Business Article - "How to Catapult Your Business Brand Image Beyond Your Competition" by Author Frank J Sherosky

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"How to Catapult Your Business Brand Image
Beyond Your Competition"
by Frank J. Sherosky
Author of "Perfecting Corporate Character"

Every business, whether a large corporation or a small shop, is a quatrain of people, products, processes and profits. Well, OK, the profit part is not always a given. And like the rest, I’m sure you’ve heard how that people are supposedly THE most important asset a company can have.

Well, in reality, it is the few who REALLY believe and actually PRACTICE that type of business doctrine. But it is the denial of the importance and power of individual character that, all too often, shoots American businesses in the foot; scuttling team efficiencies and diminishing sorely-needed profits.

Oh, we have mission statements, philosophy statements and just a touch of team-oriented feel-good training sessions. Don’t we? We have Covey. We even have Excel Programs for team building. But somehow we still seem to miss the mark, maybe not in every corner, but enough deficiencies to make many CEOs cringe at earnings-announcement time.

Foreign competitors still appear to have the upper hand when it comes to low-cost manufacturing.They deliver higher quality and well-lubricated teams that seem to out-produce innovative products and services faster than U.S. companies.

How could it be that America, the greatest economic nation on the face of the earth, still struggles with its business systems to the point that every downturn in the economy or a political scene ALWAYS sends shockwaves to corporate bottom lines? Where’s our ability to absorb pressure without being crushed by it?

Well, there is a way to get ahead of your competition; and it involves educating your work force, including management, with a set of knowledge skills that creates a paradigm (mindset), one cut above your competitors.

This is an area that processes and products cannot venture. Why? Because the elements that I am about to reveal to you do NOT reside in your processes or in your MBA biz plans. You see, it is the mindset of the people within organizations that truly empower the processes toward creating an atmosphere of profit-mindedness.

Can you do this with one simple lesson? Can you change an entire organization simply because you read one article on its relevance?No, but you can start the process toward individual education that has the highest potential of inducing real change; change for the better, the kind that MAKES MONEY, not loses it!

And that can spread toward team education; and that can further spread toward departments and divisions until an entire organization can become truly one mindset beyond your competitors.

Imagine it! I know you can. You’ve already had the dreams. You’ve written the goals. You simply need to place the priority to ALLOW your organization to grow on plan. Until now, you might have denied character's priority over processes. Why? You most likely focused so hard on gaining market share and profits that you forgot that BOTH are truly a by-product of organizational mind power!

Step One: Understand WHY people are important to your organization.

Contrary to many opinions, people are more important than business processes. And here’s why. Their character and values are what engenders functionality at every position, bar none. And it is their mind power or lack thereof that scuttles it.

Now, I’m not talking intelligence here. Today’s workforce is highly educated beyond any generation to date. What do they lack? A disposition toward continual service. If that were not so, then this article wouldn’t even have come to mind. You know it’s true!

How about your own organization? Where are you on your company’s priority list? Where are your co-workers on that list? Or are the processes so high on the food chain that they are literally worshiped, constantly tracked, ever changing, but still confusing everyone. If so, then they are merely shape-shifting, giving merely the illusion of a business that is in control.

In my book, “Perfecting Corporate Character”, it states, “Human nature is the greatest shaping force of corporate performance.” Well, that really means that people define the corporate brand, not management, not the CEO, and certainly not the processes. After all, processes are run by people! And people have attitudes and drives that dispose them either toward success or far away from it.

Whether those processes are run well or not is dependent on the factors that empower individuals toward working successfully within teams. Some corporate brands don’t exhibit good Karma at all in this area. In fact, some are quite atrocious, because of those attitudes and drives.

That’s not surprising, though. Human nature has affected our business cultures far more than any process ever invented; and not necessary for the positive. Arrogance, selfishness, greed, vanity, jealousies, lust and self-justifications are ever running a block on progress and profits.

So, it’s that simple: People will make or break your business. Yet, how does a company guarantee that its hidden dark side won’t win out?

Step Two: Help those in your organization to change their own mindset by themselves!

The only real way to do that is to inspire people to change. You cannot change their mindset; THEY have to do it, freely. Let them share in your vision and, by all means, practice personal growth as a way of business life!

Buzz words that incite improvement and change do neither. They simply do not work. In fact, people know when they’re being coned into thinking in a manner outside of their so-called comfort zone. They need to be convinced in their hearts that a change is necessary.

In fact, a change in mindset is really synonymous with a change in heart. That is key to your understanding the whole corporate-brand concept. And NO leader can legislate success a change in heart! It is beyond the scope of management because it resides in the same realm as emotion.

Management can only lead, provide example and promote an atmosphere of personal growth beyond position and dollars. That’s not easy, but it absolutely necessary in order to change organizational stodginess, including that most sinister aspect of change, hypocrisy.

Is there a specific growth factor that would enhance and guarantee success in this new paradigm?

Step Three: Realize that service at every business junction is an absolute need, not a luxury.

I was told once by a highly successful man in publishing that there are two ways of life: A way of give; and a way of get. Looking back on my own experiences, I have found one more: a way of give to get.

Service toward the self is an easy concept to accept. Service towards others is far more difficult. A workforce must overcome their own tendencies toward selfish motives to achieve a truly collaborative organization. Now, that can become easy only when the benefits of service are truly mutual. That is key as well.

It is amazing just how many companies espouse the doctrine of service to their customers, but fail to really train their people to actually be servants. Somehow, the very word seems to imply some lesser status in life. Apparently, vanity gets in the way. In reality, service toward others, including mutual service, is the higher calling.

Unfortunately today, too many are still jockying for that next position with so much vigor that service towards customers and co-workers often take a back seat. The adage that “the greatest among you shall be servant of all” is just that, an adage.

Do you want on-time, under-budget and high performance from your co-workers, your management as well as yourself? Then it begins with you and the way you interface with others.

The key to understanding involves a mindset that would place you one step ahead of your competition. It’s a paradigm of continual service with mutual and continual reciprocation.

How can such a mindset be wrought? Help them acquire the taste for personal growth!

Step Four: Accept full responsibility for self training and the sharing of that training with others.

Now, the last thing you may want to hear or read is that you need another training program. Well, you’re right; you don’t.

First, learning to become better as a people and as an organization should not be viewed as training at all. It should be part of everyone’s lifestyle. In other words, personal and organizational growth need to be raised to a level far above what the word “training” implies.

Then, you need a commitment of every person within your organization toward the your goal of a fine tuned, cohesive and fully cooperative organization. Without it, you will be continually exposed to variations in character and personalities that will only be exacerbated with the latest wave of diversities.

The statistics of variations in light of today’s many diversities makes the point. You cannot change everyone, You can induce everyone to change themselves; and for the better!

Public education, with all due respect, lacks the focus. Even religious exposure is insufficient, because there will always be those who want to convert rather than just become good working people.

So, how can you begin this venture? Find a course of writings or books that support mission of changing the organizational mindset. Encourage self improvement beyond degree requirements.

What you do NOT need is your typical business book, like those that focus solely on CEO personalities or the latest process-du-jour of the day. You need to highlight timeless virtue and inner values as THE empowering factor toward true organizational quality and efficiency.

Remember this: "The life blood of every business organization is pumped within the etheric hearts of employees and managers, not just processes, productivity, equipment or money"

That's why it's crucial to look for training books that address problems induced through human nature. After all, they're ever with us. In preparation for the challenges of the 21st Century, work on improving your organizational character. It will empower your people to be at least one mindset ahead your competition.

"Perfecting Corporate Character" ISBN 1890170003 by Frank J. Sherosky is available as a quality-bound, hard-cover edition.

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