Everyone Is Connected To Powerful New, Risky And Uplifting Shifts

Career Management

There are three behaviours that derail careers. They are not difficult to learn, in fact, all human beings can become masters at them. They are a part of our everyday lives and yet they are not equally executed by all. Those that are attentive to these three behaviours tend to have better quality of life, career satisfaction, a more balanced home life and yes even better control of their wealth. The worst at these behaviours are abrupt, create toxic workplaces, unable to lead teams successfully and underperform. To become a master at these skills they require personal discipline and a change in your own routines. What are these three behaviours? The first two are Follow-Up and Attention to Detail. I call these behaviours because that's what they require to execute them flawlessly. Follow up is important because you are showing respect for the work that you expect done and acknowledgement for the work others are doing. Attention to detail is also an important behaviour having standards, being consistent creates self respect and earns you respect. Can you improve on them? Yes everyone can! How? Start by planning your days in detail. Before you end each business day plan the next the one. Of course this just skims the surface. The third behaviour is about demonstrating your executive maturity. That means behaving as the executive, prepared for the next role. Getting to the next level, even the CEO position, requires business maturity something that no grad school teaches. This maturity will never allow you to let your guard down when you are conducting business or to lose focus. You can get there with the right mentor.

Differentiate yourself: Your own personal will and purpose are everything when it comes to career and business success. If you want to standout you need to show courage and take the steps necessary. It's what you do that defines you, it doesn't matter what others say most of them are armchair critics with no volition to act. You will meet them all. Some wear their ego's and claims to superior intelligence on their sleeves, ignore them. They are only interested in taking your energy focus on helping others because they won't help anyone but themselves.

The rules of leadership have been rewritten. What can business and political leaders learn from President Zelenskyy's fearlessness? If there was ever an act of courage and demonstration in being visible, approachable and being on the front lines with the people and leading by example, this is it. This should be a defining moment for most organizational leaders and boards of directors. As mentioned last week, organizations that are failing or just hanging in there have completely disconnected themselves from the business, employees and customers. It is also a defining moment for political leaders, a new standard has been set. You stand with the people or you are all talk. History will show for centuries Zelenskyy's defining moment when he said "I need ammunition not a ride." Most executives and politicians who failed and will fail, chose the ride in the ivory tower over the ownership they had been bestowed.

Politics: Is Putin backing down? Not likely, they are merely regrouping

Is Putin backing down? Russia say's the first phase of Ukraine war is over. Read more The world should never take their eyes off of Russia, this was a malicious attack on a sovereign country. Hypothetically, if the world was attacked by an alien race and their goal was to completely annihilate one part of the world to take it over and threatened to destroy all of us if we interfered, it is unlikely that we would stick to a no fly zone because we would have no reason to trust them. The world needs to be wiser, this is no different. This is a humanitarian tragedy and there is only one person responsible. However, it is also costing the world a great deal economically. NATO should never let their guard down, it will be disastrous if they do.

Supply and Demand or Profiteering

Pardon the pun from the movie Dune, however there is a great deal of truth to this. Over the last two months we've reviewed a ton of material on shipping, ports, container costs and the brokers organizing all of this behind the scenes. Here is the bottomline, there are not a lot of containers to go around because they are making fewer of them in China. There is inelasticity in containers, ports, trucks and ships. There are brokers who arrange everything from securing a container to getting it on a ship. And not always the same brokers. There is ground transportation to move from factories to ports and vice versa. There are ports on all continents with capacity limitations. However more fascinating, ocean ships moving containers from one continent to another can make enough money to pay for the full price of ship in one voyage! Read this LA Times article. That was not always the case. A contact who has been in this segment of the industry told us that for years they barely broke even. So is it supply and demand or profiteering? The opportunism is certainly visible. In this article by the New York Times President Biden is targeting shipping companies for their high costs. Some believe he is wrong. The president happens to be right. But is it greed and profiteering or a Cold War On Trade? For now we must challenge the status quo and call this profiteering!

Social and Economy: Tectonic Shifts

Globally the economic news is relentless. Will inflation drive interest rates to over 10% like Brazil derailing the entire world economy? And what about the bad actors and opportunism behind supply chains from end to end? The forces of change can be tectonic as I wrote in The Great Transition, the shift from the old economy to the new one being disruptive and unpredictable. There is no question that our shift to a technological world is creating shock waves. It requires stronger business and political leadership to deal with the changes that are here and have yet to arrive. (Please, politicians filled with one liner rhetoric and no past history of jobs need not apply).

The 1920-21 Economic Depression You Never Heard Of With the end of WWI (1914-1918) that also ended war time factory production. They all had to refocus their operations. Throw in the pandemic of 1918-1920, and returning soldiers with no jobs. The labour market had too many people looking for work. Plus a monetary policy raising interest rates in response to inflation post world war I. Interest rates went up to 7.0% and then came deflation. But they made a mistake (imagine that!) bureaucrats making a mistake. They created a deflationary economy, they pushed rates too far and too fast. And we should be worried that our current bank governors globally are not making the same mistakes? This economic depression lasted between 1920-21. What got them out of it? They built an economy on consumer demand for home appliances. Yup, that helped launch the roaring 20's! Don't hold your breath. Unless someone creates a food replicator or teleportation device, we are not likely to see the same roaring twenties.

Technology: Your metaverse expert may not be an expert yet

The metaverse has everyone scrambling trying to figure out where and how this will fit into their business. There are a plethora of experts. When you look them up on LinkedIn many have no credentials in the technology sector whatsoever! So, when did they become experts on the Metaverse? Okay some have certificates in some sectors but who is really the expert on the Metaverse? Answer? The companies that are leading the way Roblox Apple, Meta, Nvidia Microsoft, these are the experts on what the Metaverse can do in the future. Everyone else is speculating and or has a vision. If you are looking for experts be mindful of what they have to offer. There is a difference in those that talk about the future, and those being able to develop and implement that future in your company. I offer this article as a point of interest. How to become a metaverse expert read this. To be fair, you can become a metaverse expert, blockchain, NFT etc. However, it takes dedication and the willingness to learn. There are just too many jumping into the pond and it feels like the DotCom bust.

Home Economics: The Housing Market Is Broken!

Why are house prices so high in Canada? We took a look at the average house prices in Canada, USA and the UK and converted all country values into Canadian currency. Will you be surprised, shocked or have a better understanding of the issues? At first glance it seems clear, municipalities and builders need to rethink housing development, large homes are no longer affordable nor practical. The whole model around what we want, buy and build for homes needs to be reinvented. Because the model is broken, although prices are not about to collapse. This requires political leadership not promises, market needs must be laid out for builders. Provincial and municipal politicians can do a lot more to influence change in the housing market and that starts with urban planning of affordable developments. Big Mac prices are there for context. US consumers have more buying power, even their lots in urban areas are larger. Our housing models going forward need to allow for the same buying power. Our debt to income ratios can no longer afford more debt.

What will it take to be one of the last retailers standing?

The headline is the title from my first book which was a blunt, provocative book with an in your face attitude. My intent in this book was to point out the underperformance of leadership and boards. Therefore, let's cut to the chase if you want to succeed in this new economy, you need to rethink how you will compete. There isn't a brand or sector in the consumer facing world that has not been impacted by technology, the pandemic and now inflation regardless of where the cause is stemming from.

Inflationary Retailing: In one instant you need to be entrepreneurial, then a digital expert (park the metaverse for now) and be an equally adept turnaround artist. To stay in business you need the right product, offering and marketing to draw traffic. Brand visibility matters as does the effectiveness of your digital marketing and messaging are. Here is one retail association that acknowledges reality

Retail Strategies: Price below inflation, translation figure out where and how to lower costs and not at the staffing levels of the frontlines. And address changes in cost of goods appropriately to stay competitive.

The right staffing strategies leads to better sales: In December 2021 the podcast crew of The Business of Retail, Episode 29, had a strong discussion about staffing and what it takes to drive sales. Listen here

Focus on high demand profit value products that will improve your performance. Protect that segment of your business and your ROI.

Get local: Small and midsized businesses need to fight at a local level and more broadly in digital warfare. It doesn't matter if you have one store or a thousand, understand the nuances of each and the needs of consumers based on locations. Match the pricing with products sought.

There are plenty of issues in play and they have both repercussions to address and opportunities to pursue. That's why it's important to expect the unexpected and plan for the improbable.

Oil Prices- Gasoline and Home Fuel are on the rise. On March 23rd oil hit $120 (Brent Crude) a barrel. Gasoline prices will follow. Household energy is rising as well, especially for those that use propane and oil. Sustained higher prices will be a signal that more consumers will begin to pare back as many already have.

Covid-19 the virus is spreading and in the UK for example, it is increasing at a rate of one million people per week. BBC. Fortunately being vaccinated is helping. However, if safety protocols lapse there is concern that hospitalizations will pick up globally. In Canada there are predictions of major spring outbreaks Toronto Star. This would be an added negative impact on businesses.

China, pandemic and manufacturing, need we say more about this? Bloomberg

E-commerce and shopping for essentials: All of the above and more will push more consumers to browse and buy online for the best deal and the greatest convenience. Read more As you read this article always remember there is a difference between transaction growth and sales growth in an inflationary period. Higher sales, lower transactions and higher costs does not make for a sound business model.

Interest rate are climbing faster read this. Keep in mind that banks make money in this timeframe, few others are. It could take a year or more to unwind the supply chain issues that are creating this. And will likely expedite decline in consumer spending. Businesses need to be prepared for many changes and it will impact jobs, let's not kid ourselves.

Opportunity: Get focused and develop your digital skills, learn more about blockchain, virtual and AI technologies. There is an inexpensive way to do this. Coursera

Personal Log: Everything and every event is connected creating tectonic shifts

Thank you for reading this week's issue of The Business Brief. Remember dismiss nothing, expect the unexpected and plan for the improbable. I am also available as a coach to executives and CEO's who want to improve their probability of success.

#retailing #strategy #ceo #management #technology #innovation #economy #marketing #ecommerce #digital