Steve Neiderhauser

LEGOS for Windows

In this article, I describe how building an operating system using layers and LEGOS creates a competitive advantage -- and eliminates software nightmares.

This article describes how the developers in Redmond have had to use the same approach to get Windows Vista to the beta stage.

Indeed, software functioning as a product platform helps you speed delivery of new products.

Forget the problem, Kill the threat

Story can be used for more than marketing, it can also be used to solve problems. In a story seminar I learned that the threat causes the problem -- eliminate the threat and the problem disappears. In Jaws, the shark is the threat that causes the problem.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And yet, many companies don’t get it. They continue to have one problem after another because they allow the threat to flourish.

Mark Cuban writes that speculators are the cause of higher gas prices. Perhaps speculators aren’t the only cause of higher gas prices, but at least Mr. Cuban is on the right track -- Kill the threat.

In business, the threat could be an off-the-wall-crazy manager, a design-challenged software developer, or a kickback-receiving sales rep. There’s no end to the problems these characters can generate. And the problems will persist as long as these amateurs are allowed to continue their wayward journey. Although, any executive with an ounce of common sense should be able to eliminate these internal threats.

Still, there’s another kind of threat that can cause greater damage -- external threats. Maybe it’s a competitor’s new product, government regulations, or a disruptive technology.

About a year ago, I used this visual to represent a problem landing on a manager’s desk.

In many ways this image captures the relationship between the threat and the problem. Because external threats can deliver problems at any time, we must be prepared. So what’s the best way to eliminate the threat?

Create the sense-and-respond organization.

All Marketers Are Storytellers

Last Friday I stopped by a Dallas wine bar to relax after a long week. At the bar I noticed a lady in a blue business suit holding a bottle of Fiji water. She calls over the manager and starts talking about the water. It turns out she's a sales rep for Fiji.

She gives the manager the bottle as a sample and starts to tell him the story of the water. I couldn't hear the whole story, however, I thought I heard something about the water never hitting the air before it's bottled. Although, I couldn't find this snippet on Fiji's website, so the wine may have impaired my hearing.

After the lady finished the story, the manager nodded and said, "That's a great story."

Today, I started to read Seth Godin's latest book -- All Marketers Are Liars. And guess what's on the back flap. A picture of a bottle of Fiji water.

How did Fiji water become one of the bestselling brands of bottled water in the United States--even though it's one of the most expensive? Is it because it tastes that much better? Nope. Fiji is a winner because of the story the bottle tells.

The title of the book is a little misleading. What I took from the book is that marketers are storytellers -- at least, the good ones are. Seth says there are only two things that separates the winners from the losers in most companies:

1. Invent stuff worth talking about
2. Tell stories about what you've invented

"Make up great stories. That's the new motto."

Note: Church of the Customer chats with Seth regarding his latest book and provides a podcast. In addition to learning about his book, we also learn that Seth creates and tells ghost stories. He reminds us that by playing the right games we enhance our professional skills.

What's better than a resume

During Jim Bonnet's Master Story Seminar, I suggested to a fellow student that a story, instead of a resume, is a better way to showcase your talents to a potential employer. Last week, she asked me how to use the knowledge from the Master Class to produce a story that makes a difference in job interviews.

That's a fascinating question because it brings a number of truths to the surface.

Because resumes are everywhere it's difficult to make a memorable impression with the document. You have to work in a memorable medium if you want to be remembered. Consider Mark Twain for a second. For a while, he worked as a journalist but is remembered for his stories. I don't have any of his newspaper articles, however, I do own a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

And that's what you can do with story -- you can create an adventure that solves a problem and entertains your audience.

In most business interviews you cannot directly show -- or prove -- your skills to a company. So the next best thing is to demonstrate your skills through story. And story can be so much more remarkable than a chronological list of jobs -- including that summer job at the GAP.

All of the techniques from Jim's Master Class can be applied to this kind of story. For a demonstration story, the following concepts will help you get started:

1. Move from a state of misfortune to a state of fortune. There's a problem, you solve the problem and the company's fortunes increase.

2. Start with a problem; make sure the problem is big enough for people to care. If you've found a way for a company to better track its supply of paper clips, few people will sit up and take notice. On the other hand, if you save a company on the knife's edge of bankruptcy people are going to ask for you by name.

3. Provide an entertainment dimension -- the Sugar Coat. This makes it easier for the hiring person to swallow your hidden wisdom. Very few people are able to combine entertainment with business, this sets you apart from the crowd. What's one way to amp the entertainment? Sprinkle archetypes throughout the story. Perhaps a threshold guardian waved you forward with one hand and ordered you to stop with the other.

4. Make sure the wisdom (I'm a great finance person. I can save your company a bunch of money.) you want to communicate is hidden. When the message is hidden you communicate with the subconscious and avoid sales resistance. The hidden wisdom will be communicated through the syntax of the story's actions. In other words -- Show, Don't Tell.

By writing a story, you have formed a partnership with your creative self -- you have transported a story from nowhere to now here. This is important because so few managers are able to create anything, especially wealth. And that's a huge problem in business because creativity is the fountain of wealth.

And once you create a product, it's much easier to create your next product. A couple years ago, after I wrote a demo story, I chanced upon the work of Cliff Atkinson. Cliff showed me how to take the story and produce a presentation using his PowerPoint and communication techniques. In less than three hours, I now had two work products I could show hiring companies.

Because PowerPoint is the communication weapon of choice for corporations it's important for anyone who's serious about business to wake up to the power of story and the Beyond Bullet Points approach. But that's the problem. Most people aren't serious about business and use bullet points to unwittingly shoot down their chance of closing new deals, securing VC funding, or winning legal cases.

Let's close the curtain of clarity with a story.

Nine months ago, I interviewed for a job with a Dallas company. During the interview I handed my soon-to-be boss a copy of my demo story. I explained how we could use
the story techniques to win funding for new projects.

The story helped me land the job. Then I provided proof that the new projects would be successful. The result?

Through these projects the company will save over $12.2 million during the next year -- and enter new markets that will increase revenue.