The Unapologetic Capitalist

 

* Is there really ever a true ‘win-win’ scenario? You hear it all the time, in business and even in life situations: ”Hey this is a win-win!” However, if you have to convince someone it is a ‘win-win,’ then it probably isn’t. And if one party’s definition of a ‘win’ is that someone else loses, then there is no deal to be had and you will certainly end up with a ‘lose-lose’ scenario. Join this discussion about how to give yourself the best chance at actually achieving the theoretical ‘win-win’ and avoid the pitfalls that unwittingly suck you into a ‘lose-lose.’

* Brief Recap of Past Couple of Shows

* Optimal Time Management…Don’t strive to be ‘busy’ strive to be accessible

* Don’t take the blame…take responsibility

* Blame or fault is backwards looking

* Responsibility is forward thinking

* ‘No one is coming’…acknowledgement and responsibility opens up innovation and opportunity

* Introduction of Discussion Topic

* Sports is a true zero sum game…one team wins, one team loses or there is a tie, but the goals scored for equals the goals scored against.

* Business isn’t always a zero sum game…because a ‘win’ in business isn’t always as clear as the scoreboard when time expires on the field.

* A successful negotiation is that everyone leaves the table believing they’ve done the best they can given the circumstances…that is a success… a theoretical win-win.

* If someone is buying, someone is selling. The hope is that the buyer believes they are getting a good value and it works out the the sellers believe they are being appropriately compensated…and isn’t that a win-win?

* A Venture Capital fund buys equity from an early stage company…the early stage company hopefully gets much needed cash infusion plus some expertise and management support…and the VC gets in early on a venture that will hopefully grow 10 fold…isn’t that a win-win?

* While deals should be that rational they unfortunately rarely are what they should be in theory.

* Can there be a win-win? Yes, there can be a win-win, but only if the focus can truly be on generating long term value. However, in business we can’t avoid working with people. People are the greatest asset to any company and can also be the greatest liability. There is NO win-win if someone’s win depends on someone else losing.

* The uninvited guests to every negotiation are hubris and ego…and they insidiously destroy value while making you think they are there to protect and defend your interests.

* Calling a lawyer to try and validate your paranoia or perceived injustices (they are rarely real) means you have failed on MANY levels. In negotiating any deal, a lawyer should be there to ensure you have kept a value generating perspective and help you with clean paperwork. If you are using a lawyer to forward an adversarial objective, that just makes you a coward and your lawyer is a shame to his or her profession for galvanizing your plight because that isn’t the job of a competent attorney.

* Get over yourself. If you are whining about some perceived injustice it means that your actual work or contributions weren’t good enough to speak for themselves…and you are so much of a coward that you couldn’t have a rational discussion that you’d have to find someone else (like a crappy attorney) to fight your battles for you.

* What can you do to try and get a win-win?

* Check your ego at the door

* Prioritize the needs of the venture above your wants

* Know the genuine value proposition

* Be open to the perspective and incentives to all those around you. The win-lose is contagious! Beware the instigator who throws kerosene on the fire.

* Ask the key question: Why are we here? The answer should be: We are here to make money or...

Conflict arises in any venture. When that conflict escalates or becomes on-going between founders, partners, leaders and managers, it can destroy the value in even the most stalwart companies. In this episode, The UC discusses strategies and tactics to mitigate and manage conflict, retain value, and right the ship towards long term venture value.

* Brief Recap of Past Couple of Shows

* Bill Aulet from Martin Trust Entrepreneurship Center at MIT – importance of people management and culture

* Episode 14: when culture meets strategy and execution

* Episode 24: Chemistry matters…when all stars fail

* Optimal Time Management…Don’t strive to be ‘busy’ strive to be accessible

* Don’t take the blame…take responsibility

* Blame or fault is backwards looking

* Responsibility is forward thinking

* ‘No one is coming’…acknowledgement and responsibility opens up innovation and opportunity

* Recognition of Conflict in Your Organization

* Conflict Management

* Conflict Mitigation

* Venture Value Preservation

There is a ton of advice out there on starting a company. Some of the advice is sage, but much of it is inappropriately projective, often capricious, and even wayward. Starting and growing a company demands diligence, patience and most of all productivity. The Unapologetic Capitalist has an earnest discussion with Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu, on following the optimal path for building a venture in the current business environment. Insights from Bill’s new book Disciplined Entrepreneurship (http://www.d-eship.com) are pondered as they relate to today’s entrepreneur.

 

* Introduction of Show Topic: Disciplined Entrepreneurship with Bill Aulet

* Brief Recap of Past Couple of Shows

* Optimal Time Management…Don’t strive to be ‘busy’ strive to be accessible

* Don’t place blame…take responsibility

* Blame or fault is backwards looking

* Responsibility is forward thinking

* ‘No one is coming’…acknowledgement and responsibility opens up innovation and opportunity

* Introduction of Bill Aulet

* Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship

* Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management

* Email: [email protected], Twitter: @billaulet

* Overview of MIT & Martin Trust Center Entrepreneurship @MIT: http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu

* What is Disciplined Entrepreneurship? Website: disciplinedentrepreneurship.com or www.d-eship.com

* How do you define Disciplined Entrepreneurship?

* Where do you see the new generation of entrepreneurs erring in their path towards building a venture? How will Disciplined Entrepreneurship get folks on the right path from the start and/or help them get back on the right path if they have already strayed?

* What are the 1 or 2 take aways you hope readers take from Disciplined Entrepreneurship?

* Total Addressable Market: Opportunity has to be big and growing, but the segment that you are initially tackling must be focused.

* New technologies must show that they are in a growing market place…the total Addressable market might be small today, but if the technology is cutting edge then it might be compelling.

Good leaders take responsibility and never place blame. Everyone is ready to take credit when things go well. Yet, it is all finger pointing at others when things go south. Blame is easy. Bad leaders blame someone or something else. But blame is unproductive and detrimental. Being a productive leader means taking responsibility. This discussion focuses on recognizing the difference between blame or fault and being a strong leader and taking responsibility.  Truly stepping up and taking responsibility creates the opportunity to innovate and build value.  So don’t place blame.  Take responsibility!

Don’t Take the Blame…Take Responsibility

Blame is unproductive…it is a post mortem, backwards looking exercise.

Responsibility is forward looking.

Previous leadership discussions:

* Bad leaders are ‘resolute’ which is just another word to excuse being stubborn and closed minded

* Good leaders will practice productive patience in leadership http://unapologeticcapitalist.com/productive-patience/

* Good leaders take responsibility…NOT blame. No one needs to play the blame game or even be a martyr. Martyrs are by definition dead so they don’t make very good leaders.  They just provide an excuse or rationalization.

Our political system is stagnant because it is so chock full of blame and righteous indignation. Only responsibility can create progress. Blame is the same as a temper tantrum. Bad leaders cry and whine and blame other people because they aren’t smart enough to be solution oriented.

Our justice system is also about assigning blame rather than taking responsibility. When someone is not indicted they see this as a misguided message that someone was right and someone else was wrong. Taking responsibility is being better than being so insecure you have to prove someone else wrong so no one will notice that you are a bad leader.

SO much time is wasted playing the blame game. There is NO progress in proving someone is right and even MORE time is wasted subsequently proving someone else is WRONG.  There aren’t any true right or wrong answers in business.  There is only more and less prepared.  Good leaders are prepared and, thus, willing to take responsibility. Bad leaders place blame to distract from the fact that they are unprepared.

Bad leaders dig in and hide being “being resolute. However, saying you would ‘do everything exactly the same even with 20/20 hindsight’ is nothing but excusing yourself for being cowardly, LAZY, insecure and ignorant.

Good leaders are smart enough to be contemplative not resolute.  A thinking person would want to take responsibility appreciate other perspectives rather than hide behind “I did everything right” when the outcome was poor.

So how do we take responsibility?  Taking responsibility starts with accepting the notion that NO ONE ELSE IS COMING.  No one else will save you. No one else will clean up the mess.  YOU need to be the one to accept responsibility.

What happens when you take responsibility?  That’s when you have opportunity to innovate.

Many excellent companies were built because someone was willing to take responsibility which made them prepared and smart enough to recognize a need in the market place and instead of waiting for someone else to come along. Taking responsibility made the leader bold enough and prepared enough to seize the opportunity.

Remember these things:

* Be smart enough to recognize the difference between fault or blame & responsibility

* Claiming good intentions do NOT excuse you from responsibility for the outcome.

* Stepping up and taking responsibility paves the way for progress. Taking or placing blame isn’t helpful or productive for anyone.

* Taking responsibility frees you up to actually drive results, progress and innovation.

Wherever you are is where you should be. If you try to be many places at once, you are truly present nowhere. Too many people are boasting that they are ‘so busy.’ If you are consummately busy, you are either poor at time management, seriously undervaluing your time, or both. Some say how ‘busy’ they are to imply that they are important because they are so in demand. Thus, we should feel blessed by their mere presence. Sometimes being ‘busy’ is the excuse for something being a low priority and you just didn’t get to it. Regardless, being ‘super busy’ just means you are unproductive and a bad at time management. People who are excellent at time management are optimally productive and add value to their ventures. Strive to be accessible NOT busy!

* Being ‘busy’

* Productivity versus just spending time

* Do you really need to tell everyone how busy you are to make yourself seem important?

* Bad time management: People who are ‘crazy busy’ are either terrible time managers, seriously undervaluing their time…or both. Most likely they are or just really insecure about how valuable they actually are that they need to say over and over again how busy they are.

* Time management as an excuse: Being busy is often the excuse for laziness, or really it is an excuse for not having responded to someone because it was a really low priority for them and they just didn’t get to it or even think of it.

* Time Management

* Valuing your time…if you are consummately busy you are undervaluing your time

* Lots of time management tools, but you need to figure out what works best for you

* Case study: Parents and homework

* parents complain about their kids

* most of these parents are just spending too much time doing their kids homework for them and that’s why they complain so much.

* homework needs to be productive and not just busy work

* homework and ‘busy work’ have some valuable properties

* teaches time management and the need for efficiency…what to spend extra time on and what can just be knocked off the list.

* teaches upward management….kids have an opportunity to communicate with their teachers and learn to manage expectations.

* Work Life balance – Can only be achieved with excellent time management

* The 24/7 fallacy creates poor time management

* Clients and customers need efficiency, reliability, and consistency.

* Consistency and perceived certainty within a smaller percent of hours where you can give 100% of your time are better than having a small percent of your time available 100% of the time.

* Boundaries are a good thing, and a key to effective time management

Strive to be accessible, not busy! An excellent time manager will be 100% present wherever they are, because wherever you are is where you are supposed to be.

A successful business deal focuses on the long term value and not just closing the transaction. The deal is merely the ‘wedding’ for the goal of a lifetime partnership or ‘marriage.’  Too many companies and funds consider closing the business deal to be the big ‘ta da.’  However, the transaction is just the starting point. The business deal is the value being built throughout the partnership. Resources should be invested on ensuring long term value ensues after the deal is sealed.  Unfortunately, too many sink copious dollars on an opulent ‘wedding’ rather than preparing for a valuable ‘marriage.’ This show discusses tools and strategies to create a long term and highly lucrative partnership and not just getting to the ‘alter’ of the business deal.

The Unapologetic Capitalist revisits with Jordan Schindler, CEO of Textile Based Delivery and Nufabrx to check in on the growth and progress since previously profiling the venture. Jordan talks about the evolution of the company from its inaugural Nufabrx product into developing opportunities for licensing the proprietary technology of Textile Based Delivery. The discussion continues to explore the most appropriate avenues from angel investment to venture capital investment as they seeking investment for building the venture.

* How do you know when you are ready to raise money?

* What is your venture worth?…Not just to you, but what someone else is willing to pay for it?  Value is in the eye of the buyer:

* Why are you trying to raise money? Are you raising early funds or venture capital funds?

* Is the opportunity clear enough? For instance, a venture capital investor will want to see the potential for a 10X opportunity exit?

* It isn’t enough to show comparable of other companies are paying good multiples…need to demonstrate genuine value in your venture to raise venture capital

* Don’t be entitled when you go out to raise money

* Don’t tell investors that “$100MM easily reached”

* Don’t ever tell investors that “demand is so huge I’m not even returning their calls.” Venture capital money will want to know that you are building and maintaining all relationships that may be relevant today or in the future.

* What are the best sources to raise money?

* Venture Capital

* Angel Investors

* Strategic

Update with Jordan Schindler, CEO of Textile Based Delivery and Nufabrx:

* Balancing investment in business development and inventory management

* Splitting company in two: technology licensing company and retail company

* Seeking right investment partner – Is venture capital a viable path for funding Nufabrx?

 

It is hard to raise money. Yet, building and growing a business often requires capital.  However, simply needing cash doesn’t mean you are ready to ask for and incorporate investment into your venture. Being ready to raise money means knowing how much you need, what those dollars are being optimally used for, and how and when those dollars will convert to a meaningful return.  This episode begins the discussion on assessing whether or not you are “venture ready.”

When to raise money:

* Acquisition

* Buying a company

* Getting investment

* Who to get investment from

* How do you know when you are ready to raise money?

* What is your venture worth?…Not just to you, but what someone else is willing to pay for it. Value is in the eye of the buyer:

* Why are you trying to raise money?

* Is the opportunity clear enough with enough proof to be demonstrative for an investor to see the potential for a 10X opportunity exit?

* It isn’t enough to show comparable of other companies are paying good multiples…need to demonstrate genuine value in your venture to raise money

* Don’t be entitled when you go out to raise money

* Don’t tell investors that “$100MM easily reached”

* Don’t ever tell investors that “demand is so huge I’m not even returning their calls”

It is very challenging to raise money. Be smart and be prepared so that you are ready to go out and raise money.

No matter what stage you are in your career, you need to make decisions that create career opportunities. The same strategies and tactics that can be used to create growth and value in your venture can also be applied to increasing your career opportunities. In this episode, the Unapologetic Capitalist discusses making decisions that bring supportive growth and add value to you and create genuine career opportunities.

Companies of all stages struggle to increase revenue. This discussion lays out an easy, 5 tactic approach that leverages your company’s current customer base and core business to increase revenue.

Identify Impediments to change.

What’s keeping you from changing to a new unit of business or from achieving higher performance and increase revenue on the key metrics associated with an existing unit of business? In this part of the process, you want to remove the blinders that exist when you’ve been competing in the same way for a long time. Ask yourself WHY…Why are we doing things the current way?  And Why aren’t we evolving or innovating?  It could be simple questions such as: why are we incurring certain costs? Why are your customers choosing your products or services? Why aren’t we doing more to increase revenues?

This 5 step technique to increase revenue is a simple framework asking “Five REs.” The idea is to look at all the key metrics that represent costs and assets and probe them ruthlessly. The five REs to increase revenue are:

Remove. Why incur a cost at all? Why not remove it entirely from your cost base?

Replace. If you can’t remove a cost, can you lower it by substituting a less-expensive product or service? For instance, companies have sometimes used voice-recognition systems in place of expensive human operators, and manufacturers of sodas and candies have used corn syrup in place of sucrose.

Reduce. If you can’t replace the cost, can you reduce it instead? A company can reduce the labor intensity of its ordering system by switching to an interactive online system. Alternatively, can you reduce the price you are paying for your cost of goods?

Redesign. If you can’t reduce the amount you need to spend on a scarce resource, can you redesign your business to use it more efficiently? There are many ways companies can economize on technical or service resources. For instance, law firms may complement services from their expensive lawyers with services from less costly paralegals; hospitals may replace some physicians with nurse practitioners; software companies may encourage customers to use self-help Web sites or phone services rather than rely on costly help-desk technicians.

Redistribute. If you can’t redesign, can you redistribute costs over more units?

A way to gain perspective throughout the methodology to increase revenue is to do some benchmarking—but not necessarily against your direct competitors. It’s useful to benchmark against firms that have successfully transformed a particular metric through better business practices. It can help to seek outside advisory to help you identify best-in-class performers for the metrics you want to explore.

Review the key customer segments you serve.

The next challenge as you work to increase revenue is to apply the techniques described above to your customers. The questions you want to consider are whether you might benefit by developing a different unit of business for a particular set of customers, whether those customers might benefit if they developed a different unit of business, or whether you can help them with their key metrics.

Assess the need for new capabilities and the potential for internal resistance.

Typically, a significant shift in your business design also implies major shifts in your capabilities. To increase revenue you may have to add new skills to your organization. As you go through this assessment, you’re bound to run into resistance from senior managers; they aren’t likely to embrace a change that will require the company to develop totally different skill sets. So it’s worth thinking about how to deal with the politics of changing a business before you find yourself stalled by internal opposition which can thwart efforts to increase revenue.

Decide on a marketing and communications plan.

It is essential if you are going to increase revenue that you ...