BXD

Business Experience Design: The process of creating a self-managing business that people appreciate and enjoy and that is good for society.

BX design: A method for transforming small, private companies into high-performance, world-class organizations:

BX: Weekly strategy session and training program designed to balance the tension between optimization and innovation.

Transformation may take 30 years. If you like shortcuts;

I propose a weekly work plan with a detailed set of strategic objectives. 

With the aim of making incremental improvements in a number of areas. (Aka “atomic habits” that make a big difference; i.e. compounding effect.)

As with all Lean projects, this requires the involvement of the top decision maker; the CEO, president, process owner or business owner.

Regardless of your learning style and how you are motivated, I aim to explain it in terms you will easily understand, on your schedule. Helping your company,

Imagine a world where top management is asking its team of associates; How can we help?* Allowing people to experience joy, purpose, and dignity in work – by contributing to the needs of the paying client. Using (unbiased) statistical analysis to continually increase the grade and quality of your product and service. Using process behavior charts to monitor deviation in forward momentum in both progress and knowledge. Where the aim is for everyone to benefit, including society as a whole.

*Like CEOs did during WWII when men were overseas. This simple ideology made us the most productive nation in the world. It is how we claimed victory. When the men returned, they brought military management. Since we were the only nation capable of manufacturing goods, there was no need to focus on improvement. The U.S. has been in decline ever since.

Will BX work for me?

The ideal company is an entrepreneurial small to mid-size organization ($1 million to $50 million in revenue with 10-250 employees), growth oriented, willing to change, and willing to be vulnerable (as in being open-minded, willing to admit weaknesses, and willing to face reality).  With an owner that wants to:

Run a frustration-free business and gain renewed energy, focus, and excitement for your business.  Reduce needless complexity. Identify and remove distractions. Identify and troubleshoot any problems. Keep you and your people engaged and focused on a single vision.

What is BX:

You and I taking a deep look into your people, process and product.

(3Ps of The Profit with Marcus Lemonis)

People:

Management operates under the supposition that all people are alike.

People learn in different ways, and at different speeds. Some learn a skill by reading, some by listening, some by watching videos, some by watching someone else do it. Incorporating this into your systems can eliminate so many problems and frustrations… Another factor we shall address:

The sources of intrinsic motivation and how to nurture and incorporate them into your practice.

Process:

Aka “throughputs” according to the Process Fixer:

Every organization has inputs, throughputs, outputs and outcomes.

• Inputs are money coming in
• Outputs are products/services going out
• Outcomes are the satisfaction/value customers get from your outputs
• Throughput is where value is created and margins are determined

Most companies can name their metrics around input down to the fraction (customer acquisition costs, number of leads, conversions).

Nearly all of them can tell you about their outputs (units shipped, customers served, square feet built, how much profit they are left with).

Some of them can even tell you about outcomes (customer satisfaction, NPS, churn rates, renewals).

Yet very, very few can tell you anything of meaning about throughputs (process capabilities, run rates, constraints, dependencies, fluctuations, deviations, asymmetries).

This is interesting because the thing that creates value,

The only thing guaranteeing profit,

The only reason that customers buy from you (value):

Is the thing business owners know the least about.

Let that settle in.

There are simple ways to improve any process. We will explore many of them.

Product:

The name BX is derived from UX. It is from this perspective we look at your products.

UXD (User Experience design) is a process for acquiring consumer feedback and insight before creating the product.  Root example of User Friendly Design: (Note: Ball turret used for illustrative purposes)

“An organization’s business is not to serve the business, it is to serve the user (client).  When organizations place the business first, the intent of the design is compromised, as is the user experience.”

When was the last time you saw an org chart that centered around the client?

The five main steps in the UX design process:

50,000 foot overview:

We will strive for optimizing our efforts:

• Working IN the business
• Working ON the business
• Working ABOVE the business

Our aim: Breakthrough transformation in each of the categories above.

To do this, it is vital we set a solid foundation. It is crucial we;

• Optimize before we innovate
• Simplify and streamline operations before marketing
• Do not confuse goals, tactics or marketing hype with Strategy. Many people do. Our primary strategy will include:
  • A diagnosis
  • Guiding policy
  • Coherent action plan.
• Before we implement any new style of management, we will build trust, assess the current state, remove fear, etc.

Ultimately, we want to reach the point where our main focus is running a series of weekly or monthly tests designed to meet our intermediate goal.  Using a scientific method.  With operational definitions.  Developing progression in knowledge.  Making it visible. Simple. Mathematically precise. Clear to everyone.

Formula for success: 

1. Goal:  Know what you are going after
2. Problems:  The opportunity.  Your brain’s  way of saying:  ‘Let’s tackle this first.’ 
3. Diagnose those problems.  Get at their root cause.  The 5 Whys.
4. Design a system or process.  Have your team run a PDSA.  Just
5. Do it.  Get results.  Study them.  Learn.  Illustrate and document.  Repeat.

Where do we begin?

Phase 1: Setting a Solid Foundation

This is not a linear process. These topics are not listed in chronological order.

First thing we do: To make sure changes and improvements stick; explore Change Management. For example:

• There are eight stages
• We must plan accordingly, establishing proper urgency
• Taking steps to overcome addiction to status quo
• Mobilizing commitment
• Silencing naysayers
• Concentrating resources
• Minimizing the pain of change

Next, we refine the company’s Vision. Setting the direction of the organization:

Your team needs clarity.  Without clarity there is no intention.  Without crystal clear intention, how are you going to create the outcomes you want to create?

As Deming stressed; ”A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system.” Think of this as a roadmap. A clear map with a clear destination, so employees know where they are going. 

The only way to have your team aligned (same direction and speed) is to develop a detailed vision of the future and share it with them. They cannot read your mind. We can turn this vision into a tool, a physical instrument, useful in helping you achieve your vision.

Your team needs to know the reason why behind their work. They need clarity and an inspiring vision. This is not to be confused with low-substance marketing slogans. Rather, we are creating aspirational goals that we intend to rigorously pursue with active participation from every employee. Our short term, intermediate and long-term goals will be:

• Leader initiated
• Shared and supported
• Comprehensive
• Detailed
• Positive and inspiring

To determine if vision work is necessary, ask each team member; What is the aim of our company? What is our core long-term purpose? If you get a different answer from each member, what does that tell you?

Early in the process we also want to run a Process Triage.

This is where we take one full day with the whole team, mapping out your processes and having team discussions. The aim is to reduce friction (between people and departments) and increase efficiency. Staggering 80% improvements overnight are not uncommon.

Are your processes visible? How else can you simply and streamline them? Investing in AI or high-dollar technology without first running a process triage is pointless, often detrimental.

We also want to align our processes with the EMyth model

1. Leadership
2. Marketing
3. Finance
4. Management
5. Customer Fulfillment
6. Lead Conversion
7. Lead Generation

And the EMyth Business Development Program:

1. Your primary aim
2. Your strategic objective
3. Your organizational strategy
4. Your management strategy
5. Your people strategy
6. Your marketing strategy
7. Your systems strategy

We will explore the EOS model.

The Entrepreneurial Operating System is composed of six key components. Instead of worrying about 1000 different things, let us reduce it to these six core categories:

• Vision
• People
• Data
• Issues
• Process
• Traction

Are you familiar with The Strategy of Preeminence?

After working with me, you are going to know the name Jay Abraham, especially after the operational optimization phase. Jay is the preeminent marketing and revenue generating consultant…

What does it mean to be Great? Instead of some vague notion, we will hone in on a definition. Jay’s strategy is the most thorough, detailed, comprehensive and exhaustive list, definition, guideline of what it means to be world-class.

Another weekly objective will involve working direct with a few of your preferred clients. Or, at the very minimum, examining your company’s website and its products through the UX lens.

How familiar are you with User Experience Design, UXD? Expect a crash course.

Are you making it fun and easy to do business with you? We shall see.

Next, we will cover EX.

If you want to leverage employees (which is arguably the sole purpose of your business), then we have to explore Employee Experience design.

Other topics related to operational optimization include:

• Lean processes
• Cyber security
• Meetings
• Leadership
• Trust
• Types of capital
• Hiring and Firing
• Communication
• Public Relations
• Focused Productivity
• Leveraging technology
• Growing in bad economies
• Board of advisors
• Work-life balance
• Personal profile (Why institute & Kolbe A index)
• Client profile
• Business model
• Products and services
• Definitions
• Chokeholds
• Time management
• Thinking time
• Culture
• Delegating
• Business philosophy
• Three key components of ‘the machine’
• Exit strategy and Valuations
• Statistical process control

Phase Two: Growth Strategies

Innovation:

• What is innovation
• 3 types of innovation
• 24 ways to trigger innovative thinking
• 14 tips for systematizing innovation
• 100 > 7 > 3 > 1 methodology
• 4 ways to prevent falling prey to disruptive innovation
• 23 point overview
• Lateral Thinking (Edward de Bono)
• Creativity and Free-association brainstorming 
• A Technique for Producing Ideas (James Webb Young)
• Tony Buzan’s tips for creativity
• Macro Perspective with Alex Epstein and Matt Ridley

Marketing:

Once your operations are capable of handling growth, then we will tackle marketing and develop revenue generating systems.

Begin with a 200 point questionnaire. Then we fill in the gaps in your current marketing strategy while implementing a number a topics:

• Nine drivers of upside leverage and exponential growth
• Types of capital
• Ideology
• Power Parthenon
• Strategic Alliances
• Testing
• Three ways to grow
• Unique Selling Proposition, five step
• Guaranty
• Risk-Reversal
• Referral
• Copywriting
• Headlines/ Opening Statements/ First impressions
• Irresistible offers
• Mergers and acquisitions
• How to leverage the four categories of clients:
  • Those that pay you
  • The ones you pay (your internal team)
  • Your vendors
  • Your professional advisors
• Ogilvy ad
• Six legends of original source:
  • Claude Hopkins
  • Robert Collier
  • John Caples
  • David Ogilvy
  • Gene Schwartz
  • Gary Halbert  
• Lessons on scalability from Byran Franklin and Jennifer Russell
• Before, During, After (What happens BD&A your clients purchase your product)
• Dream 100
• Setting the Buyer’s Criteria
• Top 20 marketing mistakes
• Dan Sullivan’s eight biggest mistakes
• Napoleon Hill’s extra mile
• Jay Abraham’s Top 25 marketing strategies
• Pearson’s Law/ ROA
• Marcus Lemonis’s 3 Ps
• How to write ads
• Negotiations (Chris Voss)
• Consultations
• Raving fans
• Sticking points
• Competitors, alternatives, equivocation
• Marketing mindset
• What business are you in?
• Cash windfalls, hidden assets
• Mavenship
• Public Relations
• Barter
• Other people’s resources

Strategy:

• Define strategy what determine makes good strategy vs bad
• Distinguish between tactics and strategy

Management:

• Deming philosophy and approach will be incorporated all throughout.
• The whole point of this course is to help you apply Dr. Deming’s ideas to become aware of how your thinking is holding you back from your biggest opportunities. 

Other

• Miracle Mornings (Hal Elrod)
• Unique Ability (Dan Sullivan)
• Highest and Best use (CPR test)
• Types of Wealth (Napoleon Hill)
• Constraints (Rich Scehfren)
• Four types (hats) of business owners

How do we Balance Optimization and Innovation?

This requires a framework. Call it a Binary Growth Methodology. This is not theory. It is a proven methodology. Eerily similar to one particular bimodal thought process, this methodology is a fusion of two transformative approaches that, when combined, can revolutionize your business:

Original intent:

• Spend the first 12 months focusing on producing a quality product/service helping you improve your production systems
• In year two, shift my primary focus to replication, creating jobs, scalability
• Months 25-28, determining the optimal cost (service, wage, pricing structure, etc.)
• Final six months, creating a sales machine

Got questions? 

This is about long-term business transformation. 

You may get immediate results.  Some better than you hoped for.  If you are happy, Great. 

But don’t stop there.  You could be selling yourself short.  Get ALL 14 management points.  Crush your competing commitment – the excuse holding you back.  Do it not for yourself.  Do it for us.  The humbly employed:

Pretty please, with a cherry on top:  Leverage your human capital already. 

What type of legacy are you leaving? 

How do you want to be remembered?

Is it so hard to believe that your company, simply by shifting its perspective, can reduce its costs while increasing its productivity, thereby expanding the market, essentially guaranteeing its long-term survival?

I want to help you do this

Providing you with honest, outside perspective

Do you have a systematic master plan driving everything you do?  You need a plan that out-thinks, out-markets and out-appeals to the market better than your competitor. This requires deep integrated strategy.  If you have this (a deep integrated strategy) everything you do either advances, enhances or dramatically improves the impact of the relationship with your client.  Random things are a waste.  They do not give you a clear cut positioning – and this is what most people do – so you have to change this.  Strategy is the biggest advantage you will have competitively.  Strategy incorporates or includes the ability to decide what your ultimate business game plan is.