Big Is The New Small

The announcement of Kodak going bankrupt was a shocker.  Not a shocker because you couldn’t see it coming, but a shocker because yet another once iconic, innovative brand is on life support.  This has been a work in progress for quite some time, as there were front-page newspaper articles in the late 1990′s showing that Kodak had to lay off 10,000 employees. (Writing on the wall)

There are definite reasons why these companies are dying and those same reasons contributed to the failure of other predeceased brands.  American Airlines – Bankrupt, Yahoo – Up for Sale, RIM Blackberry - Stick A Fork In Em’ and Sears is closing stores around the country.  The list of these major brands that will soon be a part of the history books continues to increase.

How can these brands find themselves in the grips of extinction?  The same way that you, your organization, church, non-profit or name your favorite brand can end up in the same place.  You should see a developing theme as most are in the same vein.

10 Reasons Why Kodak, Blackberry, Yahoo & Other Major Brands Fail

• 1. Inability to Innovate - Unable to produce new, noteworthy and fruit producing ideas.
• 2. Inability to Stay Ahead of The Times - Only look at the here and now, no forward thinking.
• 3. No Adjustments - Not adjusting to the market place or technology of competitors.
• 4. Uncle Rico Syndrome - Just like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite was living off of his 1983 successes, many brands are living off of yesterday’s wins.
• 5. The Top Stays The Same - Unwillingness to change the key leadership players (especially in upper management).
• 7. Inbred Syndrome - Only hire from within and unwilling to bring outside folks with fresh eyes and fresh perspectives into the fold.
• 8. Reluctance to Take Risks - Playing it safe for a prolonged a period of time can be detrimental.  Most brand success stories have many instances of taking risks.
• 9. Refuse to Surround Themselves With and Retain The Best - Letting key players leave without creating opportunities for them to stay.  Some of the best innovations from high profile brands come from key players that were acquired from another brand.
• 10. Unwillingness To Change - They simply want things to be the way that they used to be.

I’ve always been intrigued by leaders, coaches and teams that use the phrase “Surrounded By The Best!” You would think this would be an obvious or natural response for all leaders “I Want To Be Surrounded By The Best!”  The reality is that many leaders desire to be the best and surround themselves with mediocrity.

The word best is an illusive term; however it’s defined as – being of the highest quality, excellence, the best work, desirable etc. With that definition in mind, a leader should always strive for the best. It’s also important for leaders to understand that they are ultimately responsible for developing their team to be the best.

If you look at sports teams that have a tradition of winning and being the best, you will find a head coach that surrounds himself with the best assistant coaches in the business.  You will also find a program where everyone in the country is trying to recruit and hire those assistant coaches.  Why? It’s simple, just as the definition states: they are high quality, desirable and the best.

I remember visiting with an executive level leader of an organization and he was talking about his senior leader’s philosophy as it relates to their leadership team.  His senior leader has a desire to be surrounded by the best and said it this way, “I want guys on my team who are high capacity, high quality, I want the best.  I want guys on my team whose phone rings from people outside of our organization.  I want the guys that other guys want.”

I shared a post early this over a year ago titled – The Best Leader that outlines OU Head Football Coach Bob Stoops’ leadership and the sending out of 7 head coaches in the last 7 years.  As I look at the current College Football AP Poll, I notice that Bob Stoops has 1 Coach that was under his leadership tutelage in the top 10 and himself: Bo Pelini (#10 Nebraska) and Bob Stoops himself (#1 Oklahoma).

If you want to be Surrounded By The Best, you must embrace these three things:

• 1. It’s your responsibility to develop your team and give them opportunities to be the best. (Even though Oklahoma doesn’t win every national championship, Stoops has had them in a position to win it, year after year.  The best leaders maximize the potential of those they lead…  they put their people in the best position to win.)
• 2. You have to give those that are “The Best” room to fly, dream big and try new things. (Learn from Google (The Best Search Engine allows employees to spend twenty percent of their time to work on their own project, independent of their workgroup. Google believes that no one should leave in order to pursue their personal passions. Letting employees do this results in over twenty percent of Google’s new product launches has stemmed from these personal projects.  There can and should be a marriage between “High Capacity” talent and great organizations; they are not mutually exclusive.)
• 3. You must openly embrace that best will not only be sought after, but sometimes the best will leave and take those best practices other places. (7 Division-1 Head Coaches in 7 years & don’t forget about the ESPN All Access to the Sooner program that aired a couple days ago and part 2 tonight.)

Anyone can be the best with hard work, commitment, dedication, learning, leading and having the willingness to be Surrounded By The Best.  dream BIG. think BIGGER.

Share your thoughts on Surrounded By The Best.

First of all I want to thank everyone who has supported the Church Diversity movement by either purchasing a copy of the book or sharing the message in their sphere of influence.  As I travel around the country and share the message I’m constantly amazed at how ready the Body of Christ is to receive the message.  There are churches that are taking their entire congregation through the book, small groups and individuals just like you and I that desire to see a little “Heaven on Earth.”

Again, the message is being very well received and I simply want to say, “Thank You.”  My publishing New Leaf Publishing Group is offering Church Diversity: Sunday The Most Segregated Day Of The Week for only $4.99 for 72 hours.  This promo is going out to those of you who are a part of the BigIsTheNewSmall.com and ChurchDiversity.com communities.

Church Diversity will be available for purchase in Kindle, Nook, iBook, Sony Reader or PDF formats for only $4.99 from nlpg.com. Purchasers can also request a complimentary copy be sent to their pastor.  That’s right for the next 72 hours you and your friends can purchase a digital copy of Church Diversity for only $4.99 (right here) and a complimentary copy be sent to your pastor.  That’s like a double deal.

Thanks again for your support, please share this within your social media circles.  Did I just type circles?  Must be thinking about Google+, just when I thought Facebook and Twitter were enough.

#FistBump & Thanks for your support…  We are just getting started!

Let’s face it, Groupon is the reigning supreme champion in the social buying world. They have been estimated to be worth billions and their copycat lil’ brother LivingSocial isn’t lagging very far behind.

Although they are both raising millions of dollars in funding and everything appears to be hunky-dory, I think it’s only a matter of time before they are both done.

3 Reasons Groupon and Living Social Will Die:

• 1. Numbness of Frequency- As much as I like a good deal, I’m beginning to tune both LivingSocial and Groupon out of my email in box.  People will become numb to the daily frequency of the deals.
• 2. Divided Market Share- There will continue to be copycat daily deal sites pop up all over the net.  The market share will continue to diminish and the next latest greatest “thing” is just around the corner.
• 3. Weak Deals- The deals are kind of weak… it seems like I’m getting more and more spa deals and the merchants seem to be getting smarter and featuring discounts on items with high price-tags.

I could be wrong, but I think we are seeing the beginning of the end.

What do you think?  Add to the list…

I’m not sure that I’m writing this post because it’s true or because I want it to be true.  Over the years and especially in this text message day and age I’m feeling that e-mail is dying.  Personally, I’m horrible about checking my voicemail and sometimes I can go a week or longer without checking them.  Before you say ’That’s Crazy” or “You’re a pastor, how can you do that?”  My answer is, just because I don’t check my voicemail doesn’t mean I don’t respond to those leaving a message.

I actually have my voicemail message say something like “This is Scott sorry that you missed me, either try back in a few or send me a text message.”   As far as I know, every cell-phone has a missed call ledger and what I do is call back every single missed call.  I have returned some calls and received a random person answering the phone from a restaurant or business, but they are few and far between.  It’s pretty much that simple: if I miss your call, I will call you back, if you text me, I will call you back and by the time I listen to your voicemail there is a high probability that we have already talked.  I’m not going to address the fact that you can connect with me via e-mail or Twitter… that’s a whole nutha story.

I am waiting for Google Voice to go public with their application, which will totally change the world.  It may not change the world; however it will change the world of cell-phone call management.  Currently Google Voice is only open to Grand Central users and I have some friends that use it and it’s amazing… everything from persoanl call screening to translation of voicemail messages to text messages. Voicemail Is Dying and Google Voice Will Change The World.  Click here to learn more about Google Voice.

Am I the only one that thinks Voicemail is Dying?  Do you check your voicemail’s regularly? Share your thoughts on my process or voicemail in general.  If you’re a Google Voice user, please share your experience!

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading BigIsTheNewSmall.com  Think Big… Think Small!

Remember that old television show “Kids Say The Darndest Things…”  well I think Google should come up with their own show entitled: People Google The Darndest Things.  I will periodically check my referrals from sitemeter, in order to see how blog visitors arrive at BigIsTheNewSmall.com.   Let me tell you, people find my blog from searching the most hilarious, ridiculous, sad, normal, scary, stupid… things.  I’m not sure if it’s because of my blog title, controversial post titles or whether some people just randomly google the darndest things. 

Below are 10 random searches that I found in just the last 100 search referrals:   

1. i wonder if she thinks about me.com
2. do Bob Stoops’ kids go to church
3. advice for pastors what to do when someone confesses sex crimes
4. tithe off gross or net
5. Madagascar porn
6. attracted to my pastor
7. madagascar 2 quotes moto moto
8. christians make me sick
9. small porn
10. why pastoring sucks

Any of these searches get you attention, make you laugh, cry, say hmm…?   Share some of the darndest things that people have searched to find your blog.