“Don’t bullshit people” and other takeaways from the Bas Van Berkel interview

Bas Van Berkel and his business partners look like they have their hands full and are enjoying the challenge of building StormFisher into a great company. Click here if you missed my interview with Bas last week. What impresses me most about Bas is his ’straight-talk’ and humility, both of which are terrific leadership traits. Many of the takeaways from this interview revolve around leadership. Here are my top three:

1. “I can describe our competitive position, value proposition and target market in 60 seconds.”

I’ve never thought about applying Bas’ 60-second rule for business strategy – until now (that’s why I love doing these interviews – I learn a great deal every time!). A company’s target market, value proposition and competitive position form the core elements of its business strategy. The target market constitutes a well-defined segment of the market (with similar traits and needs) that your company serves or would like to serve. Conceptually, it’s easy to understand, but it can sometimes be hard to define when there are too many variables associated with that market. A ‘value proposition’ is essentially composed of key benefits – both functional and emotional – that your product or service offers customers. A competitive position (or positioning) comes down to defining how you will be different from competitors and win in the marketplace.

As you can tell, all of this can get pretty complicated. Especially given the fluid nature of business strategy. Your strategy will change from time to time, depending on both external (market) and internal (company) factors. Using the 60-second rule may have two key benefits: 1. It forces you to keep your strategy simple, and 2. It helps you see the forest for the trees.

2. “Making sure that you know your stuff better than anybody else. Don’t bullshit people. This is as much about values as business.”

I’m glad Bas brought up Values. I am a big, big believer in the fact that businesses should take their Values seriously and encourage everyone in the company to live by them. Lots of businesses have a set of Values framed and hung up on a wall, but rarely practice living those values. The key value (pun intended) that Values brings is that they help define a company’s culture. What is culture? According to Ed Clark, President & CEO, TD Bank Financial Group, culture is what people in your company do when no one’s looking. Quite powerful when you think about it.

Take a look at the Values of two great organizations that are well-known for their unique cultures. It’s interesting to note that while one of these companies – Procter & Gamble – is almost 200 years old and is a global leader in consumer goods, the other – Zappos.com – is only a decade old and is a poster-child of the new economy.

Procter & Gamble: 1. Integrity 2. Leadership 3. Ownership 4. Passion for Winning 5. Trust

Zappos.com: 1. Deliver WOW through service 2. Embrace and Drive Change 3. Create Fun and a little Weirdness 4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded 5. Pursue Growth and Learning 6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication 7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit 8. Do More with Less 9. Be Passionate and Determined 10. Be Humble

3. “It’s always important to balance the promises you make to an investor in an early stage versus what the reality is of the execution. Because, the one thing you know from the start is that your initial business plan is not going to work out as planned – that’s the only thing you know.”

The only thing I’d like to say here is this: Don’t fret when your new business plan doesn’t pan out – it usually never does. The key is to develop an action-oriented, flexible business plan that changes with time. For more information on how this is done, visit Springboarders’ website.