The Kmiec Ramblings

Tag Archive: Business Advice

The Feelings Of Negotiations

Written on October 3, 2011 by Adam Kmiec in Misc.

One of the first principles of negotiations I ever learned was that two sides who want the same end goal will always find a way to make a deal happen. This is one of the reasons I believe that philosophical alignment is so critical to successful negotiations. But, of late, I’m starting to question this concept. It’s not that I don’t think you need to have philosophical alignment or the same end goal. No. It’s more along the lines of, does the end justify the means.

I saw a quote the other day, posted on a friend’s twitter account that said, “It’s easy to go from nice to ugly, it’s hard to go from ugly to nice.” Even when you want the same things in a negotiation, it doesn’t mean you can simply remove emotion and passion from the process. Feelings exist. They’re part of the process. And, when the ink is dry, the feelings that were bruised, maligned, battered and are raw. It takes time for them to be un-inflamed.

The problem of course with that is that feelings linger. They carry forward. It’s hard to forget the sting. The barbs in a negotiation leave an indelible mark that if we’re lucky, we’re able to see fade. But, while they fade, their impact remains.

So when I say, I’m starting to rethink my stance on negotiating, what I’m really getting at is that, maybe it’s not just about winning…it’s how you go about winning.

Tags: Business Advice, Negotiating

The Art Of Misdirection

Written on April 22, 2011 by Adam Kmiec in Misc.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

In World War II, the United States intentionally sent messages that they knew the enemy would decrypt and read. This was a tried and true practice that kept the enemy on it’s toes, because if you could decipher the message, then you had to treat it as a real threat. Advancing 50+ years to today, the NFL draft is nearly upon us. Coaches, general managers and team staff are already flooding the media channels and airwaves with misinformation. They’ll make it seem that they really love player X, so that hopefully, they can actually get player Y.

I usually call this the art of misdirection. We feed people with information that’s not correct, lead them down a path, so that we can ultimately get what we really want. As humans I think we are hard wired to believe what we hear and what we see. My mom offered me some advice as a kid and it sticks with me today: believe nothing you hear and only 1/2 of what you see. Our eyes lie to us and the truth, even when not intentionally done, gets skewed. The whole telephone game Imagine, how that telephone game plays out when the original call was just a bunch of misdirection?

We often talk about trying to find the signal amidst the noise. In today’s day an age there’s more noise than we know what do with out there in the space. Some of it is real noise that simply gets in our way. But, there’s a lot of noise that’s intentionally being put out there to keep you focused on the stuff that doesn’t matter, because it’s stuff that’s not true. Whenever I think I’m a situation where the misdirection game is being played, I try to trace the information back to the original source…the truest signal if you will. But, often, I’ll just ignore the information…no sense in focusing on things that just don’t matter.

Misdirection is a powerful tool…when used well, but can also cripple you if you fall prey to it.

Tags: Business Advice, Management Philosophy

The Line At The Door Is Always Long

Written on November 15, 2010 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising

1 Comment - Leave a comment!

I’ve had some really poor managers in my career. In roughly 14 years I’ve had 22 different managers. It’s astonishing to me that only 4 of them are what I’d term as great . One of those bosses was Kevin Doohan. I met Kevin when I was working at ConAgra Foods. He was the first manager I had who could bring real world credibility in the interactive space and still be savvy enough to navigate the politics of corporate culture. I usually ended up with a manager who had one of the other, not both. I learned a lot from Kevin. My 3 years working for Kevin accelerated my business management, critical thinking and strategic skill development.

Kevin was always teaching. Every conversation and interaction was a chance for him to share his knowledge. I didn’t necessarily always agree with everything Kevin preached, but that’s what made us successful as a team. There’s two things that always stick with me:

The line at the door is always long. This was Kevin’s perspective, initially on agencies, and eventually on personnel. When agency partners would complain, raise a stink and come across as holier than thou, Kevin would remind them that they aren’t obligated to work with ConAgra Foods. But, they should know, the line of agencies at the door who wanted to work with ConAgra Foods was pretty damn long. I say, eventually personnel, because even when I resigned, Kevin had the same perspective. While he was disappointed in my decision, he wasn’t going to beg me to stay because there was a line of people who could take my job. In short, you’re replaceable and don’t think you aren’t, because I have 100s of companies and people who want you have.
With a similar subtext, Kevin told me the story of Gamma One, one of the first places he worked at. I don’t remember the time frame, if he worked there before college, during college or right after, but either way, it was early in his career. There was a guy working at the company who felt he was being underpaid and wasn’t getting the “respect” he believed he deserved. They key, by the way, is DESERVED…notice he didn’t feel he had EARNED it. Anyhow, eventually things came to a head, this guy had interviewed for a job at another company and informed his boss he had a GREAT offer and was ready to walk. This guy’s expectation was that his boss would of course match, if not beat the offer on the table, because his position was too valuable to lose. Instead, his boss stated something to the effect of, “Congratulations. That’s great. Gamma One was here before you and it’ll be here after you.” True to form, more than 15 years later, Gamma One is still HERE. In short, you’re not as valuable as you think you are and if you walk in to my office and treat things like a hostage negotiation, you’re going to lose, because I don’t negotiate with terrorists.

I’ve applied a lot of that thinking to the positions I took after ConAgra Foods. I manage my team and my partners with the same philosophy. Heck, I’ve even applied it to friendships and relationships – I won’t chase after people. If you want to leave a relationship, if you want to quit, if you deliver the ultimatums, I’ll let you walk…because the line at the door is long.

But, I’m not silly, myopic or hypocritical. I also know that the same holds true to my own career. If I quit my job at MARC USA tomorrow or were let go, the simple truth is that there’s 100s of people ready to take my job and fill the void. Of course, we always believe our leaving will matter more than it does. We say things like, “well, when client X here’s what happens, you’ll be kicking yourself in the ass.” Inherently, our pride gets in the way and of course we think, “well they’re screwed now” or “I’ve got leverage, because I have history” – or something to that effect. But, pride is foolish.

We always think we’re more valuable than we are. But, the truth is we’re all replaceable, because the line at the door is aways long.

Tags: Business Advice, ConAgra Foods, Perspective

Gossip

Written on July 13, 2010 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

The biggest thing holding your company back may not be something typical like talent or technology. It’s not something like cash flow, infrastructure or process. The biggest thing holding your company back, might be something you haven’t even considered. It might be gossip.

I’m a pretty laid back guy. I’m not a micro-manager. I’m a big believer that an organization needs to be able to talk freely, move freely and think freely. In interviews when I’m asked what my management style is, I respond with the same answer. I believe you need to:

Inform: Give your teammate all the information they need to make a well informed decision.
Recommend: I indicate how I’d handle the situation.
Empower: Ultimately, let them know it’s their call and they can take your recommendation or go in a different direction.
Support: Once they make a decision, so long as it’s not going to be a train-wreck, I openly support and defend their decision.
Review: We then get together to review their approach and how it played out.

In short, I’m pretty open and very flexible. If you need to work from home, cool. If you want to sit in a different cube/office, cool. Want a MAC instead of a PC, cool. I focus on eliminating excuses to ensure there’s no reason you can’t get your job done.

I can tolerate a lot from people. But, one thing I will never tolerate in an organization is gossip. Gossip can kill an organization. It can strangle it. It can create massive rifts and stunt progress. Gossip is a poison, that once unleashed can infect an entire organization. Gossip spreads like a virus. Left unchecked, it can and will cripple an organization and eventually tear a team apart. That’s why you have to move swiftly to eliminate the people creating the gossip.

Zappos often talks about the idea of hiring slowly, but firing quickly. I happen to agree with the sentiment. And with me, the one sure fire way to get yourself “let go” is to be a gossiper. I can tolerate lots of stuff. Hell, I can deal with C+ level performance for a person that’s an A+ in driving company culture. But, someone who’s chipping away at the company culture has to go. Culture, while not easily definable or measurable, is very important to driving results. You can’t let gossip destroy that culture. My advice to you is stomp out the gossipers. Trust me, they’re easy to find…because they’re always talking…and they always think no one is listening.

Tags: Business Advice, Gossip, Management Philosophy

The Danger Of Best Practices

Written on July 5, 2010 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising

2 Comments - Leave a comment!

It’s not secret I’m a photography guy. I love photos. I love cameras. I love film (digital or real). I love the magic you can capture and make with camera gear. If you were sign up for a photography class you’d learn a great number of things. You’ll cover the basics like f-stops, shutter speeds, and lens selections. You’ll also cover many of the “rules” of photography like, Sunny 16, never putting a horizon line in the middle of a photo and of course the rule of 3rds.

These are great rules, principles and philosophies that have a place and serve a purpose. You need to understand these rules and “best practices” so that you can eventually break them. The masters of photography, the ones who’ve created work that stands out have learned that you can’t simply rely on best practices.

If you took 100 photographers to a location and asked them to shoot a subject, leveraging only “best practices” you’d end up with 100 nearly identical photos. The best practices would in effect stunt the creativity of the photographers. This is the classic case of asking everyone to follow the paint by numbers chart explicitly.

Greatness does not come from conformity. Greatness does not come from doing what everyone else does. Greatness does not come from following the crowd. Greatness does not come from applying the same model, that everyone else learned during their MBA program, to the problem.

No, greatness comes from understanding the best practices and then figuring out how to extend and break them. Greatness comes from blending history with vision. You can’t forget the past. You can’t ignore what has happened before. You can’t discount the value of best practices and those that have leveraged them for success. But, if you simply copy another company’s model and leverage the same boring best practices that the “industry” has adopted you’ll never differentiate, stand out or be memorable. You’ll simply float into the seam of sameness that has plagued far too many companies.

In the movie, Almost Famous, Frances McDormand’s character says in a conversation with Billy Crudup’s character, “be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.” She indicates she’s quoting Goethe. There are many ways to interpret the quote. Certainly, as a marketer, one way to interpret it is, if you are bold in your thinking, your marketing and your product innovation, consumers will come to your “aid” and become loyal. Just ask the Dyson guy, being bold seems to have generated that type of fait, goodwill and sales from a very supportive consumer base.

As consumers, we want bold. We want different. We want things that standout. We want to defy convention. Marketers, are you listening?

Tags: Business Advice, Dyson, Innovation, Life Lessons, Perspective

Planting Flags

Written on February 23, 2010 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising

2 Comments - Leave a comment!

I like planting flags. I like scaling mountains that have never been climbed. I like doing things faster than anyone else. There’s a joy in getting to the finish line, breaking records and doing this that have never been done before. It can be tough sometimes to find new challenges. When that happens, I create my own obstacles to overcome…just for the hell of it. Lately though I feel like I’ve hit a wall. It’s not that I can’t find new challenges, new walls to overcome or places to plant flags. No, it’s something much more simple. I’m damn tired.

They say if you want to travel fast, go alone, but if you want to travel far, go with others. Well lately I feel like I’ve been traveling really fast, really far and with a large group. Trust me, it’s taxing. Maybe instead of tracking down every possible place I could plant a flag, I need to be more selective.

Where do you find your motivation and how do you choose where to plant your flags?

Tags: Advice, Business Advice, Career

Prepare For Every Possible Outcome If You Want To Win

Written on September 25, 2009 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising, Misc.

3 Comments - Leave a comment!

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Nostradamus it’s that no one can predict the future. No one. We look at all the trend data, listen to all the analysts, and road map till our fingers hurt, but our beliefs about the future are educated guesses at best.

I’ve never focused on guessing the future. However, what I have always focused on are outcomes. I really only have two talents:

I can consume more information, in real time, and be able to start applying the information I’ve absorbed faster that most people. There’s a lot of people that can consume a great deal of information, but they often lack the ability to start applying it in real time.
I can map out all the possible scenarios of a situation very quickly. I’m always contemplating the “what if” scenarios and how I’d handle those situations. I want to be prepared so that I don’t have to take a breath when presented with a curve ball. In effect, the curve ball becomes no different than the fast ball – because I’m ready for it.

Let’s focus on #2 for a second. A colleague of mine shared this great article from Fast Company titled “Futures Thinking: The Basics.” It’s a great article that’s “the first in an occasional series about the tools and methods for thinking about the future in a structured, useful way.” The whole article is a great read, but what struck me the most was this passage at the end:

Trying to figure out “the” future is always a mistake; it’s much more productive to think about an array of possible outcomes. Remember that the futures you come up with will almost certainly be wrong–the goal is to be wrong in a way that offers insights into present choices.

One technique that’s good to start with is to use what some professionals call “futures archetypes”–generic headlines that offer platforms upon which to build more specific stories. Four that can be very easy to use are expectations:

The future is what I expect.

The future is better than I expect.

The future is worse than I expect.

The future is weirder than I expect.

The first three are fairly self-explanatory, but the last may be a surprise. The goal with the fourth archetype is to explore possibilities that completely shake things up (a big earthquake, perhaps, or a war, or a revolution in computing power). This doesn’t mean fantasy–alien invasions and robot uprisings are probably best left to the movies–but it does mean something outside of your expectations. The phrase I love to use for this is “plausibly surreal.”

It was pretty cool to see someone else with a similar mindset as me. The author, Jamais Cascio, does a much better job than I could of applying the concept to the real business world. But, the key takeaway is be prepared for what could happen so that if and when it does happen, you know exactly what to do.

With a major focus on short term goals. You know, things like quarterly sales figures or the end of the month speeding ticket quota. We keep such a fine tuned focus on the here, now, and immediate needs that we lose site of the larger picture. By, taking our eye off the bigger picture we make decisions that are overly reactionary and designed to address a short term challenge. When we make that decision, at the time it looks like the right one, but often fixing the short term situation takes us completely off course and away from the big picture…the big goal.

We’ve seen this happen quite often haven’t we? We saw it happen with Facebook when they decided to try and mimic a lot of the functionality twitter was offering. That’s just one example, but we see it happen in other industries like the auto, telecom, and personal electronics. Companies like Palm, Microsoft, Sony, and General Motors often make very short term reactionary decisions based on the competition. We’ve seen this implode and set a company back years. Why did they make these decisions? Simple, it’s clear they hadn’t thought out the multitude of potential decisions they’d have to grapple with. In short, they weren’t prepared.

Perhaps General George S. Patton, said it best…well said it best twice, when he stated:

“Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.”

and

“I always believe in being prepared, even when I’m dressed in white tie and tails.”

You can’t predict the future and you can’t create the future. But, you can be prepared to handle what the future may bring. That’s the stuff of leaders and that’s the stuff of great companies.

Tags: Business Advice, Facebook, Fast Company, Strategy, Twitter

ReThinking Mixing Friends And Business – Part III

Written on September 11, 2009 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising, Misc.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

This is part II of a three part set of posts on ReThinking Mixing Friends And Business. Part I can be seen here. Part II can be seen here.

Eventually you’ll find yourself in a situation where you and your friend are actively engaged as business partners. In my line of work, this means your friend is either:

A client
A publisher
A 3rd party partner

I’ll be honest with you, this is a really tough situation. My clients have been my friends in the past. Heck, my agencies (when I was client side) have been my friends. It’s make for a tricky working relationship. But, it’s 100% possible to not only maintain your friendship, but also to collaborate on amazing work. I’m serious. Here’s the key – honesty. Yeap, it’s that simple. As Bill Joel crooned, “honesty, is such a lonely word…and mostly what I need from you.”

Why do I say honesty? Well, too often (and I’ve been guilty of this) we hold back our true thoughts, feelings, and opinions because we don’t want to hurt our friend’s feelings. This doesn’t help anyone. The friend, doesn’t receive the feedback they need to be better and mediocre work ends up getting created. Both parties need to be focused on COUNTING UP, not COUNTING DOWN. Here’s what I mean. People who are counting down are clearly focused on getting out of the situation. They’re counting down days till the project is over as opposed to counting up and looking forward to the next project.

Perhaps, more important than honesty is commitment. Both parties need to be committed to making the situation work and ultimately succeed. In my experience, this is where things often go wrong. Someone loses the drive to make things work. When that happens, they start counting down.

It’s too easy to start planning an exit strategy when things get tough. We try to comfort ourselves by saying things like, “maybe we should cut our losses now so we can keep the friendship in place.” Guess what? It doesn’t work that way. I can tell you from recent experience that when you start counting down, you’ll lose your friend and the business. That’s why honesty is so important. You need honest and open dialog to ensure that the business relationship and friendship are protected.

Look, working with your friends is never an easy proposition. Emotion will always get in the way of rationale thinking. That’s ok, we’re human. When we lose that emotional aspect, we stop being human and we start becoming robots. Whether your managing your friend, working for them, or working with them it’s a tough situation to manage. However, all of the situations and relationship hierarchies can be successful. You simply need to be committed to creating success.

Tags: Business Advice, Friends, Philosophy

Be Deliriously Happy Or At Least Leave Yourself Open To Be

Written on August 6, 2009 by Adam Kmiec in Misc.

2 Comments - Leave a comment!

I’m a sucker for movie quotes. I really think there should be an entire class dedicated to the great quotes and nuggets of insight that come from the movies, but can be applied to the business world. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the type of people I want to work with (colleagues, business partners, employees, clients, etc.). It finally occurred to me that I want to work with people that passionate about what they do and excited about working with me. I’d rather work with someone like that, than the smartest or most proficient colleague, partner, client, etc. In short, I’d trade passion for skill.

I think this quote from the movie, Meet Joe Black really sums it up.

“There’s not an ounce of excitement, not a whisper of a thrill. This relationship has all the passion of a pair of titmice. I want you to get swept away out there. I want you to levitate. I want you to sing with rapture & dance like a dervish…be deliriously happy or at least leave yourself open to be.”

This was advice being given by Anthony Hopkins’ character, William Parrish, to his daughter about dating. His point was, don’t settle, don’t pick something that seems like a logical fit. Pick someone who excites you.

This is one of the reasons I genuinely love my job. Many of the people I work with excite me. My manager, Michele Fabrizi, our agency’s President & CEO has just as much passion for what she does today as she did 20 years ago. We feed off of the mutual excitement. We trade emails in the middle of the night, because an idea is bouncing around in our head. That’s the kind of people you want to work for and with.

The next time you’re in a position to choose who you want to work with, ask yourself, “am I excited to work with X?” If you aren’t, I’d suggest passing. Life is too short to not be excited about what you get to do.

Tags: Business Advice, Colleagues, Meet Joe Black

The 3 Keys To Selling Your Agenda

Written on January 13, 2009 by Adam Kmiec in Misc.

0 Comments - Leave a comment!

We all have an agenda. It’s true. There’s always an angle, a plan, or a certain desired outcome. I’ve never believed a person who claimed they didn’t have an agenda. Its in our human spirit and DNA to have one. But, getting that agenda sold through is often quite challenging, even when the agenda is a fantastic idea that benefits the masses. How often have we seen even the president of the United States stymied in getting his agenda sold through Congress? Frankly, too often.

People who are able to sell their agenda go places. It’s that simple. If you can’t sell your point of view you’re going to have a difficult time moving upward and onward. Often times the problem with getting your agenda sold through is that we focus on getting 100% buy-in. We want people to be fully bought in. We want 100% consensus. That’s a really difficult mountain to climb. There are days, when I don’t even have 100% buy-in from myself on what to wear. Getting 100% buy-in is often times impossible. Should we really be surprised by that though? No 2 people are 100% alike, so why would we expect them to think 100% alike?

I tried to fight all the battles with all the people for years. I wanted people to buy my idea 100%. As you’d imagine, I had a really difficult time making that happen. Finally, a good friend of mine suggested I try out a model he called “PSD.” Yes, PSD, is a Photoshop Document file. However, that’s not what he was talking about The PSD model is an acronym for Promote, Support, and Defend.

Promote: Can they promote your recommendation/position? Do they understand the key talking points well enough to deliver the short elevator speech? These people evangelize and proactively sell your position. Their role is to seek out people to convert. You’ll generally find that it’s the young, the idealist, and the ones who want change that will become the promoters.
Support: Maybe they don’t agree with you 100%. Maybe they don’t completely buy-in to your agenda. Honestly, they may not even care about the issue, the situation, or your POV. That’s ok. All you need you to do is ensure they support the idea at a high level. Simply put, do they see value in the idea? If they do, you can convince them to support the idea. Much like politics, they might not be able to agree with everything the candidate says, but often they can support the spirit of the platform? You’ll find that the majority of people fall into this category. It’s a low involvement category. They don’t even need to know the details, they just need to be able to answer “yes” when asked, “do you think this is a good idea.”
Defend: Can they defend your recommendation/position? Do they understand your position well enough that they can essentially be an extension of you? These people are probably the most important of the 3 groups. They will fight your battles for you. You can stop being the mouthpiece. By letting them defend your position you can free yourself from having to convince the majority of people and instead focus your time on the most influential/critical people. The key point to remember with this group is they are not proactively selling your position. They aren’t looking to evangelize. They are looking to squash dissension though.

The goal should be to challenge each person that can influence your ability to sell to Promote, Support, or Defend your agenda. This negates the need for 100% buy-in and shifts the conversation to something that’s much more achievable: consensus. The next time, you’re trying to get your agenda sold through give the Promote, Support, Defend model a try. You just might like the results.

Tags: Agenda, Best Of, Business Advice, Career