Pandemic Does Not Mean Panic

Some days seems like we are living near an abyss. The news is fascinated with scary stories, new breakouts, death counts, and possible treatments. The medical science may be scarier as highly contagious coronavirus is affecting more than lungs, attacking organs and causing blood clots. Seems like will be uncomfortable or worried forever.

If you have suffered from Covid-19, have sick friends or relatives, lost a loved one, or one of 26+ million & growing unemployed. Am sorry. Rehabilitation, recovery and grief are painful and take a long time. We miss people, our life is disrupted, finances affected, economies struggling, and the end is not in sight.

Life will go on. It always has. Treatments will be improved and successful. Vaccines will be developed and available. We will once again laugh, find work, travel, and see family and friends.

See two ~100 year old pine trees from my window. Trunks are ~3 feet thick and trees are ~70 feet tall. Some disease or discomfort caused the right had tree trunk to split into 2 separate trunks ~1/3 of the way up. 

Look closely at the right hand trunk about 20 feet down from the top. The trunk broke completely off. A strong storm or lighting did it. Did this tragedy stop the tree from growing? No, it simply started growing new shoots off the side of the broken trunk. Every bit as healthy as the twin and neighbor.

These trees provide shelter and food to birds and animals. See eagles resting at the top, and smaller birds below. 

You are going to be like this tree. After dislocation you are going to adapt, grow and thrive. You will mentor, advise, support and love family, friends and neighbors. Benefit from what we are going through. Hard times grow more faith than good times.

People Don’t Succeed by Complaining

It is amazing how many people complain. Way past traffic or the weather. What else is driving them crazy today? Everything and Everyone.

Thing is I don’t see successful people complain. They talk about what is bothering them. Then talk about potential solutions or see if you have any ideas.

Yes I complain at times. Then I catch myself, or get tired of hearing myself. I don’t even want to listen to myself complain.

It is too easy to justify how I want to get it off my chest. But does it help you if I complain? Why should I burden you with my problems?

Our purpose in life is not to be right. Not to be perfect. We are here to help others.

Rather ask how you are doing and listen.

The Great Rewrite

Forbes and KPMG have created this wonderful video series on changing innovation is going to affect us all. Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality. New materials, new energy sources, new manufacturing methods, new intelligence and new tools for the future.

Companies have to go from one or two people to everyone creating innovations.

Please watch some of the videos. How are you going to adapt, thrive and create your own innovations?

What would you like to change?

http://www.forbes.com/kpmg/the-great-rewrite/#/

Happy 100th Birthday Boeing

The original Pacific Aero Products Company celebrates turning 100 today. Boeing is now a huge international company known worldwide. It was originally a few men who believed they could make better airplanes, and they did. From the original B&W Model 1 to the Clipper to WW2’s B-17 to B-52 to 707’s original jet age to 727 to the iconic 747 to the great F-15 to the amazing C-17 and F-18 to today’s 787, Boeing makes wonderful airplanes.

Boeing is the 3^rd company I have worked for with over 100 years of history. Celebrated Colt Firearms 150^th anniversary, and Sargent and Company dated back to 1864 making builders hardware.

What do these companies have in common?

• ·      Innovate great products and services.
• ·      Look out for their customers & end users. They care.
• ·      Always becoming more productive.
• ·      Adapt and adjust to market conditions.
• ·      Always learning, especially from failures.
• ·      Hire and develop great people.

Boeing has “The Incredibles” who built the first 747 in ~16 months while the factory was built around them. Supervisors would sometimes have to walk people out to their cars and watch them leave to make sure they went home for a break. (You cannot pay for performance like that.)

A lot of people will honor Boeing today and it is well deserved. Boeing people “Enthusiastically Tackle Challenges” through the decades, and do so today.

This is the best company ever worked for. What took me so long to get here?

Eating Like a Kid

I eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a minimum of peanut butter and ‘no such thing as too much jelly’. It is the way I like them, health benefits lost be dammed.

You might not think I am a kid being 6’ 3”, gray haired, glasses and well past 50. But that is how I chose to bring my daily lunch.

You wouldn’t know my choice from my sister likes triple peanut butter. She would have liked the way my wife who made them for me putting peanut butter on both sides, which I hated.

My dad loved open-faced peanut and butter sandwiches he grew up with in NJ. His open-faced sandwiches had a normal amount of peanut butter and jelly on one slice of bread.

The point you don’t know what any customer will want. Which peanut and butter mix are you going to offer? Typically we offer others what we like. Instead be prepared to adjust.

Understand your customer’s needs, desires, and fears as well as you can. Listen for complaints and idea. Offer great products and services.  Find customers who want what you do well.

To succeed, really LOVE your customers. Find people who want what you offer and take great care of them. Leads to much more success than being $.01 cheaper.

Spotting Dying Businesses

Do you want to know if your company is dying? Yes for two reasons:

One, you can intervene in the issue and improve your teams results. This puts you in a leader’s role with the resulting salary.

Two, you can be the first to find a new company to work with.  There are advantages knowing what you have to do and having enough time to start the process before you lose your salary, or experience the heartbreak of closing a company.

What are symptoms of a dying company?

1. Not Knowing Who the Customer Is

Big companies love processes. They are good because processes build quality controls and guarantee stable returns on effort. However your customer is not your co-worker who gets handed the work after you are done. He is a partner in satisfying the real customer who chooses and pays for your product & services.

Successful companies fall in love with their customers and dive deeply into their customer’s businesses. That way the company is focus outward, not inward.

2. Not Staying Up with the Times

Stable companies often have the belief their customers won’t change. They have always bought from us and will not leave. That is not true.

Customers retire, go out of business, or die. Businesses are run by people, and people always change.

Second technology changes. Eastman Kodak did not want to kill the film business, which brought in fortunes. The marketing failure was not realizing they could make more profits licensing their technology. Do you realize they could have had a Kodak Camera in every cell phone?

3. Not Creating New Products & Services

Unless 10% to 25% of your sales are new products and services less than 5 years old, your future is looking bleak. Mature products have to fund new investments to stay successful. What percentage of your sales are new products?

4. Illegal Business Practices
Bernie Madoff Ponzi schemes.  Double sets of accounting books. Inside trading. Bribes. Stealing secrets. Drug habits.

Any one of these practices can result in jail time, customers abandoning you, and being unemployable. Time to find new work now, even with a pay cut.

Check on a regular cycle how you and your company are doing. The only constant in life is change. Make sure you are doing everything you can to adapt and thrive.