Have You Protected Your Assets

Having worked closely with sales teams for the past 20 years one area that seems to get missed is keeping your sales force up to date on basic skills and expertise. As the economy changed, the means to market and sales approach has to change to deal with the customers economic condition. The old "hi Charlie, how much can I put you down for" has all but disappeared. For that matter it did a long time ago and top sales people did not know how to adjust.

So you as a manager need to focus on the following:

• identify weak spots - does your sale team and for that matter customer service people know the company's strategy?
• climate - sales people want new ideas and products so keep the pipeline full including software that will make their job easier and more efficient;
• check for complacency - management should keep communication lines full from strategy to daily updates on sales activity. Keep sales teams motivated through impact marketing, coaching, and weed out poor performers if they continue after development investment;
• adjust territories if needed.

A couple of other housekeeping initiatives such as:

• continue to evaluate your resources
• focus on service excellence
• get people out of their comfort zones
• train towards peak performance
• continuous measurement - post results
• keep their eye on the ball
• create a theme

As a manager are you doing these things to keep your sales team at peak levels and if not you will experience the recession and you will lose the dream for your team. What are your thoughts?

Losing Is Never Fun

Losing is never fun. When you invest significant time and resources pursuing a deal and it falls through, it’s frustrating – and invariably causes some self-reflection.

Why weren’t we successful this time? What could we have done differently? Implementing a process to learn from your losses can yield great dividends – and is often the best way to lock in the next potential customer you approach.

There are plenty of reasons deals fall through. See if any of these sounds familiar:

· The price was too high

· The competition had a personal relationship with the buyer

· The product was missing a key feature

· The product isn’t a comprehensive solution

· The sales rep didn’t position our product correctly

· The lack of a reference customer in the industry

· The customer didn’t believe they have the problem you solve

· The competition simply outsold your firm

· The lack of an ROI toolkit

The list goes on but by taking the time to formally analyze your losses, you discover a wealth of valuable

information that can impact your overall vision and strategy. Here are 10 quidelines you can apply to your own

loss analysis:

1. Interview internally and externally

2. Choose an objective individual to conduct the interview

3. Don't wait to long

4. Understand the customer need

5. Get their prospective on your product

6. Get pricing feedback

7. Get competitive insights

8. Review their key decision criteria

9. Evaluate the sales process

10. Review the effectiveness of your marketing

If you build this in as a normal part of your sales process you not only will get valuable feedback, but you will

indicate to them that you are a company that is continually looking to improve your products and services. More

importantly, if you are engaged in a similar opportunity in the future, you will be armed to win.

Succession Management

A common misconception is that succession management is a human resources driven exercise with little impact on the company. Well, the opposite is true. For those companies that do not have a pure succession plan it has a damaging effect on the long-term impact on the companies bottom line. So where does your company stand on this very important issue especially in today's high impact, fast moving environment of business activity and mobility of great talent. Here are the guideposts and where do you stand:

Level 0 - no succession plan. 21% of companies fall into this category

Level 1 - Replacement Planning - companies only focus on senior level management and an A list of potentials is created. 15% operate at this level

Level 2 - Traditional Succession Planning - Talent review are conducted and plans are put in place. 52% of companies operate like this today

Level 3 - Integrated Succession Planning - A company targets all critical positions at all levels and it is tied to business strategy. 12% operate like this today

Level 4 - Transparent Talent Mobility - no companies operate at this level today where companies completely understand the capabilities and potential of their human capital where decisions are made naturally based on business need and the company as a whole.

So where are you in this talent slide? Bersin & Associates have dealt deeply into this subject and the full text is in this months issue of Workforce.

The Four Functions of Management

For any kind of organization to run smoothly in achieving their set goals and objectives they need to implement management concepts. To plan for it, there are four basic management concepts that allow any organization to handle planned, tactical and set decisions. What are those plans? The answer lies here.

Any organization, whether new or old, whether small or big need to run smoothly and achieve the goals and objectives which it has set forth. For this they had developed and implemented their own management concepts. There are basically four management concepts that allow any organization to handle the tactical, planned and set decisions. The four basic functions of the management are just to have a controlled plan over the preventive measure.

The four functions of management are:

The base function is to: Plan

It is the foundation area of management. It is the base upon which the all the areas of management should be built. Planning requires administration to assess; where the company is presently set, and where it would be in the upcoming. From there an appropriate course of action is determined and implemented to attain the company’s goals and objectives

Planning is unending course of action. There may be sudden strategies where companies have to face. Sometimes they are uncontrollable. You can say that they are external factors that constantly affect a company both optimistically and pessimistically. Depending on the conditions, a company may have to alter its course of action in accomplishing certain goals. This kind of preparation, arrangement is known as strategic planning. In strategic planning, management analyzes inside and outside factors that may affect the company and so objectives and goals. Here they should have a study of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For management to do this efficiently, it has to be very practical and ample.

The subsequent function is to: Organize

The second function of the management is getting prepared, getting organized. Management must organize all its resources well before in hand to put into practice the course of action to decide that has been planned in the base function. Through this process, management will now determine the inside directorial configuration; establish and maintain relationships, and also assign required resources.

While determining the inside directorial configuration, management ought to look at the different divisions or departments. They also see to the harmonization of staff, and try to find out the best way to handle the important tasks and expenditure of information within the company. Management determines the division of work according to its need. It also has to decide for suitable departments to hand over authority and responsibilities.

The third function is to: Direct

Directing is the third function of the management. Working under this function helps the management to control and supervise the actions of the staff. This helps them to assist the staff in achieving the company’s goals and also accomplishing their personal or career goals which can be powered by motivation, communication, department dynamics, and department leadership.

Employees those which are highly provoked generally surpass in their job performance and also play important role in achieving the company’s goal. And here lies the reason why managers focus on motivating their employees. They come about with prize and incentive programs based on job performance and geared in the direction of the employees requirements.

It is very important to maintain a productive working environment, building positive interpersonal relationships, and problem solving. And this can be done only with Effective communication. Understanding the communication process and working on area that need improvement, help managers to become more effective communicators. The finest technique of finding the areas that requires improvement is to ask themselves and others at regular intervals, how well they are doing. This leads to better relationship and helps the managers for better directing plans.

The final function is to: Control

Control, the last of four functions of management, includes establishing performance standards which are of course based on the company’s objectives. It also involves evaluating and reporting of actual job performance. When these points are studied by the management then it is necessary to compare both the things. This study on comparision of both decides further corrective and preventive actions.

In an effort of solving performance problems, management should higher standards. They should straightforwardly speak to the employee or department having problem. On the contrary, if there are inadequate resources or disallow other external factors standards from being attained, management had to lower their standards as per requirement. The controlling processes as in comparison with other three, is unending process or say continuous process. With this management can make out any probable problems. It helps them in taking necessary preventive measures against the consequences. Management can also recognize any further developing problems that need corrective actions.

Effective and efficient management leads to success, the success where it attains the objectives and goals of the organizations. Of course for achieving the ultimate goal and aim management need to work creatively in problem solving in all the four functions. Management not only has to see the needs of accomplishing the goals but also has to look in to the process that their way is feasible for the company.

How does your company fair against these four areas management?

'Locals,' 'Cosmopolitans' and Other Keys to Creating Successful Global Teams

Global teams are like oceans: Depending on how they are navigated, they can link the world together or split it apart. When global teams work, they tap into a company's top talent, exploit local expertise, unite far-flung groups and ramp up worldwide production. When they don't, they are divisive, spark massive miscommunication and drive global projects into the ground.

"In any team, there are lots of barriers to effectively working together, and there are ways to make teams more effective through selection, through design, through leadership," says Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard. "The challenges are really exacerbated in global teams where you have even greater potential barriers, especially when there are different cultural norms."

Working across international, cultural and organizational boundaries poses daunting challenges on a variety of levels. Time zone differences can make meetings difficult. Language and cultural differences sometimes lead to communication problems. And a variety of less obvious differences trip up global team members in ways they rarely expect.

Despite such difficulties, global teams -- in all forms -- are here to stay. Whether it's a small task force within a single company, a cross-border partnership or a multinational coalition of leaders spanning several organizations, global teams have become an essential element of modern business. "They're often a necessity," says Rothbard. "You may need those diverse cultural perspectives to solve a cultural problem.... We need to find ways to make these teams work effectively. We need them to get the work done as the world becomes a more global place."

When done right, global teams can be an asset, unlocking tremendous value for companies that use them. "Global teams are able to take advantage of people not being in the same place at the same time, in order to get the work done," says Batia Weisenfeld, a management professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. "Projects can be progressing 24 hours a day. You'll be doing software development in Silicon Valley and then the software testing is being done in India while those people [in California] are sleeping."

Global teams can also ratchet up creativity and innovation by tapping into unique skill sets and multiple points of view. Weisenfeld points to one New York advertising firm as an example. The firm's New York office developed what was supposed to be a worldwide advertising campaign. But the campaign probably wouldn't sit well culturally for Asian consumers, the company's Asia office advised. So team members in Asia tweaked the campaign to accommodate local tastes. In the process, they improved the campaign so much that headquarters ultimately replaced the original campaign with the Asian version.

Unlocking Value

Despite such potential, global teams pose challenges that must first be overcome.


One of the most common issues is time. When team members are scattered across several time zones, simply scheduling a meeting can be difficult.

Consultant Ana Reyes is a partner of New Worlds Enterprise LLP, lecturer in the Penn Organizational Dynamics Program and academic director for a program offered by Wharton's Aresty Institute for Executive Education called, "Leading Virtual Global Teams." Reyes once experienced a timing and communication snafu when working as a consultant for a large multinational corporation. The company, which had offices in several U.S., European and Asian locations, usually held global teleconferences in the morning New York time. Since team members in Asia attended the meetings in the evening, they usually used their personal phones at home. When it came to scheduling a meeting via videoconference, however, things became very complicated. Asian team members didn't have videoconferencing equipment at home, and discovered -- weeks, unfortunately, after their meeting was scheduled and the agenda was set -- that they couldn't use the video equipment in their office building because it was locked at night. "To get the video conferencing, they had to hire technology support and security for the building," Reyes says. In the end, the company decided it would be easier to just fly people to New York.

Organizations often assume that global team members are willing to meet when it's convenient for headquarters, says Catherine Mercer Bing, CEO of ITAP International, a Newtown, Pa.-based consulting firm that "works at the intersection of business and cultural issues." The unfortunate result for some team members: Every meeting takes place in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn.


"It becomes [demotivating] for those team members who always have to be available at 4 a.m. or some other off-work hours," Bing says. Her suggestion: Start global conference calls by asking what time it is for everyone involved, to make everyone aware of other team members' situations. Also, change meeting times frequently so that everybody has a chance to attend a meeting during the day. "Rotate," she suggests. "It makes it fair. It makes team members feel more equitable."


Tackling cultural differences can be much more of a challenge. When global teams include more than one culture, team members carry unspoken assumptions that can lead to inadvertent misunderstandings. After all, the type of information people share and how they share it is culturally based, says Rothbard. "Hesitation in voice in one culture might signal discomfort with what is being shared. In another culture, it might just [mean they're] being deliberative. What people mean, and how [others] interpret what they mean, is very subtle. The speaker might have no idea that their words are being interpreted in a certain way."

Depending on a person's cultural background, fellow team members might seem to be speaking too loudly or softly, interrupting too much or being too reticent, demanding a ridiculous amount of information or being oddly ambiguous.


"Everybody is programmed by the cultures they grew up with," says Reyes. Studies have shown that people from Latin American, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries speak several decibels louder than other cultures. In many of these countries, interrupting is considered an acceptable way to exchange turns in conversation. "These communication patterns ... become annoyances that people can't figure out, so people often ignore [them]. And best practice is to talk about them."

Cultural differences also impact the way global teams communicate information to others outside of the team -- another possible source of conflict. Bing once worked with a global team with members in the U.S. and Spain. Consistently throughout the project, the Spanish team members would copy their superiors in emails about what the team was doing. Members of the U.S. team misinterpreted the move as attempts to undermine team efforts. "The U.S. [team members] were saying, 'You guys are trying to get us in trouble,'" Bing recalls. "But part of who gets copied is a cultural decision." The misperception ultimately caused so much conflict between members that the team missed a project deadline.

Cultural differences even creep into the technologies companies use, creating additional challenges for interaction, Reyes says. "Culture is really pattern-based ways of organizing space, time, human activity and the material environment. So technology -- any kind of technology, whether it's a robot or a technology system -- [involves] human practices that have been disembodied and put into a machine."

So what can managers and companies do to make global teams work better? Our experts offer a few ideas and suggestions:

1. Try to meet at least once face-to-face
2. Choose team members carefully
3. Keep the team small if possible
4. Consider cross-cultural training
5. Be explicit upfront about how the team will operate
6. Be conscious of time
7. Consider how the team is organized
8. Don't overload team members
9. Give the team autonomy

Some ideas for companies that want to tap talent and utilize their expertise to advance product, services, and infrastructure. For the complete story go to http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2328