Left on Red

How to Ignite, Leverage and Build Visionary Organizations

Bill Glynn

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780470230237
• eBook ISBN: 9781118039489
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Desarrollo empresarial

In Left on Red, venture capitalist and business innovator Bill Glynn reveals how visionary thinkers and risk-takers build great companies by doing the opposite of the expected. Today?s coolest and most successful businesses?including Google, Apple, and YouTube?were built by people who break the rules and bring radical ideas to life. If you?re an entrepreneur or an executive, this book gives you the inspiration and the guidance to bring your radical ideas to life?and change the world in the process.

IV

The Strength of Social Capital

12

SHAKING HANDS AND KISSING BABIES

In the heyday of the technology boom I sat on the board of a magazine called Upside, the first technology publication about people, personalities, and deal making. This is where Tony Perkins, the founder of Red Herring, and Eric Knee of Forbes ASAP, emerged from. Upside was the first to build technology events and to promote technogeeks and VCs as rock stars. In the past, technology companies were just technology companies, like any other company in another industry. But Upside shined a spotlight on hot new technology employees and technogeeks, like Rolling Stone magazine promotes bands and rock stars, or Sports Illustrated promotes top athletes! It was a big thing to be featured in Upside. I learned through that experience the value of social capital and networks. The people you surround yourself with can transform your life and your business.

BUILDING YOUR COLLECTIVE IQ

In the early days of building my business I worked hard and sought out people who had big Rolodexes and major influence. I came across soon-to-be partner Jay Allen who built the CXO Network in Colorado that has spread to many states and represents one of the best-organized networks in the country. Like LinkedIn, we had developed a massive but proprietary Rolodex feeding and building upon itself, and we always kept in mind the principles of providing free access to our ideas.

Many carefully nurture their Rolodexes and networks and make a lot of money doing it. My biggest mentor and friend Joel Katz showed me how to value myself and my network and turn it into gold. The network multiplication effect is profound and transforming. Joel was ranked by Forbes as one of the 10 most powerful deal-making attorneys in the country. For years, I’ve worked in the music industry beside this media icon, and he has often connected me with people I needed to know to help get something done. I’ve learned a lot just through observation.

Shaking hands and kissing babies is exactly what an extrovert networker does from a stage, a TV show, or in person. I used to have baby dolls in diapers all over my office, in chairs, and on cabinets. I like to keep things light in business and in politics so whenever a politician came by the office, I always had a baby ready—gotta make ’em feel comfortable! And that’s all part of my authentic persona. Whether they like me or not, people remember me. I’m light and laid back and quick to find a solution or connect people.

How do you meet people and leave such an impression on them that they are never going to forget you? Think about your own networking IQ and what it is you can do to enhance it. When you meet someone the next time, or need to reach out to them, will they remember you? It’s essential to have a network and be disciplined in the service of others without expecting anything in return. It will come back to you multiplied.

SUPERCONNECTORS—THE BLACK BOX

Clearly, as with everything else in the enterprise, the boss—the CEO—is ultimately in charge of ensuring that the organization’s collective IQ is well above room temperature and sufficient to support innovation needs and goals. The CEO carries the message to key executives and staff who must understand and value the organization’s collective IQ and actively support and nurture its growth and development.

However, the CEO in fact may not be the principal superconnector who staffs the nodes and minds the links on behalf of the top of the house. Why? CEOs have a full plate and maximizing collective IQ is real work and a full-time job in larger organizations. Moreover, the attributes, skills, and capabilities of a highly effective superconnector probably differ from the job requirements profile of many CEOs in several respects. Accordingly, while superconnectors must be close to the leader, they also must have the time, energy, and license to pursue their work without undue distraction. If you read Tipping Point this would go beyond the connector who can recall many names and dates and events. The superconnector has a rather large brain and can take disparate businesses and ideas and connect people in ways never thought of and create huge deals as a result. It’s not just the network that moves mountains, it takes a talented mind to use it, to see the possibilities and make the impossible happen.

What Does It Take to Be a Great Superconnector?

For most businesses and professional organizations, we’re talking about the need to build and maintain networks that involve hundreds or thousands of contacts, and on a basis much more intimate than just a list of names and numbers in a contact management file. Having the nimbleness of a nine-ball juggler and the memory of an elephant are entry-level requirements. But the superconnector can’t simply be a walking database with the personality of a supercomputer; sincerity, likeability, and pleasantness all count as does having the patience and affability to put up with some valuable folks who may be difficult to get along with.

It means working with these contacts in very creative ways and finding potential relationships that aren’t obvious, while arranging contacts in environments where the possibilities can unfold without a hint of contrivance.

It means setting things up and setting people up with ideation already introduced, and coordinating introductions made with intelligence as to why they should be speaking at all. It also means not doing stupid things and having the sense to know when an easy-to-make potential connection might be best left open because there are too many downside risks. Superconnectors don’t purposely invite the fox into the henhouse.

It means having the tenacity to be in the game for the long haul. It requires sticking with people who clearly have something to offer but may not have a willing audience at the moment. At the same time, just as the gardener prunes regularly and selects new plantings with an eye to diversity, the superconnector sometimes needs to help the network stay healthy by moving some connections to reserve status.

Pruning and prioritizing are valid network maintenance options, but burning bridges, even with horrible miscreants, is usually not a good idea. Time has a way of changing perspectives. One example is Frank Abagnale Jr., the notorious forger and con man profiled in the movie Catch Me If You Can. He was later brought into the FBI’s Intelligence Network and has gone on to be a major player on the side of good through his work with both the agency and with financial institutions worldwide.

How Do Superconnectors Provide Value? How Do They Get “Paid”?

The contributions of a functioning superconnector are not that complicated but they can be overlooked, trivialized, or undervalued by observers who do not see the critical connection between this role and the pace of innovation. Superconnectors are the catalysts who make things happen in places and ways that aren’t always or immediately evident.

Connectors are power multipliers. Instead of losing power by giving it away, they grow it, and superconnectors grow it at awesome rates. They make big differences in areas that count by growing employment, expanding gross domestic product, and positively impacting social issues, much of the time with a completely below the radar profile.

The result of superconnectors’ work isn’t immediate or obvious and they aren’t likely to be on stage for the applause but just to produce ideas and connect the dots for the crowd. Why then, would they pursue this work? Well for one thing, while the results are not immediate or obvious to the outside world, the superconnectors know exactly what they have caused to happen, and know it well in advance of the public unveilings.

For another, the experience of the superconnector is much like that of the hunter. Most of the joy is in the hunt not in the ultimate bagging of the game. Superconnectors are clearly “journey” people. While desired destinations are clearly in focus, arrival simply means the beginning of the next leg.

Yet another source of “income” for these special individuals is simply the enjoyment they get from personal relationships. They legitimately like people and don’t maintain elaborate reciprocal bookkeeping systems to track who owes whom a favor.

Finally, when recognition does come from those they have touched, it comes in waves. Again, it isn’t always seen clearly from the outside, but there are some markers—lineups at conventions and cocktail parties is just one example. For many observers, the whole network is totally invisible to the outside world until the funeral when huge attendance signals the real importance of the dearly departed. One could say that public recognition this late is regrettable, but if the superconnector were around to comment, he or she would say something like “Of course, I knew exactly who was coming . . . ”

Who is the superconnector on your leadership team?

THE CHESSBOARD

This is not a test but you should really focus on it. No matter what you do and where you go it is always better to be able to know people in places of influence than not. My network methodically propelled more than 1,500 executives into power over 20 years. (Actually more, but they all don’t work out.) How is that for a chessboard? I stacked the deck, and used national mediums to build my Rolodex and became the hub—the superconnector.

I always keep my database full and fill it all the time. Four or five times a year I write personal messages on birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and sometimes just to say hi. I wouldn’t if I didn’t genuinely want to keep in touch with the great people I have come to know.

In addition, I use PR to bring ideas and various business concepts and accomplishments to the media but even more so to the network to keep it fresh and active. We make phone calls and have created events to have regular gatherings of great minds. Now that’s pretty darn hard to do when the rest of your life is so complicated and you are writing a book about it, but all the same it is power. Power comes in two primary forms: money, which is transient, and connections, which can never be taken away unless you violate their trust. Never lie, never shake a hand and change a deal, and always do what you say you will do for others—even if it isn’t successful or you come out on the wrong end. Follow through exactly. Follow through is 90 percent of building relationships.

I’ll be honest. I took my company name—Collective—from Star Trek. The Borg. The biggest, baddest species ever invented by Hollywood. Their overarching superiority and the fact they were linked to each other by one brain and central processor—or superconnector—was a profound theory. It created an almost invincible force that no species could defend itself against. They would simply roll up on whole planets and ships in space and say, “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated,” and that was it. They worked day and night for the collective good and consciousness. Collective IQ is just that—many brains linked together to expand the power of any company, executive, politician, or head of state by thinking beyond their wildest dreams and delivering ideas and partnerships on demand. That’s the kind of network that works.

TACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• How do you meet people and leave such an impression on them that they are never going to forget you? Think about your own networking IQ and what it is you can do to enhance it. How can you get people connected and create good ideas for them, so you are viewed as not just a collector of business cards but a connector adding value?

• It is essential to have a network. If you are not extroverted, align with organizations that have structure or find an ally who is.

• Superconnectors are the hub and have many spokes into their networks and those of others. Like a supercomputer in the middle of the networks, superconnectors provide value for disparate companies, products, and people on the fly and around the clock. Their value is immeasurable. Be one and seek them. They are the real secret sauce, and you definitely don’t want a competitor having one.

Insider’s Viewpoint

Ross Reck, Author
The X Factor, Win-Win Negotiator
Revved, Co-Author with Harry Paul (Best-Selling
Author of Fish)

Bulletproof Business Relationships

At birth, a new idea is vulnerable. Existing conditions in the marketplace, including inherent competitors, established interdependencies, and current equilibriums regarding allocation and consumption of resources stack the deck against the success of new entrants. For this reason, it is incumbent upon the innovator to work diligently through the gestation period to establish needed relationships; suppliers, channel partners, customers, and so forth so the idea emerges with points of strength or centers of gravity that give it enough grounding and strength to withstand the economic and competitive forces that will challenge it. This requires the ability to build strong and lasting business relationships; ones that are favorable enough to each party so that both parties are willing to grow and change their relationship as emerging conditions may require.

Which Set of Business Results Would You Like to Achieve?

A	B
Ordinary Results	Extraordinary Results
Barely surviving in a highly competitive market	Dominating a highly competitive market
Customers who shop for the lowest price	Customers who enthusiastically pay premium prices
Suppliers who fill orders	Suppliers who show you how to reduce costs
Employees who resist change	Employees who suggest change
Having to cold call new customers	New customers who call you
Implementing the latest management fad	Getting your current management system to work
Tension between labor and management	A 15-year labor agreement with annual double-digit productivity gains
Putting your destiny in the hands of others	Controlling your own destiny

If y...

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• I - The Visionary
• II - The Future
• III - The Art of a Deal
• IV - The Strength of Social Capital
• AFTERWORD
• INDEX