list is work you must accomplish without outside writing assistance. It is understood you will use outside editorial assistance to refine your Love Action Items list after you have written it as a draft.
You testing your Love Action Items list also involves discussing your list with your organization’s general counsel and then with your organization’s human resources after you complete discussions with your general counsel. This strategy assurances all codified requirements match the construct of your Love Action Items list by those who are qualified to make this interpretation. Then, your time with human resources assures their support both to you and to any follower of your leadership who feels they are not being treated fairly by the HOW items in your Love Action Items list.
My strategic partner David Daniels shared with me his input on dealing with the people problems at this point in the process. “Every organization has an IN group and an OUT group. NO company avoids this dynamic. Diverse input, can be sidetracked by those that are perceived to be in control. Share on XOften, when this attitude prevails, many employees feel isolated and not included. The result: you get the prevailing wisdom from those who already maintain the dominant position in your organization. This critical part in the strategic process gets derailed and the CEO loses the ability to surface great ideas that could move the company forward.” David went on to say, “Engaging the GC & HR lead is important, but they may be part of the IN group and will resist giving up their power and influence. The CEO needs an extremely competent Chief Diversity Officer who reports directly to the CEO. This person can identify the IN group to guide them to a much better place demonstrating how to include all relevant voices. Please remember, Diversity is far more than race, gender, sexual preference, etc.”
David and I agree on the central point of your role in your organization. You run your organization. You are seeking the input of the general counsel and human resources. You, after gaining their input, then must make the decision to run your organization.
LIGHT IT UP
You are now ready to take your Love Action Items list and write the job announcements for each role replacement you need to be filled to help accomplish your strategic planning work. Your efforts to this point will connect all of the materials we have covered with the focus of using love to energize the light to shine on these job announcements. Plan to post the job announcements in as many ways possible that are suitable for your organization’s privacy requirements.
It is then time to accomplish communications with your organization’s members of the changes you have decided to make. The communications must include you teaching your people the four definitions of love. It is best you do not accomplish these communications before posting the job announcements. You are the leader of the organization. You are acting appropriately to resolve some people problems in your organization that impair the accomplishment of your organization’s strategic planning. There is nothing about your people replacement decision needing the approval of your followers at this point.
The best-case scenario is anyone who does not want to follow your leadership by way of your Love Action Items list will complain about you as a person, not your leadership. This complaint is a misdirection effort to hide the fact they do not want to act in accordance with the items you have listed in your Love Action Items list. The good news here is you are now able to see clearly who no longer wants to follow your leadership, you see perhaps a bit more of why your strategic planning work is not progressing as you prefer, and you have the opportunity to discuss with the complainers why your Love Action Items list is written as it is for you to lead your organization.
If this discussion, not discussions, is not successful for the complainer to understand fully the future of the organization you lead, then the complaining follower will need to leave your organization. Your single discussion, combined with the well-written contents of your Love Action Items list and associated communication materials, serves as more than enough for any adult worker to understand how your organization will now operate. The time you spent with your boss, your general counsel, and human resources sharing the material we have covered and your work to develop your Love Action Items list will pay off for you immensely. You may be a bit rattled by either the person or persons who complain, but there is no place for either you or them to stand on the same ground anymore. You made the decision for how you both need and want to run your organization. It is now time for you to fulfill your leadership decision.
This review effort may take some time to accomplish. Do not be discouraged at the time and effort necessary to accomplish the review effort. We have other actions we need to accomplish before you start interviewing applicants, so we will be working in parallel with your review effort to achieve these actions as you wait for your reviewers to step through your materials summary, your Love Action Items list, and meet with you.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
In my last article, as part of my series on conducting “good” Marketing Research, I discussed the importance of asking the “Right” Questions, and some of the perils of not doing so.
In this article, I’m going to delve more deeply into the importance of choosing the “Right” people to include in your survey.
Since it is usually impossible (or impractical) to survey ALL of the people in a population, the critical issue in selecting the “Right” people is the sample design. When designing a sample for research, it is critical to watch for and avoid 5 types of errors.
Sampling Error – Sampling error is unavoidable. Whenever you take a sample of observations from a population to estimate that population, you will grapple with sampling error. The sample is never exactly the same as the entire population. However, the good news is that statistical theory provides a method to estimate and minimize the degree of sampling error.
Sampling error is affected primarily by the size of the sample drawn from the population. The larger the sample, the lower the sampling error. Designing an effective sample for a study is balancing the size of the sample with the budget you have for the study.
For example, a random sample of 400 from a large population will yield an estimated sampling error of +/- 4.8% at the 5% level of confidence. This means that you can be 95% sure that the data you generate from your survey will be within +/-4.8% of the population parameter. Of course, a sample of 500 would reduce the sampling error to +/-4.3%. Conversely, a sample of 300 would be less costly but would increase the sampling error to +/-5.6%. Considering sample error only, the sample size decision is based on your budget and your tolerance for error. Does a 0.5% reduction in sampling error justify the additional cost for a sample of 500? Can you accept a 0.8% increase in sampling error with a less costly sample of 300?
You also need to account for any sub-groups that you wish to analyze in your sample. A total sample size of 400 may be adequate for total sample analysis, but if you want to compare results by particular market segments, you may need to increase the total sample size to provide enough observations by segment.
The other four errors are referred to as Non-Sampling Errors. Unfortunately, these errors cannot be measured statistically, but they can be mitigated through careful sample design and selection.
Population Specification Error occurs when the population from which the sample is to be drawn does not match the objectives of the study. For example, I once managed a project to identify the key factors driving the purchase decision of a type of industrial equipment. We interviewed a sample of Purchasing Managers from our target industries who were thought to be the decision-makers for this category. But when we completed the study, the results were inconclusive. Price emerged as the only attribute that was perceived to be important. Further investigation revealed that while the final purchase decision was indeed made by a Purchasing Manager, it was the Plant Engineer who determined the specifications and vendors. The Purchasing Managers only negotiated prices and contract terms and executed the transaction. Repeating the study among Plant Engineers, the more relevant population, identified the key technical specifications that were driving the purchase decision.
Sample Frame Error is similar to Population Specification Error. However, instead of choosing the wrong population, you choose the wrong subgroup or groups from within the population. This error is commonly encountered when a survey is conducted without any quota controls. For example, very often women are more willing to answer consumer surveys than men. Without any controls, your data may be improperly skewed toward women. Setting a minimum quota for men in you sample plan can limit this error. Likewise, if a key constituency of your research is the Latino segment and your survey is programmed only in English, you will likely under-represent the Latino segment.
Self-Selection Error occurs because you can’t force people to answer your surveys; people have the option to respond or not. The results may become biased if those who do select to respond differ substantively from those who do not. This happens a lot in customer satisfaction surveys. People who tend to be dissatisfied are more likely to respond to such a survey to voice their complaints about poor service, introducing a negative bias to your results.
Non-Response Error occurs when there is a practical difference between people who respond and those who fail to respond to your survey. For example, if you are conducting a political poll and the members of one party generally refuse to participate in the survey, your results will be skewed to the opinions of only one party.
Self-selection and Non-response errors are extremely common in almost every type of marketing research. You can’t measure these errors and therefore don’t know the impact on the data you collect. There are ways that you can reduce the impact of these errors by encouraging a higher, more random participation rate by:
Offering incentives (cash, coupons, prize drawings, information) for completed interviews
Utilization of respondent panels made up of people who opt-in to surveys
Short, simple, neat, and clean survey design that encourages participation
A distinct and credible promise of confidentiality and anonymity
A clear description of the purpose of the survey and assurance that it is not a sales pitch
Follow-up with reminder invitations to non-responders
In summary, to interview the “Right” people:
Keep focused on the objectives of the research!
Make sure that you clearly know the identity of your target respondent
Optimize the size of your sample within your budget to minimize sampling error
Clearly identify the Population and Subgroups that define your target respondent
Mitigate self-selection and non-response biases by providing incentives, using opt-in panels, good survey planning, and survey design, assuring confidentiality and anonymity, clearly describing your purpose, and sending reminders
Look for the final installment in this series, Asking at the “Right” Time, next week.
For more on this and other Marketing Research topics, follow me on LinkedIn or reach out to me at carl_fusco@yahoo.com if I can help you in any way.
Carl Fusco
Carl Fusco is an accomplished Marketing Research Consultant who helps businesses more effectively solve problems by applying research techniques and data-based insights.
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