Business Tribes Management Consulting

Cause - What will you be remembered for?

Test-preparation pioneer Stanley Kaplan died Sunday, said Kaplan Inc., 71 years after creating the business in its parents' Brooklyn basement. The company grew into the nation's largest test-prep business, helping students get ready for college-entrance exams such as the SAT, and in the process blazing a trail for the for-profit education industry. Dominick Dunne, perhaps the most famous chronicler of the celebrity crowd over the last quarter century, died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 83 and had battled bladder cancer. Dunne, an investigative journalist, was famous for his reports from the trials of the infamous —O. J. Simpson, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, the Menendez brothers, plus the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Preservationist Carolyn Kent is dead at the age of 74. Carolyn Kent, a longtime preservationist who helped save numerous buildings in upper Manhattan, has died, her family said Sunday. She was 74. From the 1950s until her final days, Kent fought to secure landmark status for west Harlem and Morningside Heights buildings. “Edward M. Kennedy—the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply—died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.” What cause will you be remembered for?

Cause - obsessively developing strengths and flaunting weaknesses

Dave Rendall, Assistant Professor of Business at Mount Olive College and author of the Freak Factor writes "While you are busy diffusing your time and energy broadly in an effort to improve in a variety of different areas, someone else is obsessively developing their strengths and flaunting their weaknesses. They aren't allowing their weaknesses to distract them from focusing on the areas in which they have the greatest potential."

Tribes cannot be all things to all people.

Parents were outraged when the once wholesome family image of Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus was destroyed when she posed in less than full dress for Vanity Fair.

Restaurants promoting organic food from local farmers may save a penny or two by using plastic and Styrofoam take outs, but as Moshe Mena, Director of MyGreenTable  explains "Their customers see value in using Eco-friendly, biodegradable products."

Attempting to expand the Harley Davidson popularity by incorporating a soft and fluffy teddy bear approach to bikes would destroy the tribe.

Create - Lessons from William Randolph Hearst

Marina Belozerskaya writes about the rise of William Randolph Hearst in The Medici giraffe. 

"Not content to rise to the top of the city's dailies, Will decided to break into the lucrative Sunday editions as well.  In a brash gesture typical of him, instead of building up his staff piece by piece, he lured over Joseph Pulitzer's brilliant editor, Morrill Goddard, who had made the New York Word's Sunday paper prosper.  And when Goddard hesitated, worried about running Hearst's paper without his old staff, Will brought (or bought) them as well by offering them much bigger salaries and greater freedom to exercise their abilities, as long as they increased his circulation."

Hearst grew his team with money and freedom.  Many people can be lured away by a higher salary, commission or bonuses.  What is often underestimated is granting people the freedom to do their best work.  

Do members of your team have the opportunity to create something amazing?

See: Where do you connect, create and cause?

Create - Hank Williams

Friday afternoon the Gravy Boys played at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill.  They play great music of their own and also a rendition of Hank Williams' 'Hey Good Lookin'.  Williams recorded the hit in 1951.  It has been subsequently recorded by a dozen artists and covered by countless bands. 

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame notes "The words and music of Hank Williams echo across the decades with a timelessness that transcends genre. He brought country music into the modern era, and his influence spilled over into the folk and rock arenas as well.... The “outlaw” school of country singer-songwriters who followed in Williams’ wake - including Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and his own son, Hank Williams Jr. - would have been inconceivable without Williams’ rough-cut artistry. However, problems with drugs and alcohol led to Williams’ premature death by heart attack at age 29 while en route to a show.  In 1961, Williams was the first artist elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, a tribute indicative of his impact."

Lesson to learn from Hank Williams:

1. Create something worth re-recording and covering.  Hey Good Lookin is almost six decades old and still meaningful.

2. The tribe is not only greater than the person, it makes the person.  Williams is great not despite the many re-recordings and coverings, but because of it.  Paving the way for others to succeed built his legacy.

3.  A business can do well by re-recording and covering if they can add value and their own voice.  Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, William's Jr. and others took off where Williams left off.  Bernard Cova of Euromed and Seth Godin, leadership guru did not create the concept of business tribes, but they did repackage from the academic literature to a form MBA programs and businesses could use.

4.  Avoid tribal pitfalls.  Alcohol and drugs may sound appealing, but they do kill.  What is your business' pitfall.

Create - 4.2 billion customizing cars

87 Chevy Monte Carlo by Scooter Flix

"Will men ever stop loving cars? Despite the traffic congestion, guilt over global warming and the strangulation of machismo, it seems unlikely. Our attraction to these glossy machines is atavistic. We push toy cars around on the carpet when we're kids. We enjoy them racing, jousting and crashing in movies. When we're teenagers, we can't wait to roar off in our first cars as soon as we've passed our tests. Very often, we then tune and modify them until they are an expression of the power and status we feel we need." 

Tungate notes that US college students spend $15 million on cars, and $4.2 billion a year customizing them. “Inspired by movies like The Fast and the Furious and MTV show Pimp My Ride, 'they're outfitting their rides with ground-shaking sound systems, nitrous-injected engines and 20-inch rims...' (Branded Male: Marketing to Men by Mark Tungate) 

Why are auto-manufactures going bankrupt? Too often, they ignore the tribe. Too often they focus on the $15 million on car sales and not on what the 4.2 billion. But this is not about numbers. It is about getting people excited in the tribe. When people paint a car, display it at shows and keep it in top condition for over 20 years, the tribe is saying something.

Create - weeding the tribe

Johan and Natasja

Can a company manufacture a tribe? No, but you can support or hinder its growth. In Escape form Cubicle Nation, Pamela Slim writes "Don’t spend millions of dollars to try and change your culture. Corporate culture is a natural thing that cannot be manufactured. No amount of posters, incentive programs, PowerPoint presentations or slogans on websites will affect the hearts and minds of your employees. If you want to see things change immediately, stop acting like an a____e [edited from book original for younger viewers]. If you see one of your senior managers acting like an a____e, ask him to stop. If he doesn’t stop, fire him. You will be amazed at how fast the culture shifts." 

I like this approach. Weeding out a few a___e from your organization can do wonders.

Cause - U2 from Roberta Lage

Photo by Dave Nicoll

Roberta Lage wrote a great article about U2.  

"U2 has evolved with their music, causes and humanitarian work.  

The music of U2 has always been about causes along with heart, mind, body and soul." 

"Down the years the band has been more involved in causes trying to make the world a better place.

From Amnesty International and Greenpeace through to DATA, ONE, (Product (RED) and the Chernobyl 

Children's Project. U2 has been contributing with benefit concerts, songwriting, public campaign, fund-raising projects promoting a range of charities and activist communities worldwide."

U2 shows how taking up a cause is a real commitment, not a one shot attempt for media attention.  

Cause - What will you be remembered for?

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died on Thursday." "SANTA MONICA FOXNews - Farrah Fawcett, the multiple Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated American actress best known for her role as the vivacious Jill Munroe in the 1970s television series “Charlie's Angels,” died in a Santa Monica hospital." "CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South African anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman, who won international acclaim as one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the injustices of racist rule, died Thursday. She was 91." "PARIS (AP) — Jean Dausset, a Nobel prize-winning French immunologist and pioneer behind organ transplants and mapping of the human genome, has died." "YOUNGSTOWN — Edna Pincham, former Youngstown school board president, community activist, and the first black woman to run for Youngstown mayor, died today. She was inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame in May." What cause will you be remembered for?

Connect - Getting China and India right

"... being present in China and India is not the same thing as getting China and India right."

" .... the successful global corporation of tomorrow will be one that figures out how to take advantage of three realities: the rapid growth of emerging markets and the increasing multipolarity of the world economy; enduring cultural, political, and economic differences across countries and regions; and the rapidly growing integration of national economies.  Organizationally it will be managed as a globally integrated enterprise rather than as a federation of regional or national fiefdoms."  

"And it will be led by business leaders who have global mindsets and are masters at building bridges rather than moats."

From: Getting China and India Right: StrategiesConn for Leveraging the World's Fastest Growing Economies for Global Advantage by Anil K. Gupta and Haiyan Wang

Cause - making good out of something very bad: an interview with Aaron Beam

Aaron Beam has a message for corporate executives and compliance officers. Ethics are not traditionally taught in business school. Perhaps it is time for corporate America to learn about ethics, and Beam is the perfect man to teach them. Beam is the co-founder and former Chief Financial Officer of HealthSouth, at one time the nation's largest provider of outpatient surgery and rehabilitative services. Beam took part in a $2.7 billion account fraud at HealthSouth between 1996 and 2002. Beam is a man with a cause.

Joseph: What is your cause? Aaron: There are no real warnings about the pressures on Wall Street, and business in general, that you will be put in a situation that is unethical or marginally unethical.  I want students to be more aware. I received an e-mail this week suggesting that we have to approach every job thinking “I may be asked do fraud.” And you have to say no. Joseph: How do you prepare for this kind of situation? Aaron: It takes training.  Ask, what would I do in this scenario?  The airplane pilot was trained to deal with the situation when he landed on the Hudson River.  [On January 15, 2009, Chesley Sullenberger, pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, safely landed despite the loss of thrust, saving all passengers.]  How do I handle a situation where I am asked to do something unethical?  It may mean losing your  job but you have to say no.  Once you have blood on your hands, you are guilty. I am unique. I was a CFO for a large company, in a culture where thousands of people had committed fraud. There are not a lot of chief financial officers who were involved in this type of fraud who are speaking out about it.  The CFOs of Enron and WorldCom are in prison.  People are asking what is going on in the business world? Why are people getting paid millions of dollars to screw things up? Because of the attitude of business today, someone speaking of a real life example that I went through, in the company, what it was like, in prison, is very valuable. At a recent speech not a single person turned on their blackberry during the talk, thats how you know you how you did. I am trying to make something good out of something very bad. Joseph: What message do you want to send to compliance officers? Aaron: Very well intended employees who are not by nature felons or criminals can, because of the pressure of jobs and wall street, and abusive bosses, can be lead into a fraud situation.  As compliance officers they need to try to spot people who are over zealous in making the sells or making the budget, and be attuned to how they treat their employees, be aware that people will abuse their employees, so they can advance themselves. Most people are not that aggressive, but the guy who is advancing fast in the company, probably has a lot of traits like my boss [former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy]. They  can get people to do things they want, these are positive traits, but also can be negative if they are not put to good use. They can influence the good people, who just wants to please and do a good job.  Compliance officers need to look for those types of situations. Aaron: Snakes in Suites, a book about sociopaths in business [Paul Babiak, Ph.D. and Robert D. Hare, Ph.D.] shows that some people just cant stand to loose, and it doesn't bother them to cheat in order to win. This is critical for compliance offices and companies as a whole. Joseph: How can a compliance officer at a large company monitor everyone? Aaron: I am talking about executive level, like a big fraud at Enron or Health South.  Compliance Officers need to monitor the behavior of people in those situations.  They should not be a snoop, but they need to be aware.  Things like exit interviews, for example if someone “just leaves” ask them why. The general public asks “how can this happen?”  When someone take $20 out of petty cash, its not public, but when its hundreds of millions of dollars, it hits the news. Joseph: I agree, so much of compliance and audits looks at documents not the people involved.  Your experience was at the executive level.  You mention that nobody notices $20, but when it hits the millions, it starts to get noticed.  Is there a broader culture of honesty and ethics that need to be addressed? In the context of tribes, perhaps the executives have a responsibility to lead the company culture. If the executives are honest and set a high standard, then it will influence the rest of the company. Aaron Beam can be contacted by phone (251) 964-8014 and e-mail: info@aaronbeam.net