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www.HartfordBusiness.com August 8, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS Keys to using your intuition to make smart business decisions "P ut Your Intuition to Work — How to Supercharge Your Inner Wisdom to Think Fast and Make Great Decisions" by Lynn A. Robinson (Career Press, $15.99). While data and facts head decision-mak- ing criteria, in many situations (especially in smaller firms) there isn't sufficient informa- tion to make time-sensitive decisions. Also, facts and data can't take into account "softer factors" like personalities and corporate cultures. Other times, you look at the information and you can't shake the feeling that it's off. When these instances arise, your intuition plays a major role in the decision. Honing your intuitive pro- cess "is just like developing any other skill." It takes practice. Key among Robinson's intuition- development exercises is an "intuition journal." At the begin- ning of each workday, write down your concerns, issues and challenges for the day. Use a separate page for each. Prioritize each page and begin writing down the answers to questions like: "What aren't the facts and data telling me?" "What more should I know about … ?" "Where can I find … ?" Write down or draw whatever comes to mind. As each "page" comes up for discussion during the day, use your journal's informa- tion to frame your view of the situation; you can add the perspectives of others to your journal page as dialogue unfolds. Use this broader picture of the "page" to think about answers, as well as other questions. The journal also provides a place for the "what if" ideas that randomly pop into your head. You'll find that writing them down increases the amount of such ideas because "what if" becomes part of your routine when looking at situations. Look at your "what if" page frequently; you'll find that what you've written has rel- evance at a future date. The bottom line comes from a Justin Timberlake song: "I got this feeling inside my bones. It goes electric, wavy when I turn it on." Once it's turned on, inner wisdom and intuitive focus grow. • • • "Achieving Longevity — How Great Firms Prosper through Entrepreneur- ial Thinking" by Jim Dewald (Univer- sity of Toronto Press, $32.95). When an organization focuses on becoming efficient, management often overlooks the price paid for being "too lean." That price involves the loss of resources (especially intellectual capital), which results in its inability to: 1. deliver something other than "one-size-fits-all" products/services, and 2. adapt to change. Such a narrow focus all but eliminates the innovation needed to grow. Dewald points out that large organi- zations have in place (e.g. infrastructure, money, established brand, brainpower, dis- tribution channels, customers, etc.) what would make any entrepreneur do a happy dance. To grow, an organiza- tion needs to develop a culture that allows employees to con- stantly use the resources they have at hand to explore doing things differently and doing different things. By giving employees free rein to think about "what's next," an organization really creates new value opportu- nities. Not all will pan out; those that still provide internal value because they are learning experiences. His research found a cyclical model in firms whose longevity involved adapting to changing technology, markets and the shift to globalization. The model has three "wash, rinse and repeat" cycles: 1. strategic exploitation of the current environment; 2. using internal entrepreneurship to fuel exploratory investigation of new markets; and 3. strategic exploitation of those new markets. Examples: 3M (1902) started as a mining company; GE (1892) started as a manufacturer of light bulbs; Avon (1886) went from selling books to provid- ing an array of personal products. Key takeaway: "The only sustainable competi- tive advantage is an orga- nization's ability to learn faster than the competition." — Peter M. Senge. Learning involves moving into new markets. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak THE RAINMAKER Three stages of a company's growth By Ken Cook G rowth is a given for business sustainabil- ity. If a business does not grow in some capacity, then it eventually fades away. Please don't confuse growth with size. A com- pany can grow, but not necessarily get substan- tially larger. Growth can be in terms of better customers, a better customer mix, improved products, or stronger market position. All of these contribute to more loyal customers, which translates to more sustainability. None of them means that the business is necessarily larger. In thinking about growth, there are stages or life cycles that practically every company experienc- es. These stages are not defined by time, but by the activities of the business. The life cycles are also deter- mined to a degree by the age of the company. Understanding what stage or life cycle a com- pany is in is important because it helps the leadership focus on the activities that will drive growth and sustainability. The first stage is the early stage, often defined as the hectic, crazy, scary, stressful, "am I out of my mind" stage. The early stage is the beginning, and the company looks for business wherever it can find it. The goal is simple — get customers. The orientation of the early stage is selling, and sell some more, and then sell some more. The ultimate early stage goal is stability — market awareness and customers who continue to buy. To reach stability, be sure to listen and be flexible in terms of products, services and response. It's very seldom that someone gets it right the first time. Your cus- tomers will tell you with their purchasing decisions whether you have something they value and are willing to pay for. If the organization listens well and responds well, the instability of early stage evolves to the more stable expansion stage of growth. In the expansion stage, the company breathes a little easier, and begins to work on itself. Cash flow is positive and more predictable. Management can take some time to focus closely on the infrastructure, systems and employees needed to not only serve the existing customers, but also serve the additional customers that most surely are on the way. Working on oneself also improves profit- ability. When revenue is all that is important, the profit margin becomes secondary. The "loss leader" becomes an acceptable strategy to gain market awareness and presence. In the expansion stage, wean unprofitable or low-profit customers to higher-priced products and servic- es, while simultaneously cutting costs by elimi- nating waste and poorly designed processes. As time passes in the expansion stage, all good things will eventually wind down. At some point in a foreseeable future, the customer base may be saturated, market conditions could change, technology alters the offerings, com- petitors surpass your offerings, etc. The ability to grow the business slows or even stalls out. When this occurs, the business must expe- rience some type of transition. The transition can be new products or services, new markets, new technologies or even different industries. What's important is to recognize that a transi- tion is necessary. If a transition does not occur, the business will eventually begin to decline. Also recognize that a business can be in an expansion mode in one area, and a tran- sition mode in another area. They are not mutually exclusive. Common to all three stages of growth is the focus on the customer and alignment of the company with their needs. Early stage compa- nies seek to find their place in the market and identify the customers they can best serve in a unique and valued way. Expansion companies continue to explore their customer base and find ways to improve the value equation they offer them. Companies facing a transition rein- vent themselves and find new markets, or face the inevitable decline that will occur. If company leadership understands where they are in terms of growth cycles, and puts the customer first, they should be able to define the activities that accelerate profitable growth and sustainability. n Ken Cook is the co-founder of How to Who and co-author of "How to WHO: Selling Personified," a book and program on build- ing business through relationships. Learn more at www.howtowho.com. Ken Cook ▶ ▶ Honing your intuitive process 'is just like developing any other skill.' It takes practice. ▶ ▶ Common to all three stages of growth is the focus on the customer and alignment of the company with their needs.