ITB Partners – Management Consultants
Our Business is Your Success
Jim Weber has completed the first phase of a Turnaround Management Engagement for a client in Chapter 11 Reorganization.
His work revealed a clear path for a successful exit from Chapter 11 and a strategy to generate sustainable growth for the client. The next phase will include a detailed plan and the introduction of performance metrics.
For more information about ITB Partners and what we can do for you, contact Jim Weber at; Jim.Weber@itbpartners.com
By Sebastian van der Vegt, Untold Communications
Thanks to a booming economy, the start-up scene is thriving. Co-working places everywhere are full of entrepreneurs with innovative new ideas, taking advantage of a digital economy that is providing unparalleled opportunities, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
Yet, statistics remind us of a sobering number. Among start-ups that manage to attract outside funding, around 70% never make a profit. Over half of all companies don’t even make it past their 5th year.
So how do you beat these miserable odds?
The answer is that it’s not simple. You need thick skin, a strong mind, a lot of determination and not just a little bit of luck. But you can greatly increase your odds by creating an awesome communications strategy and narrative.
By strategy, I simply mean the purposeful use of communication to fulfill your mission – the right message/content, to the right target audience, at the right time using the correct medium/messenger. Done right, it will inform investment decisions, win over potential clients and investors, and position a company for long-term growth.
Sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not. Most start-ups have a business plan, a financial plan and even a basic marketing plan to establish an online presence. Very few have a sound communications strategy mapped out. In fact, among the start-ups that I’ve come across, I’ve yet to find one that had thought about this.
Some start-ups do decide they need good ‘PR’, usually after about six months to a year into their existence, but they often do it for the wrong reasons, or with little or no strategy.
Just last week, a prospective client asked me if I knew any journalists. “Of course, I do” I answered, “I know plenty,” but explained to him that it’s really the wrong question – see point 5 below.
Initially, most small companies also rely on communications and marketing themselves. After all, they can write, sell and know their product better than anyone. Thanks to a wide variety of new digital tools, everyone also has access to inexpensive solutions that help you build a website, post blogs, send mass emails, or do basic marketing.
Being an entrepreneur naturally means they should take advantage of these new tools. But there is a reason that large, successful companies spend millions on communications and marketing, and smaller companies would do well to adopt some of these same lessons.
So here are 6 of my favorite lessons that I learned while working at a fortune 500 company, that could benefit any start-up:
Most start-ups will have been advised to start with why (thanks to Simon Sinek). It’s a good start, and better than only talking about what you do, but it’s not enough.
The why is only part of the ‘context’ – which should include why you exist, what problem you are solving for your customers, what gives you the authority, and, implicitly, ‘who’ you are targeting.
Tell the story of how and why you were founded. If you can, try to make an emotional connection in the delivery, it will make for an audience that is a lot more engaged. Extra bonus point for telling the story of how you are helping your customers achieve success.
Any idea worth its time should be told in a natural way, in plain English, in less than 15 seconds. It’s more difficult than you think. For most, this will mean forgetting all the technical language they are accustomed to. It also means forgetting that 100 other companies make similar claims.
Too many start-ups try to differentiate themselves unnecessarily through complex wording or technical capabilities to prove that they are special. My advice: differentiate yourself through the way you fulfill a need and address a problem for a segment of the market, in a way that a prospective customer would easily understand.
A great business plan will benefit enormously from a great communications strategy.
That means that if you need to find software engineers to power your start-up, you need a strategy to boost your brand with the local university. Go give a lecture, a seminar, or sponsor a hack-a-thon.
It means that if you’re trying to get teachers to use your product in the classroom, you need the right language, the right content and the right medium to reach them. Partner with a teaching website or school district to give your company message.
It means that if you’re taking on a dominant competitor, be provocative – you don’t use ‘safe’ language that a multinational would use. Stand out by differentiation, and by not being afraid to ruffle some feathers.
I could go on, but you get the point.
While a company ‘boilerplate’ with standard messaging is a great tool to have, you’ll need to adjust your messaging depending on the audience. One size does not fit all.
Building on point 3, identify your top 5 stakeholder groups that are critical to your growth and write down the key message points and language you would use to communicate and win over each audience. Once you’ve done that, you can identify the channels/materials in which you can best reach these groups.
This again sounds like a no-brainer, but the discipline of this exercise will help everyone stay on message.
Many start-ups will look for a silver PR bullet. A write-up in a newspaper, a listing on a top 100 of hot start-ups, a mention on TV. Great – this may work for you if your story is there and you have something new or interesting.
For most start-ups, their story is not (yet) of interest to receive what we call ‘earned’ media, and they are much better off building their brand in the ‘owned’ space. This means writing blogs in a medium that you own; it means building a kick-ass website and content across different social channels; it means writing a regular newsletter and industry content for trade magazines.
Often overlooked is physical space – most companies own assets. You can also consider ‘shared’ media; using your content in partner owned channels can be a win-win.
Point is, start-ups have many options other than selling their story to journalists or buying advertising.
Audiences smell bull-sX#! from a mile away. In a world where we are bombarded with information and polished content, presenting the real, authentic you is a competitive advantage. Make sure you tell your story in a way that is compelling, with proof points that are real and relatable. Also, remember to include a vision that is purposeful and that has meaning.
The company vision is where communications strategy and company strategy really meet. Why does your company exist? What’s the ultimate goal?
The most obvious and easy answer is, of course, to sell more products & services, but try to dig one level deeper to think in terms of benefits to society. It will not only help focus your company, but it will help motivate your employees, attract investors and ultimately help improve your sales.
After spending years working with some of the biggest brands in the world, I love helping smaller companies achieve their goals and vision. It’s one of most rewarding aspects of my new role after leaving the corporate world behind.
That’s not to say they don’t have their own set of challenges; many don’t have revenue yet, lack good time management, have strong opinions, operate on limited budgets, and present solutions in search of a problem.
Yet, despite all of this they’re still my favorite clients (with apologies to my corporate clients). Quite simply, having a great communications strategy for start-ups can make the difference between failure or success – it’s that critical.
On my next blog, I’ll focus on the basic difference between good and great marketing. Until then, I look forward to your feedback.
Sebastian Van Der Vegt is the Managing Director of Untold Communications in Atlanta A native of the Netherlands, van der Vegt has lived in Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, and Turkey before settling down in the U.S. He has a degree in Psychology and has taught strategic communications at leading business schools. For more information, please contact him at Sebastian@untoldstrategies.com.
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Recently, a number of info-graphics comparing the habits of successful people to those that aren’t, landed on my Pinterest feed. A few of their points spoke to reading as opposed to watching television and a zest for continual learning as significant differentiating factors. Although I couldn’t disagree, I didn’t pay it much attention until a recent conversation with my friend, Faith. She was excited to tell me that she had just received a tuition reimbursement check from her employer. As she is working to complete a college degree, she is making good use of her company’s education assistance program.
She continued, saying that she valued that benefit and planned to take full advantage of the program. I agreed with her thinking and complimented her employer for offering the benefit. However, I lamented that too many employers have scaled back on their training programs and lack cultures that reinforce the benefits of life-long learning. Naturally, we agreed that it was a topic I needed to explore further.
A few days later, Dennis, an alumni buddy, and I were enjoying our cigars and adult beverages, talking about cars. He told me how another friend, John, got him interested in doing his own car repairs. John showed Dennis how to research the issue, find the right parts, and make the repairs. Over time, he gained confidence as he accumulated experience. He has resolved many maintenance issues, like replacing brake pads and rotors, saving a lot of money. This is a skill set he developed with a little encouragement from a friend. I know that he takes pride in this ability which gives him great satisfaction.
On the other hand, I am reminded of a colleague who had no interest in learning how to use a Personal Computer. It was a time when PCs were moving rapidly into the workplace but before the introduction of laptops. He told me, “why should I know how to use a PC, that’s why I have an assistant.” The irony is that the PC replaced the administrative assistant, except for the more senior level staff. I often wonder how long it took him to catch up to his peers?
Much has been learned about the brain that supports the value of lifelong learning. A healthy body and sound mind is the key to a long and happy life. The brain is like a muscle, either use it or lose it! Learning is like any other skill that requires practice. With practice one masters the subject. Lifelong learning or continual learning is an attitude, a mindset. If one believes in the importance of learning new information, or skills they will make the effort to pursue that course. If not, stagnation may develop, putting one’s career in jeopardy. As a commercial enterprise is a collection of people, an organization, it follows that it would benefit from continual learning. Building a learning culture is a viable strategy to keep employees interested and engaged, supporting innovation and productivity improvements. A learning culture creates competitive advantage.
I am a big fan of YouTube. The variety of their videos seems to be endless. Among others, I have viewed programs to improve my efficiency with Office 365, manage my websites, develop landing pages to build my contact database, and facilitate greater exposure for my brand. My time on YouTube has increased my productivity in so many areas that I’ve become an addict. The point is, YouTube is a free service. It’s a platform for brands to build customer loyalty by training to maximize the utility of their products. Tuning into YouTube seems to be a ‘no-brainer,’ for individual learners, and for employers.
It is all too easy for professionals to get into a rut, going on autopilot as it were, as the vicissitudes of daily life take president. Companies are no different. They develop successful business models and continue executing that formula, sometimes without noticing the changes happening around them. Brands that maintain long term relevance, do so by listening to their customers. They Learn. The best brands know that their employees are their customers too.
Creating a learning culture really isn’t difficult. One small change can spark a virtuous cycle of change. Providing education benefits to employees is a good step toward creating a continuous learning culture. At the end of the day, however, it’s the responsibility of leadership to build a culture for success.
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By Antony Francis antony.francis@lakehillpartners.com
April 11, 2109
About 20 years ago, I produced a diagram showing that there are 3 interconnected supply chains: The Physical, the Informational and the Financial. All three, of course, interconnected and feeding off each other.
This interconnection is important. The quicker you get information into the transaction set from physical activities, the quicker you get an ASN and the quicker you get a POD and can invoice your customer. Time is money.
There was also much talk about Global Inventory Visibility. We dreamt of the ability to know what was inside each box on a pallet, but the private batch processed networks and lack of internet-driven transactions made this a pipe dream. I remember discussing with a client in the late ’90s whether we could know within seconds at the UK HQ whether an item had been sold in a store in Tokyo and immediately pulse out a replenishment shipment that same day. Of course, today we would say: “no brainer, we can!”; back then, the lack of inter-connected systems and batch processing of file exchanges made this a dream scenario.
So, where does Blockchain come into the picture? Firstly, it is important to define what we mean by Blockchain. There are two pieces to Blockchain when it relates to supply chains. One is the distributed on-line ledger that enables one to track the work-flow process from PO to an approved A/P transaction on the buy-side and a sales invoice into A/R on the sell side.
A recent article described Blockchain as an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently, securely and in a verifiable and permanent way.
Some of the key elements of Blockchain were explained by Iansiti and Lakhani in a recent Harvard Business Review piece:
So, let’s focus on the transactional work-flow process side initially, the Distributed Ledger. Transparency is becoming increasingly important for retailers; more and more people want to know how and where goods are made. This goes hand in hand with ethics and sustainability. For retailers to understand if they are operating in the most sustainable way, if the products they buy are made in the factory they believe it to be, they need to know information about the supply chain. Blockchain can help with this type of data tracking. When transactions occur along the supply chain, a digital record occurs at each step, thus providing a full audit trail.
Consider how business works today. Keeping ongoing records of transactions is a core and necessary function of any business. Those records track past actions and performance and guide planning for the future. They must, however, operate as an event manager and keep a fully detailed history of who made changes and when. Many organizations have no master ledger of all their activities; instead, records are distributed across internal units and functions. The problem is reconciling transactions across individual and private ledgers takes a lot of time and is prone to error.
In a blockchain system, the ledger is replicated in many identical databases, each hosted and maintained by an interested party. When changes are entered in one copy, all the other copies are simultaneously updated. So as transactions occur, records of the value and assets exchanged are permanently entered in all ledgers. There is no need for third-party intermediaries to verify or transfer ownership.
“Smart contracts” may be the most transformative blockchain application. These automate transaction approvals as negotiated conditions are met. For example, a smart contract might send a payment to a supplier as soon as a shipment is delivered, and the 3-way match is completed. If the product had a GPS beacon, it would automatically log a location update that, in turn, would trigger receiving data. Some IoT devices can even record if there was a change in temperature or shock damage.
When the Internet cloud emerged and started achieving widespread use, technologies like XML were predicted to replace EDI. Rumors of the death of EDI have been greatly exaggerated. The short answer is that EDI works. Companies have invested in it over many years. It may well have been moderately painful to get it up and running, but now it works. Even today, a certain set of core EDI messages (around the buy-sell-ship-pay transaction lifecycle) have and continue to enjoy widespread adoption and are almost universally required by major retailers and manufacturers. It is very prevalent in the Freight Forwarder community. The good news is that Blockchain feeds of all of these data sources.
Consider the situation today with B2B networks: Suppose a given supply chain process involves a buyer, seller, and third-party logistics provider. Today, information flows between these entities are typically one-way and point-to-point, either through EDI or XML-based messages or other mechanisms, such as API-based interactions. It is often the case that a buyer and seller might exchange certain messages, but an intermediary logistics service provider doesn’t see those messages. Or a seller and logistics provider might exchange certain messages not exchanged with the buyer. Events representing the exchange of B2B documents, for example, could be recorded on a blockchain and made visible to all participants in a supply chain process. In addition, blockchain could record supplemental events, such as those provided by IoT and smart devices, providing a more detailed synthesized record of all information flows. The actual exchange of B2B documents that occurs today can continue to operate as is, and a blockchain could simply provide a shared visibility “overlay.”
Such platforms will save the global shipping industry billions of dollars a year by replacing the current EDI and paper-based systems, which can leave containers in receiving yards for weeks. What if tariff codes, classification data, origin information, import and export certificates, customs values, clearance status, and all further required information about goods were available for all involved parties to access and complete through one unique ID, anywhere and anytime, and protected against manipulation thus delivering the same significance as certificates, seals, and signatures?
Permissioning inside blockchain gives you the confidence that you can control your information and grant access only to those you want to grant access to.
Lakehill Partners has a long history of systems integration and business process redesign. Let us help you manage the way forward.
For more information on this subject, please contact Antony Francis at antony.francis@lakehillpartners.com.
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Jim Weber, Managing Partner of ITB Partners, announces that he has landed an engagement to help a Service Sector Company make a successful exit from Chapter 11 reorganization. In this capacity, Mr. Weber will help the client craft a strategy and plan to return the client to profitability and sustainable growth.
March 17, 2019
Let’s begin with an overview of what omni-channel means. Whether it be B2B or B2C, buyers and consumers expect to be able to source and purchase goods in any combination of methods whether online or in brick & mortar stores and then be able to return them in any way they choose.
This is where omnichannel logistics comes to solve this no-exhaustive list of methods:
Increasingly, customers expectation of arrival times has changed such that same day delivery is becoming an almost standard feature. But at what cost to serve? Last mile delivery networks are challenged to reduce these delivery times without increasing rates to their customers.
Omni-channel logistics is designed to manage inventory flow across all sales channels. It, therefore, comes with its own unique set of challenges. Many of these are not new to the logistics space. They have been known for years. Indeed, one of the principal barriers to eliminating these issues has been technology. With today’s connected systems and the use of distributed ledger technology, we are getting closer to resolution.
Now, let’s look at 5 of the top omni-channel logistics challenges that businesses face:
Two key challenges are inventory visibility and visibility once in transit. In short, it means picking and packing the right product and delivering it when expected.
A well-developed Inventory Management System which views stores as mini-warehouses with the same visibility to contact and selection should be coupled to the Order Management System that is fed from various Order Entry points (online or other). Each of these systems has key metrics and dashboards built into them to alert to execution status at any time.
We are always dealing with three supply chain (physical, informational and financial). Once, these were mutually exclusive. That is no longer the case today. Knowing the cost to serve is as important for a business as pick accuracy or fulfill rates as operational metrics.
Once the shipment has left the dock, it is all important to be able to alert a customer when an issue arises in transit and allow interception in-transit and re-routing capabilities. Many TMS products integrate these features including shipment status, GPS, temperature, humidity and shock sensors, etc. It is also important to know which product is in which box when a pallet or multi-piece shipment arrives.
For international shipments, it is critical to integrate freight forwarder systems into the shipment status tracking, in the event of delays in customs clearance.
A killer for supply chain operations is manual processes that come from legacy systems that have yet to be connected to an updated technology platform. One of the enduring areas is inventory control which often still rely on physical count process engendering slow update and inaccurate counts. As companies grow and restructure or acquire other operations, the integration of these platforms is often painfully slow. The key to solving this supply chain breakdown is to consolidate these processes, rather than let them function in silos.
There are many ways to get a product to the customer’s doorstep, whether from a DC or a store. The challenge is to find the most effective and efficient transportation solution to keep customers happy without driving up the landed product costs. Selecting the right shipping method for the right customer situation is essential to omni-channel logistics. This is especially true for returns. They may not require the same speed as used for the forward side.
The return process for any product should be just as seamless as its initial delivery. In this new omni-channel landscape, customers expect to be able to return products they’ve purchased online in-store or by mail. Companies that don’t offer this ease of return are unlikely to generate repeat business. Implementing sound reverse logistics infrastructure is imperative to good customer service within the omni-channel logistics framework.
Although digital transformation has been the focus attention from analysts and technology companies alike, businesses must take care not to overlook the physical transformation. The method of flowing truckloads of products from large DCs to stores has become outdated. Businesses must update their supply chain and distribution networks to compete in this new market, in which the speed of delivery and inventory reduction are paramount. Leading enterprises are testing out new distribution strategies that eliminate DCs to become more agile and to better align with customer expectations for faster deliveries.
In fact, the companies that do omni-channel best sell orders online without ever taking physical possession of the product. E-commerce and order management systems are synced in such a way that online shopping cart orders trigger a PO directly with the vendor. This, in turn, places a PO on an OEM and triggers a chain of events with the outbound freight forwarder, the carrier, and the inbound forwarder and then an outsourced or in-house party within the business’s supply chain carries out fulfillment. All these operators’ systems need to be fully integrated.
Omni-channel logistics is all about providing consumers with a seamless shopping experience. This experience is only attainable when businesses leverage their e-commerce capabilities in a way that acknowledges the reality of running both a brick-and-mortar storefront and distribution center network.
More and more companies are relying on their 3PL/4PL partners to run the back-office operations, allowing them to focus on the core competencies of designing, producing, marketing and selling products. Leave the rest to the experts.
A successful 3PL is an operations manager, a strategic consultant and an IT provider all in one. This combination of capabilities is especially valuable when it comes to inventory optimization and omni-channel fulfillment. A 3PL’s core competency around fulfillment operations — such as knowing which metrics to use and how to measure them to drive continuous improvement — can help companies both large and small close the capability gap.
Summary
The right 3PL partner can use its retail and shipping industry knowledge and supply chain experience, as well as a diverse set of OMS/WMS/TMS capabilities and integration strategies to address the challenges listed above.
Lakehill Partners has a long history of systems integration and business process redesign. Let us help you manage the way forward.
For more information on this subject, please contact Antony Francis at antony.francis@lakehillpartners.com.
Thank you for visiting our blog.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
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ITB PARTNERS
The April Members Meeting was held on the 18th. Troy Gautier spoke about Creating Strategic Alliances. Troy is seen here presenting Jim Weber with his 2019 Annual Membership Fee, making him the newest member.
Troy Gautier is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Alliances Progress, LLC.
Alliances Progress is a professional services firm specialized in international ecosystem development. We provide “Alliances as a Service” to enable our client and partner firms to work together to grow their revenues and capabilities.
– Strategic Alliances
– Commercial Partnerships
– Ecosystem Development
– Mergers & Acquisitions
– Member Firm Organization
– Global Business and Technology Network
– International Business Development
– Advisory Boards and NGOs
This week I received an article from my friend, Faith, which she described as ‘must read.’ When Faith sends me a ‘must read’ article, I jump on it! This article was an excerpt from The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand, a book written by Neil Patel and Aaron Agius. Actually, the article is chapter 6, How to Connect With Mentors.
The article begins by stating that “74% of hiring managers, believe that job seekers need the support of a mentor, counselor, or job coach whereas, only 40% of job seekers actually have a mentor to help them through the process.” They quoted Madeline Slutsky, Chairman of the Career Advisory Board and Vice President of Career Services at DeVry University who stated that “job seekers are doing themselves a huge disservice by ignoring the wealth of guidance and insight a mentor could provide.”
They quoted Rachel Louise Ensign of the Wall Street Journal who said that “a mentor can help a young worker answer tough questions about his or her career path and get perspective on the industry. The relationship may even help you eventually land a new job.”
After the setup and further prose on the value of mentors, the article laid out a systematic approach to identify a mentor, how to engage the prospective mentor, and the need to formalize a structure for a productive relationship.
This post was clearly meant for someone beginning their career, a primer as it were, which is fine. It’s an important topic, worth discussion. There’s so much to learn about navigating organizational cultures that one needs a mentor or coach to help accelerate their learning.
I find it useful to distinguish between the work of a coach and mentor. Although there may be some overlap in their approach, there is a difference. A mentor is more of a strategist and generalist whereas a coach is more tactical and specific. This point is a generalization, of course, as mentors can be strategic or tactical, depending on the situation. In my experience, mentors are people you call on to better understand the dynamics of a situation. They are guides. They don’t tell you what to do but help you learn by providing options to consider. A coach, on the other hand, helps you develop skills and provides feedback and encouragement. Another important distinction is that coaches are often paid for their services. Mentors are volunteers who gain satisfaction by giving back.
The situation is relevant as well. A mentor or coach appropriate for career development on the job may not be suitable to help you during a job search. A career coach experienced in job search will provide relevant tactical support for resume preparation, networking effectiveness, and interviewing skills, to name a few.
I couldn’t help but think that finding a mentor is a subset of building a network to support your career. That thought sparked my thinking on a broader level. Faith’s recommendations tend to do that. I was reminded of the chapter I’d just read from Strategic Connections. Those authors speak about the importance of creating teams to accomplish different objectives. They say that, depending on the nature of the objective, different personality types are required to achieve the objective. They identify 14 different archetypes as follows:
Thinking about the issue further, finding mentors and coaches is part of building your network. You’ve probably been on different teams from time to time, both at work and play, so you have experience. To achieve important goals, we often need to assemble a team. Depending on the nature of the objective, the team may be broad, or it may be small.
From a broader perspective, the issue is about building a network of people with diverse skills and perspectives who can be a resource to you. I believe it’s about developing relationships based on mutual respect and interests. You’re not only developing a team to support your needs; you’re a member of your contacts’ teams. Expect to be called on when they need you. Make sure to answer their call.
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ITB PARTNERS
I swear, I must have been transported into an alternate Universe this week, where I was an actor in a sitcom. Something resembling “I love Lucy.” You know how sitcoms are written, there is always the main plot with a few sub-plots working. By the end of the show, all the plots converge on one common theme. Yes, I was living through a sitcom episode in my alternate Universe.
It began a week ago Friday evening when my wife’s car wouldn’t start. She was at a job site which required the car to be towed to the nearest Dealer. It sat there until Monday when the Service Department opened.
As she is a residential contractor, she rented a car to keep her projects on track. Unfortunately, she fell in love with the rental and decided it was time for a new car. It must have been the electronics package. Naturally, I protested! Her car is ten years old but hasn’t even cracked 100,000 miles. In fact, it is very reliable and has had few problems. From my perspective, the car isn’t even broken in. We have been married for 43 years, so I knew how this would unfold. My best logic would be deployed to no avail. I could only hope to minimize my losses by working at the margins. By the beginning of the week, we weren’t speaking much. Houston, we have a problem!
I realize that most purchases are made on emotion and later justified by tortured logic. Surprisingly, I have come to believe that is not limited to the consumer world. All too often I have seen that scenario play out in the business world. This is was our sub-plot.
Monday, I met with a senior consultant for the local office of a National outplacement firm. He invited me to explore an opportunity to collaborate. I told him how we help our members understand and adapt to the new employment paradigm. I explained my view that we are all ‘free agents’ in a dynamic environment. Professionals will move between W-2 and 1099 status as tenures become shorter and shorter. We have little control over the employment situation created by the digital transformation of the economy. He invited me back to speak to his clients.
Tuesday, I moderated the monthly meeting of the BENG Atlanta Chapter. Our featured speaker, Erica McCurdy, a Master Coach, and ITB Partner facilitated a discussion entitled “Not every problem has a solution.” The gist of her message was don’t confuse situations with problems. There is a difference. A situation is a state of being; a confluence of events beyond one’s control. Situations require one to adapt whereas problems require solutions. Was it merely a coincidence that I was hearing this message from Erica?
It’s useful to know the difference between problems and situations to focus your energy on things you can change. If you try to change things that cannot be changed, your state of mind will suffer. By resolving things that can be changed, you will reduce stress and improve your life, especially if you eliminate unproductive effort.
Successful people view problems as opportunities to grow, improve, and adapt. For them, problems are a part of life. Their positive attitude toward problem-solving improves their outcomes. Experience makes future events easier to traverse. We should accept problems as a normal, unavoidable condition of life.
I spent the rest of the week evaluating situations and problems. As I dissected what I assumed were problems, I realized that some were situations. In these cases, I found opportunities to employ my leadership skills.
This week unfolded within the context of my wife’s desire for a new car. I had a situation. She had a problem. When she sets her mind on a course of action, I become a spectator. During our marriage, I can’t remember winning a major battle, but I’ve had success at the margins. Guys, I think you know what I mean. While I became more obstinate, digging in my heals, she negotiated a better deal. I lost, of course. I knew I would. My life was imitating art. Today, she is very happy with her new car. I live on to fight another day.
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ITB PARTNERS
Erica McCurdy, of McCurdy Solutions Group, Presented to the BENG Atlanta Chapter’s April meeting. The topic of her presentation was “Not Every Problem Has a Solution.” The gist of her message is to make a distinction between situations that require management and problems which can be resolved. If the situation isn’t managed, you might have problems that must be resolved.
McCurdy Solutions Group specializes in leadership development, communication, writing, strategic growth initiatives, culture change, business strategy, succession planning, administrative design, work-life balance, purpose. International reach including building leadership development plans for both individual and corporate clients.
Erica McCurdy is a Certified Master Coach, Member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Member of Forbes Coaches Council and member of ITB Partners. Multi-year winner “Best Atlanta Coaches” and “Best of Norcross”.
For more information and to contact Erica, follow this link to her website: https://www.mccurdysolutions.com/