CEOs

Mar 05 2013

Best Exit Ever?

Memo from Dave: If you’re focusing on the Groupon CEO’s exit letter, you’re missing the point.

It’s been shared so many times that we’re not going to do it here.

Andrew Mason was fired from his post as CEO at Groupon, and the Internet was soon ablaze with commentary about how Mason’s parting shot was the “best exit letter ever.” (Chicago Tribune, Phil Rosenthal, Sunday, March 3. Article still behind a paywall, so here’s a link to the front of the site.)

He admitted that he was fired.

He used the word “Love.”

He was forthright and not bitter.

You’re missing the point. And, to explain the photo of Chuck D, “don’t believe the hype.”

Allow me to pick on Tribune’s Rosenthal, since his paean to Mason was entitled “This is the way to exit the stage right.” Rosenthal interviews Chicago workforce staple John Challenger – he is the only workplace expert interviewed – and proceeds to say that Mason “nailed the landing.”

I’m left with the impression that this was a combination of Johnny Carson’s farewell show with Bette Midler, combined with Ronald Reagan’s last address to America, with a dash of one of those full-page ads that retiring sports figures take out in newspapers to thank all their fans.

Let’s talk about leadership

The “best exit ever” is not about knowing how to say you were fired – the best exit ever is knowing when to (borrowing from Mason’s letter, which, I guess, will be made into a Broadway Show) “get out of the way.”

We’ve been critical on these pages of Groupon – and, dare we say we told you so…check out this article.

A true leader – which, for all of Mason’s successes as a business builder, I’ll go out on a limb and say watching your company IPO and then have 75% of its shareholder value disintegrate does not a leader make – doesn’t worry about how graceful his or her exit looks.

A true leader gets the right people in place and gets the heck out of the way.

“Nailed the landing.” And missed everything else.

The peanut gallery should focus not on what was said and when it was said – it should focus on the rest of the business, and fixing the business model. Or, we too, should get out of the way.

Jul 26 2011

Revisiting Your Mindmap

What ARE You Doing?

Some days, you’re gonna feel like you are spinning your wheels. Are you a blogger, or a business person? Are you a writer, or a developer? Are you launching things, or taking care of things long since launched?

Yeah, this sounds like us, too.

Here’s one tip: the Mindmap.

Go here: FreeMind Download Page.

Start figuring out what you’ve got to work with. With EVERYTHING.

For us:

What domains do we have, even the dormant ones?
What content have we developed that’s sitting on the shelf?
Where have our leads come from – what lines of business do we potentially have?
What are the relationships that we need to nurture, to grow?

Set aside an hour. Lock the door, turn off the mobile phone, get rid of all distractions. Go to it.

And, if you’ve done one, go back to it at least once a month.

Which is where we’ll be for the next hour.

Apr 13 2011

Inbound Marketing Does Not Replace Relationship Management

Thanks, http://heavyhittersales.typepad.net
While some will tell you that “inbound marketing” – or “content strategy” – is going to save your business, don’t forget about “relationship management.”

In the middle of a client discussion about CRM systems and the usual shift to the “Year of Content” came up.

“If we have the right content strategy, won’t inbound marketing mean that we don’t need a sales force?”

Ah, if only it were that easy.

Let’s think about professional services, or technology, or something else that doesn’t involve a physical product being sold. (This is a bad example for pizza places, so, if that’s what you do, I’ll take a large, pepperoni and sausage. Please.) In a lot of cases, there is not a sales strategy – you have a founder or two, you have a Rolodex of relationships, and you pick up the phone and start calling people. OR, the technology you’ve built is such that you become the “obvious expert” and are now finding a path being beaten to your door.

So it’s darn easy to say that, instead of focusing on sales, let’s focus on “content” or “thought leadership” AS our sales strategy.

And then you get this funnel, and then you manage the funnel, and then you get people through the funnel so they become buyers. Through the magic of online, inbound, content marketing, you’ve got it all under control.

And you’ve ignored Relationship Management.

The Automation Economy we’re in is pretty dangerous for this sort of thing. We’re afraid to build relationships with current customers or clients because we think our automated Content Marketing Strategy will act as the relationship builder for us. Danger, Will Robinson.

How Do You Solve This?

1. Consider a CRM system, even if it’s an archaic Excel spreadsheet.

There’s a sequence for your content marketing, there’s a sequence for your autoresponder, there should be a sequence for your current customer outreach.

That’s right, if someone bought the stuff, find out if they’re using the stuff. If they like the stuff. If they didn’t really need the stuff.

You might find out that they need more stuff.

2. Consider a “reverse funnel” approach to your client or customer management.

Once you funnel these people into your process, turn the funnel upside down and help them manage through the next thing. WHAT?

You’re funneling them out to new stuff. Maybe yours is a DIY tool that will allow them to expand their own skillset, so they in turn spread your knowledge to their circle. Maybe you give them more information after they’ve bought so there’s a value-added approach – now, they perceive the value as much greater than what they signed up for.

3. Pick up the phone.

I’m guilty of not doing this enough – I’m in the process of eating my own dog food on this one. The phone is your friend, and even if it’s just a 2 minute call to check in.

Don’t assume that your killer content will make your relationships real. Make them real yourself.

Mar 17 2011

5 Steps to Ensure Your Own Hirability

Thanks, mag3737 (cc license)
Hey, running a small (but mighty) shop like ours is pretty tough. Client demands, developing new business, coming up with new products and services – all of this keeps us moving. So, when we get inquiries from folks who want a job…well…

We saw an awesome post from March 10 that is worth sharing. Anne Buchanan, from Buchanan Public Relations, hits the nail on the head with the title: “Why You Will Never Get Hired at Our PR Firm.” (Read it, then come back. We’ll wait.)

Good piece, huh? And scary, too. Scary like Vampires.

Fact: Small Business, the Backbone of America, may be your better bet for getting a job.

So…how DO you approach folks like me – CEO of a small business that will oneday be a much larger business – if you’re looking for your next gig?

In other words…

How Can You Ensure Your Own Hirability?

1. Pay the Karma Bank.

“How Can I Help You?” Probably the greatest question you can ask. It could be an introduction, a re-introduction, a LinkedIn connection.

It might be a tweet or a re-tweet. It could be a guest blog post.

Even if you don’t think you have something to offer…well, you need to think again.

2. Follow-through.

The post from Anne Buchanan brought back memories for me – I was once VP of Global Public Relations (really!) for a large Financial Services company (double really!). While I had to navigate internal politics, I was happy to make introductions where I could see mutual benefit: maybe it was a college student looking for an internship, or it was someone who wanted to break into agency life and needed an intro to a contact or two.

Points can be scored through a simple thank you note – email is fine – even if all I did for you was make an introduction.

Just as easily: points can be lost by, well, not doing this sort of thing.

3. Be Prepared.

Time for the “What Now?” story of the day. Names and firms hidden to protect the innocent. This actually happened.

Oh, and this much I will tell ya: the offender? A woman in her 40s. Worked in tech-related field.

I had set up the networking opportunity based on an intro from a colleague – the offender was arriving from San Francisco and wanted to sit down to discuss ways to partner. Meeting began on time. Pleasant handshakes, sit down at a conference table. Next…

Offender: “Do you have a pen?”

Me: “Sure, here’s an extra one. No worries.”

Discussion continues in earnest. One minute later, discussion halted with another question.

Offender: “Do you have any paper?”

Me: “Sure.” (Worries.)

We’re off on the wrong foot, we have a very one-sided discussion (about her) and she’s pleasantly on her way.

I was looking forward to polite written follow-up, but I think, since I had given her just one piece of paper, this wasn’t going to happen.

Though, given her role in technology, I thought there was a chance for an email follow-up. None.

4. Use “Social Media” With Caution.

EVERYONE is a Social Media Expert.

Thus, having 1,000 or 10,000 Twitter Followers, or maxing out on Facebook friends, these things do nothing for the Hiring Manager.

It’s how you interact with people on Social Media that is everything.

One-sided conversations, lack of sharing, lack of interaction – those are the things that will get you dinged by potential hiring managers before you even get the chance to sit down for an interview.

5. FINALLY: Give it time.

Your first interaction with me had better not be asking for a job. Sniff around and find out what it is that my firm is up to. Get a sense of who we are, how we operate, what we are doing – and not doing.

Your first interaction with me had better not be asking to “tap my brain in exchange for a cup of coffee.” I’ll tell you what: I’ll buy the coffee, you pay me my hourly rate.

It’s trite but true: Time Is Money. Yours is valuable, mine is valuable.

There you go. Hirability in just 5 Steps. Whaddya think…any other “Hirability Tips” you’d like to share?

Mar 09 2011

Startup Hospice And When Your Company Needs It

The Logo...
You brought it to life, you watched it grow. You thought it was gonna be a world-beater. But it won’t…

So now what?

We lived this – or, more accurately, Dave from Area 224 lived this – back in the middle part of the past decade, running a Web 2.0 for college admissions portal called U Sphere. We had barked up every conceivable tree, had partnerships and relationships and signed Letters of Agreement. We had students using the portal, we had customers paying us – but we knew it wasn’t going to be the Next Big Thing.

IF you’re at that point, where you just know it ain’t gonna make it, here’s some advice.

1. Gut Trumps Everything.

Smokey The Bear Says: “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.”

Dave Says: “Only You Can Shut It Down.”

On the surface, our case was pretty simple: we started a business, built a product, got customers, and were looking for the right dance partners. We found them! We pursued these chaps, courted each other, and had the agreement in principle that said we’d run their US Operations in exchange for a piece of a larger pie.

Presented at face value, it sounds pretty awesome, right? I mean, we had brokered our little startup into becoming the crown jewel of a multi-million-dollar, multi-national enterprise.

Dave’s Gut: This is a bad idea.

A dangerous combination of arrogance, hubris, positioning, valuation and international intrigue (clandestine meetings, weird stuff at customs, etc.) doomed this deal from the start. So, when it fizzled, it wasn’t a bad thing – even if it meant the company’s wounds couldn’t be healed.

2. Get the Right Advice.

One awesome thing about building a startup is this: meeting people who are wicked smart and for whom ALMOST every idea turns to gold.

Meeting one of these folks and then getting the chance to sorta kinda consider them a mentor was phenomenal. Getting the chance to call them up and spend 10 minutes walking through what was going on was priceless.

AND the one question they asked that stuck with us?

“What’s your gut telling you?”

Another thing about advice: don’t ask someone too close to you, as they’ll tell you what you want to hear. Don’t ask someone for whom emotion trumps logic: they’ll tell you to keep going, even when you know you really shouldn’t. You want the kind of mentor who will say things like “do you really wanna do this?” And it’s ideal to find someone who has been on both sides of the equation – the ones who know when it makes sense to retool and when it’s better to cut losses and move on.

There’s also the flipside here…

3. Get the WRONG Advice.

True Story: We have a Bizarro Mentor. Every one of this person’s ideas has been an abysmal failure; and every time we say “hey, we should launch something that does a, b and c” we wait for their advice. “You should totally quit your job and do that!” We translate that through the Bizarro Filter and discover that it is a piss-poor idea.

Make sure that person has a glass half-empty philosophy. And that it’s someone who is free to advise you on just about everything to do with a startup but has never worked for one before.

Find out who your Bizarro Mentor is – you have one, you just haven’t identified them yet. Find them, ask them.

4. Start Working on Something Else NOW.

Here’s hubris again: it WILL work, believe in your dreams, don’t give up, you’re gonna make millions.

At the second reality starts to set in, you need a Plan B. And Plan C and Plan D won’t hurt either.

If that Plan B is finding a real job, great. (We tried that back in the day.) Plan C, though, made more sense – leveraging our know-how of this social networking universe (since ours WAS a social network, after all) led us to launch Area 224.

5. Don’t Assign Blame, Even to Yourself.

After ripping the band-aid off, seeing the old business in the rearview has been liberating. Yeah, I was ultimately responsible for the demise of the business – and, while I learned from it, I don’t blame myself one bit.

Pointing fingers all around the universe doesn’t do anyone any good either. Woulda, shoulda, coulda won’t help.

It’s okay if the end is near. Really. You did this once – you were able to get it past the launch phase and turn it into something. This makes you marketable.