CEOs are in the simplification business

I just sent a note to a friend embarking on his first business media project, to help him understand his audience.

Business leaders are a coveted audience, and they are always looking for relevant information and intelligence. But they are elusive, always busy, and very hard to reach.

Which means you have to carve a message that gets through to them immediately. You may only get one shot.

So here is my advice:

Business leaders are in the simplification business.

They demand inputs that are clear and uncomplicated, and their outgoing messaging is very much the same. Give them too much detail and their eyes glaze over.

So make sure your messaging is always easy to follow, shuns technical jargon, and avoids unnecessary complications. CEOs want clear solutions and easy-to-follow strategies for success.

As the writer/marketer, value their needs over your own. Use the word "you" at least three times more often  than you use "I" or "me" or "us." 

The buck stops here. But so does nuance, indecision, evasion and ambiguity.

  

Five Rules for Selling to Small Business

 

"Never close the door on someone wanting help"

My friend Michael Hughes, a networking coach/advisor in Ottawa, believes relationships are the root of business success. He underscored that commitment today when he published a newsletter article revealing his list of 10 personal goals and values. They turn out to be very apsirational, but practical and also doable.

I like to think I live by my values, but I was never smart (or brave) enough to actually write them down.

Michael shared this list in hopes they might inspire others. And I am proud to amplify his list of goals and values by republishing them here, with his permission.  

Almost thirty years ago, as I was finding my way as an entrepreneur, I wrote a list of 10 personal goals and values. They aren't world-changing; but they were important to me at the time. 

They have guided my intentions and my actions. They remain my moral compass and guide me to this day 

I'm listing them below in hopes that they encourage you to create your own, if you haven't already.

P.S. It's not how many there are that matters; it's your commitment to the ones you decide on that does. 
 

Michael Hughes' personal goals and values 

Secure financial freedom. Make enough money to do the things I want to do. Live comfortably. Take care of my family. 

Own my own company. Decide my own future; be master of my own fate. Have the ability to choose how and when to work. 

Do work which I enjoy. Do things based on the fact that I believe they are worthwhile. Be creative. Lead.

Always maintain the highest level of integrity and professionalism in all business relationships. Never make money at someone else's expense. Do business with people who believe in my abilities and capabilities. 

Ensure that all relationships are positive and in the best interests of all parties. Work on the basis that I will be working for or with this person in the future. Come out of business relationships feeling that I have gained something. Make the customer #1 and they'll take care of you. 

Help others grow where possible. Always seek out individuals who could have a positive impact. Never close the door on someone wanting help.

Continue expanding horizons and learning new things. Make it a point to learn from every experience. Look for new experiences. 

Meet interesting and compatible individuals. Always take the first step in relationships. Never be afraid to go out of my way to meet or spend time with someone new. 

Travel and see other parts of the world. Take the initiative to travel whenever it presents itself. Plan future travel, especially with the family. 

Be the best person I can be. Always be positive. Try to help when I can. Treat people as I want to be treated.

Notes from Rick again: Which of these values are your favourites?

I particularly love "Never make money at someone else's expense," and "Work on the basis that I will be working for or with this person in the future. Come out of business relationships feeling that I have gained something."

If you follow guidelines like these, you can't go wrong.

You can learn more about Michael at https://networkingforresults.com.

"Talk to 100 customers"

Talking to some startup entrepreneurs yesterday, I got the definite feeling they haven't spent enough time talking to customers. It reminded me of some of my conversations with Steve Blank, one of the original Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs, founder of the "Lean Startup" concept, and the guy who first recognized that startups aren’t baby businesses – but platforms for testing business ideas (which he insists on calling hypotheses).

Steve has been hammering this idea home for four decades now. But it never gets old, because we all know entrepreneurs who have great business ideas, but would rather stick pins in their eyes than actually go visit customers and ask what they need.

Click here to read one of columns stories on this subject, still alive and kicking at the Financial Post.

If you don't have time to click, here’s the meat of the interview:

SB The lean startup now has three components. They are all based on the fact that for a startup, there are no facts inside your building. While you might be the smartest person inside your building, there’s no possible way you could be smarter than the collective intelligence of your potential customers.

I remind my students at Stanford and Berkeley that while you think you understand the problems of your customer, all you really have is a series of untested hypotheses. So the whole idea of the lean startup is to validate, or test, your guesses before you spend a lot of time and money on it.

RS But I know so many entrepreneurs who really like their office, or their garage. They leave there only reluctantly.

SB That gets to the core of, What is an entrepreneur? A founder is a visionary; a founder sees something or hears something other people don’t. But it turns out that if you’re a founder, and you envision something new, the odds are you’re hallucinating, not being a visionary. You’re actually seeing things that aren’t there.

To differentiate the hallucination from the vision requires you to get out of the building and validate: Is this a mirage? Is my passion overwhelming the rest of my senses? That’s what makes customer development hard. It just goes against the DNA of a founder who says, “Let me just build this. Get out of my way!”

And here’s the big idea. In the old days, investors would expect that if there was any failure, it was your problem. You personally failed. Now we know that startups go from failure to failure, learning as fast as they can. And this process allows us to do that learning as quickly as we can.

RS What about the shy entrepreneur? Is there no way they can get out of this without talking to customers?

SB No. When we teach this process to 22-year-olds in hoodies and flip-flops, or to 52-year-old scientists, by the time they’re done they will have talked to 100 customers, eyeball to eyeball. There is no faking that data. There’s no denying what you’ve heard.

The Canadian Entrepreneurship Advantage

In Dubai yesterday, as part of my work with NextStars, a Toronto-based business advisory/mentoring firm, I gave a speech to a group of entrepreneurs and immigration consultants from many nations about what makes Canada such a great place to start, grow or invest in a business. My theme was "community."

In the spirit of sharing, here's an excerpt from that speech.

"A few facts about Canada you may not know. Canada is the world's second-largest country - but 90% of us huddle within 300 km of our southern border. We have 40 million people, and the world’s ninth-largest economy. Our official languages are English and French, but we are proud to be one of the world’s most culturally diverse societies. Wherever you come from, you will find community in Canada.

Canadians don’t like to boast, but we also have a proud record of invention and innovation. Canadians gave the world the snowmobile and the snowblower - well, duh - but also the light bulb, the telephone, insulin, Pablum, peanut butter, standard time, and the first cell phones with email (remember the Blackberry?). But we're not done yet. Canadians also developed kerosene, color movies, alkaline batteries, the Java programming language, and the push-up bra (are we allowed to say that in Dubai?). Something for everybody.

Canada also produces amazing entrepreneurs. Have you heard about the World Entrepreneur of the Year program run by the accounting firm EY? Canadians won this global crown in Monaco twice in its first 16 years - one of just  three countries to do so (along with the US and India).

The first winner was Guy la Liberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, still dazzling audiences with shows and tours around the world.

Ten years later, the world crown  went to another globally minded Canadian, Murad Al-Katib, founder of AGT Foods in Regina, Saskatchewan. AGT is the world’s largest producer of pulse crops (that is, beans, lentils and chickpeas). Murad, the son of immigrants from Turkey, didn’t win just for surpassing $1 billion in sales, from changing the future of agriculture in Saskatchewan, or for his dream of ending world hunger with plant protein. The EY judges loved that AGT had provided 700 million rations for the United Nations’ food program for Syrian refugees.

Canadians. Community.

Two more all-star entrepreneurs. When the U.S. network ABC licensed the rights to Dragons' Den, the hit British TV show with superstar entrepreneurs competing for deals, they renamed the show Shark Tank. And they hired two successful Canadian entrepreneurs, Kevin O'Leary and Croatian-born Robert Herjavic, to pretend to be American entrepreneurs. So, never let anyone tell you that Canadian entrepreneurs are not world-class - or that you have to be born in Canada to succeed there. 

In fact, Canada’s version of Dragons’ Den has featured three other immigrant entrepreneurs: chef Vikram Vij, from India; fashion mogul Joseph Mimran, from Morocco; and financier Wes Hall from Jamaica.

Canada has always depended on  immigrant entrepreneurs and investors - and we still do. Because they don’t just bring money, ideas and business savvy - but an appetite for change and improvement. 

As a business journalist for 30 years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many outstanding Canadian entrepreneurs. Those experiences, and working with Saeed Zeinali of NextStars, has enabled us to articulate a new model of Canadian entrepreneurship.

For too long, we’ve bought the Silicon Valley ethos of “disruption”. Move fast and break things. But Canadian entrepreneurship is different. Canadians believe in collaboration over confrontation. They love their customers. They want to fix things, not break them. They make business more efficient, more human. They believe in win-win-win - for their suppliers, their customers, and themselves. And they pursue global markets from the get-go. 

All these characteristics give Canadian entrepreneurs a strong start and ongoing advantage."

What do you think of our thesis?