100 slogans

In these times, it may be in order to share some wisdom of a business leader from the world of crisis learnt the hard way. For 20 years, I have led and advised companies in crisis both as a temporary manager and an external adviser. Certain things tend to be repeated in different situations despite of company and crisis character.

Thesis 1: Crisis management = Attitude + Cash + X

In crises, there are always two things that affect its management: attitude and cash. The starting point is that a manager with an attitude to defeat the crisis who is not afraid to get their hands dirty is needed as well as a cash flow that is sufficient to cover the necessary costs. The crisis has taken over when the manager has given up and the cash flow is gone. Most of the companies in crisis is struggling with these two issues.

Apart from this, 1-2 changing factors are usually needed to help manage the crisis. These may be things connected to sales, such as a new customer, a new market, or a new funding pattern. Crisis management is mentally harsh, which is why X may also consist of factors such as good health, peer support through good networks, hobbies that offer piece of mind, or a good shoulder at home. Very often X is good luck. A good leader needs to have luck as well.

Thesis 2: Crisis is threats, surprising, fast decisions, and changes

A crisis has many names, but its definition consists of four things:

 It is an actual threat that can lead to bankruptcy.

 It is surprising, so it cannot be completely prepared for.

 It requires fast decisions, which is why normal decision-making processes where everyone has a say, do not work. The time to react and correct is limited.

It comes with changes. It is rare to go completely back to normal after a crisis. Something has changed along the way. The cause of the crisis is usually a person, no matter if it is about an economic disadvantage, debt, war, a terror attack, sickness, trade war, or a political transfer. Even nature can impact business with typhoons or volcanic eruptions. The 2010s have been called the decade of crisis and hence, the surprise factor should slowly fade away. Crisis may be general or company-specific, and the sufferer can be an owner, management, staff, a customer, or a subcontractor.

There are no coherent specs of a good leader; all leaders function sometime, but no one functions all the time. Every leader faces a crisis at some stage of their career. In crisis, everyone wants a leader as people want someone who steers them out of the crisis. It has been proven that most employees do not believe in the crisis management skills of their own management. So be a leader, don’t become paralyzed, don’t bury your head in the sand, don’t hide, don’t look for scapegoats for the crisis. You cannot control the crisis, but you can control how you react on it and how you get out of it.

Thesis 4: Crises have two steps: managing the crisis and managing out of the crisis

These two steps require different management. Before the crisis culmination, management is prevention and general preparation for the crisis. Lots of analytical action and know-how to identify, estimate, and understand potential threats. Managing growth is also crisis preparation in its own way. Without this step, reacting to the crisis normally comes too late.

The actions of the first step have a significant impact on the seriousness of the next step. If nothing else, one can at least be prepared by having cash for three months of costs and readiness to fast notify important stakeholders about the crisis. After the culmination, when the crisis is already on, management is more sturdy execution. Generally, people react in three different ways: by minimizing costs, by cutting marketing, and by adapting the staff. These actions are, however, usually signs of bad crisis management and overkills.

Thesis 5: The next crisis is always around the corner

Before, crises used to come every seventh year. By following the stock market, one could predict how the consumption decreases, the investments drop, the industry adapts, and the unemployment rate grows. Nowadays, crises follow each other on a short cycle. Every leader can be assured that the next crisis is soon at the door. Crisis management is hence a norm where one is always prepared. In other words, if a crisis surprises, it is a sign of poor leadership. In an ideal situation, a manager senses and identifies the threat fast and has built the needed infrastructure and process practice for it.

Normal reactions to crisis are panic, fear, and a negative way of thinking. However, how one reacts is a choice. Another way to react to a crisis is a positive attitude that works as efficiency fuel. Bad news only needs to be spread when required, however, without creating panic and by giving hope for the future.

A British saying from the second world war describes how positivity and clear goals can get you through even the worst crisis. Or as Churchill expressed himself:”If you're going through hell, keep going”.

A good crisis manager knows that she or he is observed and that every word and gesture is interpreted. If you let emotions take over, the employees lose their belief in their leader’s ability to steer them out of the crisis. However, sugar-coating it all is not good either as there is no proof of the audience panicking in a crisis.

Thesis 7: A leader makes mistakes in crises

There is no ready-made template for crisis management as each crisis includes something different. A leader faces situations in a crisis where he or she has not been in before. There are not answers to everything. And since there is no data available for all decisions, and no time to gather it, a leader must improvise and take calculated risks. No answer is a hundred percent correct.

Listening to an opponent and considering options is good, but usually there is no time for consensus or internal sales. Be determined, don’t look for decisions that satisfy everyone. A crisis requires continuous decisions, on e decision is not enough. Everyone makes mistakes. When something goes wrong, however, there is no point in grieving over it as there is no room for looking back in a crisis. A strong leader admits his or her mistakes but does not take them personally. Mistakes are part of management.

Thesis 8: Crisis management takes 100 days

Managing a crisis or fundamental change takes 100 days, not less, not more. Of this, 10 days are planning, and 90 days are execution. If you do not have 100 days, management fails. Too often I see situations where management asks for help too late when there is not 100 days left. It is worth making employees and stakeholders understand that a fight cannot be defeated in one day. What kind of competence is then needed the most in crisis management?

. Be fast, but don’t panic. You need to make space for changes and be prepared to change the first reactions. In crises, there is no time for splutter or panicking negotiators. And aftermath is unnecessary.

. Be open and consistent. Do not leave things to the listener and treat the listener like an adult. If you make unpleasant decisions, be straight forward instead of sugar-coating.

. Identify the importance of emotions and use the information in problem solving. In crises, emotions beat reason. It is proven that people want sympathy and understanding from their leader as well as the reassurance that everything will be okay despite the difficult times.

. In crises, there is no room for making friends or being too nice. A crisis requires adjustment and sangfroid. Be prepared to choose which one is more important, the company or a friend.

. Live and operate in the present moment but paint a future. In a crisis, direction is needed, in other words a clear vision and aim to strive for when the crisis is over. Without a future image, people do not have the strength to live through the crisis long.

. Make sure that you entice, engage, and hold on to your key persons. They are the future of the company. It is also good to remember that those who are not laid off usually suffer from bad conscience when their colleagues are laid off.

The starting point is that a leader is lonely in a crisis. Generally, everyone takes care of themselves, especially if the crisis is of general character. Crisis management can be compared to a hamburger. The leader is the steak. The bottom bun is the employees who need to be motivated and at the same time kept at distance in case of laying them off. The upper bun is the board who requires actions from the manager and who keeps its distance as it may anytime lay off the leader.

When pressing the burger hard enough, the pressure from both sides leads to ketchup leaking out, in other words the blood of the manager. Part of the organization wants the manager to succeed and the other part wants him or her to fail, for instance, to keep their own position or in hope of being promoted.

An intermediary ensures their own position and does not takes the risks required in crisis management. And if the crisis leads to failure, a scapegoat is needed which is the manager. No one wants to identify themselves with him or her. And if the crisis leads to a successful outcome, the manager only did his or her job.

A consolation to a crisis is that it usually comes with something good. Accept the crisis and believe that it will bring your company positive changes. In crises, the grain is separated from the chaff. In other words, you see who works and who doesn’t. According to Darwin’s way of thinking, a crisis is an evolution that erases the weakest and gives living space to the ones in good shape. Market overheating is contained.

A crisis comes with changes and learning that promote the growth of the company. After the crisis, you can get back to normal stronger and wiser.

10 theses about crisis management

In the BNI Finland gala, successful business partners were awarded. The gala was arranged at the Tampere-talo 17.1.2020. The Leader of the year 2019 prize went to our butler Patrik Anckar.

Patrik has worked as chairman of the board for BNI Turku Tigers since 2018. Under his lead, the group has become the biggest and best BNI group of the Nordic countries. Patrik wants to thank all tigers for a great growth effort. The Turku Tigers group was also awarded as Finland’s biggest and most effective group: 64 business partners who generate a turnover of around 9 million euros for each other. In Finland, there are 36 BNI groups and 1300 business partners. Globally, BNI has operations in 70 countries and 270 000 business partners. Smartbutlers has been a business partner of BNI Tigers since the group was founded in 2017.

BNI is the world’s largest preference organization in the business world. The members of the BNI groups are business professionals, who help grow each other’s businesses by engaging in the Givers Gain® principle. 

Leader 2019

We are extending our expertise as we recently have welcomed two new Butlers to our team: Mathias and Susanna. Our core competence has always been strategic marketing combined with operative and international marketing. Mathias and Susanna both have a solid marketing education and a background in international operations.

Mathias Kerke, Marketing Coordinator (M.Sc.)

Mathias supports our customers in marketing and international growth projects and runs our digital development projects. Mathias has gained international experience through studies abroad. He has a versatile mix of skills ranging from marketing planning to photographing and graphical design. Mathias is also doing research on new ways of providing b-t-b services. He is a devoted skater, wake-boarder and sailor.

Susanna Lehtojärvi, Marketing Executive (MBA)

Our second new Butler is Susanna, who has a long experience in consumer-oriented, international brand marketing. Susanna works with key customers as an outsourced marketing executive. Her customers represent different industries, so the nature of the tasks varies greatly. However, all projects are built on facts, deep market and client understanding, brand strategy and growth aspiration. Susanna is especially interested in the development of customer experience. Her hobbies include sports, promotion of well-being, family activities, and local politics.

Meet the new Butlers!

Quite typical, many distressed companies turn for help only at the brink of belly-up. At that stage, the means of a turn-around are scarce. However, for a change consultant the old rule of thumb, 100 days, matters. In 100 days you must be able to make a difference.

We recently finished a turn-around. When we arrived at the scene, the discussions of throwing in the towel had already started. The cash flow was highly negative, key people were leaving the ship, the management was next to total burn-out, the focus was gone and so were the business inquiries, and, on top of all, the owners were far from being on the same page. The business as such was healthy, a good product and a good service that could be sold with a decent margin. Nevertheless, a quite recent foreign acquisition at a ludicrous price, combined with a minimal order intake due to a significant decline in the main market, had pulled the rug out from underneath any business rationale. The company suit was not even close to slim fit. The management was reluctant to take the tough decisions of serious down-sizing as it was still hoping for a miraculous business take-off.

The 100 day project was an act of balancing cash flow, reshaping the company and generating orders. The early days were a matter of negotiating with the financers not to pull out the plug, but instead remaining confident that the company can be saved, motivating the staff and the management to hold on at the same time as financial benefits were cut and colleagues had to go, convincing subcontractors to continue deliveries and that payments will be paid once temporary hick-ups stop, and offering incredible deals to existing customers to keep the factory going at break-even levels. Eventually the focus moved to strategic issues like re-branding and re-positioning, that is, blowing new air into an outdated look and focusing all efforts into one business category. It needed to be shown to all parties involved that there is an afterlife, once the short term distress is managed the future starts to look bright. Then internal processes were built from scratch, including sales processes, delivery processes and after sales processes. The sales tool box was introduced, including issues like argumentation, policies, targeting, reporting, CRM, customer charter and sales material. At the end of the project, new business models were initiated, new sales people were recruited, management structures were set and restructuring discussion were initiated with outside parties.

Today the company is doing alright. Work still remains to be done, but the business is on solid ground. The order intake is better than in many years, the new sales management is fully trained and equipped with good sales tools, the geographical scope has changed to more lucrative areas, the financing is secured, numbers are back in the black, and the new visual brand looks fresh and appealing for new customer segments. We pulled out after 85 days and feel happy to say that another turn-around was concluded. Experienced outsiders can help, assuming they get a real mandate to initiate and manage change.

100 days

A brand is a promise. A good brand is a unique promise. And an excellent brand is a unique promise that can be proven. That is our branding work shortly. And when creating a smart slogan for the brand, a customer promise, it works. Our slogan factory does not create empty verbiage or funny trickery. Every slogan needs to be credible, substantive and differentiated. When the promise can be proven, trust is born. Sustainable stories are not made fast or easily, they are the result of deep analysis and sharp conceptualization. Come visit our factory and we will tell you more.

Our slogan factory in a nutshell

If the answer is yes, you are in the right hands. Shortly: we help companies to set growth targets and consequent action plans. We also take part in the implementation when needed. We are ELY:s (Centre of Economic Development) agreement service provider, which means we can also help you apply for company development services to support your growth. Contact us, and we will take action. We will also tell you the longer version of what the service actually includes.

Do you want to grow?

Strategy has traditionally been connected to warfare and strategic work has often quoted famous war lords. In a similar way, strategy could be compared to movies and quotes could be taken from theater experts. Both in movies/plays and strategy, the storyline is the alpha and omega of everything. The storyline, or the plot, steers the course of the story. Based on the storyline, a causal series of actions or events is built, which then strengthens and mitigates the storytelling.

Reality is an amorphous chaos without a storyline. Already Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, pictured how a good storyline should be built. Coincidence will get an order, when a plot has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The events of the plot should causally relate to one another as being either necessary or probable. The story around the plot should be continuous, consistent and it should include an element of change. Gustav Freytag, the German writer, was on the same page as he considered plot a narrative structure dividing a story into five parts, like the five acts of a play. The parts he advocated were exposition of the situation, rising action through conflict, climax or turning point, falling action and resolution. This is very familiar stuff from a Hollywood perspective.

Hence, the storyline is key in movies, if we exclude adult movies. If a strategy without a storyline compares to cheap adult entertainment, then a plotful strategy has the potential to lead to more sustainable and romantic interaction.

The beginning is the, not always so rosy, starting point that the strategy is about to change or improve. In the beginning, strategic analyses are used to build a facts based framework for answering the questions where to go and how to get there. The middle is about implementation, how the strategic actions are taken and how the staff is embarking on the journey. The end is the vision coming true, that is, the organization reaching its destination. The storyline ties the beginning, the middle and the end to a meaningful whole.

The exposition can, for instance, describe the changes in the operational environment and the consequent challenges. One has to change. The rising action shows how the situation is taken into control with strategic action and how the process is going forward. The climax is the strategic vision and its depiction by a slogan and a visual reference. The turning point comes when a challenge or complication is solved, the story is understood and an inspirational change is induced. The falling point is the implementation of the strategy with all the target setting, follow-up, control, empowerment and communication. The resolution is the visible change that the story leads to, that is, the commercial realization of the planned storyline.

In other words, the strategist creates a manuscript, which storyline is based on demand (what sells) and differentiation from the mass. The manuscript takes into account that the plot, the structure of the story, and the storytelling are inseparable, they have to reflect each other. The storyline is at its best when it is verbally and visually simple. The leader directs according to the manuscript, casts the story with the right people, sets the actions in the right place and time, and makes sure that the story is told in a compelling and understandable manner. Every story would be different, if its plot, cast, and actions would be placed in another organization or time. At the premiere or opening the play is introduced to the staff and other stake holders. Both strategists and movie makers know they have succeeded if they receive a standing ovation. That could entail the birth of a block buster.

Instead of using war spectacles and thinking of how to guard positions or crush competition, the strategist could take the director’s seat and ponder what kind of story sells and what kind of story the audience (customers and employees) can identify with. If nothing else, even a good war movie needs a plot. This blog was intended to describe how we work and why we invest in our customers’ storylines. Please be in touch and we will together tailor good plays for your audience.

Strategy storyline or amorphous chaos?

During my years as the chief executive, I realized that the CEO or MD is like a hamburger beef. He or she is an important part of the entity, but is constantly squeezed from two directions. The bottom bun reflects the organization, that is, the executive’s subordinates, who put their own pressure on their boss. The top bun represents the board, which, in turn, expects repeated success. When you squeeze a hamburger a little bit harder, the ketchup will burst out. The executive’s job may not be bloody, but it sure can be lonely.

An American study showed that 72% of executives felt the loneliness in decision-making and execution impacted negatively on their work. The executive is all the time dealing with people and living in a social turmoil. Most of the interaction is nevertheless superficial and part of daily operations. When he or she confronts major decisions, or wants more spiritual discussions about self-development, the situation is different. You cannot be close friends with your subordinates and you cannot show them too much indecisiveness. They want a strong leader who knows what to do. Neither can you open up in front of the board, as it may lead the board members to question your competence. A report from the Confederation of the Finnish Industry shows that the boards of small and medium-sized enterprises often leave their managing director alone in decision-making.

From the curriculum of the school of hard knocks; leaders and executive should get themselves a mentor. There is always a need to ventilate thoughts and feelings. The mentor is an external person with whom you can discuss in full confidence. Leadership coaches are often supportive in a general sense, but not necessarily experts in your field of business. Consultants again give advice on issues on a projects basis, and hence serve as advisors on specific operational decisions. Leadership training courses and industrial networks will acquaint you with peers facing similar challenges. The outcome of these gatherings is rather a comfort of not being alone with your concerns, than a concrete and continuing help in decision-making.

My best advice is to find someone that has been an operative executive and who appreciates the hamburger analogy. As the person has been in the same pickle, he or she can better relate to your situation and better delve into your challenges and opportunities. Mentoring is about people chemistry and should not be just another assignment for the mentor. Hence, you may have to evaluate and test a few candidates before you find the right one for your purposes.

Actually, the boards should insist that their chief executives have a personal mentor, who´s costs are borne by the company. Executives are also humans that need support to feel that they contribute positively and to a maximum to the success of their company.

Lonely at the top

It has been said that up to 90% of strategies fail. Sounds harsh, indeed. But even if the claim may be provocative, there is reason to ask why so many strategies go wrong. Tons of explanations have been served, below are some statistics that I believe shed light on why. The stats have come my way during the last few years, and unfortunately my archives do not give proper credit to all my sources.

My own studies of Finnish companies reveal that about 50% of them create strategies with at least some kind of documentation. The reasons the other half does not do strategy may be that (a) strategy is not considered essential, (b) there is no time to work on strategy as daily fire fighting gets priority, (c) the short term objective is to survive, or (d) management lacks strategic skills. Nevertheless, studies show that successful companies have realized the importance of strategic planning. These companies use a good amount of mental resources and time to create strategies and to execute them.

Despite this, 85% of business leaders spend less than an hour per month on strategy. With that kind of commitment it is difficult to expect strategic output of quality, not to mention strategic implementation. About 80% of business leaders consider strategic implementation their biggest challenge. The implementation suffers from the facts that (a) if there is a corporate incentive scheme, 75% of the implementing managers lack strategy related incentives, and (b) 60% of the companies doing strategy do not link it to annual budgets.

Strategy has a meaning only when it is understood by the whole organization. Hence, all strategies include an element of implementation. However, whereas 50% of leaders say that their strategies are implemented only 10% of the personnel think that strategies are implemented. And typically, around 5% of the staff reports that they understand the strategy of their company. In light of this, it can be asked whether the reason is bad strategy or bad leadership.

If about half of the companies are doing strategies, some of them are strategies just for the sake of it. A report from Market Vision stated that 72% of strategic decisions are based on gut feel. In other words, decisions and directions less often rely on facts and a thorough understanding of the market environment. In my own strategic work, I have often noticed on how shaky grounds strategies are. Quite often the basics of any business are highlighted as strategic pillars. For instance, 75% of companies mention customer service as a critical strategic element and correspondingly 70% mention customer satisfaction as their main value. Differentiation and competitive advantage require more than clichés, hence, strategic planning should get a higher status.

Conversely, if 50% of companies do not create any kind of systematic strategy, if 15% of leaders invest in strategy work, if 28% of leaders gather data for strategic decisions, if 20% of leaders believe they have the skills to implement strategy, if 25% of leaders provide their key personnel with strategic incentives, and if 40% of leader link their strategy to annual budgets, then, suddenly the failure rate mentioned in the beginning does not sound so incredible anymore. That said, boldly into the wonderful world of strategizing, just a little statistical margin of error and the strategy may actually work.

Butler's blog