How Biographical is your Business?

I had a chance this weekend to visit the Assyrian exhibit at the Boston Museum of fine arts. The antiquities on display were from the British Museum and it was pretty fascinating to see how advanced these almost forgotten people were. They were really ahead of their time so to speak. They had proven themselves to be a formidable military power that was pretty much unstoppable - what happened?
Well , like Winston Churchill had said - "good history is biographical" and that was true with Assyria as well. As long as the King was strong the nation was strong. Sure, the empire could weather the occasional bad ruler but when there were a few in a row things fell apart - and the competing nations took note of the weakness. In other words a nation is merely a reflection of the Ruler.
What about the leadership during this time of economic strain? Are you able to keep your company ahead of the curve? are you able to maintain focus? Are you able to fight off the more aggressive competitors? Do your people trust you and look to you for the right guidance?
So often, like running an empire, Business is Biographical.

Winning Against the Odds

A.D 60 and the Romans had suffered several humiliating defeats at the hands of a woman. Boudicca was queen of the Icini and she was now pursuing the last remaining obstacle to her returning the rule of Brittania back to her people - Seutonius stood in her way with two legions, a little more than 10,000 men facing as many as 100,000 Icini warriors.
Seutonius was moving quickly because he was trying to find some ground to fight on that favored his army - and he did. When Boudicca and her army arrived they certainly could have moved on and fought somewhere else but by now they were so emotionally involved and in a frenzy that didn't happen. Needless to say and long story short the Romans won.
The question for business leaders is this - are your sales people fighting the competitive situations they face on their own ground? Or are they fighting on the prospects terms or even worse on the competitors turf? Are they disciplined and trained enough to stand their ground in the most trying of situations and come of victorious?
Good questions and you might want to start by rating your sales force -here

Breaking Down the Doors

Most business people would feel that people "breaking down the doors" in order to do business with you would be a good thing. Maybe that expression is not so popular after the events of this past weekend where two workers were killed by a charge of greedy consumers hoping to save $50 at their local Wal Mart - yes I called them greedy!
I personally hate Wal Mart - not because of the big corporate bully bad guy image it has acquired but if I am being totally honest everytime I have had the displeasure of entering one of their stores I simply hate being with the people - the people that work there and the people that shop there. I don't have the type of buy-cycle that forces me to shop at a place where price is everything and the others do - I am sort of a fish out of water the minute I walk in.
That is why I would never be among the throngs of Idiots that head out the day after Thanksgiving at 4:00am in order to secure a minor savings. I certainly would like to think that no decent sales person would be among that group either. Most rational people who understand their value and time would not wake up at an ungodly hour and spend extra time in a crowded store to save maybe $100 - it actually would amount to a net loss!
So now they are talking about law suits - who should be sued? Well obviously they are going to all proceed against Wal Mart. My alternative - collect the names of every person that was there that morning by looking at every transaction in the first 2 - 3 hours and prosecute them all! After all they were the greedy people responsible for this tragedy. It was their feet that trampled the workers.