Chad Hutchins

This is a guest post written by Haley D. Dilling. Haley is a freelance graphic designer and marketing consultant, currently living and working in Abilene, Texas. You can learn more of her marketing perspective on her blog and by following her on Twitter.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” ***

Why do so many organizations try to stand divided? Their many departments operate in functional silos, each doing its own thing, protecting its own territory, and criticizing the selfishness, ignorance, or disagreeableness of the other departments. The designers can’t understand why the developers won’t build the product to match their elaborate renderings. The developers can’t understand why the marketing team treats them as incompetent one moment and expects them to be all-powerful the next. The marketing team can’t understand why the designers convolute the marketing message with their intricate visual details.

Organizations cannot function this way – at least, not for long. The word “organization” implies multiple parts arranged into a whole. An organism, if you will. The organization should function as one unit, with many parts working together, much like the human body.

In the human body are present millions of cells and tissues and organs, all working in coordination for the survival of the body. Each part of the body has a specific and specialized function, and all of them contribute to the life of the body. Christians have used this metaphor for almost 2,000 years to describe how the church should function, and the same principle applies to any organization. The Apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:

“There are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.”

In the body, each part carries unique abilities, perspectives, and needs. The eyes see. The ears hear. The nose smells. The mouth speaks. The hands touch and clasp and lift and push. The legs walk and stand. Each needs different kinds of nourishment, support, and protection. Each senses things differently, and each provides sensory information that the others cannot.

And each part of the body would be useless if it were not connected and working in harmony with all of the other parts.

The legs would be useless for walking if the eyes could not see, and if the brain could not communicate where to go. The digestive system could not fuel the body if the hands did not respond to hunger pangs and input food to the mouth. The body could not heal itself if the immune system did not redirect platelets and white blood cells to the areas of disease and injury. The many parts of the body contribute to the survival of all the other parts, and of the body as a whole.

In the same way, the survival of any organization requires that each member appreciate the needs and abilities of all the other members. Each member in an organization should understand what he and every other member can and cannot do, and what the function and importance of each member is. He should learn the key factors that affect the abilities of every other member to function, so that he can understand how he can help the other members to succeed. He should trust that every other member is doing his or her job well, and is acting in the best interests of the whole, just as he himself does. And he should communicate continually with the other members, realizing that the entire organization must be coordinated in order to reach its goals.

Working together within an organization is not a matter of “us” vs. “them”, but of truly working together, understanding one another, appreciating one another, and seeking the success of one another. When this happens, the entire organism can thrive.

*** Jesus, Mark 3:25

Interested in being a guest blogger on the Abilene Startup Blog? Shoot me an email or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Every Tuesday night, fellow Milsoft employees and I play softball in a corporate softball league. And every Tuesday night, I come home with new bruises or strawberrys on my legs and arms from sliding or diving on the field trying to make a play. I’ll come home from the game and show my wife that night’s injuries, and she thinks I’m crazy for playing that hard for just a company softball game. She just can’t understand it. After our last game she asked me, “Why do you do that? I just don’t understand”. My only response is: “I don’t know any other way to play”. We play in a competitive league, so we play softball to win softball games. I’ll do whatever it takes to help my team win softball games.

The whatever it takes mentality is a valuable thing. I wish more people had this mentality. I think the world would be a better place if more people would do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals and ambitions.

In a startup, you’re never going to make it without a whatever it takes mentality and surrounding yourself with co-founders who have the same. Businesses should look to hire nothing but whatever it takes-minded people. Companies should partner with partners who will do whatever it takes to make a partnership successful. If you’re in charge of a fund-raising or community service event, you should be doing nothing short of whatever it takes to help out the persons or organizations you are supporting.

When I say whatever it takes, I don’t mean the back-stabbing, short-changing, relationship-ending sort of whatever it takes. I mean doing whatever it takes while preserving everything else that is important. The best way I can describe this is with an example. I have been married for a year and a few months now to my lovely wife. It was tough in the beginning because I was working all the time. I would work late, while my wife would go to bed alone in many cases. This took away from my relationship with my wife. I had to find another way. Now, I could have told my wife, “Sorry hun, this is just part of being married to an entrepreneurially-minded, hard-working husband” or I could find another way to do whatever it takes to be a great husband and continue my side-ventures. My solution, I keep my nights open for my wife and I get up every morning at 2am-ish and start hustling. Easier said than done. Does this mean I had to stop watching Lost and trade it for one of my wife’s favorite shows? Yes, I had to start watching “Drop Dead Diva” (ok, I have to admit I sort of like it). Does this mean I can’t go out and play in the weekly pick-up basketball and football games? Yes. There are may trade-offs, but to maintain the relationships that really matter and work on other things that I really care it about, you have to do whatever it takes.

Some new blog, business venture, side project, etc. etc. will never be worth cutting off those around you. The relationships you have today are your biggest asset in getting anything off the ground.

So I ask, why spend your time on something that you aren’t going to put all your attention and best efforts to? If you care enough to be doing something in the first place, you should do nothing but whatever it takes to make that something happen.

I write this to encourage you. I believe it is possible to accomplish everything you want to given a whatever it takes attitude. Please, don’t be lazy and waste this precious gift of life.

Are you doing whatever it takes to accomplish your goals and ambitions?

Some days it doesn’t feel like it, but the Abilene community is full of entrepreneurs. They may be young or old, experienced or inexperienced, but they are out there creating businesses and adding value to the Abilene community and surrounding areas. Abilene is a very unique city, especially for it’s size and population of 110,000ish. There are 3 universities and a slew junior colleges and tech schools infusing the city with fresh talent every few months. Until now, I didn’t feel the local universities have done much to mentor and encourage the influx of students who are interested in entrepreneurship.

Just recently, Abilene Christian University has created a business incubator to do just that, mentor and encourage their student and community entrepreneurs. The incubator provides everything that is needed to start a business: office space, utilities, internet, legal advice, a wealth of mentors, and other resources. Out of that list, I think the mentors available to the entrepreneurs give the incubator the most value. Kevin Christian and Jim Porter will have their hands directly involved with the companies in the incubator, along with the experience-rich business school faculty.

The incubator will provide a great environment for entrepreneurs to get their business off the ground and running. Not to mention, the incubator will show entrepreneurs how Abilene is a great place to launch a business.

If you want to learn more about ACU’s business incubator initiative, be sure to come to this week’s ReInvent Abilene. Kevin Christian will be presenting “Business Building” on Thursday Oct 8, 2009 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at the Texas Tech University at Abilene on 302 Pine Street - Across from the Downtown Abilene Post Office.

If think you want to get into the business of entrepreneurship or are already cranking away at the next big thing, I highly recommend that you take the time to read “The Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki. I have a copy of the book. Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter if you want to borrow it. If you don’t want to take the time to read the book, at least make the time to watch Guy’s video presentation covering the concepts of the book in the embedded video below. I’ve summarized the slides below.

10 Key Concepts from “The Art of the Start”

1. Make Meaning - If you want to start a company, it should be to make meaning. Not to make money.
   • Increase the quality of life
   • Right a wrong
   • Prevent the end of something good
2. Make a Mantra - You don’t need a long and confusing mission statement; only a simple 3-4 word mantra
3. Get Going - What are you waiting for?! Get after it!!
   • Think different
   • Polarize people
4. Define a Business Model
   • Be specific
   • Keep it simple
5. Weave a MAT - Map out your game plan, and prioritize accordingly
   • Milestones
   • Assumptions
   • Tasks
6. Niche Thyself - All you need to know about marketing is on this single slide
7. Follow the 10/20/30 Rule
   • 10 slides
   • 20 minutes
   • 30 is the smallest font size
     • Font size algorithm - Take the oldest person in the crowd and divide by 2.
8. Hire Infected People
   • Ignore the irrelevant
   • Hire people better than yourself
   • Apply shopping center test
9. Lower Barriers to Adoption
   • Flatten the learning curve
   • Don’t ask people to do something you wouldn’t do yourself
   • Embrace your evangelists
10. Seed the Clouds
    • Let 100 flowers blossom
    • Enable test drives
    • Find the influencers
11. Don’t let the Bozos grind you down

As companies grow older and larger, it becomes increasingly difficult to develop new and innovative products and services. When you aren’t Apple, Microsoft, [insert other giant company here], you don’t have the luxury of a dedicated new research and development department. So how do you stay competitive and innovative in your market? I think it takes a combination of two things: hire entrepreneurs and promote intrapreneurship.

When you are looking to develop new products and services, who better to hire than entrepreneurs, those who are always looking for a better solution. Entrepreneurs can provide a unique insight into your company’s products, services, business processes, etc. However, you can’t hire an entrepreneur without knowing the risks. Entrepreneurs will most likely be working on something on the side other than their current tasks with your company, and if they are in fact working on something on the side and serious about what they are doing, they will be leveraging their hard-earned cash to fund their side projects. You may see this as a very bad thing, but it comes with the territory. That is why they are entrepreneurs. If they had rich uncles, they wouldn’t be working for you anyways. Instead of fighting it, have the policies in place to deal with the issue.

Intrapreneurship is very similar to entrepreneurship but it is more specific. Intrapreneurship is entrepreneurship focused on a particular organization’s core business. Promoting intrapreneurship in your organization is more than just hiring entrepreneur types. Without creating venues where your entrepreneurs can display their new ideas, providing incentives for their successes and ultimately providing the resources needed to implement the new ideas, your entrepreneurs on staff will become bored, feel ignored and probably leave. The underlying key in all the points of the last sentence is simply to listen. Let your entrepreneurs know you are listening and value their thought, time and effort.

I don’t want to paint a picture of entrepreneurs as prima donna, know-it-alls, because they aren’t. I simply paint it this way to bring up the point, you have to approach entrepreneurs in a different light, just as you would for developers, a sales team, executives, etc.

To give an example of creating venues for your intrapreneurs to show off their new ideas and implementations, Milsoft, a leader in Smart Grid Software and my employer, held several internal presentations yesterday showcasing their summer interns’ projects. The interns were given a project specification, but how they implemented their projects was open-ended. They were allowed to be creative and innovative. I can’t think of a better way to kick-start a young entrepreneur’s career by encouraging intrapreneurship from the onset. Kudos to Milsoft and their internship program.

What are your thoughts on intrapreneurship?

As an entrepreneur, it seems a lot of focus is placed on finding that unique, fresh and innovative new product or service. It’s a daily battle coming up with new ideas only to find with a quick Google search someone else is already way ahead of you on the idea. When I find my idea isn’t perfectly unique, I usually don’t chase the idea any farther than simply thinking about it, because I know I not only have to create an incredible product or service that people will use, but I am starting out of the gate with a major competitor(s).

Despite the challenge, being a second-mover has it’s advantages. A second-mover has the advantage of seeing exactly what the first-movers are offering and able to determine what is working and what isn’t. In this situation, the first-mover will be slower to act. If a first-mover company recognizes the real value of their service after gaining a large following, and they haven’t built out their product or service towards those value-adds, they are in trouble. As a first-mover’s customer base becomes larger, their company will become more resistant to change and less able to quickly implement new products and features to better suit the market. If they attempt any substantial changes to their offering, they risk losing customers. Being a second-mover, one may have the advantage of breaking down the market’s needs and hurts easier than the first-mover. Being able to address these specific needs at the onset allows the second-mover to build their offering in a way that re-addresses the core needs of the market. When implemented correctly, the second-mover will be able to start pulling market share from the first-mover. Sometimes applying a first-mover’s overall idea to a particular niche can be an effective strategy.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing easy about being a second-mover and there are plenty of convincing advantages of being a first-mover. By studying the first-mover to see what is or isn’t working, having a clear understanding of the market’s needs that aren’t being addressed by the first-mover, and having an offering that directly addresses the actual needs of the consumer, one has a good shot at creating something successful as a second-mover.

In the social networking world, new services pop up daily. With sites like MySpace and Twitter that become households names seemingly overnight, these giants are in the spotlight, have a huge user base and are finding it harder and harder to change their product direction. There is an incredible post titled “MySpace is to Facebook as Twitter is to _______” that breaks down how Facebook’s second-mover advantage allowed it to over take MySpace and questions who will be Twitter’s second-mover competition. The article inspired this post and I highly recommend the read.

I say all of this to say: even though your initial Google searching of your next big idea results in a long list of first-mover competitors, don’t stop there. Go the next step and see if you can leverage a second-mover advantage to create something successful.

What are your thoughts on being a second-mover?

Since June 2007, my productivity has increased a good deal simply because of my iPhone purchase. I rely on my iPhone daily for my email, calendar, directions, alarm, Twitter, Facebook, games, texting, etc. etc.

BUT as time continues to pass and other cell phone (T-Mobile) and software (Google) providers close the gap on the iPhone’s technologies, justifying an iPhone becomes harder and harder. This article from Fast Company helps put things into perspective.

As Google’s and Apple’s offerings continue to diverge, I think my buddy Chris Faulkner (former Abilenian) puts it best: “there will come a day when we have to choose between Apple and Google”

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

Tom Dolan, the organizer of ReInvent Abilene invites you all this Thu Jul 9, 2009 to attend this week’s event. They will have free refreshments and beverages starting at 5pm and at about 5:45pm Doug Williamson of Abilene Biz business news magazine will talk about opportunities and threats of newspaper publishing. This is important because… local publishing is a primary way to reach local audiences.

“Are Newspapers Dead Meat?”
Thursday, July 9, 2009
5:00pm to 7:00pm
Texas Tech University at Abilene
302 Pine Street - Across from the Downtown Abilene Post Office

We will be hosting another open coffee event on Tuesday June 23 starting at 9am and ending at 4pm. A big thanks, to Abilene Christian University who will be sponsoring the event with free lunches and coffee. The open coffee events are a great way to meet local entrepreneurs, freelancers and many others. Being a “co-working” event, we will be meeting up to get to know each other, but most of all, meeting up to work together at a common location for the day. Be sure to bring your laptop to hookup to the free internet.

Please pass around the Facebook event to invite your friends.

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If you haven’t been to a ReInvent Abilene, tonight would be a great night to start. ReInvent Abilene is monthly gathering of Research & Development inventors, researchers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalist. Guest speakers are brought in to speak about entrepreneurship, technology and other topics. Tonight’s session is called “ReInvent in 60 Seconds”. All of the attendees will have the opportunity to introduce themselves and tell about the cool things they are working on. There will also be food and beverages there to snack on. To keep up with what’s going on with ReInvent be sure to checkout their website.