Leadership Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Small Business Owners: Your Leadership Style Can Increase ‘Profits’

Covid-19 pandemic has forced a lot of business closures. Government leaders are issuing stay-at-home orders and the government is reopening in phases, which has limited customers sizes to 25%, 50% and 75% for the health safety of our community. How can you lead in constant changing environment? How do you motivate employees and simultaneously look for the next product to keep the doors open? How do you change your management style to be an effective leader in such a uncertain future and ‘doing more with less’ employees.

Leadership

I suggest send out a survey of what qualities they want to see in a CEO (then pledge to do everything you can to live up to these expectations)

Leaders need to provide coaching, because no one ever got to be the best without the constructive feedback, probing questions and active teaching. Be honest and positive in all communication messaging.

Search for opportunities to improve

What’s new?
What’s next?
What’s better? And not just for yourself but also for those around you.
Find a significant purpose for addressing your challenging and most difficult assignments.

Who you are and what your values are (then you give voice to those values)

Leader must affirm the shared values of the group.

Inspire a shared vision

Envision the future by imagining, exciting and enabling possibilities
Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations
- Imagine the possibilities
- Find a common purpose

Leaders who focus on the future attract followers more readily

Read trends
Listening to Podcasts
Watching documentaries

People regard most favorably those leaders who regularly talk about the ‘why’ of work and not just the ‘what’ of work

People who are leaders want to do something significant, accomplish something that no one else has yet to achieved.

Motivating Employees

Cross Training Employees about each other roles/responsibilities
Mentoring
‘how can I help you?’… walking around 30 minutes a week
Delegating responsibilities
Brown Bag lunches (training)
Praise and Work for work above normal day activities

Sending them to seminars

Have them to do presentations

Quarterly Corporate Town hall Meetings (teleconference)

Weekly recognition of outstanding performers

Email
Walking around
Must be based on ‘visible’ performance (daily if outstanding)
- Monthly meeting (recognize your performers)

Social Media interaction with customers

Do you have a scalable website (WordPress)
Do you have LinkedIn profiles about employees and products
Engaging with customer markets about current happenings
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Reddit
- Twitter
- Weibo (china)

Finally, some business owners will make the necessary changes to keep afloat and some will drown. Navigating in rough waters, takes a team effort, innovations and commitment to ride it out!!!!

Your job as a business leader is to communicate, communicate with honesty and positivity to build trust in customers, employees and shareholders.

7 Women Business and Leadership Role Models From the Bible to Inspire Christian Women in Business

Christian women today have many women mentors and role models from Bible days on which to base their business and leadership ventures. The qualities and characteristics of these women from long ago provide patterns for running successful enterprises as well as for being involved in government, legal matters, community organizing and even military operations. Most of these women were married and some functioned from their homes. The activities of these women are often not discussed, leaving some of the best means of motivation and encouragement for contemporary women unknown. This article presents a brief background along with the qualities and skills of only 7 top Bible women in business and leadership who have lessons to share for today.

1. Rahab: Joshua 2:1-22; 6:17-25. Rahab was a businesswoman who ran a lodging place and provided for her family members. Often misrepresented as a prostitute, there is no evidence of this in the Bible. She became known for her willingness to take great risks to negotiate with new people for the protection of herself and her family. Running a lodging facility meant being able to manage a staff of workers, keep clients happy and serve the needs of people from all backgrounds. It also meant being misunderstood by those who didn’t understand this nontraditional business role for women. The leadership qualities and skills of Rahab included being industrious and wise, having a business plan, management abilities and negotiation skills.

2. Lydia:Acts 16:14-15, 40. Lydia was a well-known businesswoman who dyed and sold purple cloth. Royalty and the wealthy wore purple cloth. That meant she had a high end target market. Her business had to provide a consistent, high-quality product to meet the standards and needs of a wealthy clientele. She also had employees, which means her company provided jobs for people in her community. Lydia was an entrepreneur who probably would have had a corporate structure. She displayed qualities and skills that included organization management and growth, employee training and development, and strong target market skills.

3. Priscilla:Acts 18:1-3; 24-28. Priscilla worked alongside of her husband, Aquila, as partners in a tent making business out of their home. She was first mentioned as the mentor to the great Apollo who she helped mentor to preach with more direction and authority. She also traveled extensively in the capacity of evangelist. Her qualities and skills were in working in harmony in a business partnership, managing a home-based business, business development and growth, multi-tasking, coordination, human relations, and mentoring skills.

4. Huldah:2 Kings 22:14-20: 2 Chronicles 34:22-28. Huldah was a prominent prophetess and married woman who was sought out by the King’s Advisors for counsel about spiritual matters. Huldah was known for being honest, highly intelligent and a scholar of the Scriptures. The qualities and skills she shares with contemporary Christian women include being a strategist, teacher, strong communicator, life-long learner and a leader who advised others and made hard decisions.

5. Phoebe:Romans 16:1-2. Phoebe was a preacher who worked closely with the Apostle Paul. She was sent by Paul to teach and preach the gospel to the new believers in Rome. Paul strongly urged the believers there to accept her preaching and to support her while in Rome. Phoebe understood the right time to approach others with new ideas and came with the proper introductions. She went to Rome as an evangelist and some believe as a deaconess. The qualities and skills presented by Phoebe are project manager, evangelist of new ideas, teacher, preacher, and collaborator.

6. Deborah:Judges 4 – 5. Deborah was the first woman to be a judge over a nation. She was willing to take on necessary hard tasks that others would not do. Through her leadership the laws of the land were understood and she promoted ethical behavior through the law. Deborah led the Israelite army into a victorious battle in a particularly difficult war situation when her General refused to ride into battle without her. Deborah was a powerful law-maker with qualities and skills as an Army Commander, leader of large groups, decision-maker, motivator, judge, and political official.

7. Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, Acts 8:27. The Candaces were female rulers of in the African nation of Ethiopia (also known in ancient times as Kush). Unlike Queens of some other African Nations of that time, the Queens of Kush, who were independent rulers, known as Candaces, a distinctive title that existed for 500 years. One Candace received the information about spiritual matters from her treasurer who was baptized by the Apostle Philip during a long journey on state matters. She was receptive of new and better ideas to benefit those she represented. These powerful women had qualities and skills of being national political leaders, rulers, and warriors. They were decision-makers, negotiators and goal-oriented.

Christian women in business have some fabulous role models from Bible women for doing business and being a leader in these contemporary times. The few examples given in this article only provide highlights to the types of activities women had as spiritual and church leaders. These women were ministers, servant leaders, organizers, motivators, and persuaders. They used effective communication skills, organized church events, meetings and services. Knowing their lessons can inspire women even in these modern times to reach higher goals.

The Business and Government Leadership Rift – Jobs and Political Rhetoric Discussed

We keep hearing how the President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are going to provide jobs for Americans. They tell us that as we switch to alternative energy they will provide millions of jobs, but that is simply poppycock and nonsense. The reality is that wind power and solar combined is only 1% of our total usage, and they haven’t told you that it took 3-decades to get to that point. The leadership tells us how their stimulus and bailouts will help revive employment, that’s utter nonsense, and let me explain.

If you will recall the US Government had bailed out Wall Street to re-capitalize the banks and to unfreeze credit markets, but very few banks are lending to small businesses, the real job creators. You see, 80% of Americans are employed by small business not large US corporation. Still, the President continually has business round tables with big business not little ones. Worse, in one recent business and jobs meeting there were no CEOs there at all, actually no small business owners either. In fact, no one who’d ever had to make a payroll was there in the room at all.

Recall that the Obama Administration promised Americans healthcare, an entitlement and still claimed that we’d lower medical costs, insurance, and save Medicare. In my opinion that’s nuts, and I say; “what a bunch of malarkey indeed.” Health care costs continue to sky rocket, an emergency room visit with NO operation is $7500 for only 3-4 hours, most of that is usually spent waiting in line. Sure health care insurance can pick up the tab, but that means higher insurance for everyone.

President Obama’s solution; simple theaten Health Care Insurance companies that he’ll increase regulations and audits if they raise premiums? Catch-22 for them, but that can only work so long. A business that cannot raise prises as costs skyrocket cannot stay in business. Are we going to bail them out too? And with whose money may I ask? And if we go to a completely government run health care insurance plan, we already know what will happen; they will spend 45% in the administration of the bureaucracy before one dollar is spent on actual health care costs. That 45% is pretty much straight across the board in all government agencies, I am not making this up or throwing out numbers from my underpants here.

And when it comes to trade President Obama claims he is on top of things? “Oh really,” I ask? He claims he will increase our exports three-fold? Sure, our exports will increase three-fold as the global economy returns but our inflows of products will also increase, by more than increase 5-fold. That’s just slightly higher than they were prior to the Global economic meltdown. Thus, the trade deficits will be a nightmare, and job recovery is wishful thinking. The reality is that the Obama Administration [in my observation, opinion, and from my point-of-view] is a complete nightmare to free-enterprise and industry, and utter failure in creating jobs in my opinion [just look at all the charts]. Many who were unemployed and whose unemployment benefits ran out have stopped looking for jobs.

Why? Well, we either made them weak by giving them free fishes rather than teaching them to fish or, there just are not any jobs, they know it and reason that it is a waste of their time to try. Meanwhile, small businesses are not hiring to any large degree. Again why should they with all the uncertainty. Big Parma is the latest to take their production overseas to South Korea and China, and President Obama is going to re-sign the South Korea trade treaty, but why – it has always been lopsided and unbalanced trade. How does that help jobs in America?Am I overdoing it here? Am I too over the top with condemnation for the performance of the Obama Administration you ask? Certainly not, and it’s not just me who is stating this anymore, there are hundreds of articles in the mainstream media every day on this reality – it’s no secret.

You see, I’ve been carefully clipping various articles, real data, and putting it against those speeches and by the Obama Administration’s, Democrats in Congress, and reading the actual teleprompter scripts from President Obama himself. Turns out, hardly any of this political rhetoric is reality based, it’s just a lot of PR with very little viable leadership in my opinion. No you are not surprised, nor am I naive enough to believe anything will ever change regardless of who gets into office. Still, we all know that it’s not working, as we all have friends and/or neighbors, acquaintances who do not have jobs.

Our current leadership in my opinion is unfit to lead, and these speeches have run their course and are now ineffectual. You and I should not be fooled, and so, we aren’t; neither are most Americans, and the best thing the Obama Administration can do at this point is to get out of the way. Let’s help them do that, let’s vote them out of office along with all the Democrat Leadership in Congress. Please consider all this.

**Below I put together some reading material for you, so you know I am not blowing smoke and this is not purely a political hit piece. It’s just the way I see it, after reviewing the situation. Each of these articles contains bits and pieces to the puzzle and the truth, (I say pieces because we all realize we cannot believe everything in the news, just like we cannot believe everything our politicians tell us at the podium). I hope you will do your own research and consider what I am saying.

References:

LA Times; “Hiring at Small Businesses the Usual Engine of Growth, Sputters” [showing how things are not working as planned].
Editorial by Daniel Henninger in his weekly column Wonder Land; “Obama and the Spending Volcano” [a slamming article that cuts through Obama’s teleprompting rhetoric and eloquent speeches].
USA Today; “Doctors Limit New Medicare Patients; Surveys point to payment concerns” [shortages in health care getting worse, the opposite of what Obama intended].
USA Today; “New RN Grads Feel Squeeze for Jobs – Economy Hits Flow of Nurses in System” [showing how economy is hurting even the industries propped up by socialism and partially funded through our tax dollars, nothing is working].
WSJ; “President’s Jobs Push Shifts to Exports” [article shows it’s not working].
WSJ; “Politics, Personality Fuel Rift Between CEOs, Obama” [article explains the mistrust, uncertainty, and anger from the business community and low confidence of CEOs].
WSJ; “Unemployment Benefits Aren’t Stimulus” [a reality check on Obama-nomics].
Wall Street Journal; “Merck to Shut 16 Sites in Cost Move” July 9, 2010 [moving jobs to India for making the drugs].
Wall Street Journal; “New Detroit Rises in India’s South” July 8, 2010 [US Automakers, including those who were bailed out move manufacturing overseas not only to sell in those markets but to save costs].

The Strategy of Leadership is Thinking, Vision, and Planning – The Future Depends On It

Grammar speaks of events occurring in three plains. The past was, the future will happen, and we live now, the present. However, operating in the information age, the age of instant global communication, makes the future now. Gates [1] wrote we are citizens of an information society. He noted that past generations, and past societies found ways to gather information, get more work done, increase life spans, and improve their standards of living. Time was not as critical in those past ages. A message from a ruler may take months to arrive by sea courier. The Pony Express was six days. Airmail was cross-country overnight. The time span between thought and action are virtually unidentifiable today. Although leaders rely on collective knowledge sharing, leaders who engage in strategic thinking, imagining events as happening rather than will happen, allows them to view the present as their personal and organizational future.

This paper considers how important strategic thinking is for leaders who want to shape their future and the future of their environment. Strategic thinking is the starting point for creating vision. Traditional planning gives way to flexible organizational structures that change “on the fly.”

Strategy in past generations allowed leaders time for thinking, sensing a vision, clarifying the vision, articulating it to begin considering action plans. Accepting that the future is no longer an event to happen later, this paper explores how leaders think, envision, articulate, and plan. How do leaders continue to use strategy to their advantage in a rapidly changing global environment? The answer is in the age of possibilities [2]. Today, as never before we are free from traditional bonds of work, we are free to choose our futures as well as shape them to suit our own desires and needs.

This age is an extension of Gates’ information society. We have the ability to choose our reality in a way that never before existed. In the past, a baker’s son became a baker. However, many leaders of the past came from unexpected places. The Biblical King David was the young son tending sheep (1 Samuel 16:11) and Jesus was just the carpenter’s son whose mother we know (Matthew 13:55) [3]. Truman had leadership thrust upon him. These people saw a point on the horizon but events changes their vision. The age of possibilities allows us to rewrite our future as events dictate.

Accepting that we can change as events dictate suggests that there is a less linear structure in this image and a more chaotic non-linear structure. Sanders [4] describes an organizational structure as a known initial condition but the future appears random. Using the model of the “Lorenz Attractor,” she presents a view of interacting and interrelated parts that appear disorderly until a closer inspection reveals the spiraling order hidden in the model. The Gates’ information society and the Taylor and Wacker age of possibilities do not depend on a linear progression of thought and action and Sanders holds the non-linear nature of the new science of strategic thinking allows us to understand natural order on its own terms.

Strategy

Does strategy have some mythical or mystical property? Leaders and leadership use the word in many contexts, perhaps not really acknowledging what strategy is. Therefore, a simple working definition of strategy for this paper is the deliberate means of attaining an outcome, being visionary.

Mintzberg, et al [5] explains that strategies inevitably have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of setting direction is charting a course; however, the disadvantage is narrowing vision, hiding dangers. The advantage of focusing effort is coordination of activity; however, the disadvantage is groupthink. Having a definition of the organization provides understanding of the organization; however, the definition may hide the complexity of the supporting systems. Having a strategy that provides consistency establishes order in a way that reduces ambiguity; however, creative groups appear to operate with little or no consistency.

Strategy involves paradoxes as the above paragraph suggests. One paradox tells us the story of answers and questions, once you think you have all the answers, someone changes all the questions. Taylor and Wacker state this paradox as, “The more you are right, the more wrong you will be.” This contradiction confuses the reader, if you are right, how can you be wrong? How? The speed of knowledge accelerated beyond our ability to absorb it in our traditional learning pattern.

Another paradox for visionary leaders involves predicting the future. Leaders who are successful predictors of the future act as agents destabilizing the present. Taylor and Wacker explain that today’s realities and tomorrows expectations collide. The allocation of resources between present and future “produce a massive future-based political problem with huge consequences for the present.”

Strategy at Work

The State of Nebraska recently made National news with the passage of LB1024 that, in effect, created segregated school sub-districts in Omaha. The bill was the Unicameral’s way to defeat intercity lawsuits claiming “One City – One School District.” The City of Omaha annexed several small suburban communities to its west, provides police, fire, and city services to these communities; however, the communities remained independent school districts.

The City of Bellevue annexed several Sanitary Improvement Districts (SID) to its west, provides police, fire and city services to these incorporated SIDs. Previous mayors and city councils of Bellevue and Papillion drew arbitrary boarders marking the fringes of the two cities school districts in, what were then, unincorporated zones. Population growth attached itself close to Bellevue. Now, Bellevue’s city limits extend beyond the school district boarders. Therefore, Bellevue claims “One City – One School District.”

By passing this bill, Senator Chambers [6] acknowledged formal segregation of the districts. LB1024 created two super-districts, one in Omaha, and one in Bellevue. In Omaha, the super-district has three independent sub-districts. The independent sub-districts have authority over teacher hiring, measures of teacher/student success under federal No Child Left Behind, and administration of their own budget. The super-district has academic authority over the smaller sub-districts.

The strongest supporter of the LB1024 is the State’s strongest proponent of desegregation. Why did Senator Ernie Chambers of the State’s 11th district support the bill? He claimed the Omaha school district is already segregated. Segregation re-occurred with the end of bussing in 1999. Yet, no Omaha high school is more than 48 percent African American.

Bellevue Mayor Jerry Ryan acknowledged the drain on city funds fighting to redraw school district lines. The fight in Bellevue and Papillion is over federal dollars to schools with a population of children of military families. Offutt Air Force Base is located near Bellevue and military dependent children attend elementary and secondary schools in both cities. Redrawing district lines would result in more federal money to the Bellevue Public School District.

Strategic Thinking and Vision

Reading the paragraphs above may leave the reader asking, “What were they thinking?” Recall the paradox of predicting the future affects the present in adverse ways, yet successful leaders operate as though the future is now.

Another view is that nothing turns out exactly as expected. This may leave leaders in an action quandary: Strategic thinking in the midst of shifting paradigms servers to help organizations “identify, respond to, and influence changes in its environment.”

Strategic thinking allows leaders to think in terms of opportunities to innovate and influence their future and the future of their organization. Strategic thinking aids in abandonment of policies and procedures that are outdated, obsolete, or ineffective.

Strategic thinking is having an awareness of what has not yet taken shape, having foresight. Foresight has a facet that is an individual ability and behavior and it can be a process or activity in business. On a macro level, foresight is a global practice. Note, reaching a macro level must pass from micro – individual, through mezzo – organizational, to reach macro. Foresight starts with the individual leader seeing or sensing something better [7].

Foresight is more than vision; it is visionary. Being a visionary leader means being provocative and questioning rather than seeing answers. Mintzberg, et al (1998) calls upon visionary leaders to operate on emotional and spiritual resources, values, aspirations, and commitment. Leaders need a mental image, build a mental model of a desirable future state. The visionary state is as simple as a dream or complex as a written document outlining the dream in measurable steps.

Visionary leaders must next translate the dream of the desirable future state into a vision they can share with the organization. Sharing a vision must be proactive, must be like a theater performance. Mintzberg, et al addresses performance by the leader as a rehearsal. Rehearsal is the practice of the vision, learning everything they can about the vision. Upon becoming comfortable in rehearsal, the leader must openly perform the vision. Performance brings a dream to life; however, performance has no value without the attending audience. The organizational audience views the performance while feeling empowered to mimic the performance. Organizational mimicking of the performance serves as a starting point for transformation to a higher state of consciousness, becoming, as Senge [8] describes, a learning organization.

Bellevue, Nebraska is the third largest city in the state. Eight years ago, Jerry Ryan made his first run for Bellevue Mayor winning an election against a popular mayor. Bellevue’s population in 1998 was about 29,000. Improvements in transportation, cost of housing and housing developments, and growth in retail and commercial ventures has caused an explosion in population to almost 50,000 with an extended sphere of services into not yet annexed developments of an additional population of about 15,000.

In the May 2006 primary, Mayor Ryan [9] ran against a field of opponents. Mayor Ryan ran on the ideal that Bellevue has reached a size that requires a full time mayor devoted to the city. Opponents, all in their seventies, do not share his view. Mayor Ryan won the majority of primary votes telling the city his vision. In interview with Mayor Ryan, he expressed how hard it is to run a city of 50,000 part-time. “Citizens think I run the city. They are not aware that it is the City Council that approves all action. And, the City Council doesn’t want a full time mayor,” said Ryan in interview. “If there is one thing I’ve failed to do,” said Ryan, “is adequately share my thinking and vision within the council.”

In the “One City – One School District” battle in Omaha, the school district argued that incorporation of suburban districts into Omaha would create a broader tax base, allow for creation of magnet schools throughout the district, and more equitably share resources. Senator Chambers, in support of LB1024, argued that schools already segregated would have more administrative control over their districts to create educational opportunities for racially distinct schools by racially distinct administrators. Opposition to LB1024 was high before its passing, the Governor faced strong opposition for signing it, the Attorney General believes it is in violation of federal law and unconstitutional and Omaha’s most famous citizen, Warren Buffet, expressed his strong opposition.

Senator Chambers is the only African-American state senator who is controversial and outspoken. Many of his claims include racially provocative statements against police, school administrators, teachers, and fellow senators. By contrast, to Mayor Ryan, Senator Chambers does not appear to have a vision based on strategic thinking. Senator Chambers’ term in the Unicameral ends in 2008 and he cannot run again because of imposed term limits.

Morgan [10] offers some thoughts on social construction of reality. What he writes is people have images of themselves and these images unfold into their reality. Two leaders identified thus far have diversely different views of reality. One holds a vision of what can be for the city while the other fights against change using deeply entrenched assumptions of the power of others to shape events.

Another person, a division head of a large First Data Corporation region [11], offered some insight into strategic thinking and being visionary. In an impromptu interview, she held that having a focus on what is possible helped her rise within a company at a time when it was having serious leadership troubles. When everyone else was seeking safety, she sought innovation-providing direction when it appeared there was none. Her member services region is the western United States, Canada, and Mexico. She said, “I thrive on chaos. When things look the most confused, I see my division diversified, flattened, with empowered subordinate managers.”

Our dialogue continued on chaos with Kim conceding she manages chaos within set organizational plans and policies. This lead to her admission that she is more ordered in her expectations and spends more time planning than thinking and creating vision.

Strategic Planning

Hill and Jones [12] discuss strategic planning with the same cautions of Davis [13]. One concept of planning is doing so under uncertainties. In life and business, the only certain is uncertainty. Organizations cannot plan for the future because it is unpredictable. Another consideration is planning cannot be a top-management function alone. This “ivory tower” planning may result in senior leaders thinking in a vacuum, being enthusiastic about a plan and having no operational realities. Finally, strategic planning often suffers because planners have a short-range view of the current environment missing the dynamics of the competitive environment.

Mintzberg, et al devotes a section to “Planning’s Unplanned Troubles.” They explain that planning establishes inflexibility. They support the assertion presented above with the fallacy of predetermination. This fallacy says organizations are able to predict the direction of their environment, are able to exercise control over the environment, “or simply to assume its stability.” “Because analysis is not synthesis, strategic planning has never been strategy making.”

Reverse course a little, planning is not a bad thing when used in cohort with strategic thinking and visionary leadership. It is applying the controlling element strategy to planning that causes problems. Morgan argues in favor of plans and planning when created in a visionary framework that can evolve as circumstances change. What they insinuate in relating the tail of the “Strategic Termites” is unpredictability of organizational structure. An organization’s leader does not need a strategic plan to impose order. Order, like in a termite colony, emerges in an evolutionary way. Planning is not guided by plans rather by a sense of know what the organization wants to ultimately achieve. Ideas, action, and events occur separately but self-organizing yet apparently disorganized groups of termites seize the opportunity to initiate change.

The Future Depends On It

Seeing the future depends on foresight. Having a future view and strategically thinking of the future creates a new paradigm, part of the paradoxes already discussed. One old paradigm suggests future thought as a prediction and development of plans based on the prediction. Making plans establishes policy necessary to reach the predicted future. When the predictions fail to materialize an organization scrambles to recover. Another paradigm is the invention of the future. This means people both construe and become constrained by the structures they enact and change through practice. Gaspar [7] refers to the work of Mintzberg, et al, saying the old paradigms do not work in future thinking organizations. She tells us we must integrate a strategy that includes patterns and perspectives with planning and positioning.

Take a view of American companies 100 years ago. Of the top 12 companies 100 years ago, ten dealt in selling commodities. Today, of the top 12 U.S. companies, three deal in commodities. The remaining nine companies deal in services, manufacturing, and high technology [14]. The only thing certain is change and business leaders must learn to cope with it in order to manage it. Coping with change and managing it mean businesses can profit from it. The future of business is knowledge driven. Countries must be smart, companies must be smart, and people must be smart.

Countries, companies, and people must be equally smart at the same time. To win the future game, each of the three must anticipate and adapt to change in order to manage it effectively. Mayor Ryan admitted that government is slow to change. By example, he cited the city council established a steering committee to investigate whether the city needed to spend money for computers in the mayor’s office. The city has a web presence but the city council did not adopt an intra- and inter-city email system until the steering committee received confirmation from surrounding cities of their system usage. The mayor is 72; by contrast, the average age of the city council is about 63. Mayor Ryan recognizes the value of technology and aggressively seeks younger citizens to enter city government. He hopes forward thinking younger people will drive the risk adverse council toward active and aggressive risk management.

Senator Chambers is the longest serving Senator in the Nebraska Unicameral. He is 69 years old and suffered racial slurs and isolation from fellow senators when he took office. Slurs and threats, chalked on his capitol office door, remain and he considers these a badge. He does not appear on the senate floor in suit and tie. He wears blue jeans and sweat shirts in protest to conformity. However, Senator Chambers seems to exist in an era when racism and segregation were the norm. He rarely seeks coalition with other senators preferring to be a voice of defiance [15].

These two leaders view the future differently. While one hopes to achieve the future by recruiting younger forward thinking people into the political system, the other remains rooted in the past. Neither manages the future proactively but approach the future based on present and past experiences not through information seeking, strategic thinking, and visionary mental modeling.

Conclusion

This paper discussed strategy, strategic thinking and vision making, planning, and the future. These are not separate activities although the discussion presents them individually. By recognizing the Lorenz Attractor as a spiral of interacting parts of an organization, one can also find this model fits a non-linear process of thinking, vision, and planning. Seeing the future as an evolving present helps leaders comprehend that rigid policies based on formalized strategic plans inhibit response to change.

Strategic thinking and vision creation suggests that leaders continually test their mental model with new thinking and questioning – progressively looping thinking, vision, and new information into new thinking. This cycle process allows leaders to anticipate disruptions in the business cycle. Leaders who question themselves asking, “what if …” know “what if …” These leaders are future seeking and organizations employing these leaders are future seeking learning organizations prepared to change before change occurs.

This paper does not deny the value of planning as part of a strategic process. However, rigid planning that does not calculate the shifting horizon of organizational development leaves the company questioning, “What happened,” rather than “what’s happening.”

Foresight allows for strategic management, forecasting and positioning of an organization. The outcome from foresight in business is the anticipated future becoming an inevitable future.

References:

1. Gates, B. (1996). The Road Ahead. New York: Penguin Books.

2. Taylor, J., Wacker, W. with Means, H. (2000). The Visionary’s Handbook: Nine Paradoxes that will Shape the Future of Your Business. New Youk: Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc.

3. Holy Bible. New International Version. Bible Online. Retrieved from http://www.bible.com.

4. Sanders, T. I. (1998). Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the midst of chaos, complexity, and change. New York: The Free Press.

5. Mintzberg, M. Ahlstrand, B. & Lampel, J. (1998). Strategy Safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic Management. New York: The Free Press.

6. Gaspar, J. (2005, August 21-24). Corporate foresight – an attempt to listen to the voices futures’ generations in the strategy making process. Future Studies Department, Corvinus University of Budapest. Retrieved June 15, 2006 from http://www.budapestfutures.org/downloads/abstracts/Gaspar%20Judit%20Abstract.pdf#search=‘judit%20gaspar%20corporate%20foresight’

7. J. Ryan (personal communication, April 28, 2006) in discussion of mayoral leadership strategy in a metropolitan community.

8. Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency and Doubleday.

9. Morgan, G. (1993). Imaginization: The Art of Creative Management. Newbury Park: Sage Publishing, Inc.

10. Hill, C. W. L. & Jones, G. R. (1998). Strategic Management: An integrated approach. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

11. Davis, S. (1996). Future Perfect. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

12. Ong Teck Mong, T. (2006, May 7). Anticipating and Managing Change: The Key to Future Success. Asian Institute of Management 37th Commencement Ceremonies. Retrieved June 16, 2006 from [http://www.aim.edu.ph/home/announcementc.asp?id=741].

13. Ernie Chambers. (2006). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 31, 2006 from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Champers].

14. Blackman, D. A. and Henderson, S. (2004). How foresight creates unforeseen futures: the role of doubting. Futures, 36. 253-266.

15. Johnson, T. A. (2000). An Intellectual and Political Biography of Nebraska State Senator Ernest Chambers: Activist, Statesman, and Humanist, 1937-. Plains Humanities Alliance: Events. Retrieved May 31, 2006 from [http://libr.unl.edu:2000/plains/events/seminars/johnson1.html]

16. Nadler, D. A. and Tushman, M. L. (1997). Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press.

17. Somasegar (No First Name) (2006, January 21). Strategic Thinking. Retrieved June 2, 2006 from http://blogs.msdn.com/User/Profile.aspx?UserID=3644.

Enterpriship – The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Management

Every individual who starts, owns, or is a member of the management team of an enterprise, should strive to build sustainable advantage. Sustainable advantage is essential to value creation because cash flows become predictable and reliable over long periods of time. As a consequence, it is easier to plan for investments in new endeavors and to maintain contingency reserves for downturns.

Building sustainable advantage requires proficiency in the disciplines of entrepreneurship, leadership, and management. Collectively, these three disciplines embrace “enterpriship.”

Enterpriship is both an art and a science. Art is an occupation that requires both knowledge and skills; science is method for systematizing knowledge. Through both knowledge and skills, enterpriship provides a systematized approach to building sustainable enterprises by employing the techniques of entrepreneurship, leadership, and management.

Entrepreneurship is a competency for starting, developing, and assuming risk for an enterprise. Leadership is a competency for aspiring, inspiring, and motivating others. Management is a competency for directing and controlling events and activities – management as a “team” has the authority and responsibility for the enterprise.

Being proficient in all three competencies requires experience. Entrepreneurs may lack the leadership and management competencies, leaders may lack entrepreneurial and management competencies, and managers may lack the entrepreneurial and leadership competencies to build a sustainable enterprise.

Upwardly mobile entrepreneurs have to demonstrate to investors that they can build large markets. Lifestyle business enterprise owners, such as dry cleaners, hairdressers, professional service providers, restaurateurs, and retailers, are responsible for everything in their businesses. Executives and managers in larger enterprises are under constant pressure from investors to generate quality earnings on an ongoing basis.

The enterprise depends upon the use of all three enterpriship competencies as do the employees, customers, suppliers and investors.

When entrepreneurs start enterprises, they tend to focus on the benefits and features of their products and/or services. Intrapreneurs, who are agents of change in established enterprises, tend to do the same thing. However, focusing on products and/or services alone is insufficient for building sustainable advantage over time.

Without people there is nothing in business. Processes must be effective and efficient at delivering quality products and/or services conveniently. If an enterprise can’t deliver, a competitor will.

Hence, the management team collectively must be proficient in entrepreneurial, leadership, and managerial roles that dictate successful people-oriented, process-oriented, and product and/or service capabilities.

The entrepreneurial role is both process-oriented and product-oriented, through which innovative ideas are transformed into value at every stage of an enterprise’s development.

The leadership role is people-oriented, through which direction is set that others will follow to achieve results – equally applicable to top-level executives, team leaders within functions, or anywhere in between.

The managerial role is process-oriented, through which resources (time, materials, and supplies) are applied to activities to achieve results.

These three roles embrace the planning and policy development, deployment and execution, and performance measurement activities of the enterprise. Deployment means positioning the resources of the enterprise in the best markets for its products and/or services. Execution means getting things done through people and processes effectively and efficiently.

Unless the management team employs these three enterpriship competencies collectively to address people, process, and product and/or service capabilities, the enterprise will be unable to build sustainable advantage over time, and will ultimately decline, and maybe fail.

If the management team can systematize building sustainable advantage through the effective and efficient use of people and processes, then there more time to spend on developing the benefits and features of products and/or services. Enterpriship provides the approach…

Failed Corporate Leadership – Lessons in Corporate Greed

Corporate greed has recently dominated the headlines in the United States. The list of fallen and disgraced Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers is long and alarming, and the stories emerging from the rubble of major corporations are quite disturbing.

How did this all come to pass?

What were the causes?

Who failed to lead?

What happen to teaching ethics?

Ethics is now being taught in the classrooms in the Graduate Schools of Business throughout American and now the world. It is too little and a very late. The paradox is at those same Graduate Schools of Business, is that less than two decades ago the MBA classes were hearing and learning all the benefits, executive “perks,” tricks of the boardroom, and the tales of “big bucks”, war stories of corporate raiders, merger and acquisition mega-millionaire and billionaires, and king’s ransom “golden parachutes.”

It should not surprise anyone that having Ivan Bosky bragging about his lucrative deals that they were making a lack of morals virtue and coveting all the toys and “perks.” The world of the immoral world of greedy CEO is full of 100 foot yachts, 10,000 sq. ft homes with tennis courts, media rooms, and ten car garages, immorality and affairs, appropriate goal for a senior executive, expected behavior, and mandatory for all successful CEO’s.

For the Ivan Bosky to be invited to deliver a major lecture to all the MBA students of one of the most prestigious Graduate Schools of Business with the unbelievable message: “GREED IS GOOD!” is beyong belief in an institution of higher learning. Universities are supposed to develop are leaders, not our blunders.

It is as sad but telling comment on the state of our collective lack of moral integrity which the popular movie, WALL STREET, had actor Michael Douglas, as Corporate Raider Gordon Geeko, which he portraited as a rich tycoon of industry. In the movie, Gordon Geeko is presented as a powerful deal maker with no morals. Geeko in the movie uses actual quotes and close paraphrases the soon to be indicted, fined, and jailed Ivan Bosky message “GREED IS GOOD!” It is very sad comment that that same message was delivered to the world and all the hopeful employees who now knew that it was OK to steal, lie, and cheat!

The events of the last ten years reveal a material flaw in the moral fabric of some previously well-respected corporate leaders. The ever-present pressure of the next quarter’s profits, and the push to increase “earnings per share” and drive up the stock price have caused some senior executives of American firms to ignore the fundamental morals of honesty, especially if the news is bad. Unfortunately, some of the corporate executives began to believe their own press kits, lost their moral compasses, and fell victims to the disease of corporate greed. All of the executives whose behavior is described above have failed to demonstrate “moral virtue” or live a life consistent with basic honesty, the simple basic laws of the Old Testament’s, “Ten Commandments.”

Just as we hopefully raise our own children by those three great teachers, “example, example, and example,” we must demand that our leaders and other key role models provide the “right example.” Moral virtue has been sadly lacking in these top executives in major American publicly traded corporations. In order to build trust, Americans must require that our corporate and political leaders demonstrate by every action, thought, and deed that they stand for honesty and integrity. The leaders described above failed to be trustworthy. These fallen executive have demonstrated failed leadership.

Let’s stroll through the recent corporate crime scene and the results of preaching in the Ivy Halls in the MBA classrooms that in fact making money regardless of the cost to other and that “Greed is Good!” to the MBA students and entire the world that has unfolded from teaching the “Seeds of Greed.” The combined losses from corporate fraud, corporate greed, job losses, and Federal Government bailouts are climbing daily into the dozens of Trillions of Dollar.

The totals only continue to grow, and the economic problems they create materially adversely effect the stability of the stock market. The true tragedy is the devastation to millions of individual investors’ finances and the personal havoc to the employees who lose not only their jobs but their retirement all at the same time.

Even the watchdog New York Stock Exchange (NTSE) has had a scandal. Retiring Chairman Dick Grasso’s infamous multi-million dollar retirement package, approved by the NYSE Board of Directors, shocked everyone when the over $139.5 million payout package deal became public knowledge.

The senior executives at Enron have become an icon of corporate greed, massive fraud, dishonesty, unethical behavior, and failed leadership. Andrew and Lea Fastow have fallen from grace, plea bargained, and have been convicted. Andrew, Enron’s former CFO, will begin to start his 10-year sentence for securities and wire fraud as soon as his multi-millionaire heiress wife, Lea, completes her one-year prison term for insider trading of Enron stock in her family charity. Lea Fastow, along with Enron senior executives Kenneth Lay, the (now deceased) founder and former Chairman of Enron, Jeffery Skilling, the former President and CEO of Enron, and Richard Causey, Chief Accounting Officer of Enron, all denied any wrongdoing. The juries have tried them and found them guilty, guilty and guilty.

Enron’s Kenneth Lay, Jeffery Skilling, and Richard Causey all arrogantly refused to plea bargain with federal prosecutors, or admit their guilt. All three of them are now tried and convicted on a variety of criminal charges including securities fraud, bribery, collusion and conspiracy to commit fraud, wire fraud, filing false financial statements, and many more. In addition to the criminal charges pending, there are civil lawsuits from investors and employees who have lost billions in the fall of Enron.

The late Kenneth Lay continued to proclaim his innocence of any criminal acts at Enron, even after his conviction. He additionally claimed that he, the founder and former Chairman of Enron, was unaware of the Enron financial details. Yet before the United States Senate Committee Lay instead of testifying he took “the Fifth” The conclusion must be drawn that Lay knows he is guilty of multiple criminal acts. He was clearly not willing to admit his guilt before the United States Senate Committee.

Enron is, unfortunately, just part of the long list of corporate greed plaguing America in the 21st Century. Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of [MCI] WorldCom Inc., was indicted and convicted on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, and making false regulatory filings. The Prosecutors allege and it was successfully proven to the jury that Ebber’s was the ring leader in an $11 billion accounting fraud.”

Flamboyant and extravagant former CEO of Tyco International Ltd. L. Dennis Kozlowski and his ex-Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz are both about to head back to Federal Court for a retrial. Kozlowski has been dubbed the poster boy for corporate excess. He was convicted on a number of criminal charges including stealing $600 million from Tyco Corporation, and it’s shareholders..

Kozlowski’s exploits with women and wild spending are all detailed in the book, Testosterone Inc: Tales of CEOs Gone Wild (Byron, 2004). He portrays Kozlowski, along with Jack Welsh, former Chairman of General Electric, “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap of Sunbeam, and Revlon’s Ron Pearlman, as having feet of clay and the morality of rock stars – drunk on power and driven by sex, greed, extravagance, and glamour.

Richard Scrushy, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of HealthSouth Corp, is another in the list of CEOs who deny any wrongdoing. He was acquitted on the criminal charges of financial improprieties. But, William Owens, former Chief Financial Officer of HealthSouth, and four other HealthSouth former CFOs have all plead guilty.

Scrushy was accused of helping overstate the company’s earnings by nearly $3 billion from 1996 to 2003. Scrushy was indicted by a federal grand jury on 85 counts of fraud, money laundering, and other offenses. He faced 650 years in prison and $36 million in fines on those charges.

At Scrushy’s trial, Leif Murphy, a former HealthSouth Vice President, who worked in the firm’s treasury department and is not charged with a crime, provided damaging testimony about Scrushy. Murphy testified that Scrushy had gotten very angry and Scrushy had yelled at Murphy when Leif Murphy challenged Scrushy on the release of false financial information. Not withstanding the fact that Scrushy’s string of four Chief Financial Officers where convicted or plead guilt, Scrushy was found not guilt of all criminal charges.

The government also was seeking $278 million in forfeitures from Scrushy, who has proclaimed “I am an innocent man” many times, including in his interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on October 26, 2003. His lawyers somehow managed to get him off on these criminal charges related to major fraud at HealthSouth, only have Richard Scrushy get convicted on charges multiple counts of bribery and his now in prison.

At Fannie Mae, the career of well-respected CEO Franklin Raines came to an abrupt end when the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight forced a very resistant Fannie Mae Board of Directors to oust Raines. Raines, Fannie Mae’s Board, and his supporters insisted that he wasn’t culpable for the misuse of obscure accounting standards. But his friend thoughts were rejected and his testimony was not accepted as the full truth by the SEC, the U. S. Congress, or the public.

Raines rose from being a poor kid from Seattle to graduate from Harvard, earn a Rhodes scholarship, and becoming White House Budget Director, before being tapped to be the CEO of Fannie Mae. Now Raines’ lucrative severance package (“early retirement”) has become a new issue of contention. There have been well documented cases of massive fraud, mismanagement, and accounting mistakes at Fannie Mae during Raines’ tenure as CEO.

While Raines has never been convicted of perpetrating or approving the fraudulent accounting, there was a major uproar over his severance package when the news broke that he had apparently been negligent in overseeing accounting functions at Fannie Mae. Yet somehow amazingly, the then fallen and sacked Franklin Raines (after the US Government took over and bailed out Fannie Mae) became a “financial advisor” to then US Presidential Candidate, US Senator Barrack H. Obama,

In this post-Enron, post-WorldCom, and post-Tyco world, the rules are being enforced on the playing fields of corporate America. Even one of the largest and most profitable insurance companies in the world, American International Group Inc. (AIG), has had a serious bout with both the Securities & Exchange Commission and the U. S. Justice Department, starting back several years ago.

The financial problems and fraud at AIG really began in 2001 (or maybe even earlier), but took three years for SEC securities regulators to catch it. In 2004, the SEC informed AIG that it was exploring filing securities fraud charges against it for their non arms length relationship with PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and what the SEC call a pattern of helping PNC hide their underperforming loans, starting clear back in at least 2001.

The full impact of the seeds of greed sown earlier this decade and subsequent misdeeds have resulted in the major disaster at AIG, which has now been unveiled in 2008 and 2009. Now, the failing of AIG has resulted in the Federal Government Bailout is costing American’s Billions and Billions of Taxpayer Dollars.

The list of the indicted and fallen corporate leaders is long and growing. In August of 2003 it was reported that story of the misdeeds of Adlephia’s John Rigas, and two of his sons failed came to light. They were indicted and convicted of defrauding Adlephia Communications Corp. of $2.5 billion.

One of the lessons that these leaders should have learned and lived was basic ethics or morals. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 [H. R. 3763], passed by the United States Congress on January 23, 2003 and immediately signed into law by President George W. Bush.

From a basic moral, maybe even a religious perspective, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act would not have been necessary if corporate executives had just lived the “Ten Commandments,” or at least just three of them: “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”