On The Overspent American

I recently finished reading The Overspent American – Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer – by Juliet B. Schor.

Below are key lessons in the form of excerpts that I found particularly insightful from this book in which Juliet “analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social act”:

1- “While I believe all Americans are deeply affected by consumerism, this book is directed to people…whose income afford comfortable lifestyle. I focus on more affluent consumers not because I believe that inequalities of consuming power are unimportant. Far from it. They are at the heart of the problem. But I believe that achieving an equitable standard of living for all Americans will require that those of us with more comfortable material lives transform our relationship to spending. I offer this book as a step in that direction.”

2- “This book is about why: About why so many middle-class Americans feel materially dissatisfied…How even a six-figure income can seem inadequate, and why this country saves less than virtually any other nation in the world. It is about the ways in which, for America’s middle classes, “spending becomes you,” about how it flatters, enhances, and defines people in often wonderful ways, but also how it takes over their lives…IT analyzes how standards of belonging socially have changes in recent decades, and how this change has introduced American to highly intensified spending pressures. And finally, it is about a growing backlash to the consumption culture, a movement of people who are downshifting – by working less, and living their consumer lives much more deliberately.”

3- “…Even though products carry well-recognized levels of prestige, are associated with particular kinds of people, or convey widely accepted messages, we cannot automatically infer the motivations of the consumers who buy them…There are other sources of meaning (beyond social inequalities). Gender, ethnicity, personal predisposition, and many other factors help structure the meanings and motivation attached to consuming.”

4- “First, for a significant number of branded and highly advertised products, there are no quality differences discernible to consumers when the labels are removed; and second, variation in prices typically exceeds variation in quality, with the difference being in part a status premium…The extra money we spend could arguably be better used in other ways – improving our public schools, boosting retirement savings, or providing drug treatment for the millions of people the country is locking up in an effort to protect commodities others have acquired. But unless we find a way to dissociate what we buy from who we think we are, redirecting those dollars will prove difficult indeed.”

5- “Today, in a world where being middle-class is not good enough for many people and indeed that social category seems like an endangered species, securing a place means going upscale. But when everyone is doing it, upscaling can mean simply keeping up. Even when we are aiming high, there’s a strong defensive component to our comparisons. We don’t want to fall behind or lose the place we’ve carved out for ourselves.”

6- “To maintain psychological comfort, most of us must transcend the strictures of the current consumption map…The first step is to decouple spending from our sense of worth, a connection basic to all hierarchical consumption maps. The second is to find a reference group for whom a low-cost lifestyle is socially acceptable.”

7- “I outline nine principles to help individuals, and the nation, get off the consumer escalator…1) Controlling desire…2) Creating a new consumer symbolism: making exclusivity uncool…3) Controlling ourselves: voluntary restraints on competitive consumption…4) Learning to share: both as a borrower and a lender be…5) Deconstruct the Commercial system: Becoming an Educated Consumer…6) Avoid “Retail Therapy”: Spending is Addictive…7) Decommercialize the Rituals…8) Making Time: Is work-and-spend working?…9) The need for a coordinate intervention.”

8- “It can hardly be possible that the dumbing-down of America has proceeded so far that it’s either consumerism or nothing. We remain a creative, resourceful, and caring nation. There’s still time left to find our way out of the mall.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

The OVerspent American

Leadership The Eleanor Roosevelt Way

I recently finished reading Leadership The Roosevelt Way – Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage by Senior Scholar Robin Gerber.

As the title indicates this book is about the life and stories of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, with a particular focus on her leadership abilities. As the author states in his introduction: “Eleanor Roosevelt holds an unassailable place as the most respected and well-known woman of the last century. In the year before her death in 1962, international polls repeatedly showed her to be the world’s most admired woman.”

The book is divided into 12 sections, each focusing on one aspect of ER’s leadership:

1) Learn from Your Past

2) Find Mentors and Advisers

3) Mothering: Training for Leadership

4) Learning the Hard Way

5) Find Your Leadership Passion

6) Your Leadership Your Way

7) Give Voice to Your Leadership

8) Face criticism with Courage

9) Keep Your Focus

10) Contacts, Networks, and Connections

11) Embrace Risk

12) Never Stop Learning

Inter-weaved into each chapter are numerous stories from ER’s life in which she has demonstrated leadership in these areas. As stated by the author: ”If there are essential threads that can be pulled from Eleanor’s story of leadership, they are her adherence to her values, her keen assessment of people’s needs, and her ability to motivate those around her to take responsibility and work for change.”

What sets this book apart is the structure, the selection of supporting biographical elements and the summary of the key lessons at the end of each chapter. A must read Leadership book!

Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1) “Eleanor came to believe that learning and growing, remaining curious, and being open to change were essential elements of leadership.”

2) “Eleanor exemplified leadership at its finest, but she achieved that status by starting with herself, looking inward with honesty and curiosity  This enabled her to change the world around her.”

3) “Remember that mentors can give you guidance professionally as well as socially and emotionally.”

4) “Organizational skills and leadership talents can be developed in the home as well as in the workplace.”

5) “What sets a leader apart is how he or she handles the lowest points, the darkest hours.”

6) “Your passion doesn’t have to be connected to humanitarian goals, but it must be deeply personal and important to you.”

7) “Finding your leadership passion will depend on clarifying your values. Values motivate great leadership, underpin the actions that you take to build your leadership, and lead to lasting and transforming change…Every act of leadership based on your mission builds you capacity for making change on a larger and more transforming scale.”

8) “Your leadership will be most effective if you stick to the mission of your organization…Stick to your principles and inspire others by acting on them. Demonstrate that you can be trusted and you will get the trust of those around you.”

9) Warren Bennis: “Leaders articulate and define what has previously remained implicit and unsaid; then they invent images, metaphors, and models that provide a focus for new attention.”

10) “Show your sincerity and passion as you communicate in both words and images. If you don’t have the conviction to support your idea no one else will either.”

11) “Distinguish between criticism that you value and can use versus criticism that is best ignored. Handle criticism with less emotions and more intelligence. Be open to constructive areas. Be strong in the face of unjust attacks.”

12) “Your job as a transforming leader is to develop a clear, strong vision, to be determined and persistent, and to build leadership in those around you. If you do, you’ll find that you can make great changes, achieve maximum success, and leave a lasting legacy as a transforming leader.”

13) “Use every avenue, every method, and every opportunity to advance your vision.”

14) “Recognize the give-and-take of networking. Look for ways you can help people meet their goals and assess how they can help you meet yours…Be a “connector” linking people in your network to each other.”

15) “Accept that you will never be able to plan for or control every contingency; such is the nature of risk…Practice the positive – in your mind, in your discussions, in your relationships, in your actions. The glass is always half full if you want it to be.”

16) “Be a leader who is a learner; be a learner who is a teacher; be a teacher who is a leader who motivates others to lead and learn.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way

Keys to Small Business Success

I recently finished reading The E-Myth Revisited – Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It – by Michael E. Gerber.

The book revolves around a central idea, that there exists a myth (“E-Myth”) which states: “Small businesses are started by entrepreneurs risking capital to make a profit. This is simply not so. The real reasons people start businesses have little to do with entrepreneurship. In fact, this belief in the Entrepreneurial Myth is the most important factor in the devastating rate of small business failure today. Understanding the E-Myth, and applying that understanding to creation and development of a small business, can be the secret to any business’s success.”

To overcome this myth and it’s accompanying challenges, the author argues for the deployment of a Franchise Prototype model. It begins with the owner realizing that “your business is not your life…the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work on your business, rather than in it”.

One might then ask him/herself, how do I convert my existing business into this new operational model? This is where the Business Development Program, comes into play. The program introduced by GERBER in this book is based on the execution of the following seven steps:

1- Your Primary Aim: ” What do I value the most? What kind of life do I want? What do I want my life to look like, to feel like? Who do I wish to be? Your primary aim is the answer to all these questions.”

2- Your Strategic Objective: “A very clear statement of what your business has to ultimately do for you to achieve your primary aim.”

3- Your Organizational Strategy: Structure the way the business is going to work, in other words creating the organizational chart – roles and responsibilities.

4- Your Management Strategy: “A system designed into your prototype to produce a marketing result.”

5- Your People Strategy: The way the “game” (vision/aim) is communicated to the team at the outset. This includes everything from the position contracts (organization chart), to operations manuals, to the standards for performance and accountability.

6- Your Marketing Strategy: Knowing who your customer is (demographics) and why they buy (psychographics)

7- Your Systems Strategy: The “set of things, actions, ideas and information that interact with each other, and in so doing, alter other systems.”

What sets this book apart is the analysis that the author performs, through a sample business, of issues small business owners encounter. This includes the different personas the owner takes on, as well as the evolution of the business through the maturity cycle. This analysis is what allows the readers to appreciate and embrace the proposed prototype framework that the author then introduces as key to success. A must read in the area of entrepreneurship and small business.

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

The E-Myth

Value-Based Leadership

I recently read the book  “The Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing. While the story of the adventure itself is fascinating and highly recommended, the book is also filled with leadership lessons.

Here is a link to a great presentation by Dr. Michael Harris (Value-Based Leadership) that discusses leadership in general, and then focuses on the Leadership attributes displayed by Shackleton, as an illustrative example (along with brief background on the journey itself). The author of the presentation argues, and rightfully so, that the keys to Shackleton’s success relied on six key elements:

1) Planning and Calculated Risk

2) Team Building

3) Conflict Resolution

4) Communication

5) Flexibility and Agility

6) Leading by Example through Values, Courage and Optimism

These attributes were as much applicable then, during this epic adventure, as they are now for any current or aspiring leader.

What sets this book apart is that the lessons are left to the readers to extract and interpret, while captured in a thrilling story.

If you are interested in learning more about this heroic journey, please see the wiki page: , read the book and/or watch the movie .

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage

Cultivating Service Excellence in Nine Steps

I recently finished reading Unleashing Excellence – The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service by Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch.

In this book the authors outline an action plan, made up of nine elements, to “inculturate” service excellence (excerpted):

“1) Create the Service Improvement Team(…) Action Steps: a) Try to select 8 to 12 members at the most. b) Ensure that the team represents a cross-section of the organization c) Have as many senior level members as possible on the first Service Improvement Team. Members need to have the authority to get things done. d) Draft the team charter.

2) Develop the organization’s Service Philosophy and Service Standards(…) The service Philosophy answers two questions: what we do? how we do it?…Guidelines for Developing your service standards: Each standard on the final list should be unique from every other standard…Each standard should be actionable…The standards must focus on customer service.

3) Develop and execute on ongoing service Communication and Awareness plan(…) Communication during the awareness stage – what employees need: information…Communication during the awkwardness stage – what employees need: reassurance…Communication during the assimilation stage – what employees need: what’s new about the service effort.

4) Create and execute a plan for ongoing service Training and Education(…) Training for the frontline employees should: 1) Ensure consistent understanding of the service improvement process. 2) Share best practices regarding service excellence. 3) Develop personal action plans for service excellence. 4) Communicate next steps.

5) Adapt the Interviewing and Selecting processes to include all elements of the service culture(…) Action Steps: a) Observe and interview your best employees in order to uncover their service talents. b) Enlist your service superstars in your recruiting efforts. c) Track how the best employees were recruited to your company. d) Model your company’s values during the interview process.

6) Create and implement a service Measurement process(…) Keys to local measurement success: a) Local measurements should be linked to the overall service improvement effort…b)The workgroup should be able to impact the factors they measure…c) The act of measuring shouldn’t negatively impact the customer experience…d) Improvement in one service factor shouldn’t negatively impact another service factor.

7) Develop appropriate Recognition/celebration processes that reinforce the service culture(…) Action steps: a) Ensure that recognition is strategically linked to the overall service improvement effort. b) Create mechanisms that encourage recognition at all levels of the organization. c) Review current recognition practices to determine if they are consistent the Service Standards and contain an emotional component. d) Provide special recognition for your stellar performers. e) Communicate and train all management and frontline employees on the importance of recognizing service excellence.”

8) Implement a Service Obstacle System for identifying and addressing barriers to service excellence(…) One of the most important jobs of a leader in a service improvement initiative is to help remove obstacles that keep employees from giving great service.

9) Build a Management Accountability system that ensures commitment to ongoing service excellence(…) The three-legged stool suggests that leaders should be accountable for three broad areas: a) The customer experience. b) The employee experience. c) Business results.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Unleashing Excellence

On The HP Way

I recently finished reading The HP Way – How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company – by David Packard.

As the title indicate this book is about the story of Hewlett Packard as told by one of the founding partners David Packard. This book offers a corporate history of how the company started from the infamous garage into a global enterprise, but more importantly focuses on the guiding principles on which this company was built – the HP Way.

What stands out in the HP Way is the deep commitment and belief in values and principles. These radiate from the founders and affect everyone and everything at HP. The HP Way covers all aspects of operations within the company and with external stakeholders (customers, shareholders etc.) in a way that transcends time and specific technologies (see below excerpts). Almost half a century later most of what is discussed is just as relevant than as it is now.

HP is currently in a desperate need to revive the HP Way and transform itself in order to turn itself around and succeed in the future. A highly recommended read.

Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- “…it has been a guiding principle in developing and managing HP. Get the best people, stress the importance of teamwork, and get them fired up to win the game.”

2- “We published a second version of the objectives in 1966 and they are as follows…1) Profit: To recognize that profit is the best measure of our contribution to society and the ultimate source of our corporate strength…2) Customers: To strive for continual improvement in the quality, usefulness, and value of the products and services we offer our customers…3) Field of Interest: To concentrate our efforts, continually seeking new opportunities for growth but limiting our involvement o fields in which we have capability and can make a contribution. 4) Growth: To emphasize growth as a measure of strength and a requirement for survival. 5) Employees : To provide employment opportunities for HP people that include the opportunity to share in the company’s success, which they help make possible. To provide them job security based on performance, and to provide the opportunity for personal satisfaction that comes from a sense of accomplishment in their work. 6) Organization: To maintain an organizational environment that fosters individual motivation, initiative, creativity, and a wide latitude of freedom in working  toward established objectives and goals. 7) Citizenship: To meet the obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in our society which generate the environment in which we operate.”

3- “An important element of the HP Way has to do with the company’s relationship with its shareholders and the investment community. A primary objective in this area is to provide consistency in our corporate performance, including steady growth in earnings and equity.”

4- “At that time our policy at HP was to regard increased market share as a reward for doing things well – for providing customers with superior products and services and keeping our costs down. This has been a basic policy from the very beginning of our company, and we expect it to continue in the future.”

5- “The key to HP’s prospective involvement in any field of interest is contribution. Our objective is to expand and diversify only when we can build on our present strengths, and with the recognition that we have the proven capability to make a contribution. To meet this objective, it is important that we put maximum effort into our product-development programs. This means we must continually seek new ideas for new and better kinds of products.”

6- “The fundamental basis for success in the operation of Hewlett-Packard is the job we do in satisfying the needs of our customers. We encourage every person in our organization to think continually about how his or her activities relate to the central purpose of serving our customers.”

7- “…gains in quality come from meticulous attention to detail and every step in the manufacturing process must be done as carefully as possible, not as quickly as possible. This sounds simple, but it is achieved only if everyone in the organization is dedicated to quality.”

8- “It’s imperative that there be a strong spirit of helpfulness and cooperation among all elements of the  company and that this spirit be recognized and respected as a cornerstone of the HP Way.”

9- “Although we minimize corporate direction at HP, we consider ourselves one single company, with the flexibility of a small company and the strengths of a large one – the ability to draw on corporate resources and services; shared standards, values, and culture; common goals and objectives; and a single world identity.”

10- “I should point out that the successful practice of management by objective is a two-way street. Managers at all levels must be sure that their people clearly understand the overall objectives and goals of the company, as well as the specific goals of their particular division or department. Thus, managers have a strong obligation to foster good communication and mutual understanding. Conversely, their people must take sufficient interest in their work to want to plan it, to propose new solutions to old problems, and to jump in when they have something to contribute.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

The HP Way

On Built To Last

I recently finished reading Built To Last by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras.

This book is about visionary companies – ones that are built to last. These companies are defined by the authors as “”Visionary companies are premier institutions – the crown jewels – in their industries, widely admired by their peers and having a long track record of making a significant impact on the world around them. The key point is that a visionary company is an organization – an institution.”

The objectives of this book are best summarized by the following excerpt: ”In a nutshell, we had two primary objectives for the research project: 1) To identify the underlying characteristics and dynamics common to highly visionary companies (and that distinguish them from other companies) and to translate these findings into a useful conceptual framework. 2) To effectively communicate these findings and concepts so that they influence the practice of management and prove beneficial to people who want to help create, build, and maintain visionary companies.”

A great follow-up read to Collin’s Good to Great. Jim reveals what makes visionary companies tick, their culture, their core values and their audacious goals. The in-depth research and objective analysis are to be commended. Particularly the approach of comparing each of the companies discussed to their main respective competitor. This comparison helps anchor and exemplify the ideas presented. Furthermore, the call for continuous improvement and stimulating progress is stressed as a caution for visionary companies from falling behind (which some already have). A must read!

Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1) “Built to Last, it turns out, is not fundamentally about building to last. It is about building something that is worthy of lasting – about building a company of such intrinsic excellence that the world would lose something important if that organization ceased to exist.”

2) “…Visionary companies distinguish their timeless core values and enduring purpose (which should never change) from their operating practices and business strategies (which should be changing constantly in response to a changing world). This distinction has proven to be profoundly useful to organizations amid drastic transformation.”

3) “In a nutshell, we had two primary objectives for the research project: 1) To identify the underlying characteristics and dynamics common to highly visionary companies (and that distinguish them from other companies) and to translate these findings into a useful conceptual framework. 2) To effectively communicate these findings and concepts so that they influence the practice of management and prove beneficial to people who want to help create, build, and maintain visionary companies.”

4) “…The continual stream of great products and services from highly visionary companies stems from them being outstanding organizations, not the other way around.”

5) “In short, a highly visionary company doesn’t want to blend yin and yang into a gray, indistinguishable circle that is neither highly yin nor highly yang; it aims to be distinctly yin and distinctly yang – both at the same time, all the time.”

6) “Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profits is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.”

7) “…I firmly believe that any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions. Next, I believe that the most important singly factor in corporate success is faithful adherence to those beliefs…Beliefs must always come before policies, practices, and goals. The latter must always be altered if they are seen to violate fundamental beliefs.”

8) “If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except [its basic] beliefs as it moves through corporate life…The only sacred cow in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business.”

9) “Indeed, the drive for progress is never satisfied with the status quo, even when the status quo is working well. Like a persistent and incurable itch, the drive for progress in a highly visionary company can never be satisfied under any conditions, even if the company succeeds enormously.”

10) “Big Hairy Audacious Goals…A BHAG should be so clear and compelling that it requires little or no explanation…A BHAG should fall well outside the comfort zone…A BHAG should be so bold and exciting in its own right that it would continue to simulate progress even if the organization’s leader disappeared before it had been completed…A BHAG has the inherent danger that, once achieved, an organization can stall and drift in the “we’ve arrived” syndrome…A company should be prepared to prevent this by having follow-on BHAGs…Finally, and most important of all, a BHAG should be consistent with a company’s core ideology.”

11) “…here are five basic lessons for stimulating evolutionary progress in a visionary company…Give it a try – and quick…Accept that mistakes will be made…Take small steps…Give people the room they need…Mechanisms – build that ticking clock.”

12) “The essence of a visionary company comes in the translation of its core ideology and its own unique drive for progress into the very fabric of the organization – into goals, strategies, tactics, policies, processes, cultural practices, management behaviors, building layouts, pay systems, accounting systems, job design – into everything the company does.”

13) “Lessons of alignment for CEOs, Managers, And Entrepreneurs: Paint the Whole Picture…Sweat the Small Stuff…Cluster, Don’t Shotgun…Swim in You Own Current, Even if You Swim Against the Tide…Obliterate Misalignments…Keep the Universal Requirements While Inventing New Methods”

14) “…as you walk away from reading this book, we hope you will take away four key concepts to guide your thinking for the rest of your managerial career, and to pass on to others. The concepts are: 1) Be a clock builder – an architect – not a time teller. 2) Embrace the “Genius of the AND.” 3) Preserver the core/stimulate progress. 4) Seek consistent alignment.”

15) “Building a visionary company is a design problem, and great designers apply general principles, not mechanical lock-step dogma. Any specific how-to will almost certainly become obsolete. But the general concepts – adapted of course, to changing conditions – can last as guiding principles well into the next century.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Built To Last

On Authentic Leadership

I recently finished reading Authentic Leadership – Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value – by Bill George. I selected this book based on its appearance on Martha Heller’s blog posting entitled Leadership Books Recommended by CIOs and Technology Executives: http://blog.hellersearch.com/Blog/bid/124393/Leadership-Books-Recommended-by-CIOs-and-Technology-Executives . Authentic Leadership was recommended by both Paul Hanson and Dan Wakeman.

As best summarized by Bill: ”Its (the book) message is simple to state but challenging to realize: we need authentic leaders to run our organizations, leaders committed to stewardship of their assets and to making a difference in the lives of the people they serve.” The book is structured as follows:  ”First, I will describe authentic leaders and how they develop. Next, I will look at how authentic leaders build authentic companies, because that is the crux of leading. Third, I will show how authentic companies compete more effectively in the market, and, finally, how authentic leaders look beyond the bottom line.”

What sets this book apart is its call for authenticity in leadership (“discover and cultivate that authentic self”) – as opposed to being prescriptive, as is the case with most books in its category. Bill brings corporate America back to its root – authentic, genuine, worthy of trust, reliance, and belief. A highly recommended read that stresses the need for new leadership – authentic leadership!

Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- “We need authentic leaders, people of the highest integrity, committed to building enduring organizations. We need leaders who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their companies to meet the needs of all their stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of their service to society.”

2- “I believe that leadership begins and ends with authenticity. It’s being yourself; being the person you were created to be. This is not what most of the literature on leadership says, nor is it what the experts in corporate America teach…They describe the styles of leaders and suggest that you adopt them. This is the opposite of authenticity. It is about developing the image or persona of a leader.”

3- “There is no doubt that  CEOs have tremendous influence on the results of corporations. However, if we examine more closely the great success stories of the past twenty-five years…we see that each was built by a team at the top, not by a single person.”

4- “The key is having people around you who complement your weaknesses and make up for your lack of experience.”

5- “To become authentic, each of us has to develop our own leadership style, consistent with our personality and character. Unfortunately the pressures of an organization push us to adhere to its normative style. But if you conform to a style that is not consistent with who we are, we will never become authentic leaders.”

6- “Dimensions of Authentic Leaders: 1) Understanding their purpose 2) Practicing solid values 3) Leading with heart 4) Establishing connected relationship 5) Demonstrating self-discipline”

7- “The medium for developing into an authentic leader is not the destination but the journey itself – a journey to find your true self and the purpose of your life’s work.”

8- “…For each of the dimensions, a developmental quality is required for leaders to be effective: 1) Purpose: Passion 2) Values: Behavior 3) Heart: Compassion 4) Relationships: Connectedness 5) Self-Discipline: Consistency”

9- “Balanced leaders develop healthier organizations. By appropriately delegating their work, balanced leaders are able to make more thoughtful decisions and lead more effectively. Their employees make higher levels of commitment to the organization. In the end they achieve better results on the bottom line.”

10- “These five characteristics of the authentic company parallel closely the five dimensions of the authentic leader: 1) Purpose: Mission and vision 2) Values: Company values 3) Heart: Empowering employees to serve customers 4) Relationships: Enduring and committed organization 5) Self-Discipline: Results for all stakeholders”

11- “Articulating an organization’s value is straightforward, but gaining alignment of all employees throughout the company is much more difficult…Inculcating values throughout an organization starts with the leader, who sets the standard of behavior for everyone in the organization. The leader has to work hard every day to gain alignment with the company’s values, reinforcing positive actions and swiftly taking action with employees who do not emulate these values.”

12- “Companies that devote themselves to maximizing shareholder value will ultimately fail to do so. It is true that a sharp eye to cutting costs can result in significant improvements in a company’s short-term position, but unless the cost cuts are followed by  much larger long-term investments, the company is bound to lose its way. Shareholder value will stagnate and eventually decline.”

13- “Some executives mistakenly believe serving all stakeholders results in trade-offs and compromises shareholder value…In serving all the company’s stakeholders, the company’s sustained success makes shareholders the ultimate beneficiaries.”

14- “Pitfalls to Sustainable Growth: 1) Working without a clear mission 2) Underestimating the core business 3) Depending on a single product line 4) Failing to spot technology and market changes 5) Changing strategy without changing culture 6) Going outside core competencies 7) Counting on acquisitions for growth”

15- “(On Acquisitions)…The key is the integration process. Acquired companies can bring great creative and technical capabilities with them and challenge the existing organization to sharpen its innovative skills. They can also strengthen the management team with new talent and new approaches to serving customers. As the result of an effective process of integrating acquired companies, companies develop more enduring organizations.”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Authentic Leadership

On Delivering Happiness

I recently finished reading the book Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh. As the author best puts it “This book is not meant to be a comprehensive corporate history of Zappo or any of the previous business I’ve been involved in. It’s also not meant to be a complete autobiography…The purpose of this book is to give some of the highlights of the path that I took in my journey toward discovering how to find happiness in business and in life.”

The journey Tony takes the readers on is both very educational and exciting. Along the path, he shares great gems of wisdom that he has collected both on  from a personal basis and an organizational perspective. These include but are not limited to: management, leadership, following one’s passion, relationship building etc. His passion for vision, values and happiness radiates through and is very contagious and inspirational. Having personally experienced Zappos WOW experience, I can truly say that the material preached by the CEO is truly believed in and practiced throughout the organization. A highly recommended book!

Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- “One of the most interesting things about playing poker was learning the discipline of not confusing the right decision with the individual outcome of any single hand, but that’s what a lot of poker players do. If they win a hand, they assume they made the right bet, and if they lose a hand, they often assume they made the wrong bet. With the coin that lands on heads a third of the time, this would be like seeing the coin land on heads once (the individual outcome) and changing your behavior so you bet on heads, when the mathematically correct thing to do is to always bet on tails no matter what happened in the previous coin flip (the right decision).”

2- “We learned that we should never outsource our core competency. As an e-commerce company, we should have considered warehousing to be our core competency from the beginning. Outsourcing that to a third party and trusting that they would care about our customers as much as we would was one of our biggest mistakes. If we hadn’t reacted quickly, it would have eventually destroyed Zappos.”

3- “Looking back, a big reason we hit our goal early was that we decided to invest our time, money, and resources into three key areas: customer service (which would build our brand and drive word of mouth), culture (which would lead to the formation of our core values), and employee training and development (which would eventually lead to the creation of our Pipeline Team).”

4- “We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based on them. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want to build. You can let all of your employees be your brand ambassadors, not just the marketing or PR department. And they can be brand ambassadors both inside and outside the office.”

5- “The best leaders are those that lead by example and are both team followers as well as team leaders. We believe that in general, the best ideas and decisions are made from the bottom up, meaning by those on the front lines that are closest to the issues and/or the customers. The role of a manager is to remove obstacles and enable his/her direct reports to succeed. This means the best leaders are servant-leaders. They server those they lead.”

6- “While we celebrate our individual and team successes, we are not arrogant nor do we treat others differently from how we would want to be treated. Instead, we carry ourselves with quiet confidence, because we believe that in the long run our character will speak for itself.”

7- “Your personal core values define who you are, and a company’s core values ultimately define the company’s character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For ogranizations, culture is destiny.”

8- “Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).”

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Delivering Happiness

On Leadership is an Art

I recently finished reading Leadership is an Art by Max De Pree. As Max best puts it: “This book is about the art of leadership: liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible. It is not a book of facts or history. Though I like to tell stories, the book is not filled with anecdotes. Since it deals more with ideas and beliefs and relationships, it has to do with the “why” of institutional and corporate life rather than the “how”..Those results, however, are only a way to measure our resourcefulness at a point in time, mile markets on a long road. Why we get those results is more important. That’s what this book is about.”

The book is covers various leadership topics  such as communication, engagement, story telling etc. in a very concise and illustrated manner. Max adds a number of stories from his own experience at Herman Miller. This book forms a great leadership/management handbook, that should be kept at hand to server as a refresher and primer. As the author words it: “It will be worth a lot more to you if you finish it, if you have made it truly your own book.”

Below are selected excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:

1- “Any concept of work rises from an understanding of the relationship between pitchers and catchers alike…The right to be needed…The right to be involved…The right to a covenantal relationships…The right to understand…The right to affect one’s own destiny…The right to be accountable…The right to appeal…The right to make a commitment.”

2- “Roving leaders are those indispensable people in our lives who are there when we need them…Roving leadership is an issue-oriented idea. Roving leadership is the expression of the ability of hierarchical leaders to permit others to share ownership of problems – in effect, to take possession of a situation.”

3- “Just as any relationship requires honest and open communication to stay healthy, so the relationships within corporations improve when information is shared accurately and freely. The best way to communicate the basis of a corporation’s or institution’s common bonds and values is through behavior…What is good communication? What does it accomplish? It is a prerequisite for teaching and learning. It is the way people can bridge the gaps formed by a growing company, stay in touch, build trust, ask for help, monitor for performance, and share their vision. Communication clarifies the vision of participative ownership as a way of building relationships within and without the corporation.”

4- “Good communication liberates us to do our jobs better. It is a simple as that. Good corporate communication allows us to respond to the demands placed on us and to carry out our responsibilities. This really means, too, that leaders can use communication to free the people they lead. To liberate people, communication must be based on logic, compassion, and sound reasoning.”

5- “As a culture or a corporation grows older and more complex, the communications naturally and inevitably become more sophisticate and crucial. An increasingly large part that communication plays in expanding cultures is to pass along values to new members and reaffirm those values to old hands. A corporation’s values are its life’s blood. Without effective communication, actively practiced, without the art of scrutiny, those values will disappear in a sea of trivial memos and impertinent reports.”

6- “Performance reviews, done well, are a good way of re-examining goals, realigning principles and practices, and gauging progress. Everyone should do this. Reviewing performance should be done in a timely way, with the direct involvement of the person whose performance is being reviewed. Both the people and the process should be directed toward reaching human potential.”

7- “…While understanding is an essential part of organized activity, it just is not possible for everybody to know everything and understand everything. The following is essential: We must trust one another to be accountable for our own assignments. When that kind of trust is present, it is a beautifully liberating thing. “

Regards,

Omar Halabieh

Leadership is an Art