Disaster Recovery 101: What You Need to Know

Computerworld, 11/16/11 - With various parts of the country still reeling in the wake of tornadoes, earthquakes, too-early snowstorms, hurricanes and wildfires, the past few months have taught us that no geographical area is safe. There's never been a more compelling time to develop or fine-tune a disaster recovery and business continuity plan for your business.

Disaster recovery is, quite simply, being able to continue your mission-critical business operations after an interruption of some kind. Companies must be able to resurrect their applications and processes -- their entire business operations -- at the point they were before the outage occurred, says Robert Amatruda, research director for data protection and recovery at IDC. And this is true whether the outage resulted from a natural disaster, a server or storage system malfunctioning or "someone pulling a plug they shouldn't have," he says.

While business continuity is about being able to keep functions going, disaster recovery means being able to get everything back to whole again, explains Carl Pritchard, senior risk-management consultant at advisory firm Cutter Consortium. "The difference is business continuity is keeping the patient alive. Disaster recovery is getting them back to being healed and walking again," says Pritchard, who is also the author of Risk Management, Concepts and Guidance, 4th Edition.

Fantastic Quote to Remember!

"There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a
burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. 

Whatever it takes! But you can't blame other people or society in general. 

It all comes from your mind. When we do the impossible we realize 

we are special people." --Jan Ashford

CEO Confirmation

Last week I met with a good friend of mine to discuss his business and what I have been doing since I left the corporate world. This person is a CEO of a couple of Internet business all linked to the same type of information. Needless to say he is ultra successful and has capitalized on data streaming over the Internet.

Our discussion went from business strategy, to joint ventures, to new opportunities, and to HR. The discussion on HR really re-enforced what I have been saying since 1978. An HR professional needs to be head deep into the business, know all the ins and outs, products, development, and how to market. This person and I worked together for a couple of years after we bought his company. Since I had an opportunity to meet him early on doing the due diligence and acquisition of his $300+M company, he forged a great working relationship and respect for one another.

His comment to me said it all" you are a business person with great knowledge and understanding on how to run a successful business". This is what a CEO should say about his/her CHRO. Does your CEO say that about you and what have you done to fully understand your business and integrate yourself into the day to day operations? Oh, don't forget talent management, succession, and all the other CHRO duties!!

Employee Engagement? In a Business, It Needs to Start at the Very Top

A fish rots from the head down, as the saying goes from my friends in Maine. While the word rot sounds offensive, let’s just say it starts from the top.


This week, I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who is the CEO of a major company , an a true entrepreneur when I mentioned employee engagement. This is a topic I have blogged about now for over 3 years and is still top of mind in the HR world as it should be. This friend jumped on the topic and went on for 40 minutes on what CEOs should do to drive employee engagement from the top. 

This CEO met with the senior staff and employees daily and kept in front of them on the business climate, strategy, and new product development. He also had many teams of employees testing products, and asked them to act like consumers. Employee surrounded themselves with the business, and I will tell you even during these economic anemic times his business is going strong at 15% year-over-year growth. 


How does your CEO engage employees? 

Traditionalists Will Not Succeed in HR In Today's Environment

This is not a controversial subject at all I would think given the environment today. If you want to get into HR today, you need to understand business and economics, and I do not mean just the rudiments. You also still have to be people oriented but that is not why you get into this field. Here is why traditional HR people will not succeed today:

• Your CEO wants business people, not just people people,
• You have to have a close and intimate working relationship with your CEO and executive team,
• HR should not be focused on administration like it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago,
• You have to think like a business person and understand the economics of business,
• You have to talk business speak, not HR speak and people need to know you can back up your business speak,
• You have to add immediate value and ROI in everything you do,
• If you do not understand and grow and retain talent, you are out,
• You need to be smart about social media and how to attract the right talent to your business,
• If you do not understand global competition and exchange you lose,
• You have to know how to adjust to changing environments like driving a Formula One race car,
• You need to be flexible, act with speed, and decisiveness and have the RIGHT answers and solutions,
• You need to be compassionate yet honest in your discussions with people, not beat around the bush like most HR people,
• Phoneys will not make it today and that will cut out about 50% of the HR people in corporations today,
• You have to be someone who could potentially take the COO/CEO position some day.
• You need to understand and explain balance sheets and corporate accounting & finance.

And you can fill in all the other blocks on how to make it today in HR. This is just the tip of the iceberg on what it will take to be in HR today. Do you agree? 

Have You Hardwired Your Workforce?

In an economy like what we are experiencing today, good news today, bad news in Europe tomorrow after the bell,  one of the first budget cuts we see is usually in training & development. As all HR and astute CEOs know, training is one of the key life bloods of an organization that builds your workforce skills and is a launch pad for growth.One of the key elements for continuing training of your human capital is instilling that training is important to them and that they should take the time to expand their skills, grow their competencies, and make it a ritual in their working lives. It is an investment in their capital assets. So how do you do this? Here are a couple of important guidelines:

1. make sure there is a solid training strategy that ties to the corporations' goal/objectives
   keep the training budget as much in place as possible
2. make sure your managers buy into the training strategy
3. managers must emphasize that training is important to them
4. offer eLearning options for your employees through companies like SkillSoft
5. provide time each week for learning
6. show the outcome of skills training so people see the end result
7. post notices on your intranet regarding skills training
8. make sure that you subsidize if not pay in full the training that people take that is relevant to their current position or one that in next in line for them. There has to be a solid ROI.

These are just a few areas where you as managers and leaders of organizations can ensure that you build and maintain the most competent workforce that will help you drive revenues and profits. It will also help reduce turnover and build loyalty within the organization.

How Quick Can You State Your Strategy?

I have had a couple of exchanges on Linkedin regarding my post that if you cannot explain your strategy in 20 minutes you don't have a coherent strategy plan at all. Larry Bossity said this 10 years ago ""If you can’t describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven’t got a plan."


The comments from my Hr practitioners and constituents have said that if you cannot explain your strategy in 5 minutes you don't have a plan. well, I disagree because I be neither of the two who said it should only take 5 minutes couldn't even talk fast enough to get the strategy plan out in 5 minutes. I am not totally contradicting them but questioning how comprehensive their strategy would be  if they had 5 minutes to tell it to the board or executive team. 


Now, I will say that I am talking about an HR strategy not an overall corporate strategy. I am also not saying that an HR strategy should take any longer but when you piece all the components together that will take more time as they weave into the corporate strategy. 


Tell me what you thoughts are on this issue either on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/williamgstevensjr)  or at wgstevens2@gmail.com 

CHROs Leadership

Courage, Now...

No doubt, CHROs and their leadership teams are facing unprecedented pressure to make decisions and deliver results in uncertain and vexing times.It made us think of Harry Truman as he as he contemplated actions to end WW II. 

"To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone."

Courage, not a fear to act, is at the top of the agenda for CEOs and their CHROs. 

The Koblentz Group, wish to share two leadership trends that we are observing in our most forward thinking and courageous clients. Each trend suggests opportunities for CHROs to deliver tangible value.

**CEOs are under increasing pressure from their boards to become truly serious about succession planning and talent management.

Many CEOs speak about the value of leadership capital but few have supported the investment of organizational commitment and funding, to make it work. Boards are demanding tangible plans and now are tying CEO compensation to talent accountability.

CEOs are taking notice! And, CEOs are looking for your guidance.

This creates a real opportunity for CHROs to create significant value by advising their leadership on all the elements of developing and instituting an effective process, investment and benefits.

**As the economic malaise continues, our clients are laser focused on leveraging the basics.

CEOs are asking CHROs to provide key insights on the strategic use of their organization's associates.

"Do we have the "right" talent, in the "right" place to “leverage” the current uncertainty?"

"Can we, as company leaders, put aside politics, personal ambitions and corporate fiefdoms to assure we see issues, challenges and opportunities with clear optics?"

These questions are often over looked or too easily dismissed as simple. This introspective exercise creates opportunity for CHROs to create value with their leadership by reexamining what is presumed to be obvious.

It takes courage for any CHRO to challenge the "givens" and the "simple." Yet, Koblenz's clients who are willing to invest in digging deep on fundamentals have found this type of "examining our basics" approach, yields significant results.

No doubt 2012 will be challenging.

Times will not always be as in the current.

reprint from the Koblenz Group Blog 

One More Great Lesson From Steve Jobs: Innovation Begins As A Social Movement

Why is the loss of one CEO the cause for universal mourning? Because he symbolized the kind of entrepreneurial capitalism that generates the fun that comes with creating the new.


Hardly anything unites Americans anymore--except for the death of Steve Jobs. His passing and the deep mourning for him across political, generational, and cultural divides remind us that we all can agree on one thing--that it is Jobs’s kind of capitalism, entrepreneurial capitalism, that we love, because it generates the incredible fun that comes with creating the new. His death reminds us that the big, disruptive innovations almost always come from entrepreneurs who embody their following and enable the dreams and talents that they have inside and haven’t yet expressed. It reminds us that all net new job growth in the U.S. comes from startups and businesses five years old or younger that begin in garages, college dorm rooms, or Starbucks cafés.


Above all, Jobs’s passing reminds us that entrepreneurial capitalism is not simply some rational economic market phenomenon but a social movement that binds groups of people together in communities of like interests and deep emotions. Think of the important innovations of our day that are changing our lives--Facebook, Twitter, Zipcar, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, iTunes/iPod/iPhone/iPad--and you find new social communities interacting on new platforms. Add them all up and you see entrepreneurial capitalism itself as a social movement that we join, participate in, and help create ourselves.





Contrast that to the crony capitalism that Occupy Wall Street is protesting against. This kind of capitalism has Wall Street no longer allocating capital to businesses so they can grow--which is its central economic and social function. With crony capitalism, banks and hedge funds trade for their own account--often with government-guaranteed savings and with government safety nets if they fail. With crony capitalism, big businesses, with a handful of exceptions, stop innovating and no longer generate jobs, income, or taxes for America. What crony capitalists have come to excel at is to game the political, regulatory, and tax system to favor their special interests. This anger against crony capitalism crosses the political spectrum.

Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, on the right, and Occupy Wall Street protesters, on the left, specifically decry crony capitalism and celebrate entrepreneurial capitalism. Nearly all of my socially liberal design students at Parsons support Occupy Wall Street and, at the same time, want to launch their own startup businesses. And that is where the role of design in capitalism is becoming ever more important. The new surge in startup culture among the young, the turn of design toward new business, not just big business and the overall collision of creativity with capitalism now under way, is the best way for us to rebuild our country. This will require reframing capitalism as the space for creators, not traders, for risk-takers, not risk managers, for community-builders, not destroyers.

Steve Jobs, like all entrepreneurs, had an entirely different set of competencies from CEOs and managers of big corporations. His ability to be attuned to his following, his framing of the problem (it’s people’s experience with the product, not the functionality and technology, that’s key); his obsession with the look, feel, and materiality; and the charisma of his leadership generated an “aura” around Apple products. That aura extended to Jobs himself, which is why we feel so emotional for the passing of this particular CEO and not any others.

The most successful entrepreneurs, from Thomas Edison, who was called the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” to Steve Jobs, portrayed as a secular prophet holding the iPad as a religious tablet on the February 2, 2010 cover of The Economist (“The Book of Jobs”), are often described in transcendental terminology. They have an aura that directly connects them to their followings whom they embody. These “visionaries,” “prophets,” “wizards,” “oracles” (the “Oracle of Omaha”) have a secular priest and laity relationship with their following. The priest promises the laity a coherent vision of the world, a way to release inherent hopes and talents while curbing existential angst, and a community to which to belong. The laity offers fealty in return. Prophets, religious and secular, tend to arise in moments of social and economic breakdown, which helps explain why there is a surge toward entrepreneurialism today.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber says that Calvin believed that people lived in a radical state of uncertainty about going to heaven. So they had to work extra hard to get there. Work becomes a calling. Today, we are living through yet another state of uncertainty. Innovation and entrepreneurship are our calling.

It is not an accident that so many of our startup founders (Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Airbn, Slideshare) have design backgrounds and share so many of the competencies we associate with Jobs. The fact that design is being recognized in the startup space is a major victory for the field. But the real power of design may well lie in its reform of the venture capital process, which has traditionally been defined in terms of technology and functionality. Bringing design into the VC process early to define opportunities (identifying those who embody new groups and new cultures) and keeping it through the business development phase, has the potential to increase the dismal 10% success rate dramatically. India’s innovation and design consultancy Idiom has an 80% success rate in “designing out” new companies.

The movement of design toward big business led to a focus on process and a promise of rationality and routinization of inspiration into products. In the end, we didn’t get much real innovation or the economic value that comes with it. The recent turn of design toward new business is leading to a focus on capitalism as social movement, and a promise of charisma and embodiment generating spectacular experiences that enable and delight. That’s why Steve Jobs and his entrepreneurial capitalism are so important--and why we mourn for him.

BRUCE NUSSBAUM

Bruce Nussbaum blogs, tweets and writes on innovation, design thinking and creativity. The former assistant managing editor for Business Week is a Professor of Innovation

Love Poems From The Heart

Check out poems on my poetry blog at www.williamgstevensiipoems.blogspot.com

What Guy Kawasaki Learned From Steve Jobs

Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.

Experts are clueless.

Experts—journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers, and gurus can’t “do” so they “advise.” They can tell you what is wrong with your product, but they cannot make a great one. They can tell you how to sell something, but they cannot sell it themselves. They can tell you how to create great teams, but they only manage a secretary. For example, the experts told us that the two biggest shortcomings of Macintosh in the mid 1980s was the lack of a daisy-wheel printer driver and Lotus 1-2-3; another advice gem from the experts was to buy Compaq. Hear what experts say, but don’t always listen to them.

Customers cannot tell you what they need.

“Apple market research” is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use—that’s what Steve and Woz did.

Jump to the next curve.

Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness. The best daisy-wheel printer companies were introducing new fonts in more sizes. Apple introduced the next curve: laser printing. Think of ice harvesters, ice factories, and refrigerator companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Are you still harvesting ice during the winter from a frozen pond?

The biggest challenges beget best work.

I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I, or my work, was crap. In public. This fear was a big challenge. Competing with IBM and then Microsoft was a big challenge. Changing the world was a big challenge. I, and Apple employees before me and after me, did their best work because we had to do our best work to meet the big challenges.

Design counts.

Steve drove people nuts with his design demands—some shades of black weren’t black enough. Mere mortals think that black is black, and that a trash can is a trash can. Steve was such a perfectionist—a perfectionist Beyond: Thunderdome—and lo and behold he was right: some people care about design and many people at least sense it. Maybe not everyone, but the important ones.

You can’t go wrong with big graphics and big fonts.

Take a look at Steve’s slides. The font is sixty points. There’s usually one big screenshot or graphic. Look at other tech speaker’s slides—even the ones who have seen Steve in action. The font is eight points, and there are no graphics. So many people say that Steve was the world’s greatest product introduction guy..don’t you wonder why more people don’t copy his style?

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.

When Apple first shipped the iPhone there was no such thing as apps. Apps, Steve decreed, were a bad thing because you never know what they could be doing to your phone. Safari web apps were the way to go until six months later when Steve decided, or someone convinced Steve, that apps were the way to go—but of course. Duh! Apple came a long way in a short time from Safari web apps to “there’s an app for that.”

“Value” is different from “price.”

Woe unto you if you decide everything based on price. Even more woe unto you if you compete solely on price. Price is not all that matters—what is important, at least to some people, is value. And value takes into account training, support, and the intrinsic joy of using the best tool that’s made. It’s pretty safe to say that no one buys Apple products because of their low price.

A players hire A+ players.

Actually, Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It’s clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called “the bozo explosion” to happen in your organization.

Real CEOs demo.

Steve Jobs could demo a pod, pad, phone, and Mac two to three times a year with millions of people watching, why is it that many CEOs call upon their vice-president of engineering to do a product demo? Maybe it’s to show that there’s a team effort in play. Maybe. It’s more likely that the CEO doesn’t understand what his/her company is making well enough to explain it. How pathetic is that?

Real CEOs ship.

For all his perfectionism, Steve could ship. Maybe the product wasn’t perfect every time, but it was almost always great enough to go. The lesson is that Steve wasn’t tinkering for the sake of tinkering—he had a goal: shipping and achieving worldwide domination of existing markets or creation of new markets. Apple is an engineering-centric company, not a research-centric one. Which would you rather be: Apple or Xerox PARC?

Marketing boils down to providing unique value.

Think of a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis measures how your product differs from the competition. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product. Bottom right: valuable but not unique—you’ll have to compete on price. Top left: unique but not valuable—you’ll own a market that doesn’t exist. Bottom left: not unique and not value—you’re a bozo. Top right: unique and valuable—this is where you make margin, money, and history. For example, the iPod was unique and valuable because it was the only way to legally, inexpensively, and easily download music from the six biggest record labels.

Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen. 


When you are jumping curves, defying/ignoring the experts, facing off against big challenges, obsessing about design, and focusing on unique value, you will need to convince people to believe in what you are doing in order to see your efforts come to fruition. People needed to believe in Macintosh to see it become real. Ditto for iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Not everyone will believe—that’s okay. But the starting point of changing the world is changing a few minds. This is the greatest lesson of all that I learned from Steve.

"Lost Talent"

I had lunch yesterday with a good friend who is currently looking for a new position. Our discussion went from who we worked for in the past, real funny stories I must say,  to current employment opportunities, to what we plan to do in the future. One topic lead to another and then "lost talent". Yes  "lost talent". He shared with me his concern that the longer he was out of work the less marketable he felt he would be. How true that is in today's world. Articles abound on how companies are reluctant to hire individuals with great talent, skills, and work ethic. 


As we discussed this disturbing issue from a top HR executive level (which we both were) we got more and more concerned that companies are really missing the boat. They are also telling the out-of-workforce you are not valuable.  Knowing people who have been out of work for several years that is as far from the truth as can be. What we concluded was that we could not change current hiring principles. 


I have to say some companies are hiring talented 1+, 2+ out-of-work workers and encourage those companies to continue to hire those talented extended unemployed.  


Companies must think out of the box to stay competitive and this is one way of staying ahead of the competition. While these people were out of work what changed, we thought:

• software may have been upgraded in companies
• companies may have gone virtual or mobile 
• dress codes may have changed
• resized companies have reduced workspace
• some key players in target companies

What hasn't changed:

• company values 
• the skill set of the unemployed worker
• the network the worker had in prior work lives and what has been gained during the unemployed period
• eagerness for these unemployed to add value to the hiring company
• not much else has changed.

So rethink your position on culling out those individuals who have been out-of-work for 1+ years. You are missing great talent and valuable contributors and we can save this "lost talent" from just dropping out of the workforce completely. 

Thanks Matt for this spirited, sobering, mind stimulated, and content laden luncheon discussion.

To Succeed Today, Forget The Old Business Myths

Alexandria Levit found myths that people believe, even though they do not work for 98% of all truly successful people.  She decided it was time to debunk these myths because they are more dangerous and less viable than ever given this post-recessionary climate of ethical scrutiny and intense competition. 

Myth 1: Overnight success is possible

Most people persevere for a long time and experience several setbacks before achieving an objective level of success. You’ll be best served if you are able to move your dream forward a little bit at a time and are able to cope when things temporarily go south.

Myth 2: Controversy will propel your career

Being controversial usually generates attention for a little while, but people will probably not trust you in the long run. Instead, work to incorporate the tried-and-true values of honesty and authenticity into your daily work life.

Myth 3: Employers want you to be yourself

While employers value the unique set of skills and experiences you bring to the table, they expect you to tow the line with respect to company rules and conduct. You won’t get away wearing ripped jeans to a client meeting because that’s your personal style, and you must learn to be politically sensitive and diplomatic even if someone has wronged you.

Myth 4: Being good at your job trumps everything

You can be the most effective employee your company has ever hired, but if your contributions aren’t visible and people don’t value what you do, it simply won’t matter. So instead of slaving over your job, spend a little more time devising ways to promote the great work you’re doing.

Myth 5: It’s best to climb the ladder as fast as possible

Getting promoted year after year requires a near-constant vigilance as well as a laser sharp focus on work—often to the detriment of everything else in your life. Higher titles usually bring longer hours, heavier responsibilities, and more politicking with them.

Myth 6: You’ll get more money because you’ve earned it

The media is full of stories of people who rake up six- and seven-figure salaries because they played their cards right. But what about the unsung millions who came to the table with the same hand? More often than not, compensation is about business realities, HR mandates and office politics—not performance.

Myth 7: The problem isn’t you—it’s the organization

People job jump constantly because of this one, but the truth is, the same situations crop up in Corporate America over and over. Don’t handicap your progress: Learn self-awareness and change your own thinking and behavior instead of waiting for the company to adapt to your needs.

Myth 8: You won’t get laid off—you’re too essential

People should aim to be indispensable at their jobs, but company loyalty to employees is a thing of the past. While consistently trying to add value to your organization is a good move, sometimes it isn’t enough. You need to be able to recognize when you’re on the chopping block and take active steps to prevent a bad outcome.

Myth 9: If only you could break out of Corporate America, everything would be perfect

Running a business is harder than it looks, and entrepreneurship is not for everyone. In fact, most people are better off working for large companies and receive substantial perks, like benefits, discounts and contacts which you might not want to live without.

Myth 10: Do what you love and the money will follow

Just because you have a passion for a particular area doesn’t mean you will automatically make money doing it. Some things are better off left as hobbies, but if you really think an income is possible, keep your day job and test the waters first.

Alexandra Levit, author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success

Red Hat Buys Gluster For Scale-out Storage

Red Hat is buying Gluster and its open-source storage know-how. The acquisition will give Red Hat a strong play in thescale-out file system space as it steps up competition against incumbent IT vendors to host the next generation of enterprise applications.

In a statement, Red Hat CTO and VP of worldwide engineering Brian Stevens said:  "Our customers are looking for software-based storage solutions that manage their file-based data on-premise, in the cloud and bridging between the two. With unstructured data growth (such as log files, virtual machines, email, audio, video and documents), the 90′s paradigm of forcing everything into expensive, single-system DBMS residing on an internal corporate SAN has become unwieldy and impractical."

This $136 million cash deal is just the latest instance of a big vendor buying its way into the hot scale-out storage market. Last year, for example, storage power EMC bought Isilon for its scale-out expertise. Before that, Hewlett-Packard bought Ibrix. IBM’s purchase ofStorwize and Overland Storage’s acquisition Maxiscale were all part of this cloud-inflected, scale-out storage land grab, too.

In the pricier, traditional scale-up model, lots of new nodes are piled up behind a few big, pricey controller servers. In scale-out storage, companies can add more inexpensive commodity server nodes horizontally, and such additions tend to be relatively easy and inexpensive.

Red Hat said it will continue to sell and support Gluster’s existing products, and it will also incorporate Gluster technology into other Red Hat solutions. It will sell Gluster’s services via Red Hat’s usual subscription model. Sunnyvale, Calif.–based Gluster claims 150 customers, including streaming music pioneer Pandora.

By Barb Darrow Oct. 4, 2011, 6:56am PT

Leadership, After All

The noted artist Willem De Kooning, as he aged, commented that, "you have to change to stay the same." Sometimes, as leaders, we find wisdom in rediscovering what we already know.

Having met with numerous Board members and corporate leaders recently, many seem to be off put off by the loss of control over many of the circumstances that previously could be “managed”. Many are questioning whether the old standards still apply.

We were struck by the following insight.

Recently, we asked several CEOs about future commitments, i.e. just how far forward they feel comfortable in predicting outcomes. The answer from most was one quarter... three months... astoundingly short given that when we asked this same question a few years ago, the answer was, on average, four quarters.

This suggests that in a time of uncertainty, in spite of the strength of current quarterly results, whether the light at the end of the tunnel is recovery or an out of control train speeding in our direction?

And, that it is very easy for CEOs and their boards to resist the falderal of the moment and be more easily influenced by the herd.

Our experience suggests that the most successful leaders actually embrace uncertainty. They see it as an opportunity for a re-commitment to the building blocks of excellence. As one notable CEO said to us, “the basics always win out.”

We know that ethical corporate cultures win out. We know that deep dive rigor and commitment to operational excellence, wins out. And we know that well disciplined and effective corporate governance is a huge plus in dealing with the unknown. All of this takes work and extraordinary discipline, especially today with daily fluxes and contrary information that impact how businesses do business.

The best leaders, we have observed, don’t become unbalanced by conditions that they can’t shape.  They know their troops are observing whether they are being led with calm and confidence.

However, “back to basics” doesn’t mean that leaders should stick their heads in the sand. Rather, it means stressing the “known” while being flexible to address matters beyond a leader’s control.

Today, though, there is a tendency to try and outsmart current conditions hoping to gain advantage. Many CEO’s have a fear of being left behind, and being criticized by their boards for not being more proactive. It is impossible to “map” uncertainty.

So, here's our prescription for CEOs and Directors.

Because you can't control the unpredictable, rely on what you know... that means drill deep in your business…then dig deeper.

Don’t outsmart yourself or believe that you can outsmart the markets.

For Directors, demand transparency of your CEO and be prepared to invest extraordinary time to fully comprehend the various levers of your company's value… know the how and when.

For CEOs, demand deep dive information and dig in yourself. Set the pace of expectations. Demand excellence.  Redouble your effort to communicate to all “stakeholders.” Be clear about issues, challenges and opportunities with your board and your senior team.

Be consistent, focused and relentless. Isn’t that what leadership is all about?

By Joel Koblentz on October 11, 2011, Managing Partner of the Koblenz Group

The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us

a reprint from Forbes.com 

Here are the Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs taught us:

1. The most enduring innovations marry art and science – Steve has always pointed out that the biggest difference between Apple and all the other computer (and post-PC) companies through history is that Apple always tried to marry art and science.  Jobs pointed out the original team working on the Mac had backgrounds in anthropology, art, history, and poetry.  That’s always been important in making Apple’s products stand out.  It’s the difference between the iPad and every other tablet computer that came before it or since.  It is the look and feel of a product.  It is its soul.  But it is such a difficult thing for computer scientists or engineers to see that importance, so any company must have a leader that sees that importance.

2. To create the future, you can’t do it through focus groups – There is a school of thought in management theory that — if you’re in the consumer-facing space building products and services — you’ve got to listen to your customer.  Steve Jobs was one of the first businessmen to say that was a waste of time.  The customers today don’t always know what they want, especially if it’s something they’ve never seen, heard, or touched before.  When it became clear that Apple would come out with a tablet, many were skeptical.  When people heard the name (iPad), it was a joke in the Twitter-sphere for a day.  But when people held one, and used it, it became a ‘must have.’  They didn’t know how they’d previously lived without one.  It became the fastest growing Apple product in its history.  Jobs (and the Apple team) trusted himself more than others.  Picasso and great artists have done that for centuries.  Jobs was the first in business.

3. Never fear failure – Jobs was fired by the successor he picked.  It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business.  Yet, he didn’t become a venture capitalist never to be heard from again.  He didn’t start a production company and do a lot of lunches.  He picked himself up and got back to work following his passion.  Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live.  As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind.  From Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

4. You can’t connect the dots forward – only backward – This is another gem from the 2005 Stanford speech.  The idea behind the concept is that, as much as we try to plan our lives ahead in advance, there’s always something that’s completely unpredictable about life.  What seems like bitter anguish and defeat in the moment — getting dumped by a girlfriend, not getting that job at McKinsey, “wasting” 4 years of your life on a start-up that didn’t pan out as you wanted — can turn out to sow the seeds of your unimaginable success years from now.  You can’t be too attached to how you think your life is supposed to work out and instead trust that all the dots will be connected in the future.  This is all part of the plan.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

5. Listen to that voice in the back of your head that tells you if you’re on the right track or not – Most of us don’t hear a voice inside our heads.  We’ve simply decided that we’re going to work in finance or be a doctor because that’s what our parents told us we should do or because we wanted to make a lot of money.  When we consciously or unconsciously make that decision, we snuff out that little voice in our head.  From then on, most of us put it on automatic pilot.  We mail it in.  You have met these people.  They’re nice people.  But they’re not changing the world.  Jobs has always been a restless soul.  A man in a hurry.  A man with a plan.  His plan isn’t for everyone.  It was his plan. He wanted to build computers.  Some people have a voice that tells them to fight for democracy.  Some have one that tells them to become an expert in miniature spoons.  When Jobs first saw an example of a Graphical User Interface — a GUI — he knew this was the future of computing and that he had to create it.  That became the Macintosh.  Whatever your voice is telling you, you would be smart to listen to it.  Even if it tells you to quit your job, or move to China, or leave your partner.

6. Expect a lot from yourself and others – We have heard stories of Steve Jobs yelling or dressing down staff.  He’s a control freak, we’ve heard – a perfectionist.  The bottom line is that he is in touch with his passion and that little voice in the back of his head.  He gives a damn.  He wants the best from himself and everyone who works for him.  If they don’t give a damn, he doesn’t want them around.  And yet — he keeps attracting amazing talent around him.  Why?  Because talent gives a damn too.  There’s a saying: if you’re a “B” player, you’ll hire “C” players below you because you don’t want them to look smarter than you.  If you’re an “A” player, you’ll hire “A+” players below you, because you want the best result.

7. Don’t care about being right.  Care about succeeding – Jobs used this line in an interview after he was fired by Apple.  If you have to steal others’ great ideas to make yours better, do it.  You can’t be married to your vision of how a product is going to work out, such that you forget about current reality.  When the Apple III came out, it was hot and warped its motherboard even though Jobs had insisted it would be quiet and sleek.  If Jobs had stuck with Lisa, Apple would have never developed the Mac.

8. Find the most talented people to surround yourself with – There is a misconception that Apple is Steve Jobs.  Everyone else in the company is a faceless minion working to please the all-seeing and all-knowing Jobs.  In reality, Jobs has surrounded himself with talent: Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, Peter Oppenheimer, Tim Cook, the former head of stores Ron Johnson.  These are all super-talented people who don’t get the credit they deserve.  The fact that Apple’s stock price has been so strong since Jobs left as CEO is a credit to the strength of the team.  Jobs has hired bad managerial talent before.  John Sculley ended up firing Jobs and — according to Jobs — almost killing the company.  Give credit to Jobs for learning from this mistake and realizing that he can’t do anything without great talent around him.

9. Stay hungry, stay foolish - Again from the end of Jobs’ memorable Stanford speech:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

10. Anything is possible through hard work, determination, and a sense of vision – Although he’s the greatest CEO ever and the father of the modern computer, at the end of the day, Steve Jobs is just a guy.  He’s a husband, a father, a friend — like you and me.  We can be just as special as he is — if we learn his lessons and start applying them in our lives.  When Jobs returned to Apple in the 1990s, it was was weeks away from bankruptcy.  It’s now the biggest company in the world.  Anything’s possible in life if you continue to follow the simple lessons laid out above.