As the Tour de France came to an end in Paris last week, Lance Armstrong’s gritty performance was overshadowed by allegations of doping during his remarkable 7 year run as champion.  The Tour is itself a test of character; a 3100 mile trek across the Alps and Pyrenees, amongst the wind, rain, crashes and dramatic climbs of 3000 feet or more. Allegations aside (the man has never tested positive for use of any substance), his sports achievement is amongst the greatest of our lifetime, rivaling those of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. It is easy to forget that at this point, Lance Armstrong doesn’t ride to win bike races; he rides to win the race against cancer.

Livestrong, the brand conceived by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to fund cancer initiatives and supported by Nike, Amgen and others, raises over $40 Million dollars a year and is growing quickly. Livestrong is the ultimate social enterprise, a business/non-profit created to achieve a higher purpose.  Its powerful imagery connects with us in a way that few brands can. Whether your business is for-profit or non-profit there are lessons to be learned from Livestrong.

Some CEO’s I work with trivialize mission and values as mushy and soft. We must not forget that people need to be connected to something bigger than they are.  Achievement in the fight for a cure for cancer and other diseases is not just a goal; it is an all consuming commitment to excellence, because failure is not an option.

We have a responsibility as business people to serve the greater good. But beyond our social consciousness we must also be responsible for providing vision, in the form of tangible outcomes that people can feel and touch.  That is, if we expect others to give their complete, unbridled commitment, then we must deliver a purpose that resonates with them.  The clearer we are about our ideology, values, and determination to succeed, the better chance we have of delivering product and services that support our mission.

As a sign said in the final stage on Sunday: “Merci Lance; you have been an inspiration”.

Here we go again. Suddenly, people are fleeing the stock market for the safety of muni’s and other low risk investments. The U.S. dollar is strong only because of the weakness of the Euro and other foreign currencies supported by extraordinary deficits.  Emerging markets such as China, India and Singapore are the only ones growing and even China’s forecasts are cooling. Some economists are calling all of this a dreaded double dip.  Is this spasm an overreaction?

I am not here to offer a prediction as much as some perspective. Historically, there have been two elements that have preceded U.S. recessions.  Typically, there has been a scandal such as the Savings and Loan Crisis, Michael Milken, Enron/Worldcom, and most recently the liquidity crises triggered by the likes of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Bros, and Bear Stearns, where someone has manipulated a market (most recently derivatives and credit default swaps).  Secondly, the recession usually follows a bubble (dot.com, real estate, etc).  In other words, our economy gets fat and happy, investors take advantage, and then the bubble bursts.

We certainly have not seen our economy swell over the last 12 months.  People have been so desperate for good news that we accepted what little there was as signs of a recovery.  The reality is that our economy grows at about 5% in times of prosperity, and 2% in times of stagnation.  Three percent swings us from optimism to pessimism, which reinforces the magnitude of emotions in our decision making. Fear is always the most powerful emotion and motivator, greater than love and all the others.

So how will the next few months play out? I don’t have a concrete answer for that but what I do know is that our reaction to the sound bites from economists and experts is quite personal. Our practice is thriving at the moment (in part due to the acceptance of the book) which is proof positive that the performance of an organization can be driven in part by one’s confidence and sheer will. Certainly, market forces are in play and in some businesses (like construction) you can still hear the giant sucking sound.  In others the business can best be described as mediocre and the entrepreneur must decide how much investment (in sales and marketing for example) is appropriate.  What I have seen from manufacturing clients is that are petrified of expanding their factories out of fear that they will not be able to dial back capacity.

In a universe where most are passive, there is more opportunity for the aggressors.  I read of one recent investor who bought BP and shorted Apple, a counter strategy that clearly made him a lot of money. While I am not dispensing any investment advice, I am suggesting that we all must make individual choices on the level of risk we are willing to accept. In an age when things are uncertain, there is as much evidence that we will continue along a modest recovery path as there is that the bottom will fall out, and I have made the choice to stay on course. If you are not comfortable with the status quo, it may be time to find new product, services, channels or sectors because there does not appear to be a hockey stick coming any time soon.

I have the opportunity to work with hundreds of executives every year.  I hear it all, from the upbeat to the melancholy. Quite regularly I hear a group whine: why don’t we do have controls for this, or why don’t we have a strategy for that.

The reality is that organizations on their face are dysfunctional.  To have perfect systems, processes, communication and human capital requires a tradeoff between investment in the long term, and profit in the short term. It is easy for organizations to fall into a trap where organizational priorities can become confusing or clouded.

I often compare the prototypical U.S. corporation to capitalism itself: it is not a perfect system, but it is the best one we have. Corporations are built around functional departments, such as accounting, sales, engineering and operations.  It is typical for such departments to have naturally occurring silos and it is easy for a silo mentality to create aggravation and despair.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. Once one recognizes that silos are a function of structure and not of people, one can chose to fight through the bureaucracy, and divergent objectives and lead people to find solutions.  It really comes down to challenging your own paradigm about the natural order of things.

If you work in accounting and you don’t think the sales team gets it in regards to receivables or collecting valid information from customers, it is incumbent upon you to understand their business requirements, and to educate them on the importance of your procedures. Whining is easy, but solving problems requires managerial courage, often in the form of making difficult decisions.

This structural dysfunction often manifests within non-profits which have the same organizational problems, but lack the resources to address them. Volunteers cannot provide the same level of focus as full time employees.

Whether you are working within a for-profit or non-profit organization, the answers lie within you. If you are the leader and your people are not getting along, it is your responsibility to find harmony. If you have a member of your staff who cannot play nice with others, it is time to wish him the best of luck in his next position, wherever that might be.

The publication of my first book, “Intended Consequences” has opened many doors for me.  The book is a manifesto on strategic planning and explains in some detail “how to” go about the formation of strategy. In effect, I gave away all my secrets for a mere $17.95, and our business is thriving.

I often hear objections from clients that they fear that their strategy could fall into the hands of competitors. They become tight lipped about their intentions, even with their own employees. 

I remember fondly the Lakers of the 1980’s. Magic Johnson would dribble the ball down the court, and throw a high pass to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the right block, and he would take a hook shot, time after time. The opponents, their coaches, the radio commentators, and the fans all knew it was coming, yet no one could stop it.

Extraordinary companies exhibit superior execution. The irony is that those organizations who take the time to explain their objectives in detail to employees and vendors are the ones most likely to achieve superior results. Being clandestine about a strategy can limit its effectiveness.

Competitors eventually figure out what others are doing, but they may or may not have the talent, cost structure, technology or acumen to emulate it, or execute with the same level of quality or rigor. On balance, customers want information, and providing detailed information in the form of white papers, marketing materials or specifications in an easily digestible format provides value. In most cases the incremental value created by giving away information to customers outweighs the risks.

I am not for a minute advocating that you publish your strategic plan. I am suggesting that the more people on your team who are committed to it and accountable for your initiatives the greater the likelihood you will realize your objectives. It wouldn’t hurt to have a Magic Johnson dishing it out to your team.

At the risk of carrying on ad nauseam about iEverthing, iPad is sold out for weeks just about everywhere. I went into a packed Apple store this week looking for one and felt like I was in an electronic Disneyland except Mickey Mouse was a 20 something with bad hair. I also took note that the iPad displays had no prices, reinforcement for a value proposition based on a unique offering where price is almost irrelevant.

In the classic “I am a PC” commercials Apple throws mud at Microsoft and the PC platform, and perhaps the criticism is deserved.  Apple is clearly an amazing product innovator, but what has taken form is an integration of their products (such as MacBook, iPad, iPhone and especially the App Store) to a point where the Mac platform has become the strategic advantage.

We are no longer just enthusiasts, we are believers: believers that Mac’s future products and ability to integrate them will make our lives better.  We don’t only have iPhones based on what they do now, but because we know something clever will be on the App Store next week, or the week after that. We know we won’t need three different adapters, for whatever is iNext, we will use the ones we already own.  We know the machines will work harmoniously without pulling whatever hair we have left out.

Having a belief system that supports a platform can extend beyond iGadgets. If your investment advisor or insurance broker were on the wrong platform, you would lose faith in the advisor in the way that you may have with Microsoft (with security problems, coding issues and the release of the much maligned Vista). Cloud computing presents us with a new platform for storage, and DirecTV has a new DVR which will record programs on one central hub that you can watch on any TV in your home.

How can your platform change? What would be a game changer in terms of service delivery for your customers or clients?

While many businesses dependent on MS Office will run on PCs in the near distant future, it will be interesting to see if the Apple platform can steal away the office productivity market like it has all of the others. I was amused that when I ran spell check for this article in MS Word, iPhone was not recognized as a word.  I may be a convert very soon.

Back in 2008, there was a waiting list to buy a new Toyota Prius. As oil prices surged, hybrid vehicles exploded on the scene. In the first half of 2009, the economy and gas prices slumped, and “Cash for Clunkers” drove automobile demand. Prius sales fell off a cliff (declining by 45%).

For years, idealogs have led the charge for the environmental movement, and environmentally sensitive products have experienced modest demand. While most of us intuitively wish to preserve the planet, the pattern has been that the masses have not been willing to pay a price premium for alternative energy and green products.

Until now, wind and solar power were more expensive than the fossil fuels they were intended to replace. We may be at a tipping point. Regulation is increasing the cost of electricity and coal and technology advances have reduced the cost of solar power.

The state of California (evidently flush with excess cash), is funneling $200 million a year through 2015 into low emission vehicles, including 5,000 charging stations for electric cars. It takes 60-90 minutes to charge an electric car at a charging station (about 8 hours in one’s garage), so the consumer wanting to buy one will certainly have to sacrifice convenience.

The economic realities of the recession have been a setback for the green movement. Fortune 500 companies had upped the ante on vendors measuring their carbon footprint and the like but clearly pulled back in their quest to survive the downturn.

So where do we go from here? My belief is that we are at a crossroads where the most economically viable energy sources will emerge, government will use its bully pulpit to drive consumption, and leading companies will place their gambit on specific energy saving initiatives. The time for talk has probably passed.

The minute the consumer has options that are relatively equal in cost to that of traditional energy sources there will be an avalanche of change. Green represents a set of tradeoffs that businesses and their customers will have to adopt and accept. The green movement has always been a function of leaders who believe, and never in history has there been more opportunity for leadership to make a difference.

Amongst my favorite Seinfeld episodes was that of “The Soup Nazi”.  As you may remember the story line, The Soup Nazi banished Elaine from his soup kitchen with his announcement “No Soup for You!” While the Seinfeld clan’s attraction to the Soup Nazi may have been soup of extraordinary flavor, the episode offers marketers a more compelling recipe.

In her brilliant book “Different”, Youngme Moon points out that in a mature market, added features that are not highly relevant to the customer offer little incremental value.  She offers the concept of differentiating strategies through “reverse and hostile brands.”

While the Soup Nazi’s fare was surprising good, the service was shockingly bad. I am not suggesting that our clients start insulting customers anytime soon, but there is lesson to be learned from the Soup Nazi.  Disrupters understand the need to find separation, even if it means not offering services and benefits offered by the competition. Southwest Air offers no amenities, but does offer free baggage.  Where United and Delta says yes, Southwest says no and vice versa.

Menchies and similar self serve yogurt shops have exploded on the scene.  Eat all the yogurt you want and we are not going to serve you.  By the way, you are going to spend about a third more than you would otherwise. The model is distressing to our waist line but stimulating to our business sensibilities.  Tart yogurt flavors are particularly hot as they offer the opposite of what we have been conditioned to expect; as sweet is ying, tart is yang.

For a good laugh with clients, I have occasionally handed out calendars from despair.com.  A spoof of the overused motivational posters, they have similar imagery that says things like “Consulting: Why find a solution when you can prolong the problem?” The calendars are popular because they are funny, but also because they are a shock to our senses.  When ordering such a calendar you get an email to the effect of don’t bother calling us. 

To be different may require the marketer to be entirely counter to the marketplace.  The iPad is revolutionary but lacks USB ports and other goodies.  Apple is unapologetic, as consumers intuitively understand the tradeoff.

We are drawn to things we can’t have, and thus one potential strategy in value creation is “the take away”.  To suggest that your product or service is only available to a select group of customers increases its value. When clients ask us to do Executive Coaching we say no (it is not in our core competency) which makes our Strategic Planning services worth more.  Customers know that to get something really good, they may have to give up something in return.

While I am not encouraging anyone reading this to go negative, I am suggesting we need to think more provocatively about creating products and brands that are not only innovative and different but counter to our thinking.  That may include cutting out benefits that we naturally assume are necessary, but may just be redundant. I wonder if George would go for the vanilla tart or caramel latte?

In a bold move this month, Amazon doubled royalties paid to authors for electronic books. Given the surging popularity of book readers and the release of the iPad, Amazon is attempting to lock in its position as the distributor of e-books. The segment tripled in volume in 2009.

As an author, what is of particular interest to me is that this transition represents a seismic shift in the control of a distribution channel. For years, publishers controlled the shelf at popular book sellers such as Borders and Barnes and Noble. Thus authors are highly incented to push distribution through publishers, even though they hog all the profit.

The advent of the electronic distribution channel (which dilutes the value of media through lower pricing) will now offer the originator volume and margin, if they have the gumption to self distribute. What are the ramifications of this trend in other industries?

The golden rule is that for physical products, the last mile of distribution is always the most expensive. This is why home delivery of groceries (Webvan seems so far away) has never succeeded. The grocer can move product in mass more efficiently than the consumer can.

But what about categories of products that are traditionally moved through distributors that will no longer require a middle man or special handling? Could we buy automobiles direct, or water for that matter? Could television be streamed straight to our TV’s without the need for cable or a dish?

If your business is reliant on distributors, or you are one yourself, it may be time to consider if your model could be disrupted and by whom. Do distributors in your space add value to the product or diminish from it? As internet applications continue to proliferate, it is time to think provocatively about what radical changes may take place in the way your products and services move through the value chain.

I lost my idol on Friday night.

John Wooden was perhaps the only person I have ever met for which I was in complete awe. His teachings left an indelible mark on my life. John Wooden was one of those rare people who instantly made you want to be a better human being. He made us more humble, more gracious, more caring and more willing to serve others.

Coach was larger than life, and the business and leadership lessons survived by his legacy are many. His Pyramid of Success is as likely to be found in a corporate board room as a high school gym. The man had an undeniable, unwavering commitment to quality. When new players showed up for freshman camp, they were taken aback by his extraordinary level of detail; starting with how to put on their socks and lace up their shoes as not to get blisters.

Coach Wooden’s innovations were legendary and his words insipring. “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” Every off season, Coach Wooden would seek out the best coaches in the country in a particular discipline (such as zone full court press) and would spend that year learning everything there was to know about it. The man did not accept mediocrity. “If you don’t have time to do it right, when you will have time to do it over?”

The most important thing I learned from studying Coach Wooden is that we all need to be more thoughtful about the affect we have on others. We can choose to lead, to inspire, to demand more of others; or we can be wrapped up in what is best for us. We must be committed to teaching (as he was) and creating leaders who are lifelong learners. “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

In announcing the passing of the greatest coach of all time, Vin Scully quoted Shakespeare on air Friday night “His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all of the world; this was a man.”

John Wooden 1910-2010

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”

“Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

“Be quick, but don’t be in a hurry.”

“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”

“Don’t give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you.”

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

“Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.”

“Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from what you can do.”

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”

“The team that makes the most mistakes usually wins, because doers make mistakes.”

“Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts. ”

“What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player. ”

“There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer. ”

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

Last year some overzealous Google developers decided it would be OK if the company’s new social networking site (Google Buzz) would automatically select friends for their users based on who they emailed most. The release of “Buzz” created buzz of the worst kind, a backlash on internet security and privacy, which was the pregame for Facebook’s recent missteps. Some scholars are wondering, is privacy dead? 

The constitution does not explicitly protect our privacy (The Fourth Amendment provides “the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures). Yet protecting our homes, families, and information is central to our core values and American’s have an innate expectation of privacy.

The internet is a paradox; it offers us the ability to access powerful information at our fingertips. But access to information comes with a cost. It also offers the ability to track a colleague’s home address, see an aerial view of their property, see pictures of their children and know if they prefer golf, skiing or stamp collecting. It is not very difficult to ascertain ones sexual preference by looking at their Facebook page.

Consider the emerging trends in insurance coverage. The day will come shortly when an insurer will be able to track your medical history, what you had for lunch today, the number of steps you took at the gym this morning, and actuate the cost to insure you. Such modeling could reduce the cost for life and disability insurance.  Yet we see it as an invasion of our privacy. Some are wondering, what are the unintended consequences of having powerful databases which track our movements with such precision?

Clearly, the Federally mandated shift to electronic medical records is going to create shock waves for patients, who are going to need to warm up to their podiatrist seeing the rest of their medical history. But perhaps we need to see the forest through the trees. If our life could be saved by more complete medical information, wouldn’t it be worth the risk of our neighbors knowing a little bit more about us?

We reset our expectations of what is acceptable all the time. In the 50’s, Elvis shaking his hips was viewed by some as vulgar (imagine what Ward Clever would make of Lady Gaga).   It appears that we are on the cusp of resetting our expectations about what is private, and what is not. Companies have demanded since the advent of email that they own the content of the email, and that they have the right to read it at any time. Our work methods are far more public (than they used to be) in a world of common calendars and collaboration work tools.  

It appears to me that we are at a crossroads where we will really not have any choice. The converging forces of media, government, business and social networking are moving us in a direction of accepting less privacy. Organizations should be cognoscente of such concerns and make choices that protect their customers and employees. However, we may need to accept that progress comes with a price.