I’ve been learning my own lessons on leadership of late, and here they are in no particular order.

Lesson One:

Its important to be clear about how you are going to serve your community and to understand your mission as the leader.

I learned this lesson, when i had a group on LinkedIn earlier this year that grew of its own accord, but i had failed to serve the community by providing value to each new joining member in the form of encouraging participation and creating suitable initiatives.

Now the group is just a crowd, rather than a community of active members.

It would have been wise for me to delegate some responsibilities in terms of driving the community.

Lesson Two:

Leadership is not an exercise in fear-mongering or an exertion of authority.

I had been asking one employee of mine to record regular updates, on our new chosen collaboration system, which he failed to do. I let this persist for a while, and after some time responded with an outburst.

This is resulted in a temporary, short-term change in his behaviour. However, if i had truly understand leadership, i would have known better to inspire him through helping him understand the value of updating the collaboration system.

I did that last week, and now he has been updating regularly every single day, much to my pleasant surprise.

Lesson Three:

Its ok to make mistakes, as long as you are prepared to accept them, and take corrective action promptly.

This further extends with my example above, when i realised fear-mongering was not the way, and corrected quickly by explaining the value to him.

Lesson Four:

People are inspired by leaders.

As long as you are pushing the envelope, extending boundaries, venturing decidedly into the unknown, people will unite behind you and become ambassadors of your cause.

I setup a mastermind group around 4 months ago. At the time, all three of us founding members had no idea of how to run the group, and how to work it best.

I persisted and kept moving forward, and now we have a loyal following and active participation.

The Greatest Lesson

The greatest lesson that i have learned however, is that leaders provide value through listening.

I’m currently mentoring a start-up, and in the beginning i had come close to almost dictating their plans in moving forward, but i learned a valuable lesson in taking a step back, and listening to their problems and helping each of them be their most creative and authentic selves. This energised them, motivated them and has hopefully put them on a path of success.

What are the lessons you have learned?

What is your story on leadership?

Quick Note: While i do make a valiant attempt in this post to argue the case for what I think makes the iPhone the leading Smartphone in the market, this is not a technical discussion and is an extenuation of my last post regarding Value Propositions.

If you’re into business or marketing, then stick around, its a great discussion.

My last post explaining the importance of the Value Proposition received a small amount of minor criticism. Some readers suggested that most people who choose to go into business, inherently understand the importance of the value proposition, and therefore my post was simply stating the obvious.

I think the criticism was fair and perfectly valid, but i wanted to get back to basics, and sometimes doing this helps provide a fresh perspective, especially when you begin to ask yourself why you are doing what you do, in the first place. More importantly, however, i wrote the post in order to assert, based on my own personal observations, that, many companies, (not just start-ups) do not focus enough on refining their value proposition.

I would even go as far as saying that refining the value proposition is the predominant factor in determining whether your offering is the leader in the market, or in the middle of the pack. I know there are a fair few ‘out of the box’ thinkers out there, that share a similar view.

So i wanted to fortify my claims with a practical and universal example, and what could be better than the infamous iPhone.

The iPhone has been home to endless debates in social circles, is a frequent visitor on both Digg and the trending topics in Twitter.

Before i begin however, let me first state that:

I am not an Apple Fanboy, i have never owned a Mac, and only discovered Steve Jobs when researching the genius behind Pixar’s Toy Story.

The Lesser Beast

A couple of weeks ago, there was a debate between my two good Twitter friends Andrew Betson and Evert Bopp regarding the iPhone.

Evert’s main argument (against iPhone) was that the iPhone is no more functionally capable than many of the Smartphone’s that have come before it. He even went to the length of proving his point with the video below of his iPaq now over 10 years years old that was, for the most part, functionally just as capable at time of its release, as the iPhone is now.

While this may be a bit of a caricature example, Evert does in fact raise some profound truths.

On paper, both technically and in terms of feature set, the iPhone has nothing to offer that really sets it apart from the competition. And while i didn’t join the debate, except, for the occasional but customary ribbing, it occurred to me, that even i had to admit to myself that i didn’t know why i was such an ardent fan of the iPhone.

So I’ve had a good think, and here is what i came up with:-

My Pain

Now, remember, the Customer’s pain is a problem, need or desire that the intended audience experiences.

Need:

“I need a phone for both personal and professional use. That, at the bare minimum, can make/receive phone calls, send/receive text messages and can store contact information.”

It goes without saying that both the iPhone and every other Smartphone on the market can do this.

Desire:

“It would be nice to be able to watch the occasional video on my Smartphone, Google something quickly, and listen to music/audio while on the go”

All Smartphones even prior to the iPhone were already doing this long before its entry, and a great job at it too. The HTC based Smartphones were able to display video at a better quality than the iPhone, and had some interesting features where browsing the web and listening to music was concerned. Apple was the first maker of Smartphones however, that really made it fun to surf the web on your mobile device, for simple reasons i’ve outlined further on in this post.

Apple do their homework

I think the other Smartphone manufacturers did a good job, in addressing their customers needs and desires, but fell short when it came to looking at the problems and desires at a more granular level. I think Apple spent a generous amount of time and effort in understanding their customers pain.

As a member of their target audience, here is how i can relate personally.

Desire:

“I desire to look cool in-front of my friends.”

The iPhone sported a shiny look and came with an inherent wow factor. This was the first Smartphone device that you could actually flash in front of your friends for its aesthetic looks. This may be a trivial point to some, but Apple clearly understood that this desire existed and addressed it.

I’ll be honest, i only bought the iPhone myself, so that i could “flash” it at my cousin’s wedding where i would be meeting old friends and extended family after a long time. I had no intention of keeping it longer than 3 months.

But where, Apple is concerned, this is just the beginning. I feel the iPhone was the first Smartphone that really addressed my specific pains which is why i decided to keep it longer, and haven’t looked back since. Apple addressed my pain by addressing the following problems

Problem One:

I have an ego

My friends who had seen me prior to my iPhone purchase, saw me with a HTC based Smartphone, and always remarked how it “looked like a brick” or a “TV Remote”. This was a problem.

The iPhone is no minute device, but nor is it mock-worthy.

Problem Two:

I am lazy

Try going to the shopping mall, and while holding a basket full of shopping, try getting out your Windows CE based Smartphone, with stylus included, and try looking up the remainder of the items on your shopping list. Its no convenient feat. Not to mention the number of clicks you have to endure to get to your actual shopping list.

“Where computing is concerned, clicks and gestures are like money ; No one wants to spend them unnecessarily”

-– Khuram Malik

Enter the iPhone which can give you one-thumb operation with utmost ease.

Your Smartphone device is probably one device you are going to interact with (if you’re anything like me) over 50 times a day.
If you can save even one click and one gesture for every interaction, that’s over 50 clicks saved every single day.

This is a bargain, and as far as i am concerned, great value.

Problem Three:

I am still lazy

Getting a new phone can be very exciting and we often want to learn all we can about it, but there comes a time when you just don’t want to be labouring time inside the manual understanding how every minutiae of the device works. This was a major problem with my Nokia E71. Every time, i wanted to use a new application, or exact my device to do something new, i had to get out the manual or surf the web to see how it had to be done. And bear in mind, i have a technical background, so that’s really saying something about the lack of intuitive operation.

The iPhone was the first phone, where i spent very little time inside the manual. Many disagree when i say that i found it to be intuitive and rather self explanatory, and better yet, all the applications from the App Store use similar interface templates and gestures, so the learning curve for each new application is absolutely minimal.

A great time and effort saver, and therefore, great value once again.

This is also the point at which i had to agree with Andrew (on the left. Read bottom up)

Sure the Nokia’s and the Blackberry’s came with Internet Access long before the iPhone did, but as Andrew asserts wisely, Apple was the first maker that really convinced us to start using the internet while on the go, with smart interface additions that made it easy and convenient, addressing our pains of being lazy

Problem Four:

I’m REALLY lazy

Installing new Apps on my previous Smartphones was a problem. I had to first locate the application on the web, download to my PC, connect the mobile device to my machine and then run through the install on my PC.

This was an extremely laborious process. This was a huge amount of effort to install just the one App that i didn’t necessarily plan to use after the first few days.

The iPhone introduced probably the most seamless App installation process I’ve ever seen, which meant even with my laziness, i was happy to try App installs even if i didn’t intend to use the application after a few days. It was far more convenient for me to spend £1 to try an App i may never use again on the iPhone, than to waste 1 or 2 hours on a free App on any of my previous Smartphones.

Time is the real premium here, not money. (Unless you start going into much more expensive application pricing territory). And best of all, i never had to go anywhere near my PC and this could be done while i was getting bored waiting for my next client in their reception area. Plenty of value here.

Problem Five:

I’m impatient

Nokia were the first to introduce predictive text messaging, but despite this technical innovation, i had no greater inclination to will myself into using it. I wanted to be able to send text messages, but texting in the traditional way was too frustrating and time consuming. See earlier problem of: “I’m lazy”.

Other Smartphones had debuted with a hardware keyboard, but this made the device bulky. See earlier problem of: “I have an ego”.

The iPhone introduced a ‘soft’ keyboard. I have to admit, this wasn’t easy to use in the beginning, but remarkably i found it easier to learn how to use it and got accustomed to it in just a few weeks than i had done in the last several years with predictive text.

I now send more text messages than ever before. Nokia introduced text messaging from the PC using their Nokia suite, but this wasn’t as convenient as being able to text from the phone itself for obvious reasons.

Iphone oozes value

Overall, despite its high price, the iPhone has oozed massive amounts of real value for me, and for many others.

Lets not forget there were many limitations, in the beginning. Not being able to “copy and paste”, for example, which made it the butt of many jokes, but when one really considers the value they are getting, it was easy to see why so many loyal fans were happy to put up with that particular annoyance, in order to benefit elsewhere.

The iPhone came top in the JD Power Survey, and is also the most used non-SLR based camera on Flickr.

I know, other makers now sport similar features and mimic the user interface design, but remember, Apple did it first.

Furthermore, Apple’s hard work has paid off elsewhere too. They now have my trust, because i know they do their homework. Something the other makers did not try hard to attain. This gives Apple a major advantage, because now i consider their other devices. If they are working so hard to address my pain with a Smartphone, then surely they are doing this with other products.

Personally, i believe that if you can gain the trust of your audience, then that has far more value for both you and your customer over any short term benefits.

The Buzz

Now i know many will say, that considering Apple’s value proposition cannot be the sole determining factor in the iPhone’s success. I don’t doubt that for a second, and, yes i would agree that Apple is pretty good at creating a ‘buzz’, and I’m sure other factors need to be taken into consideration too. What i am saying, however, is that it is the predominant factor in it’s success.

Consider the ‘Buzz’ generating example of the Samsung Omnia 900 (below)

Samsung definitely played smart and understood that the best place to appeal to their audience, was YouTube. This was some very clever piece of viral marketing and an amazing promotional launch.

But then consider, that my father bought this phone off the back of this excitement, kept the phone for about 2 weeks, couldn’t figure out how to use it (for very similar problem reasons as myself) and gave it up.

He’s now buying an iPhone incidentally.

Buzz generation is great for creating an awareness, and Samsung definitely raised the bar here, but without a well refined Value Proposition, your offering doesn’t stand the test of time.

iPhone image courtesy of Kaneda99

With thanks to my two good Twitter friends Andrew Betson and Evert Bopp for their consent in using their material.

I had been paid a visit by the representative of the community initiative about 6 months ago, who felt i could provide valuable insight based on my own experiences.

I was reluctant to commit, but in the interest of further building relations with local establishments i decided to put my name down as a mentor.

My hesitation was due to two reasons. Firstly, i have no interest in expending my time and energy with people, who are always looking for others to ‘do their push-ups’ for them. A rather, cynical view, i agree, but unfortunately i have met too many such people in the last few years.

Secondly, i was unsure of exactly how useful my insights could be and wondered if it would be a pointless exercise for both myself and the student.

Nonetheless, i received a phone call from my first candidate last week, and agreed to meet him in the local cafeteria on Friday afternoon, to discuss his plans and ideas for a new online business.

We sat down with a cup of coffee, and got straight down to business. The student was much older than i. Not that it should matter, but i was expecting some loose pant wearing graduate from college.

Anyhow, he explained to me his idea about his online business, which i wont disclose in the interest of confidentiality, but suffice to say it was a worthy enough idea and i felt it had a fair chance.

I asked him, about how he came up with the idea and he explained to me, that he felt he had seen a gap in the market, and he had done some market research by handing out surveys at local events and exhibitions related to his industry sector of interest.

So far, so good.

He also explained that he contacted his local chamber of commerce which were keen to help him, but said that they had no staff who were qualified to assist anyone who wanted to start an online business. Truly remarkable, i thought.

Neither he, or i, could believe that even in 2009, the local business support initiatives were inadequately equipped to help new start-ups. After all, pretty much every business, if not all, requires at the bare minimum, an online presence.

He had participated in some brainstorming classes, as part of a large group, at the local chamber, for the purposes of basic business planning and so on, but felt it lacking and was keen to find someone who could help him further refine his ideas, and put an actual workable plan together to move forward.

This was why, in the first instance, he was put in touch with me.

I decided to start with the very basics, after commending his efforts thus far, and empathising regarding the current state of start-up support in the area.

The Value Proposition

I started by asking him to explain, what the specific customer pain was that he was addressing, and in what way.

At this point the candidate gave me a rather perplexed look, and he must have wondered if perhaps i was asking him to demonstrate his expertise in allopathic medicine. I could see clearly, that for the remainder of the meeting we would have to discuss what a ‘value proposition’ actually is, and what it means to address a specific customer pain. After all, for any business, this is the fundamental question that needs to be answered to ensure marketing success.

The value proposition is the reason why people are in business. This term ‘value proposition’ also goes by other names such as Competitive Advantage, and Unique Selling Position. On a side note Jaynie Smith’s “Creating Competitive Advantage” book is a great primer if you are currently planning or refining your value proposition.

So i proceeded to explain my own understanding of the value proposition starting with the components.

The Pain

The customer pain, (in my own words) is; A problem, need or a desire experienced by the intended target audience .

Problem: “I cant find what i’m looking for on the Web”

Answer: Google

Need: “We need good quality education for our children”

Answer: Schools, private education institutions and paid tutors

There is a common mis-conception where ‘desire’ is concerned, in that, many believe desire is not a customer pain, because the word ‘pain’ carries a negative connotation.

Desire is still a form of understanding what it is that the customer wants, which is ultimately the true essence of understanding the customer pain.

Desire: “I want to watch Pixar’s latest animation in high quality definition”

Answer: Blu-Ray DVD

Value exchange

When we deem something of value, it is something that is useful to us, or of benefit. i.e. it addresses our ‘pain’.

Our value proposition, therefore is our offering (a product or a service) that addresses a specific customer pain and often in a specific way.

When a member of our target audience consumes our product or service, this is when value exchange occurs. We give something of value to this member of the audience, and in return this person addresses our own pain in whatever form that may be, usually money, but not necessarily.

While it is true, that in business, the consumer will usually part with money, this case is not necessarily universal.

Consider Google as an example. In its simplest form, Google facilitates my desire to find ‘cheap flights to Malaysia” with fast and relevant search results for all the websites that have cheap airline tickets. I attain value as soon as i find what i want.

In return, i give Google value in the form of Web Traffic. That is all Google wants from me, if we consider this point in isolation.

Yes, ultimately, Google wants to benefit its bottom line financially, but for the purposes of my personal relationship with Google that is not the scope of the value exchange it wants with me, nor i with it.

Maybe Google uses that Web Traffic to entice advertisers, maybe it sells data, whatever the case may be, it is a separate discussion.

A valuable meeting

Suffice to say, the student felt he got great value out of the meeting, and he had experienced a shift in his thinking. I got great value too. It was rewarding to be able to contribute.

Over the next few months we are going to be working together on his start-up, and he might just end up creating the next eBay. You never know!

Of course, the next fundamental question is going to be, how is his value proposition better than the existing competition, and whether his proposition is a solution to a pain that already exists, or if its a solution to a pain that doesn’t yet exist (yes, that does happen)

Image courtesy of Will Lion

Aside from the blazing guns and Mafioso suits and hairstyles, The Corleone Family, should be an inspiring model for all budding entrepreneurs.

I cant seem to find many people that agree with me, of course I know why.

Everyone keeps asking me why chopping off a horses head, or shooting someone in the eye, should be the perfect business lesson to learn.

That’s not the point here. Just cast aside the actual mafia “business” for a moment, and look at how they actually operated.

1. Competition

Don Corleone always understood his competition. He knew their strengths and weaknesses, and often anticipated their moves.

“Tattaglia is just a pimp, he was never a match for Sonny”

“I should have known it was Barzini all along”

…

When Michael visits his father in hospital he arranges to have his bed moved, because he knows men are coming to assassinate his father.

This insight is always crucial to business. How else will you outsmart your competition otherwise? Don’t tell me your area of business has literally zero competition…that scenario doesn’t exist.

2. Resourcefulness

After the Don was shot and ended up in hospital, it was known that men would come to kill him from the other families.

Michael and Enzo the baker would have been no match for the men that were coming to kill his father at the hospital. However, he formed a position with Enzo outside the hospital and created the impression they were security guards and that there were more guards inside.

He worked with what he had and he did quick thinking on his feet.

A good entrepreneur works with what he has and improvises.

3. No compromise on core values and principles

The family, or the real word we should use is company, always stuck to its core values and principles and never compromised them. The men never discussed business with their families, never discussed business at the dinner table and tried to keep female involvement to a minimum (as per Italian culture).

Its important to recognise what your core business values are and never to compromise them. You will never have peace of mind if you don?t.

4. A good team

There’s no doubt the that The Corleone family had an excellent and loyal team. Clemenza and Tessio were excellent caporegimes (captains) who always recruited the best, and The Don always surrounded himself with people he knew he could depend on, and those that he believed would do a great job.

Look at Tom Hagen, who was a good and loyal lawyer and had the ‘company’ interest at heart.

Even Luca Brasi, who was a mean mean man, but still due to his love and respect for The Godfather, he was a great asset to the company.

Its all about hiring the right people. Get the best staff, that are the best in their respective fields that are committed to your company’s cause. A great team is invaluable.

5. Adhering to corporate policy

Remember when Tom visits the Movie Director Jack Woltz, who refuses to cast Johnny Fontane in his new movie.

Remember Tom’s response at the dinner table after Jack refuses outright?

“The Don likes to be notified of bad news immediately”.

Here was an employee, that was executing his tasks perfectly in line with corporate policy you could say.
He returned immediately and notified the Don of Jack’s refusal.

There were many examples of this kind of adherence throughout the film and can also be a considered as a continuation of the idea of adhering to core values and principles.

Always outline your expectations to your staff, and your promises of commitment to your customers. Make these thoughts known at every step of interaction.

6. Market research / industry knowledge

When Solozzo appeared on the scene with his idea of Narcotics, The Don took the time to understand Solozzo’s predisposition and assessed its market feasibility. He knew narcotics could and would do well, even if he didn?t want to be involved for personal reasons.

Tom also expressed his concerns to Sonny who was intending to go head on with the Tattaglia family because of his fears of five family war.

Tom understood the market, i.e. the other families, and understood what the consequences could be.

This intuition is an important skill to possess.

Understand the market you are entering, but more importantly understand where the market is heading and what your role is going to be in this change. Position yourself correctly and take a firm stance.

7. Outsmarting the competition, thinking outside the box, and making bold moves

Probably the most important point of all. There were so many examples in the film where the Corleone family outsmarted the competition using combinations of its strength, bravery, good decision making and resourcefulness.

Take the shooting of the police officer. A police officer had never been shot before, and this had never even been contemplated.

Or take, buying out “Moe Greene”. It had never been considered that a company with less money and less overall clout would even try to buy out someone with more wealth

“No! I buy you out”…remember when Moe Greene said that when Michael made the offer?

Some of the best business examples have been due to thinking outside the box. Just look at how Bill Gates took DOS from IBM and turned into something that could actually work.

Or what about Michael Dell who removed the middleman when wanting to sell desktops to the masses.

8. Persevering during the hard times.

Lets not mistake this for expecting things to get better with the flow of time, but pro-actively taking the bull by the horns and doing something about it.

When Don Corleone was shot and Luca Brasi was killed, the morale was at an all time low, and the family was low on resources.

Michael stepped in and came up with a unique strategy that could turn everything around.

Did you not see how Steve Jobs came back to Apple and revived the ailing company with the Imac, Ipod and the Iphone?

9. Taking risks

Business is all about taking risks. Godfather shows it best with Michael’s bold moves.

Killing the police officer was a big gamble, that actually paid off and turned the company around.

Richard Branson put the whole Virgin company on the line when signing up Janet Jackson.

It was a £400m record deal.
If Janet Jackson had not been a success there is a good chance Virgin wouldn’t exist right now.

10. Above par execution

The other important point next to outsmarting the competition is perfect execution for your plans. Planning things meticulously, managing all the variables and enacting according to the plan.

How well was Michael’s restaurant shooting executed?

Cant say fairer than that.

I’m sure many of you reading this will dis-agree with what i have to say. Feel free to comment. Bring it on!