Bringing a new product to market involves the product, the market and the bringing.

At some point on the journey, someone – that would be you then – decides it’s time to write a business plan. Time to crank open Word and Excel? Not yet.

Whether for a new product, a new business or a new period of the calendar, business planning has three distinct disciplines:

1. Data – what can we know?

There’s a lot of data points out there, the idea is to track down everything you can about the market and the competition. Don’t filter. Collect as much intelligence as possible, including: size, share, financials, products, new products, trends, lists, processes, names.

Next look inside. What can you know about your own organisation? Capacity, capability, financials, attention, focus. What are the strengths to build on and the risks to manage?

2. Discussion – what do we understand?

Time to crunch the data and get into detail about why things happen, what might happen and how they’re related. It’s critical to involve the people who will have to do the work. Getting the benefit from all the data demands a full and frank debate – this is no time for happy talk or leaving things unsaid. A robust plan is always based on robust thinking.

3. Decisions – what will we do?

Make decisions and, finally, commit the plan to writing. Words and numbers. Slides and spreadsheets. Powerpoint and Excel.

Anyone raising money (internally or externally) will probably need a longer piece of writing so allow a few more days for that long awaited appointment with Word. Whether you’re writing long or short, the process is identical.

Bringing a product to market actually involves bringing a company along too. A clear, well thought out plan puts the wheels on the bus.

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on May 12, 2009

What are you doing? Lots of stuff, right?

It’s easy to be seduced by action – doing all the whats of what we’re doing.

Image copyright: annnna

It feels good to be busy. It feels good to do stuff without thinking. To feel wanted. To roll along. To do.

So nice in fact that sometimes we get into things just because we can, or always have, or someone says please.

For one day only, see what happens if you ask yourself and your team, why?

1. It brings the what into focus
2. It defines success
3. We’re likely to be more motivated when we know why it matters
4. It releases creativity – for alternatives whats that get to the why better
5. It creates options and helps prioritise
6. A clear common cause aligns resources
7. Decisions are faster and firmer
8. It can save a lot of work – particularly if there is no why and you can stop, or not start

No getting away with “because I have to” or “you told me to” — to get the benefit you have to go deeper than that. Visit the why-stuff-happened world of root cause analysis to work out why stuff should happen.

The 5 Whys Method.

Legend has it that Sakichi Toyada, founder of Toyota Motor Corporation, invented and systematised the 5 whys method for engineers looking for the seat of a given problem, although anyone who’s been a kid knows that asking a bunch of whys is the way we’ve always learned. You can use his method to determine the future, not just analyse the past. Just ask why (about) five times.

I’m about to drive to Cambridge to attend a conference (the possible action)

• Why? – I need to connect with some people in our market (first why)
• Why? – To find some potential pilot sites for our next product (second why)
• Why? – We like to do live testing before we do any marketing (third why)
• Why? – We’re obsessed with quality (fourth why)
• Why? – The golden rule; treat others as you’d like to be treated. We don’t want to sell anything that hasn’t proved its worth in the real world and we know is up to the job (fifth why, root cause)

So going to Cambridge is the tactic that will fulfil some personal goals and further the strategy and values of the company. If the answer to number 2 was, “I always go, they expect me there”, I’d save myself an awfully long drive.

Whenever you need to commit resources, better know why.

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on May 11, 2009

This week I got involved in a conversation that had lawyers sitting on the other side of the table. Thankfully not the kind of discussion that happens when things go bad, but the other kind, when things haven’t quite started yet.

This happens a lot in organisational life. Employment contracts, licensing agreements, partnerships, outsourcing, non-disclosures, service level agreements. Internally and externally, we rely on bits of paper to nail the detail. These things are so common that it’s easy to believe that this is the way to do business. That this is how to deal with difficult possibilities. That this will make everything ok. But it won’t.

Lawyering like this is good, but it will only reduce some of the wriggle room for some of the arguments that normally come up. Not eliminate disagreements altogether. Not stop problems happening. Just squeeze some of the juice out of the lemon – it’s still going to hurt, but not as much.

If it’s going to hurt, why do it? Why employ, agree, partner, outsource or do anything else that puts us in the hands of others? The promise of working together is that the business of the organisation will be better than before. An organisation’s success will increasingly be determined by its ability to work across formal boundaries – whether than means inter-department or inter-company.

• Go in with eyes wide open. By all means clock up some billable time with lawyers but don’t kid yourself that this means plain sailing from start to finish. There will be problems. Expect them to happen, however good your relationship and however willingly the parties sign at the start.
• Work through the bad times. When things start going wrong, put your collective heads down and work it out. Nobody wins when you walk away or run to litigation. Remind yourselves the reason you got together – to both be better than before – and find the path through the mountains.

When choosing which person or organisation to share ink with, work out who you’re dealing with (which is more about values than names or capabilities), and ask yourself “can I work with them when things go wrong?”

Ultimately, never allow the desire for a deal to cloud the needs of the business.

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on April 18, 2009

Steve Wozniak is an engineer who sits in the middle of the personal computer story.

The way I heard it, Wozniak was the last person who created a whole computer – pulled the hardware together, wrote the software, built the Apple.

I was reminded of Woz today by this post from Guy Kawasaki, who also spent time at Apple. Wozniak is an engineer but the parting thoughts are good for anyone starting or building a business. Now I realise I’m quoting a quote but, according to Kawasaki:

“The book ends with Woz’s thoughts on being a great engineer:

• Don’t waiver
• See things in gray-scale
• Work alone
• Trust your instincts”

Starting and building a business is a test of will. The problem has never been a lack of ideas. Any organisation that’s been around for more than five minutes is presented with more opportunities than it will ever have the resources to chase down. The difficulty is in choosing what not to do, which rocks to put down, when to say no.

The antidote to too many opportunities is to know what you’re up to:

• Get it clear and firm in your head; then don’t waiver.
• Understand the truth at the heart of the thing, what’s really going on; see things in gray-scale.
• On your way to market, only work with people who care as much about the success of your thing as you do; work alone with that team, there’s plenty of time for interested parties after you’ve nailed it.
• By definition, you’re doing something that no-one has done before. No-one knows whether to zig or zag, it’s your decision; trust your instincts.

Neatly filed under Focus,Leading on April 8, 2009

The best leaders are great managers too. It’s a twofer.

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on April 7, 2009