I am standing before all of you as, quite possibly, the last guy around who believed he would be speaking about the GREEN business opportunity, much less actually finding myself believing the validity of it …

I’ve been hanging out in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. If you haven’t been to Vancouver, Whistler or the Okanagan valley you should definitely check it out.

Beautiful Vancouver

Now I’ve been there so many times parts of it feel like a second home to me. The beautiful lakes, the pristine forests, unbelievable coast line and incredible awareness for the natural beauty that the province represents, are all not just marketing fluff, but culturally embedded reality. As an oil and gas country native, however, these qualities always seemed more like beneficial attributes to a playground than anything business related.

Well I heard a quote this week that I can’t shake, “The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.” The quote is attributed to Herman Daly, the ecological economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States, and one of the individuals credited with the concept of uneconomic growth, or basically the concept of growth that inherently harms the environment in which the growth occurs. I’m going to spend some time looking at this GREEN principle  and the benefits that can be expected by applying this concept to your small business.

The impacts on the environment of massive economic growth are well documented, and I’ll save the debate on that for another post or for readers that want to wade into it with me. What I want to focus on is the basic GREEN principle of growing with careful planning so as to ensure that growth is not cancerous.

I’m sure many of you have had the experience of the client or customer who, when you landed the account or realized the repeat sale, was a client you were genuinely excited to have, until you started dealing with them …

The growth that is associated with that client begins to be a sore spot in your account list. You realize that for the amount they spend your actual cost is well and beyond the profitability they represent. You continue to serve them as they represent a client and, more importantly, they represent a public opinion of your service, products and of you!

Let’s explore the parallels with economic growth at the expense of the environment. As we continue to strip, waste and extort the planet of its lifeblood in the form of fossil fuels, nutrients and (this one is really starting to get my attention) WATER, we continue based on an argument that is void of a holistic view point. The mentality that we must continue to look for more sources or supply of these items, regardless of the expense, is a challenging idea at best. It is akin to the concept of growing your own personal accounts regardless of the profit, or lack there of, that they represent.

So what is the solution? To be GREEN would say look at it more globally and see the total cost of the equation.

1. Adjust the mentality of our usage to consider using less, albeit a higher quality, as opposed to simply finding more.

If you think about this concept as it relates to your business it can be summarized as:

have fewer, high quality relationships, products, services and accounts as opposed to continually looking for non profitable growth.

Definitely a smart idea.

One client that I can recall actually built a customer reduction strategy in order to spend more quality time with the highest value clients in their list. The result? A financial benefit of 35% increase while building deeper, more loyal relationships with their clients.

2. Base planning and day to day actions on data collected and analyzed from many sources so as to fully understand the impact.

All too often as small business people we jump in to a new product, service, market or joint venture without doing a really good job looking at it from all angles. It is easy to be too busy to do the research or to use our ‘gut’ to guide us. This will generally provide for a reactive and sometimes fruitful experience whereby the little details we missed seem to come out of no where and steal profit.

Having a system that asks you to look at the details a little more closely can only benefit the long-term prospects for success.

3. Invest heavily in research and development for solutions to tomorrow’s problems.

The green mentality is that we can forecast, with a certain degree of certainty, the problems that will be coming in the future. I’m still not 100% convinced that the answer to all of the environmental questions is panic and fear based change, but I have no problem agreeing that we have made some fundamental mistakes in how we manage our natural resources. This can be proven quite quickly by looking at the older cultures of the world and some of the basic adjustments they have been forced to make as it relates to consumption.

So in your business the simple question is:

What are you doing to look at tomorrow’s challenges and how are you investing today to overcome them?

A hint? It starts with taking the time out OF your business to work ON your business.

So how have these simple green principles turned me into a strong supporter of our need to look at how we’re doing things with our planet and do it better?

Because they are the same principles that STRiDE promotes for your business!

The bottom line is that if spend some time building a one-page plan for your business you’ll realize that the first thing you have to do is focus more clearly, this means putting a laser like concentration on your top product, service and clients.

Second, if you are building a plan for your business you have to have good data. How profitable are different parts of your business and where is the best place to play your business game?

Lastly, invest today with a vision for tomorrow. Be proactive in training, product development and other key expenditures so as to support a plan that is built to grow, but grow smart!

Look at the STRiDE One-Page process as a way to build some of these green principle into your business, and while you’re doing it think for a minute about how you could provide a more positive influence and impact on the beautiful world we only borrow while we’re here.

Here’s to finding your STRiDE this year!

Chris

I’ve been spending some good time reflecting lately,  on almost every level of business, partnerships, friendships, family and personally. I don’t know about you but I’m a big fan of finding soundtracks for those times in my life when a song better describes where I am than anything else. So today I’m sharing some very valid lessons for the day in Billy Joel’s You’re Only Human (Second Wind).

The business environment has taken it share of blows this year and whether you were an active planner or not, chances are really good you had to think on your feet, come up with some new ideas and dig deep to make some things happen. Chances are also very good that you felt some pain this year, maybe had to readjust expectations a little or traveled deep into the unknown. And, you may still be there.

So let’s dig into Bill’s lyrics for some ageless wisdom.

First, he makes us all feel as though we’re not alone in our worldly hurt as he let’s us know

“its all right, its ok, sometimes that’s what it takes, you’re only human you’re allowed to make your share of mistakes.”

I think this is something we have to remember. When things go bad or the environment around us seems to crumble, its very easy to bare all responsibility and carry the burden. And, in fact, I’d suggest that this sense of burden and accountability is an essential quality of lifting your situation to a new level. But let’s keep things in perspective.

We are not the first generation to see trouble, nor will we be the last. Our mistakes have been large but the future is ours to draft. Which leads to another critical line.

“you learn more from your accidents than anything that you could ever learn from school.”

If you take us back almost a year ago you’ll recall that many of the experts were commenting on the fact that the global recession is a scenario that business people and economists around the world have no academic point of reference for. It was unique and therefore, frightening. Well now that we’ve come through what many call the bottom and whether the signs of recovery are truly that or the bouncing ball of the new economic reality, we’ve learned some great lessons. The question is:

“How will you apply your personal lessons to the next chapter?”

Bill paints a picture of reality that all of us can relate to as we analyze our own impact from the last year,

“Just like a boxer in a title fight, you’ve got to walk in that ring all alone … you’re not the only one who’s made mistakes but they’re the only thing that you can truly call your own!“

Although we’ve all lived examples of how building out strong and proactive partnerships, alliances, friendships and business interests in order to not deal with the challenges of this year alone, we are all, ultimately accountable to ourselves to make it happen! So when push comes to shove, have you looked at this year and accepted the ultimate accountability for where you are and, more importantly, what are you doing about it?

So as we come around the corner for the last quarter of the year take some initiative to learn from the year and put those lessons to great use in your plan for the upcoming year.

Whether personally or in your business, use the tools that are available to take a critical eye to where you are and where you want to be. You will increase your probability of success in the back end of 2009 and into 2010 by leaps and bounds if you give yourself the time to look at the past twelve months and adjust accordingly.

STRiDE is a process that forces you to look strategically at your business (our at your life if you utilize the MySTRiDE program) and build a plan for success. You may have to adjust some of your thinking, look more closely at the playground you’re playing in and realize the rules have changed a little. You may have to focus your attentions more heavily on your RISK strategy than you have in the past. But bottom line is, take the time to build out your one-page plan and make it work this year!

Just remember,

“Don’t forget your second wind, sooner or later, you’ll feel that momentum kick in!“

Here’s to finding your STRiDE in the last part of 2009 and an even stronger 2010!

Chris

“The difference between a Designer and Developer … is the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.”

- Scott Hanselman

Close your eyes at the end of this sentence and visualize the word PLAN.

How did that go for you?

Chances are you experienced a touch of anxiety, maybe visualized a sterile room, with white boards everywhere and IBM like men in suits sitting around. If you think in music it was a movie track from the early 80’s say Chariots of Fire. This is the kind of association most of us make with the word “PLAN”.

Now, to try something different, close your eyes again and think of the word DESIGN.

The thoughts of brilliant colors, funky architecture and new and exciting concepts most likely filled your mind. The music is upbeat and modern like The Exterminator Beat from the Wanted Soundtrack or maybe some smooth jazz like Nemesis by Aaron Parks. The artistic mind associates with the word design, and its fun to dream in color.

So the question I have to ask, is that if you’re starting, building or running a small or medium sized company wouldn’t you want your future to be colourful, fun and successful?

If the answer is yes, then continue reading, because this a strategy you don’t want to miss.

In my last post I pushed you to look at your organization and ask the hard questions. Questions like:

What customers should I fire?

What 20% of employees are doing 80% of the valuable work?

Are you dealing with partners or vendors?

Are you trying to please everyone?

Do you understand your cash flow?

Have you peeked under the kimono lately? (Don`t do this one in public)

The answers to these questions are the foundation for the strategic design process. This foundation is critical to eliminating the 3 ring binder paper weight that most strategic plans become. The big question is, however, what to do about it?

I like design, I like color and I like making something simple enough so that everyone can participate in both the design, and more importantly, the execution of results!

To understand the difference between design and planning I’ll compare the 3 major starting points of each:

Planning:

            Vision

            Mission

            Values

Design:

            Purpose

            A Story

            Multiple Points of View

In today’s world, with ground breaking marketing and networking technology (are you on Twitter yet), a necessity to stay in front of the competition, opportunity to be truly global from your lap top and product and service offerings being judged more by the user experience than by the price of the ad, wouldn’t you rather be a designer of the future? Ask these questions:

What do we stand for as an organization?

What does good really look like in five years?

Who cares and who matters about our existence?

What do they have to say?

What themes show up that we can count on to build our future?

What are we going to do about it?

The STRiDE One-Page Design process puts Purpose, the Success Story and a concept called KAPOV front and center to make your design experience one filled with creativity, fun, color and amazing results!

If you’re new to designing your organizational future check out our one-pager, you’ll like it. If you’re already a seasoned planner in the organization, try a design approach and open the gates for the future!

Technorati Tags: Chris Lewis, Strategic Design, Stride, What Is Strategy

STRIDE is a company committed to providing outstanding solutions for the dynamic era companies do business in. If your organization needs better alignment in strategic direction, corporate and employee focus, time pressure and work/life balance—STRIDE has a solution for your dynamic era!