Articles

By:  Kelsey Raymond and Kendra Okposo

Best practices simply don’t go far enough in today’s climate. Based on our research into large-scale enterprises across industries, we recommend CEOs adopt these six new ways of thinking, doing, and excelling to remain future relevant.

It was more than seven years before LinkedIn hit 100 million users. For ChatGPT, reaching the same milestone took just two months. Welcome to a world of sudden upheaval and change, where only the future-relevant will thrive.

Within this ever-changing landscape, leaders are forced to face unpredictable and unprecedented disruption. While they go to bed in the present, they wake up in the future. And they have to navigate abrupt shifts from all angles with confidence. It’s an arduous task, especially for those clinging to yesterday’s best practices.

What’s wrong with tried-and-true best practices? They are static. A best practice focuses on the here and now. That’s not good enough for a world that can pivot overnight. In contrast, a “next practice” has the inherent dynamism needed to help navigate the constant flux of tomorrow with greater adaptability and resilience.

Put simply, best practices don’t go far enough. Next practices do. Based on our research into organizational health and future-readiness and our work with large-scale enterprises across industries, we recommend you adopt six new ways of thinking, doing, and excelling to remain future relevant.

1. From setting direction to adapting direction.

 Your job as a leader may include setting and approving plans, but great leaders never view any plan as final. Great leaders recognize that while every good plan has a clear vision and goals, it must also have built-in flexibility to take advantage of emerging opportunities and sidestep potential risks. This is the act of planning itself, the ability to be adaptive and iterative and recognize and mitigate potential risks, which is a greater predictor of success than the plan you have written down. To ensure your plans are adaptable without losing a clear sense of direction, keep your vision in mind. Having a guiding North Star assures that your plans stay agile but don’t deviate from your overall purpose.

Take the well-worn but still very instructive example of Netflix’s DVD delivery service, which brought the video rental industry onto the web and simplified the customer experience by reducing the need for laborious searches and storefront business models. Passed over by Blockbuster for acquisition, Netflix went on to roll out its streaming services nearly a decade later, and while it was not the first to do so, the venture’s success shifted an entire industry to pursue the web-based distribution model.

Netflix continues to be a powerful example of a company that was able to continuously adapt to meet the changing technological landscape and customer needs. In contrast, Blockbuster serves as an example of how the inability to adapt to market disruption leads to a loss of market share and capacity to remain competitive over time.

2. From leading others to leading with others.

To be future relevant is to create conditions for employees to do their best work unfettered by conventional hierarchies. This shift doesn’t necessarily require moving to a completely flat organization. It does mean that as a leader, it’s your job to create the conditions so that employees at all levels—not just your directs—are empowered to contribute ideas based on their views, thus seeing themselves as leaders regardless of title or role.

Microsoft, for instance, has softened its hierarchy-related employee experiences by putting stock in what it calls a “thrive” score. The software giant measures how well its employees are thriving by how energized and engaged they are. When you start expecting everyone to have an influence within your company, you gain more functionality (and flexibility) as an organization.

3. From pushing down decisions to building shared commitments.

Does every team member understand their decision-making authority, or do decisions tend to flow from the top down? Democratizing decision-making—with the right information and guardrails—allows your company to move fast and do the right things for the business. Future relevant organizations lean into the power of data and insights to empower decision-making while creating accountability.

Before team members can effectively collaborate and make informed decisions, it’s crucial to establish clear strategic constraints. This clarity helps ensure that all decisions align with the organization’s goals and operational boundaries. Additionally, providing employees with access to necessary and relevant data empowers them to make informed decisions and, when required, justify them effectively. By setting a clear framework for where decision-making power lies and holding team members accountable for their decisions, your organization can achieve a balance of speed and precision that drives business success.

4. From teaming to collaborating in the ecosystem.

Forrester found that 79% of teams are siloed. If your workforce falls into this group, you’ll have trouble functioning efficiently or becoming future-relevant. Think of your organization as a body of loosely connected networks. For the organization to be healthy, all systems must be able to work in tandem. In other words, you must tear down barriers to communication between people and departments, internally and externally, while building the conditions for trust.

As trust grows across your ecosystem, you should begin to see partnerships form in uncommon places. These relationships will help your workforce shift to a larger network rather than as small team units.

A powerful example of collaborating with the external ecosystem is electric vehicle manufacturers universally adopting Tesla’s battery charging stations. By aligning one way to charge EVs across the country, car companies can focus on car manufacturing without worrying about how to charge the vehicles in a distributed network. This is a positive for Tesla, but it also allows other manufacturers to avoid the challenges of establishing a competing charging network.

5. From developing talent to accelerating talent.

Professional development is now table stakes for competitive employers, particularly since 70% of professionals admit they’re unprepared for the future of work. Beyond routinely upskilling and reskilling your employees, you must consider other ways to prioritize their personal goals and humanity. This means providing fair talent processes, flexible career maps, and the assertion that employees don’t need to sacrifice their well-being to be successful. In exchange, you’ll see lower turnover intentions and higher job satisfaction, motivation, and engagement. Employees know they are valued for their diverse perspectives and backgrounds instead of having to “fit in” or assimilate into a career path or culture.

Such practices also lead to significant organizational outcomes, including high motivation and engagement among team members, which naturally enhance efficiency and productivity. Moreover, by promoting a culture that values each individual’s contributions and well-being, organizations are likely to experience lower attrition rates and a heightened sense of psychological safety, fostering a more resilient and adaptive workforce.

Patagonia has taken this approach by offering benefits such as a 9/80 work schedule and paid time off for volunteer work. For years, Patagonia’s leaders have illustrated that talent development is a constant journey toward finding what works and what doesn’t.

6. From integrating systems to simplifying systems.

Business is complex enough. Why muddy the waters with complicated processes? General Electric (GE) is a prime example of how business structures can hinder or support success. By dividing into GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, and GE HealthCare, the company streamlined its operations, demonstrating that embracing simplified, minimally viable systems can prevent the debilitating effects of having too many moving parts. Simplification can also lead to more focused and effective business strategies.

Remember that simple isn’t synonymous with simplistic. Simplifying systems involves a continuous cycle of evaluating, investing, sunsetting, and reevaluating the systems and technologies you use. Like every forward-leaning approach, it’s never really finished.

The best practices have gotten you this far as a leader. Yet they may not bring you the adaptability and resilience you and your organization need to meet the demands, shake-ups, and surprises of what’s on the horizon. To meet the future head-on, you must retire old-school practices for these forward-looking strategies instead.

by Dora Lanza – Plethora Business

Congratulations! You have built a remarkable company that has a great impact in your industry.

Your leadership and vision have been instrumental in driving success, but as your business continues to flourish, it’s essential to confront a critical issue: over-dependence on you, the Founder CEO.

While your leadership has undoubtedly propelled your company to new heights, reliance on a single individual, particularly the founder, can pose significant challenges and threats. Not only does this dependency limit the scalability and resilience of your organization, but it also adversely affects your company’s valuation and complicates a potential exit.

Consider this: acquirers and investors often view companies heavily reliant on the founder CEO with caution. The prospect of a founder’s departure can introduce uncertainty and disrupt business continuity, leading acquirers to negotiate terms that ensure the founder remains in place until a suitable replacement is found. This dependence not only constrains your ability to negotiate favorable terms but also limits your options for a smooth transition.

The same is true of reliance on a single individual, particularly a key employee such as a top sales executive, IT specialist, or head of R&D. can pose significant challenges. This dependency not only limits the scalability and resilience of your organization but also adversely affects your company’s valuation and complicates potential exits.

To unlock your company’s full potential and pave the way for seamless exits, it’s imperative to diversify leadership and cultivate a strong management team capable of driving growth independently. This strategic shift not only enhances your company’s valuation but also mitigates risks associated with key employees and founder dependency.

Here are actionable steps you can take to diversify leadership and position your company for long-term success:

1. Identify and Develop Talent: Look within your organization to identify high-potential individuals who can step into leadership roles. Invest in their development through mentorship, training programs, and opportunities for growth.
   Promoting from within offers several additional advantages:

• Cultural Continuity:. Employees who have been with the organization are already familiar with its mission, vision, and values, reducing the risk of cultural disruptions that can occur with external hires.
• Morale Boost: Recognizing and promoting internal talent boosts morale among employees. It demonstrates that the company values and rewards hard work, dedication, and loyalty, motivating other team members to strive for excellence.
• Faster Integration: Internal promotions typically result in faster integration into new roles. Promoted employees already understand the company’s processes, systems, and workflows, allowing them to hit the ground running and contribute to the organization’s success more quickly.
• Employee Retention: Providing growth opportunities and career advancement paths within the organization increases employee satisfaction and reduces turnover. Employees are more likely to stay with a company that invests in their professional development and offers opportunities for advancement.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Hiring and onboarding external candidates can be costly in terms of recruitment fees, onboarding expenses, and potential salary negotiations, not to mention the costs associated if the external hire does not meet performance expectations, necessitating additional recruitment efforts and expenses to find a suitable replacement. Promoting from within often times proves to be more cost-effective while still achieving the desired leadership development outcomes.

2. Delegate Responsibilities: Empower your management team by delegating responsibilities and decision-making authority. Encourage autonomy and accountability, fostering a culture of ownership and innovation.
3. Promote a Succession Mindset: Shift the focus from individual leadership to collective success. Promote a succession mindset across the organization, emphasizing the importance of grooming future leaders and building a pipeline of talent.
4. Foster a Culture of Collaboration: Cultivate a collaborative work environment where ideas are freely exchanged, and teamwork is celebrated. Take stock of positions that are solely dependent on one person and put in place a plan to mitigate this risk. Encourage cross-functional collaboration and diversity of thought to drive innovation and problem-solving.
5. Lead by Example: As the founder CEO, lead by example by embracing change and relinquishing control when necessary. Demonstrate your confidence in your management team and empower them to take on greater responsibilities.

By diversifying leadership and fostering a culture of empowerment, you not only enhance the value of your company but also ensure a smoother transition when the time comes to exit. Embrace this opportunity to future-proof your organization and leave a lasting legacy that extends beyond your tenure as CEO.

Now is the time to act. Start the conversation with your leadership team, set clear objectives, and commit to building a stronger, more resilient organization. Your company’s future success depends on it.

By Warren Shoullberg, IWF News

An explosion at Tafisa’s Quebec plant, the largest particleboard factory in North America, knocked out some production the company says.

It will be “several more weeks” before Tafisa’s giant particleboard manufacturing facility in Lac-Magantic, Quebec in Canada is expected to get back up to full production, the company said.

The explosion, on June 14, affected one of the plant’s two production lines, it said, adding the cause was still unknown. There were no injuries and parts of the plant resumed normal activities within a few days.

“We are contacting each client one by one to provide the information regarding their order file,” Tafisa vice president of sales and marketing Pierre-Luc Bérubé said in an interview. He said the damage was isolated to particleboard line #2 and that particleboard line #1 was not affected.

The company said its new thermally fused laminate line #6, started up in January, was not impacted and that it resumed production two days after the explosion. Production of the company’s lacquered panels is done in a new plant built next to the particleboard plant, so there was no impact on production, according to a published report.

At 760,000 square feet, Tafisa said the facility is the largest particleboard manufacturing facility in North America, serving both Canada and the U.S. with more than 700 truckloads of wood fiber converted each week into 300 truckloads of particleboard and decorative panels.

By Lori Moen, CEPA Business Coach | Catalyst Group ECR

The legacy you leave behind when you’re no longer part of leadership isn’t just about your accomplishments and accolades. It has to do with how you approach any and all issues that fall in front of you. In the modern business world, leadership legacy is all about moving towards sustainable success.

It’s important that companies begin thinking beyond their short-term goals and toward the long-term impact of those who are in leadership. There is a lot of value in investing in each moment and considering the consequences your decisions will have both in the present moment and in the future.

Let’s take a look at a few leadership legacy examples to inspire you as you plan your future.

Leadership Legacy Examples: Graham and Schultz

When looking back at successful business leaders, there are a lot of people who rose above expectations, allowing them to leave their mark on the organization.

Take, for instance, Katharine Graham, who took the helm of The Washington Post in 1972 and became the first woman named CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

After breaking through the glass ceiling, Graham went on to fight relentlessly for the Constitutional right to free press after she was slapped with a restraining order for her attempts to publish The Pentagon Papers. Her efforts led to a Supreme Court decision that “defended the First Amendment right of free press against prior restraint by the government,” and reaffirmed one of the nation’s most fundamental values.

Another leader who’s left a lasting legacy is Howard Schultz. As the former CEO of Starbucks, he’s left a legacy that’s had an impact greater than just the delicious coffee. His legacy has impacted all of those who make the coffee and those who work in their stores. Schultz made it a point to prioritize the well-being of his employees by offering comprehensive healthcare benefits and supporting various communities.

One of the ways he did this was through expanding educational access through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan. This program provided a tuition-free college education online and hired thousands of military veterans and spouses, as well as refugees and underprivileged youth, allowing people to create a better life for themselves and loved ones. He chose a legacy that gave opportunities to those around him, and as a result, he built a successful company that fostered the professional growth of its employees.

By The Acquira Team

Loose lips sink ships. The same can be true when selling your business.
If word gets out to your employees, customers, or vendors prematurely that you’re selling – it could have a dramatic impact, possibly jeopardizing how much you can get for all your hard work.

Breaches in confidentiality can lead to several adverse outcomes, such as destabilizing employee morale, alerting competitors, unsettling customers, and potentially devaluing the business before the sale is finalized.

Your employees may fear for their job security and start looking for new positions, which can lead to a loss of key staff. Similarly, customers and suppliers may perceive the sale as an indicator of instability, prompting them to seek alternatives.

Here’s a look at the importance of confidentiality during the sale of your business.

Breaches in confidentiality can lead to several adverse outcomes, such as destabilizing employee morale, alerting competitors, unsettling customers, and potentially devaluing the business before the sale is finalized.Protecting Business Interests.

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

Sensitive information, including financial statements, customer lists, proprietary processes, and strategic plans, must be protected during the sale process.

The inadvertent disclosure of such data can compromise the competitive edge of your business and, by extension, its market value. 

Strategies for safeguarding this information include secure document management systems that track and control access to sensitive documents and ensuring that all digital communications are encrypted.

Potential buyers should be required to sign an NDA before receiving any sensitive information.

This legal document ensures that the information shared during the due diligence process cannot be used for any purpose other than evaluating the purchase of the business.

Preserving Employee Morale

The uncertainty generated by the sale of a business can significantly impact employee morale and productivity.

Rumors of a sale can create anxiety among the workforce, leading to decreased productivity and potentially prompting key employees to leave. 

To manage this, communication should be carefully planned.

While it’s important to maintain confidentiality, finding the right time to inform employees about the sale is crucial.

This decision requires a delicate balance between preserving the integrity of the sale process and respecting the rights of employees. It’s ultimately up to your discretion but as a general rule, making sure the news comes from you – and not the buyer – is preferred.

Your management team plays a crucial role in mitigating the impact of sale-related uncertainty on employee morale.

By maintaining normal operations and showing confidence in the future, leaders can reassure employees.

In cases where confidentiality is maintained until the sale is finalized, preparing a comprehensive plan to manage the announcement to employees is vital.

This includes addressing their concerns, outlining any changes they can expect, and highlighting the opportunities the sale presents for the business and its workforce.

Sustaining Customer Relationships

Breaches in confidentiality during the sale of a business can severely impact customer trust, a cornerstone of any business’s success.

Customers who learn of a sale through unofficial channels might fear disruptions in service or changes in product quality, leading to lost confidence and business. 

To mitigate these risks, maintaining open yet carefully managed communication with customers is crucial.

Strategies include segmenting customer communications to ensure messages are tailored and relevant, and proactively addressing any concerns they may have about the sale’s impact on their service.

Ensuring business continuity is key; customers need reassurance that the quality and reliability of what they’ve come to expect will remain unchanged.

Best Practices for Confidentiality During the Sale Process.

Establishing clear protocols for handling confidential information is essential to maintaining confidentiality.

This includes training employees on the importance of discretion and the potential consequences of leaks.

Within the organization, fostering a culture of open communication and transparency helps manage rumors and misinformation.

By being transparent about the processes in place to protect the businesses and stakeholders’ interests without divulging sensitive details, employees can feel more secure and less inclined to speculate or spread rumors.

Data rooms

Data rooms serve as secure platforms where documents can be viewed but not easily removed or copied, reducing the risk of leaks.

These digital rooms allow for selective disclosure, where information is only available to parties directly involved in the transaction and whose intent and legitimacy have been vetted.

The use of data rooms facilitates the organization and tracking of document access, ensuring that sensitive information is not broadly disseminated and is only seen by those with a legitimate need to know.

Selective disclosure emphasizes the importance of sharing information on a need-to-know basis.

This approach minimizes the risk of confidentiality breaches by limiting the number of people aware of the sale and the details of the transaction.

By carefully managing who receives what information and when, sellers can protect the integrity of the sale process and the business’s value.

Pre-Sale Confidentiality Planning

Before initiating the sale process of a small business, you should establish a robust confidentiality plan.

This serves as a foundational step in protecting the business’s sensitive information, including financial records, client lists, proprietary technologies, and strategic plans.

Identifying what constitutes confidential information early on prevents inadvertent disclosures that could jeopardize the sale or the business’s competitive edge.

Equally important is determining who needs to know about the impending sale. 

Limiting this knowledge to a select group of individuals minimizes the risk of leaks and ensures that the information is only shared with those who have a direct role in facilitating the sale.

This selective sharing is crucial for maintaining an environment of trust and security, laying the groundwork for a smooth and discreet sale process.

Role of Intermediaries in Maintaining Confidentiality

Intermediaries, such as brokers, advisors, and legal representatives, play a pivotal role in maintaining confidentiality during the sale of a business.

These professionals act as buffers between the seller and potential buyers, ensuring that sensitive information is only shared under strict confidentiality agreements and after vetting the seriousness and capability of the interested parties.

The choice of intermediaries is significant; opt for those with a strong track record of discretion and expertise in handling confidential transactions.

Experienced intermediaries understand the stakes involved and are skilled in crafting communication and information-sharing strategies that protect your interests. 

By managing the flow of information and negotiating on the seller’s behalf, these professionals help preserve the integrity of the sale process, ensuring that confidentiality is maintained from the initial stages through to the conclusion of the sale.

Confidential Business Sale: Monitoring and Enforcement

Monitoring compliance with confidentiality agreements is essential to safeguard the sensitive information involved in the sale of a business.

Employing systematic methods to track adherence and regularly auditing the handling of confidential data ensures that all parties involved are complying with agreed-upon measures.

This might involve periodic checks on how data is accessed and shared within data rooms, reviewing access logs, and confirming that information is not being disclosed improperly.

Conducting regular audits of confidentiality measures involves assessing the security of document storage, both physical and digital, verifying that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive information, and ensuring that all electronic communications are secure.

These audits help identify any potential vulnerabilities or breaches in confidentiality protocols early, allowing for timely corrective actions.

The consequences for breaches of confidentiality should be clearly outlined in the confidentiality agreement and can include legal action, financial penalties, and termination of the sale process.

Enforcement mechanisms are crucial as they underscore the seriousness of the agreement and the commitment to protecting the business’s confidential information.

These measures serve as a deterrent against unauthorized disclosure and provide a clear recourse for the selling party should a breach occur.

Conclusion

Remaining confidential during the business sales process is critical to safeguarding its value and stability.

Breaches in confidentiality can destabilize employee morale, alert competitors, unsettle customers, and potentially devalue the business. 

Protecting sensitive information through robust confidentiality agreements, secure document management, and controlled information disclosure is essential.

Industry Trends – IWF, By Warren Shoulberg

It may not be back to the good times during low interest rates but Telsey Advisory Group’s Housing Scorecard shows more positives than negatives.

If you’re looking for good news about the housing market – especially when there doesn’t seem to be too much as the most recent data suggests the sector remains weak and mortgage rates are even going back up a bit – a new analysis from prestigious Wall Street firm Telsey Advisory Group is going to bring a smile to your face…and to your business bottom line too.

In its regular “TAG Housing Scorecard” which ranks a number of factors influencing the industry, Telsey sees five positives, three even scores, and just two negatives. “Our latest Housing Scorecard reflects a housing market that has bottomed out and is improving,” it wrote in its latest report. “The latest data have resulted in our total index rising to 65 from 35 in October 2023, August 2023, February 2023, and December 2022, 50 in July 2022, and 55 in February 2022.”

That’s still down from its index of 80 in April 2021, but “better than 2022 and 2023.” Still, it said the market is “not back to strength.”

Positives on its scorecards were: private fixed residential investments, the value of construction put into place, the S&P/Schiller Home Price Index, new construction starts and permits and housing formations. On the negative side were 30-year fixed mortgage rates and existing house sales. It judged remodeling rates, employment and consumer confidence as “mixed.”

It continued to see those retailers and other businesses that service the housing market as long-term solid prospects even if right now they remain challenged.