JACK MIXNER STRATEGY

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

Scenario planning requires that you examine totally outlandish possibilities.

How about this one? Hoover Dam's Lake Mead is pumped dry.

How will that effect your business?

Sceanario Planning is one solution, especially for capital intensive companies that need to plan farther in advance. Governmental entities also need to have a plan.

The Board of Directors requires management to identify unlikely events like running out of water and plan for them with strategies and action plans. Minimal investments are made. The plans along with some high-level activities, however, remain in place, ready for implementation when the need (like running out of water) arises.

Reference

Mixner, Jack. How Boards Assess Management's Strategy. 17 April 2007. http://mixnerstrategy.com/blog/2007/04/how_boards_assess_managements.html

Terdiman, Danial. A Dry Weather Crisis for Hoover Dam. New York Times. 23 July 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-13576_3-6198255.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185451437-FiCw9YK1OenDVxl9E1sMQQ

Posted by jackmixner at 04:09 AM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

In a book filled with outrageous suggestions for creating value in a professional services firm (and any other firm, for that matter) Peters lists his favorite books:

• True Professionalism. David Maister. Free Press. 1997.
• Managing the Professional Service Firm. David Maister. Maister & Associates.
• Ogilvy on Advertising. David Ogilvy. Crown. 1983.
• The McKinsey Way. Ethan M. Rasiel. McGraw-Hill. 1983. 
• Education the Refelective Practitioner. Donald A. Schon. Jossey-Bass. 1987.
• Hot Groups. Jean Lipman-Blumen and Harold J. Leavitt. Oxford University Press. 1999.
• Rain Making: The Professional's Guide to Attractin New Clients. Ford Harding. Adama Media. 1994.
• Finding the Winning Edge. Bill Walsh. Sports Publishing. 1998.

The Maister books and Hot Groups are quoted repeatedly.

Key Points:

• Be cool. Create cool organizations. Pick cool clients.
• Think client. Nothing else matters.
• Make every deal a big deal - or don't take it.
• Make changes - revolutions - in every deal.
• Your mission is important - to your company, and to your division, and yourself.

Reference

Peters, Tom. Reinventing Work The Professional Service Firm 50. Borzoi Book. 1999.

Posted by jackmixner at 04:26 PM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.    www.mixnerstrategy.com

How about a way to increase your stock price twenty-seven percent by pointing out the good things your company does like environmental responsibility, innovation, and employee training? UTC did precisely that and, indeed, increased its stock price (Engardio, 70).

Symptoms

1. You worry about your image only when things are going wrong.
2. PR focuses on your charity work or green initiatives.

Opportunities

1. Fix your problems first. Bad press? Don't hire PR. Look to causes.
2. Got a good story to tell? Figure out what it is and communicate the gradual changes to the press.
3. Consider the specifics of your good story before you begin your PR.

Southwest shifted its story from low price fares to extensive routes and schedules. Its share price is down 5% since the campaign began, yes. The industry, however, is down 15% (Engardio, 79). Correlation? You decide.

Reference

Engardio, Pete and Michael Arndt. What Price Reputation? Many savvy companies are starting to realize that a good name can be their most important asset-and actually boost the stock price. BusinessWeek. 9 & 16 July 2007. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_28/b4042050.htm?chan=search

Posted by jackmixner at 05:05 AM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.    www.mixnerstrategy.com

Are leaders born, or can you develop them with training? Your point of view on the question might actually be an indicator of your success as a leader (Heath).

Born leaders are static, unchanging, avoid challenges, don't try as hard, and are threatened by negative feedback. Trainable leaders believe intelligence can be developed, "like muscles (Heath, 62)". They test themselves more, accept criticism, and perceive hard work as a "path to mastery".

Now the key point. If you show your team the facts and intervene in their thinking, they will improve as leaders. A couple steps in the process:

1. Spend more time training your team than evaluating it.
2. Turn performance reviews in coaching sessions.

Help your team to believe that "Your brain is a muscle that can be developed over time. A baby gets smarter as it learns - so can you. Everything is hard before it gets easy - never give up because you don't master something immediately." 

Reference

Heath, Chip and Dan Heath. Made to Stick. Leadership is a Muscle. How is your attitude about your abilities affecting your success? Fast Company. July/August 2007. 62.  http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/column-made-to-stick.html

Posted by jackmixner at 04:35 AM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

We all know about Pac-Man's phenomenal success.

Here's what we didn't know:

1. Pac-Man was created to entice girls to play more video games, shifting Japanese game arcades and the whole game experience from the boy-dominated, dark, sinister war battles, to couples and girl-oriented games focused not on boyfriends or fashion but on - you guessed it - food and eating (Kelts, 110).
2. The creator of Pac-Man got, basically, nothing more than a job for his creation, something that would have been worth millions in the West. "You work for a company all your life in Japan (Kelts, 112)." They provide for you. That's the theory, any way, something that is changing.
3. Anime played a role: the ghosts (both evil and cute) were modeled on Obakeno QTaro, the famous anime ghost. You didn't control a tank or a car - you controlled a person. That was a first in video games.

Implications for Today

1. The Japanese government has realized that intellectual property (think Pac-Man or other electronics or software) creates value.
2. That value requires compensation. (Some creators have taken to suing their employers. The inventor of the blue laser received more than $100 million for his work when he sued after relocating to America.)
3. Intellectual property for engineered products can be a strategy. Sony dominates electronics because it dominated older manufacturers with new designs. Toyota and Honda dominated American manufacturers with engineering. That has been the point. All the products from Japan, until now, have been engineered, consumer products.
4. Now a new point: intellectual property for ideas can be a strategy as well. Japan has a huge investment in anime (sophisticated cartoons different than American favorites) that is exportable. Exports to date have not favored Japan: the American partner for Pokemon made millions for commercializing the idea - the Japanese received very little (Kelts, 108). That will change as Japanese animators and marketing companies gain confidence in the American market.
5. Innocuous creations like Hello Kitty seem valueless until you add up the many, many products launched using the icon. The branding technology of anime is exportable - and very, very profitable.

There is an opportunity for intellectual for ideas to exceed the value created in past waves of Japanese innovation. We say the Japanese can't innovate, that they'll never be as innovative as we are with movies and their tie-ins, for instance. Witness Star Wars and all its tie-ins. We forget that the hundred or so Star Wars characters are exceeded by the hundreds and hundreds of Pokemon characters. When Japanese animators attack on their own, without local representation, the ensuing battles will be fierce - and very profitable.

Reference

Kelts, Roland. Japanamerica How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invded the U. S. Palgrave Macmillan. 2006.

Posted by jackmixner at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

The Crazy Horse/Custer story has been re-told many times. When I found new research on Crazy Horse, I was dubious about if any new content was available, especially when I discovered a new, British writer who owned a bookshop. However, Bray is readable, and applicable to the discourse on strategy because he takes the time to summarize largely underutilized material from Crazy Horse's time. Over time, Crazy Horse evolved his strategy to meet changing threats from the US Army. For instance, he evolved a strategies for dealing with mounted horse calvaries early on. Then, recognizing that infantry was now in the field with a willingness to dig in and fight, not flee or become disorganized, he learned over the ten years or so of the Indian Wars, to concentrate his fire power to engage disciplined, massed troops.

Two key points:

• Crazy Horse stood off and watched battles, decided on where key involvement was necessary, and then led his warriors into battle himself. He waited until he understood the action and then focused on isolating troop units and then breaking them piecemeal (Bray, 209).
• Crazy Horse watched for the moment of "critical imbalance".

At Little Big Horn, he did not engage his own group in battle until almost two hours after the battle had begun, as it was not yet crucial that he be involved. He dawdled putting on his gear, driving even his closest braves to distraction. As Custer was trying to have an overwhelming victory by preventing women and children from leaving the area, Crazy Horse was able to focus on Custer's areas of greatest weakness. When he did engage, he led from the front and focused on troops at their "moment of critical imbalance".

The rout at Little Big Horn began, for instance, during a short period of time when troopers were trying to disengage, mount their horses, and move to consolidate two units that have been broken already. Keeping the units separate allowed Crazy Horse to focus on on group then the other with a smaller force than the summed units of the Army.

Is there a business tactic in there somewhere? One good one is to be patient until it is clear what your competitors are doing. Attack at the weak points. Pretty obvious, yes, but a forgotten step more and more in these times of instant response to every threat.

Reference

Bray, Kingsley M. Crazy Horse A Lakota Life. University of Oklahoma Press. 2006.

Posted by jackmixner at 04:59 PM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

A re-read of the history of the Enron scandal (Smith) points to some key ideas I'll be working with in my clients:

• Simple is better than complex, especially when it comes to finance.
• Too many layers of management makes accountability and clarity less possible.
• Redefining terms, especially on a balance sheet, makes no sense, ultimately.
• When finance drives the operation, pause to reflect if things are going correctly.
• In a stressed marketplace, stressed deals are likely to sour, quickly.
• Living for the next report to Wall Street is not a wonderful way to manage a company.

Reference

Smith, Rbecca and John R. Emshwiller. 24 Days. How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies That Destroyed Faith in Corporate America. HarperBusiness. 2003.

Posted by jackmixner at 04:28 PM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

Six buttons to push when trying to create buzz for your product (Hughes, 29):

1. Push the taboo button to start conversations
2. Push the unusual button to start conversations
3. Push the outrageous button to start conversations
4. Push the hilarious button to start conversations
5. Push the remarkable button to start conversations
6. Push the secrets button to start conversations.

Apple just finished the ramp-up for the launch of their new iPhone. Let's see how they did it.

1. They made it secret - no one could touch one until June 29, the launch date.
2. They made it unusual - it has features that other phones and appliances have, just not all in one place like the iPhone.
3. They made it outrageous in its own way - the price is three or four times higher that other similar phones, without the likelihood of reduced pricing anytime soon.

Remarkable? Let's count the ways.

1. One, you can get it only in two places, Apple stores, and AT&T stores.
2. You had to wait.
3. The screen is absolutely different from anything else on the market.
4. Early on, the Asian competitors weren't worried. After launch, they realized Apple might have something. The list goes on.
5. No one knew what the components in the phone were til the launch.
6. Stock prices of most suppliers jumped when people tore their phones apart and announced the content list of chips and electronics.
7. And funny? Well, a lot of people camped out to be first in line to buy a phone. But the experience binds folks closer to their phones.

What did Apple miss?

• Not much taboo in the launch story. That's not the Apple way. Probably, of the whole list, I'll stay away from it as well.

Interesting success story. It will be fun to watch how it all plays out over time.

Reference

Hughes, Mark. Buzzmarketing. Get People to Talk About Your Stuff. Portfolio. 2005.

Posted by jackmixner at 03:42 PM | Permalink

Copyright Jack Mixner.     714 449 1040.     www.mixnerstrategy.com

Race is a tough topic. Racism may be tougher.

Jimmy Carter tells about the time the folks in his neighborhood in Plains, Georgia shared the Carter family radio (it was 1938 and not many people in poor Plains had radios) to listen to the Joe Louis Max/Schmeling heavyweight boxing championship fight. Schmeling had plenty of support among local whites, even during the run-up to World War II. The black locals listened to the radio, holding their cheers for their favorite, Joe Louis. After the fight, they walked away silently to go home and celebrate - and party 'til dawn - Louis' victory behind their closed doors.

Fussman (168) addresses racism in America after Jackie Robinson in clear, uncomfortable, terms.

Makes you wonder what you could do, today, to help things along.

Reference

Fussman, Cal. After Jackie. Pride, Prejudice, and Baseball's Forgotten Heroes: An Oral History. ESPN Books. 2007.

Posted by jackmixner at 03:16 PM | Permalink