Stan Leopard's Notebook

A Firm's Culture is an Essential Element for Success

In my current focus on the drivers for producing economic wealth in the private enterprise (see essay), I see more clearly that a firm's culture is an essential element in a competitive enterprise design. I was prompted to think about what we would say are the intentions and commitments of a culture that is effective, strategic and competitive when reading Chunka Hui's post What Steve Jobs Learned From Edwin Land of Polaroid.

At this time we specify the top 5 elements to bring into existence for a powerful culture as:

• Competitive learning practices throughout the organization
• Commitment based management practices based in knowledge of the Action Workflow Loop invented by Dr. Fernando Flores
• Expertise in making rigorous assessments, e.g. value contributed by individuals and teams, how changes in marketplace drifts affect current strategies
• Clear, real-time communication throughout the firm of relevant assertions and assessments  (I think this is what Chunka writes: "3. When the facts come home to cost and they are not what you expect, reach our and embrace them anyway."
• Commitment to and practices for continuous innovation in offers, practices, narratives and strategies

The CEO must hold the visionary domains of concern of the enterprise, including constituting, creating and nurturing the culture. Without leadership commitment and focus, culture will occur by drift.

I was speaking with a founder and CEO this week who finds himself working 70+ hours per week, consumed in operations, and not living in powerful practices to take care of body, learning and design. To his credit, his request for help was first on designing practices he could hold for these concerns. Having the moods, awareness and well-being that enable reflection, thinking and design for the enterprise is a requirement for a CEO.

What are your practices for living your values, for caring for your body, for producing the culture in your organization that's coherent with your personal and business ambitions?

photo credit istockphoto/ilbusa

Fulfilling Our Intentions & Ambitions

How do we act coherently with intentions to contribute to others, to take care of our families and to increase autonomy (freedom from unwanted constraints, obligations and relationships) for our networks and, thereby, our larger communities?

In the essay Produce Economic Wealth I make and support my claim that creating a surplus of human and financial capital is an effective fundamental commitment and orientation for entrepreneurs and leaders of the medium enterprise.

My interest in this topic started with dialogues with my colleagues about the very distinct business fundamental orientations of Win–Win and Win–Lose:

• Win–Lose -> take all I can for me; the dominant strategy in a zero sum game

• Win–Win -> create new wealth shared by stakeholders, appropriately to their contribution; the dominant strategy in a non-zero sum game or one in which valuable goods and services (offers) can be created or destroyed, allocated well or badly

Evidence demonstrates either philosophy can produce financial wealth.  Larry Ellison comes to mind as a powerful Win–Lose player.  I assess Warren Buffet as exemplar of Win–Win.

A Win - Win orientation makes possible producing economic wealth –financial wealth plus increased human capital from accumulation of knowledge.  Human capital can be invested again and again for increasing returns.

Creating economic wealth starts with constituting, acting with and refining practices for accumulating strategic knowledge throughout the enterprise.  I invite you to read and work with this essay when you can make time for reflection.

photo credit Google images