JACK MIXNER STRATEGY

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My friends sometimes suggest topics for reading. A few years ago, David Gentry and I discussed his views on melding success with significance for a balanced life. Feyzi Fatehi and I were discussing Jim Collins' Good to Great. Feyzi suggested a successor that he felt was more important, Porras' Success Built to Last. You'll remember that Built to Last was written by Porras and Collins. Now Porras has his follow-on tome. They talked to two hundred (at least) leaders over ten years of consulting all over the world. You have to watch carefully to make sure you pick which leader they're talking about on any given page. Once you figure it out, it works. So what's useful? Porras et al prescribe a methodology - themes really - to approach success based on their interviews. The themes: Meaning, ThoughtStyles, and ActionStyles.

Meaning focuses on passion. Love your work - have passion for it - and prosper. Work may in fact be the wrong word. It sure seems like the folks who love their work don't really feel like they're working. Warren Buffet shows up ready to play, every day. He's loving it. The passion is real.

ThoughtStyles takes it a step further. Be active in what you love, or commit suicide. That's what one example contemplated. Luckily, love won out. The focus was on realizing that a life wasted was the equivalent of suicide and, if you're going to live it, make it worth while. Courage is a big word. Realize you're in the wrong deal and have the courage to do something about it. A little bit different spin on the word courage. Now comes charisma. It shows through when you take the risk to rise above your fears and do what you are passionate about. The founders of Southwest Airlines got mad about expensive air travel and decided to fix it while having fun (Porras, 113). Fun had to wait, however, while they battled the entrenched competitors to receive a license to fly. Battles first, then fun. Expertise matters to find your way, but, ultimately the story isn't about you and your expertise. It is about the target of your passion. Teachers focus on helping poor kids at their risk. Everyone knows disadvantaged kids are impossible to spur to success - aren't they? Wrong. Passion in the teacher to make up for the lack of advantages to make success happen (Porras, 123).

Finally, ActionStyles comes next. Big goals are important. You've got to remember, Porras and Collins created BHAGS - Big Hairy Audacious Goals. How are the goals chosen - when and how, as well? Those are the questions. I feel better having read this section. If you've been reading my blog and newsletter for a while, you have to have wondered just how I chose my books. Serendipity plays a good part of it. I see an article, find out about an author mentioned in it, and off I go. Or, and this is even more serendipitous, I check-out one of the new books at the library with no knowledge of the topic or author. Successful ActionStyles folks chose a direction and discover things without a real intent. They find out things they hadn't expected to find out. Those things, connected with BHAGs, help breed success. Here's and interesting quote: "Much has been said about the need for leaders to be authentic, but Builders will tell you to be careful about what that means. Your BHAG must be 'real,' but the world doesn't want to know everything you're thinking (Porras, 170)." Have a goal. Go after it serendipitously. Keep quiet about the whys and hows. But have a real BHAG. That's easy.

Porras, Jerry, Stewart Emery and Mark Thompson. Success Built to Last. Wharton School Publishing. 2006.

Posted by jackmixner at 07:05 AM | Permalink

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Three symptoms of a converging world: there is ample band-width, worldwide, there are enough platforms, again, worldwide, and finally, there is interest in local folks to utilize applications freely available on the web to manage workflow remotely. Word, Outlook, Netmeeting, 3D Studio MAX and, especially, Google, allowed game developers to thrive in India (Friedman, 219). It started in simple things like medical records and tax returns. It's going to game production. Ultimately, and this is the interesting part, the focus is shifting back to India, to games for the Indian market, made by extremely competent engineers - Indian engineers - for the Indian market.

Let's have a little fun with future convergence, a pair of words I just made up. The computer I am working on was assembled in China from parts probably sourced in, at least, China, Taiwan, Japan, and the US. When I had a complaint, early on, it was handled by a call center in India. They were nice, they spoke may language, and I didn't have to raise my voice to get what I wanted.

Let's just suppose, however, that China wanted to, finally, absorb Taiwan (Friedman, 586). Are they likely to do that, given all the profit motives that exist for them to co-exist? What about the conflicts between China and India? Same story as China and Taiwan? How about the US and China? All these ties based on trade make it less likely that threats will turn ugly. What will really happen? Can't tell yet. Ultimately, politics may trump business and personal relations. The odds of this go down as long as we are all playing on a level playing field. Make the rules universal and everyone will follow the rules. That's the theory. Let's see how it plays out.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2007.

Posted by jackmixner at 02:28 PM | Permalink

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Long term goals at Berkshire Hathaway are just that, long term goals (Berkshire):

1. Maintaining financial position with its excess liquidity, modest near-term obligations, dozens of sources of earnings and cash.
2. Widening "moats" around operating businesses for durable competitive advantage
3. Acquiring and developing new and varied streams of earnings
4. Expanding and nurturing the cadre of outstanding operating managers.

That's the list. Finance. Competitiveness. Earnings. Managers. Not a bad list.

Of course, Warren Buffet still puts in his two cents. At the end of the letter, he exhorts attendees at the shareholders meeting (Berkshire shareholders' meetings have a country fair-like feel. They're held in a big arena with a trade show of Bershire companies in the convention center next door.) to buy lots of stuff made by Berkshire companies. "Make your neighbors jealous." There's a goal.

Reference

Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2008ar/2008ar.pdf

Posted by jackmixner at 01:42 PM | Permalink