We’re gonna miss you…

I recommend Sam Walton’s autobiography, Sam Walton Made in America ©.  I never knew about the history of Walmart.  I love reading about the business titans of our time; I love reading about greatness.  Another one of my favorites is Idea Guy ©; Paul Allen’s account of hiring Bill Gates and how they led the herculean effort to create Microsoft. 

The Google Story © was a different story.  Here were a couple of computer scientists, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who simply wanted to sell their search engine intellectual property for $25 million.  After trying and trying, their Stanford University advisor finally told them if they wanted financial gain they would have to start a company.  Reluctantly - unbelievably reluctantly - they launched Google.  The rest as they say is a history of untold riches!  If you google (verb) google (noun) you’ll get, “The term google itself is a creative spelling of googol, a number equal to 10 to the 100th power, or more colloquially, an unfathomable number.”  Yep – unfathomable! 

Another favorite of mine is Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle ©.  This hit particularly close to home for me because I was there during the depiction of chaos during Oracle’s explosive growth period.  My work as an Oracle Financials Application Sales Rep, literally selling version 1.0, was the most wild ride in my entire career!  

Speaking of version 1.0, I can’t remember what software “version” comes first:  alphaware; betaware; visionware; vaporware; or demoware? 

Without a herculean effort Larry almost lost his company.  The stress almost cost me my marriage.  Thankfully, we both came out successful. 

Some of the books I’ve read address great companies (and great people) failing and then resurrecting themselves.  I particularly liked Who Says Elephants Can't Dance © and IBM’s return to greatness.  I love this quote from their then-CEO: 

There were times when we lost money on every PC we sold, and so we were conflicted - if sales were down, was that bad news or good news? 

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. 

Back to Walmart.  Sam Walton stated at the start of his book, there are lots of opinions from others about Walmart; mostly negative.  After reading his firsthand account I have a much better appreciation of what he did to build the Walmart empire and why.  The “why” can be summed up simply to sell what the customer wants, at a good price, and stand behind it.  Who doesn’t want a company to do that?

Business success is certainly not limited to the behemoths.  I remember to this day a story one of my clients told me about one of their clients.  I was the Master Sales Enablement Advisor at Oracle/NetSuite and one of my NetSuite resellers in Kentucky (Oasis Solutions) had one of their clients utter the phrase, “We’re gonna miss you”.  You see, their client just bought NetSuite ERP directly from NetSuite.  The client didn’t realize Oasis also sold NetSuite.  No one had informed the client.  Sam Walton would have frowned on that reseller and probably coaxed them to stay closer to the needs of their customers. 

Afterall, who doesn’t want our vendors, stores, advisors, and other providers to stay close enough to us to understand what we need?  As it turns out, many times greatness doesn’t require the herculean feats of a Bill Gates, Paul Allen, or Larry Ellison.  It's less stressful to pay better attention to our clients. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Don’t panic…

“Downturn”  Don’t you just hate that word?  Better hold on to your saddle horn; it’s going to be a wild and bumpy ride for a while. 

For many of us, we’ve seen these economic issues before.  And yes, it’s not a pretty picture.  If you’re concerned, you probably should be.  However, there’s no need to panic: 

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. 

German Proverb 

Lot’s of folks are forecasting that a recession is upon us.  (Seems like I’ve been hearing a recession is upon us for a year or two, you?)  

I didn’t realize it but according to Wikipedia we’ve had seven “recessions” since I entered the workforce in 1975:

1. 1973-1975; triggered when OPEC quadrupled oil prices (I remember the shortage and the lines of cars at gas stations)
2. 1980; triggered when the Fed dramatically raised interest rates to fight inflation (sound familiar?)
3. 1981-1982; triggered by the Iranian Revolution, oil prices (again), and the Fed (still)
4. 1990; triggered by the Fed raising interest rates to fight that darn inflation (again)
5. 2001; triggered by the dot.com bubble burst (which was triggered by the “Y2K panic”)
6. 2007-2009; triggered by the housing bubble burst (those darn bubbles)
7. 2020; triggered by Covid 

I was reading The Impact of Economic Downturn on the SaaS Industry survey results recently.  It seems the data was collected between 2021 and early 2023.  And yes, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.  Here are a couple of excerpts (my commentary added in parentheses): 

The fact that we are in difficult times is evident. When we started sending out the survey, the market sentiment was evidently poor. There were already reports of layoffs in major organisations… By the time we collected responses, there were even more layoffs.  More layoffs were announced before we compiled the responses into a report, and right now, as I’m writing this sentence, two of the most successful companies in the world have announced that they’re shrinking their workforce. (We’ve noticed.) 

Your sales reps know we’re in a downturn. They’re aware of reports of lay-offs across the globe. This can lead to uncertainty, and a sense of panic across your workforce. (There’s that word panic, again.) 

Per our survey, more than two-thirds of companies did not hit their targets during H1 in 2022. Nearly 80% of them also responded that they faced a lot of challenges in achieving their goals. (“faced a lot of challenges”, thank you Captain Obvious.) 

Speaking of not pretty pictures… I’m reminded of an old painter I used to work with before I entered the technology sales business.  His first name was Karl and I remember he preferred whiskey that was finished in merlot casks.  When a painting mistake was made on one of our jobs Karl would say: 

Don’t panic… Jack was every inch a sailor. 

He was right; the jobs would turn out fine.  Makes me optimistic our economic “downturn” will turn-around and come out fine, too.  But I’m remaining cautious.  I’m paying close attention to how news is presented (aka “spin”): 

The phrase, “I have good news and I have bad news”, is really just bad news.  We know this because we learn of good news this way; “You’re not going to freaking believe it, but…!” 

I don’t know who Jack was but like Karl I’m not going to panic.  I’m confident in Jack, our sailors, and the prospects for getting through this darn “downturn”. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Bold? Courageous? Or…

It’s 2022 year-end.  Time to reflect?  Time to plan and prepare for 2023?  Time to quit and change jobs? 

I continue to read about people quitting their jobs in search of “better”.  Are those in that movement bold?  Courageous?  Self-confident?  “Betting on themselves”?  Or not.  I’m permanently out of the game, having retired in 2022.  So now I’m just an observer; a sideline commentator. 

I’ve noticed many of my former colleagues at my last company have changed companies; several times actually, all just in the past couple of years even before I retired. Would you call that courage?  Would you assume they are seeking “better”?  Shall we assume because they keep quitting they’re still seeking? 

“Stay and make a difference” was the advice I offered for those who asked my opinion.  Having sought “better” many times over, I successfully tried that myself for the last twelve years of my career.  It was tempting to quit, but I decided for once not to.  I decided my friend Robyn Nicholson was right in her assessment of continuously changing jobs: 

            Same circus; different clowns. 

I know there is risk in staying at your current company and trying to “make a difference”.  Truth is, there is danger in any direction we select for 2023: 

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  The fearful are caught as often as the bold. 

Helen Keller 

Truly, I held various jobs for several companies throughout my career.  I too changed to something “better” many times.  Mostly “greener pastures”; occasionally “browner”.  Was I being bold? Courageous?  Or not. 

Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow." 

Mary Anne Radmacher

I learned about the importance of “trying again tomorrow” from a friend and former colleague of mine, Gary Givan.  His advice was to focus on each day; making the day a good day; taking things one day at a time.  Gary would say when you string together as many good days as possible the rest of the year will take care of itself.  Gary’s wasn’t a bold, risk-taking approach.  More of a quiet, disciplined, yet courageous mind set. 

I was willing to take risks, that’s for sure.  But perhaps taking risks was the easy way out.  Rather than facing up to each day’s challenges; striving to get better; figuring out a way to conquer; is it easier to just quit in the name of finding something “better”?  Staying with our current job takes courage, too: 

Courage is a special kind of knowledge; the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how to not fear what ought not to be feared. 

David Ben-Gurian 

Should our current situation be feared?  Are we afraid we might miss out if we don’t leave at the end of 2022 in pursuit of our next adventure in 2023?  Well, only each of us would know what is best for our individual situation, but the odds are we should not fear staying vs. quitting.  In reality, either option will require steadfast, daily commitment to succeed. 

So here’s to your success in 2023!  Be bold! Be courageous! Be fearless no matter who winds up signing your paycheck.  Take each day, one day at a time, and focus on getting better today.  May the wind of your effort fill your sails, speeding you towards “better” in 2023 and beyond. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.