…if all you had was a very big rock and lots of ocean?

September 28th, 2009

As you may know, PhoneSmart hosted the 2009 PhoneSmart Hawaii Un Conference on the Big Island of Hawaii in June.

The resort we stayed at had its own in-house cultural and spiritual advisor, whose job it was to make sure the resort respected Hawaiian culture and educated people about pre-contact Hawaii.  The resort had several cultural sites, including aquaculture ponds that the ancient chiefs used to harvest fish for food and for ceremony.

The first Hawaiian settlers arrived on the Big Island in large double hulled canoes around the year 200 A.D.. They came with plants and pigs and the whole family. They sailed some 1,500 miles across open ocean from the Marquesas islands on pretty much a wing and a prayer. They landed on the Big Island which has been a semi active volcano for ever. Much of it is nothing but volcanic rock.

They not only survived, but thrived. They built an intricate society that developed in almost total isolation until 1782 when Captain Cook stumbled across the Island.

If you think you are faced with challenging times, a competitive environment and enormous risks, how would you fare if you landed on a huge rock of an island with a few pigs, some coconut palms and a passel of hungry and fidgety children?

If you think the changes of the last 27 years in society and business have been fast paced, imagine what the Hawaiian culture has gone through in the last 227 years? They went from stone age isolation to The Modern Age in a flash.

They went through lots of trouble and turmoil, but again…they not only survived, but they thrived.

Here are a few lessons to learn from the Hawaiians:

1. Learn to steer by the stars and the sea. Know your environment. Know the signs and be ready to react.
2. Come prepared. They brought their pigs and coconut trees along. What do you need to bring on your next business adventure.
3. Make the best of your situation. Where have you found yourself? What resources do you have at hand? How can you organize your society and start promoting prosperity? If the tide is scaring you, why not build tidal pools to grow more fish than you could ever eat?
4. Adapt while staying true to yourself. Hawaiians quickly learned to use firearms, steel tools and money. They learned to use outside knowledge to their advantage. Within 70 years of first contact, the Big Island had one of the most successful cattle industries anywhere.  They did this by taking advantage of a bad situation and by getting outside help. Captain George Vancouver, who some of you in Canada may be familiar with, gave a gift of several heads of cattle to King Kamehameha. The cattle grazed freely, multiplied and were wreaking havoc among the farmers on the island. A young man who had jumped ship to seek his fortune on the island named Parker suggested the King get into the cattle business. The King agreed and recruited cowboys from Mexico who knew the trade to help. Then gold was discovered in California …and by chance, Hawaii had the easiest and quickest means to get cattle to California to feed the booming population. The Parker Ranch is still one of the largest ranches in the US. All the while, the Hawaiians retained much of their culture and heritage.
5. Beauty is not an option. The beautiful flowers of Hawaii, the colorful clothing and beautiful woodworking are all signs of how important beauty is to the daily life. So don’t forget that beauty is not an option.

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Let’s talk about your death

September 25th, 2009

Wow, that is a morbid way to begin a post. Most people see me as a positive thinker and someone who can see the opportunity in every challenge. But I am also a realist. I was asked the other day how it is I seem to keep my cool and remain calm and somewhat balanced despite the stresses and responsibilities in my life. I had a simple answer. I said, “In the end, I am going to die and my bosses will be rich…and there is not much I can do about it.”  I did not mean this as a cynical comment. I meant it as healthy perspective. I will work hard to bring peace and prosperity to my family, my co-workers and my business associates. But sooner or later I will die. My hard work will make a lot of the people I serve very wealthy. That is just the reality of the situation. So there is no reason for me to worry. I don’t have time to waste on worry. I don’t have energy to waste on worry. I need that energy for work projects, for personal projects, for family time and for myself.

I have always has an interesting perspective on death anyway. My mother is a survivor of the German Holocaust. Her Grandmother died in Theresienstadt. Her uncle and his family were murdered in Auschwitz.

My father was a Lutheran minister. When I was a little kid, he oftten took me along on trips to vist the sick and dying in hospitals and nursing homes. It seems like about once a week I answered the phone when a local funeral director was calling to ask my dad to do a memorial service for someone.

I lived in a dangerous time in New York City and knew enough people who died from suicide, accident, AIDS and murder. So I have gotten used to the presence of death.

I have also had a lot of close brushes with death myself. There were a few automobile incidents that were pretty gruesome and hair raising. There was the time a gun was pointed at me in the street. And then there was the time my heart stopped during a surgery and the surgery team thought they had lost me for good.

I am still here.  But I clearly understand that life is a temporary condition.  I know I have to work hard and put in many hours to keep the doors open for prosperity to enter. But I also know I need to do many other valuable activities every day.  Sure some days I forget to live as much as I could. Some days I am too tired to live as I’d like.

But what about your death?  Have you had a close call or two?  Have you had people very close to you pass way before their time?  What are you doing about it?

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If you are the General Manager, act like a General

September 24th, 2009

So you are a General Manager in your  business.  Do you understand this to mean that you manage generalities, or do you understand it to mean that you are a General? Which ever you believe, that is how you will act. So will you spend your time managing the day to day details and the wildfires that pop up? There is nothing wrong with that and someone has to manage this part of the business. If you are good at it and find it fulfilling, I encourage you to continue with what you are doing.

If you are a General, commanding a division or responsible for an entire operation, then you require a different approach. I don’t know much about how Generals operate today, but I do know something about how Generals have operated historically. Here is a tried and tested routine you can use.

1. Sit on the hill and observe. Look at the field of  contention. Watch your troops. Watch the opposing troops.  Observe the environment and the conditions. Then meditate on the objectives. Wait and watch. Listen.

2. Rally the officers. Bring the managers and the leaders together. Discuss the objectives. Discuss the opportunties and  challenges. Evaluate the risks. Be realistic about your capabilities.

3. Give your orders. Send the officers out to implement your orders.

4. Go back to the hill and sit a while. How is it going? What is working or not working? Who is doing well and who isn’t? How were your orders effective or ineffective?

5. Go down into the fray. Help a few units make an objective. Offer encouragement to a few officers. Adjust a few orders. Learn all you can.

6. Go back up to the hill and sit a while.  How is it going? What is working or not working? Who is doing well and who isn’t? How were your orders effective or ineffective?

7. Rally the officers.  Review and adjust strategy and tactics. Give a new set of orders.

8. Go to lunch.

9. Go walk the dog, play with the kids and snuggle your spouse.

10. Take a walk and then get some rest.

Repeat.

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Increase revenue or decrease expenses

September 23rd, 2009

I am not sure what other choices you have right now. If your  business is not booming in this unsure economy, then you need to do something about it. I realize it is very tempting to cut back as far as you can and dig a hole to hide in while the economy has a chance to turn around. But that eliminates all your abilities to react to opportunities, to develop new business models and to take business from your most frightened competitors. Wouldn’t it be better to just go out and sell like your business depended on it and create some increased revenue?

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