Innovation never seems to become a dead topic. However, lately it seemed to be less favored by business leaders. And yet, it is becoming clearer that our understanding of innovation is changing. Just yesterday, a client was emphatically telling me that he’ll know his product will be innovative when people buy it. So, maybe innovation is defined by our customers?

Is it who defines it or the process that creates innovation?

In a post from the Ivey Business Journal, Henry Chesbrough posits that how innovation will be managed is evolving as new technologies allow us to connect with one another. Think about where you work. How many innovation sites have been opened over the last few years? In the Greater Boston area, it seems like one is opening all the time.

Chesbrough’s point is that it’s the process that creates innovation but there will be several changes coming in the future.

1. Innovation will be more collaborative. Collaboration will come in many forms. Between technology advances that make it easier to collaborate virtually to including customers in the iterative process of a new product, there will be ideas and opinions exchanged making fora richer experience.

2. Business models have to be adapted. Chesbrough predicts that simply having great ideas is not going to be a sustainable model for a company. He writes, “[t]hrough devices like the business-model canvas of Alex Osterwalder, organizations are learning techniques to visualize both their current business model as well as possible alternative models.”  The effects of the global recession include a re-balancing of where economic growth will come from which will also influence how business models are designed.

3. Service economies and innovation. In his last prediction, Chesbrough notes that the majority of established economies are more geared to services than products. This means that how services are created and provided to the customer must be innovated. Some companies (e.g. Lego) are already moving in this direction. Another thing that Chesbrough notes is that service companies need people but also other options to serve their customers in the best way. He suggests that creating a platform that others can use is a viable way forward in managing innovation.

What do you think?

The way we produce actually may come from how we innovate the process of innovation. This could change the business landscape quite a lot! In the next Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, the focus will be on Chesbrough’s predictions. Some of the discussion questions will include:

• How do you define innovation?
• Assuming innovation is always about new things (e.g. the iPad), are we emphasizing innovation to the detriment of satisfying customer needs?
• How will partnering with customers make innovation more possible? What is the possible downside to this collaboration?
• What could one of these future business models look like?
• What could it mean for a business to service/support their competitors’ products?
• What changes will emerging economies introduce?

There are many more questions to pursue with this topic. I hope you’ll enjoy the lively and thought-provoking conversation on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, July 22nd at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT.

Uncertainty has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve had a number of conversations with people and not just in the US. Very little is standing still anywhere. It’s the everchanging and disruptive technology making science fiction part of our everyday lives or the will-it-won’t-it economic recovery. And then there are the dramatic natural disasters along with personal dramas no one hears about. There are things swirling around us that are unsettling.

Uncertainty creates questions

Trying to lead your business through unknowns and partial-knowns naturally leads to wondering what is true and what is likely. It is the questions about what is likely that can be most perplexing. Most businesses are looking at past performance and the types of interactions they are having with customers.

The temptation is to pull back and stick with the basics. And let’s face it, prudence can be a good thing when you’re not sure which way to go. Beyond the hard numbers and other measurable aspects of your business is your own tolerance for unknowns and risk.

Determining what is risky

The thing with planning ahead is that you have to take guesses. Sure they are educated guesses but they are guesses. But it starts with a few questions:

1. What is the risk specifically? Is it in reference to how I run my small business or am I looking at the environment in which my business exists?

2. What is my current tolerance for risk? Why am I inclined to take or avoid risk right now?

3. Why now?

4. What can I anticipate and prepare for?

Restricted movement or go whole hog?

It should be said that different industries have been affected by the recession and inconsistent recovery in an uneven way. So, while the small business sectoras a whole is up and down with optimism, it is clear that many specific businesses are doing all right. But you might ask, what about my experience? The way forward has to lie in answering the questions.

Where do you focus when you do a risk assessment?

*We’re going to take a deeper look (or as much as 140 will allow) on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, June 17th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT with this topic. Please consider yourself invited to join in the conversation “Risk Taking and Uncertainty”

While I’ve been focusing on business plans recently, there are often things in the background that will determine how much faith you put into your own planning and any action actually taken. Confidence is one of these things.

Confidence is a remarkable attribute in any part of life. Merriam-Webster online dictionary lists one definition as “a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of one’s circumstances”. In business, it’s a huge piece of any effective business plan. When we can clearly see our our choices and actions are successful, they build on each other. There is an aphrodisiac effect when we feel confident. People want to be around us. They believe that we can deliver our products or services and they will work. Like that feeling of first being in love, our customers want to tell others how wonderful we are. So what could possibly get in the way?

Emotions have a major influence in how we approach the hard work of our businesses.

My friend, Caroline pointed me to a post recently about emotions. It was an interesting tie in of how our emotions are tied into our emotional intelligence. Our instincts and perceptions certainly work on a nonverbal level that is useful. How many times have  you noticed that when you didn’t listen to your instincts that you ended up in a negative situation? We know stuff that we don’t realize we know.

But confidence can be built or eroded by emotion. Consider this-your skill level doesn’t suddenly evaporate. You still have the same body of knowledge and the same talent to serve your customers well. However, if you’re seeing your revenues decreasing or you just can’t seem to land new customers, your confidence generally drops. On the other hand, the times you’ve landed that fabulous client or solved a difficult problem, it gave you such a boost. There are days when you feel as if you couldn’t find your way out of a paper bag or, conversely, you are beautiful and people love you.

It’s not just our reaction to our performance that can grow or erode our confidence.

Circumstances in our environment can be taxing on our confidence as well. For small business, access to credit or consumer spending or lack thereof can drain one energy and motivation. The Irish Independent reported that the Small Firms Association ((SFA) urged that measures be taken to restore confidence to Irish small and mid-sized companies. Access to adequate networking, advice or governmental policies make up the environment in which we operate our businesses.  They fertilize our thinking and present opportunities for our growth. The way our peers respond to circumstances does in some way affect us. We may choose to get caught up in the zeitgeist or not but it is still in the air.

Sometimes personal issues have an impact on our confidence. It doesn’t take much to notice that we siphon off energy to respond to personal situations. They can be positive or negative events (e.g. weddings, children leaving home, illness or death) but they still evoke an emotional response.

Perhaps wisdom is in our awarenss of how we allow our emotions to grow or erode our confidence.

We’re going to feel our emotions, no matter what. As I often say, it isn’t the emotions that are good or bad. It’s what we do with them. The level of influence you have over a situation can markedly affect how much confidence you feel. And we have choices about how we express ourselves. Our choices encourage that glow and attraction that an aphrodisiac provides.

While it’s tempting on my part to provide suggestions for creating confidence that works like a love charm, it will be much more interesting to hear what the #kaizenblog community has to say. Please join us as we’ll be discussing ”Confidence, Emotions and Business Growth” on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT 

How would you describe the levels of confidence in your offline peers?

Could confidence have a fragility to it? Why or why not?

What is the relationship between experience, confidence and emotional intelligence?

What is it about confident people that attracts you?

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about living business plans. (This post might be a good place to start if you’re not familiar with this type of business plan). While my mantra is “Make your business plan usable for you”, it’s not always clear how to design this plan so to fits you. I remember being interviewed by an interested small business owner who wanted to know if she had to use an outline form. The short answer was, and is, no. So what can you use instead?

There certain parts that are necessary so that this document actually reflects that you are running a business.

No matter how visual, linear or whatever ways you write out your business plan, you still have to include:

1. Executive Summary

2. Services and products offered

3. Marketing strategies

4. Desired client profile

5. Financials

6. Company goals and objectives

This is entirely about how you work.

Keep in mind that this is not the business plan you’re showing to the bank or investors. It exists so you can keep focused as you lead and manage your business. It’s way too easy to get sidetracked by the day to day work, exciting opportunities or negative events. There’s a host of stuff out there that can get you off your game.  Couple this with your thinking and learning styles and it makes sense to write or draw your business plan your way.  And, of course, any goals that you include will include specifics, measurements and deadlines 

So, what are my choices?

Style 1:  Outline form- This is probably the most traditional.  With an outline format, list each category and use bullet points to specify the details. 

Style 2:  Fish Diagram-This style reads left to right with each category branching out into the specific components.   The Executive Summary is the “head” of the fish and the other parts of your business plan make up the body of the fish.  This diagram creates a visual image of what you desire for your small business.  The lines coming off the “body” of the fish are the details that you want to remember and/or implement as actions steps.

 Style 3:  Bubble Chart- This method is well suited for people who like to take a creative and/or visual approach to goal setting.  Write your executive summary in the center bubble and in the radiating bubbles, write the other sections of your business plan.  Each radiating bubble contains important details or the goals you wish to execute. The bubble chart allows you to keep track of  each section while having fun with your strategic and operational planning. 

Try out the different styles suggested here to see what works best for you. 

Your business plan is supposed to be a guide and a reference. It’s a live document that you can review, writing comments in the margins, scratch out what you don’t want, add on new ideas and use continuously. Consider how you learn.  Do outlines make things sensible to you or do you prefer pictures?  Do you tend to think in a step-wise way or in “stream of consciousness”?  These important details will aid you in designing how you think about and plan the actions in your business plan.  The cliché, “Keep it simple” also applies here because simplicity will prevent or manage feelings of overwhelm or distractibility.  It makes no sense for your business plan to become forgotten in a desk drawer or a computer file that it never opened. It’s a tool to keep you focused and motivated as you lead and manage your small business to successful outcomes. Make your business plan a living business plan!

What style makes sense to you?

What suggestions do you have that would help other small business owners create a written business plan?

What are the givens in your business? Are there things about your business that seem so definite and unchangeable?

I’ve been reading Killing Giants:10 Strategies To Topple the Goliath In Your Industry. It’s a very engaging read by my friend, Stephen Denny and the strategies he describes in the book run the gamut from gutsy to deceptively easy. Some of you may be considering taking a run at the giant in your industry. Others of  you may be wondering if you could just increase your market share and work around the giant. However, to move to the next stage in the business cycle, it’s important to know your capabilities, your limitations and the truth.

One theme that jumped out at me in Denny’s book was his question about what is a given and if it is constantly true. So, for you, are the givens really true in your business? Now that we’re entering a new quarter of the year, it’s a good time to review your strategic plan. Basically, check to see if you and your business are progressing well.

You’ve heard the phrase, “given the givens”? We believe certain things are true. Somehow they are immutable. What if they are not true? Maybe the givens are only partly true? Critical thinking is an important skill here. Imagine what would happen if you asked yourself what is true about your business. For example, who are your real clients? Sometimes small business owners are aiming for one type of client but they are actually paid by another. I’ll use my own business as an example. I thought I worked with entrepreneurs with small businesses. I really work with established small business owners who are transitioning from one stage of growth to the next stage in the business cycle..

 Another given people cite during planning sessions is the economic environment. It could be regional, national or even global. Certainly with the recent recession, memories are long. However, what is true about the economy you participate in? Even in the darkest days, there are businesses and industries who thrive and the opposite can be true when things are bullish.

And while we’re considering the  larger economic question, there is also being clear on what revenue streams are givens. What  really makes money for your company? Sometimes we believe that something is our primary moneymaker. Until you actually stop and look at all of your numbers and ask the question, you could easily assume something is set in stone.

A given is simply that…something we believe is set in stone. Maybe there are things about your competitors that aren’t true. Maybe there is something about you that’s not true. But you won’t know until you ask.

What are some givens that you believe need to be challenged?

As I read today’s SmartBrief On Leadership, I came across the results of their weekly poll. The survey question was “How closely do you think you will follow your strategic plan this year?” The results were thought provoking.

According to the poll:

We’ll generally follow the plan but expect a few major deviations   76.15%

We’ll follow it to the letter    11.62%

We may do a few things on the plan but generally ignore it and do something else   9.54%

We don’t follow it at all   2.68%

Is this happening in your small business too?

At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, many small business owners started thinking about what they wanted their business to accomplish in 2011. So, if we, like most small business owners, got the bones of our strategic plan put together. The three questions most associated with the strategic planning process are

1. Where are we now?

2. Where are we going?

3. How are we going to get there?

So you sat down and probably reviewed your organization’s overall mission, values or principles and what you envisioned for the year.  You probably did parts or all of a SWOT analysis. After this, you noted what big goal you’d love to celebrate on December 31st. More than likely, you identified what makes your organization special or even the specific advantage in the marketplace. You probably finished off with setting goals that will make these great aspirations reality.

So, if you went to all of this trouble, why wouldn’t you follow your plan?

There are a variety of reasons why people don’t follow their plans. For some companies, the strategic planning process was an exercise in lip service. For others, they scare themselves with their aspirations and shy away from making these dreams into reality. Sometimes things  happen (natural disasters, personal crises, major market shifts, etc) that make the plan irrelevant.

The strangest number in the poll above is 11.62%. Why do so few business leaders actually follow their strategic plan? You have to wonder what is really happening in the planning process. On the face of it, it seems like a colossal waste of time to go through the whole process and then relegate the plan to a shelf somewhere.

What’s the deal?

Why do you think strategic plans are not followed?

*For more information like this live, check out my no cost webinar, “Achieving the CEO Mindset For Small Business Success” Thursday, March 31st, 7 pm BST/2pm ET. For more information and to register, go to Programs

When you were a kid and just going out the door, did your mom ask you “where are you going?” How did you answer? Did you say “nowhere” or “just up the street” or maybe even say the name of one of your friends? You had an idea of where you wanted to go when you walked out the door.

So what about your small business?

When you’ve been in business for a while, you know essentially where you going. There is a purpose to your business, right? Have you asked yourself recently, “where are you going?”

All businesses evolve over time. Sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstance.  The people running them learn more about customer’s needs and wants or technology enables something to exist that couldn’t exist before. Someone comes up with an innovative product or system. The recent recession and economic recovery has caused some businesses to go back to their roots while other businesses are reinventing themselves.

All evolution.

With so much change, it ‘s easy to lose your True North.

Your business vision is your True North. How did you want your business to affect the world? One client I coached is committed to making it easy to communicate electronically. Another client sees her wealth management business as a tool for reliable, no stress retirements. For your small business, your vision provides the framework for the types of actions you take, the people you hire and how you stay motivated. It comes from your value system. Your vision is just over the horizon waiting for you.

To review your vision, ask yourself these questions:

1. What are your top 3 values right now?

2. What is the most important thing you want your business to accomplish and why?

3. How aligned are your current business goals with your business vision?

So, where are you going?

*For more information like this live, check out my complementary teleclass, “How To Use the CEO Mindset For Small Business Success” Thursday March 31st, 7 pm GMT/3pm ET

Maybe you’re a little bored, a little itchy or exasperated with your busines lately. You often hear small business owners talk about going to the next level. What does this mean exactly? And what will happen if you do grow in size, sophistication or both?

If you had a crystal ball, what would your business look like in 1 year?

Part of what makes us ready for the next stage is having a vision. This vision does feed into our business’ basic mission. That doesn’t change. Remember your Hedgehog Concept? As you think about the new kind of customer you want to attract or the new line of services or products you’re designing, daydream what you would be doing differently.

As you fill in the details of your daydream, this becomes the outline of your strategic plan for the coming year. Put it writing. Make it real for yourself. This is where you might notice some internal thoughts, beliefs or feelings growing in intensity.

What could get in the way of going to the next stage of your business? Your assumptions.

It’s that combination of being so excited about doing something you aspire to and feeling nervous about making it actually happen. What are your assumptions? For some people, it is about being expected to be extraordinary, give up more time out of an already demanding schedule or becoming someone you are not. For others, they assume everything will be okay and the changes will be minimal. It’s more likely somewhere in the middle.

Challenge your assumptions

• What do you really want?
• Which skills do you need to augment?
• What is so important about taking your business to its next stage?
• What would happen if your business stayed the same as it is now?

And an equally important question…

In a recent interview on Entrepreneur.com, Scott Eblin asked a crucial question for this process, “What is it that only I can do?” This question is essential for small business owners as they are often an integral part of the work of the business. When you increase the size, change business structure or work with a more preferred client, this makes different demands on the business owner. You can’t be as casual as in the startup days. More administrative tasks will take up your attention and time. You may find you need to conract certain jobs that you used to do or even hire people to do those jobs. Typically systems need to be formalized across the organization. For example, just this week I was talking with a client about his options for managing business development projects. Right now they are in his head but he’s finding that he needs to delegate some of the project management tasks to others in his organization.

What do you need to do to be ready for the next stage of your business?

*For more information like this live, check out my complementary teleclass, “How To Use the CEO Mindset For Small Business Success” Tuesday February 22, 7 pm ET

We’re all looking for the magic bullet of business success. If I do X, then my business will hit the big time. Or if I do Y, my business will never have a worry again. It was my pleasure to invite my friend, Les to be our guest host on #kaizenblog when we took on the idea that there is one must-have for business success. Les McKeown is the President & CEO of Predictable Success, the leading advisor on accelerated business growth. He has has started over 40 companies in his own right, and was the founding partner of an incubation consulting company that advised on the creation and growth of hundreds more organizations worldwide.He is also is the author of the WSJ and USA Today Best-seller, “Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track – and Keeping It There”

So we jumped into this conversation with a framing post by Les, “The First Lego Piece” . The actual conversation started with How do you describe a great business? Les described “a great business is one that it truly sustainable – by which I  mean specifically it has 3 things: 1. consistently profitable; 2. mostly fun to work in, and…most importantly, 3. Not dependent soley on the founder/owners for its existence.”

• Parissa Behnia: “a1 beyond profitable, ‘m not sure it can be described..but sometimes it can be felt…profitable but awful environment is not sustainable long term. there are human needs that are abstract”
• Amber Cleveland: “A1 Great biz knows their Mission, Values,  -everything they do is in line w/ -they live their brand.”
• Richard Winter : “A1 A great business to me is where vision leads to efficient execution resulting in profits”
• Caroline Di Diego: “Profitable +++ with great group of people ~ the people make you profitable”

Since sustainability seemed to resonate with many of the chat participants, we wondered, What are the fundamentals of growing a sustainable business? Les identified, “focus, discipline, consistency, and perseverance. The underlying product or service & even the funding don’t  matter in the end.”

• Richard Winter “A2 Scalable infrastructure, desirable product or service and a commitment to customer service”
• Rayna Fagen: “might be 3 perspectives to this–what company mgmt views, what the customer views, & the employees”
• Stephen Denny: A2 I think fundamental element of sustainable biz is “grow slow” – counterintuitive, but seems to be predictor”
• Judy Gombita: “A2. Knowing the market before the (potential) customers/clients know it! (Boom, Bust, and Echo)”
• Frederique Murphy: ”A2 Passion, Loving your niche and knowing your why; your why is powerful driver, the fuel for a sustainable journey”
• Linda Naiman : “A2 A great biz is also well designed: products, services, processes, biz mode, policies”
• Cathy Larkin: “Q2 sustainable biz pillars? Great product,  a biz that knows its market/customers & adapts when needed”

During this question, there was an active conversation about passion and if it can be hindrance or help. Well worth checking out the transcript (Transcript for #kaizenblog – Whats1MustHaveForSuccessfulBiz) around the 5:30 mark to see the details.

Given the back and forth about passion and financials, What is the most essential building block of a great business? Les explained, “For me, it is incredibly mundane, It’s what I call…your ‘personal processing ecosystem’. In other words, the ability to handle 3 things: 1. Time management 2. Priority management and 3. Crisis management. Without those, you can’t grow a sustainable business, because you’ll be constantly derailed by the mundane.”

• Stephen Denny: “Greatest building block is having the right people. The 20x developers, the core team”
• Parissa Behnia “Q3 knowing you don’t know something and need help, seek answers”
• Amber Cleveland: “A3 Most essential building block – MVV (Mission, Vision, Values) build your foundation from this”
• Cathy Larkin: “A3 I think one over looked piece of yr 3 points is Attitude. not polyanna but positive I can SOLVE this…”
• Richard Winter: “A3 A truly scalable infrastructure that doesn’t require significant hires in non-customer facing disciplines”
• Elaine Rogers: “A3 trust in self as a builder of business is so important before all else (I believe)”

It was great seeing everyone really engage with the ideas being shared and exploring Les’ advice on developing a successful business. We moved a little deeper into the conversation by asking, How does the fundamental building block become the foundation of a sustainable business? Les described, “Time, priority and crisis mgt produce the right environment for growing your sustainable business. In business, challenges should be challengs. Without a personal processing ecosystem, *everything* is a challenge.” This response seem to resonate with everyone in the chat. The focus on implementation (or execution) really brought home how the ingredients of vision, passion, planning and the other business tools combine to create a sustainable business.

How would you answer the discussion questions?

What do you have in place that will lead to a sustainable business?

I’d say at this point most businesses of all sizes are using social media in one form or another. I know in the Twitter chat (#kaizenblog) that I host, we talk about social media and its uses quite a lot. And, truth be told, we are big fans. After all, we all met via a social media networking site.

But how do we know what works best? Who do we listen to? How do we know “they” are right? Valeria Maltoni has written posts about influencers and how to apply filtering questions that will help us determine if we’re getting snake oil or legitimate information. The other day, my friend, Danny wrote a post, Why We Can’t Give Up urging us to go forth and develop ourselves as influencers who have something worthy to share despite it seeming like an uphill battle.

Whether you’re a small business owner or in a larger organization and new to social media, it can be confusing to know how to use it effectively. We’re told so many things about how to use it and there are certain people who get  lots of attention. Yes, even in the virtual world, there seem to be people who are the “Popular Kids.” But do they deserve to be? There are several ways you can game social media but is that consistent with how you run your business usually? We post things on our blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to get people to notice us and our business. We want to attract new clients by positioning ourselves as experts in our fields. There is nothing wrong with that. Social media is a tool. The trouble lies in the crazy amount of hype that surround some of the so-called experts. We start wondering, “if I do what that person does, I can be big too?”

Some questions come to mind about filtering social media advice:

1.. What makes that person an expert in social media?

2. Does he/she (pick your favorite guru or the most recent favorite) give advice that fits my business?

3. Do I have the time/money/people/resources to do what the expert is telling me to do?

4. What will I gain from becoming an influencer?

5. What are uses for social media are there beyond marketing my business?

Can someone who is less flashy and has a message that resonates be just as good a resource as the “rockstar”?

So how do you weed out the influencers with the best advice on how to use social media?

*For this week’s Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, we’re discussing week’s “Social Media-Snake Oil, Noise & Filters” this Friday at 12pm ET/5pm GMT/9am PT. I hope you can join us!