Blue Print Birmingham and the North Jefferson Area

I looked for you, but the turn out, “tell us about it” crowd was so huge that I could have easily missed you on Thursday evening at the Birmingham Business Alliance launch of Blue Print Birmingham held at the new Pavilion at Railroad Park downtown. I did see several from our area with previous Gardendale Mayor Clemons in attendance as well as DeWayne Taylor from Alabama Power, and Kara Kennedy of Brock School of Business and our Fultondale Arts Council. Sharing the podium was Birmingham Business Alliance Interim Director, Barry Copeland, Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos and Birmingham Mayor William Bell.

Very cool, very beautiful, and certainly very exciting. I could say all of these words and it would be true, but what I really want you to understand is the role that business, and pro-business agendas play in bringing this type of vision to a crisp reality. The vision, put simply, is that the goal of the Birmingham Region will be to provide abundant economic opportunities, excellence in education, and an unparalleled quality of life for all of its citizens. Sounds like a nice place to live, work and raise a family if you ask me.

Blue Print Birmingham reminds us that we succeed or fail by the success or failure of our neighbors, and of course we all want to be surrounded by good neighbors that are not just successful, but active and engaged partners in our community. Blue Print Birmingham is a road map for Regional Cooperation of seven counties, of which Jefferson is but one, with a collective recognition of our strengths and opportunities. Our strengths have been recognized as health care services, natural beauty, cost of living, southeast location and of course our people. Our consistent top challenges and opportunities include quality public education, government cooperation, and leadership, creation of quality jobs, public safety and the attraction and retention of young professionals.

This road map is a 5 year plan for strategic growth of the greater Birmingham area. Birmingham has awakened to the understanding that it can not work in isolation, but needs the surrounding strength of growing communities in our region to move forward. Perhaps your city is the same. If you call yourself the Greater “Name your favorite city” Anything, perhaps now is the time to look up and around at the strategic partners that are found in the cities right next door. Partnered smartly, they can be your strongest ally. This 5 year plan is very specific with respect to goals for the first year. In the first year, effort will focus on new business, collaboration, and development of capacity for competitiveness, marketing, business retention, and the development of leadership councils. I serve on the Region IV Workforce Development Council, and it has been my exciting privilege to participate first hand in the opportunities that continue to develop daily from this work. Workforce development focuses on the improvement of pre-K to 12th grade education, with the ultimate purposes of growing our own talent. Efforts to accomplish this pull from our region’s two and four year colleges and universities with a heavy focus on making education relevant and pertinent to the learner and marketable and productive to the employer.

Work Force development is but one of the key four pillars of the Blue Print Birmingham. The pillars are 1) Workforce Development 2) Public and Private Leadership 3) Economic Prosperity and 4) Community and Regional Support. Every business person, civic leader, community leader, municipal leader or elected official has a way to plug in to one of these pillars. And you know what, it is just like voting. If you don’t participate, then for goodness sake do not complain. Want to learn more about Blue Print Birmingham? You will find more at http://blueprintbirmingham.com A cousin to this effort is the Greenway Master Plan that is working to connect neighbors, businesses, schools and create a strong sense of community here in the North Jefferson area. More on this to come but you can find information at the http://fivemilecreekgreenwaydistrict.org

Take a look and learn more. If you live in the Fultondale area, or work and live in the North Jefferson area in general, you are a stake holder is this endeavor.

The More Things Stay The Same.......

Our recent remembrance of 9/11 brought back many stories of courage. It is an event in our collective memory that will not soon fade as we recall tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Something struck me as very compelling as I watched the news coverage off and on last week on 9/11. Looking at the economic indicators for 9/11/2010 they were remarkably similar to the benchmarks recorded on 9/10/2001, the day before our attack. The Dow closed on 9/10/01 at 9605.41, and closed on 9/11 of this year a bit above 10,000. Not that far off. People were coming and going to work and school much in the same way that we are doing today.

But there are some differences that are striking though. In 2001, home ownership was common and existed as the primary savings investment of the average American. Financial crisis was triggered then by some business excess inventory or the more typical corporate malfunction or malfeasance. Now it is different. Now the instability is of a different nature. Now 1 in 7 homeowners are at risk of loosing their home. Now we have pervasive mistrust of government and its ability to put us back on track. There is pervasive mistrust of the ability of our fiscal policy to right any looming financial wrongs. According to Mort Zuckerman, CEO of Boston Properties and interviewed on Fox News (9/11/10), “The country has not forgotten. But we have lost our sense of unity. Now is not the time for everyman for himself.”
Listen to Bill Johnson, CEO of HJ Heinz, with his direct, no nonsense perspective on the effects this has on business. According to Johnson, put simply, there remains a lack of consumer confidence. Business is not buying. Business is waiting on concrete, structural change from leadership that will encourage spending. Short term policy fixes just do not work. Look at the 2003 Bush Taxcut effects for example. As businesses knew these cuts would be around 7-8 years, we saw the economy rise. It is not surprise that the economy stalls when there is discussion of removing those cuts. Consumers have basically gone underground and are looking for long term, predictable, sustainable policies. We would be wise and advised to remember this if short term economic stimulus is put into place to put a nice blush on the rose just in time for election only to see it whither and fall as soon as the ballot box closes.

According to previous Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, we are indeed safer because of the Patriot Act and cooperation around the world, but mainly because of the work of individual men and women like you and me. Men and women, who work hard, take care of their families and each other remaining constantly vigilant and engaged. The alert individual, paying attention to the daily details as we have learned, is more valuable than any government agency or watchdog. The big message here: if you find yourself in the next big storm, don’t wait for someone to pluck you from your roof. Prepare for the storm in advance. Now is the time to take inventory of your financial house and work to educate yourself. It is okay to demand more of yourself, and I would submit that it is okay to demand more of our politicians. And perhaps now is a good time for our politicians to demand more from themselves.

And remember, take care of your customers, or someone else will.

Your Chamber, BCA, CCAA and The Partnership

We have written here about the strong work of the Business Council of Alabama as their members work to forward a pro-business agenda. BCA is Alabama’s leading business and industry advocate representing nearly three quarters of a million working Alabamians. BCA is able to accomplish this by its partnership with the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama. CCAA and her 124 Chambers of Commerce statewide represent over 60,000 local business owners. I think that you will agree that it makes sense to link up the premier state business advocacy group, BCA, with the richest source of motivated business leaders, the members of the state and local Chambers of Commerce or CCAA. This has been done, and it is known as The Partnership. You may be surprised to know that Alabama is the first in the nation to cultivate this unique partnership between the Chambers of Commerce and business advocacy leadership. What has been created through The Partnership is a highly visible, forcefully active team that works to drive legislation and encourage lively debate while ultimately working to light the candle of accountability on our representatives. And by the way it represents more than 1 Million working Alabamians.

I had the opportunity to attend a leadership event with BCA this week where President and CEO, Billy Canary, announced their publication What If No One Was Watching? This has grown from a summary booklet to a now published book available at your bookstore. The writers document the legislative process, and progress, for Alabama as it affects business. Bookmark the site www.bcatoday.org for timely updates on key legislative drivers that will affect your business. You will find today, right now, a clear explanation of the pro-business impact of decreasing the tax burden on business, the need for secret ballot voting in union elections, the need for education dollars to be spent in the classroom and to support charter schools, the need for tax credits to allow employers to provide health coverage for employees, and the need to implement climate change policy that will advantage Alabama and the Southeast at large for work force development. Pro-Business and high accountability, I sure am glad someone is watching. The bottom line, as stated by Mr. Canary is that “We believe the need to act comes as much because of our economic situation as despite it.” “Our mission is to stand tall for those who create jobs and opportunities for the people of our State,” said Canary.

There is a saying that “all politics is local,” and with organizations such as The Partnership this is made a reality. In the not to distant past most would view our government leaders as distant and removed from our daily concerns, and I believe this has led to the apathy and low participation in voter effort in the past. Now due in part to the speed of information via the internet and the significant human effort by organizations like BCA and CCAA through The Partnership, we now can feel that we are not just able to participate in the process, but eagerly sought out as contributors.

Why should you follow BCA and CCAA efforts? If you are a member of your local Chamber of Commerce then you are very likely already a member by extension of these two organizations. Ask your Chamber leadership to keep you up to date on the BCA legislative bulletins, meetings and events and plug in to this key support for Alabama business. Through this relationship with your Chamber you can sit at the table and have active participation in legislative business development that drives (or may hinder) your business.

Body Language and the Handshake

Attending a recent early morning meeting, I was taken with the abundance of unspoken words. Just looking around the group was a vast array of stance, shifting, hand shaking, eye movements and a volume of language before the first word was ever spoken. The early work in body language is typically credited to Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud, but I think we learn the most from cavemen and poker players. It is interesting science to be sure, but the reality is that we humans have relied instinctively on body language for thousands of years. Cavemen certainly needed body language if for no other reason than other communication did not fully exist. If you have ever played a good game of cards, you can learn a lot by just looking at the movement around the table to see who is bluffing.

Body language has evolved in spite of human tendencies. We humans do have a tendency for lies, deceit, manipulation and pretending. Masking our true feelings just seems to be in our nature. It would seem that body language has evolved as a type of guardian angel to work to keep us at least a little honest. Body language works to help us communicate and resolve issues when the words just fail us.

Darwin’s book The Origin of the Species was far outsold by his other book called The Expressions of the Emotions of Man and Animals published in 1872. In this work, Darwin discusses the six universal emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise and anger. The general idea is that man’s expression and the ability to recognize them are inborn and universal among people. You could smile in the most lost, remote part of the word, and it will mean the same thing as if you were saying thank you to the waitress at Cracker Barrel. It is a part of human evolved nature, genetically inherited, not driven by social learning and conditioning.

But……As study in this area has grown, we understand that there is a nature and nurture component. Cultural and ethnic differences as well as age and gender, all play into how we understand each other. Think for a moment on the most simple of greeting: The Handshake.

Body language involves consideration of the hands to a very high level, and it is no wonder. The hands have more nervous system connections to the brain than any other part of the body. Tactile sensitivity and manual dexterity are clearly human traits, and we should not take it for granted when we are speaking. How many of you can quite literally say very little should you be forced to put your hands behind your back? We use our hands for emphasis, illustration, conscious signaling and greetings as well as the unconscious signals. Body language research supports the idea that we just say more with our hands than practically anything else. It has been suggested that the handshake evolved to show that no weapon was in the hand, as did the open palm gesture. But a handshake isn’t everything that we may think. While a good, firm handshake is looked for and expected in business, too firm, and you may come across as domineering. A good handshake from a woman today goes over a lot better than the curtsy that we were relegated to a century or so ago.

So what does your handshake say about you? Palm down and you may be a bit domineering. Palm up is too submissive. A two handed shake suggests honesty, but shake my hand while clasping my forearm and you just stepped over to controlling and arrogance.
Who knew that we could say so much while saying so little?

The Eyes Have: Body Language and Business

Let’s visit a bit this week some more on the useful understanding of body language in the terms of our professional conversations. I had several comments of interest to learn more on the topic, so let’s spend some time learning about the eyes.

Our ability to ‘read’ people’s eyes without knowing how or why seems to be inborn. We are able to make eye contact from about 100 to 130 feet away well past the distance where we can really see the detail of someone’s eyes. We can see whether someone is really focused on us or not, and we can detect the difference between the glazed blank stare, the drop dead look, the embarrassed awkward glance or the moist eyes of fighting back tears. When we additionally consider the eyelids, and the flexibility of the eyes to widen and close, and for the pupils to enlarge or contract, it becomes easier to understand how the eyes have developed such potency in human communications. One subtle measure is the widening of the pupils when someone of emotional interest walks into a room.
Eyes tend to look right when the brain is imagining or creating, and left when the brain is recalling or remembering. This relates to the right and left sides of the brain and broadly stated the parts of the brain handling creativity and feelings dwells in the right while and facts and memory hang out in the left. The research behind this is called Neuro-linguistics Programming theory, or NLP Theory, was developed in the 1960s and has its range of skeptics and supporters. In general, NLP delves into the idea that there are patterns of behavior and patterns of thought that underlie them. The research and theory is used today in organizational development strategy and organizational change management. In this example it centers on the idea that under certain circumstances 'creating' can really mean lying. So if a person looks right when asked a question requiring a recall of facts, they may be making those facts up. Or it could mean that the person isn’t really lying, but is uncertain of the answer, and is creatively speculating. Either way it may be good to know that a look right in search for an answer to a direct question means that the person is probably lying or guessing according to this theory. What you really want to see is a direct straight on look with the direct straight on answer.
NLP theory and the Mehrabian's model that we discussed here in a previous article are both seminal pieces of work in understanding behavior, and it's amazingly helpful in explaining the importance of careful and appropriate communications. And like any model, care must be exercised when transferring it to different situations. The idea may not work as cleanly when you consider communication via email, telephone or video conferencing when so much of the communication “package” is eliminated. Imagine how you feel when you receive a text message with a request that is followed by multiple question marks and exclamation points as opposed to a : - ) or the message that you send when you pause a long time before speaking on the telephone. The reader or listener in each example gets the message loud and clear that the sender or speaker is irritated, anxious or impatient. One suggestion here for you is to put a mirror by the phone if you do a considerable amount of phone work to check your facial expression while speaking….you may surprise yourself to see what you are REALLY saying. Here is a suggestion on texting for you too. Don’t do it while driving. Enough Said.Remember, take care of your customers, or someone else will

BCA: Looking Forward to the Business of Business

I was able to attend the 2010 Governmental Affairs Conference hosted by the Business Council of Alabama. With the title of “Looking Forward to the Business of Business,” I knew that it would be time well spent. I was not disappointed, and the opportunity to meet many of our Alabama Legislatures up close and personal was a rare opportunity. Many of our representatives were present, and please know that they are hard at work for all of us here in the North Jefferson area.

BCA remains committed to a pro-business legislative agenda, and the content of this event maintained that position. While key information filtered through multiple conversations, one point was loud and clear, the business community must take a lead in the political arena. The members of the business community create the jobs, not the government anyway, so why would you not step up to the plate. The bottom-line challenge here is to remind business leaders that it is our responsibility to drive the synergy of post-election leadership and stridently remind them of their need to support business now.

The event moved quickly forward with Governor Riley presenting at the breakfast event on Saturday morning. The Honorable Bob Riley reminded the audience of his consistent platforms to seek funding and support for economic development, to reform education needed to prepare the work force, and to seek ethics reform laws which foster healthy, sustainable partnership and growth. The Governor also reminded the group that economic development is grounded in the creation of a product, adding value to that product and then selling it. Making his point that economic development is not gambling, he received strong applause.

I have always been told to begin with the end in mind, and sharing insight into that effort were key note speakers Peter Hart and Frank Luntz. As a leading pollster and public policy expert, Mr. Hart has a legacy of shaping trends and is noted for representing 40 United States Senators and 30 governors. Frank Luntz has been named the “Nostradamus of Polls” and is one of the most honored communications professionals in the country. The end that we should have in mind here is having our chosen candidate win the election. To insure that outcome, we must first step back and understand the mood of the country. As I have written here before, you can not lead where you will not go, and you need to know where you want to end up. According to Hart and Luntz, there are some important feelings a float out here, and now is the time to take note.

Turning on the news you are certain to hear about the oil spill, health reform and the occasional story about Lindsey Lohan, but polls show that the issues of importance are really jobs at 55%, energy and oil at 38%, and a big desire to cut government spending at 29%. Healthcare only hits the radar with 19% stating that it is a key issue, and 44% of those are not happy that Healthcare Legislation has passed. There are a multitude of concerns floating out there that have the attention of the voter base. Think about the 36% that feel the recession will persist another 2 years, or the 33% that are concerned that they may loose their job. If you factor in immigration issues, it begins to get tough to see the end at all.

The mood is very anti-incumbent with 57% favoring someone, anyone, new. About 50% just want a third party and to start up fresh. So many issues, so little time, but one thing is certain, the needle on the magnet is starting to polarize in a big way toward the independents. Just who are these 23% of party neutral new voters? The Holy Grail of voter this year is the highly coveted disenchanted independent voter. Is that you? Even more key, are you the coveted disenchanted independent who is pro-business? Not sure what good pro-business policy looks like? You can find some strong pro-business direction by going to www.bcatoday.org where they weigh in on tax policy, right-to-work, public education, environmental and energy legislation, and common sense health reform that will take care of current problems and not create new ones.

Where is Paul Revere when you need him for a call to action? What we need now is a call to become an informed voter for once and for all. Don’t mark that box or pull that lever or hang that chad until you do a little open minded research on your candidates. And if you don’t vote, for goodness sake, don’t complain.

Remember, stay informed to better take care of your customers, or someone else will.

The next meeting of the Fultondale Chamber will be held for lunch on August 24th with Logan Hinkle, Attorney with Burr and Forman presenting on Health Reform Legislation and how to prepare your business for the impact. Location and sponsorship by the Comfort Suites in Fultondale. Logan is an Adjunct Professor at Cumberland School of Law and teaches a course on ERISA and Employee Benefits. Good Stuff. Please join us. Email to visemedical@bellsouth.net

Does Your Reputation Create A Competitive Advantage?

If I ask you to list elements of your organization that make it competitive you would probably list your product, your sales team, your education, your leadership strategy, maybe your pipeline of products, or your longevity in the marketplace. What about your reputation though? The idea of reputation as a competitive advantage is a fairly new market consideration that has been born in the times of market frustration with governmental and corporate mistrust. We have discussed here previously that marketers are waking up to the awareness that trust is a perishable asset. Distrust of corporations is at an all time high, and that is not good news. “Trust is what drives profit margin and share price,” says Larry Light, consultant veteran with McDonald’s. It is what consumers are looking for, and share with each other.

Typically companies would be categorized into one of several types such as banking, pharmaceuticals, retail, fast food or medical. The goal is to carve yourself out from the category in which you find yourself. It is important to not be one of the masses as a large, faceless entity, but rather to be a distinct company with your own creative presence, personality and REPUTATION. The primary way to keep your organization from moving toward being perceived as a commodity where your market is based only on price is to succeed in building a positive reputation. A positive reputation will allow you to sustain premium pricing. A strong value proposition that includes a good reputation for quality and innovation will allow a company to charge and price goods accordingly.

How do you do this? Transparency in executive pay as well as company performance and responsibility is a good beginning. A strategic effort toward creating a more socially responsible face is key as well. Customers are watching and they are looking for a more altruistic and ethical corporate face. In fact, there is an evolving reputation-monitoring science. Companies appraise a reputation not only on specific values such as trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling but also how the company engages its stakeholders. Yes the products and services are key, but they are evaluated not just in quality but also on innovation, workplace governance, sense of citizenship, and leadership.

. According to BusinessWeek (July 2007), “Sure it looks great to tell the world about your innovative culture or that you are the greenest company, but does this really move the needle with your target customers and investors?” How does reputation effect the bottom-line? While this is early science, a few general connections have been found. The Reputation Institute (Singapore, December 2004) has found that a 5% positive change in reputation translates into a 3-5% change in market capitalization. Indeed, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer in 2006 quality, customer service and strong financial performance drove trust. After the financial meltdown that we have been through it is little surprise that financial performance dropped to number ten on the trust list. The top drivers for corporate trust in 2010 are transparency, honest practices, and high quality products.

Whether you are an AIG or a Ford, a local grocery store, or a neighborhood salon, take a look at the loyalty factor of your employees. Employee loyalty is the only way to insure the health of your reputation. We can not assume that employees are grateful for dodging the last downsizing bullet. With corporate loyalty down, it is not surprising that customer trust is down too. Sylvia Ann Hewlett writes in the Harvard Business Online to “Go Pro Bono to Rescue Morale.” Corporate involvement in philanthropy can help polish your brand and hold on to top talent. As we have written here previously in the Top Ten Ways to have Great Customer Service, you need to partner with your customer in something bigger than just your sales model. Pick a project with your employees and customers in a philanthropic endeavor as a tool to recreate that positive energy that may be dwindling. There are many advocacy groups with direct impact on your bottom-line. Now is the time to roll up your shirt sleeves, jump in with your team and customers and help out.