Doing It Right, realizing your company's potential

This learning system won’t do it for you. But, if you do the work (question yourself, think about how you do what you do, be willing to try something new and/or be open to feedback), then here’s what you’ll get:

The ability to be savvier in your marketplace – gathering real-time, usable intelligence and gaining an edge by anticipating what’s coming.
A clearer, sharper focus on your business idea for you, your customers and your people.
You’ll be able to raise the IQ of your company substantially – becoming smarter, more decisive, more imaginative and rigorous in your thinking skills.
The ability to seize your brand initiative and work your will on your environment through extraordinary execution of your strategic intentions.
An enhanced ability to lead a modern organization to take rapid, measured action to create added competitive advantage.

Who’s It For?

There are three broad groups of businesses that will find this work particularly helpful.

It’s for successful companies ready to ratchet up to the next level of success.
It’s for entrepreneurs ready to evolve into more sophisticated, professional ones.
It’s for smaller companies fighting to survive. This work can help you to survive to reap the fruits of a lifetime of labor.

This learning system is not just for companies. It has vital information for all generations involved in today’s businesses. There are four broad groups who can take value from this work.

The senior generation - It gives the entrepreneurs and the senior generation of family leaders the tools to ensure a continuing respect for the business idea, and the survival of the organization after a transition of leadership and power. (This may or may not be the founding generation.)
The middle generation - It provides the middle generation of leaders with the tools to apply the business idea and array the company’s resources effectively in a changing, evolving marketplace. It gives the successors the tools to bridge the gap between generations.
The youngest generation – It gives the youngest generation the tools to become meaningful contributors, and true partners in the enterprise.
It provides the tools and a frame of reference for the professional managers and the ancillary professionals---attorneys, insurers, financial advisors and consultants---to help their clients achieve their potentials.

Why Is This Approach Better?

This learning system is a practical guide for business leaders looking to prepare their companies for success in the changing business environment of the 21st century.

Profound changes in society, technology, communications and the marketplace combine to require companies to be much better at working through people to create value than many of them are today.

Most people are too busy dealing with the business of business to be sorting through mountains of books and papers in search of a few nuggets of wisdom that they can use to great effect. Yet, leaders need to continue to learn, or they’ll become obsolete quickly.

I have created this learning system to make it easier for you to learn as you do your real work. You won’t have to take your hands off the helm. And, your specific interest will determine how you use this learning system, each time you or your associates refer to it to deal with issues and concerns.

This learning system is totally customizable. Start where it’s relevant to start and use the links to connect to the information that’s important to you now. Look at the rest later.

If you need ideas and strategies you can easily link through the work at that level. If what you need is a tool, just visit the Tools section.

If you want to get stories and examples of how other businesses are evolving their ideas and practices, dive right into the Stories.

The Tools:

Throughout this work you will be provoked to think. I cannot---and would not---think for you.

This is your learning system; it has been designed to provoke and assist your thinking about your business, and to help you execute your ideas with extraordinary results.

I’ve provided opportunities for you to drill down from the big picture phase of this work to a set of tools that you can use to apply those ideas.

There are a variety of tools that are designed to serve a broad range of uses and users. You’ll find the tools to fit your circumstances and your skill level.

You don’t have to use these tools, or use them as they’re presented. You can and should modify them to fit your people, your company’s climate and your business realities.

However, they’ll give you something to work from, places from which to start in dealing with complex issues.

Tools alone do not equate into quality products. Master crafts people practice, rehearse and develop ancillary skills that give them the ability to use their tools artfully. If you go through this work, haphazardly grab a tool and work with it in a half-hearted or inadequate manner, it will fail you.

You’re responsible for devoting the dedication and diligence to the tools and ideas that will enable them to create value for you. If you do, you’ll realize the potential of your company.

The Stories; Main Street Applications:

In the popular press and many of the books that tout successful business practices, we tend to hear about Fortune 500 companies.

While their achievements are laudable, their practices and solutions often are not practical or realistic for those of you who populate Main Street---businesses without the same level of financial, time and human resources to dedicate to maximizing sucess.

The stories we have included in this learning system tell about people who are applying best-practice ideas in their own, practical ways.

They share the challenges and successes of people involved in running small to medium sized businesses, who have become adept at substituting creativity and hard work for unlimited resources.

These stories are presented, along with commentary, in a way that makes them very applicable to you; that enable you to relate your situations to the ones in the stories, and learn from the experiences of others.

An Interactive Learning System:

Throughout the work, I’ve presented the core ideas in a variety of contexts that will be relevant across a wide range of business settings.

The key ideas are linked throughout the learning system by using hypertext and the Adobe Acrobat bookmarks.

From the main body of the text, you’ll find links that take you to different, but relevant sections that further expand on particular concepts.

As a result, you can follow an idea thread by using the hyperlinks to jump from section to section, to explore a particular concept in depth, wherever it is mentioned.

Or, take the learning system one topic at a time, reading the text without drilling down through the hyperlinks. Because of this dual applicability, you’ll find a little redundancy; different people will use the system in different ways.

All efforts have been made to keep any redundancy to a minimum. Therefore, go where your thinking takes you. Go where your curiosity leads.

In addition to the links between the ideas, tools and stories, you’ll find links to the recommended readings that are located at the end of each section. You’ll find references to other texts that will help you explore areas that are of special interest to you, in greater depth.

A note on word usage---The desire to speak to a broad range of readers has led me to adopt the convention of speaking of the titular head of a company as the CEO, and of anyone who has a stake in the business itself, or in the outcome of a decision, as a stakeholder.

I know that for many of you, the CEO title doesn’t fit, but there are endless variations on titles that mean The Person In Charge, and while you may never use the word “stakeholders” in your own conversations, that word does communicate the concept most efficiently.

In using this learning system, you will discover quickly that I believe in the power of discussion to maximize learning.

While there are many different learning styles, many people learn complex ideas most effectively by discussing what they are learning, as they are in the process of learning something new, and/or practicing new skills.

And the more people who are engaged in learning new ideas or skills together, the more important it becomes to maximize the learning process through discussion. Therefore, many of the tools provide you with guidelines for being able to engage in authentic, worthwhile discussion with the others in your organization, as you work to explore the ideas and incorporate them in your efforts to achieve your goals for success.

The ultimate goal of this work is to make you aware that there are many, many actions that are open to you in your efforts to help your company grow and thrive in the tough business environment of the future.

The goal is to give you an edge. Your advantage will be realized in using the vital, but as yet untapped, capabilities existent in your organization. Good luck. Go get ‘em.