May 24, 2012

Crowd Funding Considerations

Key Concept ~ President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into law the other day.  The Securities and Exchange Commission has 270 days to comment and advise on the new statute, so it will be interesting to see how they weigh in on this legislation.  While this may hold exceptional promise for many aspiring entrepreneurs, there are a few things you should consider before you secure this type of funding.

Last November I wrote a blog entitled, The Crowd Funding Conundrum, as the JOBS Act came to the house floor.  The legislation is designed to open up crowd funding for equity investments.  The bill waives the accredited investor requirements of the SEC ($250,000 per year income for three consecutive years or $2 million in net worth, excluding primary home asset) as well as the need for Private Placement Memorandums and many of the other controls and reporting requirements so familiar to the private equity world.  While the buzz is really starting to hum on the internet, entrepreneurs that have never gone down the private equity road would be well advised to understand the potential repercussions crowd funding can have on later-stage financing rounds, accounting expenses, reporting requirements, etc.

The bill caps the small investor’s sum at $2,000 and allows for up to $1 million in financing annually.  Here are some things you may wish to consider prior to going down the crowd funding path.

Shareholder Communications ~ Are you prepared and structured to consistently and uniformly address 500, 1,000 or 2,000 shareholders’ concerns?  You’ll need to be ready to do so.  Most entrepreneurs never see how much time a CEO spends on investor relations.  If you don’t have an investor communications strategy, and the capabilities to execute on it, this one area alone could quickly swamp your time.

Legal Structure ~ Are you an LLC?  An S-Corp?  A C-Corp?  Be sure you understand the differences in legal entity structure.  An LLC is not readily designed for investors and are state-regulated entities.  As such, the interstate reporting requirements, if investors are involved from around the country, are substantial.  An S-Corporation also is not designed for broad investment.  If you’re going to pursue equity investors, you really should be doing so as a C-Corporation.  Keep in mind, if you’re accustomed to doing business as an LLC, this will be a major change for you.

Company Pre-Cash Valuation ~ Do you know what your company is worth?  Pre-cash valuation is just that, the value of the company before it is driving cash flow or received equity financing.  This is highly speculative and requires some insights into early-stage growth, barriers to entry, competitive response, and time line to break-even.  Missing the mark on pre-cash valuation can have terrible repercussions on your liquidity event.  A down round (a subsequent round of equity financing in with the per share value has gone down from the previous round of funding) is the death nell to larger, more sophisticated investors.

Dilution ~ If you’re going for equity financing you’ll soon understand the implications of dilution.  This also has strong ties back to the pre-cash valuation.  Equity financing is the sale of a percentage of ownership in your business.  With each subsequent round, you will become more and more diluted in your ownership position.  Give up too much ownership (because you didn’t have an accurate pre-cash valuation) early and by the time the company is at scale you’ll have very little ownership left in hand.

Defensible Intellectual Property ~ Is your firm intellectual property (I.P.) based?  Is your I.P. protected by solid, defensible patents?  Are you prepared to reveal your trade secrets in open, crowd sourcing venues?  The investors will want to know what is special about your firm.  Even Angel Investors and VCs don’t sign non-disclosures.  How are you going to manage sensitive, competitive information as you seek out funding?

Due Diligence ~ The due diligence process in traditional, private equity funding is intense and extensive.  Don’t think you can sidestep the proper preparation you will need to conduct even with crowd funding.  Eventually you’ll want to go to the more traditional suppliers of equity financing and you’ll need to have this ready.

Entanglements ~ Want to kill a deal on arrival in the Private Equity world?  Show up with shareholder legal entanglements.  Crowd funding opens the door for possible conflicts from every direction.  I’m not saying crowd funding will lead to entanglements that will derail later stage rounds, but it will certainly elevate the probability of entanglements and conflict to emerge.  Remember, the crowd isn’t nearly as astute, experienced, and sophisticated as an accredited investor.

Exit Strategy ~ Equity investors get in to get out.  Working with a small group of Angel Funds helps align interests and expectations as to when the next round of funding will occur.  This is the liquidity event the investors are seeking.  What will be the objectives of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 individual investors?  How will you align them?

Expertise ~ One of the least talked about value of traditional private equity investors is the resource they represent, both through their expertise and networks.  If you go down the crowd funding path you will not get this additional support and guidance that can be key to an early stage company’s survival.

This is just a start of the conversation you should be having prior to considering crowd funding.  Here’s a great article on the new law from the Wall Street Journal that had some great advise and comments.  It also has a link to the full PDF copy of the JOBS Act you can download.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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May 17, 2012

A Quick Follow-Up to “Firing on All Cylinders ~ An Example of Integrative Marketing”

My inbox this morning had my “LinkedIn Today” weekly update of a few trending articles from the past week.  One of the articles was published in Bloomberg Business Week’s small business section.  The article, entitled “Integrated Marketing:  If You Knew It, You’d Do It”, was written by Steve McKee, an advertising executive out of Cleveland.  In the article, Mr. McKee identifies marketing’s two greatest enemies in today’s noisy world; fragmentation and entropy.  He provides some interesting examples from major corporations and his message aligns seamlessly with the theme from my last blog.

The main takeaway I got from McKee’s article was patience, which I emphasize in my blog as well.  It takes time to draw all the threads together into a single tapestry of clarity, which is why I referenced a very similar blog I wrote about a year ago in order to provide a comparative baseline.  I wanted to demonstrate how integrative (or integrated, as Steve calls it) marketing evolves over time.  In just under a year, we’ve gone from self-publishing articles on the internet to being interviewed in the Investor’s Business Daily.  We went from self-publishing my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur”, to having it cited in the peer-reviewed, academic Journal of Economic Literature.  We journeyed from local radio interviews to multiple appearances on Jim Blasingame’s nationally syndicated Small Business Advocate® show that also posts as podcasts on the Forbes website.  More importantly, however, is how each element of our marketing feeds the next to create a flywheel effect of momentum.

Our message is consistent from one touchpoint to the next; it is about transforming one’s self first, in order to transform one’s value-creating, business relationships. Of migrating from the transactional leadership model of the Industrial Age to a transformational leadership approach that is conducive to today’s multi-generational, multi-cultural, global workplace.  We focus on a professional development path that enables leaders to connect, engage and motivate those around them through their congruency, clarity and authenticity.  This is the key to creating and sustaining competitive advantage in the 21st century.  It is the single most important determining factor in the coming Talent Wars.  These attributes resonate powerfully, on a neurological, biochemical, and psychological level, with everyone we touch.

Mr. McKee also spoke about expense and how major companies invest heavily in the process.  Did our efforts have an associated cost?  Yes, but you’d be surprised at how relatively small our investment has been in order to begin branding our business.  How were we able to keep a lid on costs?  By leveraging the Core Competencies and Strengths of our team (which we identified during our Strategic Planning process) we were able to accelerate our progress through the focus and application of our in-house talent first, and then outsource the specialization we realized we didn’t have at hand (i.e. our wonderful PR firm, E.M.S.I.).  Running a weekly advertisement in the local newspaper would have been several times more expensive than what we’ve invested to bring us to where we are today.

Branding does have a cost associated with it.  So too, does not branding.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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May 15, 2012

Firing on All Cylinders ~ An Example of Integrative Marketing

Key Concept ~ Developing and implementing a comprehensive marketing communications strategy takes time, but once the seeds begin to germinate you’ll find yourself firing on all cylinders!

Back on July 25th of last summer, I wrote a blog called Seven Ways to Cut Through the Noise and Reach Your Target Prospects.  Nearly a year later, I’d like to share with you how these initiatives have evolved to drive value for our business.

1. The Book ~ Published 14 months ago, The Transformational Entrepreneur has proven to have legs.  It was cited by the academic Journal of Economic Literature in March of this year and it also received some really positive, unsolicited reviews.  The book continues to be a catalyst for media appearances as well.  What’s most gratifying is how well the book is received by those who read it.  I see it helping people realize their authentic vision and purpose every day!

2. Blogging ~ I had been blogging, almost exclusively on this site, for five months last July.  We had just launched Leadership Development and Team Building.  Since then we’ve added Igniting Creativity in Business and have plans to launch four mores blog sites in the coming months.  Each is specifically tailored to match the audience with the value proposition we deliver within the market segment.  Call it micro-marketing, if you will.  Nevertheless, we’ve experienced consistently growing traffic and substantial readership extending to 32 countries.  Truly remarkable and I thank you all!

3. Articles ~ I was more engaged in writing for internet article sites during the early days of the blogs.  While the sites do drive traffic, and were very important in the early days, we’ve migrated more into mainstream media activities.  Just so much time in a day!

4. Videos ~ We continue to use HD video in a variety of ways to build value, both in communications and in content.  In our online resource repository, designed for our Accretive Coaching students, we’re using training videos to support the educational process.  We continue to document speaking engagements and limited demos as certain workshops are, and should, be private to the group.  We will be posting a recent speaking engagement from the Southeast Regional Certified Horsemanship Association’s annual meeting, but its release will be timed to coincide with a new service launch and blog site.

5. Social Media ~ Speaking of just so much time in a day!  This can be the proverbial rabbit hole if you’re not disciplined in the time you devote to it.  Like everything, I had my own learning curve sorting through it all and identify where, and how, I should leverage social media.  If you have something to say and are comfortable writing I highly suggest following some of the bloggers on Forbes’ website.  If you say something of value they’ll call out your comment, basically highlighting what you’ve had to say in the discourse.  From there people can jump to your profile which can lead them to your site(s).  There’s some real thought leaders blogging on Forbes.

The Wall Street Journal still drives traffic the same way, but more from the online article discussion threads.  The key is not to be too self promoting…add some value to the conversation!  If you pique someone’s interest they can easily follow your profile to your blog.  That’s really the point anyways, isn’t it?  At least it is in our business.

The other valued companion is LinkedIn.  This too has short learning curve.  Be sure to ask yourself if you’re talking to your peers/competitors or to your potential prospects.  It’s easy to catch yourself singing to the choir at first…think it through and look into the group membership, professional demographics.  I’ve met some fantastic colleagues and customers on Linkedin and some of the discussion groups are simply enjoyable!

6. Public Relations ~ The big coup, at least for me personally, was recently being interviewed in The Investor’s Business Daily. We’ve been focused on migrating our work into the mainstream for more than two years and the IBD is right on target with a circulation exceeding 600,000 readers.  Fun paper to read, too, I’ve read it for years.  They run a daily section on leadership that is intriguing.  We also were invited back to appear on Jim Blasingame’s program, The Small Business Advocate® and have a spot in Jim’s Brain Trust.  What’s really nice is all of my interviews with Jim are hosted on the Forbes website.  While all of this supports SEO, it really contributes to credibility.  The key is to keep chipping away at it and good things will happen.

For example, last month, during a one week period while we were working in Missouri we were in the IBD, the local paper (above) twice, and appeared (via tape delay…do they still call it that?) on the nationally syndicated, terrestrial radio show, The Career Clinic.  So much of this is due to the wonderful team at our PR firm, EMSI.  They truly deliver, have incredible talent on board, and employ a unique, pay-for-performance business model worthy of a look.

7. Trade Shows ~ I’ve wondered how effective exhibiting at trade shows has really been since the late 1990s.  If your prospect is a senior executive or business leader, chances are you wont find them wandering the corridors of a trade show floor.  Speaking engagements at conferences are proving to be much more effective at delivering our message and reaching our target audience.  We most recently presented at the Certified Horsemanship Association Southeast Regional Conference (video to post shortly) and at a private event with the VA and local Sheriff’s office in Missouri.

Just as I said nearly a year ago, each one of these initiatives supports the next.  It’s circular and builds momentum like a fly-wheel.  Please keep in mind, this was all done on a shoestring, meaning you can do it too!  The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be firing on all cylinders!

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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April 29, 2012

The Strategic Imperative of Inclusive, Creative Organizational Culture

Key Concept ~ In our series on the three key elements for accelerating successful startups, here’s the third in a series of excerpts from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”.  (Note:  A special thanks to my readers for your patience in the the updates on this blog site.  The team’s been in Missouri for the past ten days conducting a series of training exercises with psychologists from the VA and with local veterans to launch Warriors in Transition in the Southeast Missouri community).

~ Creative Culture

While leadership is paramount in orchestrating the creative visualization of an enlightened strategic planning process, it is the propagation of culture that will carry an organization forward to scalable heights (or lows; it cuts both ways) that resonate far beyond a single personality.  It is much like the relationship between a gardener and their garden.  The gardener may be capable of inspirational work, but it is the garden that inspires.

The traditional definition of organizational culture is the shared values, norms, artifacts, and embraced behaviors of an enterprise.  This is a somewhat superficial definition that historically has proven to poorly serve leaders attempting to drive performance or organizational change.  At best, it places culture at the periphery of the company, as if it is a side effect of the mission.  At worst, by referring to culture as an artifact, it infers that the culture is a coincidental by-product or relic of the organization.

In reality, culture is the vibrational resonance of the collective consciousness of the organization.  This immediately changes the way we think about culture.  It is no longer a by-product of what a company does but a powerful force that affects everything and everybody involved in the business.  The frequency of cultural energy is self-generating and perpetually regenerating.  When we drop a pebble into a pool we cannot alter the ripples that move continuously outward without disrupting the entire pool.  It is leadership’s role to drop the appropriate pebbles, at the appropriate time, knowing the resonance will expand beyond their immediate control.

For nearly a decade working as a strategic consultant with life science and medical device start-up enterprises I began to notice a common challenge shared by these companies.  The vast majority of these companies emerge from intellectual property cultivated in academic settings.  As these companies are formed they bring along members of the research staff and are often lead by a scientist, physician, or engineer that first developed the technology in their laboratory.  It is an exciting time reflecting the natural progression of organizational evolution, but this progression requires substantive, adaptive change at the very heart of the enterprise.

Unwittingly, these entrepreneurs bring along the academic culture from whence they came.  The culture that was ideal for the nurturing and early cultivation of their intellectual property is ironically very poorly suited for the business environment they are attempting to enter.  This is exacerbated by the nature of their technology and the critical demands of customers, regulators, and investors in the health care and pharmaceutical research markets.  The mission has changed (moving from creating technology to commercializing technology) yet the emerging organization clings to their historical culture, usually quite unaware of the risk this is about to introduce to the nascent company.

I’ve observed that these start-up companies are often unaware of the imperative need to quickly migrate from an academic culture to that of a business oriented culture.  This naiveté is a leading contributor of failure in early stage companies.  It is not the technology that fails; it is leadership’s inability to recognize the significance of culture and the fundamental importance of creating and cultivating the culture necessary to meet the high expectations of their target marketplace.

But why is this?  These are quite often remarkably gifted intellectuals capable of remarkable discoveries, insights, and performance.  It is a facet of business dogma that culture is a by-product of artifacts, shared values, and attitudes rather than the actual energy of the collective consciousness of the organization.  It is not peripheral; it is concentric to the very essence of the organization.

The academic culture to which they cling isn’t bad; it is just as it should be in the early, creative stages of intellectual property.  It simply no longer resonates with the frequency the evolving organization needs to successfully connect with customers in a commercial environment.  The very nature of the enterprise has evolved and it is leadership’s responsibility to anticipate and ignite the new energy and intention necessary to fulfill this new mission.

One of the reasons culture may be perceived as an allusive, almost amorphous issue may be due to the fact that it is rarely discussed during the early stages of company creation.  There are so many urgent and demanding issues organizations face as they struggle to establish traction and stability in the marketplace.  Culture always seems to take a back seat in development.  From my experience, it is only when culture becomes a problem that there is a conscious effort to address the situation.  By that time it is like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier traversing the Suez Canal.  The constraints of the business make it a formidable task that no one wants to get in front of in order to resolve.

Another reason business culture tends to take on a seemingly uncontrolled life of its own is the lack of focus on culture in the development and execution of the strategic plan.  It simply isn’t a traditional core focus of senior management and it can be a difficult area to measure in an objective manner.  Perhaps industrial companies operating in the twentieth century could get away with ignoring this strategic imperative, but contemporary enterprises leveraging intellectual property for value creation can no longer afford to avoid the importance of culture.

The propagation of a creative, healthy culture begins with the expressed intention of authentic leadership.  Associates take their cue from the words and behaviors of their executives.  If leadership expresses a predatory, win at all cost philosophy, the behaviors of the organization will follow suit.  Nowhere is the old adage of reaping what one sows more accurately reflected than in the creation of organizational culture.  When associates buy-in to the vision, intention, and strategy, a corresponding, positive energy begins to resonate throughout a business.  As a business grows in size, the outer bands of this energy are subject to the laws of inertia.  A body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.  This is why culture demands attention early in the developmental stages of a business.  Once the initial, framing forces are unleashed they are very difficult to modulate.

The traditional definition of culture references shared values; this warrants a bit more discussion.  Culture is affected by the shared, living values of an organization.  There are two types of living values in a company; explicit shared values and implicit shared values.

Explicit values are best reflected through thoughtfully crafted Vision Statements and Mission Statements.  These formal articulations define who we are and where we’re going.  Unfortunately, these formal statements are often another area of peripheral focus, especially in emerging organizations (we’ll discuss creating powerful Vision and Mission Statements in detail in Chapter Six).  Explicit values are also reinforced through the language and focus expressed in standard operating procedures.  This emphasizes how we will act in the daily conduct of our business; how we will treat our customers and stakeholders and resonate with the sense of responsibility we have to those working around us.

Explicit values are almost always highly positive in their intention but they can be dramatically tempered by the implicit values of an organization.  These are the unwritten rules of a company and these unspoken values are capable of derailing the finest intentions.

Implicit values often emerge from ego and therefore are frequently based in fear, insecurity, and the desire to perpetuate positions of power.  Unwritten rules can cover a wide spectrum of acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors in a company.  Expectations of dress, informal lines of communication throughout the hierarchy, subtle power influencers, and the evaluation criteria of performance are prime examples.  I’ve even experienced environments where the exercising of vested stock options was perceived to be a career killer by senior management!  This certainly wasn’t written anywhere, but it was clearly understood by everyone.

The example we’ve probably all experienced at one time or another is the existence of a good ole’ boy network in a company.  The existence of such cliques are, by definition, exclusive, rather than inclusive.  They disenfranchise talented associates and propagate office politics.  Such cliques often display passive-aggressive behaviors that exist only to serve the ego and selfish desires of individuals in an organization.

The consistent display of authentic leadership helps ensure the alignment of implicit values with organizational intention.  This makes sense as authentic leadership is not rooted in the ego.  Authentic leadership also cultivates empathy throughout the culture, a powerful and binding force of positive intention.  We’ll explore this in more detail in Chapter Eight.

It is impossible to parse out any one of the three key attributes of transformational performance.  They are all intertwined in the tapestry of the organization and require continuous attention over time.  With these concepts as our backdrop we can now begin to discuss the step-by-step process to transform your organization or lay the right foundation for your startup endeavor!

© Terry Murray, 2012.

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April 18, 2012

Igniting Your Entrepreneurial Fire ~ Part II

Key Concept ~ Continuing our series on the three key elements for accelerating successful startups, here’s part two of three of excerpts from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”, which was cited in the March edition of the academic Journal For Economic Literature for its contribution to thought leadership and the field of business management.  It discusses enlightened strategic planning.

When I was a young executive working in Corporate America, I began to experience something that, at the time, I couldn’t quite explain.  As I was given responsibility to create or turn around business units, I would always start by sitting down with my front-line managers and field associates to discuss where we were, what internal and external challenges were before us, and solicit their opinions as to what we should do to move the business forward.  I felt strongly that by taking an inclusive approach I would begin to gain their trust and best serve the interests of the company by embracing the experience and day-to-day knowledge of what was really happening in the trenches.  We would then embark on the strategic planning process during which time we would openly challenge our assumptions in lively discourse and stretch the boundaries of what was traditionally perceived to be possible.  From this process a momentum would emerge, more rapidly and more powerfully than what any of us could have imagined!

I had come to appreciate that the strategic planning process was an iterative one, and the questions that we asked of ourselves were often more important than the answers we would eventually discover.  Upon reaching agreement on the plan of action, I would travel to the field to communicate the vision and strategy that we had developed, again drawing the associates into a lively conversation of what was and wasn’t working.  I emphasized we had a shared responsibility to ensure we were taking care of our customers and embracing the spirit of our strategic plan.  I would continuously remind everyone that the strategic plan was a living document, it was not etched in stone, and everyone was empowered to help calibrate the implementation of the plan moving forward.

The one constant that I began to observe surprised me.  At the point in time that we had perhaps fifty to sixty percent of our strategies implemented we would be on track to achieve our objectives!  It seemed illogical to me at first.  How could we be tracking 100% to plan when we were only half way through the implementation and execution of our strategies?  What I know now is that I was observing the power of collective intention, the cumulative energy that accelerated the manifestation of our vision!  This energy was a direct result of the culture we had co-created.  A culture that was kindled by the intention and creative visualization that was expressed through the strategic planning process (we will explore this further in step-by-step detail in Chapter Seven).

The concept of employing creative visualization as the first step in manifesting a new reality is not new.  Our intention helps us create a wondrous reality that we, as spiritual beings, are meant to enjoy.  On the surface it may sound a bit New Age to some people, a bit beyond the pale of what we, as Westerners, consider realistic.

Yet haven’t we all observed a similar occurrence that is very common in athletics?  We have all heard a broadcaster covering a football or basketball game suddenly exclaim how one of the teams has all the momentum.  We cannot see the force behind the momentum yet we can observe its effects on the game.  Suddenly, through a shift in attitude and energy everything seems to fall into place for one of the teams.  In a matter of a few plays, one team is more dynamic than the other, and their execution becomes so well orchestrated the other team almost looks as if they are standing still trying to defend them.  A quarterback or point guard is suddenly in the zone, their timing is in perfect alignment with their teammates, they’re somehow anticipating the defense…they just can’t miss.  The announcer exclaims, “They’re really feeling it now!”  It is the exact same phenomena I was witnessing in business.

Athletics offer us a wonderful example of presence, which is a core attribute of conscious leadership, of being totally present in the moment, in the now.  An Olympic gymnast is not thinking about all the details of a routine as they perform.  A golfer cannot be thinking about the nuances of mechanics during his or her swing.  They quiet their minds and enter into a near meditative state as they compete.  They are conscious of their performance but not thinking about their performance.  Athletes, when at the top of their game anticipate and act rather than think and react.

This phenomena is supported by hard science.  When we are fully engaged and enjoying what we are doing we enter what renowned researcher and psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to as flow.  Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s research looked into the psychological state of a wide variety of professionals operating at peak performance.  When they were fully engaged, focused, and enjoying their endeavor, their biochemistry reflected an increase in cortisol (part of the hypothalamic/pituitary/adrenal or HPA axis in our brains) which brought them to a place in which they were taking full advantage of their cognitive and physical abilities.  If the HPA axis shot past this optimal point due to stress, adrenaline and cortisol levels continued to rise and performance rapidly diminished.  His work proved that a person’s emotional state is a governing factor in cognitive and physical performance.

When a group of athletes are engaging in team competition (and doing it well) they manifest a cumulative energy.  Their combined intention, their collective consciousness, elevates the team to an entirely new level of performance.  We can achieve the same thing in business; fore it is not simply physical or mental execution but the collective consciousness of our team that generates this remarkable energy.  The key is in creating a strategic plan and dynamic culture that empowers our associates to be present in the moment, to concentrate on creating and delivering value to our customers now, rather than being consumed with what may come tomorrow or concerned about what wasn’t done yesterday.

Strategic planning as a form of creative visualization that also enables presence may raise the question, “How are you in the moment when you are looking one, three, or five years ahead?”  It is a logical question.  Let me use an analogy to help explain this:

Let’s envision a business, just for a moment, as a tribe of hunters and gatherers living ten thousand years ago.  As the leaders of the tribe, we are highly aware of our environment.  As time passes, we begin to observe a change in the climate; with each passing year it is getting colder much earlier in the year and staying cold much longer into the spring.  We observe the birds and other animals beginning to migrate south much earlier than what we have historically observed and notice they are also returning later in the spring.  From our observations, from our awareness, we develop a Vision that these elongated winters may be less severe in the South.  It stands to reason that if the migrating animals are leaving earlier and staying longer food supplies are most likely more abundant as well.

We establish a Goal of migrating south to ensure the tribe will continue to prosper.  In order to do so, we must cross a large mountain range before the early autumn snows begin and block the high passes.  We now have an Objective that is critical to the success of achieving our Goal; we must clear the high passes before the snow flies or we could become stranded and perish.

There are many passes we can choose from, some representing a more arduous climb, but are more direct, and others that offer a gentle slope, yet will take longer.  We must now decide upon our Strategies.  The amount of risk we are willing to incur and how we intend to balance the risk of each approach with the risk of failing to reach the passes before the snows begin.

Our Strategies reflect the constraints we have identified through a thorough Self-Assessment.   We have examined our strengths and weaknesses.  How many children and elders must survive this trek?  Do we have ample supplies for the journey?  Who are our harbingers for this journey that can blaze the trail for the remainder of the tribe?  Have we carefully evaluated the landscape and challenged our assumptions of the risks involved?  What is the Competitive Landscape; are there hostile tribes living along the way that may wish us harm?  Might there be opportunities to partner with other tribes?  Have we properly scouted our options and truly know what we face?  Have we challenged our assumptions and appreciate the fact we still don’t know what we don’t know?

At the end of all this discussion and evaluation we realize that the only way we can manifest our Vision (abundance for the tribe) and achieve our Goal (to be in the South), and to secure our Objective (navigate the mountain passes before the autumn snow), is to walk south every day one step at a time, regardless of the Strategic path we have chosen.  Our Tactics…for each of us, once the decision has been made to take the journey, must simply focus on taking one step at a time in the moment.

Much like the tribal elders in this analogy, business leaders have the responsibility of formulating a clear and concise vision, communicate it effectively so that others can share in it, and to discern the best path for the organization to follow through the mature evaluation of risks and rewards.  In doing so, we can, in combination with a healthy, vibrant, and trusting culture, enable associates to concentrate on each step they are taking in the moment, to be truly present, to execute on the plan now and make it a reality for us all.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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April 16, 2012

Author and Leadership Development Expert Terry Murray Interviewed in Today’s Investor’s Business Daily

Terry Murray, founder and Managing Partner of Performance Transformation, LLC™, discusses Equine Facilitated Leadership Development and the lessons in leadership he was taught during his service in U.S. Naval Intelligence, in today’s print edition of The Investors Business Daily.  You can access the press release and full article from the Investors Business Daily by visiting Leadership Development and Team Building.

© 2012, Performance Transformation, LLC™.

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April 12, 2012

Igniting Your Entrepreneurial Fire

Key Concept ~ While the cacophony of social media,  cloud technology, mobile apps, etc., continues the dominate the business landscape, the core fundamentals for success remain the same.  Over the next three blogs, I’d like to share the fundamentals I learned over my 25 year career in both corporate leadership roles and in entrepreneurial settings.  Your success will greatly be determined by three critical elements.  These next three blogs are an excerpt from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”, which was cited in the March edition of the academic Journal For Economic Literature for its contribution to thought leadership and the field of business management.

Creating transformational performance is like igniting a fire; it requires three fundamental elements.  A fire requires a source of heat, fuel, and oxygen in order to burn.  Transformational performance requires authentic, conscious leadership (the heat), a visionary strategic plan (the fuel), and a creative culture that fully engages the entire workforce (the oxygen).

While transformational performance cannot occur without all three elements, the quality of leadership will greatly enhance or diminish both the ascendance and long-term success of a business.  The intensity of its energy and the clarity of its intention can emulate that of a paper match or an acetylene torch.

The quality of the strategic plan will influence sustainability and growth; it can take the form of seasoned hardwood or half-rotted pulp.  The final element, culture, can fan or extinguish the brightest leadership and the most thoughtful strategies.  Like oxygen, we cannot literally see culture, yet it is the air we all breathe.

~ Authentic Leadership

Leading a business requires a strong and unflinching sense of responsibility for the associates who depend upon your wisdom, integrity, and stewardship.  Their livelihoods, dreams, and aspirations are invested in your guidance.  This is a sacred trust.  Associates trust that you will do your best to ensure the health and vitality of the business.  The stronger their level of trust in your leadership, the more willing they will be to fully invest their time, energy, and enthusiasm in the success of the endeavor.  The level of authenticity a leader expresses in their daily interactions with people and in how they address challenging situations will have an enormous impact on execution.

Authenticity may sound like an unusual word to describe leadership, but its meaning reflects several key characteristics that are critical to successfully leading human beings.  There are three primary definitions of authenticity in the dictionary; the quality of being authentic, trustworthy or genuine, and the displaying of undisputed credibility.

The quality of being authentic begins with being true to one’s self.  This quality emerges through self reflection and inner exploration and infers an active awareness of one’s consciousness.  The complete spectrum of who we are physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.  This includes being in touch with, and trusting in, one’s own intuition.  We’ll explore the role of intuition further in Chapter Four.

At times, being true to one’s self isn’t easy.  It can test our moral courage.  In the late 1990’s while serving as the vice president of sales and marketing for a highly acquisitive life science company I experienced this conflict.  I found myself confronted with having to decide whether I would lead with authenticity or “go along to get along”.

Shortly after our company purchased a small manufacturing concern we found ourselves with two mid-level executives with overlapping responsibilities for managing our European sales business.  One was from our organization and one arrived with the acquired company.  The president of our company had sidestepped a decision on realigning responsibilities for two months.  The new executive was very political and focused much of his efforts and energy to develop a social relationship with the president, inviting him to play golf and entertaining him at his home.    After more than a year of diligent work on the part of our director to build our business in Europe the ambiguity began wearing on his emotions and productivity.

The situation left me uneasy at what I felt was inherently unfair.  At the very least, our director deserved a word of clarification on the issue.  Finally, on a Friday afternoon preceding our director leaving on a scheduled trip to meet with our European partners (who would be looking for direction and clarification as well) I felt compelled to address the situation with the president.  My inquiry infuriated the president who proceeded to lash out verbally.  I took some lumps and expended significant political capital, but my authentic concern for my direct report resonated throughout the sales and marketing organization, building trust and resulting in measurably marked improvements in sales performance.

As the years progressed, I began to realize my sensibilities of leadership didn’t correlate with what I was consistently experiencing in Corporate America.  While my performance was frequently lauded by my superiors, I would eventually find myself at odds with the status quo.  Somehow, my presence made my fellow executives uncomfortable.  Our intentions didn’t match.  I eventually came to the realization I didn’t belong in this environment and made the decision to strike out on my own and start a business focusing on coaching entrepreneurs on leadership, strategy, and business process.  In discovering and following my authentic self I now work from a position of service that has created the greatest joy and satisfaction I have ever experienced in my life!

The second definition of authenticity is “trustworthy or genuine”.  Trust is an energy that flows in a circular orbit.  It cannot move in one direction without returning to whence it came.  Some people allow themselves to trust more readily than others, but once trust has been broached it is often nearly impossible to mend.

Cultivating a trustworthy environment dispels people’s fears and calms insecurities.  It enables people to function in the moment without worrying about the repercussions of making an honest mistake.  The legendary salesman and early leader of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, was once quoted as saying, “Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?”

Sometimes we learn more from our mistakes and allowing for the occasional mistake without the anticipation or fear of punishment builds trust.  Trusting associates empowers people to work from their heart which draws upon the energy of positive intention.  It opens the door to passionate engagement and reveals the hidden workforce lying quietly just beneath the surface in many businesses.  Creating an environment that encourages mature, thoughtful risk-taking delivers returns that far exceed any potential losses.

In the context of our discussion, the definition of “genuine” refers to being from the original stock or lineage, of being a genuine human being.  This implies we see each other as universally and energetically connected as a single entity of creation.  In doing so, we are able to express empathy for one another as easily and openly as we are able to care about our selves.  The resonant power of empathy consistently expressed by leadership cannot be overestimated.  It conveys genuine concern and respect for an associate’s well-being.  In doing so, it lowers barriers and engages the heart as well as the mind.  It is something we all can relate to.  Ask yourself, how much more are you willing to do for someone that genuinely cares about you?

Several years ago I was engaged in a strategic planning project with an immersive learning company.  They focused on teaching empathy in health care environments in response to malpractice lawsuits.  The financial exposure the risk of malpractice introduces to insurance companies, hospitals, and physicians’ practices has resulted in extensive, scientific research into the reasons why people sue.  We tapped into this research as part of our planning process and what we discovered was very surprising.  It turns out people sue based upon how they feel they were treated after a medical error had occurred and not directly because of the error itself.  Patients and patients’ families that were treated with empathy were significantly less likely to sue.  That’s a powerful statement.  In the midst of experiencing one of the most severe health and emotional crisis humans may encounter, empathy was the balm that soothed the intensity of a catastrophic medical event.  Imagine the power empathy can have in an everyday business environment!

The third definition of authenticity is “undisputed credibility”, which emphasizes the importance of being impeccable with your word and ensuring the consistent alignment of your actions with your words.  Walking the walk and talking the talk.  In the noble words of St. Francis of Assisi, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”

One of the fastest ways to disengage a workforce is for leadership to display behavior that is inconsistent with their words.  It conveys the existence of double standards; one for associates and a separate, privileged set of standards for executives.  If you want associates to perform at a high level then live, work, and consistently display that level in your own behavior.  Keep in mind it is human nature to remember the missteps.  You can be consistently credible 99% of the time but it will be the one time you are inconsistent with your word that associates will remember.

Another powerful, yet often overlooked attribute of authentic leadership is the ability to sense and respect people’s boundaries.  Hierarchical leadership has a tendency to create boundaries that run in one direction.  Actually, they are more like barriers than boundaries.  Barriers that create a set of expectations that govern behavior and one-directional communication that are meant to sustain authority and control.  Projecting a lack of respect for the boundaries of subordinates causes emotional barriers to be erected.  As emotional barriers come up associate engagement goes down.  Conversely, enabling the creation of healthy boundaries engages associates’ sense of worth and creativity.

People need to feel secure in their own space; this extends to emotional and intellectual space as well as physical space.  When people are able to create and maintain a container of self their creativity will blossom.  When physical space is constrained, such as when cubicles are used for workspace, fostering healthy emotional and mental boundaries is even more important to fully engage associates.  Authority figures that roll over these boundaries lead people to freeze up and withdraw, working while keeping their heads down to avoid further transgressions into their comfort zone.  Giving associates the space to think and, at the appropriate time, to simply be, engages the imagination and the heart.  The consistent expression of authentic leadership will rapidly reveal previously unseen opportunities for the organization.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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April 3, 2012

The Three C’s for Small Business Success in the 21st Century

Key Concept ~ We’re all looking to succeed and grow our businesses. We’re also all well served to keep this simple statement in mind:  Creativity creates cash-flow.  The challenge is learning how to lead for creativity advantage; whether you’re a sole entrepreneur or running an investor-driven startup.

I know, it’s a bit redundant.  I could have just as easily written, creativity cultivates cash-flow, but I really want to emphasize the strategic imperative of creativity in today’s, and more importantly, tomorrow’s global market.  This accelerating driver of value creation offers both challenges and tremendous opportunities for small business.

If you don’t see yourself as actively in the global marketplace you may wish to look again.  Just yesterday I was speaking with a client, who is located in Hawaii, about her next steps for her new startup.  We both concurred that it was time to launch a blog site, to cultivate engagement and open the door for new relationships to emerge, yet she saw this as a cost impediment cost.  I told her I knew of two or three very reputable companies in India (whom I met on LinkedIn because of my own blogging and social media strategy) that can customize a WordPress site for her in a matter of days and at a labor rate of $10 per hour.  What was once a $3,000 to $4,000 cost of doing business is now a few hundred dollars because we’re all in the global marketplace.

This represents a creative solution to what was once seen as an impediment.  This is just an example of the type of creative thinking that is now necessary at every touch point throughout our organizations.

On the opportunistic side, this growing need for creative, adaptive thinking for competitive advantage is easier for a small firm to cultivate and leverage than for our large competitors.  The prevalent leadership style in big business is still well entrenched in the transactional approach to leadership of the last century.  They are often diverse but rarely as inclusive as they could be or should be, for that matter.  The proof that this approach to leadership no longer is appropriate for our business climate is evident in the endemic employee disengagement crisis.  Seventy percent of employees are cognitively and emotionally disengaged with their current employer (for more research statistics on just how badly transactional leadership is out of alignment with employees, please click on the slides throughout the pages of the Igniting Creativity in Business blog site).  Without engagement, there is no creativity.

Small businesses, on the other hand, can more readily embrace and act upon a fresh approach to leadership and strategic planning in order to cultivate and sustain an engaging, creative culture.  Two things must happen in order for this competitive benefit to emerge.  First, we, as entrepreneurs, must decide to embrace and support this new perspective towards business culture and associate engagement.  Second, we must hone our leadership skills to the same level of granularity as our technical skills.

Most entrepreneurs are technical experts in a particular endeavor.  In service industries, it is this expertise that is often the entrepreneur’s stock and trade.  Scientists, research physicians, engineers, inventors, consultants are all technically expert in their fields.  Because of the way we are educated and trained, the further we go, the more technically specialized we become.  The trade-off for this level of focused granularity of knowledge is breadth.  The breadth of skills, both technical and subtle, that effective, authentic leaders need going forward is only growing.

Rarely are entrepreneurs exposed to much in the way of leadership development, so we often follow the patterns that were placed before us.  But those patterns are not working.  McKinsey & Co. issued a major study of 5,560 senior executives last summer and only 1% scored excellent in five of eight key competencies.  Ninety percent scored below average.  What’s so discouraging is the competencies they are testing for are not necessarily the competencies leaders need in the 21st century.

The takeaway from creativity creates cash-flow is simple.  Even if you’re servicing a local market, you’re still in the global one.  If you don’t think you are, just ask if your competitors are leveraging rapidly emerging, creative, global capabilities?  Embrace the opportunities these shifting tides afford small business owners.  Finally, invest in your own leadership development.  Remember, it’s been demonstrated that a dollar invested in advertising delivers a two dollar return, but a dollar invested in education delivers a forty dollar return.  For entrepreneurs, they themselves are often their best investment.

© 2012, Terry Murray

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March 28, 2012

The Transformational Entrepreneur Cited in the Academic Journal of Economic Literature

For Immediate Release – March 28, 2012 -

Terry Murray’s groundbreaking book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Business Breakthrough Success” was recognized and cited in the peer-reviewed, academic Journal of Economic Literature’s March 2012 quarterly issue.

Performance Transformation, LLC™ (Venice, FL) announced today that their founder and Managing Partner’s book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur”was recognized and cited in the academic Journal of Economic Literature for its contribution to professional business literature and thought leadership.

“We received the unsolicited notification letter from the Journal last week,” responded Mr. Murray. “It was both humbling and exciting at the same time.  I’ve been working on the business side of the life sciences, medical technology and health care sectors since 1988, so I have an enormous appreciation for the diligence of peer-reviewed, academic journals.  As a business executive, and not an academic, this is a distinct honor for my book to be recognized for its contribution to the field of business and economic professional literature.”

The Journal of Economic Literature is published by the American Economic Association (AEA), a professional organization of economists, academics, and business thought leaders with more than 22,000 members.

“My executive career has spanned some truly remarkable changes in the global business landscape,” added Terry.  ”Historically, there’s always been a lag in leadership, strategy and organizational philosophy in response to market shifts in value creation.  I entered the biotechnology world during its infancy.  This was the beginning of the knowledge-based economy and coincided with the boom in personal computing.  Yet the methods, perspectives, and philosophies we were trained for in business school all emerged out of the Industrial Age.  We literally had to discover a new approach to business as usual along the way, but it is only today, some 25 years later, that the strategic imperative of human creativity in business is beginning to move into the mainstream.”

“The Transformational Entrepreneur” will also be indexed in the American Economic Association’s internet database, EconLit, which is accessible at libraries and universities around the world, as well as to licensed institutions and AEA members.  The electronic bibliography indexes over 120 years of economics literature from around the world.  The database complies professional journal articles, collective volume articles, working papers, dissertations, and books of note on the subject of economics and business practice.

“The shift in the source of value creation truly began in the 1980s, but information technology bridged the productivity gap for thirty years, masking the need for a change in the approach to  leadership, strategy and organizational development.  By the turn of the century it was already beginning to hit a point of diminishing returns, right at the time the explosively disruptive power of the internet began to take off.  Even old world industries are doing business in ways they never could have anticipated ten years ago,” commented Terry.

Mr. Murray went on to say, “Perhaps because I was immersed in the knowledge-based economy for so long I saw the need for a more human-centric approach to business.  Research scientists, physicians and engineers, and their creative talents, are the raw material for value creation and competitive advantage in this new era of business.  You cannot lead creatives the same way we once managed assembly line workers.  Two years after I began writing my book, the IBM Global CEO Survey exemplified the perspective and approach I was writing about at the time, reporting that creativity and the ability to cultivate creativity throughout the workplace was the single most important attribute CEOs are looking for in future leaders.”

Terry’s book was published two months after IBM released the results of their bi-annual survey in December of 2010.

About the author ~ Terry Murray is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and professional business advisor/coach with twenty-five years of progressive experience in strategic development, executive leadership, and the deployment of highly profitable business teams. His work with Fortune 1000 and startup companies has directly contributed more than $1 billion in market capitalization growth throughout his career.

He is the founder and Managing Partner of Performance Transformation, LLC™, a professional and strategic development firm focused on igniting breakthrough performance by optimizing and aligning authentic leadership, mindful strategy, and an engaging, creative organizational culture.  The company’s evidence-based programs and pragmatic approach employs their proprietary Accretive Coaching Process℠.  This innovative, developmental process integrates concepts from published research in the neurosciences, emotional intelligence, performance psychology, quantum physics and Applied Behavioral Economics with Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning.

For more information, please visit http://ignitingcreativityinbusiness.com.

© 2012, Performance Transformation, LLC™.


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March 25, 2012

Terry Murray Discusses Creativity in Business on Nationally Syndicated Frankie Boyer Show

Key Concept ~ Creativity in business is rapidly becoming a strategic imperative in today’s global economy.  Terry Murray shares his insights on why creative thinking is so critical throughout the business and the steps we can take to cultivate our own creative abilities as well as our associates’ creativity to deliver and sustain competitive advantage.

Late last week I had the opportunity to return for an appearance on The Frankie Boyer Show to discuss creativity’s growing importance in the workplace.  Frankie’s show is syndicated on more than 30 terrestrial radio stations and can be heard coast-to-coast as well as in London and Singapore.

“I’m just crazy about your book, Terry,” exclaimed Frankie.  ”There’s no other book out there like it!”

In the interview, Frankie went on to comment on how few companies are creative in their approach to business and how few people are allowed to be creative in the workplace.  In exploring why this is, I explained that, for most companies, their approach to leadership and organizational culture is still mired in the paradigms of the Industrial Age.  This is problematic because the fundamental source of value creation in today’s economy is the commercialization of intellectual property.  The source of intellectual property is human creativity.  Even in old world industries, what they do may be very traditional but how they do it and how companies market their products and services is changing at an accelerating pace.  This requires creative thinking at every touch point throughout the organization to fully leverage competitive advantage.

The pre-requesit for creative thinking in a business is employee engagement, yet research demonstrates less than a third of associates show up with any passion or interest for their company or their work.  The endemic employee disengagement crisis is a direct result of the traditional, transactional leadership approach of the last century.  For creativity to thrive in an organization, leadership must first migrate to a transformational leadership philosophy.  One of serving those we lead, of putting the productivity and psychological needs of our associates, stakeholders, customers, and prospects ahead of our own, personal interests.

We went on to discuss how everybody has creative thinking capabilities and talked about how leaders and companies can cultivate creativity throughout their organizations.  I explain how creative thinking can be spurred by the introduction of novel cognitive and emotional stimuli, but the organization must also create the necessary space, time and organizational culture for the phases of the creative process to unfold.

Frankie also inquired about our approach and use of Equine Facilitated Learning for cultivating creativity in leaders and business teams commenting, “I did an equine learning exercise a few years ago in Arizona and was blown away.  It was a fascinating learning experience for me!”

You’re welcome to learn more by listening to the ten minute podcast replay of the live interview here:

You’re also welcome to visit Igniting Creativity in Business to explore our approach to unleashing the creative potential in leadership and organizations.

Photos courtesy of The Frankie Boyer Show and Precision Photography of Honolulu.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

© 2012, The Frankie Boyer Show.

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