The “right people on the bus” is one of the business concepts presented by Jim Collins in his classic book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t.” But do you know when, where, and how to find the “right people nationally or New Mexico?”  This workshop will provide you with practical tools to determine who’s needed when, how to compensate them, how to develop an effective recruiting strategy, and the “First 100 Days” plan to get your advisers or staff members productive quickly.
 
Already have a team in place? We’ll also discuss how to assess the strengths and gaps within your current team and how to develop and implement a development plan to scale their contributions to higher levels. No employees yet or in the near future? Perhaps a technical, industry, or strategic advisory board member can accelerate your progress? There will be plenty of time for networking at this event, you may meet an ideal employee or advisor at this event!

The following are the logistics and the Northern New Mexico Connect registration link.

Innovators’ Forum
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Santa Fe Complex
624 Aqua Fria,  Santa Fe, NM
 
RSVP contact
This event is free so feel free to bring your lunch and refreshments will be provided. http://nnmconnect.ecenterdirect.com/ConferenceDetail.action?ID=6  Please RSVP by Friday June 25, 2010.

Business partnerships seen boosting causes

March 19, 2010

Partnerships with trusted businesses help draw attention to nonprofit causes and are more likely to make consumers feel good about the causes and actively support them, a new survey says. Seventy-eight percent of Americans surveyed for the 2010 Cone Nonprofit Marketing Trend Tracker believe a partnership between a nonprofit and a company they trust makes a cause stand out. And 56 percent of consumers say they are more likely to feel positively about the nonprofit and actively support it.

Conducted for Cone Inc. by Opinion Research Corp., the survey interviewed 1,055 adults and found 59 percent of Americans are more likely to buy a product associated with the partnership, 50 percent are more likely to donate to the nonprofit; 49 percent are more likely to participate in an event for the nonprofit, and 41 percent are more likely to volunteer for the nonprofit.

“Leading nonprofits are transforming their missions into breakthrough cause brands by harnessing the power of corporate partnerships to rally new supporters with a compelling call-to-action,” Alison DaSilva, executive vice president at Boston-based Cone says in a statement.

“While we have seen many companies reap the benefits of cause-related partnerships, these results reveal the same benefits hold true for the nonprofit brand,” she says. “Strategic corporate partnerships can help nonprofits stand out and create new, loyal ambassadors.”

The survey says 61 percent of consumers actively look for partnership details before deciding to advocate for a cause or donate to it, while 75 percent want to know the results of the partnerships, and only 45 percent believe nonprofits and companies disclose enough information about their partnerships.

And Americans continue to see traditional channels of communication as effective ways for nonprofits to reach them with a message or call to action with 81 percent saying word-of-mouth from family or friends is effective and 80 percent saying traditional media are effective, for example, compared to 59 percent saying email is effective, 49 percent saying social media channels like Facebook and Twitter are effective, and 29 percent says mobile devices and text-messaging are effective.

In contrast to simply donating dollars for public relations benefit, in-house altruism today means ubiquitous dedication to real causes. In this video clip from Standford Universities Entrepreneurial Corner, Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director for Google.org, points out that effective business-backed giving means global outreach, partnerships with experts at the heart of solving problems, and a dedicated percentage of gross income to keep these projects afloat. I encourage you view additional clips from this excellent site found at http://ecorner.stanford.edu

 The Next Wave of Corporate Philanthropy

The above statement may seem counter-intuitive in today’s economic climate, but not according to a recent report funded and published by the McCune Charitable Foundation and New Mexico Community Capital. One of the actions recommended in their May 2009 report is ,”strengthen our base of experienced mid- and senior-level managers. Without exception business leaders and entrepreneurs noted this as a significant barrier to growing companies in the state. In the study, 67 percent of the respondents noted this undersupply of experience leaders and entrepreneurs as one of their chief concerns.”

While New Mexico is blessed with scientific and technical talent at Los Alamos National Laboratory (near Santa Fe) and Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, candidates with deep industry sector expertise, global supply chain, business development, or “C-Suite” experience in early-stage and/or  lab-to-market  companies are in shorter supply. Some early-stage firms are open to “virtual” working relationships which are especially attractive to candidates who prefer not to relocate or whose roles (especially business development) can be performed in any city with good travel connections.

How can you explore New Mexico-based opportunities? One option is to visit the Opportunities section of my web site (www.sustainableventuresalliance.com) and submit your resume, another is to contact me directly to discuss your professional interests, and finally to research some of the leading venture capital firms that invest in New Mexico (such as Flywheel Ventures) to learn about companies in their portfolio where you could make a difference. Good hunting!

The authors suggest acquiring, retaining, and motivating results-orientated people, sharing and scaling equity in the enterprise, and rewarding :boldness and success.” Probably nothing you haven’t read in most business publications or heard from every training course or professional speaker during your career. So what are  the true lessons here, and how can they be applied in this challenging economy?

For one, acquiring talented people frequires new staffing strategies. In the course of leading two recent Founder/CEO searches for early-stage companies, I’ve found that the total pool of qualified candidates is actually larger since these companies have a shorter runway to profitability and many are primarilyabout organizational survival. I’ve also found serial entrepreneurs interested in “getting back into the game” as a diversification (or recovery) strategy within their retirement portfolio.

I believe that the traditional early-stage staffing model is evolving from full-time hires to virtual teams formed “just-in-time” to tackle due diligence, proof-of-concept, and related business issues in early-stage and portfolio companies. Some talented people are reluctant to commit to full-time roles with a prolonged time to an exit by IPO or acquisition, especially if a relocation is required. And venture capitalists are reluctant to invest if a rapid path to revenue and a sound implementation plan is in place.

The solution could be accessing a robust pipeline of seasoned players with complementary skills that launch, accelerate, and implement key business initiatives to grow, realign, or turnaround early-stage organizations. In this model, “harnessing” talent requires the additional skills of working in a virtual team, contributing functional and industry strengths in clearly defined roles, and achieving meaningful results rapidly applying a “First and Every 100 Days” methodology.

I plan to present a slate of Founder/CEO and virtual team finalists to my fellow New Mexico Angel deal partners next Thursday after a final round of meetings with the prospects and our inventor. I’ll report out on our decision and implementation plan in my next blog entry. Thoughts and comments?

The organization may focus on three to four key measures that can be measured qualitatively or quantitatively. Effective performance can then be accelerated by setting baseline measures and taking actions to improve results and then resetting the baseline.

Accountability may be shared across organizational units if a team of department leaders is formed and the senior leadership team reviews their results on a regular basis. This approach minimizes the risk of “siloed” groups and blaming others for lack of progress and aligns the resources toward common objectives.

Accelerating individual leadership performance during the first 100 days after a merger and acquisition or leadership change is also critical. Most research studies indicate that taking too long to align the organization and engaging the team is a leading cause of under-performing against key objectives.

What do private equity firms have to teach about performance acceleration? In my view, it’s their urgency in getting the right people in the right roles and focused on the right things so they can shift their focus elsewhere within their portfolio of companies.

A leading venture capitalist told me last week that his firm passes on many potential investments because of concerns that the leadership team must to be significantly upgraded to meet new strategic demands rather than the organization’s products, technology, or services.

The implication? Build the competencies necessary to accelerate performance before you meet with potential investors as they will benefit your career and organization regardless of your funding.

So is planning for change still possible and practical? I believe that without at least a conceptual framework and understanding of key change principles the alternative is fear and “circling the drain”. 

The  current book we’re discussing, Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use, suggests that organizations do the following when they invest in a new venture;

• Develop a road map for 3-5 key initiatives and focus
• Start macro, and work down to what you will do differently on “Monday morning.8 am” – that is, the actional to-do list
• Be specific and pragmatic
• Let the facts win the day
• Create excitement and alignment
• Budget two to six months (at least the first time)

This bulleted list proposes to balance action, facts, and emotion with focus and alignment to choose, drive, and maintain critical business initiatives. Since an investor’s time frame is now 3-5 years (if not 7 depending on how our economy evolves) the day-by-day roller coaster is annoying but manageable. Certainly “things happen” but aside from war, death, and disease (both personal and organization) the path remains open.

You may have noticed that I’l retitled my blog and primary business Sustainable Ventures Alliance LLC. My reasoning is that businesses must focus on sustainability first and that alliances allow access to talented people, capital, and customers. I’ll be writing more about this concept in future blogs and as always, welcome your comments.

The human capital side of the investment equation has traditionally received less emphasis during the due dilligence process, except for quantative analysis of benefit plans, pension obligations, and salary costs.

I believe that determining the full value of any investment benefits from a review of the organization’s talent pipeline, ability to access external talent, potential flight risks; and leadership team gaps that could swiftly erode an organizations’ ability execute against their strategic objectives, and current human capital performance such as turnover rates, staffing metrics, employee engagement indicators, and who and when ot offer retention, development, or separation agreements.

I spoke to the Executive Director of a large angel investing organization recently and he told me that in his experience early stage companies rarely failed due to poor technology or financing, but rather a leadership team whose talent, knowledge, and execution gaps doomed it’s ability to scale to the next milestone.

Where does qualitative human capital due diligence fit within your valuation process?

Andy Kris is the Director of HCI’s Talent Leadership track and will host tomorrow’s broadcast and among our  topics will be the book, Memo to the CEO: Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use by Orit Gadlesh and Hugh MacArthur of Bain and Co.

It was published by the Harvard Business Press on 2/07/08 and I’ve applied many of their six lessons in my own coaching and consulting practice and as an angel investor. You may download information about the book at http://www.bain.com/bainweb/publication.

You can register for tomorrow’s broadcast under the Talent Leadership and Comprehensive On-Boarding tabs at http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org.

Also, please visit my blog for further information and applications of these important private equity business principles.