Undergraduate Address – By the Light of a Supermoon

Last weekend the largest full moon of 2012 lit up the night sky.  On Saturday may 5th the moon was at its closest point in its orbit with us… putting it a mere 221,801 miles away.  Some call this perigee full moon a Supermoon”.  I call it a reminder for all of us to shine and set our own moon goal. For me moon goals are a reference to that amazing day when man first landed and walked on the moon.  It was a stretch of many people’s imaginations to see the dream come to fruition.  And so graduates, my singular charge to you this morning is that as you go from here to the rest of your life that you set your own moon goal…a stretch, difficult and transformation goal that measures the best of your energy and skills.

I ask that you make this goal a real challenge that you are willing to accept, unwilling to postpone and which you intend to win.  Make your goal one that demands the extraordinary effort I know you will muster with all the strength and intellectual capacity you possess.  Don’t be tempted to take the path of least resistance or be lulled into a static professional life, content to congratulate yourself on maintaining the status quo. That is not setting a moon goal.  That is finding a soft landing spot.

My moon goal for the class of 2012 is that you never stop your upward climb into the world of opportunity.

 

Congratulations on a job well done!

Cheating Death: How to Manage Your Business Life

Organizations, like living organisms, are born to die. Often their end comes naturally once they have fulfilled their role in a mature marketplace. Others eventually kick the proverbial bucket because they underestimated the ability of an unknown competitor who emerges and takes them out. The corporate graveyard is also full of organizations that died prematurely shortly after birth or passed on to the great beyond while they were still in adolescence. Fewer still are those who lived to a ripe old age and are lauded instead of eulogized for their longevity, creative innovation and sustaining ability over multi generations. What makes the difference between the winners and the losers in this reality show race for business survival? What is it that gives businesses blessed with long life lines the ability to prolong their years? How can we leaders help our businesses (and possibly our careers) cheat death? Being the best student

As an educator I love that one of the first and foremost qualities most great CEOs possess is their drive for knowledge. New York Times' columnist and author Adam Bryant includes the trait in his book The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs and I couldn't agree more. As managers we may exude self-reliance to spare in front of others. But deep down and behind the scenes, a winning leader is one with a passion for wondering how things work and what everyone else knows. Great leaders ask to understand, question to challenge the status quo and imagine to promote the possibilities of change. It is this search for deeper understanding which may allow us to connect the unconnected in a way our competitor does not see.

Keeping your vision clear

Leaders don't say "if" or "when." More than anything else, these conjunctions can kill a business' acceleration before it even leaves the gate. Those of us with a clear vision not only stay on the right track. We also bring others with us. As Jim Collins writes in Good to Great, real leaders look realistically at their environment and then they do something about the problems they find. Crafting a vision with all stakeholders in mind, based on the situation either good or bad, allows leaders to engage and enlighten as well as keep a company grounded.

Is your organization on its death bed or in a state of hospice? Few businesses these days find themselves lucky enough to be juggling unlimited resources. The status quo is now "less." Right here and right now, organizations need leaders who are capable of repairing damage today and authoring change strategies tomorrow. Our nation and world continue to grapple with economic issues and new political challenges. In a time when so much is at stake for business and careers,], practicing and pursuing the art of great leadership is not and never should be a spectator sport. With death of a business as the possible consequence, the stakes are just too high.

ON GIVING: THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY SAMUEL T. OLA AKANDE P.HD. ON THE OCCASION OF HIS BEING AWARDED THE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD BY WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY, PLAINVIEW, TEXAS, U.S.A., ON NOVEMBER 18, 1995.

I CAME TO THE THEN WAYLAND BAPTIST COLLEGE (NOW WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY) AS A STUDENT IN AUGUST 1959. I WAS 33 YEARS OLD WHEN I CAME. COINCIDENTALLY, OUR SON, BEN AKANDE, A WAYLAND GRADUATE, RETURNED TO WAYLAND AT THE AGE OF 33 YEARS AS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND CHAIRMAN OF THE DIVISION OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY. OUR OLDEST DAUGHTER, NIKE, ALSO STUDIED HERE. MY WIFE, COMFORT, STUDIED HERE BRIEFLY IN 1961, AND MY COUSIN, DAVID AKANDE ALSO GRADUATED FROM WAYLAND. I AM VERY HAPPY INDEED TO BE HERE TO ACCEPT THE 1995 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD FROM WAYLAND, THIRTY FOUR YEARS AFTER RECEIVING MY BACHELORS DEGREE IN ENGLISH HERE.

WAYLAND WAS ONE OF THE TWO UNIVERSITIES IN TEXAS IN THE 1950’S THAT WOULD ACCEPT BLACK MEN AND WOMEN AS THEIR STUDENTS. I RECALL WITH GRATITUDE THE HELPFUL ROLE PLAYED BY DR. HOPE A. OWEN, THE PRESIDENT THEN, AND DR. ROY C MCCLUNG, THEN PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH PLAINVIEW. THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, PLAINVIEW ACCEPTED ME AS A MEMBER. I CAME TO WAYLAND AS A PIONEER, TO OPEN THE DOOR. BUT WAYLAND WAS ALSO A PIONEER BECAUSE OF THE COURAGE TO GO AGAINST THE NORM, TO DO WHAT WAS RIGHT. THE 1950’S AND EARLY 1960’S WAS THE ERA OF SITTING AT THE BACK OF THE BUS BETWEEN PLAINVIEW AND AMARILLO AND BETWEEN PLAINVIEW AND LUBBOCK. THOSE WERE THE DAYS WHEN AT THE BUS TERMINAL, THERE WERE DIFFERENT SEATS SET ASIDE FOR BLACKS AND DIFFERENT ONES FOR EVERYONE ELSE. THOSE WERE TIMES WHEN WE WENT ON EXCURSIONS AS STUDENTS OF THE COLLEGE, AND STOPPED TO EAT BREAKFAST, BLACK STUDENTS WERE ASKED TO EAT THEIR BREAKFAST IN THE KITCHEN, NOT IN THE OPEN HALL. THAT WAS A TIME WHEN AS A MEMBER OF THE ALPHA CHI, I WAS DENIED THE PRIVILEGE TO TRAVEL TO NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA TO PRESENT A PAPER AT ANOTHER UNIVERSITY JUST BECAUSE I WAS BLACK. ALL THAT IS HISTORY, BUT WE THANK GOD FOR THE EXPERIENCES.

IN THE MIDST OF THESE EXPERIENCES, HOWEVER, THERE WERE THREE FAMILIES WHO EXTENDED THEIR LOVE AND NON-DISCRIMINATORY ATTITUDE TO ME. THEY ARE LOUIS AND NORMAN WRIGHT OF PLAINVIEW WHO ARE IN THIS AUDIENCE, RUBY AND CLEO VAUGHAN OF AMARILLO, TEXAS, AND REV. AND MRS. L. B. GEORGE, AFRICAN AMERICANS ALSO OF AMARILLO, TEXAS.

MY YEARS AT WAYLAND GAVE ME A VERY STRONG FOUNDATION ON WHICH I BUILT MY ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF LATER YEARS. I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT WAYLAND ALSO PREPARED ME ADEQUATELY FOR THE DENOMINATIONAL LEADERSHIP POSITIONS THAT I LATER HELD IN THE NIGERIAN BAPTIST CONVENTION, IN THE ALL AFRICA BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP, IN THE BAPTIST WORLD ALLIANCE, AND IN THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES. THE EDUCATION FOUNDATION I RECEIVED AT WAYLAND PROVIDED ME WITH THE DEEP SENSE OF URGENCY AND A COMPELLING URGE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I BELIEVE IT PLAYED SOME ROLE IN MY DECISION TO RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF NIGERIA.

THE RACIAL EXPERIENCES THAT I HAD IN THE LATE 50’S AND EARLY 60’S TAUGHT ME A GREAT LESSON IN TOLERANCE AND THE NEED TO LEARN TO FORGIVE AND NEVER TO RETALIATE, EVEN WHEN PEOPLE HURT YOU. BUT BECAUSE WAYLAND SHOWED LOVE IN THE MIDST OF HATE, I TOO LEFT WITH NOTHING BUT LOVE IN MY HEART. I LEFT WAYLAND, A BETTER PERSON, A STRONGER MAN. THE RIGORS OF STUDIES AND HIGH ACADEMIC DEMANDS HERE AT WAYLAND COMPELLED ME TO APPLY MYSELF SERIOUSLY TO MY STUDIES, KNOWING THAT THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO SUCCESS. THE CHAPEL WORSHIP SERVICES ENHANCED MY COMMUNION WITH GOD IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

THE FRIENDLY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TEACHERS HERE AND THE NON-RACIAL ATTITUDE OF THE STUDENTS MANY OF WHOM INVITED ME TO THEIR HOME-TOWNS ON WEEKENDS, CONVINCED ME THAT WAYLAND IS INDEED A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY. BUT I LEFT THIS UNIVERSITY WITH UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. WHAT KIND OF SPIRIT MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO GIVE LIKE WAYLAND GAVE? WHAT KIND OF SPIRIT COMPELS VIRTUAL STRANGERS TO GIVE THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY TO ENDOW PROFESSIONAL CHAIRS OR TO ERECT BUILDINGS TO SERVE THE NEED OF THE STUDENTS AND THE UNIVERSITY? THE ANSWER CAME MANY YEARS LATER. GIVING IS TRULY THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL. THANK YOU WAYLAND FOR THE PART YOU HAVE PLAYED IN MY LIFE. THANK YOU FOR THE PART YOU HAVE PLAYED IN MY FAMILY’S LIFE. THANK YOU FOR THIS AWARD. GOD BLESS WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY AND ALL OF YOU.

 

‘Diversity vs. Conformity’ Vienna Alumni Symposium

Members of Vienna’s business community joined Webster University alumni, students and staff for a Nov. 7 panel discussion on the topic of diversity and conformity within companies, the many problems that can arise from having a diverse workforce and equally diverse clientele, and what aspects of conformity are needed to find success in the international marketplace. More than 200 people gathered in the beautiful Palais Eschenbach in Vienna’s first district for this 4th Webster Vienna Alumni Symposium, “Diversity versus Conformity: Finding a Balance that’s Right for Business.”

More video clips from the event available at: http://www.youtube.com/webstervienna.

Eric Frey, managing editor of Der Standard, acted as moderator and posed questions to the panelist that drew from their experiences and expertise.

The panel included:

  • Benjamin Ola. Akande, dean, George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology, Webster University
  • Thomas Hintze, managing director, UPC Austria
  • Felix Thun-Hohenstein, managing director, 3M Austria and Switzerland
  • Erno Karl, IBM Intellectual Property Licensing, Europe
  • Doris Tomanek, head of HR Austria and CEE, member of the Board, UniCredit Bank Austria
  • Samantha Yarwood, marketing director, Switzerland & Austria, Starbucks Coffee Company

While cultural diversity remained the main theme for the night, other issues were brought up as well, including gender diversity and generational differences. Tomanek noted that while over 50 percent of Bank Austria’s employees were women, they make up only 25-30 percent of the managerial team. She also mentioned the importance of a healthy mix of younger and more experienced workers.

Good Prospects for Retailers

The National Retail Federation says 152 million bargain hunters will hit the stores this holiday weekend. Will this be the shot in the arm the US economy needs? Dr. Benjamin Akande, dean of business at Webster University, talked about the good prospects for this shopping season. Watch the video

Hope Is Not A Strategy

(CBS)  Benjamin Ola Akande is dean of the business school at Webster University in St. Louis. In this open letter to President Barack Obama, he offers his opinions on how to revive the economy and America's spirit.


Dear President Obama,

During the campaign, you offered America hope and promised to restore a civility and practicality to the nation's highest office so that, together, we could rise to the challenges and opportunities that lay at our doorstep. Now it's time to make some wise choices.

In your acceptance speech on the evening of Nov. 4, 2008, you were pointed in your statement that, "while we breathe, we hope." As president, your greatest challenge will be effectively leading a Cabinet of highly qualified and highly opinionated individuals who will undoubtedly have differing ideas on how best to resolve the major issues we face. Your leadership will be tested early and often, and while you have assured Americans that there will be setbacks and false starts, your willingness to make tough choices early on will set the tone for a revival of a shell-shocked economy and a battle-fatigued nation. Yet, the fact remains that hope will not reduce housing foreclosures. Hope does not stop a recession. Hope cannot create jobs. Hope will not prevent catastrophic failures of banks. Hope is not a strategy.

I would like to offer 10 priorities to consider:

1. The Deficit: Don't be concerned about increasing the deficit in the short term. There is an urgent need to stimulate the economy now -- not at any price, but almost. Your recovery plan must combine tax cuts and structured spending in areas that foster long-term economic growth, specifically energy, healthcare and education. This is one time when we need to act for today to ensure that tomorrow will be much better.

2. The Auto Industry: I want to urge you to reject extending additional bailout monies to the Big Three. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the best thing that can happen to these automakers. They need help quickly, but not in the form of government largesse. This is a time for "tough love" and not enabling poor performance, corporate arrogance and unwise decisions. They will thank you in the long run.

3. The New New Deal: There is urgency to rebuild America's roads and bridges, but the real opportunity is to anchor your recovery plan on a renewed energy policy that is timely and targeted. The imperative should entail: 1.) A green bailout for U.S. automakers; 2.) Green infrastructure; 3.) Tax credit for companies to produce alternative energy; 4.) A construction program for a new smart electric grid; and 5.) Increased investment in mass transit using green technology. The projects must be shovel-ready to get people back to work immediately.

4. 2009 Homeowner Protection Act: Now is the opportunity to change the bankruptcy laws to protect homeowners from the vagaries of the marketplace. We have expedited Chapter 11 bankruptcy for businesses to keep them from going under when they run into financial turbulence, and we should do no less for homeowners. It does no one any good to force poor and middle-income Americans out of their homes, and we know that vacant houses destroy even the best neighborhoods. An expedited homeowner protection plan would allow for the restructuring of the mortgages of millions of Americans who are under water. Stemming the flood of foreclosures will reinvigorate the confidence of banks and provide a shot in the arm for the credit market, putting the economy back on the right foot.

5. Strengthening Middle Class America: Your administration should push to expand the earned income tax credit as a relief measure for the middle class and give Americans making less than $150,000 a $500 tax credit per person on the first $8,100 in income. This will increase the rate of spending and the rate of savings by the middle class, which will be a source of new capital to spur growth.

6. A Health Plan for All: The greatest fear among most Americans is the possibility of losing their jobs; with the loss of jobs comes the real possibility of loss of health insurance. We need a comprehensive program that provides health insurance to the unemployed and to the uninsured, and it must happen post-haste. For a nation of our wealth to have any of our citizens go without heath care is nothing short of criminal.

7. Rewrite Financial Service Laws: One of the key reasons for the current financial crisis has been weak regulation of the financial services industry. There needs to be a comprehensive overhaul of enforcement policies of the Securities Exchange Commission. Require disclosure and stipulate new accounting requirements.

8. Restructure Bailout: The first $350 billion of the financial market bailout has done very little to jump-start the economy. The next $350 installment must be directed at assisting homeowners and expanding consumer credit.

9. Foster a Bipartisan Approach: Divisive politics got us into this mess - unifying politics can help get us out of it. The country can no longer afford to see things in terms of red and blue or black and white. The enduring solutions will emerge from the gray.

10. Caution to Consumers: President Obama, I urge you to use your presidential pulpit to speak to Americans, to encourage them to be cautious and prudent in their spending. While consumer spending is a key to the economic revival, at times it may be wise to counsel consumers to -- in the words of former St. Louis Fed President Bill Poole -- "Put their foot on the brake way before they get to the stop sign."

What America needs, more than ever, is your ability to give hope through your leadership. May you have the inner strength to move this nation from uncertainty to certainty. I wish you well.

My Best,

Benjamin Ola Akande

United States Yard Sale

3-March-2011. KTVI - Fox 2 TV St. Louis. The Federal Government could save billions of tax dollars each year by removing duplicate programs, agencies and offices. That's according to the Government Accountability Office. It found 81 examples of redundancy in the government programs. Congress and the White House continue to debate the budget. Dr. Benjamin Akande from the Webster University's George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology discusses.

Commerce Matters: Review of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture

27-May-2010Published in: Ladue News Author: Benjamin Ola. Akande

Who doesn't like a bargain? Saving money on everything from a pair of designer jeans slashed to half price to driving miles for gas a few pennies cheaper gives consumers a thrill and the sense of accomplishment. But what is the real cost of those bargains? That's the question posed by author Ellen Ruppel Shell in her book Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. And according to Shell, we are all overpaying.

Cheap starts with our nation's celebration of getting a good deal, like buying Manhattan for a few dollars worth of beads. But unlike land in those early days, everything else that was bartered or bought was usually in short supply and cost too much for the average American. Then mass production exploded and our population shifted from farms to cities. People needed goods, and convenience came into play. Still our parents and grandparents, the author says, were able to find pretty good value at a pretty good price. It's this distinction that we've lost. Consumers now equate low price with value. And the return on that investment, the book explores, is a lifetime of disposable goods.

To exemplify this new disposable lifestyle, the author spotlights the furniture manufacturer Ikea, which she says designs to a price. The company sets a price for a table, has artisans design it, then squeezes suppliers to get their products at the lowest possible cost. Inevitably corners are cut in labor, in concern for environmental issues, and of course in quality. The end result is a stylish table for little money that will last just long enough for the next trendy table to be designed.

The author says this disposable mindset makes consumers 'deal-prone.' We shop for the lowest price no matter whether we are getting the best value. It doesn't make sense, she admits, when we think about it rationally. But when we see something on sale for half off, we are more likely to buy it even if it doesn't fit our needs. Deep down we know this. But more important, manufacturers and retailers know it and price accordingly. Now, more than 30 percent of all goods are sold at discount compared to 30 years ago because marketers know a deal will get our attention and could compel us to buy.

So what are we really getting in our search for the deepest discounts? From a social responsibility standpoint, the author pinpoints violations of human rights and the environment in the food industry, as well as child labor abuses in manufacturing. From a common sense position, the author argues we are not doing ourselves any favors by buying cheap then discarding poorly made or not needed goods.

The power to turning around our love of a great deal, the author writes, is in our own wallets. We must demand to know the true costs of what we want to buy and then muster the strength to walk away without a purchase. That may be easier said than done for a country still reeling from a recession and historically high unemployment. But according to the author, in the long run, "releasing our country's ties from the low-price imperative could be priceless."

Boycotting BP gas stations would miss the mark, experts say

26-June-2010Published in: St. Louis Post Dispatch Author: Matthew Hathaway
Consumers can change the world simply by not buying — but boycotts don't always work that way.

Twenty years ago, South Africa was in the throes of cultural and economic isolation largely because consumers vowed to punish any companies doing business with the apartheid state. That international boycott is credited with helping bring down the country's racist system, and today a transformed South Africa is the focus of international sports as host of the World Cup.

If South Africa is the best example of just how mighty a consumer boycott can be, the campaign to punish BP might be its opposite - an ineffective response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that will most harshly affect small-business owners who had nothing to do with the disaster.

Yet this week, the Facebook page Boycott BP gained its 700,000th supporter.

And, in the real world, plenty of St. Louis consumers have stopped buying from BP stations, said Tracey Hughes, a spokeswoman for Wallis Cos. of Cuba, Mo., a distributor of gasoline to about 60 area BP stations.

"Everybody is feeling the impact, although there are pockets where the consumer backlash is stronger," said Hughes, who said some stations have reported double-digit declines in sales recently.

On Thursday, in a commentary published in USA Today, Public Citizen President Robert Weissman renewed that group's call for consumers to avoid BP stations for at least three months.

Innocents will suffer from a boycott, Weissman acknowledged, but "that can't be reason for consumers to forfeit their collective power to influence or punish bad-actor companies."

For a consumer boycott to work, business must feel its sting, either from lost sales or tarnished reputations, and they need to have a clear path to winning customers back. The apartheid-era boycott worked because it met both these criteria; the BP boycott does not, said Benjamin Ola Akande, the dean of Webster University's George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology and an expert in energy economics.

Boycotting gas stations flagged with the BP brand is, at most, a symbolic act that will have an insignificant impact on the company's bottom line, Akande said.

That's because BP owns fewer than 200 of about 11,000 stations bearing its logo. Those stations are owned by independent operators, and the gas they sell may or may not have been drilled by BP.

The oil giant does make money from these stations, but the company won't say how much. Industry experts have said that they believe it's insignificant and that the flagged stations' real value to BP are as platforms for corporate marketing.

Under a boycott, the flagged stations could become liabilities. They are the battlegrounds where boycotters can chip away at BP's cultivated public image, or at least that's the position of Public Citizen. In the long run, BP will suffer.

In the short term, the collateral damage of a boycott is overwhelmingly borne by independent operators who had no say in BP's drilling operations or gulf cleanup effort.

"If you're boycotting, you're missing your intended target," said Ronald Leone, executive director of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. "You're hurting local businessmen, their employees, the people they buy products from ... even the Little League teams they sponsor."

To make any BP boycott even more difficult, the company makes plenty of money from stations not bearing the BP logo.

For instance, angry consumers could end up skipping BP-flagged stations that, in fact, are selling fuel that was drilled by other firms and taking their business to another chain — or a non-branded service station — only to fill up their tanks with petroleum that was drilled, transported and sold by BP.

Patrick Welch, an economics professor at St. Louis University, compares the BP boycott with car buyers shying away from Toyota after that company's recall of more than 8 million vehicles because of unintended acceleration problems.

Toyota must respond to consumers' concerns because it has no other choice. The automaker can't simply sell its inventory to a competitor. But because BP has that option, "it can, to a large degree if not completely, dodge the bullet of a boycott," Welch said.

Leone agrees.

"Let's assume a boycott works, it ultimately isn't going to hurt BP corporate because they'll just sell their crude on the open market," he said. "It's not like the product isn't going to be sold."

10 Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Networking

6-July-2010Published in: Monster.com Author: John Rossheim, Monster Senior Contributing Writer

In this age of metrics, it's tempting for job hunters to seek solace in the sheer numbers of their effort: 200 job postings answered, 300 resumes mailed, 400 business cards collected for the purposes of professional networking.

But if you think about how these brute-force employment campaigns affect the professional on the other side of the desk -- the HR recruiter, the networking contact in a powerful position -- it quickly becomes apparent that the rack-up-the-numbers networker is on the wrong track. That's because these days employers are looking to select a very few outstanding professionals from a tidal wave of good people who just want a job.

So in the end, the quality-oriented networker, the thoughtful individual who always tries to give better than he gets, should have the advantage. Here are 10 points to keep in mind as you emphasize quality over quantity in your professional networking.

1. Quantity Is a Turnoff

If you hand out business cards like you're dealing poker, most folks will fold. "People don't want to do business with a card thruster," says Shel Horowitz, a marketing consultant in Hadley, Massachusetts. In fact, speed networking probably does not yield the best return on your investment of time. "Quantity networkers are forgettable individuals," says Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster University's George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology. "If a guy is just looking for his next consulting contract, I don't want to know him."

2. Don't Work the Room

Don't kid yourself: If you're always on the lookout for the next professional hookup, people will take offense. "When people spend 50 percent of the time looking over my shoulder, I don't feel warm and fuzzy," says Sally Haver, a senior vice president at The Ayers Group, an HR consultancy in New York City.

3. Take Time to Make a Real Connection

When you and a new acquaintance seem attuned, take time to explore how you might help each other out. "A lot of people figure that coming back from a networking opportunity with just one contact makes it a failure," Horowitz says. "But my hour with one good contact makes it a success."

4. Make Your Case for Building a Relationship

Recognize that if you're between jobs, you probably have more discretionary time than most of your valuable networking contacts do. "People are overrun with requests," Haver says. "Unless there's a compelling reason for someone to meet with you, they won't make the time." So work hard to make yourself useful.

5. Exchange Stories

Don't forget that you are more than the professional objective at the top of your resume. "Networking is about telling your story, describing your human competitive advantage -- what you do that nobody else can do," Akande says. And ask a new contact to tell you her story. "At the start of a professional relationship, I ask questions to get unique pieces of information about the person," Haver says.

6. Respond to Others' Challenges

There's no better way to establish a business networking relationship than to contribute to the solution of your new contact's pressing problem. "If someone states a challenge that they're facing, respond -- no later than the next morning -- with something of value that addresses their issue," says John Felkins, president of Accelerant Consulting Group, an organizational development consultancy in Bartlett, Tennessee.

7. Set Yourself Up for the Next Contact

If you intuit that a new contact will have lasting value, start building a bridge to your next exchange before you say your first good-bye. "I ask people what they�re working on right now, which gives me a segue to another contact," says Akande. "I make notes so that the next time I can say, 'You mentioned in our last conversation...'"

8. Make Yourself Useful, Again and Again

"If you consistently position yourself as a resource to others -- fellow college alums, former colleagues -- it will make you more valuable to your contacts, and, in turn, their contacts, as time goes by," says Amanda Guisbond, an account executive in the Boston office of PR agency Shift Communications.

9. Don't Forget Social Media

Social media are powerful tools for professional networking when used judiciously. But spam is distasteful no matter what the social medium du jour. So be selective, and use virtual contacts to supplement, not supplant, face-to-face meetings. As Horowitz puts it: "Social networking is deeply reinforced by an in-person connection."

10. Mind These Three Watchwords for Quality

Looking for a slogan to sum up quality networking? Try Haver's: Selectivity, discretion, mindfulness.

How to Increase Return on Your Strategic Planning

9-July-2010Published in: St. Louis Business Journal Authors: Benjamin Ola. Akande and Chuck Feltz

One of the costliest mistakes leaders make is unknowingly deviating from their core business strategy. Lack of patience, focus and execution create a layering of one strategy atop another before the earlier strategy has proven ineffective. This energy-sapping "Strategic Churn" exhausts organizations, disenfranchises stakeholders and conditions employees to await the next "grand vision" sent down by management.

Many factors derail successful strategy. But the most common are within the control of executive leadership.

Bad Strategy to Begin with

Flawless execution will not overcome flawed strategic assumptions. Underestimating market trends, customer needs or overestimating the organization's abilities to respond to them doom efforts from the start.

Similarly, driving the "old way harder" despite clear evidence of a changing market is a key driver of strategic sub-optimization. Executives must close their planning process by honestly answering the simple question: "What must we believe for this strategy to succeed?"

Confusing Planning With Delivery

Anyone who has experienced the intensity of a strong strategic planning process knows the relief of a successful conclusion. However, in successful organizations, this relief is temporary and management understands that the real work of delivery and execution has just begun. Many organizations mistakenly equate planning with execution and a plan with results. A plan for execution and resource alignment must be the final element to close the loop on a successful strategic planning process. Anything less reduces accountability, focus and success.

It is Disconnected From the Vision

Well-developed strategy answers the question "How will we achieve and monetize our vision?" It is the context for all decision-making and resource allocation. The link between your vision and your strategy must be crystal clear.

Don't have a clear and compelling vision? Get one. There is no more powerful engagement tool to help employees see how their everyday activities connect them to a grander purpose. Vision answers the burning question, "What will it look like when we succeed?" and every employee should expect their leadership to know this answer.

Underestimating the Change Management Aspects of Strategy

Executives are responsible for thinking about the "why and what" of strategy constantly, which is not the case with the rest of the organization whose everyday focus is oriented to how to do the work. As a result, executives are light years ahead of their organizations in understanding what drives the need to change and why the change must occur to remain successful. Ignoring this foundational axiom of change management makes aligning employees and strategy nearly impossible.

Why You Will Win is Implicit; It Must Be Explicit

It's risky to assume employees clairvoyantly understand their leaders' intentions and interpret them clearly. Executives have hundreds of hours of data analysis and knowledge building as a result of the planning process that shapes their understanding of why this strategy is a winner. Employees that are removed from the planning process and don't have this benefit crave their leaders' insight and confidence as to why the company will win.

Strategic Message Dilution

Nothing is more powerful than an organization whose people are laser-focused on driving vision to reality. Unfortunately, leaders assume traditional legacy communication channels are effective in disseminating this critical strategic information.

Every organization has a "strategic dilution point." The Corporate Game of Telephone differs between companies. In our experience it becomes problematic three levels down from the CEO.

The result? More than 80% of employees attempt to carry out strategy with reduced clarity and focus. Companies that avoid this pitfall excel at two things. First, they "empathically engineer" messages to assist managers to deliver communication in their own authentic voices to their audiences while maintaining content integrity and accountability. Second, they create effective channels and venues to deliver this critical communication.

Progress Reviews Are Ineffective and Rare

Effective organizations perform routine strategy self-examinations often in the implementation phase in order to critically assess progress, diagnose issues and make timely adjustments. A strong, ongoing review process is dialog driven and determines: Is accountability in place? Are milestones and metrics being met? Are original assumptions from planning still accurate? What is going well (poorly) and why? How are our competitors reacting to our strategy?

Even a great strategic plan will fail if not implemented as conceived or is not given time to prove its effectiveness. Great leadership devises strategies that are grounded in fact make implementation a priority and inspire confidence in those who carry them out. They put no less priority on execution and alignment than the planning effort itself. In doing so, the plan moves from the theoretical to the practical and from an intensive and resource-consuming event focus to a reflexive and ongoing part of the organizational culture.

BP, What Went Wrong?

6-August-2010Published in: CBS News Authors: Benjamin Ola. Akande and Chuck Feltz

We don't know all the details, but when we listened to Tony Hayward as he was grilled in Congress about BP's safety record, he kept saying he was changing things and that since he took over, there was a new focus on safety - more emphasis, more money spent on it, a new director of safety reporting directly to him. All great business schools teach these kinds of responses, but they are not the best in terms of human behavior-changing techniques.

We believe there were five reasons why BP failed in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tony's strategic message was diluted.

He believed safety was paramount, but that message never got to the guys operating the drill bits. Instead, they obviously thought that such things as time-to-production and costs were more important or they would have stopped drilling. Was their bonus plan in sync with the CEO's vision? Hayward's message never got conveyed in the manner it was conceived, yet he certainly felt he had covered it. It appears Hayward was not aware of where his message lost continuity.

Vendors such as Transocean were not true partners that shared the strategic vision.

Rather, it seems like they were adversaries at worst - and, at best - had goals that were poorly aligned with BP's. Did Hayward anticipate the right way to go about making certain his message addressed and was actionable for all key stakeholders? A strong message poorly executed and acted upon is of no value.

BP failed to realize that safety is a competitive advantage and not a cost.

It would seem that safety would be a keystone value or cultural attribute that, at the least, would represent a table stake, if not a direct competitive advantage. How could something so critical to the culture misfire so poorly? Did they really intentionally design their culture and plan to leverage it as an advantage?

First, safety reduces reputation risk; BP’s reputation is likely tarnished permanently with consumers, vendors and employees. Second, better safety reduces real costs in terms of property insurance, health care expense, payroll, regulatory compliance, fines and productivity. Employees who feel safe are better employees.

Obviously, the lack of safety here cost BP $20 billion and threw their years-long growth strategy out the window. BP is an entirely different company now; and worse, they are not calling their own shots.

Hayward thought safety was just about keeping people safe, but deep down, we bet he'd sacrifice a little safety or take some risk for profits. We’re not saying he would lightly see 11 people die, but if safety is viewed as an expense, then a good manager tries to artfully avoid it. If it is part and parcel of your strategic vision, you embrace it and exploit it.

Improperly valuing risk.

We've become so good as managers at mitigating risk that we have begun to put little value on it – much the same way that Wall Street misvalued risk and almost drove the world into depression. When managers are unaccustomed to seeing bad things happen often, they assume that they never will. Planes don't crash very often, but that doesn’t allow airlines to stop giving the safety speech before each flight. The odds of a car crash are small, but most of us still wear our seat belts. Technology has lulled us into a sense of false security about risk. We are so smart that our machines and our models protect us from having to worry about risk – until they fail to do so. They fail us, too, because they are designed by humans. So, you sink 10,000 wells and the worst-case scenario never happens; why should you think it might happen now? Unless your corporate culture is "better safe than sorry," you'll cut a corner if risk is deemed to be low. How many of us have driven to the store without wearing our seat belt? "It's just a few blocks," we say.

Diluting the strategic message.

No organization is more powerful than the one whose people are laser-focused on driving vision to reality. Unfortunately, leaders assume traditional communication channels are effective in disseminating this critical strategic information. However, our research has found that every organization has a "strategic dilution point" where there is degradation in the content and continuity of this message - typically three levels down from the CEO. The result? More than 80 percent of employees attempt to carry out strategy with reduced clarity and focus.

About the authors:

Benjamin Ola. Akande, Ph.D. (akandeb@webster.edu, twitter @Benjamin_Akande), Professor of Economics and Dean, George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology, Webster University, St. Louis, Mo.

Chuck Feltz (chuck@chuckfeltz.com, @ChuckFeltz) has been the CEO or president of five companies and is a founding partner of Engage Consulting Group. A 1989 graduate of Webster University, he is the co-author of the new book, Never by Chance: Aligning People and Strategy Through Intentional Leadership (Wiley and Sons, February 2010).

No Frills Society

16-August-2010Published in: Yahoo! News Authors: Benjamin Ola. Akande and Richard Ryffel

At JetBlue, the customer is always right; unless you're flight attendant Steven Slater and you're having a bad day, of course. In that case, you go on an expletive-laced rant and make an exit from the plane that would make a great pre-flight safety video.

It might be easy to excuse his behavior as just one fatigued flight attendant being "tired and not taking it anymore," as Howard Beale said in the 1976 film Network. But there is more to the American business culture and the airline industry that makes it likely we'll see an increasing number of such courtesy-challenged employees in the future.

What gives us confidence in predicting this sort of escapade will become more commonplace? The answer is the inability of airlines, their employees and their customers to agree on a profitable value proposition and allow equilibrium to return to the market.

Companies rushing to the cost leadership sector of the Porter Curve have dumped costly product features like a plane dumping fuel to make an emergency landing. To keep prices low, companies have cut quality and the level of service. Consumers, as a result, have become accustomed to free cell phones, $10 DVD players, disposable cameras, $5 five-minute massages and $99 coast-to-coast airfares. But, as we all know, you do get what you pay for, and since we pay little, we get little. Ellen Ruppel Shell noted this in her book, "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture."

Let's compare two cost-conscious, capital-intensive businesses - auto manufacturing and airlines. While automakers have historically done well at positioning premium value packages, airlines have not. Automakers, from almost the very invention of the motor carriage, have offered consumers a basic entry-level vehicle and, via tiered pricing, allowed consumers to move up the value curve. Toyota offers the basic Camry, the SE, the LE and the XLE. The basic car is a great value. If you want luxury, you buy it. The XLE is a phenomenal car. We are all familiar with Alfred Sloan's model for GM using different nameplates for different price and value points.

Airlines have gone in the opposite direction. Air travel began as an exotic service available only to the wealthy. After deregulation, it became more pedestrian. And then when oil prices rose, air travel became more costly to offer. Yet, many consumers still have a romantic notion of the way it used to be and how relatively little it cost.

To try to survive in this new world, airlines have tried a number of strategies, from implementing hub and spoke systems, to creating airlines within airlines, such as Ted (United), Jazz (Air Canada) and Song (Delta). Taking the opposite approach of automakers, airlines have also stripped their product to its skeletal basics – a seat on a plane that does not crash. Anything else you want, you pay extra for. You want to check a bag, speak to a human being, have a few inches to stretch out in, change your flight, standby, sit in an exit row – we’ll assign a value to it and make you pay for it. This is taken to the extreme by airlines such as Spirit and Europe’s Ryanair, which have considered charging for carry-on bags and using the lavatory.

We'd love to be a fly on the wall for the focus groups their marketing departments hold. Question - You are on a cross-country flight and need to use the restroom. Would you be willing to A) pay $5 to do so, B) pay $10 to do so, C) hold it, or D) soil yourself. I once flew People Express (the inventor of this air-travel madness) and was told at the counter when inquiring about a delay – "For $99 each way you can’t expect the flight to be on time."

But Americans' desire for low prices is not consistent with our desire for comfort. We all want a champagne breakfast on a beer budget. That makes us resentful when we are asked to pay "extra" for features we want - unlimited minutes, unlimited miles, a longer warranty. We all want a deal - something for nothing.

The result of airlines' race to the bottom is that customers are resentful. They feel that if they are paying "extra" for it, then it had better be perfect. If it is not perfect, it is the client-facing employees who hear about it. With more individual items being assigned a measurable value, there are more opportunities for unmet customer expectations - the warm beer, stale snack or dirty blanket. When all these items were "free" it was harder to be resentful at every turn.

This doesn't even take into account how mad many passengers are made by TSA-related indignities they suffer prior to boarding the plane; or worse, the passengers who endure being imprisoned on the tarmac due to air traffic or weather delays. All this animus is often unfairly directed at the carrier's line employees.

But let's not put all the blame on the passengers. Airlines also have cut employee pay and benefits and made work rules inflexible. This leads to stressed pilots and flight attendants and resentment on their part as well. I remember a flight on Eastern years ago as they were spiraling into one of their numerous bankruptcies and recall listening to two flight attendants complaining openly about airline management as they served drinks. Now that is customer service – Coffee, beer or whine with your meal, sir?

Thankfully, FAA oversight limits how much pilot resentment can impact passengers, since resentment on their part would have safety ramifications. Imagine, for a moment, if Mr. Slater were a pilot. Perhaps instead of deploying the emergency slide, he would have brought the plane in high and hot to give everyone a good scare!

This combination of frustrated employees and impatient passengers is an airborne powder keg. It is only a function of how many passengers are on the plane, how much sleep the attendants have had and how long the flight is. At some point, something is bound to erupt.

It is easy to see both sides of this story. It is impossible to excuse either. We fly a lot. We’ve been frustrated by bad service, bad food and bad weather. We’ve had pleasant flight attendants and shrews. We’ve been in good moods on our way to vacation and in bad moods after long business trips. We’ve also had difficult bosses, challenging clients and unfair feedback. Professionals act professionally and adults act courteously.

But since we know it is naive to expect everyone to behave appropriately all the time, airlines must create work environments that reduce employee frustration. They must devise a value proposition that does not create customer resentment. And they must train and monitor employees to ensure that tensions are defused and fatigue does not set in.

The good news is that this situation is beginning to resolve itself. Employers are learning that morale is so bad it is impacting them in ways they never imagined (How many people canceled trips on JetBlue this week? Will any sue?). They must respond by improving conditions for their employees.

Passengers, too, are beginningto realize that being "nickeled and dimed" is not a good alternative to fully priced, high-value air travel. Smart airlines will seize this business opportunity, as Southwest and NetJets already have in drastically different fashions.

For everyone's sake, we hope this happens quickly. If not, we may end up leaving the driving to Greyhound.