1. Competitors continue to learn and evolve, so
must businesses continue to evolve to succeed.
To evolve requires people, and the people who
lead. While tools also evolve, they are only part
of the tactics.
I’m sharing a few short statements by very smart
people that further describe this.
Hal
Schlenger
www.linkedin.com/
/in/halschlenger

2. 1) “Whatever made you successful in the past won’t
in the future.”
• Yes, consistency is critical to your brand reputation as
well as operational management. Yet when you
consider that ‘Competition never sleeps,’ this quote
from Lew Platt, former CEO of Hewlett Packard advises
us to evolve our business, which should be in a
controlled, managed, well-communicated way. Use the
holistic perspective of a generalist to guide the work of
the specialist and insist on feedback.
• Jimmy Buffett said, “Remember that contentment is a
quality best suited for cows, not cowboys” so long as the
cowboys are working as a team.
Hal Schlenger
www.linkedin.com/in/halschlenger

3. 2) Businesses succeed because of people
• Jim Collins wrote “People must come first.
Figure out if you’ve got all the right people on
the bus, then you figure out where to drive.”
When you couple this with Dr. Andrew Weil’s
observation, “Any doctor can tell you, the
most crucial step toward healing is having the right diagnosis. A bad diagnosis usually
means a bad outcome, no matter how skilled the physician,” you realize that human
involvement is what builds trust and solved problems.
• There is a key need for a generalist who can consider the increasing number of
factors impacting success, can understand what the customer wants and what the
company can provide, can listen to and orchestrate the specialists. People have
gravitated to specialists; the trend is back toward generalists to not lose the holistic
perspective.
Hal Schlenger
www.linkedin.com/in/halschlenger

4. 2) Businesses succeed because of people (cont.)
• PPT vs PPC/T: While many leaders, particularly those
selling SAAS, believe that improve requires a mix of
people, process and technology. I believe the formula is
people, process and culture over (supported by)
technology. Culture is critical. Peter Drucker wrote,
“culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I’ve blogged how
“Culture manifests itself as leadership.”
• Collaboration is a catalyst for innovation and engagement in the new
world of work. More gets done when we share and help build something.
It also goes by the term ‘synergy.’
Hal Schlenger
www.linkedin.com/in/halschlenger

5. 3) “Myth: The purpose of marketing is to generate
sales volume. Wrong: That’s the purpose of
selling. The purpose of marketing is to generate
profit. Got that? Profits.”
Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerilla Marketing Int’l advises that
like all of business, marketing’s sole purpose is making
profits. There must be investments to evolve, which by
their nature, may not be profitable for an initial period of
time. Nonetheless, the evolved business must show
acceptable long term profit, including the cost of the
investment.
Hal Schlenger
www.linkedin.com/in/halschlenger

6. 4) “Do or do not. There is no try.” Yoda
• Each of us needs to be accountable and transparent so that
the power of the team is fully realized. As highlighted with
Agile software development, seeing gaps and shortcomings
as soon as possible is valuable and actionable.
• This is core to a collaborative culture. And if not, as W.
Edwards Deming wrote, “It is not necessary to change.
Survival is not mandatory.”
Hal Schlenger
www.linkedin.com/in/halschlenger
It’s not
what you know.
It’s what you do
with the information.
Ask Hal.