Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com May 15, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS How to cure a zombie-like business culture "T he Zombie Business Cure — How to Refocus Your Compa- ny's Identity for More Authen- tic Communication" by Julie C. Lellis and Melissa Eggleston (Career Press, $16.99). Business-Zombie (n.) — A worker who accepts the status quo because of fear and/ or lack of conviction or common sense. At work, he/she hides behind procedures and processes; there's little respect shown for col- leagues, and even less for customers. Challenges, and changes in the status quo, trigger anger. At the end of each "it is what it is" workday, the zombie moans and gets on with a shallow existence. With that definition in mind, we need only to look at recent headline-making "walk- ing dead" examples at United Airlines (it apparently learning nothing from the "United broke my guitar" video of a few years back) and American Airlines for confirma- tion. While these incidents captured the attention of millions, there are customer- service missteps that we've all experienced that left us with the feeling that the compa- nies involved were brain dead. The authors are spot-on with their belief that business zombies exist because of the lack of internal and external communication about corporate identity, values and expectations, all of which shape an organization's culture. That culture revolves around "how members of the organization relate to one anoth- er. Their interactions and behav- iors demonstrate the values they share." Simply put: Show me a walking-dead culture and I'll show you a company that cares more about "following the rules" than building and main- taining customer (internal and external) relationships. Identity is both fixed and fluid. Fixed in the sense that values don't change; fluid because the company always looks for "upgrades" (i.e. how to become better). In human-based, rather than walking-dead organizations, employees and other stakeholders are engaged in up- down-sideways communication that produces questions that don't go unanswered and ideas that are evaluated. The openness of communi- cation creates continuous improvement as the firm sees change as a way to upgrade. The authors provide numerous exam- ples of small and large human and zombie businesses to drive home their points. • • • "The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States" by Benjamin C. Waterhouse (Simon & Schuster, $28). The history of business in the U.S. forms the framework for American demography, outlook and politics. The growth of the coun- try from a colonial startup to a global pow- erhouse shows that business was its engine. I recommend reading chapter 4, "The Politics of Business in the Early Republic," first because it serves as the foundation of events that follow into modern times. The debate on the "business" of the nation start- ed under George Washington's administration. On one side stood the Jef- fersonian Republicans, who believed that farmers rep- resented a bulwark against governmental tyranny. Their argument was simple: When people took care of their needs and those of oth- ers within their individual states, the role of the central government was limited to those powers granted under the Constitution. They were afraid that a system of banking and manufactur- ing would concentrate economic power in the wealthy few. Sound familiar? On the other side were Alexander Hamil- ton's Federalists. In an address to Congress in 1791, Hamilton stated: "It is in the inter- est of nations to diversify the industrious pursuits of the individuals who compose them." The Federalists wanted a strong cen- tral banking system and protective tariffs to bolster domestic manufacturing while promoting agricultural exports through free trade. Sound familiar? Over subsequent Feder- alist and Jeffersonian admin- istrations, the lines between their principles blurred as the nation expanded and needed roads and canals, and faced security issues. Waterhouse's history shows that the roles of business and government are intertwined. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak THE RAINMAKER How one CT company puts innovation into action By Ken Cook I 've been curious of late as to the impact innovation has on a company's operations and profitability. In a very unscientific way I looked at one company I know to see what was going on. The company is Ulbrich Stainless Steels and Special Metals based in North Haven. They are in an industry that is generally viewed as old-school manufacturing. Plus, the steel industry overall has not exactly been making a lot of great headlines of late. Ulbrich, however, is thriving and grow- ing. I know their CEO, Chris Ulbrich, and know from our conversations that they are very inno- vative in terms of their products and application of those products. Innovative products play a big role in what Ulbrich is doing. But it is not just the innova- tive products that drive their success. More importantly, they promote innovative think- ing throughout their organization, and turn innovative ideas into actionable ideas. That's their secret sauce. As Chris related it to me, "action is about transforming ideas into committed action, and having an adherence to and a focus throughout the organization to those ideas and plans. To do it year after year is the art." Innovation is the process of creating or developing something new and unique. Inno- vation in action is taking new and unique ideas and turning them into money, be it more revenues, improved operations, or more effective manufacturing processes. So, how do successful innovators like Ulbrich bridge the gap between the creative thinking that drives new ideas and the linear thinking that drives the bottom line? Let me suggest two steps that are critical for putting innovation into action. • Develop something feasible without diluting the original idea until it resem- bles the more familiar. • Assuming you have transformed the idea into something doable while main- taining its uniqueness, get the organiza- tion to buy into it. To accomplish this, the successful innovative organizations become adept in three intertwined areas: climate, thinking and action. • Climate is about how people and ideas are treated. • Thinking is about how to generate new ideas that hold potential for the business. • Action is about transforming those ideas into committed action plans. Here are some illustrations of how organi- zations institute all three to nurture innova- tion in action. Climate • High levels of trust and openness. • Collaborative approach with less focus on hierarchy. • Leadership consistently and visibly models open-minded behaviors. • New ideas are heard with an ear toward possibilities. • Risk-taking is prudent, flexible and creative. Thinking • Encouragement of wishing and mental risk-taking, even if an idea is initially not considered possible. • Use of metaphor to express ideas and thoughts — metaphors and analogies help to connect new ideas with the familiar, and often provide insight into nuances of a concept. • Proactive connection between seem- ingly unrelated things — this is the very essence of creative thinking. Action • Explore the widest possible range of options before making decisions. • Purposeful collaboration across the organization for cross-functional buy-in. • Applications of commonly shared processes. The Ulbrich management team embrac- es all of the components mentioned above. The clearest manifestation of this is in their strong advocacy of lean manufacturing. Last year alone they had over 600 lean events throughout their manufacturing plants. In the product development arena, their latest innovative success is in the solar indus- try. Ulbrich provides a uniquely designed and precisely engineered wire for solar panels. Their innovative design increases the output of each cell by 2 percent. In a solar farm with thousands of panels, that 2 percent adds up. Ulbrich Stainless Steels and Special Met- als, a company that started out as a scrap metal operation in 1924, is now a global force. They've bridged the gap between smart ideas and practical applications. The bottom line: Innovative ideas are nice. Innovation in action is profitable. n Ken Cook is the co-author of "How to WHO: Selling Personified," a book about building business through relationships. Ken Cook ▶ ▶ In human-based, rather than walking-dead organizations, employees are engaged in up-down- sideways communication that produces questions that don't go unanswered.

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