StrategyDriven Launches Operational Risk Management Resource Forum

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StrategyDriven is proud to announce the launch of a risk management resource forum; providing innovative thought leadership and collaboration opportunities to help leaders effectively address their most pressing operational risks.
 
 
StrategyDriven Risk Management Resource ForumAfter seeing the devastation from the Texas fertilizer plant and Louisiana chemical plant explosions, StrategyDriven wanted to help industrial and utility leaders better identify, mitigate, and control their operational risks to prevent similar accidents from occurring at their facilities.

“The unfortunate reality is that industrial accidents are increasingly likely in a world challenged to produce more, faster, and with fewer resources while also dealing with the significant loss of operating experience resulting from the retirement of baby boomers,” explains Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “To help clients combat these risks, StrategyDriven advisors, applying decades of nuclear and high-risk industrial operations experience, authored a library of operational risk management tools easily accessible from our online risk management forum.”

Developed by highly experienced nuclear and industrial complex leaders, StrategyDriven‘s risk management resource forum provides actionable methods and tools executives and managers can use to identify, assess, prioritize, monitor, mitigate, and control their operational risks. Thought leadership items contained within the forum focus on topics such as:

  • Operational Risk Quantification – identification of unique risk index values associated with potentially adverse events enabling prioritization of their mitigators relative to the organization’s portfolio of operational activities and strategic initiatives
  • Integrated Enterprise Risk Assurance Mapping – visualization of the relationships between enterprise risks and their associated processes while concurrently revealing the degree of oversight applied to these processes
  • High-Risk Decision Management – identification, selection, and implementation of action plans to address strategically important and operationally hazardous circumstances, the outcomes of which impact the safety and reliability of employees and assets

The risk management forum’s thought leadership documents are being distributed to StrategyDriven‘s clients, including some of the world’s largest utility operators. These documents can be accessed by clicking here.

Risk Management Warning Flag 1 – Unadjusted Resourcing of Risk Monitoring Activities

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Warning Flag ArticleMajor projects typically add significant operational, financial, reputational, and regulatory risk to an organization’s overall risk profile. This project risk may by itself exceed the normal level of organizational risk leaders are accustomed to dealing with. Consequently, these strategic projects demand the implementation of risk identification, monitoring, mitigation, and control activities. These risk management activities, however, are often unaccounted for in the project’s budget and instead draw resources away from the organization’s other risk management efforts; diminishing the business’s overall ability to effectively manage its other risks.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Who is taking responsibility around here? Nobody!

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With all the dumb laws on the books these days, you’d think they’d have one smart one for taking responsibility.

Wouldn’t it be cool if every politician wasn’t allowed to blame anybody else, and had to take full responsibility for their own actions and results?

Well, the same is true in sales.

I’m pretty sick of salespeople still telling me, “the guy said he wasn’t interested” and “the guy is happy with his present supplier” and “the guy won’t set an appointment with me” and, my all-time favorite, “the guy wouldn’t return my call.”

As you read those excuses, they seem kind of lame don’t they? Wait! Are they lame? Or are they pathetic excuses for poor salesmanship, poor preparation, lack of ability to transfer a passionate message, lack of belief in your own product or company, lack of perceived value, inability to differentiate yourself from your competitor, and most important, lack of proof?

Whether you’re in politics or sales, the burden is the same: take responsibility for all that happens. And if it’s not happening in the best way possible, take responsibility to make it happen in a better way.

It’s funny how you can picture responsibility and blame in terms of a politician. I mean, come on! Can you imagine a politician saying, “The bill didn’t pass and it was all my fault.” Could you ever imagine that in your lifetime?

That’s why I want taking responsibility to be a law. If it was a law, everyone would be forced to tell the truth, admit their shortcomings, and go back into the battleground and return with a winning result. Politicians included.

Aren’t you sick of blaming? Aren’t you sick of politicians blaming each other ad nauseam for what the other guy didn’t do? Isn’t there a biblical phrase that begins, “Let he who was without sin cast the first stone?” I think if it were law, there would be a lot less stone casting, and a lot more people taking responsibility to make something happen.

Let’s get back to the objection of not getting your call returned. When I hear a salesperson say, “The guy wouldn’t return my call,” I really want to punch somebody in the face (gently, of course).

Let’s take a look at the real reasons someone won’t return your call to help you understand the difference between blaming and taking responsibility:

1. The message you left had no value.
2. The customer has no intention of buying from you and just doesn’t want to tell you.
3. The customer is not ready to buy yet and was too busy with their stuff to deal with you and your stuff.
4. The customer does not consider you a value provider, and is out there looking for one.
5. The customer does not perceive you as being genuine.
6. You are unaware of the customer’s motive to buy, and as a result have a hard time perceiving what their urgency is. Better stated: you don’t know why or when they intend to purchase.
7. The customer is still shopping.
8. You failed to connect emotionally or intellectually with the customer, and they would rather not do business with you.
9. You failed to offer enough proof to eliminate risk and create peace of mind.
9.5 The customer has decided to buy from someone else and feels no sense of obligation to inform you of their decision.

Those are accurate descriptions of some of the real reasons why. “The guy would not return my call” is not a problem. It’s a symptom. ‘Why’ the guy would not return my call is the issue. If I can find out why, and correct it, then more if not all of my calls will begin to be returned.

Wow! What a concept.

Here are three new ways of thinking:

  • I’m going to uncover my customer’s intentions and motives for purchase.
  • I’m going to share with him or her how they produce more and profit more after purchase.
  • I’m going to bring in several of our existing customers who will do video testimonials to corroborate my claims.

A ‘taking responsibility’ law could revolutionize this country. Can you imagine a politician actually having to tell the truth instead of blaming something or someone else?

For the past 100 years, it’s been the same sales. Salespeople and sales trainers conveniently called reasons for not buying, or not communicating, ‘objections,’ thereby shifting the blame to the customer.

HERE’S THE REALITY: There are no objections.

There are barriers. There are symptoms. There are circumstances. But there are no objections. And all of those barriers, symptoms, and circumstances would disappear if the salesperson takes responsibility, studies the outcome, and implements a better way.

Or you can just blame and whine.
Like a politician.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The Big Picture of Business: Yesterdayism… Learning from the Past, Planning for the Future.

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Whether it is a public company or not, every business should fashion an Annual Report. Even if it is a client letter, this gesture celebrates the year, as basis for helping business people to prepare for the future.

People are interesting combinations of the old, the new, the tried and the true. Individuals and organizations are more resilient than they tend to believe. They’ve changed more than they wish to acknowledge. They embrace innovations, while keeping the best traditions.

When one reflects at changes, he/she sees directions for the future. Change is innovative. Customs come and go… some should pass and others might well have stayed with us.

There’s nothing more permanent than change. For everything that changes, many things stay the same. The quest of life is to interpret and adapt that mixture of the old and new. People who fight change have really changed more than they think.

The past is an excellent barometer for the future. I call that Yesterdayism. One can always learn from the past, dust it off and reapply it. Living in the past is not good, nor is living in the present without wisdom of the past.

Trends come and go… the latest is not necessarily the best. Some of the old ways really work better… and should not be dismissed just because they are old or some fashionable trend of the moment looks better.

When we see how far we have come, it gives further direction for the future. Ideas make the future happen. Technology is but one tool of the trade. Futurism is about people, ideas and societal evolution, not fads and gimmicks. The marketplace tells us what they want, if we listen carefully. We also have an obligation to give them what they need.

In olden times, people learned to improvise and ‘make do.’ In modern times of instantaneous disposability, we must remember the practicalities and flexibilities of the simple things and concepts.

Things which Made Comebacks…
Ceiling fans. The jitterbug and swing music. Hardwood floors. Stained glass.

Things the Economy Has Exempted…
Penny arcades. Five-and-dime stores. Full-service gas stations. Free car washes at gas stations. Towels in boxes of detergent. Mom-and-pop stores. S&H Green Stamps and other redemption programs.

Things which the Marketplace Has Eclipsed…

  • Ice delivered in blocks via a horse-driven carriage by the ice man
  • Milk delivered in bottles via a horse-driven carriage by the milk man
  • Going downtown to do all of your shopping
  • Drive-in movies
  • Stores closed on Sundays

The Old Became the New Again…
The original speed for phonograph records, as invented in 1888, was 78-RPM, which engineers determined to be the most ideal for sound quality. In the 1940s, technology brought us the 45-RPM and 33-1/3-RPM records… adding up to the “mother speed” of 78-RPM. The 1980s brought us compact discs, which play at a speed of 78-RPM.

Station wagons of the 1950s went out of style. They came back in the 1980s as sport utility vehicles.

Midwives were widely utilized in previous centuries. In modern times, alternative health care concepts and practitioners have been embraced by all sectors of society. Herbal ingredients and home remedies have gained popularity, and cottage industries support them.

Telephone party lines went out of style in the 1920s. They came back in the 1990s as internet chat rooms.

Corporations have become extended families, thus embracing dysfunctionality, changes, modifications and learning curves.

Schools started out as full-scope community centers. As the years passed, academic programs grew and became more specialized, covering many vital subject areas. Today, with parents and communities severely neglecting children and their life-skills education, schools have evolved back to being full-scope community centers.

7 Levels of Yesterdayism… Learning from the Past… Sources of Insights:

  1. Think They’ve Been There… Haven’t Yet Fully Learned from It.
  2. Saw It Happen… Understand It.
  3. Participated In It.
  4. Been There… Learned from It.
  5. Teach, Understand and Interpret It.
  6. Innovated It… and Teach You Why.
  7. Innovative Then and Now… Still Creating.

7 Applications for Yesterdayism… How to Shape the Past Into the Future:

  1. Re-Reading…Reviewing… Finding New Nuggets in Old Files.
  2. Applying Pop Culture to Today.
  3. Review case studies and their patterns for repeating themselves.
  4. Discern the differences between trends and fads.
  5. Learn from successes… and three times more from failures.
  6. Transition your organization from information down the branches to knowledge.
  7. Apply thinking processes to be truly innovative.

Apply History to Yourself. The past repeats itself. History is not something boring that you once studied in school. It tracks both vision and blindspots for human beings. History can be a wise mentor and help you to avoid making critical mistakes.

7 Kinds of Reunions… obtaining perspective:

  1. Pleasurable. Seeing an old friend who has done well, moved in a new direction and is genuinely happy to see you too. These include chance meetings, reasons to reconnect and a concerted effort by one party to stay in the loop.
  2. Painful. Talking to someone who has not moved forward. It’s like the conversation you had with them 15 years ago simply resumed. They talk only about past matters and don’t want to hear what you’re doing now. These include people with whom you once worked, old romances, former neighbors, networkers who keep turning up like bad pennies and colleagues from another day and time.
  3. Mandated. Meetings, receptions, etc. Sometimes, they’re pleasurable, such as retirement parties, open houses, community service functions. Other times, they’re painful, such as funerals or attending a bankruptcy creditors’ meeting.
  4. Instructional. See what has progressed and who have changed. Hear the success stories. High school reunions fit into this category…their value depending upon the mindset you take with you to the occasion.
  5. Reflect Upon the Past. Reconnecting with old friends, former colleagues and citizens for whom you have great respect. This is an excellent way to share each other’s progress and give understanding for courses of choice.
  6. Benchmarking. Good opportunities to compare successes, case studies, methodologies, learning curves and insights. When “the best” connects with “the best,” this is highly energizing.
  7. Goal Inspiring. The synergy of your present and theirs inspires the future. Good thinkers are rare…stay in contact with those whom you know, admire and respect. It will benefit all involved.

About the Author

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flameis now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

When in the Course of human events… a nation was born

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When in the Course of human events... a nation was born
 
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
 
The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America
July 4, 1776
 
 
On July 4, 1776, fifty-six individuals boldly signed what became one of the most revered statements of human rights the world has ever known, The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. In that moment, the American republic was born.

Freedom is not without cost. Indeed, to conclude their assertion of freedom from the British Crown, the American Founders solemnly pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. And each and every day since declaring independence, brave Americans have sacrificed both blood and treasure to secure the blessings of freedom for themselves, their children, and their fellow citizens within the global community.

On this Fourth of July, the StrategyDriven family gives thanks for the freedom that allows us to share our thoughts and beliefs with you and for those who have and continue to provide that freedom.

Happy Birthday, America! With best wishes for many, many more to come.

All the Best,
Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal
Nathan Ives
President and CEO
StrategyDriven