I know. I promised there would only be 3 in this series, but only fools don't change their minds.

A reader sent me brilliant and striking parallels made from the Hierachy of Needs from Maslow to (A) corporate maturity and (B) types of individuals within a corporate structure. I just couldn't resist complementing the series with these parallels while acknowledging Celine Gravel and the Renoir Consulting company where these notions are continually developed and used. They work, I've been through each level and lived the thrill / stress / doubts / all nighters in the passing to the next one.

So here are the 5 levels of corporate maturity mapped out on Maslow's levels. I also included the types of employees per level.

LEVEL 1 : Physiological needs
Company needs to establish stable revenues and answer clients
Manages emergencies, very reactive and short term
Product is defined according to founder's idea
Initial systems and processes in place, trial and error to tweak them
Rapid production with little resources
Complete one-man-show decision making

Employees :
single tasked or inefficient multi-tasked
production focused
5% interpersonal abilities, 95% task execution

LEVEL 2 : Security needs
Company builds in parity with clientèle
Developing ideas to be proactive to maintain the flow
Product is modified according to client one-off demands
Certain critical systems are tweaked, secondary systems are still ad-hoc
Resources grow by client demand
Production is somewhat standardized
Some delegation takes place from founder on what the founder views as 'less critical' matters

Employees :
slightly more efficient multi-tasked
management by fear
Individualist profiles, little team spirit
Managers roles are created
15% interpersonal abilities, 85% task execution

LEVEL 3 : Belonging needs
Company grows by the market it is in
Ideas are out in place to be proactive towards the whole market, not just specific clients
Product is seen as an entry-point to satisfy market needs, complimentary products are envisioned
Internal processes are set with minor tweaks being brought to them
Resources are added in anticipation of market response and feel as though they are part of a global solution
Leadership is being executed by a team, with coherence still being tweaked as the founder learns to involve and 'let-go'

Employees :
customer service focused jobs
interdepartmental teamwork
supervisors, facilitators, management are put in place
management by relationships
less Individualist profiles, more team spirit
50% interpersonal abilities, 50% task execution

LEVEL 4 : Esteem needs
Company becomes a market leader
Recognition is there for work done to accomplish market needs
Future versions of the product now anticipate the market needs (and sometimes can even create those needs)
Internal processes are all 'in-sync' and have been optimized for top-line and bottom-line growth
Resources are lining up to be a part of the success story, supply passes the demand for HR
The leadership team have pride in accomplishments and have the constant challenge to keep the success going
Strategies for sustained growth become more diversified : new products, new markets, acquisitions, decentralization, recentralization
Corporate vision becomes challenged

Employees :
client and strategy focused
collective thinking, based on client services
like-minded individuals with similar value systems
team is king
85% interpersonal abilities, 15% task execution

LEVEL 5 : Realization needs
Company becomes a social heritage, a legacy to society, to its clients, to its employees
Recognition for social change and positive outcomes of the innovation becomes prevalent
Thriving internal culture with strategic alignment
Growth strategies have been successful and the challenged vision is now clear to all stakeholders
Strategic decision making revolves around how profits will be used to better the lives of those around the company
Succession planning becomes a priority for the founder(s)

Employees :
CXOs, VPs manage with creativity, unity and innovation
inventors, creatives thinkers, trainers are sought after
95% interpersonal abilities, 5% task execution

So where are you in this process ? Where do you want to be ? What kind of challenges do you thrive on ? What kind of leader are you ? What kind of employees do you need now ? and what kind should you look out for ?

This is the path awaiting you. Don't forget to have fun ;)

Value chains. You've studied them, heard about them and most probably been involved as an actor in many of them. In my 11 years of entrepreneurship and corporate value-making experience, I have learnt that mastery of the value chain is key.

Influenced from too many books and sources to count, here is my conception of the Product Value Chain - going from idea to satisfied costumers, from the product life cycle angle.

1. Planning value chain
          o Investments
          o Market research
          o Product research

2. Supplier value chain
          o Raw material
                + Creation
                + Transformation
          o Inbound logistics
                + Brokers
                + Dealers

3. Organization value chain
          o Creation / invention
          o Tech transfer
          o Product hardening
          o Transformation
          o Product development

4. Channel value chain
          o Marketing
          o Sales
                + Brokers
                + Resellers
                + Distributors
                + Retail
                + Direct
                + References
                + Partners
                + Final client
          o Outbound logistics
                + Brokers
                + Distributors
                + Direct

5. Customer value chain
          o Customer service
          o Product return logistics

Audit your company to see where the holes are between the idea and the happy customer. Master this process and you become a value - creation expert.

One of the subjects I deal with daily is the increasing chasm between the baby-boomer generation and the students entering the workforce today. Much ink has been spilled on the subject and no clear solution has been brought forth. The debate goes far beyond the older generation saying 'they want everything without working for it' and the younger one saying 'they are doing things the old inefficient way'.

Listening to the other side is a crucial step to mutual understanding is the realization of what your company will inevitably look like in the very near future. Both sides can gain from youth's tech knowledge and previous generations' experiences.

The following video was created by the (brilliant) teacher and the 200 students in ANTH 200 : Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in.

The conclusions drawn are applied to the school system (that I also teach in) but most importantly, it should be clearly explained to future bosses and HR personnel. This is tomorrow's workforce, these students are your biggest assets and your ultimate threat.

This is the last post in the series on Maslow's pyramid and how it affects the corporate strategists and entrepreneurs. Maslow's theories are taken again and again under different words in many business books and it always comes down to this conclusion :

Get people (friends, clients, suppliers, investors, family, etc) to the highest plateau of the pyramid and they will thank you. Get yourself to the highest plateau of self-actualization and they will love you and you will love yourself.

Maslow had it. He described self-actualization as
"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..."

So what are the characteristics of these people ? What must an entrepreneur / corporate strategist think about when developing the corporate services they offer ? How can look to help others and myself acquire these characteristics.

The best list I found was in Wikipedia's post on the Hierarchy of Needs. So I am blatantly copying the interesting part of the entry here. I know it's not part of the Blogging Rulebook, but I suspect you won't make the effort to click on the link and find the interesting text.  So here it is (and again, I am ripping this from Wikipedia.)

1. Clearer perception of reality.
Self-actualizing people perceive reality more effectively than others and are more comfortable with it. They have an accurate perception of what exists rather than a distortion of perception by one's needs, and possess an ability to be objective about their own strengths, possibilities and limitations. They judge experiences, people and things correctly and efficiently, and have an unusual ability to detect the spurious, the fake, and the dishonest. They are not afraid of the unknown and can tolerate the doubt, uncertainty, and tentativeness accompanying the perception of the new and unfamiliar.

2. Acceptance of self, others, and nature.
Self-actualizing persons are not ashamed or guilty about their human nature, with its shortcoming, imperfections, frailties, and weaknesses. They can accept their own human shortcomings, without condemnation. Nor are they critical of these aspects of other people. They respect and esteem themselves and others. Moreover, they are honest, open, genuine, without pose or facade. They are not, however, self-satisfied but are concerned about discrepancies between what is and what might be or should be in themselves, others, and society.

3. Spontaneity.
Self-actualizing people are relatively spontaneous in their behavior, and far more spontaneous than that in their inner life, thoughts and impulses. Self-actualizing persons are not hampered by convention, but they do not flout it. They are not conformists, but neither are they anti-conformist for the sake of being so. They might act conventionally, but they seldom allow convention to keep them from doing anything they consider important or basic. They are not externally motivated or even goal-directed; rather their motivation is the internal one of growth and development, the actualization of themselves and their potentialities.

4. Problem-centering.
Self-actualizing people have a problem-solving orientation towards life instead of an orientation centered on self. They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives. They commonly have a mission in life, some problem outside themselves that enlists much of their energies. In general this mission is unselfish and is involved with the philosophical and the ethical.

5. Detachment and the need for solitude.
Self-actualizing people enjoy solitude and privacy. It is often possible for them to remain above the battle, unruffled and undisturbed by that which upsets others. They may even appear to be asocial. It is perhaps, related to an abiding sense of security and self-sufficiency.

6. Autonomy, independent of culture and environment.
 Self-actualizing persons are not dependent for their main satisfactions on other people or culture or means-to-ends, or in general, on extrinsic satisfactions. Rather they are dependent for their own development and continued growth upon their own potentialities and latent resources. The meaning of their life is self-decision, self-governing and being an active, responsible, self-disciplined deciding person rather than a pawn or a person helplessly ruled by others.

7. Continued freshness of appreciation.
Self-actualizing people have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again the basic pleasures of life. They experience awe, pleasure, and wonder in their everyday world, such as nature, children, music and sexual experience. They approach these basic experiences with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.

8. The mystic experience, the oceanic feeling.
Self-actualizing people commonly have mystic or `peak' experiences or times of intense emotions in which they transcend self. During a peak experience, they experience feelings of ecstasy, awe, and wonder with feelings of limitless horizons opening up, feelings of unlimited power and at the same time feelings of being more helpless than ever before. The experience ends with the conviction that something extremely important and valuable has happened so that the person is to some extent transformed and strengthened by the experience that has a carry-over into everyday life.

9. Oneness with humanity.
Self-actualizing people have deep feelings of identification, sympathy and affection for other people, and a deep feeling of empathy and compassion for human beings in general. This feeling is, in a sense, unconditional in that it exists along with the recognition of the existence in others of negative qualities that may provoke occasional anger, impatience, and disgust.

10. Deep interpersonal relations.
Self-actualizing people have deeper and more profound inter-personal relationships than most adults, but not necessarily deeper than children. They are capable of more closeness, greater love, more perfect identification, more erasing of ego boundaries than other people would consider possible. One consequence is that self-actualized people have especially deep ties with rather few individuals and their circle of friends is small. They tend to be kind or at least patient to almost everyone, yet they do speak realistically and harshly of those whom they feel deserve it — especially the hypocritical, pretentious, pompous, or the self-inflated individual.

11. Democratic character structure.
Self-actualizing people are democratic in the deepest possible sense. They are friendly towards everyone regardless of class, education, political beliefs, race, or color. They believe it is possible to learn something from everyone. They are humble in the sense of being aware of how little they know in comparison with what could be known and what is known by others. They are ready and willing to learn from anyone. They respect everyone as a potential contributor to their knowledge, merely because everyone is a human being.

12. Ethical means towards moral ends.
Self-actualizing persons are highly ethical. They clearly distinguish between means and ends and subordinate means to ends. Their notions of right and wrong and of good and evil are often not conventional ones.

13. Philosophical, unhostile sense of humor.
Self-actualizing people have a keen, unhostile sense of humour. They don't laugh at jokes that hurt other people or are aimed at others' inferiority. They can make fun of others in general — or of themselves — especially when they are foolish or try to be big when they are small. They are inclined towards thoughtful humour that elicits a smile, is intrinsic to the situation, and spontaneous.

14. Creativity.
Self-actualizing people are highly imaginative and creative. The creativity involved here is not special-talent creativity. It is a creativity potentially inherent in everyone but usually suffocated by acculturation. It is a fresh, naive, direct way of looking at things, rather similar to the naive and universal creativity of unspoiled children.

Second in a series on the Maslow pyramid (MP), it is now important to focus one of the many consequences of the model on the entrepreneur's life : marketing and commercializing products.

It may seem disconnected at first, but Maslow's pyramid of needs has everything to do with the product you have in your head / are developing / are trying to sell.

Question : Where does your product fit in the pyramid ? What type of need are you addressing ?

The answer to those questions is your first step in determining you infamous 4 Ps in your Marketing plan. It even helps if you are part of those who believe there are really 7 Ps...

Here's how.  Knowing where your product fits will tell you :
- if your product is a commodity product (lower on the MP) or a luxury product (higher on the MP)
- if you're strategy will be one of volume (lower on the MP) or one of being very different and unique (higher on the MP)
- if you can ask for a high price or not (directly proportional to your product's position on the MP)
- who you will position and target your product to (optimal market is the group that find themselves where your product does on the pyramid)
- what the next functionalities of your products should be (do you want to move up, down or stay at your level on the MP?)

I have so many examples of products that prove the model. One that I like talking about is Starbucks coffee. Two generations ago, coffee was unknown on the general consumer market. Brilliantly marketed, coffee companies were able to make this new product a commoditized one. So much so, that not having coffee in the morning is a valid explanation to someone's bad mood or slowness of mind.

What Starbucks then did was very difficult and demanded as much brilliance in their marketing. They decided to bring the product out of the commodity market and bring it higher on the MP. Today, you don't go to Starbucks for the coffee, you go for the experience and the status getting a Starbucks coffee will get you. It is striking in major metropolitan centers to see young professionals line up around the bloc for Starbucks coffee when a neighboring local coffee shop is empty. Holding a Starbucks cup gives you esteem, confidence and a (very false) sense of achievement - everything describing level 4 of the MP.

So figure out where your product stands and where you want to take it. Use the hidden genius of Maslow or someone else will.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow made one of the biggest contributions of the century to the study of human psychology. He created and published what is commonly known as 'The Human Hierarchy of Needs'. This post will explain the hierarchy (heavily citing Wikipedia). The next posts will apply this old-but-still-relevant pyramid to our everyday lives and, especially, to entrepreneurs seeking to develop their products.

I hope, through this series, to demonstrate the hidden genius and the far-reaching consequences of this pyramid in all aspects of our lives.

Maslow postulated that needs are arranged in a hierarchy in terms of their potency. Although all needs are instinctive, some are more powerful than others. The lower the need is in the pyramid, the more powerful it is. The higher the need is in the pyramid, the weaker and more distinctly human it is. The lower, or basic, needs on the pyramid are similar to those possessed by non-human animals, but only humans possess the higher needs.

The base of the pyramid is formed by the physiological needs, including the biological requirements for food, water, air, and sleep. If some needs are not fulfilled, a human's physiological needs take the highest priority. Physiological needs can control thoughts and behaviors, and can cause people to feel sickness, pain, and discomfort.

Once the physiological needs are met, an individual can concentrate on the second level, the need for safety and security. Included here are the needs for structure, order, security, and predictability.

The third level is the need for love and belonging. Included here are the needs for friends and companions, a supportive family, identification with a group, and an intimate relationship. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and depression.

The fourth level is the esteem needs. This group of needs requires both recognition from other people that results in feelings of prestige, acceptance, and status, and self-esteem that results in feelings of adequacy, competence, and confidence. Lack of satisfaction of the esteem needs results in discouragement and feelings of inferiority.

Finally, self-actualization sits at the apex of the original pyramid. More on that last elusive level in the next post.

Five years ago, I attended one of my first local EO learning events in Montreal. It was a speaker who demonstrated to us the power of managing a company by simple key metrics put in a simple format.

I forget who the speaker was and I was only able to jot down a couple of the formulas he used at that time. I was, however, sensitized enough to start building my own simple financial dashboard. This is my tool of choice when when I audit the financial part of a corporate strategy.

Presentation format :
- Magic number : Formula to get the number
o Suggested acceptable range of the magic number (subjective according to your situation, but most are based on industry best practices)

1. Liquidity ratios : ability to pay bills and availability of liquidity for new activity
- Current ratio : Current Assets / Current Liabilities
o 2 : 1

- Acid Test Ratio : (Cash + Accounts Receivable) / Current Liabilities
o 1 : 1

- Debt/Equity Ratio : Total Liabilities / Owners (Stock) Equity
o Lower than 2:1

- Times Interest Earned : Net income before Interest & Taxes / Interest Expense
o 5:1


2. Efficiency ratios : ability to deliver optimized internal process efficiencies  -Net Income ratio : Net Income / Sales
o More than 10 cents on the dollar

- Gross margin ratio : Gross Margin / Sales
o Gross margin = Sales – Cost of sales

- Asset Turnover Rate : Sales / Total Assets

- Accounts Receivable Turnover : Sales / Average Accounts Receivable
o Lower than 60 days

- Number of Days Sales in Receivables : Average Accounts Receivable / (Annual Sales / 360)
o Any number above 30 indicates past due accounts

- Inventory Turnover : Cost of Sales / Average Inventory
o 25 c for each 1$ held in inventory


3. Equity Ratios : ability to deliver optimized shareholder and stakeholder value
-          Return on assets : Net Income / Total Assets
o More than 10%

- Return on equity : Net Income / Stockholders Equity

- Earnings per share : Earnings after taxes / Number of Shares Outstanding

- Price/Earnings Ratio : Price / Earnings per share

- P/E Reciprocal : Earnings per share / Price

- Total Market Cap : Number of Outstanding Shares x Market Price per Share

As an entrepreneur, there are often too many ideas and concepts floating around in my mind at one time. I needed to find tools to help me organize what I was thinking and doing - and maybe even help me link the two.

I use 2 ways to represent the mess that is sometimes my mind. The first is Mind mapping and the second is Concept Mapping. I will expose Mind Mapping here and get to Concept Mapping in part 2.

Mind Mapping: the principle
From Wikipedia :
"A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. It is an image-centered diagram that represents semantic or other connections between portions of information. By presenting these connections in a radial, non-linear graphical manner, it encourages a brainstorming approach to any given organizational task, eliminating the hurdle of initially establishing an intrinsically appropriate or relevant conceptual framework to work within.

The elements are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts and they are organized into groupings, branches, or areas. The uniform graphic formulation of the semantic structure of information on the method of gathering knowledge may aid recall of existing memories."

Mind Mapping : where the problem comes from
From Peter Russell:
The issues with traditional linear note-taking
- Energy and time wasted writing down superfluous words.
- Other information may be missed while noting down one idea.
- Take longer to read and review.
- Associations and connections between key words and ideas not readily apparent.
- Attention wanders easily.
- Lack of color and other visual qualities handicap memory.
- Traditional notes aid forgetting not memory.

Mind Mapping : the advantages (Peter Russell)
- Mind maps work the way the brain works -- which is not in nice neat lines. Memory is naturally associative, not linear. Any idea probably has thousands of links in your mind. Mind maps allow associations and links to be recorded and reinforced.
- The mind remembers key words and images, not sentences -- try recalling just one sentence from memory!   Mind maps use just key words and key images, allowing a lot more information to be put on a page.
- Because mind maps are more visual and depict associations between key words, they are much easier to recall than linear notes. (For example, although you may not have studied it in depth, see how much of the Home Mind Map of this site you can recall in your mind's eye.)
- Starting from the center of the page rather than top-left corner allows you to work out in all directions.
- The organization of a mind map reflects the way your own brain organizes ideas.
- Mind maps are easy to review. Regular review reinforces memory. Best is to try reviewing in your imagination first, then go back and check on those areas that were hazy.
- We remember what stands out (where were you when John Lennon was shot?). Visual quality of mind maps allows you to make key points to stand out easily.

From MapYourMind, we get a list of applications, that resume well how I use it myself
- Learning: Reduce those ‘tons of work’. Feel good about study, revision and exams. Have confidence in your learning abilities.   
- Overviewing: See the whole picture, the global view, at once. Understand the links and connections.
- Concentrating: Focus on the task for better results. Using all of your cortical skills attracts your attention.
- Memorizing: Easy recall. ‘See’ the information in your mind’s eye.
- Organizing: Be on top of all of the details for parties, holidays, projects or any other subject.
- Presenting: Speeches are clear, relaxed and alive. You can be at your best.    
- Communicating: In all forms with clarity and conciseness.
- Planning: Orchestrate all details and aspects – from beginning to end – on one piece of paper.
- Meetings: From planning to agenda, to chairing, to taking the minutes … the jobs are completed with speed and efficiency.
- Training: From preparation to presentation they make the job easier and much faster.
- Thinking: Having a method to analyse thoughts – almost a ‘way-station’ for them.
- Negotiating: All the issues, your position and manoeuvrability in one sheet.   
- Brain Blooming: The new brain-storming in which more thoughts are generated and appropriately assessed.

Mind Mapping : how it's done
Tony Buzan, father of Mind Mapping gives us 10 foundations to a great mind map.
- Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors.
- Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your Mind Map..
- Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters.
- Each word/image must be alone and sitting on its own line.
- The lines must be connected, starting from the central image. The central lines are thicker, organic and flowing, becoming thinner as they radiate out from the centre.
- Make the lines the same length as the word/image.
- Use colors – your own code – throughout the Mind Map.
- Develop your own personal style of Mind Mapping.
- Use emphasis and show associations in your Mind Map.
- Keep the Mind Map clear by using radial hierarchy, numerical order or outlines to embrace your branches.

Mind Mapping : the tools
Bootstrapper has a fantastic list of tools that are available to help organize your mind. I use 2 free tools quite frequently (a little too much according to my employees). Did I mention they were free ? I have used many other paying tools, but these free tools do 80 % of what you will ever need.
1. Freemind. An open source java based mind mapper.
2. Cayra.net. A fantastic free tool that I've started using recently and is replacing my freemind maps.

Enjoy mind mapping. It will change your life.

I realize that with a title like that, I need to back it up with solid facts and credible evidence. No problem.

There is one strategy and management planning tool that I have used in all my past and am using in my current ventures. It's a two-pager developed by Verne Harnish, a friend of mine who trains high-growth companies. He is also the highly sought-after author of 'Mastering the Rockefeller Habits'. Verne has spent the better part of his career training companies that are (or who want to become) gazelles - a term he uses for a company that has grown by 20% annually for the last 5 years.

He has brought together in a succinct format all the necessary elements of strategic planning. This is a tool to plan and communicate where you, where you are going and how you are going to get there.

Here is the link to downloading his free forms and strategic planning material.

It's gold.