Leadership Style

With limited leadership experience under my belt, I don't know that I have a well defined leadership style - yet.  However, I can speak to how I interact with others and how I imagine my style would be given the opportunity.  I've generally found that I like to be in a situation where I have some level of control over the outcome.  I tend to take ownership of specific tasks or portions of a project in order to maintain that control.  When it comes to leading a team to an end goal, I can be hesitant to delegate a lot of responsibility but I have been working on leveraging the assets and skillsets of peers and/or team members to deliver the best possible result.

What I strive to be as a leader is someone that can guide others based on ingenuity rather than based on how I think others will perceive the direction and leadership.  I also think it's important to take the feedback of others into consideration, but with an overarching look at the problem or issue so that I'm not persuaded without understanding the consequences.  I would like to gain more experience in areas of leadership that will help me reach this goal and provide the credibility with others that I am capable of being a solid leader.   

TVtoWear Engaging Story

Our TVtoWear team has an engaging story that was shared as part of our business pitch, which you can find at the following location on YouTube:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoxFurtxF0E&feature=g-crec-u 

I also wanted to share the persona that was developed out of this story and our overall market analysis...  

Susan is a 39 year-old mother and career woman with an active social life. Her job keeps her quite 

occupied during the work day, and her nights are filled with social engagements, working out at the gym playing sports, and taking care of her son’s needs. Susan tries hard to always be on top of the latest fashion trends, but she HATES shopping, and the trends come and go before she can keep up. Not only does she not have time to aimlessly walk around the mall, in and out of stores, when she does purchase the latest style pants and coolest jewelry and other separates, she never seems to quite capture the "look" she is trying to achieve.  When this happens, she usually ends up returning the items, or they sit in her closet with the tags still on them and continues to wear all her old items, and is miserable. Susan loves the "outfits" coordinated so effortlessly with the most perfect accessories she sees in her magazines and on her favorite sitcoms and TV series; but she just can't quite seem to be able to mimic them. It is very frustrating for her, and she would obviously love a personal shopper, but that, of course, is impossible with her busy lifestyle.

Susan wants to be fashion-forward without the inconvenience of shopping from store to store, only to have the outfit not look "right" at all. 

Market Size for TVtoWear

As part of our evaluation of market size for TVtoWear, my team is looking at the different aspects that impact the analysis including:

• Demand
• Addressable Market
• Realistic opportunity vs. competition
• Selection of “winnable” market opportunity

The demand for our business will be dependent on a couple factors that involve the amount consumers will be spending on clothing online as well as preferences by consumers as to how they shop for clothes in general. If we can gain a good understanding of the current demand for online clothes shopping and factor in changes as a result of new technology, impact from economic conditions, and the increasing competition online then we will have a better picture of what the actual demand will look like.

The next step is to identify the addressable market by doing research on the potential revenue opportunity. Our approach to identifying this market is by looking for press releases on trends within the clothing sales industry, reviewing industry websites and department of commerce data that could be applied to where people are spending money within the clothing market. Another approach we are taking is to perform a survey to get additional data points on demographic details and specific customer needs.

In general, U.S. online retail sales have increased close to 13 percent in recent years and the industry is expected to continue to grow. However, with this has come an influx of startups as well as growth of some of the major e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Ebay. While these sites maintain very loyal customers, there is still plenty of opportunity for niche sites. Especially given the fact that access online has significantly grown due to the user of tablets and smartphones in addition to the ease of use of internet searching capability. While some companies are focusing on specific lines of clothing (department sites), certain styles (vintage estores), or simple generic searching (Amazon) there is a realistic opportunity with our model in the area of style savvy consumers needing or wanting a specific look.

Realistically, the market that we’re targeting here given the opportunity is at the higher end of the consumer spectrum. In general, we are looking to take advantage of the convenience of TVtoWear for those of higher levels of education, income, and/or occupation who are willing to pay a little more for a certain style or look. These focus areas can be expanded by providing other cost-effective alternatives or by marketing to other demographic areas in the future. However, our research and analysis on market size has led us to a reasonable strategy for our business startup.

To Inbound or Not to Inbound?

The question whether companies can survive on inbound marketing alone has become of greater interest in recent years.  One byproduct of the continued expansion of the internet is that there is more information available to us today than ever before.  There are answers to our questions and solutions for just about any problem you can think up.  So, when one has a problem they simply “Google it” to find the best possible solution.

While that could be very exciting to a start-up company with very little funding and no access to advertising resources, there is still doubt that they could rely solely on this type of format and succeed as a business.  Some additional questions to consider might be:

• Will the right customers reach them?
• Will there be enough traffic to gain momentum?
• Is it worth the time to create content for inbound marketing?
• How do we know what content will resonate bet?

These are questions that I would ask before putting a strategy together for inbound marketing efforts.  With that said, I feel a company could potentially sustain itself on this type of marketing alone.  There are many companies that have propelled themselves based on word of mouth.  Social media has transformed the way people discover new products, interests, and services.  The ability to share the likes and dislikes of individuals you trust through mechanisms like Facebook and blogs is substantial.  For example, the sharing of a video among friends can result in a viral exposure to the subject of the video.  As almost everyone today has access to the internet, search engines have become more robust, and the interest in social media has increased the likelihood of being noticed is extremely high given the right product.  Companies that are in tune with their target customers would be able to provide appropriate content that will capture attention.

When it comes to outbound marketing activities, the main goal seems to be reaching a large audience with one message.  For example, paying for an advertising firm to put together an ad or slogan that will be presented in TV spots, brochures, or email blasts that could potentially be seen or read by thousands.  This is in contrast to the more passive nature of inbound marketing which allows the customer to seek out the information rather than it being presented to them.  I found an article that discusses five large companies that have been successful with inbound marketing, but what you’ll notice is that it’s more a mechanism to support outbound marketing activities (http://mashable.com/2012/09/13/inbound-marketing-strategies/).  In most of these cases, the outbound activities are still being utilized but are supported with an updated strategy around social media or mobile technology.  It’s important to recognize the benefits of traditional marketing while taking advantage of new trends in the use of technology and access to information.

Discussion on "Why Big Companies Can't Innovate"

In the Gerber example referenced at the beginning of the article by Maxwell Wessel, the effort to innovate fell flat because they maintained a focus on operational efficiency which is typical for companies with more mature products.  One point that Wessel makes is that just because an idea makes sense operationally and financially, it does not necessarily mean it will result in a success.

I feel that an important takeaway here is that no matter how large or well established the company is and their existing products or services are, they have to somewhat go back to the beginning in order to innovate effectively.  It’s absolutely critical that the proposed product or service clearly identifies a problem in the market and matches it to a solution.  Without this alignment, there is little hope for success.  To take that even further Wessel describes the fact that venture capitalists are looking for interesting solutions, not just run of the mill.

As a consumer myself, I couldn’t agree more.  When I look at purchasing products that are new to me, I can honestly say that it comes down to more than just pure feature or functionality.  I’m always looking for that next thing that will make me feel good about the product as well as what it can do for me.  With mature organizations, the focus tends to be around profit and increasing the bottom line than it is reaching out and validating with the market.  This is in contrast to start-ups that spend a significant amount of upfront time identifying, testing, and validating.

In order for this philosophy to work and for a company to reap the benefits, the organization has to allow for some existing groups to function differently or to put new groups in place in alignment with the revised goals.  As companies mature, this type of shift is extremely difficult to undertake when the culture has not been formed to think that way.  I have found this within the company I work for where the lack of alignment between different groups restricted the ability to innovate.  This was a case where the company may have seen much better results from their initiative if they had enlisted different staff rather than the same people that had been working on the mature product and had developed a certain culture as a result.

Another example given in the follow-up segments to the article was with Xerox.  This example points to failure on Xerox’s part as a result of poor commercializing.  Very similar to how Gerber tried to limit risks and reduce cost by operating the same way with a new product, Xerox attempted to reuse their existing salesforce in order to push out their new (and very different) product.  I’ve witnessed some tremendous improvement in my own company as a result of better alignment with our customers and their industry.  With a dedicated approach and techniques designed for that given market/customer, we have strengthened relationships and instilled confidence in our customers that we are striving to meet their needs rather than just making a profit.

Lastly, I found another article that discusses innovation among large corporations based out of work from MIT (http://miter.mit.edu/article/driving-innovation-large-corporations-i-challenges-faced-large-corporations).  The article discusses the challenges that large companies face in trying to be more innovative.  In particular, the idea that there is a fear of cannibalization resonated with me.  I think this is a good point that wasn’t explicitly called out in the other article.  This is a dangerous aspect of releasing new products that is discussed a lot in my business.  However, the underlying factor in this conversation still goes back to understanding your customer and knowing what that issue is we are trying to solve.  Without that understanding, companies run the risk of dealing with customers that don’t see the value and are not willing to pay for something they can’t justify.

TVtoWear "Persona Pain-Gain Map"

TVtoWear

For any woman who has coveted the clothing or accessories she sees on TV while watching shows like Sex and the City, TVtoWear is a website that will put that outfit in your shopping basket with just a few clicks of the mouse. Unlike other clothing websites like Amazon or department store sites, TVtoWear will connect you directly with only those fashions you are interested in as seen on the likes of actresses like Sarah Jessica Parker.

To put together a pain-gain map for TVtoWear, we start by asking some key questions:

• What does a bad day look like for her?
• What is he afraid of?
• What keeps her awake at night?
• What is he responsible for?
• What obstacles stand in her way?
• What does this person want and aspire to?
• How does this person measure success?
• What can we offer this person?

Toyota's A3 Report

The story of Toyota's A3 Report (found here:  http://www.thequalityportal.com/notes/A3Shook.pdf) is an outline of how Toyota implemented a process to address not only the problem solving that goes on within a highly advanced company like theirs, but also a process they introduced to incorporate learning and enhanced mentoring.  

This process is sophisticated in the way it has been executed within Toyota, but the actual report itself is an interesting mix of both visual and common sense tactics.  The approach is broken down into easily consumable parts that include the following:

• Background on a problem
• Current Conditions
• Goals/Targets
• Analysis
• Proposed Countermeasures
• Plan
• Follow-up

These are all typical aspects of a strategy or project plan, but in this case developed in a way that helps junior engineers/employees to work through a problem without rushing to a solution.  It is intended to develop those skills that more experienced personnel demonstrate after having been through a variety of challenging scenarios over time.

I think this is an excellent mechanism for mentoring while accomplishing a given task or tasks in a thorough manner.  In my experience, there are limited methods in place (especially for larger corporations) to go through a process like this.  There are often opportunities for an individual to ask for input from more experienced or senior employees, but it can be left up to the individual.  In this case, there is more structure and in my opinion, a true hands-on experience that is more impactful than what many employers provide today.

Another positive thing I took away from this approach is the use of graphics and images to convey a message.  Some of this is based on statistics and some just used for mere demonstration.  It reminds me of work being done to simplify messaging to employees as well as customers.  One example of this is Edward Tufte, a specialist in the world of human interaction and design in general.  I've seen at least one presentation from him that has impacted the way I communicate whether it is internally or externally.  The more simple the message and less complicated powerpoints, documents, etc come into play the more likely you are to capture the attention of your audience.  I like this concept as a lesson in learning but also in how to communicate.  Here is a link to his blog: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/.