Recently, we performed one of these exercises with the employees of one of our clients as part of the overall planning process for 2009. With the goal of finding the smartest and fastest way to do things, we asked what irritates employees about their jobs. What we heard back were ideas of how to get better efficiencies from existing processes, thoughts on the inadequacy of training, input about how systems could be used better, and feedback heard from their customers about the company’s performance.

Keep in mind that these opinions were from employees who have a perspective unique from that of the CEO or upper-level executives. All of the answers you get will not be 100% perfect or accurate. But where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire. Your employees may be describing only a symptom of the problem, but you may reach the root cause with more digging and thinking.

The recession most certainly will threaten the revenue line. But by working smarter—not just harder—you can control the cost line to absorb some of the impact without carving apart your workforce.

Please read this related post by William Taylor , co-author of Mavericks at Work, which we reviewed in an earlier issue of Trekking.

The firm had been very successful. But the two partners had been living too much in the present and had not really thought about the business having an exit value. We met through a mutual acquaintance in banking, and our firm was engaged in early 1999 to help them think about how to build the company in size and value. After working with us, the firm doubled in size within a year and then was finally sold a couple of years after that.

Thus began two strong threads in our practice that continue to this day. The first is building value and growth for private companies. The second is using intangible assets to drive tangible results. These threads are probably familiar to you if you have been a subscriber to Trekking for a while.

As often happens in knowledge businesses, each of our partners began to specialize. Michael has done more and more work as a consultant and coach to private business owners. He is also one of the founders of the highly successful Exit Planning Exchange, an organization whose goal is to better prepare advisors to help owner-managed businesses plan for successful exit. Mary has focused on helping our clients to measure, manage and monetize their intellectual capital. She has helped found an informational website and has developed a world-wide following through her blogs and networking.

Today, we as entrepreneurs are facing the same challenging economy that you face in your own business. Over the summer, we encouraged our readers to prepare for this coming down cycle. We also told the story of a business that made changes during the last downturn that prepared it for a new and better level of performance coming out of the recession.

After a number of conversations, we decided to take our own advice. To make it easier for each of us to continue to develop in our chosen specialty, we have decided that now is the right time to spin off our intellectual capital practice into a separate company.

Although we will each own shares in both companies, Michael will lead Trek Consulting and focus on the growth, sustainability and transferability of privately-held companies. Visit Trek’s website www.trekconsulting.com.

Our new company, Intellectual Capital Advisors, will be led by Mary and will be focused on helping companies innovate and grow through effective intangibles management. Visit ICA’s new website www.i-capitaladvisors.com.

We believe that these changes will enable us to tell our story more effectively in the marketplace and to help our clients with two key trends that will survive the current economic challenges—the need for baby boomers to monetize their business ownership and the need for all companies to be more effective in managing the knowledge assets that will drive the next wave of growth in our economy.

This isn’t a goodbye. It’s an invitation to continue joining us on a trek to an unknown but (we think), promising future. We look forward to trekking with you for many years to come.   2008

-Mary Adams  2007

When we met him, Peter was discouraged. He wanted out of his company. His financials still looked strong, but he had lost some key clients. The company’s largest client was threatening to leave and was questioning all the work they had done in recent years. Peter’s team was equally tired of the big client. But Peter couldn’t even think about firing them.

He spent the entire first meeting with us talking about all the other ideas he had for new products and new businesses. As he talked about these new ventures, he became excited. His face lit up. He had us totally engrossed in these amazing ideas (which he had already started to launch—an issue in itself). But when we brought the conversation back to his existing company, his shoulders slumped back down. He became a different person, already defeated.

Over the course of the next several months, Peter and his team did many things. They didn’t fire the giant client, but they did work on their internal team—adding and subtracting in key places. They spent time listening to customers, ex-customers and industry leaders. They took a fresh look at their industry, their business and, most of all, their intellectual capital. They came to understand that their company had unique strengths that many in the industry valued very highly.

Armed with this new knowledge, the company went back out to the market with a new message and a renewed sense of confidence. They won new clients. They just about doubled their billing rates for most of their people. They received more and more attention in the industry, which of course led to more business. They didn’t rely on the economy to fuel their recovery—they built it from their own strengths.    Mary Adams   2007

Once you have a good understanding of what you “know”, you then have to decide where and when to give it away and where and when to charge for it. Here are some questions to ask about your company that will help you decide:

• What do people really value about us?
• What are we really getting paid for?
• Are we charging at the right point in the value chain?
• Is there a different way to get paid for our intangibles?
• What can we give away that will show what we have and leave people wanting more?

- Michael Oleksak  2007

This particular assignment involved a company that had grown rapidly. Its tangible and intangible infrastructure was maxed out—they had outgrown both their facility and their systems. Tensions were running high and some people had reached the breaking point and left the company.

The physical challenges were the easiest. The search and move to a new site took, from beginning to end, seven months. With more space, they had room to do what they needed to do. There wasn’t a lot of adjustment needed.

But the intangible infrastructure was harder to change. Even though the systems (software, hardware and business processes) did not meet the needs of the business, they were familiar. And nobody wanted to change when the company continued to operate (thankfully) at higher and higher revenue levels—certainly not an over-taxed staff that already had too much to do. But it was the correct decision.

It was only later, after we had nearly reached the end of the assignment, when we came up with the train analogy. But in retrospect, we realized that it was a good description of what we had helped them do—replace their systems bit by bit, one car at a time. It was never a drastic enough change to necessitate stopping the train, but significant enough that (when it was all over) there were new buildings, software and processes to replace the old ones. The new changes meant the train was prepared to handle an even faster speed going forward. -  Mary Adams  2007

We are off to a good start. Posts to date have touched on topics such as:

• The writer’s strike and the value of intangible rights
• Innovation and intangibles
• Intangibles and the stock market

You can visit the blog at www.hybridvigor.net, or you can subscribe to the blog via RSS and receive a copy every time there is a new posting. If you want to know how to do this, let us know.  2007

His solution is what he calls “management innovation,” a way of breaking out of old thinking and trying new things. The heart of the book reads like so many innovation books today—challenge current thinking, put in place a process to nurture innovation, and learn from new sources. He includes many stories of managers and leaders that have broken out of the industrial paradigm, but the result is somehow unsatisfying.

Hamel declined to offer suggestions on what the future of management really looks like. While he is right that it is hard to see into the future, all his thinking about how to break out of the old approaches surely gave him some hints about the future. It would have been nice for him to show us his hand.

He is also blogging about the book. Too often, these kinds of blogs just contain excerpts, but in this one, there are some fun contributions by other writers.

Here’s a valuable book if you are a CEO, member of senior management, or an HR Director responsible for staffing your firm with knowledge workers over the next ten years.

The aging (and likely retiring) demographic of the baby boomers is a much discussed topic among business. Many aging workers carry key knowledge about the business and industry and may be headed out the door. Some companies protect themselves by retaining retirees as consultants, setting up alumni networks, and looking to re-hire former employees who left on good terms.

Workforce Crisis also delves into the challenges of attracting and retaining mid-career workers and young workers. Each group has its own wants, needs and priorities. So the book makes it clear that for a business to keep each group engaged and motivated, it may need to adopt flexible hours and schedules for work/life balance as well as training and career development and compensation programs based on the priorities of each group.

The book makes the case that if these potential workers don’t get what they need from you, they’ll get it from your competitor, and you’ll experience a workforce crisis of your own.

Read more about this book at Harvard Business Online. ]]> http://trekconsulting.com/2009/11/22/reading-list-workforce-crisis-how-to-beat-the-coming-shortage-of-skills-and-talent-by-ken-dychtwald-tamara-erickson-and-robert-morison/feed/ 0