“Elementary my dear Watson."

In business, I think expecially in sales, working is more and more trying to find out new opportunities: and quickly.

"Running to stand still" is infact the biggest concern.
Going around to find new business JUST to fill up the reductions coming from other areas that are suffering due to the business environment.

You may say, it's better to stand still than to go back but, from a purely motivational point of view, to see a double digit growth is the best fuel for everybody's self contiousness. On the other hand, seeing that all your work has brought a mere 3% is like someone cutting your tyres.

The business approach therefore is therefore quite moved towards the "new opportunity analysis" than towards the optimisation of the current contacts.
We are more and more becoming a sort of detective seraching for evidences and things that could change the game.

And what's the best detective ever if not mr.Sherlock Holmes?

I picked up some hints from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels that could give us some pieces of advice to focus your magnifying lens.

'You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.'

Quickly is the key word in today's business scenario. Doing things quickly means, most of the time, doing things "AS WE HAVE ALWAYS DONE". So, first of all let's stop and observe what we can do better or in a different way. Improve the efficiency and the effect of your work.

Data!data!data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay.”

We are flooding into datas. We can see things in thousands of perspectives and, unfortunately, this means a lot work because there's always someone searching for the different angle to see the numbers. 

"If you have a watch you know what's the time if you have two you are always uncertain". So let us find the right datas to look at and distill all the info out of them. Data are necessary to understand where to go and what to expect, too many datas are dangerous.

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."

First look into close to what you have always done. There are a lot of companies looking for big changes, big investments and new ventures.
These are clearly good things to do and part of a develoment strategy that can ensure a long term result (maybe) but are quite time and menpower consuming.
Quick and reliable results can sometimes come from places that you thought were not interesting.

“Elementary my dear Watson."

In reality there is no novel where Sherlock Holmes said these words but, everywhere in the world, this is one of his typical quotes.
Having said that, these point seem elementary and obvious but, when people are stressed and desperately looking for some solution, they often loose the calm and pragmatic approach that is necessary in these cases.

That's all for this week.
See you soon and enjoy today's "POST SONG"; U2's "Running to stand still"

The "T" factor

This has been the "TIME" week.

Infact the time factor has popped out a lot during my recent meetings.
When discussing with one of my best distributor (and quite experienced) trying to put together an aggressive plan, he came out with a short story:
"When I worked in a family owned company, we were doing 15.000 boilers per year and we prepared a plan to increase the sales to 20.000 in two years. It was a realistic and feasible plan with some good actions and things to do.
After we presented the plan the owner said... good but not enough. I want a plan to produce 60.000 units per year. We ended up in two years producing always 15.000 boilers"

And this story immediately came back to my mind when I saw FCA (Fiat Chrisler Automobiles) plan.

Moving in 5 years from 4,4 Mil vehicles of 2013 to 7-7,5 Mil per year (2014 will be 4,5Mil vs an original plan of 5,9Mil).
Alfa moving up to 150.000 only in North America (from 70.000 in total in 2013) and Jeep up to 1,9 Mil from 732.000 in 2013.

I will not stress on the fact this is the 8th plan in 10 years and guess what... in no case the numbers were even close to the reality.

Yes, market was down. Yes, the scenario has changed but... out of the original 66 models that were planned only 32 (ish) were launched. And you know that once you start being late...

The "When" is the key issue.

Unfortunately putting together a 5 years plan, but even a 3 years plan, make you think you have plenty of time. You can fill up your days with a lot of things and everything can be achieved.
You know that a good plan is made of 1% of inspiration and 99% perspiration. So everybody must work hard on this but often you realize, after six months or one year, that you're late.

Late projects tend to make this more complex as it's not possible to speed up a process by adding people.

The development plan MUST therefore be carefully evaluated starting with the REAL availability of people and, in general, resources. And, most of all, with a CLEAR target from the beginning. This is crucial as once you start being behind schedule it's very unlikely you'll be able to close the gap. That is valid both for FCA and for much smaller companies.

CLEAR TARGETS: who the company want to be
CLEAR DIRECTIONS: what the company needs to reach the targets
CLEAR PLANS: when things must happen and with which results
CLEAR RESPONSIBILITIES: who's going to make it
CLEAR CHECK POINTS: when and what should happen in between

Will also this FCA fail? I don't know. Certainly mr.Marchionne's record is not exceptionally good and I sincerely hope that this will finally work.

What I know for sure is that.
Guess who's suffering the most from things being late... SALES!
Sales development, unless it's driven only by a coverage of uncovered markets (but also in this case a ramp up phase is required), it is just the final part of a more complex activity.
Being the last part it often suffer the delays of the previous activities and, unfortunately, it will not recover the time that it's lost and it's suffering even more as the infrastructure that is supposed to help is not supporting properly.

Have a nice week end

Marketing in the facebook era

Last week has been quite tough. I have been out for an exhibition almost the whole week and that has been exhausting.
I don't know if this is common to everybody but when I am too tired I cannot sleep.
Or, better, I find harder to fall asleep. Instead of counting the sheeps though I looked at Linkedin and Facebook and I realized that more and more people are using them as real advertisement platforms.

Have you realized how many Facebook or Linkedin posts are published in your profile everyday? How many of them have you read?
Is it a good way to promote something?

The more I see the markets developing the more I am convinced that the ONLY way is to base your company strategy on two pillars:

-Strategy is about being different.
-People don't know what they want. They will only ask for a quicker, cheaper, bigger product like the one you have or your competitor has. And do not ask the "so called experts"... they are clueless as well.

The key marketing activity for this kind of strategy is to find the 15% of innovators, normally well hidden among the other 85% of potential customers, and start trying to create the "Penny drop" moment. With all the problems and hurdles typical of such a "spread the gospel" activity.
The worst one is called Confirmation Bias.
Confirmation bias tends not to favour info that are too different from the standard behavior. You must then follow the golden rules of the old Rethoric that was well mastered by Aristotle. Reach the goal trough known milestones. Like reaching the other side of the river stepping on small stones.

When I start talking about these things I usually say that it is like people are holding you by the ankles. Don't worry, it's hard at the beginning but then you get used to that.

This is a quite selective and bespoke activity though.
How can you manage this with a massified communication like the one that is currently in internet?

How can you do that with internet that
- touch plenty of people that you can only partly select
- for very little time
- valid only if you promote business as usual

What does it mean?
Contents are diluted. They must be suitable for everybody so.. Good for none. You must remember that people of different cultures, ideas and experiences will read.
So it must be as neutral as possible.
In a world... Either you talk about something well known to everybody or you will loose the main benefit of this massified message. Touching quickly a big mass of people.

I grew then up a firm belief.

Differentiating messages cannot go through massification media. It would be like making meatballs with kobe beef.

Now I have a question for you. Do you see any chance to use internet for differentiation messages?

Today I will leave you with another TED Talks video. It's Guy Kawasaki, great man that worked with Apple and helped them developing the MAC.

Have a nice week

The little Chemist

It's spring!
Finally the temperature is going better and the days, after a very long wet period, are starting being more pleasant.
The garden is then the natural place to spend the day. The first two days though are used to bring it back to a "proper shape". It's not only cutting the grass but trying to get rid of all the things that were put outside during winter (you do not wish to go out in winter at out temperatures).

In doing this you suddenly realize the real essence of our economy today...

We got rid of an entire big bag of games that, I am sure, my children used veeeery little. Then suddenly this video came to my mind.

99% of the things that are moved around the US is TRASHED AFTER 6 MONTHS!!!
I do not think Europe is so different.

But why is this happening? Is it just a question of buying useless things?

I am sure that whoever has got children agrees that they much more than what they can enjoy. They are simply getting more than what they really need.

This comes from a "natural" reason.
Two of the chemicals that are responsible for the "feelings", the Seratonine and the Oxitocine, are generated by growing the sense of "relationship" and "feeling of love and trust".
In reality these are chemicals that we have since thousand years and their main target was to keep us alive favoring the "sense of belonging to a group" and making the group healthy i.e. having always food and protecting themselves from dangers.
And today it is artificially generated. One of the ways is to give presents, to give something regardless is needed.
It is somehow like the famous quote of the movie "The Devil's Advocate" where Al Pacino, describing love, was saying "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate."
So today we are BIOCHEMICALLY simulating a atavic behavior giving presents 99% of which are thrown in a bin in 6 months.
And in our environment, this is even more required as the Fantastic 4 chemicals (Endorphins, Dopamine, Seratonine and Oxitocine) are always fighting against...

CORTISOL that is generated by the stress and anxiety

The original function of Cortisol was in reality to raise our attention and pump sugars in our muscles either to fight or to run.
Good if you are in a forest some thousand of years ago.
Good if it happens once every now and then.
Not good if stress is continuous.

So, among the usual bad feelings, the usual sleepless nights, the usual problems that stress is generating we are also trying to generate some "good chemicals" to fight it by doing the WRONG THINGS.

And we go back to the usual point.

Life is simple. It's just about doing what you REALLY like with the people you REALLY like. Doing it well and enjoy it. But most of all, do good things for people that is around you at work and at home. Create a sense of safety and trust.

Do not try to artificially feel well. It's not working on the long run and does not help yourself.

Music is also a good way to grow one of the Fantastic 4.
That's my favorite song (and also my children's) these days .

Enjoy
Have a great week

Everybody's got a weapon of choice

Quigley down under

I don't know how many of you have ever seen that movie.

It is some years old and tells the story of Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck), a cowboy and sharpshooter from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is a customized 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle. He answers a newspaper advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long-distance shooting with four words, "M. Quigley 900 yards," written on a copy of the advertisement, punctuated by several closely spaced bullet holes.

Once he moved to Australia, he grew his reputation (and his problems) thanks to his rifle.

And this is one of the main scene when the villain, Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting.

"I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it."

Although it is true that you cannot be everthing for everybody you cannot forget the "business as usual", the gunfight for a cowboy, and keep well alive what generates the most of your business. 

But the only way to develop is to understand who you want to be. And the decision has to come both from listening but most of all from the ideas and your DNA.

The importance of listening is clear as well as the importance of implementing the signs you get from the market.

But this will not ensure you the development. You will be another one using the gun. Maybe a good one, maybe one of the best but still, one of the big group.

Unless you are very lucky, from the market you will be getting info about products as usual, i.e. what is available on the market with some minimal changes.

Everybody knows that, these kind of things only give you benefit on the short term. 

Great to keep your bread and butter alive. But not great to really differentiate on the market.

We should learn to listen and drive the discussion on a high level never entering into the specific points because, once you are drilling down too much you will simply look at the details. 

Looking at the reason why on that specific case you could not succeed. 

Looking at what was missing productwise or servicewise typical of a "me too" approach. 

And it is hard to change the world looking at the details and having a "me too" approach.

Giant steps forward will be made changing things because in today's market everybody's gaining access to everything. The old tactic of opening new market is today less and less winning as the new markets to sell the "usual things" are less and less.

So...

-To change things you cannot (only) listen to your customers although this will ensure you the day by day business.

-Knowing the process is the only way to dramatically change things. So, again, expertise, skills and some degree of risk are necessary.

-Ideas are ultimately worthless unless you activate them with focused and consistent actions

-Be the best on somehting and make people knowing you for that.

-Do not forget bread and butter. You may need that sooner or later.

Have a nice week

History SHOULD teach us nothing

Europe has been one of the main actor of the last 1500 years of history. Within Europe, Italy played an important role throughout the different times starting from the Roman empire, going through the Venetian republic and the importance of Florence in the Renaissance.
That's history and this is what has heavily shaped our italian (and European) culture up to today.

Facts are that Italy has the highest number of UNESCO sites included my beloved Dolomites (and I'd better not start talking about the wasted potential of this as only 4% of our GDP comes from tourism) and some of the laws, rules and habits are a direct consequence of what our beloved Roman ancestors discussed a couple of thousand years ago.

Everything has been already seen and tried and checked... as the great Shirley Bassey said, HISTORY REPEATING.

We have 2000 years of history!!!

And we know why things cannot work.
We know everything that has been already tried and why this is not going to generate what we expect. Therefore we need to find something new, something new out of very little choices since everything has been already tried.
This is what I call the "WHY NOT" syndrome. It is a very European type of syndrome as we come from a very "conservative" colture.
It is spreading everywhere and it's mainly appearing when salesmen are doing their presentations. Things changes though. Sometimes people that do not have experience have an advantage. They are free to do things without prejudice and preconceived ideas.

A salesman must be a visionary, someone with hope and dreams. Someone that is trying to break the current status quo trying to find something different.

Different countries
Different customers
Different solutions
Different products

And the hope, the dream and the optimistic approach are the main driver to make them spending hours in a plane or in a car, away from their families and their hobbies.

There are little things that can destroy this. It is like putting some sand into the gears. Little things that are making the whole system break down.
And the "WHY NOT" people are the worst enemies. People that already know that "it'll not work because..."

It's always easy to say that things will not work without saying HOW TO DO TO MAKE THEM WORK.

This is the basic driver for a salesman (and not only for a salesman). We must think it will work.

If we do our best to convince people that they can't succeed we will easily make it happen. With a bad result for the company.

Things changes and things have changes. Do not worry to try again and to risk. Don't take history as unique driver for your choice.

Challenge the "WHY NOT PEOPLE" proving that YOU CAN DO THINGS.
Being in the winter olympic period, follow this

Take your shot. And score.

Have a nice week end

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.

I would really like to be a good father to my children and a good husband to my wife.

Quite a difficult task when you are spending half of your day phisically at work (being in reality more than 3/4 of the time in which you are awake) and some of the rest mentally at work.
In this difficult task, to try and spend as much time as possible with my children, I drive them to school.
With my little princess, 5 years old, I must also enter into the school and I help wearing her smock and getting ready for the day.
In that very moment also the school bus arrives and my daughter's school mates enter as well and start getting ready.
They do everything themselves and what is always funny is that, if I ask anybody if they need help, they challenge staring at me and, after a "no thanks" meaning "I am good enough to do it myself", they show me how good they are.
They simply learnt to do it properly since every morning they must do that themselves. And if I ask my daughter to do it she is simply telling me "mmmm daddy, can you help me?" exactly in the way that you cannot say no.

This came into my mind while driving to the office.

The radio was giving the usual bad news telling that some companies are closing and hundreds of workers risk to be made redundant therefore help is required to the government to try and help their case.
Sad thing, clearly. But how much is this our fault?

If on one side the companies, once they settle somewhere, MUST have a corporate social responsibility on the other side they must continue their business in a sound and healty way.

If one plant or company is not going well this cannot make the whole ship sinking.

In reality a government should be able to protect workers by making the working and investment environement suitable and appealing for the companies. In a word, by making the country competitive as the companies that are in the country should be.
Currently, unfortunately, what we are doing to to protect the workers is subisiding them and the companies and, to me, this is a big mistake.

This means we are financing the inefficiencies instead of financing the SOLUTIONS to the inefficiencies.
In an office environement, this would mean to continuously hire people instead of improving the process.
Quite difficult to imagine if you are an investor or entrepreneur.

It is not something that can be done overnight. I know.
We are, or better, we have been experiencing a deep change in the economy and in the markets. But it seems we haven't realized that. We must really start realizing that the "lifetime job" will probably not be the standard in the future.
It will definitely not disappear but it will not be the norm as it was.

So, how should we react to that?
This will not be easy. It will need first a change of attitude and mind.

So...
1) STUDY!!! Always!!! Look around, listen and be curious
2) Understand what we are goot at
3) Do not give up. Elvis was told to go back driving his truck instead of sing!
4) Be the best salesman of yourself!

Do not trust people that say they have the secret for the success. There is no SINGLE SECRET FOR THE SUCCESS.
Look for someone that can be a teacher, someone that you trust and that care you. Someone to tell you how to wear your smock at school but that let you do it yourself.


But remember

So, I would like to propose a change to the old saying I put on the title.

What do you think about...

It is not 100% mine I admit, but I liked that very much. UNDERSTAND-LEARN-SELL

Ciao and have a great week end

It's a kind of magic

"The sculpture is already into the block of marble. The artist must only free it."

This is what Michelangelo used to say in the 15th century and this is what he managed to do ONLY freeing the sculpture from the marble block.

Nice one, isn't it?
We could say that also nice paintings are trapped into the pencil or the brush and the artist's task is "just" to take them from there to the canvas.

But how?

These are both paintings. YES! Even the first one that looks like photography.

The painter in that case is Diego Fazio a.k.a. Diego Koi while the second one is, as most probably all of you recognized, Pablo Picasso.
What's the difference then? Not that the Picasso woman got stuck while going out of the pen, but the WAY people are using their talent and skills is different. What's behind these skills is always difficult to understand. And it's not only the 10.000 hour rule saying that takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to acheve mastery in a field (see "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell)

They are, in my humble opinion, both mastering their field.
They are just showing that in different ways coming from:
- their life experiences
- their ideas
- their skills

To better understand this, let us look at photography.
I am so lucky to live in one of the most beautiful mountain areas of the world: The "Dolomiti Bellunesi"

What's behind these fantastic pictures? Is it just being in the right place in the right moment? (thanks to Federico Musashi)
Is it a question of luck or of being quick at taking out the camera and shot?



Well not only that...

The GREAT RESULTS are always a mix of:

- Training
- Skills
- Passion (love your work)
- Preparation

7 minutes of difference are crucial to take the picture you want to take and you must probably camp for days to take it as the weather conditions as always unpredictable.

In this quick discussion about artists and talent we forgot about some important things though.

How many failures they had? How many times Michelangelo hammered the wrong point? How many Picasso sketched something he didn't like? How many wrong takes are behind a breathtaking picture?
But also, who were their mentors or guides that saw their talents and gave them the directions? 

None of these artists has stopped trying and improving and none was scared or discouraged by the mistakes. They all love what they do and this is the fuel to keep their passion.

This is not only valid for artists though. It's also true in our everyday life!
Whoever manage people has a big responsibility not only for the company they are working for but also for the people they are managing (not to mention the responibility we have for our children).

If you manage people you must understand their talents, mentor and support them when there are problems or difficulties.
Everybody is a nice sculpture trapped into a marble block. It's just a question of be freed.

Have a nice week end

For your eyes ONLY!!!

It is scientific. Men and women are different.

I really did not need scientists to tell me that.
Whichever man is capable to see the small drop of water in the sink that is making your wife mad... please raise your hand.
I think it's a phisical difference in our eyes. Colours and small details are simply seen in different ways.
Look at that example...

Even though I know that, during the Christmas holidays I volunteered helping my "better half" cleaning our flat. In a nanosecond I had a vacuum cleaner in my right hand and a sponge in my left one.
And I promise, I did my best, THREE TIMES.

And the result was...

She had to redo everything simply because the result was not what she thought was the minimum acceptable...
Well, let us say that her minimum acceptable is like the Pope is coming for dinner that very day (not an unrealistic option with our beloved Pope!).
So what happened?

- She was upset (to say the least)
- We lost time
- I have a good excuse not to do it again (that is a strategy too)
- I have a new topic to discuss in my Blog. DELEGATION

In my continuous journey to the "recherche du temps perdu" or better searching for the wasted time rather than lost, this is one of the main topics.
And it is an ART.
Delegate means to have everybody doing what they should do so you can do what you are supposed to do.

I know, everybody would like to delegate BUT...

-it takes more time to explain than to do it yourself
-nobody can do it properly
-the others don't have time either

So we keep on doing things and complaining that we do not have time (and maybe the others work much less than what we do).

In reality I think that there are three main reasons why we tend not to delegate:

1) we do not have clear which are the activities we must do.
What happens if I give away some of my work and I realize I have nothing better to do? The key point is that people must free their time to do what they are good at and what is strategic for the company (or simply what they are paid for)

2) we think that by keeping the knowledge away from the others you will become "irreplaceable".
Sorry to say, guys, BUT normally we can be replaced by someone else. And if your company grows on someone that cannot be replaced you'd better find another company before this "genius" finds one. Maybe it's better to keep your job reaching the results thanks to your extremely professional team.

3) we cannot set a "minimum acceptable" performance for the other's job.
Clearly we must understand that the others WILL NOT DO THE JOB LIKE YOU. It does not mean they will not reach the target but the WAY in which they will reach the target will be different. And we must accept this once we set a "good minimum result".

If you really want the skills of your team to improve, to develop new leaders within the group and to have everybody feeling they are INTO THE GROUP then start delegating.

- Identify who can do the job and tell him why
- Show examples of previous jobs
- Be sure people understand the objectives and the deadlines
- Give everybody the tools to succeed (this is what we want!!!)
- Let people work (and make mistakes) and support ONLY if required

and at the end... CELEBRATE!

Hard task... probably another target we should reach in 2014.

From my side, I promise I will improve on house cleaning... I am not sure I will be able to see the small drop into the sink but I will do my best. It is scientific... men have different eyes.
Otherwise I will start with ballet dancing...

Still have some hope with some practice

Have a nice week end!

Tell me WHY

It's still a tough time. Though people start being optimistic and there is apparently some positive trend.
It is now time to push the throttle and continue promoting your strategy and ideas.

My recent posts always put the accent on the NEED of having a strategy and to continuously pursue it but are we sure that we know what a strategy is?

I have started having this doubt after a read a post of an ex colleague that was referring to a book written by Simon Sinek "Start with WHY".
Frankly speaking I didn't have a clue about who is Simon Sinek and then I read his BIO. You can find it clicking HERE.
Well, interesting guy and with good ideas and capable to communicate quite well.

Something to learn here!
Being curious, I immediately checked a TED Talk that he made and that you can find here

I can summarize this video in three titles:

1) What you do and how you do it is important but make you no different from the others
2) Marketing message is crucial... we must tell WHY you do things and find "linke minded people" to spread this message and "like minded customers" to buy your strategy
3) There is, according the "law of diffusion of innovation", a tipping point that will make your strategy going from "shared among friends" to "shared everywhere" (or almost).

So... does it mean that willing to have a great product and being the "best one" in the business IS NOT A STRATEGY? Is "WE WANT TO DO" not a strategy?

Well that's tough point to understand. That's a tough point to understand on a "me too" society, where going to a supermarket you can find 100 different types of shampoo.

But it is true. You can be in the business, even survive or grow in the business telling people how good you are in manufactoring products, the products as usual, and how good are your products but you will never be the leader.

It is not that simple though to BELIEVE in something.

Most of all

to clearly TELL PEOPLE what you believe
to PROVE PEOPLE what you believe is right
to PRODUCE THE TOOLS  (or products) that will BE ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
to TELL EVERYBODY that you have already "early adopters" that used it and it was good

need a team that is fully involved and that must be a "like minded team".
If this is not the case the message will always be diluted and without a clear and precise  message you cannot reach the tipping point. This famous 15% that will have your "early majority" users (1/3 of the market) start using your solution and paying back your investment.
People don't buy what you do but WHY you do it.
Products, technology, target markets are just ways to reach the strategy.

Ideas
People
Communication
Products

Ingredients are always the same
Recipe is different
Results will the different

Have a nice week end

Assemble or Produce?

I must thank everybody's reading my posts.

So far this blog has been read almost 1600 times, but what is really great for me is that some of the people that read it contacted me to comment and to give me some more ideas for new posts.

This confirms what I once read... if you have something to say, you will find someone that will listen.

One of the recent chat I had with a colleague of mine about my last post was about the fact that what I am writing is not "produced" by myself but I am assembling ideas of others.

That's a good point indeed.
Is this reducing the impact or the meaning of what I am writing?
Well, I am not so sure. Let's put it in this way...

The company I work with is assembling components made by others (even though we are still manufactoring some of the key components that our competitor are buying outside) but we are continuously innovating and differentiating.
The clear strategy we have is to approach in a different way the market to give to the customers SOLUTIONS to increase the efficiency of the system, to improve the indoor air quality and to reduce the total life cycle cost.
But we are doing this assembling components that are made by others.
Where's the secret then?
The secret lays on HOW WE ASSEMBLE the components and HOW WE COMMUNICATE our ideas.

Well, that's also what I am doing. I am assembling in MY OWN WAY what I read, hear and see from others.

If I must be frank, the real reason why I am  keeping this Blog, beside the fact that I like doing this, is to try and learn and put down in a tidy way what I gather from others in order to share it with everybody.

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others" and to grow yourself you must ALWAYS study, listen, look and learn.

At the moment I try to be a good assembler and this allows me to use, AGAIN, a quote from Mr.Jack Welch.

In one of his books, Winning, there's a good point. “You are not a leader to win a popularity contest – you are a leader to lead”

No reason to assemble for the sake of showing you are good.

Assemble to learn, to share and to give some ideas.

Ah, before going... I would like, like millions others, to remember Nelson Mandela BUT in a different way. I am sure he would have liked this, still modern after 73 years...

Have a nice week end

Sorry... NO!!!

Everytime we are getting close to Holidays, things are always going crazy.

On the last weeks of the year it's time to make some reality checks and I hope to try and fix the last things.

In the "time management secrets", having a clear idea of:

1) where you want to go
2) when you want to arrive
3) how to go there
4) where we should check the developments
5) which are the results you expect

is crucial to define the priorities and therefore to identify WHAT is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to do and WHEN.

Writing down, better, handwriting down your targets is generally the best thing to do.

Handwrite is something that has been forgotten but implies some activities that allow your mind to properly concentrate.

All the preparation phase, taking pencil and paper and starting from the white paper obliges you to make an effort to imagine the complete picture.

When you start writing down, you must create the story, follow the Whole process and finally read it again.

And then... you can judge if your plan is ok based on...

 

 

And then, once you have a GOOD, HANDWRITTEN, SIMPLE AND WELL DESCRIBED PLAN what will happen?

Now another point comes out. It's like in the videogames.
When you destroy a monster, the next one is always more difficult.

Impelementation is now the point.
And implementation needs:

1) TIME
2) FOCUS
3) RESILIENCE

I think, or better, I HOPE that your working life is like mine.
I start the day knowing what I should do and then routine things happen. The famous activities URGENT NOT STRATEGIC.
You can infact divide the activities in

-URGENT STRATEGIC
-URGENT NOT STRATEGIC
-NON URGENT NON STRATEGIC
-NON URGENT BUT STRATEGIC

Having said that everybody should run away from the activities non urgent non strategic and focus on the strategic ones, the urgency always wins.

And also the human nature goes that direction as the "sense of satisfaction" that you have when you solve an urgent problem is one of the things that make yourself feeling happy.

But is this what you SHOULD do?
Maybe not
But this is what everybody ask you to do... quickly please.
Now we enter into "delegation" discussions that are probably too long to be dealt here.
The real point here is that we must start saying NO.

There are even discussions on how to make it. THIS IS one of them.

This is also another link http://lifehacker.com/a-scientific-guide-to-saying-no where it is explained how and why.

This is a difficult task. Not a question to be impolite. Just a question to TIMELY AND EFFECTIVLY reach your targets.

Have a nice week end with the SANTAKLAUS running in Pedavena. Warm up!

 

GET OFFGRID

I personally think that the best way to save the resources is not to use them.

There are infact very few resources that are considered inexhaustible (will not run out in foreseeable future) – these are solar radiation, geothermal energy (that must be managed with care though), and air (though access to clean air may not be). The vast majority of resources are exhaustible, which means they have a finite quantity, and can be depleted if managed improperly.

The only solution is to use them when it is REALLY NECESSARY and to increase our overall efficiency.

I like the increased sense of "recycling" that is growing more and more in Italy and I am proud of Belluno, the province where I live, being the best Province in Italy.
However, even though the recycling is good, the energy required to re-use the products (glass, plastics, paper) is relatively high and the quality of the recycled component is normally low.

As it is a mountain area though, we have a lot to improve. We are still using a lot of wood and biomasses in general to heat our houses. But too many of them have a poor insulation.

Improving the Energy class from the typical values today (Primary energy required of about 250-300kWh/m2) to much efficient values (150 kWh/m2 can be achieved by insulating and changing the heating and domestic hot water system with a heat pump) would help reducing even the consumption of these biomasses and gas.

Going back to the discussion about decentralization that I made on my on of my recent Posts There always the sun.

The reduction of the requirements and the possibility to relocate the production of heating, electrical energy and every other need close to the area where it will be used will help improving the overall distibution efficiency.

A great idea, that seems coming out from an 80s post nuclear war scenario but is quite suitable to meet the above targets, is the OFFGRID BOX.

This container includes all the components to be self sufficient, or almost self sufficient, for:
1) Electricity
2) Domestic Hot water
3) Water

A DELOCALIZATION concept brought to the maximum level.

Check this video and see how it looks like.

Maybe not the solution to all the problems but a good start.
From Italy...

A Greataly idea!

Have a nice week end

 

 

 

Too many choices... no choice

VERONA, one of the most beautiful cities of the world.
Besides the Arena, the Juliet balcony and all the "touristic attractions" what I like of Verona is the atmosphere. A mix of new and old, roman theater with Venetian style squares with "high Street" style shops.
And, clearly, the shopping part is one of the main attraction for "my better half"... my wife.

We were there with some friends and we decided to go and look for a restaurant.
I took out my mobile and started surfing and checking on Trip Advisor. Despite some recent facts that ruined the reputation of Trip Advisor, I usually choose the restaurant and hotels after a quick check there.
So... around Piazza delle Erbe...

this wonderful place where to have a drink, there are tens of restaurants and pizzerias. We looked at them, checked them and discussed whether that was a good one and at the end we ended up going to the usual one, the "Trattoria alla Colonna" that is known for its cotoletta.

This made me think about the incredible choice we have today in all the aspect of your life.

It is something that is creating expectations and a continuous sense of "not being satisfied" because the other choice was probably better.

But also there's a waste of time. What shall I buy? What shall I choose? Is it the right choice?
And this aspect is delaying the decision.

There is a great video of Barry Schwartz about this point that is explaning this effect quite well.

Clearly I am not as good as Barry Schwartz but I do basically agree on what he says. On every point he's raised. Even the Blue Jeans even though, I must say, my style is slightly different from his.

What I am currently experiencing is the same effect also on my work.

For a salesman having too many choices leads to not being able to focus on anything and always to try and find someone that had got something more.
People are not satisfied and stressed because they have too many things to sell and they're never enough.

-No specialization
-No knowledge
-No expertise

But also this is a bad sign of the current strategy of the companies.

Everybody is offering the same thing with some small little variations. Some details. Everybody swimming in the same red sea. Everybody eating each other and fighting on... price.

The  book "Blue ocean strategy" is a good manual to find how to get out of this deadly loop.

This is also part of the strategy. Product strategy, management strategy, development strategy.

Few things. Be different. Be happy.

 

Persevere

TOR DE GEANTS

This is possibly one of the hardest races in the world.

330km with 24.000mt positive altitude range

These two figures give you the idea about what is this running race.
Yes, you must run!
And this year 706 people from all over the world started this challenge and 383 finished it within the max time.
I have started looking at this type of races (just looking though) after I read a nice book. Again in Italian...
PERSEVERARE E' UMANO (Pietro Trabucchi).

This book is about motivation or, better, self motivation. Pietro Trabucchi is a psychologist that is active in the study of sport performances. He's been following as a doctor, but also as an athlete, some of the most phenomenal "extreme runners" (it is a shame that nobody knows them) like Bruno Brunod or Jean Pellissier.

I am not a Psychologist. In reality I really could never understand Psycology even though in my life I must behave often more as a moral support than an engineer or a salesman (or maybe a salesman MUST be a psychologist). I found in that book, though, quite some communalities with my ideas.

The key point is MOTIVATION, DRIVE.
This is the real difference that is making us developing. To persevere in what we think is the right direction.

Clearly this means that:

1) we have a CLEAR target
2) we know what we must do to reach this target

Too many times today we continuously change our ideas or our strategy simply because we are proceeding through trial and error.

NO CLEAR TARGET, NO DIRECTION, NO CHECK POINTS.

What is even more important is that, according to Trabucchi, we are today living with some myths that are completely wrong:

1) Talent
2) Luck
3) External motivators

This is clearly valid for sports but we can also consider this true for your working life.

Some people are today using these myths as excuses for not being able to reach their targets.
I am not saying that Lionel Messi is not talented. I am saying that EVERYBODY MUST SET THEIR TARGETS and fight to reach them.

Are people doing Tor de Géants different or more talented from who's doing the "Camino de Compostela" (800km walking)? NO, THEY HAVE SIMPLY A DIFFERENT TARGET.

We are today confused by this continuous competition area.
This is giving bad input to people. In the Tor de Géants race the target is, first of all, to FINISH IT.

BE A FINISHER.

Try to get close to the limits and not be afraid of being scared is something goes wrong. Just be scared, check where you are and correct the mistakes.
Then start again with great personal motivation and focus on the target.

Are Coaches useless? Clearly not. But they can only show the direction.
TARGET and PERSONAL MOTIVATION is something personal.
In sport and in life.
Sometimes being a finisher is much important of being the champion.
Expecially if you have managed to reach your targets according to your plan.

Have a nice week end.

Back to the roots

Pasta al pomodoro

Yes, Pasta al pomodoro is the food I mostly miss when I am abroad.

And the recipe is quite simple. I still remember my grandma preparing it.

A little bit of onion, one carrot and celery.

Then olive oil, tomatoes and basil.

You chop a slice of onion, the carrot and the celery together and you put it in the olive oil that is already warm. Few minutes with fire veeeeery low until the onion is light brown and then you put the canned tomatoes and you wait.

You see it starting bubbling, always at low fire stirring every now and then for some time until the oil starts been on the surface and the sauce is thick enough to be able to stay attached to the pasta.

Then the magic touch... Basil...

And that was starting at 8.00am and when I was child I had my milk and cereals with the pomodoro sauce bubbling in the background.

But that's Italy and I have a golden rule. NEVER expect finding something similar to Italy when you are abroad. And this is valid mostly for food. Not that the local foods are bad but the Italian food outside Italy is simply not the right one.

And once, a colleague of mine tried what I had told him to avoid. He tried to order a pasta al pomodoro during a business trip. I will not tell you what he received te comments that followed. But that was obvious. This was not their recipe. Not their cup of tea.

This allowed me to taste some delicious plates. Tajin in Morocco, Dahl in India even a well prepared Huggies in Scotland!

These were simply perfect. The right food in the right place.

Although the recipe is quite simple infact, to prepare the right Pomodoro sauce you need the right ingredients someone that has taught you how to put it together and experience.

This exemple came in my mind this week, during a meeting.

I had a meeting with my salesforce discussing about some opportunities they had.

One of the remarks I got from a lot of them was that we were missing some types of units because in one job they could not quote with what we had.

Always looking for what is missing and not arriving to the top of what is available. Being the best in a specific area is today crucial, more crucial that having everything and being one of the many swimming in a red ocean.

Most of the companies, expecially italian companies, must work as a corner store.
With their resources, that are limited, they must focus on one thing doing it very well.

And in today's world this is part of the strategy.

Clear cut choices. Unless you are a big name like NIKE, APPLE, SAMSUNG (but sometimes even if you are such a big name) you cannot be everything for everybody.

Simply identify where you can be the best, what you must have in term of tools and the IMPLEMENT everything.

IDEAS, TOOLS, PEOPLE

TOMATOES, A PAN AND MY GRANDMOTHER

Buon appetito

Who is gonna save the world?

During last years the "disaster theory" has been growing bigger and bigger.
We are threatening the world and we must behave properly in order to avoid the worst.

"Sustainability", "Environment friendly" all these words have been bubbling in all the normal things that we are using and buying every day.

What has happened then? Well, not very much.
We have simply done the USUAL THINGS a little better.
Is it the right way?

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got"

This quote is clearly not mine. Actually I do not know who said this and even Internet is quite confused on this.
However explains quite well the point. By doing always the same things, even a little better, we will NOT be able to take a great step forward. A step forward as great as we would need.

So what... you would say.

The secret is SPECIALIZATION. That's the key word.

Quite a strange word though.

To try and explain what I mean I usually think about this picture that was an old (time's running fast) ad by Pirelli.

Carl Lewis is wearing a great pair of shoes! They are surely shoes but are they the BEST ONES for what he's supposed to do?
Are we in the position to use equipments, whichever equipment we are talking about, that are the same EVERYWHERE in the world and for EVERY USE?

The answer is...
NO!
And even though it is clear that we cannot multiply all equipments taking into consideration all the uses and users, we must try to optimize them.

In a word, we must change something.

Recently, a Crowdspeaking program called Phoneblocks was launched.

 

 

This is a great idea, that has also been linked to environmental issues (I am not so convinced that there is a real envioronmental reason for that).

But the key point is, let us have a device that is doing exactly what I need and I like.
A phone that is SPECIALIZED in doing what I need and that I like.

In my working life I am dealing with hundreds of salesmen, engineers, of consultants and users that understand that what they are currently doing is not the best solution.

They are understanding the different solutions that I am giving them but then, when we are trying to see if this can be used according to the "normal" rules, we are not able to find a way to fit them. And then, going the "usual way" is the simplest, quickest and safest way.

After several years I spent trying to be a "missionary" and proposing something different to:

1) save a lot of money
2) save a lot of energy

I finally found the answer to the question "Who is gonna save the world".

Who dares to change the "usual way" to do things.

Difficult, time consuming, dangerous but incredibly effective.

 

It's (almost) all about QUALITY!

Apple launches a new IPhone 5C, a low cost device...

APPLE... low cost... These were two words that could not be in the same sentence.

It is like "The Fonz" trying saying "I was wrong"

And there was a reason. That was a device INNOVATIVE, WITH A GREAT SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE, SOLVING PROBLEMS (or things that you realized that were problems right then) and quite NICE.

These points were greatly highlighted by Steve Jobs when IPhone was launched in 2007.

New product. Nothing similar in the market. No price benchmark.
And the same was for IPad.

Apple was, and is, known for the overall QUALITY of its devices. The hardware quite powerful and the flawless software. This mixed to a very stylish design with nice material giving a stunning perceived quality (I say perceived as it's the 3rd IPod that I must change because the on/off button breaks down!!!).

This is the reason why the price was not an issue. Everybody wanted to have the best device in the market accepting all the cons of the "closed system" Apple strategy.

Now... Iphone 5C as Coloured (to me as Cheap). Plastic instead of metal and few Euros less on the device.
But the point is that Apple has introduced the PRICE variable and that is a mass distruction weapon.

This is not what Apple is recognized for. This is not their cup of tea. Will the QUALITY of the brand remain the same?
On the first day IPhone 5C got 1.000.000 pre-orders. A good performance but still HALF of what the IPhone 5 was able to do.

This story helps me going to another anecdote. This summer I have been to Pescara, in Abruzzo (my father's region).
It is a great place Abruzzo, the sea on one side and the mountains on the other. A national Park on the highest peaks of the Appennini mountains and hundreds of  km of coasts. Everything with a delicious wine, oil and food.

While talking on the beach I met a gentlemen that started talking about his company.
They are producing Chimney Pipes and vent systems for stoves and burners. But most of all they WANT TO BE THE BEST!!!

He was absolutely passionate of his job, described how much he is putting in term of ensuring the quality and the investiment he did in new machine tools. He described me the new product he invented to help natural draft devices.

But then... he asked me how to be able to increase his export part. He does not want to start thinking about a "low cost" range because he knows that's not what he's good at.

There are companies with the original "Apple attitude" everywhere in Italy. Now, a lot of them are also thinking about "low cost" products. Probably not the best thing to do.

Incidently, if you are interested in a great chimney pipe or vent system, leave a message!!!

Ciao and enjoy your Sunday