• Why do we have contracts?
• Why do we review bank statements?
• Why do we insist on warranties and guarantees?
• Why do we put funds into escrow?

The answer is, we don’t trust most of the people we do business with.   But some we distrust more than others.  This trust breaks down a couple of ways:

Trust in Intention:  Many of our business agreements involve future delivery of a good or service. As vendors, we believe that the customer has every intention of paying for the services we offer.  As customers, we believe the vendor honestly intends to deliver.  But we get it in writing because we know circumstances change.  When they took their vows, Mrs. Sanford believed that Governor Sanford would never betray and humiliate her.  Things changed.  But she trusted his intention at the time of the wedding or the would not have occured.

Trust in Representation:  The other kind of trust involves the representation of facts about the past or present.  This is a whole different ball game.  If Joe tells us he was at home watching "So You Think You Can Dance" last night, but we know that he was actually at a bar with a woman from Argentina, we call Joe a dirty liar. When we lose trust in a person’s honesty about the past, we will not sign a contract for the future.

Why Is This Important?

Trust is at an all-time low.  Harvard Business Review recently devoted an entire issue to rebuilding trust in companies and institutions. 

These charts show the level of trust among senior managers and executives toward other executives and consultants.  Since 2007, the men and women who run America’s businesses have lost faith in the integrity of their fellows. 

More importantly, they seem to have lost the second kind of trust.  They no longer trust other companies to tell the truth about what is or was. 

Ethically and morally, we’ve always been required to tell the truth.  If we sign up to deliver something in the future (Trust in Intentions), then we deliver, even at great cost to ourselves.  If we represent the current state of our business, our capabilities, or our accomplishments, we speak only pure and verifiable truth.  But when trust is already low, the slightest hint of dishonesty, of false representation, will permanently destroy a person’s reputation.  It will also destroy his or her business.

As we emerge from the current recession, look for integrity to be at least as important as capability when people and companies choose vendors. 

The executive committed a compound faux pas.  First, he attempted to read the missives aloud to a group.  Second, he had no idea what the abbreviations stood for. After beginning with “Bee too . . .”  the executive started over, substituting “Zee” for “Two.” 

Confidently, he announced, “Web tools that work for BeeZeeBee clients do not engage consumers in a BeeZeeSee program.”  He want on to read the rest of the paragraph amid sniggers from his direct reports and their direct reports.  He permanently lost credibility with the smartest people in the room.

The executive stopped learning long before this embarrassing episode.  Having achieved vice president, he figured he was done.  Nothing left to do but cost to retirement.  He lost his curiosity. 

If you find yourself confused by a phrase or word, learn it.   Then learn its history.  Then learn at least two adjacent ideas.  If you don’t believe me, believe Seth Godin. If you cannot bring yourself to remain curious about everything related to the business you’re in, then get the hell out.  Lack of curiosity makes you look like an idiot and steals money from your employer.  Those who depend on you for leadership will lose their jobs because your department will cost the company money and opportunity.

Trouble starts when when you’ve missed something new altogether.  One example is mobility and social media, which are now blending.

The market no longer looks at text messaging as a cool extra feature—it expects everyone to do it.  Mobile applications for smart phones and PDAs are quickly achieving the same “table stakes” status that a web site achieved a decade ago.  If you don’t have answers, you’ll soon find yourself in a terrible conversation with a client where you’ll learn that you are slow, old, predictable, and boring.

The problem most companies face when trying to catch the field—especially larger companies—is process.  The reason you fell behind is that your processes and culture discourage innovation.  Ten years ago, someone talked about mobile solutions and the organization collectively said, “no.”  Five years ago, that innovator raised the issue again, this time demonstrating a simple prototype.  The organization said, “we don’t have time: other priorities.”  Two years ago, the sales force said, “Everybody’s asking about our mobile capabilities,” and the organization answered, “Tell them its on the roadmap.”

Now it’s 2009, and your organization is the only one that doesn’t have a mobile solution.  You’re passing up $40 million a year in business because many prospects won’t even talk to you.  Your existing clients have you scrambling to interface with their mobile solution provider.

If you’re in this boat, don’t try to conquer the world.  It’s too late.  Instead, get one mobile solution in place, then tackle the next one.

Here’s your game plan:

• Contact a mobile solution provider you trust.  If you don’t know one, contact Message Buzz.  They are reputable, experienced, and ready to get you started in a day or two.
• Pick the simplest, meaningful SMS service you can possible deliver.  Example:  Text mybal to 35350 and receive your current account balance and last 3 transactions.  Another:  Text timcrank to 41411 and receive a link to a loyalty marketing social network.
• Use the simplest possible interface to the text messaging provider.  If an Excel spreadsheet of phone numbers and account balances can go out the door today, do it.  Improve the interface over time.
• Provide your customers, members, or clients with a mechanism to suggest mobile solutions they want.  For instance, text ‘idea’ plus the suggestion to a short code.
• Commit to adding one new mobile tool every month for the next year.

Again, if you have nothing to offer the mobile world now, you will probably never lead in mobility.  But you need some answer to everyone else who already has a solution.

This process applies to anything in which you’re behind.  If you don’t understand social media, create a Twitter account and tell the world you’re listening.  Or create a facebook account and tell your best 5 customers about it.

If you need more help with mobility or other solutions, email bill.hennessy@hennessygrp.com.  We’ll be happy to help.  Or text “helpstart” plus a short description of your needs to 41411, and we’ll get started right away.

Technorati Profile

• They break your working day into small, incoherent pieces on a schedule incompatible with the natural breaks in your flow
• They are normally all about words and abstract concepts, not real things (like a piece of code or a screen of design)
• They usually contain an abysmal low amount of information conveyed per minute
• They often contain at least one moron that inevitably get his turn to waste everyone’s time with nonsense
• They drift off subject easier than a rear-wheel driven Chicago cab in heavy snow
• They frequently have agendas so vague nobody is really sure what its about
• They require thorough preparation that people rarely do anyway [source]

In addition to the above from 37 Signals, I’ll add a few of my own:
• My youngest son, now 15, received an award for perfect attendance in kindergarten while I was in a meeting (1998)
• My wife needed reassurance and attention after a terrible event—but I was in a meeting (2008)
• Many days, I accomplish nothing of value or meaning because I’m in meetings

Peter Drucker wrote (more than once) on the evil of meetings.  Here’s a compilation, borrowed from Joe and Wanda:

Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One can not do both at the same time…There will always be more than enough meetings…Every meeting generates a host of little follow-up meetings—some formal, some informal, but both stretching out for hours. Meetings, therefore, need to be purposefully directed. An undirected meeting is not just a nuisance; it is a danger. But above all, meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule. An organization where everybody meets all the time is an organization in which no one gets anything done. Wherever a time log shows the fatty degeneration of meetings—whenever, for instance people in an organization find themselves in meetings a quarter of their time or more—there is time-wasting malorganization.

Drucker, who is still underappreciated in American business, knew of what he spoke.  The evils and costs of meetings cannot be measured, and most managers and executives would deny the facts if they saw them.

Here’s what you can do to stop this evil practice that is costing your company about 30 percent of its gross margin:

• DON’T BLOCK YOUR CALENDAR:  There are two reasons why blocking your calendar is a bad idea.  First, it’s immoral because it requires you to lie in order to avoid an evil meeting.  Second, most meeting planners are rude and pay no attention to your availability.  Second-point-five, why should you take an extra step in order to generate income for you company?
• REFUSE:  Unless the request is from your boss (or one of your seventeen bosses) or a client, you should say “no.”  Simple decline with the reply, “Thank you for valuing my input, but I will be preparing for [name a client/project/executive] presentation at this time.”   That’s all. 
• LEAVE 5 MINUTES IN:  The best way to make people stop inviting you to expensive meetings is to (rudely) get up and leave 5 minutes in.  Regularly.  As soon as you realize the meeting is a time waster less compelling than Tetris, gather your stuff and leave.  Simple as that.
• CHARGE YOUR TIME:  If you have an internal costing system, be sure to charge your time to the organizer’s project or department.  All of your time:  planning, preparation, follow-up, printing, thinking about it in the car. 
• POST COST:  Here’s an idea every manager will love:  create a meeting planning template that includes a simple budget.  Calculate your company’s blended labor cost rate ($50/hr is a good start).  Figure 30 minutes of prep and follow-up for every hour of meeting time.  The little sidebar calculator will look something like:

                       | Attendees:             5
                       | Hours:         2 (*1.5)
                       | Rate:                   $50
                       | Cost:                 $750

Before calling a meeting, state the problem in the form of a legal case analysis.  State the issue in the form of a question.  “Should we merge with Allerco?”  Provide the background and a recommendation.  Chances are, you will not need a meeting.  You can send the analysis to the people you would have invited, then either make the decision or forward your final recommendation to the decision maker.  At worst, you’ll hold a short meeting to argue wildly different recommendations in front of the decision maker.  But follow the standard legal case analysis you learned in Business Law, and you’ll have the answer 99 percent of the time. 

Finally, learn to hate meetings unless a client is paying for your time. 

Only a decade ago, I was required to wear a tie every day even when no clients were in the building.  No one complained because there was no other way for programmers and business people to dress:  you wore a tie if you were a man.  Women wore pant suits or skirts and never open-toed shoes.

Then the “casual Friday” thing started in some companies.  Out in Silicon Valley, companies like Apple made famous the “open collar”  and “no collar” worker–highly paid programmers and executives who wore jeans and t-shirts to work.  Next thing you know, business magazines and psychologists told us that business dress was a form of slavery.  More companies caved to casual.  Authors wrote books to teach knowledge workers how to dress casually–an art form much more complex than a suit and tie.

A friend and colleague recently decided to take a stand for tradition. Tim is not an executive.  He is not in a position to issue an edict requiring business dress of the whole company.  He is a true leader.  Risking ridicule and even damage to his career, Tim decided last week to wear a suit and tie to work every day.  He decided to stand out like a healthy thumb amidst a fistful of broken fingers.  He took a stand.

With the eonomy in depression or something near, perhaps we all need to grow up and start dressing like adults again.  While I won’t throw away my jeans, as George Will would like, I will join Tim tomorrow.  I want no credit for “leaderhip” on this, because Tim owns the title among my friends and colleagues.

Here’s to you, Timmy.  Perhaps you’ve done what Washington cannot–fix the economy with worsted wool and fine silk.

Most of the  time I spend browsing favorite sites is spent on my T-Mobile Dash.  I use Google Reader to gather them together in one spot.  But there are many sites that I would read regularly if they hadn’t pissed me off the first time I linked to them via Reader.  That’s because about half of these sites have not been optimized for mobile browsing.

By “optimized,” I mean made seemlessly accessible and enjoyable from a mobile device.  I do not mean having some special link or URL.  If you type http://blog.hennessygrp.com into your mobile browser, you will see something like this.  This is a free service from MoFuse.com which provides a WordPress plug-in to automatically redirect mobile browsers to the mobile version.  It took me 2 minutes to set up, and it makes my readers’ lives better.  If you don’t like MoFuse or don’t use WordPress, there are hundreds of other options.  Google ‘make website mobile’.  If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, check out this article.

When I read that 15 percent of iPhone users do not browse the web from their devices, I figures it’s because they like web sites run by people or companies who don’t care enough to provide a mobile version of their sites.  That’s too bad.  It leaves money on the table and irritates would-be fans.

Why is this?

What makes most companies insufferable bores?   The petty rules and conditions they build to protect some people from the ideas of others.  In other words, senior managers.

Here’s an example:  Most companies use some internally hosted and managed email system like Microsoft Exchange.  Around Exchange, they build a little empire of a VP, technicians, a data center manager, and policy czars.  Even for large companies that benefit from economies of scale, the average cost per user for Exchange is around $1,000 a year. That includes the storage and networking of user documents created with Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.    It includes all of the PDF files people save and share.  For a company of 2,000 employees, that’s $2 million a year.

Smart companies, on the other hand, use Zoho or Gmail.  Here, for about $50 per user per year, they get email, messaging, 25 GB of file storage, and someone else has the headaches of keeping it running. They get word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations that are just as feature-rich as Microsoft’s products.  Plus, sharing is inherently easier and users are less likely to email copies of a document.  That means less wasted disk space and fewer version problems.

Propose the idea of switching from Exchange, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to Zoho, though.  Boring companies with fiefdoms will toss you out the door faster than you turn on your Out of Office auto-responder.  Boring companines think its worth $2 million a year to avoid figuring out what to do with the 20 people who used to manage the email and document systems.

Boring Companies are in Trouble

If you look at the Wall Street Journal, you’ll see daily news about boring companies:  Citigroup, GM, Chrysler, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, etc.   All were icons of the boring company model.  All are gone or going or should have left already.

Look at the companies that thrive:  Google, Amazon, IDEO.  These are exciting companies that people pay attention to.   They’re not boring–not for a  minute.  They do what makes sense instead of what protect the golden VP.

If you want to thrive in any economy, don’t bore everyone.  Let go of the things you’ve always done.  Find out what someone else does better than you, and let them do it for you.

*UPDATE*  Seth Godin’s noticed the same thing.  So has Copyblogger.