Succession Planning – Building Value

February 4, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The American fascination with “teams” and “teambuilding” probably causes as much conflict and confusion as does consensus and convergence. Much of what passes for learned thought in contemporary management literature espouses the need for “team” players who are willing to “take a bullet for the team.” We want people to collaborate and play for the “win-win” scenario. 

The truth is we do not really want them to collaborate; most of us want them to accommodate (subordinate) their interests in favor of ours. The differences between accommodation and collaborati...Read More

December 17, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Businesses have three primary resources or forms of Capital:   Human Capital (people relationships); Temporal Capital (time management); and Financial Capital (liquid/illiquid assets). Each of these is interconnected adds or detracts from the value of a business. 

People (Human Capital) sell their time (Temporal Capital) for money (Financial Capital) to business owners (Human capital) for 8 +/- hours a day (Temporal Capital) to build/deliver products and services which can be converted to cash (Financial Capital) through a marketplace (Human Capital) transaction occurring over...Read More

November 12, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

In 1970, Alvin Toffler introduced the term “information overload” in a book called Future Shock. Forty years ago, Toffler wrote about the impact of the accelerating rate of technological and societal change. In a nutshell, he predicted that we humans would be left disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation”.  

This led to something called the “Law of Disruption”. There is a technical application for this term, but it also has some applications that surface when the social framework of a family and/or a business is, in Toffler’s terms, “sh...Read More

October 9, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

We all have multiple roles; and there is a brand that accompanies each of those. We have a brand as a parent, a business owner, a spouse, a trusted advisor, a leader. While the responsibilities are certainly different, there is a common element in how well received each of those “brands” are in their respective marketplace.

That element is Trust. And that trust comes from consistent and predictable behavior on our part. It’s broken more easily than it’s built, but here are some ideas that you can put into practice that will help you in the construction process.

...Read More

September 4, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The two previous posts about Succession Stories, Learning That You Are Not Alone and You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!, built on the theme that we all have something in common.  Years ago, someone quoted Albert Einstein as saying that “the splitting of the atom has changed everything we know with one exception – human nature.” 

That’s one of the reasons we’re able to talk with some authority about how the 10 ...Read More