Last issue’s “C” Note Quote winner is...

The Third ActI just turned 60, so it’s a good time to

“stop the merry-go-round” and reflect on the business and how I see my life as a three- act-play:

The first act: Growing up, going to college, and working seven years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Minneapolis and New York City.

The second act: Starting the Prouty Project Inc. at the ripe and naive age of 30.

The third act: The good lord willing, working until I’m 90, similar to Andy Rooney (60 Minutes) and Charlie Munger (Berkshire Hathaway).

As the “old man” at our firm, I’m very proud of our team, and love the Golden-State-Warriors-like chemistry we have created. We are a special group (12 stars at the table, I like to say, with Kristin Jonason being the newest addition), that represents every decade from the 1950s to the 1990s.

In the meantime, I’m still reflecting on a couple recent news nuggets:

• Time Magazine says a child born today could live to 130 years old.

• Elon Musk, founder of Tesla (age 45), believes he could retire on Mars.

For the ten-year-old reading this newsletter, what do you want to accomplish over the next 100 years?

As our third act begins, we give some thought to “trends” in this newsletter.

Enjoy, have a STRETCHtacular 2017, and we’ll see you soon,

Jeff Proutyjeff.prouty@proutyproject.com

Matt Kline, Best Buy

Matt knew that Bill Gates, said the following: “It’s about being the kind of friend you wish you had yourself. Everyone should be lucky enough to have a friend who is as thoughtful and kind as Warren. He goes out of his way to make people feel good about themselves and share his joy about life.”

Congratulations, Matt! Matt says, “I will be using the gift card to put together a care package for my son PFC Nolan M. Kline and his fellow Marines currently deployed with the 11th MEU. He makes me proud each and everyday for the path he’s taken to serve and protect the United States of America.”

“C” NOTE QUOTE:“The insights required to solve many of our most challenging problems come from outside our industry and scientific field. We must aggressively and proudly incorporate into our work findings and advances which were not invented here.”

Know the quote?If you know who said this quote, please send an email to: melissa.gennert@proutyproject.com or call 952.942.2922 by Wednesday, February 1; one guess per person. If we have more than one correct answer, we throw those names into a hat and draw the winner of a $100 gift card.

Matt Kline

ISSUE 117

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The science fiction writer William Gibson once wrote: “The future is here. It just isn’t evenly distributed.” It’s a powerful insight because it implies that savvy business leaders can discern the future if only they heed today’s emerging trends. Five trends — currently on the edges of society — appear poised to transform the business landscape of tomorrow.

In February, Amazon introduced “Echo,” a new artificially intelligent platform that allows users to access the Internet using nothing other than their voice. That same month, Facebook unveiled its new “Chatbot” platform, which similarly uses artificial intelligence. These developments are noteworthy because soon businesses will be able to create artificially intelligent agents that can interact and serve customers in a variety of accessible, affordable, and innovative ways.

In April, Pizza Hut used a drone to deliver a pizza to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. In September, Uber began giving people rides in self-driving robotic cars in Pittsburgh. In October, Budweiser used an autonomous truck to deliver 50,000 cans of beer to Colorado Springs. All three events were public relations gimmicks, but they suggest the era of robotics is rapidly approaching, and it will shake up the supply chain in some powerful ways.

In June, Facebook conducted the first flight of Aquila — a solar-powered drone designed to deliver affordable high-speed Internet access everywhere on the planet. Google, SpaceX, and AT&T are similarly exploring a variety of innovative technologies to make 5G (10-gigabit speeds) accessible around

the globe by the end of the decade. Combine these advances with the startling progress in voice translation technology, and the implication is that businesses will soon be able to communicate with all 7 billion people on the planet in their native language. To say that there will be at least a few business opportunities to spring from this global windfall is an understatement of historic proportions.

In July, Pokémon Go exploded onto the urban scene. To the casual observer the game might seem silly but it represents the first wide-scale use of augmented reality. As the trend of layering digital data on top of the physical world grows, the way businesses engage and market to their customer will shift before our very eyes.

Finally, in the last week of October, Elon Musk unveiled a sleek, new attractive solar roof. This development, together with other advances in renewable and microgrid technologies, point to a future when most businesses will be able to smartly, cleanly, and reliably produce the bulk of their own power. In the process, they will save thousands of dollars in reduced energy costs.

Other trends in 3D manufacturing, urban agriculture, Big Data, the “Internet of Things,” the “sharing economy,” and online education will also undoubtedly continue to restructure businesses in the coming year. In the final analysis, however, every business leader should heed Peter Drucker’s wise words: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” The aforementioned trends are real, but your business will only prosper in 2017 and beyond if you harness these tools to reimagine and recreate your business today.

Jack Uldrich is a best-selling author and global futurist. His forthcoming book is Business as Unusual: The Big AHA!

The Five Trends Shaping the Future of BusinessBy Futurist, Keynote Speaker, and Author: Jack Uldrich

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Jammin’ 2017 We are excited to present our Jammin’ Series schedule. These are high-energy, interactive, and engaging sessions designed to stretch your thinking about business, leadership, and life strategy. Held the first Tuesday of each month, from 7:30-9:00 a.m. in our Creative Think Tank or Strategic Leadership Lab. Seating is limited, so we ask that you register online at proutyproject.com and click “Prouty Events” or email jayna.wallace@proutyproject.com.

A $20 donation will be accepted at the door benefitting the Prouty Project’s STRETCH Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation. Please bring cash or check payable to the Prouty Project.

NO JAMMIN’ SESSIONS IN JANUARY AND JULY DUE TO THE HOLIDAYS.

JAY COUGHLAN, Chief Executive and Managing Director, TruBalanced “Convict to CEO: Rise Above Your Circumstances”

BRITT CARLSON, Senior Director, Partnerships, MN Super Bowl Host Committee “Getting Ready for Super Bowl LII”

JASON DAYTON, Co-Founder and CEO, and DAVID O’NEILL, Co-Founder and CFO, Lionheart Cider “Lionheart Cider: Transforming a Class Project into a Business and Doubling Down on Our Dream.”

ISAIAH NELSON, National Development Team, and TASHA NELSON, Former U.S. Ski Team Member and 2-time Olympian, and TODD NELSON, Co-Owner, T&T Boatworks Marina and Storage “Preparing to be an Olympic Athlete”

BOB FAFINSKI, Shareholder & CEO, Fafinski Mark & Johnson “Reflections of the Ryder Cup”

MATT VELDMAN, Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch “Life In (and After) the NFL”

MARK ELLIOTT, Police Chief, Prior Lake Police Department “21st Century Policing”

JOHN HAUGEN, General Manager, 301 Inc., General Mills“Investing in our Future at General Mills”

RON STARK, SVP, Sales and Marketing, Airgas / Air Liquide“The Airgas Story: From $0 to $5 Billion (481 Acquisitions) in 30 Years”

SCOTT SAVOR, Founder / CEO, Secrets in Sports “Culture: Setting the Standards in a Competitive and Collaborative Company”

Regardless of the size, location, or industry of your business, you are operating in a global environment.Let’s let that sink in for a moment.

With significant demographic and technology shifts and emerging global markets, the business world has become a veritable marketplace of limitless interaction. Leaders are being challenged to better understand the nuances of their increasingly diverse business relationships both within and between companies, and to better manage the complexity impacting their decision-making and communication.

To do this successfully often requires a change in deep-seated perspectives. As a result, more companies than ever are placing greater emphasis on diversity and purposeful development.

Diverse Global Leadership

Today’s business leaders seem to agree diversity is needed in the workplace, and are hiring senior leaders with multi-cultural backgrounds and global experiences to lead them into the global economy. Despite this

Shifting Perspectives on Leadership

focus, many businesses continue to struggle to agree upon the definition of diversity, and why it ultimately matters.

The real power of workplace diversity comes from teams understanding how regional, demographic, and generational factors have shaped a person’s assumed way of doing things. In this way, the conversation around diversity in the workplace is expanding to focus more on how to recognize and cultivate diverse mindsets.

A diverse mindset is one that combines an appreciation of differences with a propensity to see common patterns across countries, markets, age, gender, or any other factors that create perceived differences. Diversity, in this sense, goes deeper than thinking in terms of ethnic groups to appreciate how distinct, subjective experiences can impact our behaviors and how we view the world.

Leadership in the global environment now requires employees to be keenly aware of how behavior, circumstances, and communication are viewed by people who come from different backgrounds, and how those differences can be embraced to ultimately create more flexible organizations. Leaders who can readily adopt a diverse mindset to account for different perspectives – from how they talk on the phone, to where they hold meetings, to who they hire – will be most successful. And companies that set high expectations for leaders to speak and act more globally even as they work locally, will be most adaptable to change.

Purposeful Development

IBM, GE, Google, Apple, and even McDonald’s have long been proponents of corporate “universities.” These traditional corporate training approaches to leadership development have often followed the classic “sit down, be quiet, and listen” approach, which attempts to squeeze as much information as possible into as short a time as possible. This “cram training” can make organizations susceptible to adopting a check-the-box mentality toward development because it focuses on training as something done to employees rather than working with them to discover, maximize, and release their full potential.

Many leadership experts suggest you avoid these ill effects by designing learning that’s practical and challenging, but also includes opportunities for team bonding and laughter, quiet time and reflection, free-wheeling discussions, and a bit of surprise and adventure. Development opportunities should provide more than just content, especially with today’s inordinately high focus on information technology and the constant stream of information.

We have found that the leadership development pendulum is swinging to refocus on the people in companies and what might help them to work together better. This starts with better understanding the team by listening to them, providing purposeful development that is values-driven and closely knit to the organization’s vision and mission, and creating experiential discovery through access to thought-leading resources, immediate application of concepts, and fun.

Purposeful development creates a holistic mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual journey. This self-aware approach will create leaders that are ultimately more attuned to and respectful of their colleagues, which creates better teams and a healthy, cohesive culture.

As we head into 2017, we encourage you to be purposeful in the development of your leaders and let diversity be your mindset. Help to foster adaptability in every employee by giving them the practical tools needed to not only keep up with the pace of change, but also embrace it.

Financial Executives International (FEI) Twin Cities Trusted Peer Groups

The Prouty Project has partnered with FEI Twin Cities to offer a Trusted Peer Group program for senior financial executives. Sam Smith will be facilitating monthly sessions in which members will build trusted relationships and leverage each member’s expertise as they discuss the successes and challenges they encounter and engage in opportunities to develop as leaders. For more information about participating in a peer group please contact Sam Smith at sam.smith@proutyproject.com or call 952.942.2922. by: Sam Smith

sam.smith@ proutyproject.com

by: Peter Bailey

peter.bailey@proutyproject.com

by: Andrea West

andrea.west@proutyproject.com

by: Mike Felmlee

mike.felmlee@proutyproject.com

“

”

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. — Charles Darwin

Perhaps you’ve seen some of the headlines in the business press questioning the value of a strategic plan given the pace of change in today’s business environment. We are, after all, now living in a world where many of our past solutions don’t apply and the rules keep changing. So it’s not surprising that there are many strategists who are arguing for a focus on agility and execution over having a comprehensive plan.

In reality, rumors of the death of strategic planning have been greatly exaggerated.

Amid today’s rapidly changing business environment there is one true competitive advantage: speed of adaptability. And, this adaptive advantage only comes from taking the time to look to the horizon, identify patterns to develop a realistic view of the big picture, and explore all of the possible approaches to it.

While the need for strategic planning has not gone away, the approach most certainly has evolved. The big trends we are seeing in our work with clients revolve around three key areas:

1. Shorter Time Horizons

For years, businesses have operated under 3-, 5-, and 10-year plans. Today, consolidation is the new norm. Shifting business models and social entrepreneurs are changing consumer behaviors. And, disruptive technologies are being introduced daily, altering the competitive landscape and ensuring there isn’t a single industry that isn’t undergoing change.

The accelerating pace of change is most evident in technological advances, which are growing at a rate never seen before. Uber introduced self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh this past September bringing autonomous vehicles to the masses. Google’s new Daydream View Headset is making virtual reality more accessible, which could have sweeping implications for sales experiences, education, and even everyday meetings. And in Louisville, KY, solar-powered trash cans are now functioning as free Wi-Fi hot spots for Internet users, making the once conceptual “Internet of things” a very practical reality.

In this ever-changing landscape, strategy has become a continuous process rather than an annual one, and the strategic plan itself needs to be more fluid and more focused to ensure it continues to advance the organization toward its vision. As a result, more businesses are opting for quarterly reviews of environmental factors and strategies, and even more frequent reviews of tactics. These mid-course corrections also include more frequent competitive reviews. Those who aren’t keeping an eye on industry data and the activities of their competition are more likely to be leapfrogged. Today, quarterly reviews have become table stakes.

The Adaptive Advantage Strategic Planning in an Environment of Continual Change

On the flip side, shorter time horizons and the speed of technological advances are also helping companies to achieve their strategies much more quickly. Harnessing the speed of change through focus and efficiency can turn these shorter time horizons into a powerful ally.

2. Enduring Meaning

While adaptation is essential to survival, so is an appropriate level of preservation. Having a guiding star amid the change – the parts of the business that are so inherent they drive decisions and behaviors – can become the foundation upon which change is built.

For this reason, more companies are taking time to ensure the company’s core purpose, mission, and core values are not just articulated, but also understood and lived by everyone in the organization. These guiding principles (in combination with the long-term vision) become the guardrails to ensure no one overreacts to change. As reflected in Exhibit A, they are also an increasingly important bridge for helping to connect the strategic plan to all levels of the organization in a way that galvanizes the entire team. After all, values drive behavior, behavior drives culture, and culture ultimately impacts a company’s performance.

In this way, our clients are also finding incredible value in the art of storytelling. They are inspiring their teams in a more personal and approachable way by telling the story of the strategic plan in a way that gives it greater meaning beyond a singular goal or strategy. Those that do this particularly well are able to get much farther in a shorter time period because their teams are fueled by personal motivations.

3. Successful Execution

We know a plan not successfully acted upon is no better than the paper on which it is written. But successful execution takes alignment and effort from everyone in the organization, especially when being responsive to change.

Unlike previous strategic planning models, new approaches are making strategy a part of everyday work. Our clients are recognizing the importance of empowering their employees to feel ownership and impact regardless of their individual roles. This requires increased transparency and communication, but also a higher level of empowerment and accountability for all employees to give everyone the tools they need to remain action-oriented and make good decisions in the face of uncertainty.

Our clients are finding one of the greatest steps toward gaining an adaptive advantage is through investing the time and resources into building the core competencies of their employees. Shoring up baseline knowledge and skillsets and teaching employees how to think about challenges builds confidence. As reflected in Exhibit B, this can create a powerful cascading effect. Greater confidence ultimately leads to greater simplicity in how employees approach their jobs. And this simplicity, in time, ultimately results in speed.

As you think about your strategic plan in 2017, we encourage you not to jettison the entire process, but instead get very clear on your core purpose, mission, and values, set a clear vision for your desired future, remain flexible in your approach to getting there, and invest in your colleagues. These are, after all, the first steps to creating your unique, sustainable, adaptive advantage.

CORE PURPOSE / MISSION / VALUES(100 years or more)

VISION(10-20-30 years)

GOALS(3-5 years)

STRATEGIES(1-2 years)

TACTICS(30-60-90-120 days)

PRESERVATIONYour purpose, mission, and values represent your core ideology. They define the company’s timeless character and are the glue that holds the enterprise together even when everything else is up for grabs.

EVOLUTIONConversely, strategies and tactics do change more frequently to adapt to circumstances and environmental changes.

ENDURING MEANINGExhibit A:

SUCCESSFUL EXECUTIONExhibit B:

COMPETENCE CONFIDENCE SIMPLICITY

SPEED

Based on the article “Building Your Company’s Vision,” by James Collins and Jerry Porras, Harvard Business Review, September-October 1996.