Business and Dating

Here's a bizarre question. When you were a teenager and were dating (that's what they called it back in my day), how did you behave toward the opposite sex? Did you grovel or act weak? Did you complain about your previous dates with other people? Did you storm off and act like a child to get attention? Did you get dates because people felt sorry for you? Did we attract people because we were a cheaper date than someone else?

OK, now let's turn this back around to business. Let's assume we all know that attracting someone is not about acting as described above. Why then do so many of us act that way in business?

For example: we find out the client has been cheating on us. Our response is telling them how hurt we are and how much we care so they feel sorry. Or we send a nasty-gram email to lash out at them. Or if we're trying to land a new client, do we brag that we're not the best, but boy! are we cheap? None of those work well in personal relationships, why would they in business?

The reason a person wants to marry someone and stay married to them is very close to why a company wants to hire another company and stay with them. Bottom-line, we are attracted to people or to companies because we feel they have a value to us, we respect them, and we WANT to be with them.

What works (or doesn't work) in personal life usually works (or doesn't work) in business.

Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
www.labov.com
LaBov Sales Channel
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The Business Lessons in this Bailout Mess

AIG execs took huge bonuses, some other company that got bailout money threw a big party or entertained customers or flew a jet or sent money overseas...it goes on and on. The public is fed up and wants it stopped. Sounds simple: just have the government stop all that. The job of stopping all that becomes, well, a job. Energy is put into that. Those bailout companies now will add jobs for people to make sure that they are complying and won't get into more trouble. All that energy, time and investment will not be valuable in growing those companies or in making them profitable.

The business lesson - and I'm sure the bailout companies are thinking this - is don't get into that position in the first place.

Over the past several years, many companies were either doing wrong ethically or, more likely, were not running their businesses in a responsible manner. They were blindly acquiring, merging, expanding, and/or borrowing beyond reason as if the party would never end. The companies that were run correctly - quite often they were the fiscally conservative ones - looked less exciting or attractive.

But, during recessions, we start to value businesses that are run fiscally conservative and stable. As the saying goes, the worm has turned. A well run, healthy company is golden today. It looks quite beautiful.

A recession teaches us lessons in how to run a business. If we don't follow those lessons, our companies disappear or, if we're "lucky," someone else takes us over. (Which gives "luck" a bad name.)


Barry LaBov, CEO
LaBov and Beyond
www.labov.com

Why are the Best Places to Work the most Difficult for Some of Us?

I have a friend that works at a great company. The company has an organizational system that is very free form—a pretty complicated system in that a number of people may report to different supervisors depending on the issue. It can be unnerving for some. My friend was extremely uncomfortable with it.

He told me that at his previous company, it was simple—he had people that reported to him and that was that. He didn’t encroach on other people’s areas nor did they do that to him. This new company's approach was vague and unclear for him. He was concerned as to how he’d be held accountable.

I think this is a good example of the how an excellent company can be challenging to work at. That company wants people to interact, to negotiate, to deal with issues and to throw away the typical boundaries that are at most companies. They want you to look in the mirror and make sure you believe in what you’re doing—and if that company backs up what it preaches, they should also support their leaders’ decisions.

Dealing with other people, blowing up boundaries and standing up for you believe is tough but it may be what it takes to be part of a great company. It may also be why that company is great.

Maybe the Economy has Bottomed Out…But why don’t I feel good?

Barring a disaster such as a war or an earthquake, it is possible that the economy has pretty much hit the bottom and won’t get worse, if anything it will begin to crawl back.

But if this is the case, we’ll be seeing the domino effect for the next several months with stores closing and businesses shuttering. Hard to fathom, but many companies just concluded the “best part” of their year and if they don’t have much to show for it, they just may pack it in. It’ll seem like things are getting worse, when in reality, we’re just seeing the reaction to what has already happened.

Donuts: Antidote for a Rotten Economy

Sure the economy looks bad; businesses are struggling or failing in some cases. What can be done?

Look no further than coffee—Dunkin Donuts is aggressively pursuing Starbucks and making great progress. Why? They’ve shown passion and bravery—they obviously believe in their product and they’re not sitting back playing it safe. They’re now in more supermarkets than ever and Starbucks is in retreat.

On the opposite side of the equation, look at the Big Three. They have a built-in market for their products yet they’ve alienated most of that market. Why? Look at their product—it’s tired, unimaginative, outdated, overpriced, etc. They evidently didn’t believe in their product. They showed no passion, no guts.

Bravery and passion are necessary to succeed in this economy, without both, you have no chance.