Signs of Destruction part 2

"The chairman of Cable&Wireless has told staff to expect 'hell for the next 12 months', as it restructures and targets very large customers rather than small fry." http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,39020336,39254463,00.htm 27 Feb 2006

"That's just the start," Pluthero said in a memo sent to C&W staff. "As we reduce the number of customers we serve, fix some of our problems, strip out layers of management, we will need fewer people to run the business... If you are worried that it all sounds very hard, it's time for you to step off the bus. This is no longer a place for the timid."

Here the sign of destruction will be the creative will within the company to make something happen in a positive way. Will the best staff stay? - or will the only ones who stay be a mixture of the don't care and can't get out?

What will happen in 12 months? Will C+W be leaner and fitter?

Self Efficacy - will yours change?

When you chase a new goal you may believe you can achieve it through an inflated idea of your own ability.

Some weeks later you may believe that you will never achieve your goal as the world conspires against you.

What I am interested in is whether you can go through an experience, for instance a new product idea, change your behaviour, and make discoveries about yourself.

Indeed this will give you a more accurate picture of what can and cannot be achieved. Your self efficacy will be more accurate and less prone to booms and slumps.

Would you agree that detatching your ego from a decision can be important? When did you learn that? Does that make you more able to be creative - as you are less blinkered?

The Starship Enterprise!!

The mission of the Starship Enterprise is "to boldly go where no man has gone before".

In a business context enterprising behaviour may well result in successful exploitation of an idea. This includes finding out what the customer needs. The following article was in The Times on the 9th of Feb 2006. It may make you smile!







Plot me a course for Planet Solvency, Mr Sulu
By Alan Hamilton
IT’S a flat, Captain Kirk, but not as we know it.

Tony Alleyne boldly went where no other DIY enthusiast had gone before when he turned his studio apartment in Hinckley, Leicestershire, into a replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

The flat included a life-size model of the show’s transporter room. He even reshaped his windows to look like portholes and set up vertical lights so that he can pretend to be “beamed up”, but the nine-year mission failed and Mr Alleyne, 52, came crashing back to Earth with a bump. Yesterday, at Coventry County Court, he admitted that he has been declared bankrupt with debts of £166,000.

Mr Alleyne spent more than £30,000 turning his modest Midlands residence into a Star Trek set, and another £100,000 marketing his firm, 24th Cen-tury Interior Designs, which offered to do the same for other people. Astonishingly, there were not that many takers.

As he spun into a black hole of debt in 2004, propelled by loans and credit cards, Mr Alleyne launched a rescue mission. He put his residence on the market for £700,000, but there were about as many potential buyers as there are waterfalls on Mars. The debts mounted. He realised that his whole concept was out of date, as Scottie could have told him.

So he gutted the flat and is now rebuilding it as the bridge of the later Star Trek series, Voyager. The work is funded by his income support payments, and the flat will shortly be put on the market again, at a price that should put him back on course for Planet Solvency.

“I did not set out with the intention of selling it; I enjoy science fiction interiors,” Mr Alleyne, a former club DJ, said, “but it has been valued at £850,000 because of its uniqueness. It’s the only one in the world; if it was in London it would probably be worth double that.”

Mr Alleyne blamed his troubles on his attempts to set up a business, using loans and credit cards, which he admitted was “pretty daft”. He felt confident, however, that he would find a buyer for his revamped pride and joy. Mr Alleyne is separated from his wife. Have you any idea why that might be, Mr Spock?

Innovation - how do you learn?

Schumpeter suggested that his sort of entrepreneur needed to be "special" as they were market making. There would be more barriers to overcome than a normal business person.

Consider the following:

When you first learn to swim you may be afraid of the water.

When you work with other people there may be areas of talk where you may not be prepared to go for the same reason.

In order to overcome the swimming phobia you have to learn to swim - and you can be taught.

In order to develop your innovation skills you may not be able to be taught - you have to learn yourself, albeit in the right environment.

If you described to other people how you might swim, and what the problems were - and then illustrated why swimming was difficult the result would be - swimming is difficult. There is no new information.

If you asked the right questions about your fear to others - they may or may not be able to help you. If they gave you advice - you could take it. There is an opportunity to swim - or do something different - providing there is sufficient motivation. If you are sufficiently motivated - you might try the approach again, and tinker with your actions each time. You might be refining your idea.

One of the key differences is having control over your emotions in the pursuit of new knowledge.

You are not - just doing things the ways that have always worked (even in a limited way) for you.

You are not - avoiding new things - as they are "scary" or not your area of expertise.

You are pursuing a logical path based on feedback mechanisms - only with people.

You may also be open to having creative moments along the way as you synthesize all the different experiences you have.

Easy?

"Opportunity focused"

"Are you a risk taker?"

I am told an innovator would always respond "no".

As ever the answer is about perception. If your company defends its market using strategies that were defined some years ago then is it taking a risk? How well do your strategies hold up in today's or even tomorrows market place?

Surely a better approach is to define what risks you face and confine them.

This could be part of a systematic approach of exploring potential innovations, pinpoint the opportunity and exploit it.

Innovators are therefore more focused on their opportunities, becoming "opportunity focused", future orientated, and aware of what is in front of them.

ref: Drucker - Innovation and entrepreneurship