Business X factors

The U.S Bureau of Labor statistics reported that people quitting their jobs rose to 4.3 million in August 2021. Professor Anthony Klotz coined the term for this mass exodus, the “Great Resignation.”

On the surface, it’s not good for business nor is it good for people. We’re way past the canary in the coal mine. If a three-alarm fire is bad, how bad is a 4.3 million alarm fire? What about a fire alarm with millions more? 

Certainly, the pandemic has had its effect in the Great Resignation, but to say that workers are leaving their jobs only because of that one factor is a huge oversimplification and a poor excuse. The reality is that, for way too long, companies have searched for all the ways they can make more money and have ignored their most precious asset in doing so — their employees.

Bradley Rencher, the Chief Executive Officer of BambooHR, believes that employees have been left out of the business conversation for far too long. BambooHR is a HR company that builds software products to help businesses create positive experiences for their employees. BambooHR supports more than 20,000 businesses and has millions of users all over the world. 

But to reach this success, BambooHR first had to learn how to take care of its own employees. What is BambooHR’s X-factor that has helped it nurture its greatest asset so everyone and everything at the company can really be an asset to their own customers? Find out on this episode of Business X factors.

Main takeaways: 

• It’s the Values, Not the Money: Despite the overriding perception of many employers that money leads to job satisfaction, a survey by global jobs website, Glassdoor, indicated that three out of five jobseeker said they’d consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there, while 73% indicated they would not apply to a company unless its values aligned with their own. Employers who look to boost recruitment and retention should prioritize building a strong company culture and value systems by listening to employees, being transparent, providing regular feedback and having visible leaders that practice what they preach. 
• Poll Your Employees: When companies start losing employees, an anonymous survey could be an eye-opener to find out what makes them unhappy. Make the survey detailed enough to get the answers you want, encourage everybody to take part, then analyze and share the results and step in to make changes. 
• The Culture = The Founder: Company founders inspire the culture of an organization whether they intend to or not. The problem is that culture often gets twisted in the growth path with the focus more on building than the original vision of the founder. To get back to the core values, remember why the company was started in the first place and get back to the vision of the founder or founders.  
• Nail the One-on-Ones: Whether it is the first meeting when an employee starts or a regular check-in, one-on-ones are one of the most important productivity tools you have as a manager, according to Elizabeth Grace Saunders, author of How to Invest Time Like Money. Managers should block regular time in their schedules, prepare discussion points, be fully present, share a win or something positive, express gratitude and most importantly, listen and don’t make it just about work.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s easy to imagine politicians and traditional lenders as old school Chatty Kathy dolls… you pull the string and utterances about the importance of small business come out of their mouths. You might hear: “Small businesses are the foundation of this country,” or, “small businesses are America’s engine.” 

There’s a reason that politicians, and lenders like banks, at least pay lip service to the importance of small businesses. It’s because there are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States and they comprise 97.5 percent of exporters. Small businesses are America’s economic engine — that’s a fact. But, historically, they have had difficulty securing money from lenders. Oftentimes, they aren’t really acknowledged at all by the big banks and if they are, they are treated as economic tools for growth rather than as equals. 

But what if a fintech company came along that respected small businesses as partners; that quickly and accurately measured them for their true value, and then worked to efficiently provide them the resources they needed, even before they actually needed it? 

Cetin Duransoy is the Chief Operating Officer at Fundbox, which he describes as a fintech company that has small business etched into its genetic code. It serves almost 300,000 clients and uses the power of digitization, data science, and A.I. to form relationships with small businesses and ensures that they have the loans and lines of credit they require to operate successfully. 

Even though many politicians and lenders extol the virtues of small businesses, what is Fundbox’s special X factor that helps it not only talk the talk but walk the walk? What is it that keeps Fundbox in that pocket seeing itself as a tool for clients rather than clients as a tool for the company? Find out on this episode of Business X factors.

Main takeaways: 

• Partners are the Key: Strong partnerships with other companies or small and medium-sized businesses can help to scale businesses to new levels. For startups that tend to have a solid grip on innovation but struggle to reach key markets, it is important to have partners. A McKinsey study identified principles for successful partnerships, such as commitment and attention on both sides; bridging cultural and technological differences; pilot projects to find the sweet spots; key performance indicators should be defined and monitored; and, the focus should be on joint product development rather than general programs. 
• The Little Mistakes Matter: Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway said in one of his shareholder letters, “It’s remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid.” CEOs often focus on avoiding the big mistakes, but it is not just about avoiding the whoppers; it is execution or avoiding mistakes at every level, including at the micro-level that affects customers’ experience. Solving issues or ensuring execution at micro-levels do contribute to success or failure. Getting them right can lead to something greater down the road. 
• Work Back from Customers’ Needs: Many companies figure out what to do next by building on what they’re really good at doing. George Bezos called it a “skills-forward approach” in one of his shareholder letters. The skills-forward approach says, “We are really good at X. What else can we do with X?” But this approach would not lead to developing fresh skills and give customers what they really want. To take your business to the next level, start by thinking about what customers want or need, and work backward to determine what you can build. When Amazon developed the Kindle, the company used this approach, hiring people with the right skills to engineer a device that customers needed rather than creating a product out of their existing skills. 

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In our universe, there are 200 billion trillion stars. That number is unfathomable to the human brain. The 200 part is something for the mind to try to hold onto, but a billion trillion… no way… we can’t do it. For atoms in the observable universe, the number is somewhere in the range of ten quadrillion vigintillion to one-hundred thousand quadrillion vigintillion atoms. That’s inconceivable (not to mention super hard to say).

There’s a lot of information in our own universe; let alone other universes. We can call all of this data, and at this point, we’re all aware of the potential value of data. But data without perspective is totally useless. HG Insights has always been keenly aware of this truth. Realizing the value of HG Insights’ in offering a unique perspective on troves of data, Elizabeth Cholawsky joined the company and fearlessly took it on a different path. 

But what made Cholawsky stick to her guns and how did she hone her convictions to transition the company toward providing technical intelligence and solutions for the big brain problems? Find out on this episode of Business X factors.

Main takeaways: 

• Stick to Your Conviction: Business leaders often run into opposition when they want to take the company or a business into a new direction. But sticking to your convictions and honing them throughout your career could lead to surprising results. When Walt Disney planned a full-length animated feature after two successful cartoon series, it was called “Disney Folly” with many detractors believing it would destroy the studio. He pushed forward, running out of money, but ended up taking home an Oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and a whole new segment of the movie industry was created.
• Get Fired at Least Once: When you walk out with a measly box of goods you accumulated in the office or worse that has been handed to you at reception because you weren’t allowed back in the office building; it can be hard to get over the feelings of rejection and shame. But staying In jobs that you may be unsuited for or where you have a toxic manager and live in fear of being fired is not good for anybody. Leaving or being fired may open new horizons and most importantly you will get stronger with every transition — getting fired could be an inoculation against fear. Getting terminated because you stuck to your convictions or values could be empowering even if it does not feel like that at that moment.
• A Big Brain Approach to Problem-Solving. For many companies finding a solution to problems means honing in on a narrow set of data or information. In their book, Bulletproof Problem Solving: the One Skill that Changes Everything, Rob McLean and Charles Conn advocate a wider and more comprehensive approach to problem solving. They use the example of obesity, where it has been hard to find the right intervention. In their research, they did not merely look at calorie intake, income, and education, but also wider to something that nobody was talking about, and that was walkability. They spotted that calorific use in Japan was lower because of the structure of their cities – walking to the train station and to the office, which introduced a new set of data that nobody thought about and a major opportunity for cities to rethink their design.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are typically described in the form of a pyramid with each layer building on the last. From the base of the pyramid to the top, the layers are physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, and self-actualization. What if we imagined these needs differently... like parts of a body, and the heart is really “belonging and love?” Without the heart, the rest of the body cannot live. With the heart, the body thrives and the possibilities for a fulfilling life expand. And now, what if you apply this theory to business? 

Mark Taylor is the Senior Vice President and the Global Practice Lead for Cognizant Digital Experience and for him, the heart level of belonging and love in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is what he is most concerned about. When it comes down to it, the heart level is about establishing relationships. So how does this massive, international company build such high-quality relationships with its clients and even encourage them to do the same with their customers? And what is the special cognizance, or awareness that Cognizant has that allows its team to stay close with their clients? Find out in this episode of Business X factors. 

Main takeaways: 

• Get Ready for the CX  Renaissance: When businesses talk about customer experience or CX, they used to mean traditional sales and marketing touchpoints along the customer journey. This included attentive store attendants, clear, simple and beautiful websites and when executed well, it meant customer retention and acquisition and increased sales and loyalty. According to Accenture, the value proposition of CX is however stalling because many of the fundamentals of CX are now commonplace and no longer enough for differentiation and growth. Companies should be galvanized to push beyond the CX philosophy and reimagine their entire business through the lens of experience. Everyone in the company should be responsible for focusing on delivering superior experiences, not only the marketing team.  
• Experience is a Tech Opportunity: While investing in tech tools seems to be the obvious way to improve customer experience, it is not as straightforward as that. What you need is the right tools in the hands of the right team. Seek out the tools that can scale for purpose and provide valuable insights hour-by-hour. In busy periods, you may need to grow your CX team quickly to keep up with demand or reassign existing staff members to make sure you have the right people in the right place at the right time. Get quick feedback on customer data and insights to keep a finger on customer contact with powerful, real-time analytics tools. But it is not only about the tools, you also need a team that is well-trained with a shared mission and invested in success who are setting the tone for the business. 
• Concentrate on the Moments that Matter: When considering customer experience, it is easy to fall in the trap of believing everything has to be perfect and that all dimensions of an experience are equally important. Research by KPMG has found that it is the moments that matter, especially those that give the client cause to reflect on the nature of the relationship and consider whether the brand promise has been kept. To capture the moments that matter; remember that first impressions count in every walk of life, deliver on initial promises, know your customers and use opportunities to demonstrate industry, client and product understanding and concentrate on client reviews. Business is driven by referral and the curation of reputation is critical. Furthermore, you should take opportunities to add value and reduce cost, time and effort, anticipate issues, fix pitfalls before they occur, have a Plan B and have empathetic and emotionally intelligent responses to customers and clients.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

People argue that art can be many different things. Art is beauty, for its own sake. Art is commercial... or not. At its core, art is disruptive. 

From Monet to Banksy, art challenges the status quo; it provokes people to feel and think. It involves activating the imagination. Andre Breton, one of the founders of surrealism wrote in his 1924 “Manifesto of Surrealism: “The imagination is perhaps on the point of reasserting itself, of reclaiming its rights.”

Imagination corresponds to change. To change the world, artists first have to see it differently and then manifest that into their mediums. The same thing is true for entrepreneurs, and for  companies. The key is training the mind to be comfortable with change. 

For Scott Lynn, the CEO and Founder of Masterworks, being comfortable with change and constant iteration is much more important than execution in building a new business. And Lynn used this philosophy to take on an antiquated market geared for the ultra-wealthy — the art world. 

Masterworks acquires pieces of art, turns them into securities through public filings with the SEC, and then presents them as products to investors through its platform. To find out how this lover of art provided access for many art investors who never had that opportunity before and how he digitized the art market, tune into Business X factors.

Main takeaways: 

• Create Luck Through Iteration: Innovation and iteration go hand-in-hand. In fact, many inventors have a cupboard full of failed projects or prototypes. Failure is not the end of the story, it’s just another step forward. Initiatives that don’t work create a building block for future success. Entrepreneurs should iterate like crazy because the probability of success increases with every attempt. 
• Find A Gap: There are erroneous assumptions in many industries. An example of this is how the American automobile market assumed in the 70s that it could not face competition from Japanese automakers. Some markets may appear to be impenetrable as they have been operating in exactly the same way for decades or sometimes even centuries. But new entrepreneurs can find gaps in old industries if they know how to look. Keep up with changes in regulation and legislation, look for redundant middlemen, search for those industries with disgruntled customers or copy a gap that somebody else found in the market and do it better.  
• Make It Easy To Understand: Sometimes, if what you’re doing seems complicated at first blush, people will instinctively shy away. You have to ease people into new ideas by making them easy to understand. Try comparing what you’re doing to a market or idea that already exists, or relate your idea back to something commonplace so that you don’t lose people’s interest before even starting your pitch.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I’m about to flip a coin so call it in the air. Heads or tails? … What did you choose? If you were making a bet, which side of the coin would you bet on and how much are you willing to lose? In the movie The Dark Knight, before he becomes a villain, Harvey Dent is the white knight. He takes risks and flips a coin to make major decisions betting that luck will make him a winner. It seems foolhardy until you come to realize, actually, he makes his own luck. BT Global operates much the same way. The difference is that where Harvey Dent takes a villainous turn, BT maintains its longstanding heroic posture, driven to connect the world for good. Still, like Dent, BT is always playing two hands at once, betting on both sides of the coin to make its own luck. It is what Chet Patel, the Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director, Americas at BT, says has helped the company make its own luck for more than 100 years. How did BT do it and how does it work with and prepare customers for problems right now and those to come?  Find out on Business X factors.

Main Takeaways: 

• Make Your Own Luck: Rather than take a passive approach, companies need to always be working to set themselves and their customers up for success. In order to make your own luck you have to dig into a number of areas of your business, work to disrupt yourself, and always keep an eye on the competition and never be afraid to go head-to-head with them. 
• Develop Product Paranoia: The saying goes that every cloud has a silver lining, but in an uncertain, disruptive, ever-changing world, looking for the dark cloud in the silver lining can help you to prepare for the next storm. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines insisted on lean operations and cost-cutting in good times to be prepared for the next storm and at BT, there is always an assumption that the competitors in the field are working to out-innovate and surpass the company, which creates a sense of urgency and creativity that might not otherwise exist.
• Give Customers a Future Roadmap: Many companies are reluctant to share their future roadmap with customers because they don’t want there to be any disappointment if things don’t go to plan. Sharing a roadmap can, however, lead to valuable customer feedback and it creates a relationship of trust with customers. When you share your plans, customers can see exactly what you are working on and they would feel more invested in your company. But it is important to follow through and implement great ideas otherwise customers could lose trust in your company.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The company was a Goliath in its industry and Marissa had a lot of respect for it. But she also knew the company was facing hard times, and when she got the call asking her to join the team as CEO, she knew that turning things around would be no small feat. 

The company had an attrition rate of close to 25% - meaning 1 in 4 people were leaving. It had cycled through six CEOs in the last 5 years. The stock price was dropping and revenue losses were at an all-time high. Most news sources, investors, and business execs agreed that the company was on the way to the grave. To join the sinking ship would be crazy -- and Marissa knew it was crazy.

But, of course, we wouldn’t be sharing her story if she hadn’t taken the leap. 

Marissa started as CEO the day her appointment was announced. But rather than jump in, take the wheel, and try to save the ship, for the first 90 days, she did… nothing. She didn’t present a strategy, she didn’t cut off hemorrhaging lines of business, she didn’t try to recruit a new team — no, she remained silent, and, for three months, all she did was listen. 

It’s a technique many notable CEOs have used when entering a new organization, and it’s one that Steve Murphy, CEO of Epicor Software, has relied on time and time again. What exactly helped Steve and Epicor write a new ending to their story. How did he turn Epicor into a thriving business making more than $900 million in revenue, with 20,000 customers in more than 150 countries? Find out on Business X factors.

Main takeaways: 

• Talk Less, Listen More: If you want to become a better leader of a business team, become a proactive listener. Especially when a business is going through big changes or is at an inflection point, leaders should not be tempted to rush and communicate what’s on their mind. The first step is to listen to customers and your workforce and to engage, to be able to understand. Astute leaders know that surrendering the floor is how you get to understand what is on the mind of others. The smartest person in the room is often not the one doing the talking; it is the person who is engaging and asking relevant questions and doing most of the listening. 
• Rewind, Take Stock, Move Forward: Steve Jobs famously said at Stanford University that you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. For companies, this rearview mirror to connect the dots of past mistakes makes great sense in finding out what was broken and why it was broken. By looking back or taking a step back, you can develop a tactical tool kit that will help you to move forward. Weave the lessons you learned in the past into a future strategy and move on toward a more successful future.
• Putting Out Small Fires Won’t Do It: When businesses experience problems, you can examine and try to fix a range of symptoms, like missed deadlines, low morale, lack of materials or software problems or put out the small fires. A better solution is to dig deeper into the root causes of problems, diagnose the underlying issues with your team. Root cause analysis consists of defining the problem, digging below the surface for the underlying conditions that gave rise to the problem. Design and implement a solution with buy-in at all levels and evaluate the success. 
• Managers Don’t Need to be Liked: Managers' relationships with their teams can often seem like that of a tightrope walker between too close and too distant. As a boss is often the reason why people leave a company; it is important to get it right. Friendliness and respect without friendship create balance and this balance needs to be constantly adjusted. To get the balance right: Focus on the job you have to do, it’s about delivering results; set the boundaries between you and your team, but give descriptive feedback on what has been done and the impact it had; keep emotional self-control; take responsibility if things go wrong; know your team by taking time to listen. Give respect and it will be given back.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There is a certain level of risk associated with every aspect of life. Some things are riskier than others. Jumping out of a plane puts you in more danger than making yourself some toast in the morning —unless in the unlikely event that you happen to live with a homicidal toaster, right? You can look up all the information on your own about how many people die in skydiving accidents every year versus how many die making toast. But you don’t have to — we’ll give you the answer to that question, but, ultimately, what will that information tell you and how will knowing the answer change your behavior?

LogicGate is a company that looks at risk fundamentally different from most others. According to Gina Hortatsos, the CMO of LogicGate, risk management should not be fear-driven – in fact, the company considers risk as a strategic advantage. How does LogicGate turn risk on its head in a way that makes it something that its customers not only feel comfortable with but actually leverage to do great things? Find out on Business X factors.  

Main takeaways:

• Knowledge Reduces Fear: Fear of failure stalks the business world and fear is not only a specter for entrepreneurs, even success can provoke anxiety. Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani said he was afraid every day while building his multibillion-dollar business because if he failed so many lives would have been affected. A powerful antidote for the fear of failure is increasing one’s capabilities, seeking support, being willing to pivot, gathering knowledge and undertaking research to know the actual risk you are facing. 
• Whack-a-mole Is Not a Risk Strategy: Vulnerability and risk management have traditionally been treated as a whack-a-mole game with managers addressing problems as they emerge. With senior management under ever more pressure to demonstrate compliance and make risk-sensitive decisions, it is important that senior management know where the moles are without having to ask. To do that, capture key regulatory risk metrics, monitor appropriate data and adopt risk metrics across the business. Make sure that you have a persistent view of risk levels that is accessible to all the relevant managers. 
• Mix Passions: We are often told that a “jack of all trades is a master of none,” meaning you should concentrate on that one thing you are good at or passionate about. You could in fact merge two divergent passions into one and trailblaze a new path. Some of your soft skills or your passion for something unusual could lead to a new career or business. 

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A rogue, dead, spy satellite is plummeting toward Earth. At impact, it will cause devastation — a toxic spill could cover an area the size of two football fields. This satellite has to be taken out. 

This is not a retread Hollywood movie, with a superhero soaring in to save the day. No, this actually happened. But there was no superhero or savior from another planet to fly in and redirect the satellite. 

Instead, a company and its team were tasked to ensure a missile would strike the satellite’s fuel tank while the satellite was moving at 17,000 miles an hour. The satellite was the size of a school bus, and the fuel tank was the size of one seat on a bus. So how did we avoid a catastrophe?  And what company did we trust with the mission? 

The answer is Lockheed Martin, a company with a legacy spanning more than one hundred years which includes serving America and its allies by providing the technology required to ensure security and freedom. Stephanie C. Hill is the Executive Vice-President of Rotary and Missions Systems at Lockheed Martin. She leads more than 35,000 people who work on more than a thousand programs ranging from helicopters to integrated air and missile defense to cyber solutions and beyond. So the question is how is it possible for Stephanie and her team to have a culture of stepping back, and staying calm, even at the most tense, perilous moments like when an incoming satellite poses a huge danger? Find out on this episode of Business X factors.

Main takeaways: 

• Stepping Back to Move Forward: Pushing forward through difficulty and problems are often used as mantras for success. But as mountain climbers would attest to, it’s never a straight walk to the top. There are many twists and turns to get to the summit and sometimes the best thing to do is to step back, take stock and make changes in order to move two steps forward. Business leaders who are constantly moving and pushing forward sometimes need to step back or sideways to get a wider view of the business, listen to clients and consider changes or other paths they can follow that will lead them higher quicker or more efficiently.
• Diversity Unlocks Innovation: While managers generally accept that they do benefit from a diverse workforce, it can be hard to measure how a company’s ability to diversify helps the bottom line. Research by Harvard has proven that firms with two-dimensional diversity out-innovate and out-perform others and they also are 45% likelier to report a growth in market share and 70% likelier to report capturing a new market. Diversity unlocks innovation by creating an environment of “outside-the-box thinking. As a leader, you should ensure that everyone is heard, allow for an open environment to propose novel ideas, share credit for success, give feedback that can be actioned, and implement feedback from teams without bias.
• Ask The Dumb Question: Many companies are not set up to encourage people to ask questions, but by asking a seemingly dumb question, businesses may learn about a problem they overlooked or did not think existed. Solutions and insight often come from someone who had the guts to ask the dumb question. Avoiding asking hard questions can lead to companywide groupthink and there could be a lack of clarity and cohesion in companies and organizations.

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Business X factors is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by Hyland. 

For over a decade, Hyland has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms, leading the way to help people get the information they need when and where they need it. More than half of 2019 Fortune 100 companies rely on Hyland to help them create more meaningful connections with the people they serve. When your focus is on the people you serve, Hyland stands behind you. Hyland is your X factor for better performance. Go to Hyland.com/insights to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You’ve heard it time and time again: “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” In growing businesses, this phrase has often been taken to heart… from creating highly focused job roles, to identifying a hyper-targeted audience, to putting full investment into a singular product, service, or solution. Business owners are being told to niche down and dominate their lane. Max Lobovsky, the co-Founder and CEO of Formlabs, a company designing high-performance 3D printers for professional use, has a different philosophy. He leads an international team of 600 engineers, designers, and problem-solvers who are transforming the industry — but getting to that point required contrarian thinking every step of the way.

So how did Max and Formlabs think differently? How did Formlabs go to market and produce printers differently than everyone else? And what X factor carried the company from 0 to 100 million? Find out on this episode of Business X Factors. 

Main Takeaways:

•  Swim Against the Current: It’s easy to do what everyone else is doing, but swimming against the current and pursuing a unique vision could blaze new trails for a business. The risk of going against the crowd is greater, but so are the rewards. Detractors will make it hard to achieve everything you want, but without as much support, you are forced to think more creatively. 
•  Shout From the Rooftops: Many start-ups and brilliant ideas fail to make it into profitable businesses because of a lack of funding. They rely too much on the traditional funding routes when viable alternatives are sitting right in front of them. Crowdfunding and awareness campaigns can be the gasoline on the fire that will take a business from an ember to a full-on blazing force. 
• Get Your Hands Dirty: What sets successful companies apart from those that are left in the dust is the ability to adapt, transform, and shift cultures. One of the most powerful tools for leaders is modeling. If you want your workers to follow good practices, do it first and set the example. Getting up close and personal and dealing with detailed aspects of your own company can lead to big “ah-ha” moments and business strategy comes easier if you have a deep understanding of the nitty-gritty of what everyone is working on/struggling with.

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