How to protect your business from the Virus!

What can you do to protect some of your most valuable assets.....your firm, your employees, your family and more? 

Here is a collection of suggestions and resources that you might find valuable. 
Including how to protect employees.....your company......your customers.....your shareholders

Read more  Here 

       Steve Brody
     Brody & Associates 

What Focus Really Means!!

Read lessons from Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Steve Jobs.  When asked about the keys to their success......response was emphasizing a singular focus to major goals in their life.

For Gates it was his singular drive to master the computer world and its uses.
For Buffet it was his dream as a kid, to get rich by focusing on the right investment choices.
For Jobs, it was the discipline to learn how to say NO to most things and only move forward with a select few!

Some strong insights here.......Read more   

Hope you find it valuable.

     Steve Brody
     Brody & Associates

Use the rule of 3 to focus!!

The US Marines have used a simple principle for many years to focus & improve performance & productivity.   It is called the  Rule of 3 

The results have been something short of phenomenal.  The ability to focus.....to set priorities.....to remember a short list.....and improve productivity have been impressive. 

Read more about this  Here

You might just try it in your organization plus your life.

Hope it is valuable!! 

     Steve Brody

A Lesson in Emotional Intelligence

Jeff Bezos at Amazon showed how to effectively use Emotional Intelligence.  Amazon is long known for a focus on Innovation......but not every project succeeds.

Look at how he treated a recent failure to incentivize learning and growth.

Lessons everyone can learn!!

Read more at  Here 

Hope you find it valuable.

    Steve Brody

When Apple lost $10 B.....what it means to you

Apple lost $10 Billion in market value in 2011, after they announced Steve Jobs retirement. 
What could this possibly mean to you?  A privately held firm. 

It's all about a firm being.....Owner Dependent.    Business value can be very fragile.....how dependent on you, is your firm?    What can you do to avoid yours dropping? 

Read more here

Hope you find this valuable

     Steve Brody 

   CEO Coach
   NAVIX  Exit Planner
   Strategic Planning facilitator 

Micromanaging is not managing at all!!

 Micromanaging is actually a sign of weak management.  So what is your leadership style?

Some key considerations are:

  -  It destroys your focus

  - Forget about others taking ownership

  - If it is them.....it's still up to you

  - Get over yourself

  - Delegate don't abdicate

  - Slow down   

The above is easier said than done....but pay attention to the consequences   



      Read more at: https://bit.ly/2OQntVp   

Hope you find it valuable
 
      Steve Brody
     Brody & Associates

The Recession is coming....The Recession is coming!!

But when will it arrive?  And which expert or economist will you listen to this time around? 
It has been said the forecasters have predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions. 

So what will be the impact on your firm or your plans?   It just might effect how you think about the timing and impact of considering that Exit Plan you have been keeping in mind. 

Read more about the key elements from one of the top Exit Planning firms in the U.S.
Navix Consultants has some valuable insights shown  here   

Hope you find it valuable. 

     Steve Brody
     Brody & Associates 

Importance of First Impressions

   It’s not right.  It’s not fair.  But we are often judged by others on the basis of very little real information about who we really are.  (Truth be told, we do the same to others. )  

Sadly, life is a first impression business, but we can influence how others judge us. Harvard Business School professor Dr. Amy Cuddy has been studying  first impressions for over 15 years and her data suggests that when people meet us, they quickly draw two conclusions that will impact our future relationships with them.  This brief article from Business Insider shares what they are and her book, “Presence”  offers a more detailed guide to succeeding in life’s first impression business.  These videos by Dr. Cuddy are also worth watching before that next important meeting.

She puts a focus on two important questions:

   Can I trust this person? 

   Can I respect this person?   

These areas deal with  warmth & competence respectively.  

Dr Cuddy generates an interesting theme:  

  It is not.....fake it till you make it

But rather...... Fake it till you become it!!

Worth your time to look into the above. 



      Steve Brody

      Brody & Associates     

More to look forward to after peaking professionally!

There's more to look forward to......science shows we hit our peak professionally sooner than we think. 

There are two kinds of intelligence we use. 

  1.  We start relying on fluid intelligence.  This uses analytic speed, our ability to figure things out.
       But it starts declining rapidly in our 30s and after.

  2.  Intelligence going up is called crystallized intelligence.  The library you accumulate mentally.
      The ability to use wisdom and it increases thru your 40s....50s.....60s

So what should we do?   Try by starting to be an instructor.  One who synthesizes ideas, express them in new & interesting ways that others can understand.   

   Read more Here   from NPR 

Can you apply the lessons learned along the way? 

Hope you find this valuable. 

     Steve Brody 

How to move fast...Innovation at Speed & Scale

What can medium to large firms learn from the speed of Startups regarding Innovation quickly, and with scale?    An interesting article from McKinsey deals with the following elements:

  - Speed comes from urgency.....a lack of capital

  - Push Decision making down to the local level

  - Use Agility or the Agile concept used by Tech firms

  - Streamline the processes

  - Create partnerships along the way for efficiency 


Read more about these concepts  Here 

Hope you find it valuable

    Steve Brody 

How winning organizations last 100 Yrs!!

The average S&P 500 firm is down 80% to just 15 yrs. How so? Read more at https://bit.ly/2N3jgsR Harvard Business.org

Their focus is on getting better.....not bigger plus how to shape society. They are radically traditional but with a disruptive edge.

Hope you find this valuable.

Steve Brody

Are you a Lifelong Learner?

Honored to receive my Vistage 20 Yr recognition crystal at the last Chair mtg.

 It has been quite a journey of continued learning, personal & professional growth, & involvement with talented CEOs & Executives. More to come......


              

Recently, someone shared with me an interview with the late, great, author & Professor.....Peter Drucker.  He was asked about the numerous books he had written over the years.  The question to him was  "which was his favorite."   

In typical Drucker form, he replied "it will be the next one."    And he was just about 90 at the time.
Certainly an example of the LIFELONG LEARNER & THINKER!!

So what is your favorite accomplishment?  or Greatest lesson?  Or greatest firm you have lead? 
And where will it go next?     Importantly.......what would your people say?  

Food for thought.     Hope it is valuable

    Steve Brody  

17 Quotes from Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Jeff Bezos has been in the news quite a bit lately. 

Here are 17 Quotes from him.....  Read here

One is.....if you can't tolerate critics......then don't do anything new or interesting!!

  Hope you enjoy

     Steve Brody

3 Skills to Help Win in 2019

These are:    focus....agility.....self-evaluation

Are you prepared to develop these to move forward in 2019? 

Read more  Here 


         Hope you find it valuable!

    Steve Brody 

The 1 Brutal Question every Leader needs to Answer!!

What is the 1 Brutal Question every Leader needs to Answer?  


It is about Prioritization.....it sounds like such a simple thing.  Doesn't it? 
But true prioritization starts with a very difficult question to answer......

   If you could only do one thing......what would it be?    The art of focus 

Steve Jobs talked about this at Apple and turned Priority into their Focus. 

Read more about it   HERE   

Hope you find it valuable.   

5 Top Tips After the Sale

What  Happens  After  the  Sale 

5  Top  Tips

1.     Assemble your Resource team

Experts to include:  CPA, Attorney, Wealth Advisor, Banker, Coach   

 

2.    Clarify the Governance terms

Definition of restrictions, authority (if stay) , Employment contract, Non-compete, etc 

3.      Take a personal  retreat – time for reflection  

4.    Establish a new routine…..find an office

5.    Discover your passions 

Resource reading…..Finishing Well,  Bob Buford

                                    Your retirement quest,  Keith Lawrence

   See more info at  Naviond.com

Answer this simple interview question to predict success!!

A Starbucks former HR Exec says a job candidate's answer to a simple interview question predicts success better than the entire resume review process. 

Read more   here      Hope you find it valuable

     Steve Brody
     CEO Coach
     Brody & Associates 

October Insights 2018

A collection of interesting thoughts, readings for your Leadership.  

“The Excellence Dividend”

If you began your career in the 70’s or 80’s, the business book everyone read was Tom Peters’ “In Search of Excellence” which looked at how successful companies executed strategies in an enduring way.   With several decades of additional study of successful companies under his belt, Mr. Peters is back with a new offering:  “The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work that Wows and Jobs that Last.”   This short blog posting reviews the book and points out five practices that C-Level executives routinely screw up….and  two massively underserved markets that may deserve your attention. 

Days of Disruption: (No.12) : More than Catching a Wave

Netflix comes to mind when we think of disruption of established business models;  in this case the Hollywood Studios.  Netflix’ success seems to some as just being in the right place at the right time and as surfers say, “catching a wave.”   It’s always hard to untangle the relative influence of luck versus skill, and luck had to play some role for Netscape, but this short blog posting from HBR summarizes how the company deliberately, systematically, and intelligently entered 190 companies in seven years.  

Learn about its two-step process of how it decided where and when to expand, and how it worked with each market it entered.  These are challenges every CEO has to face in some form. Is there a process like this in your company?

It's not the Peak, but the Prep

Great performance is seductive because great performance looks easy.  It’s easy to forget that all we see is the performance, not the preparation that went into it. 

In 2017, Alex Honnold free-climbed (i.e. no rope or safety gear)  the nearly vertical 3,000 ft El Capital peak in Yosemite National Park. You may not be contemplating something as physically dangerous as scaling El Capitan but hopefully you have something in your life as important as conquering this cliff was to Mr. Honnold..  In a 12 minute TED talk, hefocuses less on the exhilaration of the  achievement itself, but on the journey of preparation that made it possible.   His experience offers lessons for all of usregarding the price of success whether it’s climbing a mountain, building a business…. or making a life.

If the TED talk whets your appetite for more about this remarkable feat,  currently, there is a 100 minute movie,  “Free Solo”,  of Mr. Honnold’s story playing in theatres across the US.

Econ Recon:

Wholesale Blues?:   Wholesale trade has been enjoying unprecedented strength….andITR Economics President Alan Beaulieu is concerned about it.  Find out why…..and what do to about it in his most recent blog posting.

A Slip or a Slide?:   Recent roller coaster movements in the stock market have many people worried about their portfolios.   Remain calm,  says one of the best market watchers in the world, Wharton’s Jeremy Siegel.   Recent equity market volatility says Dr. Siegel is more “slip than slide”.

Sept Insights

 Some recent insights of interest.  

“A Trillion Here, A Trillion There”

The late Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen is reputed to have characterized the “Great Society” fiscal policy of the 1960s with the wry observation that “ A billion here, a billion there….and after a while it adds up to real money.”   Fifty years later we add a few zeros and we’re talking trillions.   Were it just the Federal Government’s climbing debt and ongoing deficits that would be scary enough.   But before the main event of Federal meltdown manifests itself,  the opening act will be the ballooning pension and healthcare obligations of teachers, first responders and other state and local obligations.  Decades ago these employees traded lower current income for a state guaranteed retirement.  Mismanagement of these pension plans has resulted in a funding deficit which, it is estimated, to be approximately $ 4.4 trillion.   

This may be the defining issue of our times as it will affect everyone, either as a retiree or as a younger member of the workforce paying increased taxes to make up the shortfall. An executive summary of the situation in the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter explains the limited and painful options for remedying this situation. None of them are good.  Most involve more taxes, especially on real estate, and cuts in other government services.. Coupled with an aging population that is living longer we have a “Time Bomb Inside the Public Pension Plans”    Want to know what your share of the shortfall might be?   Read the article.  It may well be more than you have already put aside.

Plan accordingly.  As Tennessee Williams said,  “You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it.”

Models Matter

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"  wrote the Russian novelist Tolstoy.   The same seems to be  true for “happy” (successful) businesses.  Regardless of the nature of the product or service offered,  the most successful companies today can be considered “software” companies in that software is an integral part of the offering and its value.  But no competitive advantage last forever.   What comes after being a software company?   This article from the WSJ suggests that it will be “models”;  data driven continuous learning models to be exact.  Find out why, sooner than later, Models Will Run the World.   Find out what a “model” really is…..and this risks of not being one.

The Problem with Prosperity

There are no unmixed blessings; and this long economic expansion not only makes profit possible, but also makes it more difficult to maintain as the competition for resources heats up.  In an INC Magazine article, Vistage Chief Research Officer Joe Galvin offers four tactics to keep high costs from consuming your company’s profits.  

                                        Econ Recon:

 This past week marked the longest bull market in US history and the coming year, absent a recession, marks the longest economic expansion on record.  But nothing lasts forever.   Columnist George Will, best known for this thoughts on politics and baseball, recently warned that “Another Epic Economic Collapse is Coming.”    Dr. Brian Wesbury begs to differ.  While allowing that the business cycle has not been outlawed, he remains an optimist..  

Follow the Money:   Between the prophecy of near term collapse and that of optimism is ITR Economics’ Jackie Green  who sees a mild contraction for many, but not all sectors…and some sectors may see a more precipitous fall than others. See if yours is one of them.  Check out her short article, “Are Your Profits Following the Crowd?”

Aug Insights

The Care of Our Time

Benjamin Franklin once challenged a friend,  “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”  You’ll love your time more once you realize how much of it you are wasting. Start buying back some of the only resource you can’t buy more of by considering whether the routines that dominate your life may have seduced you into believing that you actually know where your time really goes. 

This short article from HBR shares a simple technique that used for a few minutes each day may ultimately save you months, perhaps years. The late great Peter Drucker also recommended this exercise for senior leaders in his wonderful book “The Effective Executive”.  Once you try it, you’ll realize the truth of another great adage, slightly modified; if you don’t measure it, you won’t manage it.

Days of Disruption (No. 4): The Truly World Wide Web, at last

Most of us have heard of Moore’s law, named after legendary Intel founder Gordon Moore who predicted, correctly, decades ago that microprocessor speeds would double every 18 months and be accompanied by a halving of costs.  Equally impressive is the progress that has been made in the speed of communication between computers.   In recent years, this standard has gone from 3G to 4G (which brought us smartphones and e-commerce) and soon, 5G.

In a recent blog posting Peter Diamandis (founder of the XPrize foundation) writes of the jump from 3G to 4G that  “if you thought that was big, think again.  With plans for wide-scale deployment in 2020, 5G will be 100X faster than 4G, and 10X faster than your average broadband connection.”   Perhaps more important, 5G will enable the entire population of the world to be connected to the internet; a truly world wide web, at last. 

“Diamandis predicts  “And as the population of online users doubles, we’re about to witness perhaps the most historic acceleration of progress and technological innovation known to man.”  Learn more about the implications for you and your business in his short blog posting “Connecting  8 billion by 2024.   

Econ Recon:

Even the Bear Must Eat:   Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the London Times described it as a “third world country with first world weapons.”  Thirty years later, how much has really changed?  Those who fear Russia’s aggressiveness and military might under Putin would do well to remember that an economy is required to “feed the bear.” 

When one looks closely at Russia, it is not only a demographic basket case with early mortality and a plummeting birth rate, it has a very tiny economy in both absolute and relative terms compared to the US.   Brian Beaulieu of ITR economics shares an eye-opening graphic of the relative sizes of national economies and offers ten reasons why there is no equivalency between Russia and the US.    It may change your view of the dynamic between the two countries.