I recently dined at a ‘west coast fish house’ in San Francisco called Anchor & Hope. It’s in a renovated turn of the century artist’s warehouse. The food and ambiance were terrific, but the name of the place is what keeps me remembering it.

The name, Anchor & Hope, seems to be a really good metaphor for what we often spotlight in this blog – the challenge of breaking free from the weight of the past in order to pursue the possibility of a more valuable future.

If we were truly honest with ourselves, many of us would admit that we’re bogged down by the security of the past. It’s no one’s fault, really. Human nature relies on a cyclical, continuous system to stay alive. It’s called Life. We survive on patterns, repetitions, and consistency.  As the saying goes we are creatures of habit. Is it surprising, then, that some organizations are stuck in their ways?

We take comfort in the way things are – even the way things have been. The past and present are familiar on multiple dimensions. You know what was involved. You know how you felt. You even know the impact of your actions. Anything beyond that, by definition, is unknown.

Most people don’t do well with the unknown. Nor do they jump into situations that are ambiguous and fuzzy. That’s why it’s so difficult to enroll people in change platforms.  We are innately opposed to doing something different.

Then why do some people and certain organizations risk the comfort and reward of the past and present for the possibility of a better tomorrow?

1. Darwin said only the fittest survive. Put another way, someone will always step up to do whatever it takes to win. That’s drive.
2. Some people simply desire more. And they are willing to risk everything to take them to a place they believe is better. That’s ambition.
3. Whether by intent or accident someone will disrupt what’s known with an innovative solution to a big problem. That’s curiosity.

To break the grip of inertia, we need leaders who are unafraid of the dark. We need leaders who are comfortable with ambiguity. We need leaders who can paint a powerful picture of what’s possible. We need leaders who can articulate a compelling case for the journey there.  We need clear, tangible tools to guide us forward. And we need constant reminders of our progress.

Sustainable change will not happen without proper leadership and fortitude.  Give people a compelling reason to believe. Show them where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. Make it emotional, not just rational. Reinforce the message every chance you can. And transparently highlight your progress.

Do this, and you will release the anchor that’s holding you back. Give people hope and they will move mountains.

What is your anchor? What is holding you or your organization back?

What is your hope? What do you really wish for?

The sooner you focus on shedding what’s holding you back, the sooner you can start realizing the potential of what you hope for. Otherwise, your hope will remain anchored in the past.

Thomas Butta

Some might see the notion of belief as the non-strategic, softer side of business. That couldn’t be more wrong. Belief is the essential ingredient for winning. Look at these three common scenarios. See how belief made the difference.

1. The small-to-medium size organization with high growth potential
2. The large size organization that has lost its way
3. The start-up challenging conventional notions

The Small-to-Medium Size Organization with High Growth Potential  

This type of organization has enlisted early adopters. But getting to a scalable customer base is the next challenge. One proven way to achieve scale is to elevate your value proposition to a category level by creating a new category or market space. What underpins category creation is belief – belief in a new, more valuable way. Belief starts inside an organization then spreads to influencers like analysts and the media, before reaching a broad customer base.

Red Hat, the open source company, is a classic example. Red Hat built an early loyal following of zealots who believed in the open source way. While their passion and belief were powerful, the company was a long way from being seen as a legitimate alternative to traditional proprietary software as represented by Microsoft and Sun. Once Red Hat built the compelling case for why open source technologies were more effective, less expensive, and easier to manage it created a powerful belief system inside the IT departments that used to see open source as risky. That’s when Red Hat began to scale.

The Large Size Organization that Has Lost Its Way

This type of organization already has a large customer base, but newer entrants are rapidly chipping away at its position with smarter, easier, and less painful solutions. How does this organization overturn its slippery slide to irrelevance? It rises above the fray by articulating a compelling point of view about new ways for the industry to create and capture higher levels of value. It backs up its POV with substance only achievable from an organization with a deep history and understanding of the industry.

PTC, the product development company, is the poster child for achieving transformation in the face of a steep challenge. PTC had a deep but dissatisfied customer base when its offerings became a bit cumbersome, dated, and expensive relative to newer, cheaper and friendlier alternatives. PTC successfully revitalized itself by positioning the entire product development industry to one that mattered more than other IT investments in ERP, SCM and CRM. In so doing PTC assumed the industry thought leadership role by creating the rallying cry for the industry – Product First – then delineating The Way to Product First, a roadmap to creating and capturing value. PTC also committed itself to improving customer service while remodeling its offerings off the very value creation framework it espoused to the industry.

The Start-Up Challenging Conventional Notions

This type of organization usually has a breakthrough idea and the passion to prove it. The new idea challenges conventional methods and established players. It’s a compelling alternative with lots of potential, but it has yet to build a loyal following. How does this start-up attract early adopters so they will believe enough to spread the word? It does so by tapping into the frustrations and desires that people feel, then delivering a solution that people can emotionally get excited about.

Smigin is a start-up in an industry – language learning – that has long frustrated people. Being able to have a simple conversation in a café or bar in a foreign country is something most everyone aspires to. Yet most are frustrated by their ability to do so. It’s not for lack of trying. Most people have either studied a language in school or invested in at least one of the many self-taught, language-learning products out there. Smigin believes learning a language doesn’t have to be that hard. It has developed an alternative solution that is fun, engaging, and effective. Its beta product has made believers out of the hundreds who’ve tested it. Why? The pass along rate was far greater than the size of the original test panel. Smigin launches in October.

Ya gotta believe if you want to break through.

June 19. San Francisco. Atelier Laurent Studio.

It was a gathering of contrarians, a few hundred radicals hand-selected to come together to mash it up inside an inspiring art studio. These weren’t painters or sculptors. These were protagonists in the business world, protestors of the status quo – demonstrators, if you will, of a better way to build and run organizations. This was a gathering of change agents who drive new agendas all over the world – in big organizations and small, established ones and newbie’s. This event was called the MIX Mashup. Its stories can be found here.

As you’ve read many times before, I’m a believer in – and practitioner of – the power of transformation.  Done well it has the ability to rise above the noise, stand out amidst the clutter, and drive market growth while accelerating through opportunities that enable higher levels of sustainable value. A transformation agenda does this by providing the belief system and operating framework that aligns an organization around one agenda, integrates product, sales and marketing around one point of view, and speeds decisions and action around one overarching objective. Attending the MIX Mashup was as comfortable as a homecoming for me.

Author Gary Hamel, co-founder of MIX and co-host of the event, urged the audience to “be more aspirational”, to “be more angry”. He urged attendees to define thoughts and actions based on what you want versus what you’ve been.  He’s right, of course. Just look at what budget planning looks like at most organizations. It’s a derivative of last year’s plan and last year’s results.

What is in the way of a better, more meaningful future?

Without being too obtuse, the Nobel Prize winning author, William Faulkner, who wrote of life in the segregated southern part of America, captured it well. The south was mired in a case of what Faulkner called, “Was. Is.”, meaning the south was stuck because its past was always present. “Was. Is.” Is that why so many organizations are going nowhere fast? Is that why so many can’t align around a future-focused agenda? Is ‘the gravitational pull of the past’, to quote a lovely turn of phrase by Geoffrey Moore the drag on what can be? I firmly believe it is. “Was. Is.” should be more like, ‘Was isn’t relevant any more’.

How can you think and act differently?

Be like a challenger brand. Take nothing for granted. Challenge conventional wisdom. Challenge the status quo. Start with the end in mind. Figure out what you want then handle things that are in the way. Challenge the dominance of the Big Dogs and their grip on how things are. Challenge the primal forces that conspire to keep things comfortable and tidy and as it’s always been.

How do you inspire others to be help power transformation?

I have my phrases. Gary Hamel, Geoffrey Moore, and others have theirs. But the best rallying cry of all just might be a bumper sticker I saw one day. It certainly works in this context.

For me 1WTC is less about what it is — a building — than what it stands for — the commitment to building something bigger, better and bolder. Think about it.

• A building is static. The act of building is active.
• A building is about what is. Building is about what can be.
• A building is the embodiment of how things were. Building is about forward progress and reaching higher.

Why is the notion of building so important — especially now? Because doing the opposite — not building — is a path to nowhere. Why?

• Consider the speed at which everything is changing.
• Consider how innovation lifecycles are shorter and shorter.
• Consider our easy access to just about anyone and any market.
• Consider the thousands of entrepreneurs and billions of investment currency committed to challenging conventional wisdom and current market leaders.

Taking pleasure from past success may be comforting, but it’s delusional. Continuing to operate in the same manner and style as how it’s always been may feel familiar, but it’s an insular trap. A new workout routine ceases to produce new results after six weeks. Budgeting off of past year models is an inside-out view that doesn’t reflect what’s going on in the market. Managing off of organizational practices built for productivity and efficiency will not produce the innovation and breakthroughs needed to prevail in a highly dynamic and fiercely competitive economy.

Contemporary thought leaders are actively promoting the need to think and act in this manner. Take Gary Hamel, who was ranked #1 most influential business thinker in the world by the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, What Matters Most, is about “how to win in a world of relentless change, ferocious competition, and unstoppable innovation.” You should also check out The Management Innovation Exchange. It’s “an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21^st Century.”

You have a choice. Remain as you are. And stay how you’ve been. Or courageously commit to aggressively building a bigger, better and bolder future for yourself and your organization. 1WTC may have eclipsed the Empire State Building as the tallest building in New York City, but it is committed to building the tallest building in the Western hemisphere and third largest in the world. Now that’s ambition.

The question is: Are you a building? Or are you building for a better future?

Thomas Butta

Source: Marketo Releases RPM for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

What is your experience with transformation? What do you think of transformation? What exactly is transformation? My research tells me that transformation means different things to different people in different roles.

For some of you, perhaps in functional positions, transformation is consultant speak for change that is often uncomfortable. You know this kind of change. It’s strategically unclear, politically charged, and haphazard in execution. Good luck with that.

For others in non-management roles, transformation is one of the words ‘management’ hides behind when driving down costs and/or driving up profits. You’ve seen this, too. “As part of our efforts to transform (insert company name) into a more competitive entity, it is necessary to immediately cut non-essential operating costs and reduce redundancy in our work force.” Right.

For others in executive management, transformation is seen as the way to break through the status quo with a powerful strategic agenda focused on achieving an organization’s fullest potential. This is the camp I fall into. This is where sustainable value and momentum get created.

Transformation is a radical departure from the ‘same old, same old’ ways of the past with a smart, powerful, and aggressive way forward. This kind of transformation positions an organization as vital to the interests of its top customers. It powers through what held it back by mobilizing and activating a belief system that creates a wave of palpable momentum that displaces the drag of inertia.

This is the kind of transformation I believe in and practice. It works best when it’s a CEO-led agenda that requires the alignment of the entire organization, especially the cornerstone units of product, sales, and marketing. [Read Align for Success]

Where has transformation made all the difference? Where has transformation worked? I can talk about three for whom I had direct influence — Red Hat, PTC, and Platform Computing. What’s interesting is each transformation started from a very different place. I was CMO at both Red Hat and PTC; and I worked with Platform through 21 Weeks.

• Red Hat. Red Hat was a media darling with a huge perceived potential, but in reality it was a small, low margin business. Despite a record-breaking IPO and follow-on offering, Red Hat lost a lot of money on only $8 million in revenue in 1999. That’s when Red Hat’s executive team began an aggressive transformation agenda that forever shifted the company from an interesting, developer-centric Linux operating system company to the enterprise leader of the more significant open source software movement. Red Hat passed the $1 billion revenue mark this past year.

• PTC was a very large and successful company that achieved $1 billion in revenue in only 12 years, but by 2001 it significantly lost its way and starting sinking fast on all levels. PTC’s Board of Directors instituted an aggressive transformation agenda in late 2001 that helped reshape this formerly great end-user applications software company to become the clear leader of the higher value, enterprise space of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). It began its transformation during the very difficult economic times following 9/11. Today it’s the clear leader of PLM, and the second largest independent software company in the world. [Read Noise]

• Platform Computing was a profitable $75 million leader of high performance computing, but its Founder/CEO had the confidence that it could play with the big boys in the much bigger and much noisier market of cloud computing. In 2009, Platform put in place a CEO-led transformation agenda intended to shift from being the comfortable leader of a niche market space to becoming the leading provider of private cloud management software. In less than two years, Platform grew at double-digit rates, won kudos for its new cloud products, and attracted the interests of major industry players like IBM, which acquired Platform in late 2011. [Read IBM Acquires Platform Computing. Whatever.]

There are many examples of successful transformations. Apple is clearly one. Ford is another. I have insights into some cool transformative work being done by challengers in hot categories like IT Automation, Big Data, and Video, but that’s another post.

What is your experience with transformation? What stories can you share?

Thomas Butta

The act of going from where you are to a higher, more valuable level is often expressed in a number of funny ways: Breaking through. Getting to a new level. Making big strides. But, the one I like best is taking a leap.

Taking a leap captures the emotion in doing something dramatically different. It’s exhilarating, but it’s also a bit scary.

To make a bold move you have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to get beyond the status quo. Which means you have to get off the current path even if that path has attractive upswings.

Most organizations operate off of an ‘S’ curve, which has soft highs and lows. The idea is to have higher highs than low lows. But, taking a leap, requires you to leap to a whole new S curve.

In honor of today, I urge all of you dissatisfied with the status quo or frustrated with slow and steady to take a leap. It may be scary, but it’s the only way to transform your organization and yourself.

Thomas Butta

Much is written about value. Even more is said about it. Value just might be the most overused word in business today.

At the organization level, we hear about customer value, shareholder value, and enterprise value. At the department level, Product Management wants its products to be perceived as good value not high cost. Sales wants to sell from value rather than feature/functions. And, Marketing is measured on the value of leads and brand equity.

Even support departments like Finance, IT and HR strive for value. Finance wants positive returns of value for capital deployed. IT must demonstrate value to its business unit customers. And, HR strives for a culture that recognizes the value of individuals.

If value is so important, why is there a dearth of proven ways to create and capture value in a given market space? A clear path to value would seem to be critical at a time when competitive differentiation is short-lived and the rate of change has accelerated.

My experience shows there is little content out there to help an enterprise know how to truly identify and realize top and/or bottom line value in their market. Which is enormously frustrating to client-side executives looking for clarity amidst the noise created by multitudes of companies touting their particular solution sets.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be shown the way to value rather than sold solutions? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a roadmap from a trusted advisor to guide your way to value — especially in a market that’s undergoing rapid change? You bet it would.

So what is there to do? Rise above the noise. Stop selling your stuff, and start making sense of the madness. Become a thought leader for your industry. Develop a value roadmap that shows the way to create and capture value in your market space. It works. I’ve helped architect a number of value roadmaps for companies in emerging or changing industries like PLM (product lifecycle management), Customer Experience Management, Digital Media, and Scientific R&D, among others.

What does a value roadmap look like? It’s a map that shows discrete routes to value along with specific advice on capabilities needed to capitalize on the journey. On the one hand you delineate the opportunities to create value. On the other you provide advice on the people, process, and technology needed to capture value. Simply put, a value roadmap shows where to go, how to go, and what’s needed to maximize value.

A road to value is organized by the following connected route and competencies:

More specifically, a value roadmap is comprised in the following ways:

–  Two measures of value. One is growth. The other is cost savings

–  Seven or eight discrete value opportunities. These are proven opportunities to create either top line growth or bottom line cost savings. One or two of the value opportunities might create both top and bottom line value

–  Two to four executing strategies for each value opportunity. These are the strategic imperatives that bring the value opportunities to life

–  Four to six business initiatives aligned to each strategy. These are the activities taking place deep inside an organization. Business initiatives are typically where most conversations start

–  Three sets of competencies in the form of people skills, process/workflow, and technology infrastructure needed to fully realize each value opportunity

Beyond the structure, it’s critical to know what a value roadmap is and isn’t.

A value roadmap is an overarching view of an industry for the benefit of everyone in that industry. As such, it is imperative to present a complete view of the capabilities and credentials needed.

A value roadmap is not a subset of just what your organization might be able to provide when it comes to knowledge transfer, process support or technology. The capabilities needed to fully leverage each value opportunity must be all encompassing.

Again, a value roadmap is an industry-leading effort. It is thought leadership at its best. And, unlike most thought leadership, a value roadmap is highly functional because it is actionable and real.

A value roadmap has clear and immediate benefits to any company operating in your market space. But, it also represents a significant opportunity for the company that publishes it and leverages it. Look for more on that in my next post, The Road to Value, part 2.

Note: If you like this post, you might want to check out another of my posts called Noise. It’s an example of how a value roadmap shifted an entire industry and helped position the company that brought it to market as that industry’s leader.

Thomas Butta

Do you ever wonder about motivation?

Now  is certainly the time of year when many of us reflect on where where we’ve been and where we’re going.  Reflection is good, after all. But, do you ever consider why you’re motivated to do certain things? Do you wonder what’s driving you?

When I look at my friends I see a group of highly motivated people.  Some are starting something new — most with nothing more than the desire to bring an idea to life. Others are working in established organizations — usually stimulated by what remains possible despite good success under their belts. Others are on a personal journey — off the grid to explore what’s in front of them for no other reason than the belief that something valuable will emerge if they pay close enough attention.

While we are all motivated to do or be something that’s personally valuable, we are also likely to be stimulated in different ways and for different reasons. It could be the need to be accepted or to prove someone wrong. It could be about expectations or fear. It could be blind ambition or fundamental survival. Regardless, we can be motivated by anything.

Do you know why you’re motivated to do certain things? Does it enter your mind when you take on an assignment, embark on a new project, or simply go forward? Do you think about it or does it just happen?

I wonder about motivation. Do you?

Thomas Butta

Writers Note: This post is about what’s possible for those of you facing an opportunity to accelerate your organization to a higher level of value. It showcases a company that had the courage to challenge the status quo and heavy-duty competition. The story is longer than normal, but it’s a compelling case study that needs room to unfold.

Did you catch the news of IBM’s latest software acquisition a few weeks ago? Business as usual for Big Blue? Certainly. But, who and what is Platform Computing? Click here to find out.

We had the same questions in late 2009 when 21 Weeks was retained by Platform Computing, Inc. to help position and package Platform as a credible enterprise software player in cloud and big data against behemoths like IBM, HP, EMC and VMware.

For 17 years, Platform Computing was a well-respected leader in the niche field of high-performance computing (also known as technical computing). Its clients were companies who relied on large, mission-critical applications, like models used in financial services, discrete manufacturing, and oil & gas. Platform not only helped such companies maximize application run time, but Platform helped them optimize infrastructure costs as well. Before cloud, such infrastructure configurations were known as clusters or grids.

Platform was successful because its software had at its core a highly intelligent algorithm that optimized the balance between effectiveness and efficiency, run-time and cost, performance and capacity. The smart algorithm enabled Platform to achieve levels of optimization that far exceed other software companies. And because Platform’s open architecture worked equally well on any operating system or infrastructure configuration,  it helped its clients avoid vendor lock-in, the unspoken cost of doing business with the dominant players.

That was all well and good, but Platform’s year-over-year growth slowed considerably by 2009 as its niche market of high performance computing matured. So, Platform plotted its  move to the much larger and faster-growing enterprise software markets for cloud and big data. Platform’s expertise and experience were a good fit, and the markets provided the opportunity for geometric growth.

That was the plan, but the move came with significant risk. Platform would be expanding outside its big fish/small pond comfort zone to arguably the hottest segments of enterprise computing — markets dominated by iconic brands and enormous companies with marketing departments larger than the whole of Platform.

How did Platform transform from a relatively unknown company to become a credible player in the enterprise software markets for cloud and big data?

How did Platform achieve year-over-year double-digit growth?

How did this niche company from Toronto become important enough to be acquired by IBM, one of the most powerful companies in the world?

It did so in two ways:

1. Platform made the smart decision not to focus on the broad-based cloud market, but rather on the emerging space of private cloud favored by enterprises running large, mission-critical applications. Not only did this space closely resemble Platform’s roots in high-performance computing, but it was an area that was still forming. The same held true for big data. Focus gave Platform the the chance to compete.
2. Platform embraced a classic challenger brand stance. It established a compelling positioning platform around a provocative point of view. To Platform cloud — and whatever they call that which inevitably comes after cloud (like big data) — is simply an iteration of what came before cloud, like clusters and grids. To Platform the fundamentals of managing applications in cloud and big data computing environments are the same as running applications in clusters or grids environments. It all comes down to optimizing an application’s run time and minimizing infrastructure costs. Nowhere was this more true than in the emerging areas of private cloud and big data where critical applications and big enterprises played.

A simple, but bold refrain became Platform’s provocative point of view, positioning platform, and rallying cry: Clusters, Grids, Clouds, Whatever.

Everything flowed from that compelling, challenger positioning platform:

• The opportunity for growth

— The move beyond technical IT to corporate IT brought with it the chance for double-digit growth versus single-digit growth in the maturing technical IT market

• The acquisition of talent with enterprise computing and market formation experience

— New talent was enticed and secured for  product management and marketing, sales, business development, and corporate marketing

• Clarity of market sector

— Cloud had correlation to Platform’s roots, but private cloud had highly credible      relevance and no clear market leader. The same was true with big data. Focus increased Platform’s odds of success.

• Internal alignment

— The positioning platform provided a clear framework for internal decisions and    actions: Product development (best performing software for clusters, grids, cloud and whatever came next like big data); sales (cross-sell existing relationships with technical IT to get to corporate IT; attract new, enterprise customers); marketing (win over analyst and media influencers; drive awareness, interest & adoption)

• Brand Identity

— A change in identity is an effective way to get people to look at you in a fresh, new way. Platform’s new identity not only demonstrated exactly what it did, but it did so in a memorable way thereby achieving two strategic goals with one effort

• Messaging

— Platform lived the role of the challenger brand by being provocative and embracing bold in speeches, booth displays, advertising, webinars, its website, etc.

• Analyst  Relations

— Industry analysts are critical influencers to buyers, which is why Platform set out to become the advocate for private cloud, for example

• Recognition

— Leaders need to be recognized as leaders so Platform worked important industry and trade media to win and promote Platform’s technical credibility and prowess

• Thought Leadership

— Emerging markets are often led by the company that owns the customer problem so a series of Point-of-View booklets were created and marketed

• Sales Training

— Selling into the enterprise is where the best software selling machines operate. Platform needed a new kind of sales executive and a different mode of selling — from  feature/function focused to one that was value-oriented

• Partnerships

— Rarely does a company achieve rapid growth in a new market sector on its own. Hand to hand combat (i.e., selling to one prospect at a time) doesn’t scale. Finding one-to-many distribution opportunities is an effective match to direct sales

In two years, Platform achieved what it set out to do. It grew at double digit rates. It attracted new talent. It won over new important enterprise relationships. It generated credibility with customers, analysts and the media for its newest products.  It got noticed.

Could Platform have made it big if it continued on an independent path? It’s hard to say. But, Platform certainly transformed itself from a niche market, technical computing expert into a credible player in the hottest categories in enterprise computing today — important enough that IBM wanted to buy the company.

Platform’s Founder and CEO, Songnian Zou, summed it up this way in his post-acquisition blog. “Platform Computing as a standalone company may come to an end, but the journey continues to clusters, grids, clouds or whatever comes next.”

Will you be ready when you have that rare opportunity to transform your organization into a more valuable entity?  Will you be ready? Or will your attitude be one of … “whatever”?