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s you walk into your Zoom meeting, you can feel the Mondaymorning blues from your staff sitting with blank stares into their computer screens. There's no doubt many have not prepared for the week. Some have left their creativity at home this morning. Others have only prepared to cover their rears. The victim and the judge are both represented on the screen. Would you break up the whole and start selling the parts? Would you trim the payroll by eliminating overlapping jobs, or slice positions that have grown obsolete? Would you eliminate the inner circle of VPs and department heads that had been the brain-trust of the organization? Would you bring in mercenaries to infuse a little firepower? Would you add to your product line or services, or completely eliminate the unprofitable ones? Hostile takeover—extreme? Of course it is. But so is the current business landscape. Extreme is the competition. Extreme is the economic state of the union. With a massive unemployment level that continues to rise, a credit crunch that suffocates the biggest and best and a cash-flow drain that can paralyze even the most efficient, it's no wonder extreme measures are required. Thinking like an experienced takeover artist would let you see your company from a 50,000-foot vantage point. From here you can see opportunities that you've missed: tax breaks, decreased insurance costs, new income streams, more efficient manufacturing. Chess is the game. Offensive and defensive strategies and tactics are at the top of your thought-chart. As the business chess master, be decisive. The marketplace is your chessboard. Here's what I recommend:
1. Influence thoughts. With the average business team member having a collective 2,000plus thoughts per day, you know your business will only receive a portion of
them. If you manage ten people, you are managing more than 20,000 daily collective thoughts. (Your company will receive fewer thoughts from poorly-trained remote workers.) Stop managing people; influence thoughts. When thoughts on each P/L statement line-item changes, the numbers shift from black to red or red to black. See yourself as a thought leader and thought manager. Change vendor
“Here's a thought: fire them—fire them all. Initiate a hostile takeover.” - JIM FANNIN
thoughts, and your price may be lowered. Positively influence prospect thoughts, and your sales increase.
2. Divide and conquer. Inspect each business segment with no emotion. Place all the parts in separate containers on one sheet of paper. How does each part impact the bottom line? Do you abort, amend, stay the current course of action or accelerate? With each part, determine what you want from this year. What current thoughts (customer, supplier, management, etc.) need to change in each part? You decide.
4. What do you want your customers to think? With 2020 wreaking havoc, our customers or clients have drastically changed. After your customer purchased and used your product or service for 30 days, what do you want them to think and feel about their experience? What does your “inner circle” want them to think? Meet and compare notes. Now have the rest of your organization do the same exercise. You don’t sell; you motivate and inspire your customers, clients and prospects to improve their quality of business (B2B) or quality of life at a price they can afford. Helping your customers navigate tough times will set the stage for lifelong customers. Adjust marketing accordingly.
5. Go to higher ground weekly. At least once a week, look at your company from a 50,000-foot level. Carve an hour from your day in order to think. Remember: you're hired by the company to think, not work. Seeing the macro issues clearly will assist you in profitable decision-making. It may be time to reinvent your company; it may be time to reinvent you. This hostile takeover will reduce some of the emotion from your decisions. Be the world-class chess master; take your team to a new level. Make this year special for your customers, suppliers, team members and especially you.
3. See in reverse. Use the B to A principle. Most of us go from A to B. We've been trained like that. For example, what do you want people to think when the meeting is over? See the end first. For this quarter, see your expectation and results on March 31. Now reverseengineer from B back to A (today). See the end of the week before it happens. Illuminate a pathway from point B chronologically back to A. Now you can walk this path as if it’s so. Your team will have a pathway they can now follow. And if they get off track, they have illumination to find the path again. Great leaders illuminate pathways for success. Train your direct reports to think the same. HINSDALE MAGAZINE | HinsdaleMag.com
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