Disaster can happen quickly By Todd Ordal The recent plane crash in San Francisco brought the phrase “low and slow” into the public press. I’m not currently flying, but I used to spend many hours behind the yoke of a multiengine aircraft and have come close to that experience a few times. There are other apropos […]
The success secret you can’t see, smell or taste But you’d better be able to define By Todd Ordal I was once involved in a turnaround situation that required quick action. I looked at the company’s major accounts (ranked by revenue) and then had the CFO do a net (not gross) profit analysis by account. It […]
You need a strategy before you can execute successfully There’s a saying that people pass around a lot like it came from King Solomon: “It’s all about the execution.” As if strategy doesn’t matter. But, of course, it does. Executing brilliantly on the wrong strategy only makes you fail faster. As Sun Tzu said in […]
I bent over to fill the cat bowl the other night and vaguely remember slipping on a rug. The next thing I remember is waking up with my wife holding my head and my brain doing flip-flops. I’m still not sure exactly what happened, but am sure—based upon my head pain—that I smacked my noggin […]
Companies that try to serve multiple masters with one model get into trouble Years ago, I got a call from a customer who was mad as hell. She was from Dearborn, Michigan, and frequented a store we had there. At the time, I was in charge of 350 Kinko’s stores. (For you youngsters who weren’t […]
Everyone encounters the need to break inertia When organizations “stand still” for very long, they become stuck. This isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, the execution of strategy is really about building structure (for example, systems, rewards and organizational design) to make sure the organization is aligned and focused. When change is required, however, […]
Position your business for success As I write this, it’s finally warm out and the lemonade stands — staffed by budding young entrepreneurs — are starting to pop up. This is a great learning experience for a young lass or lad, but might it also teach us something? On the way home from a recent […]
Years ago, I was part of a team that sequestered itself — at the request of our CEO — to come up with our “vision and strategy” for the company. This was a smart group of executives with good backgrounds and many opinions, all with healthy enough egos. We holed up for two days in […]
At the end of the day, there are really only two ways to win in business, assuming you have a viable market: (1) be like others and execute better or (2) be different. I’ve had clients who’ve succeeded in both camps, but those who took a different approach were more successful — both in top-line […]
A Wall Street Journal article on September 20, 2010, stated that Hyundai is coming out with a new luxury car. A Hyundai luxury car? Isn’t that a bit like gourmet Velveeta? It begs the question, “How far can you stretch a brand?” A typical strategic position would be to own a spot on the map, […]