Since Facebook changed to allow the ability to post longer updates along with blog / image / video / article links, this has facilitated engagement on the level of a typical blog post, and Facebook comments and engagement is something that users seem to find preferable to comments on blogs.

We post on a wide variety of areas around business, innovation, the economy and other areas, come “like” our page to join the conversation.

The concept of Risk/Return is well understood in investment circles: the higher the risk the higher the potential return (and importantly but normally forgotten by the investor: the higher the risk the higher the potential losses).

But for the CEO and Board, risk is often the “hidden variable” in many business decisions. Risk touches on every area of a company’s operations and yet when the case of “cost versus return” is considered by the Board the variable called “risk” is often not discussed. As different businesses experience the recession in varying ways, Shirlaws coaches globally are increasingly seeing this “silent influencer” holding companies back and creating frustration between co-founders, board members, or investors.

The term “Risk Profile” is heavily used in investment circles. Your Financial Adviser will want to measure your Risk Profile before investing their funds. It is often a score out of 10, with zero indicating highly conservative and 10 indicating ‘willing to take any bet’.

Equally, an Executive Team can have a Business Risk Profile that they can measure and use as a strategic and contextual metric to manage risk-based decisions in the business.

This can be a vital measure. It can create a contextual understanding when serious divisions at Board level occur. And it can help create a benchmark to support decision making when circumstances change. For example, most businesses experience a severe drop in Risk Profile after a serious economic downturn, just at the moment when the business needs to be decisive and proactive.

Consequences of Different Risk Profiles

In the first instance, let’s look at debilitating differences of opinion within the senior team, for example between the CEO and the CFO. We often see Boards where the CEO might have a Risk Profile of 7 or 8 but other members of the team have a profile of 4 or 5. But this knowledge is hidden without a metric to measure it. All that shows up is that the Board think the CEO is impetuous and the CEO feels frustrated and constrained by those around them.

And what of the impact of a serious change in circumstances? More often than not during a downturn the entrepreneur or CEO reduces their Business Risk Profile without being aware of it. When the market starts to move the CEO needs to aggressively start to reinvest into the business to get the uplift in the next phase of the market. But many will hold off until the market has moved.

The fear (called lower Risk Profile) that they may invest too early causes them to hold off on investment and therefore they don’t get the revenue uplifts. The language used revolves around “when the market improves then I will…” It is these fears that naturally evolve from the recession that ultimately holds the business back.

So how do you fix this?

How do you create a metric to measure the Risk Profiles of your key team to aid alignment and understanding – to create the context that leads to quick decisions? And how do you create awareness of the business Risk Profile so that you can use that to benchmark vital decisions such as when to invest in the cycle?

Firstly, be aware of risk and your relative attitudes to it. Be aware of how that may have changed since 2007/08. There are various aspects of a Business Risk Profile, but it can be as simple as scoring you and your management team on a scale of 1 – 10.

If you want to measure the Board and entire management team’s personal Business Risk Profiles using an objective tool, talk to a Shirlaws coach so we can set up you and your board / executives to take our Business Risk Profile Tool online.

Then, as part of your next Strategic Retreat agree a Business Risk Profile which you will use to benchmark all your significant decisions. Openly discuss where the conflicts in the business are likely to show up relative to each other and to that agreed Business Profile so that you can manage these in the future without argument and misunderstanding.

Where : Grand Cayman Beach Suites, Grand Cayman

Cost : CI$500

Who Should Attend : Business Owners, CEOs, Executives on Leadership Track

Presenters : Glyn Heald, Shirlaws Global and Tom McCallum, Shirlaws Cayman

At Shirlaws we “Love Business”, working with business owners and leaders globally with “More Money, More Time, Less Stress” for themselves and their business.

Shirlaws uses the term CEO, not “MD”, “Senior Partner” etc. as we believe the role is to be the “Chief”, to Lead, not to Manage. We see the role of “CEO” in three simple concepts : “hold the context”, “manage the energy”, “coach don’t play”, and have been running a series of three workshops around these skills.

The first two workshops introduced, through Shirlaws methodology, a brand new opportunity for business owners and leaders to learn, interact, and take new skills and ideas back to their business. Each workshop is designed individually, so if you have not managed to attend the first two in the series, do come to the third workshop, it has true standalone value. The final workshop “Coach don’t play” is on April 24th, 2012.

One of the key “CEO” responsibilities is to act as a coach for their team. Now, the coach of a sports team doesn’t play the game – they provide an objective, external viewpoint, helping the team develop their own strengths and work better together. This is what Shirlaws means when we say ‘Coach, don’t play’.

CEOs and Managers who don’t coach find themselves under siege from a team that depends on them for answers. If you find yourself answering dozens of questions each day, then you would benefit from coaching skills through this specific workshop.

Coaching rather than playing empowers your team to perform better. It also allows you to take the next step in your business journey – what would the leader inside you rather be doing than answering all those questions?

As you can see, a ‘coach’ need not be external from your business. It’s true of lawyers, accountants, and other professionals – for business that require, or value, specific skill sets, it makes more sense to have them available ‘in house’. With all professions, of course, be aware that there is value in maintaining external support for specialised projects.

Can you see the value in you coaching, rather than playing, even for just part of your role?

After our first two workshops, we have very limited space for new attendees for this final workshop. Don’t miss out on this opportunity, email Tom McCallum on tmccallum@shirlawscoaching.com or Kristen Ford on kford@shirlawscoaching.com to secure your place.

{For more on the three “CEO skills”, download our Ebook “More Money, More Time, Less Stress” }

Distribution era into Product era

But we don’t think the next era is distribution because we’ve already seen it occurring during the ’00s. Channels to market have changed for ever and many companies now get more than 40% of their revenue online, even those that previously had traditional business models. From these observations, we believe businesses are now moving beyond the era of distribution. Just as you still need a clear position, you still need to understand your distribution channels, but the online evolution in the past 10-20 years means mid-tier and SME businesses no longer need to wait ten years to apply the lessons of large corporations.

In the early ’90s there was no LinkedIn, Google, eBay or Facebook. These companies really blossomed in the ’00s and so if 2000-2010 was the era of distribution, what’s happening now? Larger companies such as Facebook are starting to focus on product in an attempt to commercialise their massive people databases. As companies such as Twitter and Skype begin investing in product the big question becomes, “How to commercialise the distribution channel?”

We saw a good deal of freemium activity in the 2000s, which opened up distribution channels. But these companies didn’t make much money and are now wondering how to commercialise. If they start charging, customers will probably move to another provider. Membership channels seem to have a limited seven year life-cycle before members start reaching for the latest, greatest next thing.

As we move into the product era we are launching our new IP, ACM – architecture, content and marketability, to help clients gain an early mover advantage.

Enter Shirlaws “ACM” – Architecture, Content, Marketability

As we move into the product era Shirlaws, in Q4 2011, launched our new IP, ACM – architecture, content and marketability, to help clients gain an early mover advantage.

Using an analogy to explain our new IP, would you buy a book about the differences between men and women? Probably not because the differences seem obvious. The book describing how men and women are different is called the content.

Moving up a layer from content into architecture provides a formula to hold the content in a contextual space, like a map. If a library scattered books at random, you’d be confused. A library provides architecture, a map to find the science, biography and fiction books. In the same way, if the book has architecture it helps you find your way around.

Where’s the sex?

To extend the analogy, let’s say men and women don’t really understand each other. When you come home and your partner says, “X…” you normally say, “Y…”. They say, “X…” and you reply, “Y…”, which generally goes nowhere. This book will teach you how to say, “X…” back to your partner.

Guess what? You get sex that night! Now who wants to read that book?

The example shows how architecture works in practice. It’s a model, framework or formula that clarifies the benefits and explains why you need the content. It’s the big “Aha! That’s why!” moment where everyone understands.

A kitchen designer might say, “I could speak all day about kitchens.” That’s the content. But what’s the architecture – formula, model or framework – to help you understand “kitchens”? How do you know why you need to buy a kitchen design from this supplier, rather than anyone else? And in far less than a whole day.

Come and get it!

Moving into marketability, no one wants to buy a book called Men and Women are different. But suppose it’s called

Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Yes, it’s a bestseller. Marketability gives you that punch through.

Distribution channels like Facebook and LinkedIn have masses of content, but no architecture to explain the benefits. If these channels want to commercialise then they must provide product.  Like the “X…” and “Y…” conversation, the only way is to say, “Here’s the sex.” Without marketability to commercialise a product suite, the channels Facebook, LinkedIn and eBay can’t sell.

Where a business is not leveraging its biggest revenue stream, but has all the pieces in play, then it’s probably missing out on getting product into the channel. This is not about building more content. It’s about taking the content and building the architecture and marketability around it to leverage the content into the marketplace.

Architecture takes you beyond “Why?”

If we asked a potential client, “Do you want to buy business coaching?”, it wouldn’t be very helpful. By asking instead, “Do you want to make more money? Have more family time and less work stress?” the Shirlaws coach has explained what we sell simply and quickly. This approach usually interests the potential client far more than a generic question about “coaching”.

These interesting questions are our architecture, which is so much more than simply describing features and benefits. Clients can see immediately how to access the benefits through a massive “Aha!” moment because a description of benefits alone is not enough.

Now is the time to begin preparing your business to enter the new product era.

When :

Where : Grand Cayman Beach Suites, Grand Cayman

Cost : CI$500

Who Should Attend  : Business Owners, CEOs, Executives on Leadership Track

Presenters : Glyn Heald, Shirlaws Global and Tom McCallum, Shirlaws Cayman

For pdf download of the CEO Workshop flyer, click here

At Shirlaws we “Love Business”, working with business owners and leaders globally with “More Money, More Time, Less Stress” for themselves and their business.

Shirlaws uses the term CEO, not “MD”, “Senior Partner” etc. We believe the role is to be the “Chief” – to Lead, not to Manage. We see the role in three simple concepts, running this series of workshops around these :

• Set the Context – October 13th, 2011

• Manage the Energy – January 24th, 2012

• Coach don’t Play – April 24th, 2012

After years of the deepest recession in a century, how do you feel ? Are you tired ? Is your energy dragging ? How about your staff ?

Shirlaws has supported clients in responding to the current economic cycle for several years. Throughout this period, Shirlaws has correctly identified not only what the movements of this cycle would be, but also when they would occur.

Let us help you “Manage the Energy” by responding to both internal and external impacts upon your business.

The world is moving out of the ‘flat’ mode of this recession. The uneven recovery is making businesses hesitant – and many are likely to panic at the next dip. More market-share is built in this stage of the cycle than any other stage. This is a great opportunity to gain real advantage for your business. Let us help you set the scene for 2012 to help your business thrive.

If you’re ready to push your business to reach its full potential, come and meet a room of like-minded people doing just that.

The cost of each workshop is CI$500. Email Tom McCallum on tmccallum@shirlawscoaching.com or Kristen Ford on kford@shirlawscoaching.com to secure your place.

{For more on the three “CEO skills”, download our Ebook “More Money, More Time, Less Stress” }

At Shirlaws we don’t think it is, as we have strong and well thought out reasons for choosing our clients carefully if they feel first that we may be right for them. We don’t want to waste their time or money, nor our resources, unless we feel the relationship is the right one.

Whether or not you see yourself as a future Shirlaws client, our explanation here will help you gain understanding of where value is found and delivered in and through Business Coaching.

Now, in many areas where businesses are looking for outside help, they decide what they need and then buy a specific service from someone. That could be a report, a system, or even what they consider to be business coaching. However, if what they do is buy and the relationship ends when the “product” is “delivered”, this is simply a Buyer:Supplier relationship. The client buys, the product is supplied.

Here is the problem we often see in such relationships. How do we, Shirlaws, know that you are going to “do the work” after we leave to get full value from what we “supply” as your business coaches ? Often the buyer does not commit to do their part, leaving the “product” on the shelf (metaphorically and often literally) unused and untouched. If clients fully commit to the relationship they will both get full value during the relationship, but also, crucially, we will have had the opportunity to transfer skills into the business so they keep receiving value in a sustainable fashion long after we have stopped delivering the “product”. If that commitment isn’t there, often all that is remembered of the Buyer:Supplier relationship is a file on a shelf.

Even though such clients will have paid us, that is not enough for us, not at all. We care about such under performance for two key reasons. First, because our Intent in our business is nothing less than “To help people change their lives“, and if clients don’t commit, they don’t get the results. Second, if clients don’t commit and so don’t see the results they wanted at the start, we won’t have created the type of clients who help us bring in more clients and so change more lives. Where our work truly drives major and sustainable change for our Clients, they often become positively evangelical, telling others “Shirlaws works, hire them, pay them what they ask, do what they say. Their business coaching works !”. We like those clients.

So, what are we at Shirlaws looking for if we are to choose you to be a client ? What we seek is a Coach:Player relationship.

In any successful Coach:Player relationship, both Coach and Player are aligned around what they are looking to achieve together and are fully committed to achieving, together, the goals set out by the client for the relationship.

Butch Harmon and Tiger Woods – a famously successful Coach:Player relationship

At Shirlaws we always fully commit to supporting our Players (sorry, our Clients!), so what is it we are looking if we are to choose you as a client ?

I think this is put beautifully at the outset of “The Art of Non-Conformity” by Chris Guillebeau. Very early in his book on “how to set your own rules, live the life you want, change the world”, he checks in with his readers to make sure they don’t waste their time in reading any more of his book. He tells them that if they are going to change the world, most people who have done so have used all of the following four principles :

• You Must Be Open to New Ideas
• You Must Be Dissatisfied with the Status Quo
• You Must Be Willing to Take Personal Responsibility
• You Must Be Willing to Work Hard

These four principles are simple, incisive and accurate to what makes for a successful Shirlaws Client.

In our experience (I am speaking for our clients here in Cayman and the region, but I am sure my Shirlaws colleagues globally will agree), where our Clients (and their team members, not just the Business Owner or Leader!) truly follow these four principles, their partnership with Shirlaws has driven real and lasting positive change to them and their businesses.

If this blog finds you saying “Yes, this is me, these four principles resonate with me and I am ready to make change happen!”, then you might just be the next client for Shirlaws Cayman. We’d certainly love to talk to you, you sound like exactly the kind of client we are looking for !

Think, Feel and Know are the three communications styles that we all use to process information and make decisions. Whilst we all have the capability to use all three styles, we have discovered that most people have a strong preference for one style. Once you are able to recognise and understand other peoples’ preferences, you’ll be able to connect with them more easily and you’ll have a greater chance of being heard and understood.

A powerful introduction to Shirlaws for many businesses is to have their board / leadership team take our online indicators then have a Shirlaws coach run a half day workshop for the group to first explain the concepts around Think Feel Know. Next, using the indicator results, your Shirlaws coach is able to drive specific value around how the board / team, knowing each others styles, can work more effectively together.

Talk to a Shirlaws coach to learn more about Think Feel Know. It is a profoundly powerful tool that drives true value into not only businesses, but also how you communicate with those around you in your personal life.

Now, from the blog title, how does Think Feel Know tie into our Education system failing our children ?

A key point around our preferred styles is that each style is equally valuable as a way of both communications and making decisions. Once a board or leadership team knows this for each person on the team, real value can be derived from this.

So why, then, does our Education system focus so much on “Think” ? Further, why do educators so often consciously work against other styles being used and developed ? Do you ever remember a teacher telling you to stop “doodling” ? They may have been told that doodling is aimless and shows the student is not paying attention ? What if they were taught instead to recognise that this may well be a student with a high “Feel” preference unconsciously doodling to actually help themselves focus ?

To see more on this type of thinking around our Education System, we strongly encourage you to watch this talk by Sir Ken Robinson on “Changing Education Paradigms”. This link is not just his talk, though, it is one of the quite brilliant animations… doodles, if you will !.. by RSA Animate.

This will appeal to the “Thinkers” and “Feelers” among you, and the “Knowers” will like the succinct and powerful points Sir Ken makes too !

Enjoy… and please post your comments here or on our Shirlaws Cayman Facebook page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Shirlaws have produced an ebook compiled from the many articles we have written since February 2007. They coincide with the global economic recession and show how businesses can thrive even through such a difficult period.

Although this book refers to economic commentary it is important to note that we never intended to give financial or investment advice. Quite specifically, the book is written to provoke discussion among business owners and managers. For any investment or financial decisions, we suggest consulting a professional financial advisor or accountant.

This book is essentially a journal, compiled over four and a half years, where you can read our take on the recession as it unfolded. Some of you will enjoy reading the journey from February 2007 because each article was written at a specific time in the economic cycle.

Others may prefer to skip the first two-thirds and jump straight to the later 2011-2012 commentary. This focuses on the current situation and makes suggestions for management decision-making discussions.

This book contains the following sections:

• February 2007 – a crash is imminent
• February 2009 – we’ll see a turnaround any day now
• September 2009 – prepare to sustain your business through the recession
• October 2010 – create your growth strategy for the flat phase
• May 2011 – the recovery begins

In this very short video, Rob succinctly explains why every business should have a Shirlaws Business Coach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWc_p4mWVzk

Talk to us about how Shirlaws Business Coaching can help you take things to the next level.

Originally published in The Cayman Islands Journal, Sep 7th, 2011.

Talk to Shirlaws Cayman about how we can help you and your business through the Double Dip.

Today I’m going to start with a pretty nasty black cloud, but I also promise some silver linings.

The cloud first. We are about three years into the deepest recession of our lives. Reported statistics show Cayman has suffered an even more pronounced impact that most other countries.

It has been rough, but we’ll recover soon, right ? Sorry, no. Type the words “Double Dip” into Google now and you get as many news results in the last month from the USA as you did in the whole prior year. As goes the US economy, so goes the good ship Cayman. It seems that, all at once, things are going to get worse still before they get better.

Take a moment. How does it feel to read that ? What does is do to your energy levels ? Even writing it myself, it doesn’t feel great, and it drops my energy.

Business owners and CEOs have a key role in managing both their own energy and that of their business. It has been a major challenge for most to manage that energy and to hold to the vision for their business over the past few years, so the idea that things are going to get worse still before they get better is a tough one to swallow.

As a CEO, how then do you do it ? How do you get through the “Double Dip” ? What’s more, where are those silver linings Tom promised ?

Patience. First, some background. My colleagues at Shirlaws “called” that this would be a “W” shaped recession (hence the “Double Dip”, that second downstroke in the “W”) way back in June 2009. I have no smugness or take any satisfaction in noting this, it is simply to give context to the fact that we at Shirlaws have now had two years working with clients to develop and implement plans to address the “W”. Businesses globally who planned for this are now in better shape to both get through the second “dip” and then make the most of the upswing that will follow.

Did he say upswing ? Ah, silver linings ! Yes, statistically all things will pass, financial markets history tells us that. The second downstroke of the “W” will be followed by a sustained period of growth, that final upstroke of the “W”.

But you said silver linings plural, so there is more good news ? Yes, absolutely. For some time the economy has meandered along in a “flat” stage, with no clear indication of when that would change. Now, as soon as we clearly drop down into the “Double Dip”, history shows that this is a marker that will not be followed by another “flat” economy, but by a period of growth. Businesses can therefore now start to plan for that.

I’m not done with the good news either. Sure, some businesses took a methodical approach to planning for the “W” some time ago, but if you didn’t, you can still reap the benefits when the upswing comes by taking the right actions through the double dip. How do they do that ? I could give numerous pieces of advice for how to invest through the “Double Dip”, but for brevity I will stick with one thought for CEOs.

When the “Double Dip” ends and we enter a sustained “upswing”, what will you be spending your time on ? Will you be able to focus on driving revenue, profit and equity into your business as the economy booms ? Or, instead, will you still be working to remove the inefficiencies from your business that developed through having to retrench and react through this prolonged and painful recession ?

To update what I wrote on this in January this year : “now is the time to focus thoughts, efforts, resources on getting your business ready to capitalise on longer term recovery by “fixing what is broken” and entering the upswing efficient, effective, targeted to your customers needs, and raring to go ! You need your leadership ready when the recovery comes to focus on bringing in new business, not focussing on stripping costs out from inefficiencies and administrative issues. You need your people full of belief in your purpose and having recaptured the energy that the last few years have sucked away.”

There are silver linings in the cloud, grasp the opportunities. Reinvent, or Die.