Ohio State football coach Ryan Day earned a $250,000 bonus when his team beat Clemson in the Sugar Bowl. His quarterback, Justin Fields (who received no compensation), was unfortunately injured during that game. If you were Coach Day, would you have asked Fields to play in the upcoming national championship game against Alabama? A similar situation confronted Fields’ high school coach, who kept Fields out of his final game as a high school senior. The coach did not want a broken finger to damage his star player’s long-term career prospects. The high school coach placed player well-being over other measures, as coaches should. But was this true for Ohio State? I doubt it, owing to this indicator: Coach Day would earn another $350,000 bonus should Ohio State beat Alabama. But the bonus he receives for coaching his players to maintain 3.0-grade averages is…
Six best practices for shaping organizational culture
With the New Year approaching, it’s time to rethink your organization’s culture and not just its goals. Here are best practices for leveraging your culture to create business success. Winnow your list of values Across the street from my house sits a welcoming red-tile-roofed Catholic grade school campus with bright white adobe walls. The children wear navy blue uniforms, and the well-kept Catholic Church at its center has the charm only decades can bestow. School leaders recently placed banners naming the school’s values on the wire-fenced wall enclosing the playground: Sharing Stewardship Respect Service Gratitude Empathy Cooperation Celebration Building peace The school has too many values! What is the essence of the culture the school is trying to create? I understand the fine-tuning the administrators sought to articulate – empathy is different than gratitude – but what is at the school’s core? What…
Business Model Strategy Built on Collaboration Succeeds
Two vastly different news stories, one about Alzheimer’s and the other about dollar stores, together convey an important strategic leadership lesson about the importance of alignment with partners in achieving an organization’s goals. Dollar stores (Dollar General, Family Dollar Stores and Dollar Trees) are growing rapidly at the expense of Walmart. Recently the dollar stores have added a lot more branded products e.g., Kraft, Heinz and others. Better packaged food selections, plus dollar stores’ closer (than Walmart) proximity to low-income neighborhoods has attracted new customers and larger shopping trips as rising gas prices increase the cost of driving to Walmart. Lipton Cold Brew Iced Tea and Jello No-Bake Cheesecake in a dollar store? I suspect that after decades of Walmart’s ruthless purchasing practices, consumer goods companies seek any opportunity to diversify their channels to gain supplier power to fight Walmart’s Herculean purchasing power….