Lessons Learned from the MBA Break

Because BYU is located in Provo, UT and quite a distance from the major hiring and employment areas, we don't get a huge number of companies "stopping by" campus, so it is up to us to go and visit them. This usually means trying to cram a trip into a weekend or leave on a Thursday night right after classes and do all you can on a weekend, or just miss classes all together. To help us out, we have a few "MBA Breaks" scheduled throughout the year, one of them being this last week.

Since I have either already visited or have a fly-back to the companies I am interested it, I decided to join some of my other colleagues on a "golfcation" in Saint George, UT and escape the single-digit temperatures we have been having in Provo. It was a much needed and appreciated break. The mid-50 degree weather was a nice change and I was able to relax, golf, eat good food and hang out with family and friends. Being back in freezing Provo has had me missing the warmer weather and reflecting on my several experiences. In doing so, I have come up with 3 lessons learned from my break.

1. Emails walk back faster when they are not being waited for. That might not make much sense but let me explain. I'm pretty tech savvy and understand how email works, but for some reason, maybe because of all the cartoons I used to draw as a kid, when I send an email, I imagine a cartoon email character like so:

I load up my little email with info and send it running off to relay the information to the recipient. They then stuff in their reply and send it running back. Over the past few weeks I have sent quite a few emails running off and have been anxiously waiting their return. As I sit at my computer waiting for the response, I find myself wondering if something happened to my little email on his way. Did he trip and fall, did he never even get out the door, or maybe he can't get back into my inbox? I sit and stare at my inbox wondering what must have gone wrong, I send out test emails from various email accounts to ensure that everything is working properly and hope my little email is doing well.

It turns out, the more you watch and wonder, the longer it takes. Kind of how a watched pot never boils I guess. As I was driving down to Saint George I remember thinking I hope my emails are okay and walk back over the break. Sure enough, midway through the break, several of the emails I had been waiting for came "sauntering" through my inbox. I was pretty happy to see them.

2. Be happy in the moment and enjoy it. We spent the last day of the trip sitting outside in the sun in shorts and tee shirts...in 57 degree weather. The warm weather made it easy to be happy in the moment, and knowing that we had to drive back to Provo where it was 1 degree helped us really appreciate what we had and to take the time to enjoy it.

It makes me think of how anxious I am to know what the future holds and want to focus on the future, but I need to take the time to "sit in the warm weather" of where I am right now.

3. No matter how good of a shot you have, stay off of the green until everyone is on. One of the main activities of the trip was to golf and network with my fellow MBA's. The plan was to get in 2 rounds of 18. Unfortunately for me (and the rest of my foursome) we were only able to get through 8 holes the second day. The first day was a bit cold and I was a bit rusty, but by the second day I was doing pretty good. On the 8th hole, a par 3, I hit a great shot and left it about 8 feet from the pin! Two of us landed the green and the other two were just off to the side in a bunker. Excited about my birdie opportunity, I ran onto the green to start lining up my putt...I should have waited. As I was crouching down looking at my putt I heard a swing and looked up only to lock eyes with a ball coming straight at me. One of the golfers in the foursome was trying to get out of the sand, took a full swing, and accidentally bladed his shot and sent a line drive my way. It was coming so fast I didn't even have time to react. It hit me right on my eyebrow and knocked me back. I grabbed my eye in pain and started to feel the warm blood pouring through my hand. One of the others saw the blood and ran and grabbed a towel. We grabbed our stuff and headed back to the club house. Once we got there we were able to assess the damage, and it was pretty clear that I would need stitches. (Disclaimer: If you are squeamish don't look at the picture below) Everyone in my foursome was very kind to leave their round of golf early and accompany me to the instacare to get stitched up. I was lucky that my brow took the brunt of the hit and my eye was fine, aside from some ugly bruising and swelling.  Apparently the ball hit so hard, instead of just splitting the brow, it busted it open in several directions. I ended up getting 8 stitches and a very sore brow.

So learn from my mistakes, next time you land one on the green, wait to approach your putt until everyone has a putter in hand.

Stitches aside, it was a great vacation. I had fun, have a great story to tell, and learned the overarching lesson of patience.

Nail It Then Scale It and Chick-fil-A

This semester I have had the opportunity to take a class from Nathan Furr, co-author of "Nail It Then Scale It" (NISI). The basics of NISI are that start-ups fail because they are doing the right things, but in the wrong order. Often entrepreneurs focus on building the perfect product before involving the customer. They come up with an idea/product and jump right in to raise capital and build a company around it, only to find that their customers are not buying the product. Either the product is not relevant or the customer wants something else. The entrepreneur has now invested so much time and money that they can no longer pivot or change, and ultimately go out of business.

In NISI, the process is rather simple but often overlooked. You start with a pain, not a solution--identifying the pain through getting out of the office and testing and validating it with customers. Once you have nailed the pain, you can start on the solution. That does not mean to invest a lot of time and money building a perfect prototype or final product, but to conduct rapid tests with customers with minimum feature sets, virtual prototypes and tangible prototypes. By getting the hypothesis and minimum feature set in front of the customer early and often, it will help you nail the solution and provide you the opportunity to pivot and change before it is too late.

At NSHMBA this last weekend I received a copy of "How Did You Do It, Truett?" by the founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy. In his book, Cathy talks about how he started and grew Chick-fil-A to where it is now, a $4 billion company. As I was reading on the flight back home, I was amazed to read that Cathy built his company and his products on NISI principles. A few quotes from the book:

"We had to take special care...to make sure fried chicken was prepared properly, especially drumsticks. If you didn't cook it just right...customers would send it back and ask for another piece. So the problem wasn't the chicken, it was the bone." 

"So when I tried various ways of preparing the boneless, skinless chicken breast, I always offered samples to customers and asked for their opinions. I tried a lot of different seasonings, and each time I changed the recipe, I asked customers how they liked it and what they thought I might change to make it better...As I closed in on the right recipe for the meat, customers told me they wanted just a bit more zest. Instead of adding more spice to the seasoning, I tried two dill pickles. My customers loved it." 

"We take advantage of out biggest opportunities when we keep it simple."

Truett Cathy, unknowingly, was applying NISI principles 60 years ago. He understood that by looking at the pain/problem he could then build the perfect solution. If he kept the customers involved in the process from the start, he could develop exactly what they wanted. Anyone who has had an original Chick-fil-A sandwich knows how perfect it is, and it is not by chance. In addition, he understood that by keeping things simple, he could pivot and take advantage of opportunities he could not see. Originally he started a restaurant called "The Dwarf House." As he saw peoples food consumption shift to chicken, he was able to pivot because he was not so fully invested to another idea or product that he couldn't shift. I think one of the reasons that Chick-fil-A has been so successful over the years is that they understood the correct way to innovate and start with the customer and their pain and to get out of the office/kitchen and get the ideas in front of customers.

I spoke with Nathan Furr about this and he made the comment that the NISI principles are not new principles. After reading Cathy's book, I see that it is true. I think that anyone who reads NISI would say that it seems like common sense, but it's in the execution and application of the principles that people make mistakes. People often get too excited for their solution and don't stop to consider the pain.

Marketing principles in “Parks and Recreation” and other awesomeness

Last night’s “Parks and Recreation” episode was awesome for so many reasons. It even had some great marketing principles in it.


Marketing:

• “It’s not my place to speak for the consumer.” I think often businesses and marketers forget, we are not the consumer. The restaurants in the town saw that people wanted larger sodas, so that's what they gave them. 
• Means-End Chain and Laddering. Chris is trying to motivate Andy to run. The desire to pass the physical requirements to be a cop is not enough, so he helps Andy make a means-end chain and ladder up to the ultimate reason that will motivate him. Love and family is the ultimate value that motivates him. In marketing, just as passing a physical test was not enough to motivate Andy, only marketing features will not motivate consumers to buy something. 

Just awesome:

• Font usage. “Yeah people, consistent font usage. Come on! ... Papyrus?! Are you kidding me? There is no place for that in a professional office setting.” It drives me nuts when people use unprofessional fonts on business documents and presentations. I am always amazed when I see documents with multiple fonts. Ctrl + A and make the whole document a professional font.
• Child size drink. I kind of wish someone sold a “child” size 512 oz (the size of a liquefied 2 year old). Before I came back to school I was an avid soda drinker. I had this great 100 oz insulated mug that would keep my Dr. Pepper cool and delicious all day. I sure do miss it. Sometimes on weekends I make a soda run for old times.

• Ron Swanson. I love his remote control door closer. One day I will have one on my office. If you have never looked at the “Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness” check it out below.

• April’s motivational tactics. They may not be as effective as making a means-end chain, but they are hilarious none the less.

How to pack a carry-on

Many of my classmates are leaving today to go to the National Black MBA Conference, a career fair for MBA students. Next week I am going to NSHMBA, another MBA career fair in Florida. Since the conferences only last a few days most will be trying to pack in carry-on luggage. I have to admit, before this summer I always struggled to cram everything into a carry-on. Especially with a suit, sports coat and dress shoes.

This summer, I stumbled upon a video by a guy named Joel Bauer on how to pack in a carry-on. He is half genius, half crazy! Some may remember him from "Your business card is crap!"

His video on how to pack is even better. It is about 20 minutes, but well worth it. My favorite line in the video is when he describes a laptop neoprene sleeve as "air tight and water tight like a frogs butt," without even cracking a smile. I would say the video is make up of about 80% crazy, 20% genius. Even with all the crazy, he does have a few good tips. The way he folds his suit coat is awesome and I went out and bought a travel steamer that I use all the time.

So if you plan to traveling in the near future or you need a good laugh, take 20 minutes and watch.

Why are you dressed up?

I get this question at least once a week. I wear business casual every day to business school, but people seem to think you need a reason to dress up to go to school. Don't get me wrong, I love a good pair of basketball shorts and t-shirt as much as the next guy, but in my opinion, business school is enough of a reason. Here is why:

1. The better you dress, the better you perform. I remember in high school people would show up for finals in sweats and slippers. One year before finals, one of our teachers showed us a study about how you perform being directly proportional to your appearance/dress. I completely agree. If you have ever worked from home or tried to do homework at home, you have probably noticed this. You sit down at your desk but it takes forever to get going. By showing up in business casual, I feel prepared to perform in a business situation and discuss business topics.
2. Dress the part. If you are attending business school, you should dress the part. I know that some companies offer the "benefit" of wearing shorts and flip-flops to work, but most don't. Business people wear business clothing. If you are attending business school you should probably dress the part. The professors should not be the only ones dressed up.
3. First Impressions. One of the reasons I came back to school was to build up my network. The network I am building is made up of people I am meeting here at school. Dressing up contributes to my first and subsequent impressions with my network.
4. You never know who you will run into. Last year I always showed up early for my first class in the morning to prepare for the day. One day while I was sitting in the classroom, a guest speaker showed up early as well. He sat down next to me and we had a 30 minute chat. Turns out he was the CMO for one of the top Fortune 500 companies. Imagine if I was wearing flip-flops and a backwards hat. This year, I have had info sessions pop-up almost every other day. Instead of running home to change, I can take that time to do my research on the company and relax.

So why I am dressed up? To be more successful.

Duck and Bunny

Quite often companies rush to hurry & sell a product before they speak to their customers about what the customers want. A company will take an idea, vaguely speak with the customer once or twice, pour time and money into developing the final product/solution, then run and start selling. Without taking the time to speak with the customer or put a minimum viable product in front of them, companies often waste their time and money--not realizing they are building one product when the customer really wants something completely different. I am not saying that a company should sit and wait to build anything; rather, they should get the customer involved as soon as possible to avoid building a solution that does not fit.

This summer I saw this play out firsthand. At times, the business units I worked with were so anxious to take an idea and start selling it that they didn't bother to speak with customers to find out if the product they came up with even solved any pain (problem). The customers were then sold a product that didn't fit their needs, or worse yet, that they didn't need at all. As a result, the customers wrote off the company as someone who did not understand their needs or didn't offer products that fit their needs.

We were there to help our client take a step back in the product development process. Before any development even started, we helped the company sit down and speak with the customer to ask about their needs/pains, work with them to find out what they need in a solution, change the hypothesis/product, re-evaluate with the customer, and repeat.

Shifting the focus to solving the pain rather then focusing on shipping and selling seems counter-intuitive and may feel like you are moving slow or not at all. In reality, however, it allows you to move faster because changes can happen quicker, you can easily pivot, and you are not spending months and months on developing one product when the customer really wants something completely different.

In an effort to help our client understand this principle, I created a video that highlights the problems of focusing on development and selling instead of focusing on the customer and their pain/needs.

In the video, the "company" shows the customer a ambiguous drawing that could be interpreted as either duck or a bunny. The customer sees/wants a bunny; the company sees/builds a duck, and hurries to build and sell a product. When the company gets feedback that the customer wants something different, the company hurries to make changes--but since they have spent so much time into building a duck, they can only make small changes to try and make the duck fit for what the customer wants. If the company would have taken a bit more time at the beginning to speak with the customer or involve them more in the development process, they would have realized they were building a duck, when all the customer wanted was a bunny.

Enjoy!

Duck and Bunny from Curt Smith on Vimeo.

Internship

The summer has finally come to a close and I start back at school today. The summer was filled with lots of work, travel and learning. I had the opportunity to intern with a company call "The Bennion Group."

After interviewing at several other companies and turning down a few other offers, I decided to take an internship working at a consulting company in Provo, UT. As I started my search for an internship at the beginning of school, I said that I really did not care where I went as long as it was a large well known company, outside of Utah. As you can tell, I did not stick to my original plan. Not because I did not have offers from big companies outside of Utah, but because I decided to made my choice based off of the experience I would gain.

After speaking with other students about their internships, I am glad I made the decision I did. Although I did not intern for a large corporation outside of Utah, I was able to consult a HUGE corporation (ranked among the top 500 global companies.) In addition, working at a smaller organization allowed me to have a great deal of responsibility as well as gain some greatexperience.

The majority of my work was consulting for a corporate business incubator helping validate business ideas, test markets, develop new products, and help build business plans and go-to-market plans and strategies. We did this through business competitive intelligence, marketresearch, customer interviews, and internal and external analysis. In addition to consulting for other companies, I was also able to help with business development within the company and help prepare training and presentation material.

All in all, I was very happy with my decision to go with a small company and the skills andexperience I gained. I was still able to get experience in a large corporation but still have asignificant impact.

Now, I am excited to return to school for two more semesters and move forward with my career.