SUCCEEDING THROUGH DISTINCTIVE CAPABILITIES

 

Succeeding through Development and Application of Distinctive Capabilities

A competence or skill that is superior to competitors is a distinctive capability. In order to stay longer in the market you need superior competences. Distinctive capabilities especially in product innovation, process efficiency, marketing  and customer service can help companies gain and sustain relative advantage over market contenders.

Key Characteristics of Distinctive Capabilities 

1. Distinctive capabilities can disproportionately create and preserve customer value.
2. Distinctive capabilities have stickiness to home base therefore difficult to acquire through poaching of staff, imitation or reverse engineering.
3. They produce consistent and reliable outputs which market contenders find difficult to replicate.
4. Distinctive capabilities are acquired through continuous learning and improvement. When someone is consistently improving his proficiency or excellence, you only play catch up unless you seriously innovate, changing the rules of the game. or changing the game completely.
5. In order to overpower competition one of the distinctive capabilities should be customer service.
6. Capabilities improve over time through application or usage. The more you utilize them the more valuable they become.
7. Distinctive capabilities can birth new capabilities, thereby increasing market share and profitability of owners.
8. However, distinctive capabilities can be made obsolete through new product or market innovation. Therefore, long term success is hinged on how firms re-create themselves by acquiring, applying and re-configuring their competences or capabilities.

 

As Peter Drucker often remarks,” If you have nothing superior to competitors, don’t compete”, because your days are numbered in the market place. In view of the above, business leaders should  periodically audit and review firm competences and direct which ones should be significantly improved or acquired by market exchanges. Those that have distinctive capabilities that create customer value are mostly likely to win.

 

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"

LEADERS DON'T AWAYS KNOW THE WAY

 

Leaders don’t always Know the Way

These days the statement that, “The Leader knows the way, shows the way and goes the way” is very popular. Many motivational speakers, academics and company executives quote it at every given opportunity. Is the statement always true? I don’t think so. What many people overlook is the failure of most successful leaders. Great leaders make big blunders or mistakes but the results of their good decisions cover up for the shortcomings. It is  healthy and inspirational to spend more time on positives rather than negatives. Leaders sometimes fail because they take the wrong direction; they apply resources to the wrong venture or hire the wrong people. They may invest thinking the new innovation could take the market as a wave of the ocean, only to be a wave of a fishpond. This happens because leaders don’t always know the way.

 So how do great leaders separate themselves?

1)    They are sold out to their vision or direction. If they are right, they reap big rewards.

2)    If they are wrong they never give up. They relentlessly look for new openings, new opportunities and new ways to overcome obstacles.

3)    They win by application of energy. They pursue opportunities with all their might. They don’t reserve themselves just in case they are wrong.

4)    With their zeal, relentless commitment and passion of positivity, great leaders attract and retain loyal followers. No one wants to follow lukewarm people. No one wants to commit where the leader is unsure.

5)    In all their dealings, great leaders show bravery. They have a mindset to win, like David approaching Goliath. Sometimes they lose, but most times they win because obstacles give way to the brave, fortune favours the brave.

6)    Therefore great leaders believe in their way, even though it is wrong. They don’t always  know the way.

 

GREAT LEADERS

 

Becoming a Great Leader: Yes You Can

Many researchers, scholars and business practitioners have tried to track the key traits of great leaders so that others may learn and also become effective. The debate on whether great leaders are born or made, continues. However, it is generally agreed that great leaders effectively scan the environment, sift information and use intuition and knowledge to craft strategies that capture opportunities better than others. Leaders of significance are risk takers who thrive on adversity, uncertainty and complexity.  Depending on the situation, they may depend on  science as they use facts, theories, laws or objective data. However, in other instances they may sense or smell the opportunity or direction to follow. Getting strategic information by discernment, sensing, intuition or smelling cannot be easily measured or observable therefore difficult to copy, imitate or replicate.

To be a great leader you must be a five in one(5 in 1) person

1.    Be brave as a lion- Face obstacles headlong
2.    Be steadfast as an elephant- When you see good opportunity don’t leave, stay there.
3.  Be fast as a cheetah- Run as fast as you can when you see the best opportunity. Most opportunities have short shelf life so have a sense of urgency.
4.   Be resilient as a camel- Hardships are part of the success story. Shrug off fatigue, discouragement and disappointments.  
5.    Be dexterous as a raccoon- To succeed you must juggle multiple alternatives encapsulated by complexity and uncertainty at high speed. This requires flexibility and dynamism. 

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"

 

INNOVATION CULTURE

Promoting Innovations in Work place

 

Successful organizations are normally those that innovate new products, systems and processes ahead of competition thereby giving their customers better experience. Innovations can be radical or incremental. Radical innovations bring extra ordinary changes in the market place but they are sometimes difficult to commercialize. Most organizations thrive on very few radical innovations and more of incremental ones. Innovations disrupt product offerings as well as value chain systems giving  the innovator competitive advantage. For example Toyota succeeds through good product design and excellent management of the value chain from inputs to output and after sales support. Apple wrestled market share from Nokia by formulating radical innovations in the operating system of mobile  phones(iphones)  and tablets (ipads). IOS operating system is far superior to competitor systems resulting in  competitive advantage edge. As long as Apple continues to come up with superior innovations, competitors will struggle to catch up. At worst, competitors can be overpowered and made extinct.

Many organizations desire their staff to be innovative but they rarely do so. As a result I explore factors that promote innovations in the work place.

1.       Strong  Teams

Innovations rarely come from individuals but teams that complement and collaborate with each other. Self organizing teams can sustain high energy levels sharing information and knowledge to resolve work challenges or create new products. Innovations are usually combinatorial. You combine various innovations which can be simple and ordinary, but the aggregation could bring  significance. Also an innovation in an unrelated field or system could bring breakthroughs in other departments. This is only possible if teams work together and strongly support each other.

2.       Idea Markets

Innovative companies establish idea markets where good ideas and innovations are harnessed and financially supported. Anyone in the organization can come up with a new idea to improve products, processes or systems. An idea market is more than a suggestions box. It’s a culture and philosophy to harness knowledge from everybody regardless of age, gender, grade or other inhibitive factors. The best idea excels. The challenge of most organizations is believing innovation comes from a special breed. No! Innovation is everyone’s business. The lowest ranks can resolve big business challenges if they are given the right ear and support. New ideas thrive in an atmosphere of trust, risk taking and knowledge sharing.

3.       Culture of Experimentation

Innovations bring something new to the organization or market place. By nature new things come through experimentation or trying new structures, designs, configurations or formulations. To promote innovations, organizations should allow their staff to be flexible enough experiment. Experimentation without being reckless should be encouraged all the time. Instead of punishing failure some organizations embrace it move forward with good lessons. Some organizations even celebrate failure. They do not want innovators to feel humiliated for taking a step backwards before the great leap forward. By nature innovations can succeed or fail. It’s part of the game. Therefore successful organizations fail a lot but once they succeed they can take enviable market positions.

4.       Flat and flexible Structures

Hierarchy is good for administration and control but it stifles innovations. Bureaucratic organizations rarely innovate. New ideas die on their way to the top because there is normally a manager who believes the best answer to protect himself is to say No. Feedback also delays so competitors launch new products while you wait for feedback from bureaucrats. Therefore, flat and flexible structures enable fast movement of information and knowledge sharing thereby enabling innovations to be quickly developed and commercialized. If you want to increase innovations in your company rule of thumb is eliminate another management level.

5.       Rewarding Innovators

It goes without saying that behaviour that is rewarded will be repeated. If you want to accelerate innovations in your company prepare meaningful rewards and give them transparently. There is no better way to invoke the competitive and innovative spirit in an employee, than to offer something over and above the normal salary. The reasoning of most company executives is that they employ everyone to innovate so there is no need for extra rewards. My usual question is are you happy with your innovation funnel? The large majority normally replies, No that’s why I recommend innovation specific rewards. Even public recognition or acknowledgement can be motivator to innovate. At least you have appreciated that someone has brought something you cherish.

The only way to overcome competition or to sustain your market position is to innovate new products and services. In today’s fast moving market environment yesterday’s levers of success cannot guarantee tomorrow’s success. Sustainable advantage is hinged on creativity and innovation of products and systems that deliver customer value. Organizations should do their best to promote the factors of innovations. 

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Why Employee  Motivation Sometimes  Plummets

Employees are the greatest asset in the organization because they configure resources and markets. Through their innovation new products and services are produced and marketed. Also  employees are the ones who serve customers. Staff Motivation is critical because it increases productivity and innovation. In additions highly motivated employees are happier, less prone to sickness and they require minimum supervision. Endeavors are won or lost  in organizations simply by how motivated their employees are. No matter how much you encourage or even threaten anyone,   objectives, if your employees are demotivated you have very little chance to succeed.  Many human resource managers and practitioners concur that committed, self motivated and consistently outstanding performers are lacking in most organizations. Why is that so?

Poorly Crafted Vision, Mission and Objectives

One major source of demotivation is a poorly crafted reason of existence in the company. If the vision and mission are blurred then its hard to rally behind them. Also if the objectives are inappropriate in terms of measurability, timing and environmental fit no one can sleep thinking about them. Objectives must be clear, well-timed and achievable. Its an insult  for a high achiever to given impossible targets because he/she would not even attempt them.

Performance not Measured Properly

There are  organizations that do not measure performance. Some do so but the targets are too historical and irrelevant. Some targets have nothing to do with the mission of current objectives. They were just put to add some numbers. If you achieve all those objectives there is very little movement in  financial outcomes   or customer experience. When compay outcomes don't change most staff are frustrated. its difficult to reconcile  hard work and bad outcomes

Inequitable Reward System

Research has many times confirmed that  employees are rational beings, who desire equity and  justice 

in the market place. Rewarding non performers at the expense of high producers is the worst sin. The minimum you can do is reward employees equally.  The best is to ensure those who put the extra time, extra innovation and exra  work resulting in good company outcomes are rewarded more.  Behaviour that is  rewarded will be repeated so if ypou reward underperformance you will get more of it. If high performance is rearded you are most likely to get better relsuts

Unfair labour practices

Staff motivations drops the lowest if the work environment is toxic. In most cares one form of discrimination is present. Someone is being overlooked on promotion or remuneration just because of ethnicity, religion, gender etc etc.  The term "equal opportunity employer" is suspicious on company advertising materials. Let others speak for you. Sometimes there are overbearing supervisors and managers who believe in "driving staff" instead of coaching, teaching and delegating work. Once there is unfairness in the workplace its hard to solicit employee buying.

Not Meeting Promises

Some cases have also been recorded of employers who do not meet promises. They seem to forget that a verbal contract is still a legal contract. Some manufacturing companies in Zimbabwe have promised significant  motivational bonuses in cash and kind, but once the employees achieved the targets they shifted the goal posts without any just reason. This takes away trust and  employee commitment is compromised. In African traditions, a father should not lie. If he had promised to kill a beast if you did something good, and  in the kraal there is only one left  he should meet his promise . That's all, no further explanations. The same principle should apply to leaders of organizations. Their words should be trusted.

Conclusion 

For organizational survival and success there is great need to minimize or eradicate all factors of staff demotivation in order to stimulate productivity, loyalty, innovation and raise customer experience. Business leaders must seriously improve work conditions and ensure the vision, mission and objectives are well crafted and articulated. 

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"

STRATEGIC RESPONSE TO COVID-19

Adaptability the Answer to COVID-19

The world has been buffeted by COVID-19 in the past five months. Everyone is now aware  and accustomed  to  " washing hands", "social distancing" , "wearing masks" and seeking medical attention if you have flue like symptoms such as high temperature and persistent coughing. Governments have instituted lockdowns, some stretching into months. The impact has been severe on individuals, companies and governments as revenues have sharply declined. Demand for goods and services has drastically fallen  or collapsed in some industries such  airlines, hotels and tourism . How can you survive under these conditions?

Individuals and companies that are making it have a high propensity to adapt and change course as events unfold. Highly adaptable organizations have perfected the art of telecommuting and providing superior customer experience even during lock down. Their employees are adequately provided with mobile resources such as laptops, mobile phones and generous broadband service connectivity to the organizations' information and knowledge repositories to ensure they can discharge their duties quickly, efficiently and effectively wherever they are.

COVID -19 Effective Teacher of Digital Transformation

Adaptable employees are mastering new skills to design, produce and market new products and services. Daily they are looking at ways to delight customers by reducing friction at touch points. They are also learning new ways to collaborate and support each other. Some customers have also learnt to resolve queries and provision new services on the go without visiting service providers. Those that continue to seek physical engagement are getting disappointed as service centres are closed. COVID-19 is the single most effective teacher of digital transformation. For those who are quickly adapting and entering the digital highway, they find themselves effectively managing their business operations due to strong linkages with cloud computing. Being linked remotely ensures business operations are monitored and controlled  with minimum downtime. With high reliability and availability of operations,  customer satisfaction is guaranteed. COVID 19 has accelerated  customers of all walks of life into self service.  This was planned by most digital technocrats to happen maybe in 2025 but its happening now. That's the only good part of COVID-19, accelerating nations, companies, families and individuals to use transformative digital technology. Even some old manufacturers of clothing, shoes and steel products in downtown Harare now have online stores. That's progress.

Acclimatize with the new normal

Therefore, the key to survive especially during  COVID-19 economic turbulence is to adapt to new practices and be willing to change as events unfold. You cannot continue with practices of 2019 and before because it's now business unusual. You should not take a wait and see attitude  because COVID-19 has brought a new economy and new culture. It is time to acclimatize with the new normal. Either you adapt and survive or you continue with the old and perish.

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"

INVESTORS HAVE MANY OPTIONS

Excite Investors to Your Business

Many  start- ups are cash hungry. Ads a result the  founders  spend a lot of time looking for investors to fund their cash hungry businesses. Is there an easy formula to attract new funders or investors? Yes, there is. If you can align yourself to the interests of the investors your job is done. You get the cherished money that oils operations. Here is how you can do it:

1.       Investors want a return 

When all has been said and done you should be able to sell a story that can result in some acceptable return to the investor.  These are not guaranteed returns but believable returns. The investor should be excited that one day he will reap some rewards. It’s not in the sophistication of your innovation or how passionate you are in the venture but whether there is prospect of getting returns in reasonable time.

2.       Novelty of customer offering

Critical to any business sustainability is the type of need being served and how many customers are being served. If the need is unique and there is chance to serve a sizable market then you win. Consider the mobile phone project of Dr Strive Masiyiwa. No one was thinking of mobile phones back then but there was scope to offer cellphones to a lot of people. As a result some banks were willing to take the risk. Even without a license he could get financial support. Therefore the uniqueness of the product and its ability to be used by many people can contribute 50% of the evaluation process.

3.       Well- articulated business plan

It’s not in the business plan but in the planning. A good business plan that is well presented shows that the leadership fully understands the business. A well articulated plan allays fears that you are groping in the dark, you don’t know exactly what it takes to create deliver value to customers. Since investors are busy people they don’t want a lot of pages and presentation slides.  What brings them to your side is a clearly thought out elevator pitch or powerful executive summary. A prototype or working model of the proposed innovation takes away all doubt and fears. An excellent executive summary, elevator pitch or prototype opens the door to the prospective investor’s bank account. You get the funding. It’s not in the number of words but simplicity and relevance.

4.       Your capability to advance business 

What drives a good business is knowledge, passion, commitment and integrity of its leaders. Therefore investors must be fully convinced that you are not a chancer but someone who knows what is to be done and is fully committed to do it. Commitment is key to success. You can have all the resources you need but if you are not committed endeavors fail. A half knowledgeable but passionate entrepreneur is better than a half passionate but knowledgeable one.

5.       Believability in the project and founders

The last test is whether whatever you have proposed is believable. Are your assumptions reasonable? Can you be trusted with money? Are the cash flow projections believable or not?No matter how many marks you score in other areas, investors also use gut feel to make final decisions. If they do not “sense” success, they pack their bags and wave good bye. Therefore whatever you do or say make sure it passes the ‘believability test”.

A final word of caution. Always remember that it is a difficult and time consuming process to find a suitable investor. Be patient, prepare early and be cooperative during due diligence process

Dr Andrew Nyambayo (PhD. MBA, Bsc Eng) is a business leader, strategist, coach and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and service industry. He is the author of famous books, "Integral Marketing: Enhancing Livelihoods"  and  "Succeeding in Turbulent Times"