This is the second in a series of blog entries on “The Entrepreneur’s Plateau.”  The introductory segment defined this “Plateau” as the state of a relatively new business (started and run by an entrepreneur) with stable and profitable operations but growth has stalled. 

This entry explores some common characteristics within the personalities of entrepreneurial leaders that lead businesses to get stuck on the “Plateau.”  This perspective has been gained through my work with dozens of such clients.

The following management challenges that lead to The Entrepreneur’s Plateau often exist because of the personality of the entrepreneurial leader:

• Delegating Authority – Entrepreneurs are often successful exactly because they are “take charge” personalities who thrive on broad authority and high degrees of control.  Given resource limits (e.g. even the most-energetic leader still has only 24 hours in a day) the entrepreneur who cannot relinquish authority and control to others will inevitably hit a limit on their growth.
• Delegating Details – Many entrepreneurs’ success springs from their expertise in a particular area.  When such expertise drives a sense of “perfectionism” a leader can limit their business’ growth by becoming a one-person quality assurance checkpoint/bottleneck.
• Creating Systems – The dynamic, high-energy entrepreneur who relentlessly drives business results through personal intervention in the marketplace often is the same person who can’t be bothered to create a structure that others need to effectively assist in pursuing results.  To expand beyond the “Plateau” a leader has to be able to communicate the parameters of expected contribution, in other words, create a management system that builds on the strengths of a complete team.
• Motivating Others – By definition, entrepreneurs are self-starters.  People like this are motivated by their own internal drive for goals and results.  This is a great personal quality but when one is internally motivated it can prevent understanding that other people need something other than an alarm clock to get them motivated for the day’s work.

Any one of these challenges can result in The Entrepreneur’s Plateau.  As with any dysfunction, awareness of the problem is the first step to correcting it.

Next in The Entrepreneur’s Plateau Series:  The Limits of “Line of Sight” Management

About “The Entrepreneur’s Plateau:”  This blog series focuses on common challenges encountered by new business initiatives after the initial startup phase.  Entrepreneurial efforts are essential to the health and welfare of marketing in Central Ohio.  Please add your own insights about entrepreneurial challenges – I welcome your comments!

Too many new businesses fail to maintain early momentum built by the founder’s initial ideas, enthusiasm and enterprise.  Even in the early rush of initiative and energy, common problems such as a cashflow crunch, partnership misunderstanding or competitive pressure can derail an entrepreneur before they really get started. 

Even businesses that survive those early pitfalls which trip up most startups will then find they need to change their managerial game plan if they want to escape “The Entrepreneur’s Plateau” and continue to grow.  The Entrepreneur’s Plateau is a state of business with stable and profitable operations but growth has stalled.

The entrepreneur’s plateau usually takes one of two forms:

1. The company cannot grow beyond the size which allows the founder to personally stay in control or generate sales.  Typically this can involve an organization of anywhere from 10-30 employees.  The scale depends on the complexity of the business itself.
2. The entrepreneur pushes growth beyond the point which they can personally control things but fails to develop an organizational structure to maintain the higher level of sales.  One or another dysfunction crops up which forces shrinkage back to a manageable level.  This cycle can repeat itself many times.

While some business leaders can survive and even thrive on this plateau, it has inherent dangers even when it generates sufficient profits and activity to satisfy the owner.

One of the dangers is that a business on a “plateau” lacks the dynamism necessary to stay abreast of current economic trends.  How many times have you encountered a business that is “past its prime” or otherwise exhibits evidence it has gone stale or lost its edge?

Another danger is the risk of boredom inherent in a plateau.  A business that is going nowhere can lose the interest of those involved.  Bored owners, managers and employees make bad owners, managers and employees.

Finally, a plateau is a weak platform from which to pass on a business to the next generation or keep top talent from leaving.  If a business doesn’t generate growth it won’t have the expanding opportunities and resources essential to reward and challenge a new generation of owners or managers.  A business that cannot recruit or retain adequate talent will not survive.

Next in The Entrepreneur’s Plateau Series:  Personal Sources of The Entrepreneur’s Plateau

About “The Entrepreneur’s Plateau:”  This blog series focuses on common challenges encountered by new business initiatives after the initial startup phase.  Entrepreneurial efforts are essential to the health and welfare of marketing in Central Ohio.  Please add your own insights about entrepreneurial challenges – I welcome your comments!

B2C marketing on a global scale involves large expenditures which drive investments in research and strategy to maximize probabilities for eventual success. This is the marketing world I experienced in 10 years of brand management at SC Johnson early in my career.

Now, my success as a management consultant relies on competing in a B2B environment. Too often, B2B marketing and business development is purely a “sales” game – without the research, discipline and strategic coherence that B2C requires. Sean Geehan, CEO of Dayton’s Geehan Group, constructs transformational B2B strategy development and implementation programs for some of the largest organizations in the world.

Sean presented his approach at the July B2B SIG meeting led by Ann Beeson which sparked my interest in learning more. Two concepts Sean presented resonated with me:

1. An analytical structure for evaluating marketing investment among personnel tiers within target customers (Users, Influencers & Decision Makers). Sean’s recommendation is to skew investment in a systematic way to Decision Makers through creation of an Advisory Group comprised of his clients’ primary customers.
2. An Organizational Planning graphic that can quickly communicate core business development opportunities and overlay those with core competencies and profitability models. Sean’s recommendation is to clearly and concisely communicate strategic direction internally to achieve organizational alignment.

When I interviewed Sean for this blog entry he described how his system originated a decade ago in work with Teradata. After proving the concept with this client he moved to create a scalable model by hiring a person who would develop the systems and processes necessary for repeatable success.

After further refinements he now has a program that has attracted a world-class clientele and a publisher (Clerisy Press in Cincinnati) who will release Geehan’s “The B2B Executive Playbook” later this year.

While the concept of an Advisory Group comprised of key customers is relatively simple – the devil is in the details of execution. Making it happen is where Sean and his team provide extraordinary value. Keeping a team of high-powered internal leaders on track while collaborating with key executives from customers requires navigating often troublesome waters filled with large egos and precious pet projects that can derail success.

Once an Advisory Group successfully defines key strategic opportunities for an organization, this then becomes a powerful guidepost to evaluate initiatives and investments. Sean’s clients make the investments in time and money to create those guideposts because they can transform the effectiveness of an organization’s internal efforts.

When I asked Sean what was really cool about his situation, he said, “Here we are, a 12-person company in Dayton and we impact the organizational success of some of the world’s biggest companies.”

Author’s Note:  This “Profiles in Cool” blog series puts the spotlight on folks in Central Ohio doing “cool” things in the field of marketing. My definition of “cool” is 100% subjective – I welcome your comments!

On the technology-adoption spectrum I lean toward the Luddite side of the continuum.  Skeptical of new technologies’ benefits, I prefer to focus time and energy on the unchanging elements of human nature that drive business performance.

Every now and then, however, I run smack dab into a reality wall that highlights the very real benefits of the new and amazing tools we have at our disposal.  Such was my experience this week in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The seemingly haphazard road network in Central Massachusetts has its origin in Colonial times.  The routes diverge and converge in what appear to be random sequences developed when horses and human legs were the primary forms of transportation.  I found myself in the midst of this maze as my wife and I assisted my recently-graduated daughter search for an apartment to accompany her new job in the area.

With a very short time window we had to visit and view multiple living options around the town.  There is absolutely no way we could have accomplished this without our GPS tool.  “Garmina,” as we call the female voice guiding us from the Garmin-branded device, unerringly led us from place to place.

As a former touring cyclist, I’ve always prided myself on my ability to read maps.  Blessed with a good “sense of direction” I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been lost despite extensive travels across every inhabited continent.  So when GPS devices first came out I scoffed in disdain.

While I still love a good map and prefer my own sense of place to electronic guidance I have to profess love for Garmina and all she did for us this past week!

Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my experiences as chair of the Healthcare SIG.  This edition covers my experience in a July meeting of all the SIG leaders focused on improvements to our program.

Our new VP of SIGs, Rex Parsons, called a meeting of all the SIG chairs in July to talk about the program and make plans for improvements.

At the meeting were Erika Pryor for Social Media, Ann Beeson for B2B, John Hondroulis for Internet/e-Commerce (which we decided to change to “Interactive”), Dave Demarchi for the In-Transition group, Bill Troy for International and Lisa Bowers for Nonprofit.  Joining us was Martin Poston, new VP of Communications.

We kicked off the meeting with a short team-building exercise that I led using management tools from ADVISA.

In true marketing fashion we focused on research and communications.  Rex shared some key research on SIGs that showed the primary reason, by far, for people to decide on attending a SIG was the speaker.  Location, timing and networking opportunities were all much lower.  This highlights the focus that the SIGs must maintain on developing topics and speakers of high interest.

Rex also shared research showing which SIG areas were of greatest interest to our audience – there was a long list but all I can remember from that slide is that Health Care marketing (my team’s focus) had the lowest number.  Good thing I like a challenge!

Regarding content we discussed the growing importance of mobile technology and its impact on marketing.  This is an area all the SIGs hope to explore more in-depth in the upcoming year.  We also thought a day-long program focused on marketing involving all the SIGs might be a good approach to try – this would replace the regularly-scheduled morning programs for a time.

In the area of communications we discussed ways to improve the promotion of the SIGs.  We plan to move the initial email blast earlier in the promotion cycle and increase the frequency.  Martin is also looking at how to improve the interaction with the event registration program – currently there are very few people with the training necessary to effectively use the system.  The website was another key topic – it needs a bit of help, for example the names of people associated with the SIGs (yours truly, included) had not been updated as of the time we met.

We also committed ourselves to goals to increase attendance and membership recruitment – which means we have to improve the content of the meetings, the speakers we include and communication of all this.

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – Topic TBD!

About “The SIG Chronicles:”  This blog series records Paul Dumouchelle’s experiences, impressions and insights gained as Chair of the Healthcare Marketing Special Interest Group for the Columbus branch of the American Marketing Association.

Apple’s advertisements for the video calling feature on their latest iPhone have caught my attention.  While elusive, the promise of combining a video feed of the person with whom you’re talking via a phone has been around at least since Dick Tracy’s fancy wristwatch.  Technology that actually delivers on this promise has blockbuster potential.

Apple had done a good job of focusing on the human element of its technology – a grandfather viewing his newborn grandchild for the first time – a woman telling her mate that she is pregnant (though she describes their efforts at achieving this status as “work,” a term that is at odds with my personal experience).  It is this human touch that makes the promise of the technology so powerful.  In this disconnected age, anything that brings people closer together has tremendous value.

This makes me think of Aldous Huxley’s “Feelies” described in his 1932 novel Brave New World, one of my all-time favorites.  When will Hollywood transcend “moving pictures” to create actual experiences and transmit feelings directly?  The recent success of 3D is a step in this direction.  Virtual reality devices are another stab at this.  Someday, perhaps, we’ll be able to experience love scenes where we feel everything, including the hairs of the bearskin rug on which the movie stars lie, as Huxley described it.

Huxley’s future was largely dysfunctional, of course, but I don’t foresee sinister implications from video calling – it looks like a great thing!

Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my early experiences as chair of the Healthcare SIG.  This edition promotes the upcoming SIG presentation on September, 23, 2010 by Amy Dawson, Sr. Vice President and Healthcare Group Account Director of Fahlgren.  Established in 1962, Fahlgren is a Columbus-based full-service communications agency with 160 associates in seven offices across four states.

Make Twitter, Facebook and YouTube work for your medical practice using proven strategies and tactics from a master in the field!  Newbies and social media “veterans” will benefit from real-world case studies and execution tips for marketing medical services from Amy Dawson, Sr. Vice President and Healthcare Group Account Director of Fahlgren.

Prior to joining Fahlgren, Amy spent 13 years with OhioHealth, and she has extensive background in public relations and marketing on both the client and agency side. Her work has been recognized locally, regionally and nationally, including a PRSA Silver Anvil Award for Excellence in Healthcare Marketing Communications. She has worked with integrated health systems, academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, physician practices, medical device and distribution brands and health-related non-profits.

Date:  Thursday, September 23, 2010

Time:  7:30 AM to 9:00 AM

Location:  1266 Manning Parkway, Powell, OH   43065

Cost:  $5 for AMA members, $15 for non-members

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – Making SIGs Better

About “The SIG Chronicles:”  This blog series records Paul Dumouchelle’s experiences, impressions and insights gained as Chair of the Healthcare Marketing Special Interest Group for the Columbus branch of the American Marketing Association.

Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my early experiences as chair of the Healthcare SIG.  This edition describes the presentation by Brenda Stier, CEO of Marketing Works at our 5/27/10 event.

Brenda began by asking us to think of the best marketing event we can remember attending and also the worst – what was the difference?  For me, the best was a nonprofit organization’s annual fundraiser dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan.  That one black-tie event funded the bulk of our budget for the year but it took almost one person’s full-time commitment to pull it off.  The worst were probably some radio tie-ins during my time in Regional Marketing with SC Johnson – if the radio station’s reach was too narrow we got virtually zero in-store activity.

A key element in favor of “experiential marketing,” as Brenda called it, is the QUALITY of the contact you have with the participants.  Events can make connections with key stakeholders and provide an opportunity for lengthy interaction that is impossible in the day-to-day world.  This quality connection can reduce the elapsed time necessary to achieve closure on a decision.  Relationships built this way tend to last longer, as well, since you create a bond that extends beyond a mere transaction.

Balanced against this quality, of course, is the cost in time and money to make an manage an event – but the budgetary discussion should include an emphasis on how much better the quality of resulting connections can be.

Brenda also emphasized several tactical considerations to maximize the impact of your event:

• Training for event participants – so they understand the business goals for the event and don’t get too caught up in any of the fun or entertainment designed for the guests
• Plan for real-time course corrections during the event – stay on top of what is happening and make changes as necessary to stay on track toward your goals
• Utilize email and text messaging to attendees during tradeshows to draw traffic to your booth or presentations or parties
• Leverage Linkedin discussion groups to build a buzz about your tradeshow activities and promote appointments at your booth

Marketing Works, Brenda’s firm, has organized several events for healthcare clients and she highlighted case studies on projects for Neurological Associates and another for Progressive Medical.

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – “Social Media for Healthcare Practices”

About “The SIG Chronicles:”  This blog series records Paul Dumouchelle’s experiences, impressions and insights gained as Chair of the Healthcare Marketing Special Interest Group for the Columbus branch of the American Marketing Association.

By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA

The core responsibility of any marketer is to maintain, sustain and build the strength of their brand.  The discontinuation of a brand, then, is the ultimate failure.  We’ve seen the demise of some once-iconic brands in the recent past.

Lehman Brothers, once a major force in corporate finance, is no more.  The Pontiac brand of cars is on its way out.  Compaq computers – the pioneers of portable computing – absorbed into HP.  Airline brands seem to come and go with alarming frequency – alarming, that is, if you rely on them for safe transport.

So what will become of BP?  Retailers carrying the BP brand try to deflect the negative public sentiment toward the oil giant by saying they aren’t part of the BP corporate entity.  They also claim that BP gets only a tiny benefit from any sale of their gasoline.  I am skeptical that the buying public is going to ignore the signage of a gas station based on these arguments.

At best, the massive Deepwater Horizon spill could be seen as the necessary price to be paid for our reliance on hazardous petrochemicals to fuel our way of life.  What is especially disturbing, and may prove fatal to the BP brand, is that the drilling platform operation seemed to ignore serious safety warnings in the interest of corporate profit.

Such profit-driven shortcuts are bound to happen, too.  They might be seen as the inevitable price of the an efficient capitalist marketplace.  What is especially galling in this case, however, is that BP – and the oil industry in general – had no fallback solution to such a catastrophe once it took place.  The only good thing that can be said about all the attempts to “cap” the leak is that they made hilarious fodder for a Saturday Night Live skit.

Finally, and this may the final nail in the coffin – BP’s leadership took months to develop an effective PR strategy to minimize the impact on their brand.  Time will tell if the corrective action is too little, too late for the brand as whole.

For me, anything with the BP logo became toxic when evidence surfaced that they played fast and loose with necessary safety standards.

Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my experiences that led to my chairing the Healthcare SIG. This edition describes what happened when I had to assume my duties earlier than planned.

If doing it yourself is the best training then I got excellent training in how to manage a SIG event in advance of assuming my full responsibilities as Chair. My predecessor was scheduled to manage our May event, the final one of his tenure, but a change of business plans meant he’d be out of town and he asked me to take over – so I did.

I had been looking forward to closely observing the operation of the May event so I’d be fully prepared for the next one. But, as I often say in my consulting work, “Flexibility is my middle name” – one simply has to adjust to circumstances and make the best of it.

Thankfully I’d already met the team that would be handling key elements of the program – such as ensuring the location would be ready at 7AM the morning of the event and taking care of registrations when people began to arrive.

What I now had to do was establish contact with the planned speaker for the May event, Brenda Stier, CEO of Marketing Works, so I could get acquainted and prepare to introduce her at the event. The topic of her talk was “Event-Driven Marketing.” It felt odd to me that I was going to be introducing a complete stranger at a public event but at least our brief phone conversation made me a bit more comfortable with the situation. I learned that Brenda’s enthusiasm for experiential marketing comes, in part, from her own enjoyment of in-person contact. She loves to make connections with people by looking them in the eye, in person, and that told me enough to look forward to meeting her myself!

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – “Even-Driven Marketing: What’s the Payoff?”

About “The SIG Chronicles:” This blog series records Paul Dumouchelle’s experiences, impressions and insights gained as Chair of the Healthcare Marketing Special Interest Group for the Columbus branch of the American Marketing Association.