Lary – Page 106 – www.exkalibur.com

Leadership & Management are Inseparable

Are you making the mistaking of treating leadership and management as synonyms? We talk a lot about leadership in Sword Tips because Exkalibur is all about helping you “pull the sword from the stone through understanding rather than strength” by focusing on the leadership principles and practices that distinguish high performance companies.

[pullquote]Leadership involves plumbing as well as poetry.[/pullquote]

But it’s easy to forget that the adage about leaders “doing the right things” … and managers “doing the things right” … is not meant to set those roles apart, rather to emphasize that they are two sides of the same coin, essential roles that must be performed by a successful leader. How many times have we seen leaders who are completely surprised by the disappointing outcomes they’re not managing? (more…)

Strategic Finance? 7 Deadly Sins infect merger boom!

How many times have we heard about a failed marriage, scuttled by pride … greed … jealousy … envy … or other misdeeds flowing from the interminably deep well of human shortcomings? Too many, I’m sure, but those denizens of the 7 Deadly Sins brigade also besiege the world of mergers and acquisitions.

I haven’t written about this enough, I realize, as I read the M&A Losers in $10 Trillion Deal Binge …. providing yet one more example of the failed mergers that incite shareholder rebellions. We know the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so that doesn’t count for much. We expect CEOs and their directors to exercise their fiduciary responsibility to US by making sound decisions that are not scuttled by some array of the 7 Deadly Sins. (more…)

“There you go again” ….

I think that line is attributed to Ronald Reagan’s impressive debate performance against Jimmy Carter in 1980 … but just the same, it applies to the stream of recent articles about business lending in the middle market.

The WSJ discusses a report that banks have eased their credit standards in recent months. Of course, there’s no metrics to confirm that, or what it means … and you’ll waste a lot of energy finding middle market businesses that concur. More realistically, there is little demand for credit because businesses have little confidence in economic growth in the near term. (more…)

Unicorn meat? Delicious!

Tim Berry called my attention to a great post on the ThinkGeek site. If you're hungry, dig in ... dig in, that is to the hilarious post showing the "cease and desist" letter they received from the National Pork Board claiming that they infringed on the slogan "The Other White…

Start-Ups Create Lasting Jobs

A recent report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation entitled After Inception – How Enduring is Job Creation by Start-ups?”, uncovered several notable findings about the job creation power of start-ups:

The number of start-ups that flourish and create jobs balances the jobs lost by companies that close.
80% of the jobs created in the first year are still here after 5 years.
Companies that start during recessions general catch up in hiring after the recession ends.

So what? (more…)

Luddites Unite – You’re History!

If you don’t think social networking is on an intergalactic trajectory, you haven’t met my nieces and nephews. Ages 8-11-14. NOT from a technology-driven family … so for those of you who are, strap in!
Facebook – old news! Facebook chat – “call me on my cell, Uncle Lary, and I’ll boot up my laptop so we can chat,” my 8 year old nephew proclaimed. Download apps to turn your phone into a walkie-talkie? Check. Waiting at the front door all day for the delivery of your new cell phone, in the color purple? Check. Kick your uncle’s butt in every video game, including the slower ones that I actually understood like golf? Check.
Their grasp of technology is not what’s remarkable. It’s how deeply embedded it is in their DNA (more…)

3 Tips to enhance your Elevator Speech

With thanks to Carmine Gallo, his recent post, The Three Elements of an Inspiring Pitch, reminds us of the power of emotion in telling our story to an interested community. The three critical elements of a pitch that he identifies - Understandable, Memorable and Emotional - are valuable in all forms…

3 Simple Keys to Productive Meetings

A recent NY Times interview with Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Chegg, a firm that rents textbooks online and by mail, brought some valuable but simple tips about meeting discipline to mind.

1. Leave technology on the other side of the door.

Be present, engage in hearty conversation.
Phones, texting, communicating outside of the room is not invited or allowed. (Yeah, I know … you’re thinking … I don’t do this, do I?)
Seriously?

(more…)

After Action Reviews = Successful Execution

In an article entitled Five Ways Pixar Makes Better Decisions, Tom Davenport, a Babson College professor, refers to what I call “after action reviews” as a critical element of the creative decision-making used at Pixar.

In my earlier post, Powerful After Action Reviews, you can learn more about this concept, built and nurtured by the US Army.

Pixar uses the concept of “Dailies”

For Pixar, Davenport reminds us how movie makers use “dailies” to review their work in progress, showing movies to other filmmakers every few month to solicit critical insights that often make the movies better.

Nothing we couldn’t accomplish with a Daily Huddle, right? (more…)