ClearPurpose

The new book Mindmasters teaches how the digital “breadcrumbs” we leave behind enable algorithms to decode our psychology and use that information to influence our decisions. The author presents a vision for using this power for good while thwarting the current ability of powerful organizations to take advantage of our information for their own gain without our permission.

Dr. Sandra Matz, the author of Mindmasters is a young professor at Columbia University. According to her LinkedIn profile, her research “aims to understand how psychological characteristics influence real-life outcomes in a number of business-related domains (e.g. financial well-being, consumer satisfaction or team performance), with the goal of helping businesses and individuals to make better decisions.” From reading Mindmasters, I get a distinct sense that Dr. Matz and I have very little in common — and yet the concerns that she raises in Mindmasters are likely to be shared by many — independent of values, political perspectives, religious background, etc. 

She probably could write a best selling book that would help companies leverage the evidence we leave behind to understand our psychology and therefore manipulate us to choose their products. This isn’t that book. If anything, this is the opposite of that book. Mindmasters is a thought leadership book that presents a future vision that puts individuals in control of their digital privacy while still enabling the kinds of positive contributions to society and our daily lives that we have seen over the past several decades and that we hope to see in the future.

While I’m not completely convinced that the vision is achievable, the author presents a glimmer of hope. This book is educational but does not pretend to provide any practical advice to business leaders, so I cannot recommend it to most of my readers. However, if you want to better understand more about how our digital breadcrumbs can enable powerful organizations to “get inside our heads” as we make decisions online, then Mindmasters may be a great place to start. Especially if you are passionate about shaping a more privacy-centric future, you will want to read Mindmasters.

My full review is here.

In the world around us, we see plenty of examples of joyous celebration — fans reveling when their team wins, artists celebrating when they win an award, and family members rejoicing when service members return home. These joyous moments give us a taste of how good life can be, but too often they are more than offset by moments of sorrow and long stretches of drudgery.

There are two verbs associated with the fruit of joy: rejoice and enjoy. Scripture is full of commands to rejoice and examples of rejoicing. Specifically, as Christians, we are to rejoice in the Lord. This rejoicing is an expression of our joy when things go well and an expression of our hope and confidence when things seem to be going poorly. But most of all, it is an expression that our joy, hope, and confidence are all in Christ. Similarly, one of the best known catechism questions is “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The biblical use of these two verbs point to the source and focus of our joy — God’s grace to us, especially through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Too often we take life for granted. We are quick to complain and recognize the things that aren’t going as well as we’d planned. We are too slow to (if we ever do) recognize the good in our life and to praise God for His goodness to us. Truly we should stop to smell the roses and to thank God for them!

Read the full article here to learn more about how joy can work itself out in your business, and why that’s a good thing.

Merry Christmas!

This morning I’m diving into the C’s in the A,B,C,D’s of glorifying God with your business. 

As we begin to look at how having the right attitude and practicing spiritual disciplines bear spiritual fruit in a Godly character, we start with love. This is a very appropriate place to start since love is the ultimate source of all of the other character traits in the fruit of the spirit.

When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment he said that love is the summary of the entire Bible (at least what was available at that point in time) — He said that “love God” and “love your neighbor” are the two great commandments. Love can summarize all of scripture because all scripture points to God (“God is love”) and tells of His great love for us.

As we grow in Christlikeness, we will naturally grow in our love for God and our love for our neighbors.

But what does love look like in business?

Read the full article here.

I’m in the middle of a long series on the “A,B,C,D’s of Glorifying God with Your Business”. So far we’ve talked about five attitudes (A’s) and seven behaviors (B’s). Each of these mindsets and habits are honoring to God on their own, but the real impact they have on your business is realized through how these changes shape your character to be more like Christ.  The five attitudes prepared our hearts for the hard work and discipline of the behaviors, and to receive and respond to God’s truths that those behaviors would deliver. The seven behaviors or habits or disciplines largely deliver the raw materials (God’s truths in His Word) that the Holy Spirit uses in changing our hearts and our character to be more like Christ.

With the A’s and B’s behind us, we look forward to the C’s (Godly character traits) that enable the D’s (God-honoring decisions). In the next nine articles, we will explore this God-glorifying character through the lens of the nine-part Fruit of the Spirit outlined by Paul in his letter to the churches in Galatia.

This article reviews where we’ve been and looks forward to where we’re going.

The importance of documenting processes in businesses cannot be overstated. Creating and maintaining a playbook can significantly reduce time and effort by ensuring everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in alignment with the company’s culture and vision.

“The Business Playbook” by Chris Ronzio is a valuable resource that guides businesses on developing effective documentation. As a growing business, having a clear playbook is essential, particularly for those anticipating ownership changes. A well-structured playbook not only enhances operational efficiency but also instills confidence in potential buyers regarding the business’s continuity and profitability post-owner transition.

I highly recommend “The Business Playbook” to businesses seeking to streamline their operations and prepare for future transitions.

Read my full review here.

Ed Gehres, Jr. is an attorney and businessman who has been involved in many mergers and acquisitions. He has written “Acquire Before You Exit” specifically to help business owners increase the value of their business by growing their business by buying up and integrating other small businesses. 

Gehres wrote “Acquire Before You Exit” because of the many mistakes he had seen business owners make as they prepared to sell their businesses. The book reads very much like a conversation with a trusted advisor sharing from his broad experience. In it, he walks the reader step-by-step through the process from thinking about growth through achieving it and then preparing to exit.

Every company and every deal is unique, so it’s impossible to provide a generic step-by-step that will cover every situation, but the author does a great job of providing a general approach and then talking about the exceptions. He includes practical advice on when and how to leverage external resources, and he tells lots of stories of companies that have done it well (and others that made mistakes to avoid).

To cap it off, Gehres includes nearly 100 pages of additional resources including example documents, agreements, checklists, etc.

Bottom line, “Acquire Before You Exit” is an excellent resource for anyone involved in mergers and acquisitions, on either side. Although not as polished as books from major publishers, the author’s style is very approachable and the content provides a comprehensive and practical guide to the entire process of growing through acquisition. As with input from any advisor, the reader should consider the author’s insights within the context of their specific situation, but I strongly recommend the book to anyone planning on buying or selling a business.

Read my full review here.

When I meet business leaders for the first time, I am genuinely interested in their business. But, I also care about how coachable they are. Have they allowed wise people to speak into their business situations and have they been receptive to that input? If a business leader thinks he already has all the answers or that people outside the business couldn’t possibly know enough to provide worthwhile advice, then my hopes for the business fade pretty quickly. They may enjoy short term success, but I don’t expect it to last — at least not under that leadership.

Willingness to allow others to walk alongside you, helping you see your unachieved potential, guiding you in how to improve, and encouraging you through the hard work necessary to perform your best isn’t just smart from a business perspective, it’s also biblical. And coachability is essential not only to the health of your business, but also to your personal health. Bearing all the weight of running a business alone can easily lead to major health problems. 

Bottom line, inviting a wise advisor in to help you see your weaknesses and mistakes, and to help guide you in how to overcome them, can increase your business success, your personal happiness, and your health. What’s not to like about that!

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Coachability starts with the humility of recognizing our own weaknesses and faults and desiring to improve. It works through relationship with others, specifically being open to feedback and correction, and being thankful for those who care enough to help.

In the article linked below I discuss how to overcome some of the challenges many of us have opening up to others and asking for their help.

Read the full article here.

Triple Fit Strategy by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi introduces a different way of engaging with your most strategic customers. Instead of selling product-centric solutions, suppliers work with their customers to co-create mutually-aligned growth. While “strategic selling” has been around for decades, the authors provide a framework, processes, and a collection of tools for collaboration between partners to align their strategies, execution, and resources, almost as if they were operating as one company. While the approach isn’t for every company, and certainly not every customer relationship, I strongly recommend the book for those involved in managing and growing truly strategic accounts.

The book introduces the Triple Fit framework which is made up of 9 building blocks across three levels of “fit” between supplier and customer: planning, execution, and resources. The book teaches how to use this framework to diagnose the strength of a supplier-customer relationship, address weaknesses in order to co-create growth, and build the overall strength of the vendor organization in serving business customers.

I like structure and so one of the things I particularly appreciate about Triple Fit Strategy is the collection of various lists that clarify the challenges, opportunities, and methods related to implementing the Triple Fit approach. I also enjoy learning new tools and frameworks and the book introduces (by my count) 9 new tools or frameworks.

Read my full review here.

I’ve recently finished reading Triple Fit Strategy by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi. Parts of the book reminded me of the brilliance of Nextel’s SmartGrowth strategy. I thought it worth writing a quick article to generalize the overlapping principles from both models. Click the link below to read the details.

Read the full article here.

One of my favorite podcasts uses the tagline “Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. But it doesn’t have to be.” Business owners need to nurture healthy relationships or else the burdens they bear are likely to overwhelm them. Without a support system, both your business and your health are likely to suffer.

God knows that it’s not good for us to be alone and that we are prone to being tossed to and fro by the world around us. He knits us together into a church family to give us stability in our faith, to provide us an environment where we can grow in His grace, and to provide a community that we can love and that can love and serve us. You may wonder how the student, the airline pilot, the machinist, the homemaker, the web developer, the nurse, or the retiree in the pews with you could possibly help you run your business better, but each of them has gifts and insights that are different from yours and they may very well surprise you with the wisdom they are able to speak into your business situation. If nothing else, they can take your needs to the One whose wisdom and ability are beyond measure.

Read my full article here to learn more about what it means to be a good “churchman” and why it matters.