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 Meet
the MasterMinds: Guy Kawasaki on The Art of the Start
Guy Kawasaki is co-founder and managing director of
Garage Technology Ventures,
an early-stage venture capital firm, and a columnist
for Forbes.com. Previously, he was an
Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, where he was one of
the people responsible for the success of the Macintosh.
Kawasaki is the author of eight books, including Rules
for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy,
Selling
the Dream, The
Macintosh Way, and his most recent work,
The
Art of the Start. He's also a consultant
and a speaker.
MCNews asked Kawasaki for some tips on getting started--on
a new venture or a new direction.
MCNews: What one piece of advice would you offer
a consultant starting a new firm?
Kawasaki: Remember one thing: Giving advice
is easy, but implementation is hard work. The ultimate
value of a consulting firm rests on the results that
you help clients achieve. If the results are good, then
the consulting firm is good. If the results are mediocre,
then the firm is mediocre. Life is tough.
MCNews: What would you advise consulting firms to
do to improve their positioning?
Kawasaki: Make a 2 x 2 chart. The vertical axis
measures the ability of the firm to provide unique services.
The horizontal axis measures the value of this service.
You want to be high on the vertical axis and far to
the right on the horizontal axis. This is the key to
positioning: Figure out how to get high and to the right--so
that you are providing a great service and only you
can do it.
If you can't explain why you're in that corner in less
than thirty seconds, you either have a crappy practice
or you need to perfect your positioning statement. I
hope it's the latter.
MCNews: You've listened to thousands of pitches/proposals
for new ventures. What about them needs improvement,
and what seems to work well?
Kawasaki: Most pitches remind me of a big airplane
trying to take off. It lumbers down the runway--with
engines screaming--and shudders as it finally takes
off just before the runway ends. By contrast, pitches
should take off fast--afterburners blazing!
To use another analogy, if most pitches were movies,
you'd leave after the first twenty minutes. Typically
people start off by talking about their background,
the history of the company, and the size of the market.
Twenty minutes later, they still haven't explained what
the company does. By then, eyes are starting to roll
up into heads, and people have lost interest.
Unless you have an astounding background ("I created
the system that enables Fed Ex to sort two million packages
a day," or "I got a PhD in computer science
from MIT at the age of 14"), cut the bull and
get to the essence of any proposal: Exactly what
product or service are you selling?
MCNews: When you evaluate investment opportunities,
what personal attributes do you look for in the person
making the pitch, and which ones turn you off?
Kawasaki: The personal attributes that attract
me most are an extremely fast chip in peoples' brains
and a love of what they do in their hearts. I don't
care very much about their background, that is, their
"on paper" educational or work experience.
Two things turn me off. The first is arrogance--whether
it's arrogance about their past, present, or future.
The second is long-windedness. An arrogant, longwinded
person is the kiss of death.
MCNews: What excites you about a written proposal?
And, what makes you just toss it in the pile with all
the others?
Kawasaki: I like to read proposals that catalyze
fantasy--that make you think, "I would love to
buy one of those or use that service." It means
I don't have to figure out if some CIO wants this piece
of enterprise software or whether some chip design I
can't comprehend means anything.
I like stuff that will change people's lives quickly
and directly--that you and I can buy in stores or online
in less than a year.
MCNews: The term "rainmaker" is reserved
for a small number of consultants who bring in the most
work for a firm. Does the rainmaker label have to be
reserved for the minority?
Kawasaki: I'm a naïve, romantic when it
comes to rainmaking. I believe in Guy's Golden Touch--which
means that whatever is gold, Guy touches. The key
to rainmaking is a great product or service, not being
a slick MBA in a black mock turtleneck in a German car.
So if you want to make it rain, have a great service.
The rest is easy.
MCNews: In the final exercise of your book, you
ask readers to write down the three things they want
people to remember about them. What are those three
things for you?
Kawasaki: First, that I was a good father. Second,
that I was a good husband. And third, that I empowered
entrepreneurs to change the world.
MCNews: Finally, what's on your reading list these
days?
Kawasaki: I read to escape. I like books where
spies are killed and diabolical enemies are plotting
the end of the United States. And a retired Navy Seal
or FBI agent is called back from retirement to save
the world working alongside a blonde crime scene investigator
in a nuclear submarine.
MCNews: Thanks for your time.
You can find out more about Guy Kawasaki, his books
and his services at www.artofthestart.com.
Send me an email
with your thoughts on this interview.
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Why Cash Is King: Cash
Management Essentials
Recently, I reviewed a report entitled
Why Cash Is King, which outlines cash
management essentials for professional services organizations.
The report was sponsored by Microsoft and authored by
BNA, a publisher of print and electronic news, analysis,
and reference products.
The report covers the basics and is a good refresher
for any consultant, so it's worth a read. I'd caution
that some of the report's recommendations--particularly
on billing cycles and acceptable time frames for collecting
on accounts receivable--are conservative and could actually
squeeze cash flow. Other recommendations are solid,
though veteran consultants may find them somewhat generic.
Take a look at the report. It's available at no cost
at www.bettercashmgmt.com.
Be aware, though, that you'll have to enter quite a
bit of information to get the report.
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Michael
Katz's Do-It-Yourself E-Newsletter System™
Back when MCNews started, the first person
we called for advice was Michael Katz. He's the founder
of Blue Penguin Development, a consulting firm that
specializes in the creation and management of effective
e-newsletters. Katz's E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters,
which we've recommended before, is published bi-weekly.
Katz has been generous with his time and ideas, and
he really knows his stuff. So when we
learned that he's created a new program, we wanted to
bring it to your attention. Katz's new Do-It-Yourself
E-Newsletter System™ is a self-paced,
electronic guide to e-newsletter development for sole
proprietors, small business owners, and professional
service firms. You can take a look at
http://www.enewslettersystem.com.
Note: MCNews receives no commission or consideration
for purchases made by MCNews subscribers.
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Are
You Paying Your Assistant Enough?
Whether they prefer the title Executive
Secretary or Assistant, those who support your consulting
efforts should be paid at least the going rate for your
region.
If you're looking for an Executive Assistant, or want
to know how your pay rates match up against others,
here are some common pay scales you're likely to encounter
in major US cities.
Pay Variations by Metropolitan
Areas
2004 Average Pay for an Executive
Secretary
|
All US Metropolitan Areas
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Boston, MA
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Birmingham, AL
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Chicago, IL
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Cleveland, OH
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Dallas, TX
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Los Angeles , CA
|
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Minneapolis , MN
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New York , NY
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St. Louis , MO
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San Francisco , CA
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Source: Mercer Human
Resource Consulting, 2004 Mercer Benchmark Database
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Seth
Godin's The Bootstrapper's Bible
In his e-book, The Bootstrapper's
Bible: How to Start and Build a Business With a Great
Idea and (Almost) No Money, Seth Godin reveals
how he, and others, bootstrapped their nascent ideas
into real companies using grit, determination and, of
course, a bit of money.
MCNews has this 103-page guide available at no cost.
You
can download it here. Whether you're a one-person
show or part of a larger firm, you'll grab great ideas
from this well-written, insightful work. Have a look.
Thanks for your generosity, Seth.
The download is also available at Amazon.com for about
three bucks. Or, If you'd prefer to have the book to
carry around, you can purchase it at Amazon.com
by following this link.
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Death of Salespeople?
Do you know the old saying, "Nothing
happens until someone sells something."? Well,
if you believe the findings from a recent study by Proudfoot
Consulting, there's a lot less happening than there
could be.
Proudfoot's 2004 International Labour Productivity
Study reports that salespeople are spending 80% of their
available time on activities other than
selling. So what are salespeople doing to fill their
days?
| Active Selling |
10% |
| Prospecting |
10% |
| Problem Solving |
14% |
| Administration |
31% |
| Travel Time |
18% |
| Downtime |
17% |
The study went on to point out that the quality of
many sales calls is poor, sales management systems are
weak and sales training is ineffective. Sounds deadly.
Sales force effectiveness consultants have an opportunity
to help clients sharply improve sales force visibility
with customers, whether it's on the telephone or in
person. Help your clients focus on several key areas:
- Adjust the allocation of administrative activities
from salespeople to others
- Add education programs on sales call planning, preparation,
and presentation
- Implement rigorous debriefings after sales calls
- Emphasize the need for salespeople to truly understand
their customers' businesses.
Remind salespeople that customers rarely buy on the
first sales call. In fact, according to the (US) National
Sales Executive Association, 80% of US sales aren't
made until the fifth to twelfth contact. If salespeople
are spending 80% of their time in non-selling activities,
it'll be a long time before they get to that fifth contact.
You can find more information on the study here: http://www.proudfootconsulting.com.
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This Month in History
On December 1, 1936, the first U.S. patent for
hydroponics--the growing of plants with their
roots suspended in water containing mineral nutrients--was
issued to Ernest Walfrid Brundin and Frank Farrington
Lyon.
On December 4, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour
and a crew of six blasted off to begin assembling the
International Space Station, the largest and most complex
international scientific project in history. See http://www.esa.int/export/esaHS/iss.html.
On December 21, 1872, the H.M.S. Challenger
embarked from Portsmouth, England on the world's first
scientific voyage around the world. During the four-year
journey, physicists, chemists, biologists, and navigators
laid the foundations of almost every branch of oceanography
as we know it today. See http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/challenger.html
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Coming
Attractions
MCNews is looking forward to next month, when our guest
will be Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who is the Ernest L. Arbuckle
Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard
Business School. Kanter specializes in strategy, innovation,
and leadership for change, and she is the author or
co-author of sixteen books, including her latest, Confidence:
How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End.
Professor Kanter has received twenty-one honorary doctoral
degrees and over a dozen leadership awards. She's in
the top ten on the list of the "50 most influential
business thinkers in the world," and she's on the
lists of the "100 most important women in America"
and the "50 most powerful women in the world."
Talk about a MasterMind!
We'll discuss Professor Kanter's take on confidence,
leadership and navigating organizational change.
Look for the next issue of MCNews on January 4, 2005.
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The
End Page
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the
beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of
the beginning." - Winston
Churchill
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Management Consulting News is located at 410 Pine Street,
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Michael McLaughlin
Publisher
Management Consulting News ISSN 1539-2481,
Washington, DC, USA
Copyright © 2004 Management Consulting
News All rights reserved
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