From Brangelina to Brexit, combining two words can help simplify and amplify your message. E.g. “Were you for or against Brexit?”

Marketers do it too. But a word of caution, if you create a new word, be careful to fully vet it. Many “new” words already exist in the Urban Dictionary with unexpected definitions.

A couple of years ago, I created a digital ad campaign for a bank using new words I created to reinforce the bank’s key benefits. E.g. “Quelpful” was created by combining “quick” + “helpful”. Click here to see more examples.

But searches revealed that some words like “smokal” (small + local) already existed. “Smokal” I discovered, meant “smoke local” in certain parts of Colorado to urge customers to buy their legal pot from local vendors.

Another word I created, “quimble” (quick + nimble) has several interesting meanings in the Urban Dictionary. None of which I dare to elaborate on here. Click here to see “quimble” definitions.

But of course, the best ones are funny. To see more like BEERBOARDING and the examples below, visit: deMilked

CHIPTEASE – when you buy a bag of potato chips thinking it will be full, but turns out it’s mostly air.

DESTINESIA – when you get to the basement and forget why you were going there.

TEXTPECTATION – the anticipation felt when waiting for a response to a text.

CELLFISH – someone who continues talking on their phone so as to be rude or inconsiderate of other people.

NONVERSATION – a completely worthless conversation; small talk.

Using newly created words can be fresh and impactful in your marketing messages. Just be sure to “vetinize” (vet and scrutinize) them.

“These are the little secrets they don’t teach in school or tell you about when you’re working in a large corporation.” – Robert Hawthorne

Part III: Advanced Management Techniques

As you move up to the more senior level of management (Director, VP, General Manager, President, CEO) you will need to acquire new skills. Here are some that you won’t find in business school.

It’s All About Trust

I believe TRUST is the key characteristic of outstanding leaders. You do not have to be a ‘Rock Star’ to be a great leader. Many great leaders are the opposite of the Rock Star prototype. Jim Collins author of Good to Great spent time with many senior management teams while writing his book. Here’s what he said about the leaders of the best managed companies in the country.

‘We were surprised to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities the good-to great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy—-these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are a lot more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.’

 What is TRUST? Simply put, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust – distrust—is suspicion. When you trust people, you have confidence in them. When you distrust people, you are suspicious of them—of their integrity, their agenda, and their capabilities. It’s that simple. We have all had experiences that validate the difference between relationships built on trust and those that are not. These experiences clearly tell us the difference is not small; it is dramatic.

We can all recall relationships with personal friends that are effortless. Communication is easy and quick. Debates are not arguments as you always consider your friends point of view as valid. You automatically trust each other; there is no stress. What would it be like if your business environment was like this? Wouldn’t it be easier to get things done?

During my first months as President of Pillsbury I discovered that we were offering larger trade spending packages to some customers and smaller ones to others. The sales organization offered several reasons why this as legal but I felt we should treat all customers equally and insisted that we change our approach and we did. I had several uncomfortable meetings with the customers who had been ‘overpaid’ over the last few years and were now being cut back. Some threatened to remove our brands from their shelves as punishment. I didn’t budge and they eventually backed down. As time went on, many people in the sales department thanked me for standing firm on this principle. They had all been uncomfortable when customers asked if they we receiving the same promotional package as other retailers. Standing firm on a principle is a good way to build trust. This is true in business and equally true in personal relationships.

Management Style

Throughout my career I have observed a style of management I could describe as…’Let’s hold their feet to the fire’ … (so we can get them to really perform!) We’ve all encountered people and organizations who use ‘fear, intimidation and coercion’ to get things done. The crazy thing is this style can work. It’s easy to implement and based on the idea … ‘I’m in charge and you’re not’! I believe 75% of organizations use some form of this way of working.

There is another far more powerful style that I would encourage you to consider. I like to call it ‘Team Based management’. It centers on the simple notion that openness, honesty and integrity coupled with an environment of trust allows everyone to perform at their absolute best. This only works if the management at the top (particularly the leader) believe in and insist on these principles (perhaps this is why I don’t see this style being used as much).

Furthermore, the very best leaders operate with a set of principles that they openly share with everyone in their organization. With day-to-day actions they continually answer the question…’what do I stand for as your leader?’ Great leaders have clear principles and live by them.

My principles were Openness, Honesty and Integrity. Communicating this way helped alleviate organizational fear while building an atmosphere of trust. Decide on your own principles and live them. When I first arrived at Pillsbury and spoke to all the employees and promised…’I will never tell you a lie…I will always tell you the truth’. Ironically this was a far bigger deal than I first realized. When I left Pillsbury many people came up to me and commented on my forthright honesty and how important this was to them. People respect consistency. People want their leaders to be good people who are honest, open and behave with integrity.

This little section is very important and I’d encourage you to read Stephen Covey’s book ‘Principle Centered Leadership’…it is outstanding.

Rope Theory

During my time as a CEO I often had as many as ten direct reports and found it difficult to devote time to them all. It was clear that some people required more attention than others. The more experienced and higher performing managers were usually fine on their own and came forward whenever a problem surfaced. I put this group on a long leash (rope) and told them why. This meant they would not meet as regularly with me and they were thrilled to have more elbow room.

The less experienced managers would be on short ropes (in some cases it was about 2 inches long!). I met with them regularly to ensure that we were on track. In each case, I explained why we needed to meet regularly and how I intended to support them as they worked through their issues. This simple concept of ‘Rope Theory’ helped me to manage many direct reports throughout my career. If you are managing a lot of people think about some on long ropes and others on short ones.

The 6,000 Mile Check-up

The purpose of the 6,000 mile (6 month) check-up is to create a platform for you to:- (1) Remind your Boss about all the good things you have done for him/her in your first 6 months on the job. (2) Raise any issues that you would like to talk about. The value of doing this is immeasurable. Your boss will be instantly reminded of all of your good work and forced to acknowledge it.

Be proactive and don’t wait for an annual review. Your Boss will love it because you are essentially writing your own performance review for him. I used this technique with my Boss when I first came to Minneapolis to head up the Pillsbury North American business’s (6 separate divisions). After 6 months on the job I was in the midst of transforming the entire organization from a ‘command and control’ entity to a ‘cross functional team’ based way of working.

When I outlined the complexity of this change in my ‘6,000 mile check-up’ memo, to my Boss, he finally recognized the full impact of this major change. Previously he had not fully understood why I was spending so much time on ‘organizational change’ as opposed to simply improving our slumping profits with some quick fixes…which is what my predecessors had tried to do. This was a big turning point in our relationship and he began to give me a little more time to turn the organization in a new direction. It worked out well.

Over the next four years we doubled profits from $240 million to $470 million and we couldn’t have done this without first changing the way we worked. By introducing the check-up letter I was able to become better aligned with my Boss.

As you move up in the world of management, this proactive check-up approach can also be effective with your direct reports. You can use your 6 month anniversary to request that they outline their accomplishments while surfacing things that they need to do to become better going forward. The opposite of this is to share your own review with subordinates. I shared my check-up at Pillsbury with my direct reports. They were surprised at my openness and, in turn, became more trusting and open with me.

Three Magic Questions

When I started a new job the first thing I did was to meet with small groups of employees (the people who do the real work). In my jobs at Pillsbury and Ocean Spray I met with over 200 folks in the first month…about 10 to 12 people in each meeting. During these sessions I asked three questions…(1) What’s working? (2) What’s not working (3) How can I help? At these meetings I mostly listened. By the time I was finished it was crystal clear what wasn’t working and what we needed to do to get it fixed. I then went back to all the employees and told them what they had said and what were going to do about it. Sounds simple…it is.

Relentless Focus on the Consumer

This one is very important and is part of what enables large consumer packaged goods companies to be so successful. As I have worked with other types of corporations I have been startled by the lack of focus on customers. As a leader of a large consumer food company, I stated every decision with the consumer in mind. Customer insights are the jewels that drive strategy. It is easy to become confused during a meeting when people are offering up sophisticated reasons why we should be doing something that doesn’t make sense. Always go back to the customer and ask yourself….would this make sense to our customer? You’ll be amazed at how smart you will appear!

Rules of Engagement

Over time I learned the importance of ‘Rules of Engagement’. While at Pillsbury we implemented some simple rules around how we wanted to behave as a management team. At that time we studied how Winston Churchill used what he called ‘Cabinet Responsibility’ during WW2. He insisted that the members of his cabinet respect the private discussions of the most senior members of the government and not share them with the press or their staff. It was a time of war and it worked.

At Pillsbury our management team agreed to have great roaring debates about which way to go. However, once decided, we all banded together in public support of our decision. It was not acceptable for one of our members to say…’yeah, that’s what they decided to do, but I personally disagreed during the meeting!’

When I first arrived in a new job I usually had one of management team break the ‘Rules of Engagement’ and I would inevitably hear about it. I’d then sit down with them and discuss how their lack of alignment had hurt the entire management team. They would be embarrassed and then fall into line. If you are on a team or lead one…read this again.

Conflict Can be Your Friend

Attaining alignment among your management team does not happen overnight or without conflict. There were times when we had heated arguments about a strategy. I always tried to create a safe place to try out ideas and encouraged intellectual curiosity. There is a greater chance of finding a breakthrough solution to the problem at hand when everyone feels safe. Conflict can be your friend…when all ideas are respected by each member of the team.

The Power of Simplicity

One of the most difficult challenges a CEO faces is finding a way to express corporate goals in an easily understood manner. Taking the time to polish and hone objectives into simple, telegraphic, and instantly accepted missives will be rewarded with organizational alignment. If you have three or four top corporate objectives, you will stand a better chance of recall than ten or twenty. Also, operating based on ‘principles as opposed to manuals’ and assuming that ‘conversations are more effective than emails’ will simplify the organization.

When you keep it simple you can avoid drift. In short, simplification should be your strategy. My CFO at Ocean Spray once smiled at me after I had delivered yet another employee speech and said….’Good talk…as usual, relentlessly boring …and boringly relentless!’ I laughed but took this as a compliment. He was noting that I was being consistent in my message. Whenever I join a new board I am continually surprised at how complicated they have made the business. Some of these companies have too many moving parts and an enormous number of objectives making it difficult maintain focus. Keep it simple.

Everyone Has a Vote and the Polls Never Close!

Gary Quinlan, an excellent corporate strategy consultant, once commented in one of my management meetings….”Sounds like everyone has a vote and the polls never close!’ This got a good laugh but it served to remind me that I was in charge and shouldn’t let a meeting get out of control. There is a big difference between productive debate and a free-for-all. Building consensus only works if there is someone in the room with the final say. If you’re the Boss, maintain control or you won’t have any.

Transformational Change

Truly changing an organization requires transforming an entity from what it is to what it can be. I have been involved in a number of corporate turnarounds. Looking back there is a distinct difference between crisis management and transformational change skills. Crisis management is all about triaging, stopping the bleeding and making decisions quickly and sometimes ruthlessly. Transformational change is different. It requires study and focusing on the big things; usually the big processes. For example, at Pillsbury we had 6 divisions and each one had their own set of internal processes resulting in a slow, duplicative way of working.

Once we identified all of the different processes in each division we were able to select a single process that would work best across the entire company. For example, we had many different methodologies for testing television commercials. By moving to one best practice we were able to simplify and save a substantial amount of money by going to one supplier. At the end of the first year we had identified over $30 million of annual savings by harmonizing multiple processes across the company.

At the same time we organized ourselves in a new way (cross functional teams) and became measurably quicker and lighter on our feet. Transformational change requires a different skill set which includes process management, corporate alignment organizational design.

Organizational Design

Here is an ultimate truth … ‘you get the results you deserve from the organizational design you accept’. Without exception I have observed organizational design flaws at every single company I’ve worked with. These flaws include inconsistent reporting relationships (e.g. marketing reporting to sales), functional silos with poor or no communication between the functional areas (e.g. marketing, sales, manufacturing, HR, etc.). This is the stuff that causes companies to grind to a halt. As a manager, you need to focus like a laser on organizational design….or you’ll get the results you deserve.

Innovation

Years ago I used to think of innovation in large terms. For example, inventing the microchip and creating the iPod. I now understand that innovation comes in all sizes and shapes. While at Pillsbury we expected, measured and celebrated innovation in all areas of the corporation. For example, our HR department continually found creative ways to manage rapidly rising health care costs. Our manufacturing team found creative ways to cut costs while maintaining quality.

At Ocean Spray our marketing folks designed a new plastic bottle, for our Cranberry Juice, that now fit in the side door of all refrigerators (a space saver and huge convenience). Sounds small, but it gave us a measurable advantage over the competitions and our sales shot up. The same group then came up with a new twist cap that only required 5 pounds of torque to open versus 15 pounds on all other caps. A big deal for our aged, arthritic consumers not strong enough to twist open the other bottles.

The same group then came in with a new idea…’White Cranberry Juice’. They pointed out that Welch’s White Grape Juice accounted for over half of their sales. Ocean Spray ‘White’ Cranberry Juice sales topped $100 million in the first year on the market! All of these are examples of small singles and doubles (versus home runs) but they enabled us to continually gain market share.

The message here is that innovation comes in small packages. These innovative ideas could have been introduced 5 or 10 years earlier, but it was this team that found them all within a two year period. Why? It was simply a matter of setting an expectation of continuous innovation.

As a manager, you need to expect your team(s) to continually innovate and then measure it. At the beginning of the year ask for a list of all the things they plan to test in the next 12 months and then continually follow up. Companies steeped in the innovation paradigm are making more money, continually taking waste out and building their brand(s) far faster than the competition. In short, they are the companies that are continually creating value for their consumers and shareholders.

Create a Burning Platform

Some time ago there was a terrible fire, in the middle of the night, on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The workers had virtually no time to react and some jumped into the gulf and survived while others stayed and died. Faced with possible death people will do unusual things. Creating a ‘burning platform’ can force action.

During my career I was involved in a number of turnarounds which required fast decisions without a lot of data. These situations were usually difficult for the Board of Directors to understand and deal with. An effective way to grab the attention of a board is to create a visual burning platform.

When I arrived at Ocean Spray the company had been losing market share for 6 years in a row and were sitting on nearly two years supply of cranberries and earnings were non existent. We had a lot of transformational work to do and I needed to move quickly. I talked directly to the board about where we were (they pretty much knew this already). I then painted a picture of what would happen to Ocean Spray if we didn’t take some very specific actions and it wasn’t pretty (a Burning Platform).

By the end of the meeting I had their agreement to move forward with a series of bold strokes. This was exactly what I wanted and needed. By painting a ‘Burning Platform’ I was able to create a crisis and get them to wave their slow bureaucratic decision making. After 3 years we delivered a net profit improvement of $118 million, debt reduction of $180 million and Cranberry beverage market share improvement from 48% to 53%. All of this was not entirely due to the Burning Platform, but without it….no turnaround.

Setting the Annual Corporate Financial Target

As a senior executive you will be involved in setting the annual financial target for the next year. During my career I had to deal with a Boss who always wanted to set goals that were unachievable. He would say ‘if you don’t stretch the organization you won’t get their very best’. He believed this and he was wrong. We would then get into a fight over the goal for the year. I always battled hard as I knew this target would predetermine how the organization would perform over the next 12 months.

When the goal’s too high…here’s what happens. If you are behind plan at the end of the first quarter the entire organization slows down and starts looking out the rear window of the car. Everyone goes into overdrive analyzing why we’re behind; supplying sophisticated analysis to the idiot who forced you into an unachievable target. What a waste of time! However, when you set a reasonable goal and are on or ahead of plan everybody looks through the front windshield and focus on ways to grow. Setting a reasonable annual goal is one of the most important events of the year. If possible, don’t get bullied into an unachievable target…the unintended consequences are substantial.

Don’t Over Steer

We all operate in a state of permanent white water. Organizations often become paralyzed, locked in relentless analysis and encircled by the fear of making a decision. If you can remove the fear and encourage the notion that being directionally correct is okay, everyone will move from intransigence to warp speed.

One caveat…if your decision turns out to be wrong (they sometimes do..), you must make a mid-air correction. Once everyone operates with the principles of ‘directionally correct’ and ‘mid-air correction’, innovation and speed will improve substantially. Do not underestimate the importance of this point.

Strategy First…Tactics Second

Taking the time to gain clarity around your strategies is a big deal. Too often, I have seen folks run off on tactical execution only to find that they have expended significant organizational capacity on the wrong thing. This is not to say that tactics are bad. High-performing companies continually test new ideas in their search for the overall winning strategy. Tactical tests can evolve into big strategies.

Look For Analogous Models

Solutions to problems often lie in other companies or even in what other industries are doing. Look for similar business models adjacent to your own. Often they will stimulate new thinking resulting in a breakout strategy. Also, benchmarking your business against the best-in-class is usually a scary – yet revealing – exercise.

While I was the CEO of the Select Comfort Corporation we were having a problem with timely response to consumer complaint calls into our call center. It took, on average, 18 minutes to speak with a representative! Not good. We put a cross functional team on this problem and they traveled out to the east coast to benchmark against Lands’ End a large internet/catalogue retailer. The team was flabbergasted to discover that their internal objective was to answer every customer call by the fourth ring! Lands’ End was very helpful in showing us some wonderful process improvements which got us down to a one minute hold time range. If they hadn’t benchmarked Lands’ End we would have been happy with a much smaller improvement in customer response.

Helping a Big Company Act Small

Put a cross functional team on a problem and they will solve it every time. A single person attacking the same problem may get it done, but it will take longer and the organizational buy-in will be much lower. If this is true, why not organize your entire company, or department into cross-functional business teams? This is exactly what we did at Pillsbury and Ocean Spray with impressive results. In both cases, we were able to have a big company act small becoming much quicker and lighter on our feet. If you feel ‘the need for speed’, a team-based organization will help.

Restless Dissatisfaction…Sense of Urgency

I love it when people appear to be dissatisfied even when we are doing extremely well. Healthy organizations are never entirely happy. The best test is to ask if things are better ‘today’ versus this time last year. If employees say… ‘of course things are better… but we need to fix this issue in front of us right now’… you’re on the right track. Restless dissatisfaction, accompanied by a sense of urgency, tell me we’re on track to get better.

Litigation Should Be The Last Resort

When I was at Pillsbury I was fortunate to have a very experienced and wise General Counsel or top lawyer. He continually advised me to avoid lawsuits (litigation) at all costs. Litigation is about as predictable as ‘Vegas’ luck (good judges, bad judges, good lawyers, bad lawyers, etc.) and the costs can be obscene. Good CEO’s should strive to avoid uncertainty and that’s what litigation offers. Mediation is usually a better cost effective venue to end a dispute.

The Annual Planning Slugfest

When I was a young Product Manager at General Mills I would spend 3 months every year pulling together the annual business plan for my brand (Cheerios). My team would work nights and weekends recreating the same charts from the previous year getting ready to present our plan to the multiple levels of superiors in a kind of ‘cage fight death match’. What a waste of time. During this 90 day period we were focused on being prepared to answer all questions about our plan and spent very little time in running the business.

When I became the CEO of Pillsbury Canada I changed this lengthy planning approach. Instead of compiling a huge planning book for each business I asked each brand manager to come in and sit down with myself and our CFO and bring 3 pieces of paper. (1) An historical Profit & Loss statement, (2) A single page that outlined the Objectives, Strategies & Tactics for the business, (3) A single page that listed the new strategic things we had learned from tests during the previous year and an outline of proposed tests we were planning to implement in the coming year. That’s it…3 pages! The meeting was purposely low key and informal as I wanted a discussion instead of a formal presentation.

Most strategies don’t change year to year so why not only review the few that you would like to adjust. You only change a winning strategy if you can make it better and you need to have some solid evidence to support the change. That’s worth discussing. I believe we reduced the prep time for annual planning to about a week versus 90 days; allowing the brand team more time to run the business. I truly believe ‘simplicity can be a strategy’.

Hubris

What is it? How do people get it? Could I get it? A good definition of Hubris goes like this… ‘being out of touch with reality and overestimating one’s own competence or capabilities, especially for people in positions of power.’ Said another way…’pride comes before a fall’. I clearly recall flying into New York by myself on a Pillsbury corporate jet and being picked up by a limo. On the way into Manhattan I began to say to myself…’Wow..I must be really smart or I wouldn’t be riding around on my own jet’. Whoo…fortunately I quickly got a grip on myself! This was the beginning of hubris…an overestimating of my abilities.

During my career I have encountered a number of senior executives with a severe case of hubris. It’s easy to do. I found them to be insufferable, ineffective and unable to clearly consider ideas beyond their own. Their people hated them and they never seemed to run a team based organization. They always got fired. This is a disease you do not want to catch. Be careful.

– Robert Hawthorne