Another fun book - for serial Entreprenuers

Last month, I wrote briefly about the full day seminar I attended that was hosted by Dr. Don Kuratko. Among other things, Dr. K gave me a whole slew of new books to read (leave it to the college professor to send me home with reading assignments). The first "must read" on his list was "A Stake in the Outcome" by Jack Stack. Being from Kansas City, I immediately assumed that I would be reading about the establishment of a BBQ empire - but apparently, this Jack Stack has not relationship to my favorite smokehouse.

The Jack Stack that wrote this book was a general manager of a engine rebuilding plant in Springfield, Missouri during a major corporate shake-up. Going out on a limb, and with no real idea of what he was doing, he found a bank that would loan him the money for a management buy-out of the plant, establishing the highly successful company SRC Holdings. Having been involved in a couple of small company start-up ventures myself, I can relate to the "figure it out as you go" attitude that Jack and gang adopted in those early days. Unlike my own experiences, though, Jack started out with an existing company with a long history and an established customer base, although over 50% of their revenue came from a single client (something that nearly killed them at one point).

The cornerstone of Jack's success was the creative way in which he got every employee of the company tuned in to what it takes to make the company successful. Contrary to the typical big business approach, where separate groups within the company only focus on their own goals, objectives and measures; Jack determined that, in a small company, everyone had an obligation to understand the ENTIRE profit & loss statement, balance sheet and cash flow. To do this, he invented the "Great Game of Business", a tool that has been adopted by thousands of companies worldwide. The stories in this book are incredible. There is so much living proof out there of the power of enlightenment and engagement, yet so many companies absolutely refuse to disclose their books to more than a handful of internal employees.

This book was a really motivating read! While I don't see myself leading a management buy-out anytime soon, it sure would be fun to find a way to play the great game of business.

The "Helmet with Shoes" - Dr. K

After weeks of anticipation, and enduring 421 pages of dehydrating college text, the day finally arrived - a full day workshop with award-winning entrepreneur and famed academic Dr. Don Kuratko. Prior to the workshop, I had a chance to meet Dr. K and felt obliged to comment on his book - ok maybe not "obliged", but I certainly felt I had earned the right to issue a commentary. After explaining how delightfully painful it was to try to devour an entire college textbook over the course of a few airplane trips, he mentioned that others had suggested a non-textbook version of the material, which he felt would be difficult to do in a reasonable level of detail and/or value. I would say that Dr. K is suffering from the dreaded Curse of Knowledge, so I naturally recommended the Heath brothers' book "Made to Stick", which I had finally finished on the airplane the night before (I offered him my copy, but he was already planning to finish "Skin in the Game" on his return trip home).



Shockingly, he opened his session with a joke, something that business presenters quit doing in the early nineties. Even more shocking to me, though, was the delivery of the joke went really well and was quite relevant to the session - addressing, head-on, the fear that every business leader has when he is about to sit through a full day seminar with an academic. The joke was an admission that college professors are notorious for delivering information that is "absolutely correct and totally useless". Then he assured us that, over the next eight hours, he would break that paradigm...and he did!



After a brief review of the material and required reading list (my next read will be "A Stake in the Outcome", by the way), he moved into a familiar ice-breaker - with a twist. Anyone who has been to enough corporate workshops has likely had to introduce themselves and include an interesting, unusual or little known fact about their personal life. Dr. K had us do it artistically. Every person had to draw a picture and show the group - the picture representing a fact about the person that everyone did not know. Then the group had to guess what the illustration was depicting. I'm tucking that one away for future reference - it was really a fun variation on a common ice breaker.



But what really stuck out of the opening ice-breaker, was Dr. K's drawing:



Even more interesting was the accompanying story:

In the early 70's, Dr. K played football at Div. III John Carroll University (Don Shula's alma mater, if you didn't know). At the time, a college football magazine ran a story about how, in 1973, the college had to special order his uniform due to his unusual stature 5'6", 118lbs - (which, by the way, is one inch taller and 40 pounds lighter than Tyler, my ten-year-old). The uniform manufacturer, knowing that no college would need an extra-small (XS) uniform, mistakenly delivered the equipment to the grade school across the street. Later that season, Don was on the field waiting to receive a punt from the other team. During the normal hush that tends to come over a crowd just prior to a kick - an opposing fan yelled out "Look - it's a helmet with shoes."

For the rest of the session, I just couldn't look at Dr. K the same way....

Innovation Dilemma

I've been reading a lot lately, and at a pretty good clip. Thanks to recommendations from friends and associates, I have a growing list of interesting and relevant books to consume. The pace has been pretty healthy as well, about 10 days (or two round-trip plane rides) for each book - I was in a pretty decent groove...until my latest literary conquest. When the book arrived, I sensed immediately that it would be different - it wasn't like the other books I've been reading lately. Now, I've heard that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover - but this book had a vaguely familiar look and feel. It was a hard back, with a glossy cover - reminiscent of those overpriced books you used to carry around campus. Yes - I was about to sit down and read...a college textbook! When is the last time YOU read a college text book? I'm not even sure if I read many in college....



Why am I reading a college textbook? (and will there be an exam at the end of the quarter?) The book is titled: Corporate Entrepreneurship & Innovation. One of the authors, Donald Kuratko, will be teaching a seminar next month in Charlotte that I am attending. Slow pace aside, this book is very insightful and highly relevant. I'm sure there will be multiple blog entries inspired from its pages. Page 58 in Chapter 3 lists Sixteen Dilemmas of Innovation. A few of them really hit home (and echo conversations I have had in recent years).

Innovation Dilemma # 6 - "An innovation succeeds because it addresses customer needs. Yet when you ask customers about their needs, many do not know or can not describe them to you except in general terms."

Innovation Dilemma #13 - "Technology-driven innovation often leads to dramatic new products that prove to be 'better mousetraps' nobody wants." (or can't afford) "Customer-driven innovation often leads to minor modifications to existing products or 'me-too' products meeting a competitive brick wall."

Innovation Dilemma #16 - "Being first to market is not consistently associated with success, while being second or third is not consistently associated with failure."

There are 13 others listed in the table - these 3 just struck a bit of a chord with me. Many companies want the glory and respect associated with being an "Innovator", but most don't want the exposure to potential failed initiatives. I think the fear of failure kills innovation faster than most anything else. One company, fully understanding this concept, created a "Free to Fail" program to encourage moderate risk-taking in the name of innovation. Other examples are listed in page 178 of the text book including:

- Small cash awards given to employees who try something new and fail - and the best failure of the quarter receives a larger award.

I've often encouraged people to celebrate failure - as a way of ensuring that fear of failure does not inhibit creative thinking and action. Companies that continue to only celebrate successes while "blaming away" failures will never reach that pinnacle of innovation and corporate entrepreneurship.

When was your last failure, and how did you celebrate it?