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#Leadership : John Sculley Talks About Mentors, Failure, Reasons To Join A Startup — But Not The Future Of Soda

July 19, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

What do You Do When your Back is Against the Wall & You Have to Either Pivot or Fail? How do you get somebody to feel passionate about what you believe in and get them to join you and be part of your team? These are really challenging questions which you don’t necessarily get at business school and aren’t the types of things you get working inside of a large corporation.

Former Pepsi president and Apple CEO, John Sculley, 76, talks about his life as an entrepreneur, and the present and future of business.

John Sculley is best known for his successes at Pepsi and his dramatic tenure at Apple, including the battle that jettisoned Steve Jobs from the ground-breaking tech firm. But Sculley’s post-Apple career has been focused squarely on helping build new businesses and mentoring younger entrepreneurs. His latest book and video series – Moonshot! – looks at how business founders plan for success as they attempt to transform industries.

Karsten Strauss: You spent much of your career in the corporate world, how did you first learn about entrepreneurship?

John Sculley: I had not heard about entrepreneurship until I got to Silicon Valley back in 1982. As I started to understand it I realized it was very similar to the most fun experience that I had ever had working with Pepsi, which was starting Pepsi’s international snackfood business around the world.

I had a small team and we said we weren’t going to spend much money until we were profitable so we would always travel economy class, we’d get the cheapest tickets, we’d stay at the cheapest hotels. We brought in refurbished equipment from the U.S. We had to learn how to start up in countries where no one even knew what snack foods were back in the early 1970s.

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Strauss: Tell us about a business that you helped build.

Sculley: I’m a cofounder of a company called Zeta Interactive. We’re one of the largest private marketing cloud companies in the world. We don’t give out our revenue but I’ll just say its north of $200 million and we’re very profitable and growing incredibly fast. We have 350 million profiled names that we do very sophisticated data science mathematic predictive algorithms for that enable our clients to be able to acquire customers, build customer loyalty and monetize customers.

Strauss: What did you learn from the Zeta experience?

Sculley: It taught me how important the role of a mentor is. My cofounder is a man named David Steinberg. David and I had a previous company together called Inphonic, which we built to a $1.6 billion company on the NASDAQ stock exchange and this was a follow-up company that David and I founded. I’ve been David Steinberg’s mentor for 18 years. One thing that makes a mentorship work is high level of trust between the parties. A mentor does not make decisions, a mentor does not run anything; the founder or CEO runs the business.

Strauss: Despite your mentorship, Inphonic was forced to file for bankruptcy and David Steinberg resigned as CEO. What happened?

Sculley: The wireless operators started to squeeze the rebates which they gave to resellers and David restructured the agreement with his large resellers where he wanted to take the revenue as recurring revenue – in the online world, recurring revenue is always considered more valuable – which was perfectly legal.

But the mistake that was made – and he’ll tell you it was his mistake but it was as much his chief financial officer’s, who did a bad analysis – was that they misjudged the implication on cash flow. By turning it into recurring revenue, it meant that he was going to defer when the revenue was recognized and the cash came in. So instead of, say, AT&T paying them a rebate at the sale of the phone, AT&T was paying a smaller amount than they had before, but they paid over a number of months. The result was he got squeezed on cash. He went out and raised cash to try and fill the gap but he wasn’t able to raise enough cash to fill the gap and the company spiraled into bankruptcy.

The only person who stuck with him, who was on his board and invested in his previous company, was me. I continued to be his mentor. I agreed to found the next company with him, which is Zeta Interactive.

Strauss: But you Left the Inphonic board before the end. Why?

Sculley: Nobody wants to be on the board of a company going bankrupt. It’s pretty simple. I was still a close friend of his and when Inphonic finally did file for bankruptcy, I said, “What do you learn from this experience?” I’ve had failures too. We all learn from failures.

Strauss: Do you think you could have offered better advice as a mentor?

Sculley: I wasn’t management, I wasn’t inside the operations of the company; I was a board member. Board members look at the reports that are presented to them. Like I said, this was not a great day for the CFO.

Strauss: What do you bring to the table as a mentor?

Sculley: I’m a marketing person who has lived in technology for 32 years so I have domain experience in consumer marketing and in technology. Especially the technologies that we use today, which are big data analytics – which is what Zeta Interactive does – and it’s also incredibly important in anything to do with mobile health and the consumerization of healthcare.

Forbes: How do you start a mentorship relationship?

Sculley: It starts with a set of principles and the most important one is I only work with people I like, and they obviously in turn have to like me. If you can’t start with a relationship first, it doesn’t make any difference what the business is. That’s different than the way most private equity or growth equity firms look at investing in business; they don’t start with friendship.

Strauss: Is there a trick to dealing with entrepreneurs?

Sculley: Entrepreneurs are, by nature, high risk takers. They have strong opinions, they are passionate about what they do, they will often tell you that the reason they work for themselves is because they couldn’t work for anybody else—it’s just not in their makeup.

Entrepreneurs make business such a high priority in their own personal lives. It’s very different than professional managers who may be there for making a lot of money over five or six years of hard work. Corporate leaders tend to want to fit into what a company is doing; entrepreneurs are there because they want to break the rules.

Strauss: Is a there a single strand of wisdom all successful entrepreneurs preach?

Sculley: The really big insights of learning don’t come from even your best successes, they come from the mistakes you make. When you make big mistakes you think about them a lot because as an entrepreneur when you make a mistake it could be life or death for your company.

Entrepreneurs are also driven by a noble cause and I first learned that working with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I’d never heard of the idea of a noble cause until I showed up at Apple because I came from the world of cola wars and competition so everything was about beating the other guy. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates weren’t talking about beating the other guy, they were talking about creating an entirely new industry.

Strauss: But Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were very competitive people.

Sculley: Bill Gates’ and Steve Jobs’ overarching motivation was a noble cause. In the conversations we had together, we never talked about making money. They were great competitors and they would argue, but that came later—first it was the noble cause.
Strauss: Do you ever get sick of being asked about Steve Jobs?

Sculley: I understand that the world is fascinated by him and he made some incredible contributions. He was a genius. He created products and industries that changed the world. I’m one of the few people who knew him incredibly well, worked closely with him when he was very young.

Strauss: Do you think Steve Jobs would have evolved into the CEO that he ultimately became had he not left Apple?

Sculley: Those were growing years for Steve Jobs. No one ever questioned that he was brilliant, but he made mistakes there and NeXT failed. He was learning from those experiences and the reality was that by the time he came back to Apple in the late 1990s he was an incredibly different person.

Every entrepreneur that has been successful that I know well will tell you that they learned the most from their mistakes. Steve, when he was very young – even before I joined Apple – was asked to step down from the Lisa group because he was considered a troublemaker; just as he was asked years later to step down from the Macintosh group.

Strauss: Entrepreneurs often try to power through the tough times. How do you know when to accept failure?

Sculley: Sometimes the way you give up is you run out of money, and that happens to a lot of entrepreneurs, unfortunately. A mentor doesn’t make decisions but a mentor can be a reality checkpoint. If there’s a really good, trusting relationship between the entrepreneur and the mentor, if the entrepreneur is failing he’ll turn to the mentor and say, “so, what’s your advice?”

It doesn’t mean that the entrepreneur has to follow the advice of the mentor but it’s useful for an entrepreneur to get advice that isn’t just yessing the entrepreneur.

Strauss: Who were some mentors that made an impact on your life?

Sculley: I didn’t really have mentors but I had a terrific couple of bosses at Pepsico when I was there. But I wouldn’t call it a mentor relationship because they were bosses and I came up through the traditional, hierarchical organization. One of the reasons I wanted to become a mentor was because I wish I’d had a mentor when I was in Silicon Valley.

Strauss: What impact do you think a mentor’s guidance would have had on you?

Sculley: There would have been a lot of decisions for which I would have loved to have had a mentor there to get their perspective. When I was very much opposed to licensing the Mac software, I actually got pushed out of Apple because there were others who did want to license it. I thought it was a terrible mistake and I wish I’d had a mentor to bounce that thinking off of and maybe I would have been able to convince people, which I wasn’t able to do.

Strauss: Do you think your communication was an issue in that situation?

Sculley: You can always get help on how you see things and how you tell other people about what you see. Those are the types of things I do as a mentor for the people I mentor. I’m doing for them exactly the things I think would have been valuable to me when I was in their role. I try to say “if I were in their shoes, what would I want a mentor to give me their opinion on?”

Strauss: What would you do if you were just coming out of college today?

Sculley: I would try to get into a startup company or I would try to join one of the many incubators or accelerators, because the opportunity to learn from other people in entrepreneurial companies is just incredibly valuable. I think it’s even more valuable than going to business school because you’re learning about the things entrepreneurs have to know.

What do you do when your back is against the wall and you have to either pivot or fail? How do you get somebody to feel passionate about what you believe in and get them to join you and be part of your team? These are really challenging questions which you don’t necessarily get at business school and aren’t the types of things you get working inside of a large corporation.

Strauss: Do you think the soda business will survive?

Sculley: I’ll pass on that question.

Follow me on Twitter @KarstenStrauss

#Leadership : Top Signs Your Colleague Is An Empty Suit…Is your Manager, Employee, or CoWorker an Empty Suit? And How Would you Know If They Were? Here are Some Tell Tale Signs You are Working with an Empty Suit.

July 14, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Unfortunately, They Lack Knowledge of What They are Doing in Their Work Role. In the Worst Cases the Empty Suit Can’t Manage to Explain the Goals of the Department. In a weak attempt to do so will say something similar to one or more of the following:

There is nothing wrong with dressing well for the office, but the problem comes when it’s all style and no substance. Expensive suits from Hugo Boss or Armani are no substitute for business acumen. Women and men are each just as guilty in this. Such people could be found in any company from the largest like Apple AAPL -0.1% andMicrosoft MSFT +0.28% to small entrepreneurial offices. Nowhere is immune from this scourge, unless you work alone.

Here are some tell tale signs you are working with an empty suit.

1. Thinks fine clothing is a substitute for brains. They might dress in clothing they perceive as superior and frequently demean your appearance with snooty comments.

For instance: “OMG, why are you wearing those single buckle monk strap shoes, that’s so last season.”

Unfortunately, they lack knowledge of what they are doing in their work role. In the worst cases the empty suit can’t manage to explain the goals of the department. In a weak attempt to do so will say something similar to one or more of the following:

“You know, we do awesome things.”
“We’re the glue that holds the company together.”
“Optimize processes for better efficiency.”
“We’re like the people people.”
“It’s like we forward the empowerment goals of the company.”

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2. Talks primarily in platitudes. For instance, in response to “why aren’t any of the computers in the department working today?” says one of the following:

“These things happen.”
“It is what it is.”
“I can see that being a problem.”
“It’s nobody’s fault.”
“It’s a pity.”
3. Parrots the company line even to the extent of unwittingly sounding foolish to others.

On Monday, says: “Oh yes we are committed to providing our employees with the best training in the industry.”

On Tuesday, says: “No we can’t possibly spend money on training because we have to cut costs.”

When confronted about the obvious dichotomy will say one of the following to deflect:

“Not my decision.”
“We are all together in this.”
“My hands are tied on that one.”
“It’s the same everywhere else.”
“I’m doing what my boss told me to do.”
4. Never takes responsibility for errors. For instance, fails to purchase the necessary beverages for the office party, despite multiple requests from the boss to do so. In defense, says one or more of the following:

“I agree we could have done better.”
“Things take time.”
“These things happen.”
“We can’t always get it right”
“I don’t recall being asked.”
Note the lack of “I screwed up” or anything else taking personal responsibility.

5. Shows no original thought. Just when you think your empty suit colleague might have provided an insightful suggestion, you actually realize that you’ve heard it before. Where? Likely one of the following:
You made the same suggestion last week (now its being passed off as new.)
It’s recycled from the CEO’s group webcast.
Your colleague suggested it yesterday. The “suit” now takes ownership after ridiculing the idea previously.
The idea has failed many times but the empty suit is too dumb to understand.
The suit saw the idea watching reruns of Seinfeld; thinks no one will notice.
By now you should have identified if there are any empty suits in your work group. If it’s your boss there is no alternative than to find a new job or else suffer in silence as the empty suit leads your department down the road to well deserved obscurity.

If it’s one of your coworkers then be sure not to work on any teams with them if you can help it. And if you are lucky enough to have no empty suits in your team then pray that it stays that way.

In the meantime, don’t forget to plug your brain in as you put on your business clothes.

Simon Constable is a New York-based writer.

Forbes.com | July 14, 2015 | Simon Constable

#Leadership: 4 Things You Should Ask an #Employee Who’s Leaving… A Solid Exit Interview that will Hopefully not Only Yield Valuable Insights, but That will Leave Everyone Feeling Good about our Experience Working Together.

June 15, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

I wouldn’t have tried to talk her out of her decision, but there are a few questions I would have asked her if I had the chance to do it over again. (For the record, these are my questions as a #Leader & #Manager, not necessarily from a #Legal or # HR standpoint. Google is your friend if you want loads of suggestions on that front.)

A few months ago, one of my employees decided to leave the company. Her exit wasn’t a total surprise—we’d hired her originally as an intern, and we all knew her heart and her passion resided in the nonprofit realm. I tried to convince her that our business—employee engagement consulting—was saving the world in a different way, but alas, she wasn’t buying it.

We’re a relatively small organization, and life gets busy. On her last day, I was in client meetings and didn’t really get a chance to say a proper goodbye. I didn’t do an exit interview with her, either. (And I know what you’re thinking, by the way—so just do what I say and not what I do, OK?)

I’ve thought about her a lot over the last couple of months. I miss her presence in our office, but truthfully, I think she made the right decision. I’m a big believer in following your passion and purpose in life, and my guess is she will ultimately be much happier in a job that better fits with her life goals.

I wouldn’t have tried to talk her out of her decision, but there are a few questions I would have asked her if I had the chance to do it over again. (For the record, these are my questions as a #Leader & #Manager, not necessarily from a #Legal or # HR standpoint. Google is your friend if you want loads of suggestions on that front.)

1- How did the job match your expectations?

Our own research at Brilliant Ink tells us that creating accurate first impressions is a key driver of employee engagement, so one of the first things I’d want to know is how the day-to-day realities of the job stacked up to our description of it when she began work with us. This doesn’t necessarily change the nature of the work in the future, but it would certainly help us know how to sell the job more effectively and accurately to result in better hires (which, in my opinion, is the toughest nut of all to crack).

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2- Did you feel that the work you were doing aligned with your personal goals and interests?

We do a goal-setting process with our employees at the beginning of the year, and we revisit these on a quarterly basis. However, these are mostly professional development goals that tie directly to our business objectives. With this question, I’d be assessing how her work fits into the bigger picture of her life—something Millennials say is more and more important to them. And our research indicates that fully engaged employees report a greater likelihood of tapping into personal and professional passions and interests at work compared to less-engaged employees.

In this case of this particular employee, I already knew the answer—she had a passion for environmental work and causes, which doesn’t really relate to our field. And I wouldn’t necessarily change the nature of the work accordingly. But again, it gives clues into the kinds of questions we should be asking at the start of the hiring process and could guide conversations between managers and employees throughout their life with our company.

3- Did you have the tools and resources you needed to effectively do your job?

This is a big one. In the early years of the company, I got pretty comfortable with bootstrapping my way to success, which means we still operate pretty lean and mean. This is a good thing in terms of conserving costs, but we also have to remember that we can’t deliver outstanding work without the right systems in place to make the magic happen. Understanding how my employee felt about the kind of support she was getting would help us know what kinds of investments we should be making in the future.

4- Would you recommend this as a great place for a friend to work?

Would I get an truthful answer to this question? I honestly don’t know, but it’s worth a shot. The employee in question was a good, solid member of our team, and I’d trust her recommendation on future hires. If the job wasn’t a great fit for her, the next best thing I could hope is that she’d be an advocate for our company and a referrer of great potential employees. Plus, with the business that we’re in, it pays to know how we can improve our own employee experience.

Here’s a final exit interview question I don’t recommend: During a wrap-up interview, I once had a former boss ask me if there was anything she could do to change my mind. I enjoyed the job but was incredibly underpaid, so I felt a faint glimmer when she asked me this question. I told her a nominal raise would do the trick. Unfortunately, she promptly replied that it wasn’t possible. The lesson: Don’t offer something you can’t deliver. There’s nothing worse than getting your hopes up—only to have them doused with ice water.

We have an amazing team in place, and I hope I won’t be saying goodbye to anyone else for a very long time. But if we do, I’ll make the time for a proper goodbye—and a solid exit interview that will hopefully not only yield valuable insights, but that will leave everyone feeling good about our experience working together.

Photo of person leaving office courtesy of Shutterstock.

About The Author

Career Guidance
Liz Kelly is the CEO and founder of Brilliant Ink, an employee communications and engagement consultancy with offices in Oakland and New York. She recently co-authored the award-winning Employee Experience Survey, a study of more than 300 Fortune 1,000 employees that correlates key moments of the employee experience to overall levels of employee engagement.

The Daily Muse | June 2015 | Liz Kelly

#Leadership: 3 Reasons Being A Manager Is Overrated…Before you Start Dreaming about Stock Options & your Name on a Door Plaque, Here are a Few Downsides of Being Top Dog

June 13, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Being a Boss Means that you’re Ultimately Accountable for the Output of your Team — for Better or Worse.

A statistic I stumbled across while researching a previous piece has been stuck in my head this week. According to Deloitte’s 2015 Millennial Survey, 53% of Millennials across the globe aspire to be senior leaders (up to and including the CEO) of the organization in which they currently work. Far be it from me to rain on anyone’s parade, but I have to wonder if these (likely) entry-level employees have any idea of what they’re really in for as they climb the ladder to the corner office.

Before you start dreaming about stock options and your name on a door plaque, here are a few downsides of being top dog:

The Buck Stops With You

With great power comes great quarterly expectations. Being a boss means that you’re ultimately accountable for the output of your team — for better or worse. While you look like a hero when those under you overdeliver, if your team comes up short, you’re the fall guy. As a manager, you don’t live and die based on your own efforts, but how well you’re able to motivate and manage the efforts of others. Your success is no longer directly within your control, instead it’s based on an aggregation of what those who work for you achieve, which can leave you feeling powerless instead of powerful.

You’ll Be Dealing With Drama

If you’ve never aspired to go into politics or to work in a daycare, perhaps being a manager isn’t for you. Immersing yourself in uncomfortable interpersonal situations that call for outstanding tact will become a significant portion of your workload. You will have to do performance appraisals of your subordinates and find the most constructive way to provide negative feedback on a subpar work effort. You’ll have to terminate employees and some of them might not go quietly or graciously. You’ll have to mediate petty conflict between team members without seeming to play favorites. You’ll have to switch up your communication style based on which employee you’re talking to and figure out the best way to motivate a group of individuals who may not have the same goals and definitely won’t respond to the same incentives.

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You’re No Longer A Doer

Ironically enough, once you’re a manager, you’ll be doing a lot less of the type of work that got you promoted to that level. You may love being a designer, but once you’re leading a team of designers, your focus shifts from figuring out the best way to create visually appealing and intuitive experiences across various media to how best to manage other people who are doing that and how to effectively allocate your own limited time. If you find fulfillment in getting your hands dirty with the daily intricacies of your work (be that teaching, coding, number crunching, etc.), a managerial role might feel oddly empty — you’ve been rewarded for all your good work by no longer getting to do that work. As Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes notes, most companies don’t have a clear career trajectory in place to advance and reward employees who are specialists in their jobs but not interested in or suited for management roles:

What’s missing, not just in the tech world but across the board, is a dedicated track—complete with titles, incremental pay raises and true upward potential—for exceptional performers who aren’t keen on managing people. These are the experts within an organization who have amassed a unique body of knowledge and who continually push their company to perform better. They may be leaders, but they lead by example, not by mandate. They inspire co-workers around them with their singular contributions rather than through direct instruction.

The Bottom Line?

There’s another statistic within the same Deloitte survey that’s also worth pondering and might shed a little more light on Millennials’ managerial aspirations. According to survey findings, only 28% of Millennials feel that their current job takes full advantage of their skill set. Looked at through this lens, the urge to be the boss may be less about grabbing the brass ring and more about feeling that moving up the corporate ladder is where greater autonomy and freedom lies. That might not be a accurate assumption, but it’s a very understandable one.

Learn more about my work and connect with me on Twitter.

Forbes.com | June 11, 2015 | J. Maureen Henderson

#Leadership: 9 Brilliant Business Books you can Read in an Afternoon…Best Business Books under 150 pages. All you Need is an Afternoon to Read Through these Greats.

June 12, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Starting a new book can seem daunting and overly time-consuming. The good news is there are several short business books loaded with powerful information about selling, managing, and investing. We compiled a list of the best business books under 150 pages that you can start and finish in an afternoon.

All you need is an afternoon to read through these greats.

It’s no secret that reading can help you get ahead. The most accomplished people tend to love to read.

However, starting a new book can seem daunting and overly time-consuming. The good news is there are several short business books loaded with powerful information about selling, managing, and investing. We compiled a list of the best business books under 150 pages that you can start and finish in an afternoon.

‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ by Spencer Johnson

Penguin Books/Amazon

“Who Moved My Cheese?” made it on “Shark Tank” investor Daymond John’s list of business books that changed his life.

Johnson’s parable was an instant hit when it came out in 1998 and has continued to be a bestseller over the past decade. It tells the story of two mice, Scurry and Sniff, and two sprite-like people, Hem and Haw, living in a maze where the location of the cheese suddenly begins changing every day.

Johnson wrote the book as the internet started becoming more accessible, causing companies around the world to adapt and learn new ways of doing business. Its lessons on how to let go of a fear of change are timeless.

‘As a Man Thinketh’ by James Allen

Tribecca Books/Amazon

This short classic should be on every entrepreneur’s bookshelf. Published in 1902, “As a Man Thinketh” contains wisdom that transcends time. Author and coach Tony Robbins says he often recommends it to people “because it’s so small and easy to read and so profound.” He’s read it at least a dozen times.

In the book, Allen emphasizes that your life is completely under your control rather than in the hands of fate, luck, or external circumstances. To be successful, he says you must first be successful in your mind.

‘How to Lie with Statistics’ by Darrell Huff

W.W. Norton & Company/Amazon

If “How to Lie with Statistics” worked for Bill Gates, it could work for you. The business magnate and bookworm included Huff’s 150-page book about how statistics can be deceptive on his list of summer must-reads.

Although it was written in 1954, Gates promises it doesn’t feel dated. Rather, it will make you feel smarter and more skeptical of the things you read.

‘The Greatest Salesman in the World’ by Og Mandino

Bantam Books/Amazon

To be great in business, you need to be a great salesman. If you can’t sell your ideas, product, or services, you won’t make it.

In “The Greatest Salesman in the World,” which has been around since 1968, Mandino offers several simple, yet powerful, truths in a very clear and compelling style. His parable takes place in ancient Jerusalem and is about a camel boy, Hafid, who’s master is a very wealthy trader. Hafid hopes to uncover his master’s key to success, and the trader guides him by passing on 10 scrolls filled with wisdom.

‘The One Minute Manager’ by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Blanchard Family/Amazon

Another one of Daymond John’s picks, “The One Minute Manager” is a guide to effective communication between bosses and their employees.

Blanchard and Johnson say managers can explain a task to employees within a minute, as well as take just 60 seconds to offer praise or criticism. In addition to describing the “one-minute manager,” the authors offer advice about lowering barriers between managers and their employees, and how to communicate as directly as possible.

A new and updated edition of this business bestseller, “The New One Minute Manager,” came out in May.

‘The Investment Answer’ by Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray

Hachette Book Group/Amazon

Goldie and Murray’s guide to investing, “The Investment Answer,” is under 100 pages and focuses on five decisions every investor has to make. These include whether to invest alone or with a professional; how to allocate among stocks, bonds, and cash; and when to sell or buy assets.

Murray, a Wall Street veteran, and Goldie, a financial adviser, keep their guide brief and jargon-free for any investor — experienced, beginner, and everyone in between.

‘The Richest Man in Babylon’ by George S. Clason

Classic House Books/Amazon

Clason’s celebrated bestseller will teach you everything you need to know about personal finance through a compelling series of parables that take place in the historical city of Babylon.

“The Richest Man in Babylon” teaches you the principles of paying yourself first, living below your means, and investing in yourself, among other timeless financial lessons.

‘Marketing: A Love Story’ by Bernadette Jiwa

Bernadette Jiwa/Amazon

Jiwa compiles several popular blog posts in her book about great marketing in a digital age.

“Marketing: A Love Story” encourages a different approach to business and entrepreneurship: to stop selling things and start telling stories. In a day when consumers are much more aware about how they’re being marketed to, it is becoming more important to see through the eyes of customers and convey exactly how they are going to feel if they buy into your product or idea.

‘Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals’ by Thomas Corley

Langdon Street Press/Amazon

To be successful in business, it’s important to establish good personal finance habits.

“Rich Habits” author Thomas Corley spent five years studying the lives of both rich people and poor people, and managed to segment out what he calls “rich habits” and “poverty habits,” meaning the tendencies of those who fit in each group.

His 94-page book outlines these findings and shows how even the simplest of habits, such as regular exercise or calling friends on their birthdays, could increase your chances of attaining wealth.

Now check out the best business books to read in your 20s:

Flickr / Francisco Osorio

30 business books every professional should read before turning 30

http://www.businessinsider.com/9-brilliant-business-books-you-can-read-in-an-afternoon-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3crgB9Dlz

#Strategy: How to Be More Nimble Than Your Competition: 5 Tips…These Strategies can Help you Banish Bureaucracy & Stay Agile

May 14, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When you’re a new company you can be fast and nimble, and you don’t have any bureaucracy mucking up your ability to get things done. But how do you retain that agility as you scale? Girish Navani, CEO of the cloud-based electronic health record giant eClinicalWorks, has some ideas. The high value he places on speed is one factor he says has helped his bootstrapped company grow from $1 million in revenues in 2003 to $333 million last year. Here’s his advice for how you can be more nimble than your competition.

IMAGE: Getty Images

1. Banish layers and focus on team-playing.

Companies become sluggish because of silos and walls that slow decision making. To avoid such a fate eClinicalWorks has only three of layers: Team leads, team players and Navani as CEO, although he takes responsibility for leading product development. “When [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][your company is] five people you have roles, you have responsibilities, but you don’t have layers. Why can’t we do the same thing when we’re 4,000 people?” he says. “I think we’ve found a way to do that. We’ve structured the company around being a team-player versus an individual.”

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2. Encourage transparency and free speaking.

When people speak their minds decisions are made faster, particularly if your culture is one that values the larger picture more than the individual. Ideally, if an employee sees that something may be good for himself and his role-but not for the overall organization-you want him to say so. “Be open, be communicative, be transparent and let people know that what you value in a company is teamwork and not individuals trying to be superstars,” he says.

3. Keep the doors open.

Part of transparency means anyone can access anyone else at any time. Navani says he spends 95 percent of his day working in the open at a table surrounded by several chairs anyone can occupy when they have something to collaborate on or discuss. “We brainstorm, we make decisions, and we talk. No meetings, no scheduled appointments,” he says. “Because I don’t close my doors, nobody else closes their doors.”

4. Communicate simple goals people can understand.

If you can’t articulate your company’s mission and goals within 30 seconds youremployees probably won’t be able to deliver on them. For example, as eClinicalWorks grew, its list of products did, as well. But considering the company’s goal is to use technology to improve healthcare delivery at some point it made the most sense to offer all products to customers in a bundle they pay for monthly. “Suddenly the world changes with one broad statement, and people start getting away from individual [product] profitability to company-wide decision making,” he says. “[We] became very agile in how we make decisions, because the only decision we have is to make our customers use all our products and let them pay the monthly fee rather than trying to sell them individually.”

5. Look at your company from the customer’s perspective.

The company used to charge $1,000 a day for training, meaning an independent small doctor may have had to shell out five times that amount to get up and running. Unlike its competitors eClinicalWorks did away with the upfront fee, instead baking it into the monthly subscription, meaning it took longer for the company to recoup the training. As a result, sales increased as prospects started seeing the company as one which was confident it could keep their business long term. “Ask the question, ‘What’s slowing you down? What’s causing grief to your customer? Why does your customer think working with them is harder today than when you were a 5-person startup?'” he says. “If you keep doing that type of constant refactoring of your business, you’ll stay agile and ahead of your competition because you’re making decisions they can’t make.”[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Leadership:Boring Meetings? Try These Simple Steps to Go From Dull to Dazzling…Don’t Just Meet Because You’re a Group & You’ve “Always Had a Weekly Staff Meeting.”

January 20, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When everything’s said and done, there’s usually more said than done. As most anyone involved in business, academe, politics, religion, or any number of other endeavors can attest, that truism applies especially to meetings.

Meetings can be a mind-numbing squandering of time, money, patience, and other finite resources. But they needn’t and shouldn’t be. In his new bookMeetings Matter, Paul Axtell shows how thoughtful, respectful, and focused conversation is the key to effective meetings. What’s more, he provides lots of specific strategies and tactics. Adopt the practices suggested here and the meetings you attend will never be fruitless again. The bonus? You and your colleagues will be more engaged than ever in producing great results.”

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Test drive some of his ideas yourself. Use them faithfully, and you can transform your meetings into smooth-running, collaborative sessions that produce the high impact results you really want.

Rodger Dean Duncan: Most people seem to have a negative mindset about meetings. What impact does this perspective have on meeting effectiveness? Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Paul Axtell: Absolutely, we get what we expect. Too many organizations contain a host of complaints about meetings that lead to reduced expectations and then reduced accomplishment. Bright, talented people have slipped into a “going through the motions” or “doing enough to get by” mindset about meetings. This is actually good news for those who acknowledge it and get to work on changing it. Even if an organization is being successful without the full leverage of powerful, effective meetings, turning that around provides a huge upside—and a competitive edge because almost every organization is in the same rut.

Duncan: Because effective conversation is the “operating system” of a productive meeting, what advice can you offer for making sure the conversations produce good results?

Axtell: An effective conversation has four elements: clarity, candor, commitment, and completion. Each is important in its own way, but when they are all present, it allows for the back and forth conversation necessary for everyone to walk away with the same, clear understanding.

Let’s look at each individually:

Clarity means everyone understands what is being said in the same way.

Candor means everyone says what they think and is authentic, honest, and straightforward.

Commitment means you all agree on who will take what actions in what time frame after the conversation.

Completion means everything that needs to be said or asked has been expressed before moving on to the next topic.

In addition, it’s imperative at the start of the meeting to be clear about the outcomes for each topic on the agenda and to have set aside enough time to reach those outcomes. If you can do this, and stay on track, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much you accomplish—and in record time.

Duncan: What are some proven ways to ensure that participants have an appropriate voice in a meeting?

Axtell: Again, it’s incredibly important to be as clear and direct as possible. In the setup to the meeting, remind participants that your intention is to have a back-and-forth discussion and that you expect their participation.

Let participants know what kind of input you are requesting for each topic and set aside enough time so that no one feels rushed by the agenda.

I also recommend you call on people “strategically and gently” to get the participation levels desired. Maintain your awareness for people who have not yet spoken and invite them to join the conversation. People have valuable input, if you give them a chance to voice it.

Duncan: You say that an important key to good meetings is to talk about the right things and talk about fewer things. Give us an example of how that filter can be used to create a good meeting.

Axtell: When it comes to meetings, it’s so easy to get pulled into short-term problem solving or low-level distractions rather than spending the time to go deeper into topics that have long-term leverage. You slip into a pattern of going lightly over ten to twelve agenda items rather than doing meaningful work on a few.

It doesn’t help to work on improving your meetings if you are talking about the wrong things.

Here are a few examples of what I believe do merit time on the agenda:

Discussing progress on the team’s most critical goals and initiatives should be first choice, especially if progress is in jeopardy.
Providing input to the manager or colleagues who have a significant issue and have asked for suggestions is another area where the experience of the group can add value to individual members, particularly those soliciting ideas.
Taking on strategic topics such as talent reviews, organizational restructuring, or hiring decisions keeps the organization positioned for the future.
Don’t just meet because you’re a group and you’ve “always had a weekly staff meeting.” Ask this question: In your regular meetings, are you honoring the time of group members by discussing things that matter?
Duncan: What opportunities do good meetings offer for enhancing engagement throughout an entire organization?

Axtell: On a big picture level, it’s impossible to have an effective organization when you don’t have employee engagement and alignment. We’ve seen survey after survey validating this point.

In my opinion, this is because most employees don’t feel as though they have a relationship or connection with their supervisor or the organization itself. Or they don’t feel they have much of a say in how things work.

The good news? Each and every meeting is an opportunity to change this. Every time you ask for input. Every time you listen attentively. Every time you work with someone’s idea or question, you change this sense of being on the outside—of not being valued or engaged. Every hallway conversation, regular meeting, or quarterly Q&A session is a chance to reset this vital piece of the organizational culture.

Rodger Dean Duncan is the bestselling author of CHANGE-friendly LEADERSHIP: How to Transform Good Intentions into Great Performance. Follow him on Twitter @DoctorDuncan

Forbes.com | January 18, 2015 | Rodger Dean Duncan

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