Everyone talks about being ‘sustainable’ but what exactly does that mean when it comes to staff engagement?

Simple – treat your staff and people like valuable human beings – your social capital is important as society adjusts to a new generation of younger thinkers. These younger thinkers are in a position where they will soon work out that they don’t really need stability formerly know as “a real job”, they already know that they can provide value, that means they can live off the land . . . . er  . . . world that the baby-boomer built.

To be truly sustainable people will in some casesneed to wait for the dinosaurs of an archaic pre-baby-boomer industrial age to retire or die out.  The platform for sustainability is already around us – the baby boomers built it – the new generation knows exactly how to make sustainability work – they are building for tomorrow and doing right to others.

The secret rests in applying the “Golden Rule”.

Adding Value is starting to become another phrase that’s been hijacked by the bandwagon brigade. How should a business avoid being labeled as ‘oh another one’ when it starts to talk about its own adding value?

Value is possibly on of the most worn-out terms in the corporate buzz word book: Today much of which is accorded value is an fantasy (think financial markets – value is not solid – it’s all about leverage – it’s made up – the King dollar and Queen pound are naked so to speak).

Before the iPhone every phone handset maker spent over 15 years claiming to “add value” to their phones (no-one really noticed) – yet all they really ended up doing was creating a market for “upgrading” – value in this context simply defined a process of profiting from obsolescence dressed up as wanna-have-a-new-one “inspired upgrades”.  Joseph Schumpeter had a great term for innovation  – he called it “creative destruction”. Innovation in the mobile handset industry was a delusion and it added very little true value – in contrast the Telco’s have created a Thick ‘n Deep world of value – they got the whole world communicating – even in some of the remotest places in Africa and South America – they made the world a friendlier and more accessible place that’s what I call “Thick ‘n Deep” Value.  In contrast many Financial Advisors, Food producers and pharmaceutical companies claim they’re “adding value,” but mostly they’re just hyper-marketing – government and regulators tell us they are adding value – yet we fail to notice. If one fails to notice or one needs to analyse whether something is of true value – then the following assertion remains – it’s thin value.

The vast majority of companies today deliver superficial thin value. Thick ‘n Deep value is real, meaningful, and sustainable. It happens by making people authentically better off — not merely by adding more bells and whistles that your boss might like, but that cause customers to roll their eyes.

How to avoid the “oh another one” labeling, frankly that’s obviously easier said than done – I believe successful business needs to create not just thick value (a term coined byUmair Haque of Harvard Business School) but deep value as well.

“Thick ‘n Deep” Value is the key and can be tested by asking these questions.

1. Does it enrich the business?
2. Does it leave the people it serves sustainably and deeply enriched?
3. Does your customer trust you?
4. Does it make the world a better place.

Thin value is all about assertion. Now with “Thick ‘n Deep” Value you just know – deep down – you know that it’s good.

What about, those who think it’s just semantics? What about those who believe there is a thin line separating the two types of value? What about those who don’t know the difference?  There is an answer ‘out there’ to those questions as well . . . .  fire up your favourite browser – navigate to Wikipedia and search for the following word “extinction”.

We appear to be moving into the age of individuals wanting to make a difference. Why is this happening and is it something businesses should embrace or fear?

Why is this happening – those who equated human beings with industrial machines, those who applied depraved Cartesian reasoning to human capital and poisoned the very space they live in are why thing are changing! Those who misguidedly cite progress as the high road to some holy grail are soon to be buried and gone. The baby-boomers and their wonderful progeny Generation X and M, will embrace true capitalism one that embraces people, profit and planet.

Making a difference is the essence of  “Thick ‘n Deep” Value – today wise people take the triple bottom line (3BL) and embrace it. If I may quote my friend Vinay Gupta the inventor of the Hexayurt – he sums it all up beautifully in the following statement:

“Triple Bottom Line asks that businesses justify themselves in three ways: natural capital, social capital and financial capital, [these] are the terms [of reference] for the three “bottom lines. These three are often shorthanded as planet, people and profit.”

Consider this – Africa is home to 70% of the ‘bottom billion’.  It would be truly stupid to ignore 700million people, who amongst them are the potential producers of your food, and who become the affluent consumer countries and even venture capitalists of the future.  It is possible that in our lifetime that Asia and Africa will be providing the some of metaphoric First World with handouts.

Fear is probably not an issue – the relics; the greedy ‘old school thinkers’ of the pre-baby-boomer industrial age are almost extinct – they are old now – they will soon die off.

Many motivational speakers keep telling us Its all about attitude, or positive mental thinking, whilst the politicians say we need to keep spending to get ourselves out of the recession. is this enough /right?

Motivational speakers want you to succeed (which is a good thing) it’s in their DNA and they are right in my opinion – it is truly about attitude, without high self esteem and positive mental attitude society would be listening to politicians (whom I might add are pretty short on leadership and good ideas right now) who are reacting to spin and rhetoric dressed up as public opinion. Politicians today act only on short term events. Politics is about power – and power is all about what you can control.

That’s about to change – society is far more open today. Young people think and act – some may think it’s because they are precocious – perhaps? They do know what is good and they know what is special and they care about people – and they know what freedom looks and feels like because the upcoming world, demands freedom, as it demands air to breathe; and you know what freedom is all about don’t you? Freedom is about what you can unleash – freedom is about “Thick ‘n Deep” value for humanity!

The politician telling to spend your way out of the recession is acting out a party ideology in a bid to stay in control – which ultimately means they are not civil servants and guardians anymore are they?

My money is on the motivational speaker.

Many companies are pulling in their belts and cutting costs in order to survive. Others are thriving and growing even if they are in the same industry. In your opinion What could be the main reasons for this difference?

If they are pulling in belts and cutting costs (that’s what people are, aren’t they costs) then there is probably a cesspool of thin value festering. If you have to pull in your belt for more than 12 months remember you aren’t a slave – you should really go somewhere more exciting – maybe join those who are thriving. Anyone?

Imagine this cutting costs parable. A restaurant that that cuts it’s costs on a 12.95 chicken meal worries me – because instead of “Thick ‘n Deep” chicken value you are getting the thin and cheap version for the same price as the “Thick ‘n Deep”.

Those that are thriving – oh  – that’s easy they are delivering value, “Thick ‘n Deep” Value – you know . . . . the stuff that humanity needs.

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Happy New Year to you all.

It’s going to be a fun year ahead. I will be focussing strongly on my orphans project so watch this space.

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Everyone talks about being ‘sustainable’ but what exactly does that mean when it comes to staff engagement?

Simple – treat your staff and people like valuable human beings – your social capital is important as society adjusts to a new generation of younger thinkers. These younger thinkers are in a position where they will soon work out that they don’t really need stability formerly know as “a real job”, they already know that they can provide value, that means they can live off the land . . . . er  . . . world that the baby-boomer built.

To be truly sustainable people will in some casesneed to wait for the dinosaurs of an archaic pre-baby-boomer industrial age to retire or die out.  The platform for sustainability is already around us – the baby boomers built it – the new generation knows exactly how to make sustainability work – they are building for tomorrow and doing right to others.

The secret rests in applying the “Golden Rule”.

Adding Value is starting to become another phrase that’s been hijacked by the bandwagon brigade. How should a business avoid being labeled as ‘oh another one’ when it starts to talk about its own adding value?

Value is possibly on of the most worn-out terms in the corporate buzz word book: Today much of which is accorded value is an fantasy (think financial markets – value is not solid – it’s all about leverage – it’s made up – the King dollar and Queen pound are naked so to speak).

Before the iPhone every phone handset maker spent over 15 years claiming to “add value” to their phones (no-one really noticed) – yet all they really ended up doing was creating a market for “upgrading” – value in this context simply defined a process of profiting from obsolescence dressed up as wanna-have-a-new-one “inspired upgrades”.  Joseph Schumpeter had a great term for innovation  – he called it “creative destruction”. Innovation in the mobile handset industry was a delusion and it added very little true value – in contrast the Telco’s have created a Thick ‘n Deep world of value – they got the whole world communicating – even in some of the remotest places in Africa and South America – they made the world a friendlier and more accessible place that’s what I call “Thick ‘n Deep” Value.  In contrast many Financial Advisors, Food producers and pharmaceutical companies claim they’re “adding value,” but mostly they’re just hyper-marketing – government and regulators tell us they are adding value – yet we fail to notice. If one fails to notice or one needs to analyse whether something is of true value – then the following assertion remains – it’s thin value.

The vast majority of companies today deliver superficial thin value. Thick ‘n Deep value is real, meaningful, and sustainable. It happens by making people authentically better off — not merely by adding more bells and whistles that your boss might like, but that cause customers to roll their eyes.

How to avoid the “oh another one” labeling, frankly that’s obviously easier said than done – I believe successful business needs to create not just thick value (a term coined by Umair Haque of Harvard Business School) but deep value as well.

“Thick ‘n Deep” Value is the key and can be tested by asking these questions.

1. Does it enrich the business?
2. Does it leave the people it serves sustainably and deeply enriched?
3. Does your customer trust you?
4. Does it make the world a better place.

Thin value is all about assertion. Now with “Thick ‘n Deep” Value you just know – deep down – you know that it’s good.

What about, those who think it’s just semantics? What about those who believe there is a thin line separating the two types of value? What about those who don’t know the difference?  There is an answer ‘out there’ to those questions as well . . . .  fire up your favourite browser – navigate to Wikipedia and search for the following word “extinction”.

We appear to be moving into the age of individuals wanting to make a difference. Why is this happening and is it something businesses should embrace or fear?

Why is this happening – those who equated human beings with industrial machines, those who applied depraved Cartesian reasoning to human capital and poisoned the very space they live in are why thing are changing! Those who misguidedly cite progress as the high road to some holy grail are soon to be buried and gone. The baby-boomers and their wonderful progeny Generation X and M, will embrace true capitalism one that embraces people, profit and planet.

Making a difference is the essence of  “Thick ‘n Deep” Value – today wise people take the triple bottom line (3BL) and embrace it. If I may quote my friend Vinay Gupta the inventor of the Hexayurt – he sums it all up beautifully in the following statement:

“Triple Bottom Line asks that businesses justify themselves in three ways: natural capital, social capital and financial capital, [these] are the terms [of reference] for the three “bottom lines. These three are often shorthanded as planet, people and profit.”

Consider this – Africa is home to 70% of the ‘bottom billion’.  It would be truly stupid to ignore 700million people, who amongst them are the potential producers of your food, and who become the affluent consumer countries and even venture capitalists of the future.  It is possible that in our lifetime that Asia and Africa will be providing the some of metaphoric First World with handouts.

Fear is probably not an issue – the relics; the greedy ‘old school thinkers’ of the pre-baby-boomer industrial age are almost extinct – they are old now – they will soon die off.

Many motivational speakers keep telling us Its all about attitude, or positive mental thinking, whilst the politicians say we need to keep spending to get ourselves out of the recession. is this enough /right?

Motivational speakers want you to succeed (which is a good thing) it’s in their DNA and they are right in my opinion – it is truly about attitude, without high self esteem and positive mental attitude society would be listening to politicians (whom I might add are pretty short on leadership and good ideas right now) who are reacting to spin and rhetoric dressed up as public opinion. Politicians today act only on short term events. Politics is about power – and power is all about what you can control.

That’s about to change – society is far more open today. Young people think and act – some may think it’s because they are precocious – perhaps? They do know what is good and they know what is special and they care about people – and they know what freedom looks and feels like because the upcoming world, demands freedom, as it demands air to breathe; and you know what freedom is all about don’t you? Freedom is about what you can unleash – freedom is about “Thick ‘n Deep” value for humanity!

The politician telling to spend your way out of the recession is acting out a party ideology in a bid to stay in control – which ultimately means they are not civil servants and guardians anymore are they?

My money is on the motivational speaker.

Many companies are pulling in their belts and cutting costs in order to survive. Others are thriving and growing even if they are in the same industry. In your opinion What could be the main reasons for this difference?

If they are pulling in belts and cutting costs (that’s what people are, aren’t they costs) then there is probably a cesspool of thin value festering. If you have to pull in your belt for more than 12 months remember you aren’t a slave – you should really go somewhere more exciting – maybe join those who are thriving. Anyone?

Imagine this cutting costs parable. A restaurant that that cuts it’s costs on a 12.95 chicken meal worries me – because instead of “Thick ‘n Deep” chicken value you are getting the thin and cheap version for the same price as the “Thick ‘n Deep”.

Those that are thriving – oh  – that’s easy they are delivering value, “Thick ‘n Deep” Value – you know . . . . the stuff that humanity needs.

Ladies and Gentlemen

It was a pleasure to meet you all last night at Erudyte in Windsor and I think we can all agree that our Speaker Gary Sage was top notch-so much so I look forward to seeing you all on the 6th May

I hope like me you found the evening entertaining and very informative

Till the next time

Kind regards

frank

Frank Gill

Yesterday evening in the company of a few people (who hold opinions I respect greatly), I asked a truly ho-hum topical question, “So, does the COP15 lot have the climate science thing settled – are they in posession of the truth, are they working with the unreasonable openness and candour that is the hallmark of truth?”. I asked this knowing full well, I would probably recieve a lot of opinion (because the science bit seems to be worded in such obtuse terms that very few understand it – by ‘it’, I mean the scientific peer reviewed facts (i.e. the truth)’).   In a way that is uncustomary for me, I decided to shut up and listen. Here’s what was said . . . .

Everyone – bar none, seemed to conclude along the lines of the following statement, or words to the effect :- “one of the biggest frustrations we have is that there seems to be a distinct lack of emphasis and motivation toward telling the public (and business) the whole truth on climate change”,  followed by – “the biggest frustration we have today posing as truth and information is a constant stream of ‘balanced’ rhetoric. What the world needs today is truth around climate change, . . . .  truth not balance.”

Most people agreed that the distorted need to ‘balance’ the truth is by far the biggest hurdle in understanding the issues. Fox News owns the ‘fair and balanced’ term, even the BBC news site abounds with a nonsensical ‘balance’ where we are constantly expected to side with the skeptic or the counter – how is one ever to know what is the truth – see here  http://bit.ly/6cGtTL
Until we have the truth, the unplugged, unmitigated and wholly unreasonable truth I suppose we’ll never agree about what true trouble is and what to do about it.

I suppose that poses another query,  “Does balancing the truth lead to a pack of lies, and how can we tell?”

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Just something I remembered as it becomes clear that it may not be a good thing right now (December 2009) to demotivate the very people who are expected to drag us out of the recession.

Giving a 1 percent raise boosts employee job performance by some 2 percent roughly, however offering that same money in the form of a bonus that is strongly linked to a job well done seems to improve job performance by almost 20 percent, finds a 2007 Cornell study on the relationship between pay and performance.

“I looked at both how much people are paid and also how pay increases and bonuses are given,” said Michael Sturman, associate professor at Cornel University

Often companies presume to motivate their employees through pay packages, including annual increases (USA aka – rises), bonuses and performance related pay. Very few employers (and 1st world governments) today really know how efficient the various mainstream incentives are.
Research done in 2007 by Michael Sturman from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, exposes some accepted business myths – it shows that, how employees are paid, is at least as critical (if not more) than how much they are paid when it comes to improving employee performance.

Sturman’s study established, like many other studies before, that employees were more likely to push themselves if they were paid above market rates.

He found that smaller pay increases were more effective than equal-sized or even bigger bonuses in improving performance and retention. Regular employees perceived increases in their salary as more advantageous in the long-term, and therefore more important.  (Everybody knows that !-) don’t they? )

But here is the most interesting bit – despite the above clearly obvious findings , Sturman conversely found that when financial rewards were linked with performance, bonuses were much more effective than pay rises in improving employee effectiveness. This goes a long way to show that employees were more likely to see performance-related bonuses as special – ‘a gift for the gifted’ – and therefore worth going beyond the call of duty for.

A problem for companies (and governments) is that despite the findings that show (non performance-linked) salary increases are reasonably effective in inspiring employees into action, bonuses are far more economical simply because they don’t carry an expectation that carries over into following years.

So what IS the most cost-efficient way to motivate employees?

After a series of experiments, Sturman established that management who tied extra bonuses closely to an individual’s performance, could tentatively see an overall 16 percent increase in employee motivation. Substantial increases in performance could therefore be achieved without technically increasing the payroll budget.

Now here is the truly interesting bit – increasing the average annual salary from 2 percent to 3 percent would really only improve overall performance by an average of 2.2 percent, which is still a good thing, however it comes at substantial cost to the company.  BUT, if that raise was combined with changes and how bonuses are allocated, the overall rise in performance could be as much as 19 percent! In a weird (and wonderful) kind of way; bonuses pay for themselves and deliver a premium reward to everyone, however annual pay increases come at a cost to everyone; employees and shareholders and citizens.

If I may be permitted one thought for our governments and leaders to mull over and consider in our journey toward Christmas, Hanukkah and onward to another exciting year on our fabulous planet

“Power is about what you can control, Freedom is about what you can unleash”

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Birth registration effort aims to protect child rights in Namibia

WINDHOEK, Namibia, 28 October 2009—A novel idea for children has become a reality, now that the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration has set up an office in the maternity ward at Katutura State Hospital, the main public hospital in Windhoek. This UNICEF-supported effort is designed to ensure that every child born at the hospital receives a birth certificate.

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We live in a power hungry world where so many so called leaders are simply dressed up authority figures -  they are not true leaders at all. The next generation of true leaders will use entirely new approaches to convey their fresh ideas. Today’s manipulative and over-regulated business processes and authoritarian prescriptive business mindset will not survive intact.

I  know, because I spend a lot of time working with a lot of young people – and they are quite happy to toss what is truly wrong in business out of the window and start again.

Umair Haque, a consultant for big business  has written a preview of tomorrow in something he calls the Awesomeness Manifesto.

“SO. What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That’s a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics.

I’ve talked to many boardrooms about awesomeness. Beancounters feel challenged and threatened by it, because it feels fuzzy and imprecise. Yet, it’s anything but. Gen M knows “awesomeness” when we see it — that’s why its part of our vernacular. It’s a precise concept, with meaning, depth, and resonance.”

Awesomeness may sound fuzzy and imprecise .  Haque’s point is that the new generation leader knows awesomeness when they see it. The Awesomeness Manifesto is chock full of ideas for business built on sustainable value where the central role is to make the world a better place.

Haque talks about the power of Love, sustainability, remixing value, and the new way of innovation.These are the four pillars of his Awesomeness Manifesto:

Ethical production: without an ethical component, awesomeness isn’t possible. The buy low, sell high mentality is yesterday’s mantra.

Insanely great stuff: put creativity front and center and you’ll get an emotional reaction from anyone who sees it. Delight the customer.

Love: Apple creates products people love. Their employees love to show off how awesome these products are and customers love shopping in Apple stores. Compare this with Best Buy.

Thick value: this is real, meaningful, and sustainable. Thick value, not thin value, actually makes people better off.

Finally a business guru who understands!

awesome!

Want to help kickstart awesomeness? The Manifesto is now a collaborative, open-source project, to which anyone can contribute. READ this post for details.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/09/is_your_business_innovative_or.html

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Early stage venture capital is by definition milestone based investing. The entrepreneur raises enough capital to get to a significantly different place with his or her business and both the entrepreneur and the investor hope that the next round will be done at a significantly higher price that reflects the progress made.

This is one of the main reasons why I think early stage venture capital is a much less risky form of investing than many outsiders think. Most experienced venture capital investors scale the dollars invested in a startup such that they don’t have much capital at risk when the investment is the most speculative and they increase the capital invested as the risk is mitigated.

But sometimes investors get too cute with this milestone based investing approach and try to build that into the investment round itself. This is called “tranched investing” and serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon has a post on it this morning.

I agree with Chris that tranched investing is a bad idea all around. But first, let me explain how it works.

The entrepreneur will agree to raise a set amount of money, let’s call it $3mm for a set amount of equity, let’s say it is 25% of the company ($9mm pre, $12mm post). If it is three tranches, then $1mm will come in at the first closing and the entrepreneur will dilute 8.33% (1/3 of 25%). There will be a set of agreed upon milestones set in advance. Let’s say tranche two milestone is the shipping of a product and tranche three is the first contracted revenue for that product. When each of those milestones is hit, the investors will invest the second and third $1mm tranches and the entire round will be completed and the full 25% dilution will have been taken.

Let’s be honest and see this as what it is. It’s an option for the investor to put more money in at the old price as the investment increases in value and the risk is mitigated. It’s a bad deal for the entrepreneur and a great deal for the investor.

But as Chris explains, there are other problems with this approach:

Milestones change anyway:  At the early stage you often realize that what milestones you originally thought were important actually were the wrong milestones.   So you either have to renegotiate the milestones or the entrepreneur ends up targeting the wrong things just to get the money.
The idea that you are going to hard wire the key goals of an early stage company is nutty. The best entrepreneurs weave and bob their way into the market, changing things as they go. Setting hard goals is a mistake early on in the life of a company.

The idea behind tranching is right which is to limit the capital at risk (and the dilution) until the business increases in value and risk is mitigated. The right way to do this is raise smaller rounds more frequently and negotiate the prices of each financing as the round is done.

via Milestone Based Investing.

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Yesterday evening in the company of a few people (who hold opinions I respect greatly), I asked a truly ho-hum topical question, “So, does the COP15 lot have the climate science thing settled – are they in posession of the truth, are they working with the unreasonable openness and candour that is the hallmark of truth?”. I asked this knowing full well, I would probably recieve a lot of opinion (because the science bit seems to be worded in such obtuse terms that very few understand it – by ‘it’, I mean the scientific peer reviewed facts (i.e. the truth)’).   In a way that is uncustomary for me, I decided to shut up and listen. Here’s what was said . . . .

Everyone – bar none, seemed to conclude along the lines of the following statement, or words to the effect :- “one of the biggest frustrations we have is that there seems to be a distinct lack of emphasis and motivation toward telling the public (and business) the whole truth on climate change”,  followed by – “the biggest frustration we have today posing as truth and information is a constant stream of ‘balanced’ rhetoric. What the world needs today is truth around climate change, . . . .  truth not balance.”

Most people agreed that the distorted need to ‘balance’ the truth is by far the biggest hurdle in understanding the issues. Fox News owns the ‘fair and balanced’ term, even the BBC news site abounds with a nonsensical ‘balance’ where we are constantly expected to side with the skeptic or the counter – how is one ever to know what is the truth – see here  http://bit.ly/6cGtTL
Until we have the truth, the unplugged, unmitigated and wholly unreasonable truth I suppose we’ll never agree about what true trouble is and what to do about it.

I suppose that poses another query,  “Does balancing the truth lead to a pack of lies, and how can we tell?”

View Rainmakers Bio »
Go to Source »