Clever Geek Handbook
28 December 2025

CIO Best Practices

Recommendation

In this compilation, renowned names in information technology describe managerial developments in their field for chief information officers (CIOs). Insiders Robert Stephens, Bill Flemming, Michael Hugos, Randy Betancourt, Alyssa Farrell, Jonathan Hujsak, Gary Cokins and Kurt Schubert – edited by Joe Stenzel – discuss IT leadership, social networking, social connectivity, cloud computing and energy efficiency. Sound management advice and a deep understanding of IT’s strategic importance await patient readers. Due to their technical nature, BooksInShort recommends these essays to IT specialists and active or aspiring CIOs eager to grasp the forces shaping IT.

Take-Aways

  • New technologies force chief information officers (CIOs) to become more innovative.
  • CIOs must balance business system innovation with security risks.
  • Computer science graduates who don’t learn about IT’s role in business management are at a disadvantage in the corporate world.
  • Cloud computing is likely to be “the most profound change in IT since the emergence of the Internet.”
  • Cloud computing combines parallel computing, the Internet, web browsers, open source software and server virtualization.
  • Indirect IT costs – electricity, system administration, executive time and opportunity costs – are all factors when a firm decides whether to embrace cloud computing.
  • The information center of an enterprise consumes the same amount of electricity as 25,000 households.
  • CIOs can use increasingly sophisticated metrics to identify profitable customers.
  • Marketers and CIOs should know the difference between their most profitable and most valuable customers.
  • Advancing social network technology poses new choices for CIOs.

Summary

Balancing Creativity and Security

New technologies, such as mobile applications, smart screens and simplified applications, will force chief information officers (CIOs) to become more innovative, but they must balance innovation with business system security. Self-aware CIOs understand their own ability to innovate. This helps them address other issues, such as which systems to build.

“We all live in a closed system (the Earth) and therefore we all share a finite set of resources for which there are no replacements.”

Employees overwhelmed with information seldom understand how to apply it. “Information filtering” helps them focus on relevant content and make better decisions. Filtering will become more crucial over the next decade as firms ask their CIOs to develop more conditional if-then statements as the basis of more efficient, relevant filtering. As an example of filtered data in daily life, consider someone who has to get to a meeting and tries to combine a smartphone’s calendar, GPS and Google access to calculate the best route, find the closest gas station and determine when to depart. Information filtering would process these variables automatically. The data and technology already exist, but filtering the information would enable a seamless, rapid report. CIOs must promote “disciplined creativity,” using rules to balance the “innovative impulse with disciplinary prudence.” To make employees efficient and creative, CIOs should:

  1. Clarify why the company created each IT rule – Explain what problems rules prevent and what positive outcomes they promote.
  2. Every rule should exist for a specified time – Review rules at regular intervals to prevent them from becoming outmoded and freezing the IT department’s culture.
  3. A CIO must not make unnecessary rules – Promote clear, straightforward design and optimal functionality. For example, compare Google’s simple start page to the clutter on the start pages of Yahoo and AOL.

Beyond Systems Failures

Engineering colleges often do not teach computer science graduates about “integrated IT system and business management.” Colleges may focus on engineering, but business managers need to learn capacity management, cost analysis and business strategy. Many IT business managers have to be trained postgraduation to be effective in the workplace. This deficiency in IT education originated in the industry’s history. During the mid-1980s, IBM mainframes were the backbone of IT. A centralized, tightly managed IT culture grew around the mainframes, which were housed in “Glass Houses,” environmentally controlled, self-contained rooms. By the early 1990s, personal computers gained acceptance and changed mainframe systems management. IBM licensed its DOS operating system to Microsoft and its CPU manufacturing to Intel, so Microsoft and Intel could sell these former IBM products to anyone.

“CIOs get paid to help innovate and stretch.”

These developments challenged IT systems managers to catch up with the new open, noncentralized environment. SAS hired two industry consulting firms – McKinsey & Company and Gartner Inc. – to monitor intellectual developments in IT. Each consultancy had a different industry perspective. McKinsey promoted IT as a strategic, stand-alone business that creates value and returns through hardware, software, relevant output and internal business processes. Gartner’s approach stressed efficient IT business management. CIOs should identify what their departments can accomplish using existing tools to manage IT performance as a resource within their companies. CIOs must evaluate risks, quality, expenses and standard services to determine IT’s management capabilities and costs.

Cloud Computing and IT’s New Economics

Cloud computing – a disruptive, transformational, cost-cutting technology – is “the most profound change in IT since the emergence of the Internet.” Cloud computing brings together parallel computing, the Internet, web browsers, open source software and server virtualization. Various combinations of these technologies now operate data centers, manage customer relationships and support business applications. Cloud computing provides almost unlimited, easily accessible computing power, resources and applications, but as IT shifts in this direction, in-house operations must change. For instance, those now maintaining data networks and applications must move toward supporting cloud-computing providers. Outside vendors will maintain data centers. Cloud computing-related changes will challenge many in-house IT specialists, as did the shift in the 1980s from mainframes to PCs.

“The CIO is ideally suited to provide the necessary leadership to identify and enable transformation of dated, wasteful processes into a leaner set of processes.”

Today’s high-quality products make it easier and faster for companies to move into cloud computing and to respond more quickly to market opportunities. For instance, if a company wants to open a branch office, it can provide its newest IT products without on-site engineers to customize its products. Using cloud computing and software, the company can make the new office operational within days, with reduced up-front costs. A marriage of cloud computing and business agility best suits companies that use applications with unpredictable traffic volumes and workloads, and firms that need to periodically analyze data and share it with business partners.

“History shows over and over again that resistance to the spread of new technologies is almost always futile (and often fatal).”

Cloud computing is not for everyone. For example, corporations that need hardware for projects lasting no more than two years should avoid it. Longer-running projects may require replacing equipment, and cloud computing can mitigate those costs. Electricity costs, system administration and senior management’s time also are factors in whether to adopt cloud computing.

Eco-Efficient IT

The “Green IT evolution” falls under the CIO’s purview as part of enterprise resource management, productivity and cost control. CIOs shifted many IT departments from cost centers to revenue generators, but the IT industry expects CIOs to identify wasteful practices and to assess and improve business strategies. And they have work to do, because IT uses a lot of electricity. Data centers demand between 50 to 100 watts per square foot, and future projections call for 600 to 1,000 watts. At companies with large IT departments, energy costs will run second only to labor costs. Green IT requires a transformational, companywide change, directed by the CIO, involving commitments from departments engaged in planning, purchasing, use, maintenance and disposal of IT equipment. CIOs must involve employees at every stage, from submitting ideas to monitoring compliance with new policies.

“The information technology profession as we have known it for the last 40 years is dying; its obituary is already written.”

CIOs reduce energy consumption by buying low-power hardware, identifying toxic substances used in manufacturing, reducing electronic waste and, in the US, complying with Energy Star ratings. Redesigning data centers and server-storage virtualization also produces significant energy savings. SAS, a leading software supplier for business applications, created a demonstration platform for customers that dropped presentation costs, cut staff preparation time, decreased sales expenses by 43% and reduced cooling and energy costs.

Building Renewable IT Systems

Sustainability is similar to business process reengineering, which focuses on combining business processes and transforming cost centers into profit centers. The CIOs’ approach to sustainability will be increasingly crucial as global enterprises expand through interconnected networks to share data, financial and transactional systems with users and customers worldwide. IT must understand the role of the carbon footprint, the ecological footprint and “the natural step.” The carbon footprint measures greenhouse gas emissions produced by a business’s operations, services and products. The ecological footprint estimates “the areal extent of biologically productive land and sea necessary to offset resource consumption and to assimilate any resulting waste.” The natural step is an international measure that notes what resources companies remove from the Earth.

“Borrowing a Star Wars analogy, listening for a disturbance in the force ultimately comes down to listening to customers – a trend that is unlikely to change for the next thousand years.”

Data centers consumed more than 1.5% of all US energy in 2006, and now account for up to one-quarter of corporate IT expenditures. One “enterprise-grade” data center consumes the same amount of electricity as 25,000 households. Projections say IT power consumption will rise steadily to accommodate more sophisticated commercial, digital and Internet applications. Managing these costs requires energy conservation and more efficient systems. IT departments can reduce their ecological footprint with data center consolidation and virtualization, especially regarding servers, storage, desktop and networks. Cloud computing unites virtualized resources, giving large IT firms more flexibility while also improving their supply-chain management. Other developments include robotics, teleoperations and telepresence – advanced video teleconferencing tool with high-resolution images that link participants from up to 48 locations.

Finding Profitable Customers

Information technology helps companies identify their most profitable customers and prospects, including low-demand, frequent customers who generate high profits. Retaining these valuable strategic assets requires monitoring their behaviors and tastes to build loyalty. Customer lifetime value and customer profitability are metrics that supplement return on investment data. Comprehensive understanding of customers leads to improved product offerings and the discovery of new prospects who match the characteristics of existing profitable customers.

“By being proactive, the CIO will emerge as one of the most important enterprise leaders in the transformation toward a low-carbon economy.”

Applying these metrics requires significant amounts of data. Companies must collect, maintain and share customer data to develop complete profiles for companywide use. For example, a bank CIO should be able to identify how often customers move money, how often they respond to specific marketing vehicles and what type of debt they prefer. Such information should be available in real time to facilitate predictions of future consumer behavior and to make more specific customer comparisons, segmented by attitudes, geographies, profitability and demography. Grouping customers gives marketers and CIOs the data to develop cross-selling, retention and new product sales strategies. Given segmented, analyzed, centralized customer data, firms can use automated marketing software to offer favorably priced products to the best, targeted clients. Call centers can make immediate offers to customers based on new information. One-to-one business-to-customer communication can offer more and more personalized services.

“Unlimited information is like limitless imagination. At some point, not only is it frivolous, it becomes counterproductive.”

Marketers and CIOs can use internal managerial accounting to spot the most profitable and valuable customers. They are not the same. People nearing retirement may have significant banked assets, but offer little long-term profitability. Firms should pinpoint customers’ long-term financial value and current profitability. If customer acquisition costs too much or targeted customers do not become profitable, pursuing them can have a negative effect. The CIO, chief marketing officer and the chief financial officer must balance this optimization dilemma.

The Evolution of Networks into Networking

Technological change has advanced networking’s capacity and role. As bandwidth has become more available and less costly, “computational network capacity” – the “ability to store, retrieve, move and share incredible amounts of data at lightning speed” – has boomed. Work now requires corporate and personal networks, so CIOs must balance between their firms’ need for electronic communication versus the “security or competition risk” of open access. In fact, “the decision to embrace social media technology is a risk-based decision, not a technology-based decision.”

“Enterprises have less flexibility in devising optimal solutions if they allow regulatory events to drive energy management policies.”

Amid more rapid innovation, in computing speed and data storage, the answer hinges on determining the best business practices. Many firms prohibit staffers from using social networks, notably Facebook, at work to preserve productivity, proprietary data and privacy. However, some jobs now require access to social network sites. IT must work with that, plus the potential commercial uses of virtual reality through such sites as Second Life and OpenSim, where major corporations have an expanding presence. Other security concerns include crowdsourcing and “democratic” or “non-refereed” sources, like Wikipedia, which can amass incorrect data.

“The main risk for the enterprise CIO and Green IT initiatives is not taking the appropriate, timely actions.”

CIOs have to stay updated, find ways to accommodate these online venues that go in line with their security concerns, and set up common-sense “education, planning, processes, procedures and guidelines” for using and gaining from today’s and tomorrow’s information technology.

About the Authors

Joe Stenzel edits the Journal of Strategic Performance Management and co-wrote The CFO Survival Guide. Chapters: Robert Stephens, Best Buy, “Freedom with Fences”; Bill Flemming, SAS, “Why Does IT Behave the Way It Does?”; Michael Hugos, Center for Systems Innovation, “Cloud Computing and the New Economics of Business”; Randy Betancourt and Alyssa Farrell, SAS, “Leading with Green”; Jonathan Hujsak, Balance Energy, “Sustainability, Technology and Economic Pragmatism”; Gary Cokins, the SAS Institute, “How to Measure and Manage Customer Value and Customer Profitability,” and Kurt Schubert, TechNova Consulting, “The Evolution of Networks into Networking.”

Read summary...
CIO Best Practices

Book CIO Best Practices

Enabling Strategic Value With Information Technology

Wiley,
 


28 December 2025

You Already Know How to Be Great

Recommendation

In his persuasive book, tennis teacher turned executive coach and consultant Alan Fine puts forth compelling arguments for eliminating “interference” from your decision making. With examples ranging from IBM’s mid-’90s turnaround to two-year-olds finding their own pacifiers, Fine shows that his system works. His four-step process helps streamline problem-solving skills. Fine describes the process simply, explaining each step with examples from his own experience. These include real-life conversations with insightful comments throughout, highlighting potential missteps and explaining how to handle them. While Fine’s book might run a bit long, his no-nonsense prose makes you believe that you could slip his tactics seamlessly into your workday. BooksInShort recommends Fine’s strategies to managers, coaches and anyone who wants to improve their results in any field.

Take-Aways

  • Your base of knowledge might be distracting you from achieving greatness.
  • Anything that prevents you from exercising your know-how is “interference.”
  • Fear causes most interference; reduce fear by focusing and working fluidly.
  • Banish interference by applying your belief, passion and concentration to your problems.
  • The “inside-out” approach turns the knowledge you already possess into action.
  • Use the inside-out technique to help others connect to what they already know.
  • To focus well and achieve “flow,” use the “GROW” process: Set “S.M.A.R.T.” goals, check reality, consider all your options and decide on a way forward.
  • You probably already apply GROW steps, but in the wrong order.
  • When coaching or managing with GROW, avoid offering more technical knowledge.
  • See problems through each staffer’s eyes and help each person accept accountability for the problem and the solution.

Summary

The Real Performance Problem: “Interference”

Failing to utilize the information you already know can prevent you from achieving your goals. Most people already are aware about how to play better or work more effectively, but they don’t understand how to put their knowledge into practice. Managers and coaches persist in teaching and offering more information, seldom recognizing that their subordinates already possess enough knowledge. The real obstacle to improvement is failing to implement what you already know. You need to master the tools that turn knowledge into action.

“When people realize they have choices and they understand the consequences of those choices, it’s easier for them to move beyond the immobilization – to make decisions and move ahead.”

Instead of taking another class, consider trying an “inside-out” approach that focuses on reducing internal distractions so you can work with what you already know. What is inside you must come out – whether it’s knowing how to hit a top-spin backhand or writing the best presentation of your life.

“Performance improvement is...an issue of reducing the interference that’s getting in the way of using the knowledge we already have.”

To access what’s inside you, you must remove the obstacles. The most prevalent hurdles are feeling afraid, thinking about what should be instinctive and listening to an interior voice that undermines you without you knowing it. These obstacles are “interference.” Interference prevents you from performing what you already know how to do.

“The biggest obstacle in performance isn’t not knowing what to do; it’s not doing what we know.”

Consider this formula: “Performance equals capacity minus interference.” Remembering everything you’ve learned while trying to accomplish a task distracts you from doing your job. Your beliefs about your performance limit the potential of your development and the development of the people you coach or manage.

“Too many ‘goals’ never get off the ground because they’re vague and ill defined.”

Three disparities define these limits: the “awareness gap,” when you aren’t doing what you think you’re doing; the “pressure gap,” when stress impedes performance; and the “expertise gap,” when the person you’re coaching knows more than you. Eliminating interference bridges these gaps.

The Essentials of Success

Knowledge works together with three vital elements that can ensure success. These three fundamentals support what you already know:

  1. “Faith” – Faith is what you trust you can do, and what propels your behavior and results. Beliefs that you can improve – but not far-fetched beliefs, such as thinking you can win Wimbledon shortly after first picking up a racket – affect performance most. When you lack faith, you’re insecure, fearful, and prone to negativity or self-criticism.
  2. “Fire” – Fire is your passion and motivation, and it is what compels you to achieve what may seem to be impossible results. When you lack fire, you aren’t interested, energized or committed.
  3. “Focus” – Without concentration, you’re inconsistent, but with it, you attend well to tasks and eliminate interference. Focus fuels your faith, confidence and fire.
“While people may comply with what we want, they commit to what they want. And commitment makes all the difference.”

When all these elements are present in individuals, teams, coaches or organizations, outstanding results become the norm. These elements exist in everyone from childhood. A lack of any one can ignite the top problem in the modern workplace: lack of commitment. But reducing interference spurs engagement and dedication. Some interference comes from outside, in the form of tough market conditions or intense competition. But most interference derives from your response to external situations or from the stories you tell yourself about your abilities, your past or other issues.

“The Faith that seems to improve performance the most is believing ‘I can learn’.”

Fear of failure, of rejection or of looking foolish fuels interference. Adjusting your focus and finding “flow” reduces it. Flow springs from focused concentration on something you believe you can do well. As you slice a chore into reasonable, doable sections, you’ll find your flow and your focus. As a result, you’ll perform better. Change what you pay attention to and how you pay attention.

Learning – and Coaching – How to Focus

Implementing the phases of “GROW” – “Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward” – creates the focus required for better, faster decision making and outstanding performance. Each of GROW’s four steps might already occur in your decision-making process, though seldom in any rational order. A personal review of your health, for example, might start with reality, as you address your poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Next are goals, as you decide to improve your diet and workout regimen. Then, perhaps, you consider options, as you muse upon the exercise gear you could buy. Your thoughts bounce around until you put the whole question off by delaying a way forward. This method produces results, but not efficiently. It defeats your faith and fire.

“Potential is always blocked by interference. And interference is reduced – or eliminated – by Focus.”

Instead, focus on GROW steps in order: Think first about what you want to do, then about issues you face today and finally about how you might achieve your goal. That cuts interference, helps you make better choices and improves results. To avoid problems at each step, follow these tips:

  • Define your goal well – Consider using the “S.M.A.R.T.” approach to make sure your goals are “Specific, Meaningful, Actionable, Realistic and Time-phased.”
  • Check your reality for accuracy – Be aware of your own subjectivity. Recognize how you contribute to your problem.
  • Brainstorm without judgment – Develop all your options, no matter how radical.
  • Make sure your next step is also S.M.A.R.T. – To unite your focus, faith and fire, commit to and be excited about the steps you are taking.

GROW Coaching

Use GROW to help others improve their performance. Employing the inside-out method changes traditional coaching by focusing less on providing technical details, such as, for example, how to hit a better forehand. GROW helps a coach or mentor tap into someone’s natural faith, fire and focus, while eliminating interference.

“As long as Faith, Fire and Focus are diminished or blocked, no amount of effort – on the part of the coach or the performer – will create anything near top performance.”

Coaches work to bring out an athlete’s belief, excitement and concentration. Figuring out what someone else sees and working from that viewpoint becomes the coach’s or manager’s number-one task. Consider those airplane movies in which the pilot becomes incapacitated and a passenger has to fly the plane. Someone on the ground talks the passenger through the process, asking, “What do you see?” The grounded guide speaks in the passenger’s own vernacular – that is, without resorting to technical jargon – to help the passenger land the plane. Coaching this way means helping people own their problems and solutions. Your job involves reducing interference and facilitating GROW, which makes the person you are coaching accountable for his or her actions.

“Crafting a conversation in advance can help you crystallize your thinking and eliminate much of the interference you would otherwise encounter.”

How would you coach someone who knows about a problem and wants to fix it? Take Jim, a tennis player. The coach asks Jim what he wants to accomplish in their time together. Jim wants to improve his backhand. The coach seeks more details: Jim wants to hit a particular backhand at least half the time. Then they establish Jim’s reality: Jim now thinks he can hit that shot two or three times out of ten. They test this reality, and reaffirm that Jim believes his goal is reasonable. They discuss what Jim noticed while hitting the ball to test his reality.

“Feedback...gives us the ability to recognize the gap between what we think we do and what we actually do.”

When they resume hitting, Jim talks about what he sees, which increases his focus. A few minutes later, Jim surpasses his goal, even though his coach offered no technical assistance. Instead, the coach listened empathetically to help Jim engage, own and focus on his actions. Jim’s results improved, heightening his self-belief and increasing his faith and fire, which will only fuel his attack on his next goal.

Coaching the Unaware

What about coaching staffers who don’t want to fix their problem or who don’t even know they have one? This isn’t as easy because the goals and agenda belong to you until you get the employee on board, and that’s a tough conversation. A manager with a poorly performing employee who justifies or blames away trouble faces tremendous challenges, the foremost being the person’s “own interference,” which can arise from competing goals or a self-limiting fear.

“The most critical rule of brainstorming is to ‘suspend judgment and/or evaluation until all ideas are out’.”

Coaches and executives must avoid blocking their own faith, fire and focus. Refine your approach by putting yourself through GROW, asking questions and planning the discussion. Remember the gap between your goal and reality, and your subordinate’s goal and reality. To cut down on interference, make sure you both “share your goals, show respect, sell your views truthfully, consider new facts and say ‘yes’ to finding small successes [that] build toward agreement.”

Working with Teams and Groups

One of the business world’s biggest turnarounds – IBM’s growth from an $8 billion loss in 1993 to a $2.9 billion profit the next year – was built on inside-out thinking. Then-new CEO Louis Gerstner didn’t bring fresh knowledge to IBM employees. Instead, he adjusted the employees focus away from agonizing over their situation and toward direct action. Fear and distraction had become IBM’s interference, eroding trust and undermining faith, fire and focus.

“When Faith, Fire and Focus are released, extraordinary things happen.”

Working with groups or companies presents more complex challenges, but the concepts are unchanged. Like everyone else, you want to work with people who share their plans, execute those plans and let you know if they can’t. Referred to as “SayDoCo” – for “say” what you’ll do, “do” what you say and “communicate” if you can’t, this tool provides an effective shortcut for high-performing companies who want to stay that way.

“Focused attention can improve performance in any arena of life.”

Efficient organizations rely on SayDoCo because it leads to good results built on effective, fast decision making and reliable follow-up. Interference often prevents these three steps from occurring, because people fear their plans are unrealistic or refuse to admit if they can’t achieve a certain goal.

The inside-out approach establishes an environment wherein people work together to achieve mutual goals over the long haul. Immediate results aren’t the main focus. Begin with individuals, and work toward team and organizational focus. Use GROW to set goals and to unite the group to achieve those goals, while creating long-term top performance.

For example, picture a meandering meeting that’s running too long. With various teams represented, no one person can keep the meeting on track. Each representative has individual goals, perspectives and views about reality. The team leaders probably engage the four GROW steps, but in a random, ineffective order. To avoid this, set up a large chart separated into the four GROW areas. Have leaders organize participants’ comments for each area, in order. Once everyone decides on a goal, they can share their individual realities. Conflicting views will produce multiple viable choices.

As you brainstorm options, remain judgment-free to facilitate creativity and originality. Discuss which actions will most likely achieve the right results. This team-based approach focuses everyone on goals, options and solutions rather than complaints. It shifts the discussion from why some options won’t work to those that will. This tactic’s clarity helps people share their plans, execute them and get in touch if they can’t complete their part of the solution.

Putting It into Practice

Learning the inside-out theory takes time, but once embraced, it can simplify interactions, improve decision making and help performance in any area. A mother applies the GROW tactic to discussions with her eight-year-old son as he tries to learn multiplication. He tells her that the timer they’ve been using – she thought it would motivate him – distracts him. They ditch the timer, and his results improve.

Other parents use the process to teach their two-year-old twins to find their own pacifiers. A coach turns a group of critical employees into productive team members, starting by converting the loudest dissenters with GROW questions.

From anorexia to Alzheimer’s to school grades or even to choosing whom to date, GROW simplifies finding solutions.

About the Authors

Alan Fine, president of InsideOut Development, helps firms manage performance improvement. Rebecca R. Merrill worked with Stephen R. Covey on First Things First.

Read summary...
You Already Know How to Be Great

Book You Already Know How to Be Great

A Simple Way to Remove Interference and Unlock Your Greatest Potential

Portfolio,
 


28 December 2025

The Four Routes to Entrepreneurial Success

Recommendation

In this engaging book about entrepreneurs, John B. Miner cites research that identifies four different types of entrepreneurial personalities. The result is a thoroughly fascinating treatment of the different routes to entrepreneurial behavior. BooksInShort recommends this book to anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, anyone who works for or with an entrepreneur, or anyone who wants to understand entrepreneurial psychology.

Take-Aways

  • Four types of people become successful entrepreneurs.
  • Personal Achievers are classic entrepreneurs because of their need to achieve.
  • Personal Achievers believe that they have a strong internal locus of control over their lives.
  • Supersalespersons are entrepreneurs who place a strong emphasis on service.
  • Supersalespersons feel very strong empathy with other people.
  • Real Managers are entrepreneurs with the skill to manage large organizations.
  • Real Managers can fail if they over-manage small ventures.
  • Expert Idea Generators love pursuing new ideas and changing the future.
  • Expert Idea Generators are independent, dislike rules, and seek recognition.
  • Each of these personalities must learn the fields they enter, be self aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and stick to their career paths.

Summary

Four Types of Entrepreneurs

No single type of entrepreneur or single career route ensures entrepreneurial success. Essentially, there are four types of entrepreneurs, each with a distinct personality. These types are the "personal achiever," the "supersalesperson," the "real manager," and the "expert idea generator." If you work in a business environment with entrepreneurs, knowing the strengths and weakness of these personality types can help you succeed, particularly if you manage entrepreneurial people or ventures.

Personal Achiever

Personal achievers are the classic entrepreneurs. They are the types of people we picture when the term "entrepreneur" is used. They are the only types who must become entrepreneurs to succeed in life. If they are placed in a non-entrepreneurial environment, they stand a good chance of failure.

"There is not a single type of entrepreneur, but rather, there are four different types, each with a distinct personality

They possess seven characteristics that relate to entrepreneurial success:

  1. Need to achieve.
  2. Desire for feedback.
  3. Desire to plan and set goals.
  4. Strong personal initiative.
  5. Strong commitment to their organization.
  6. Belief that one person can make a difference.
  7. Belief that work should be guided by one’s own goals, not other people’s.
“Each type of entrepreneur must follow a distinct career route to succeed, and each must relate to the business in a different way.”

A personal achiever’s driving force is the need to achieve. Probably, personal achievers are more concerned with achieving success than with avoiding failure. These highly rational decision-makers may overwork themselves, although their drive is complemented by their ability to function under stress. However, their focus on work tends to interfere with their family life. Thus, divorce may be a consequence of their success at work.

“The key: If you have a given pattern, success comes only if you find situations in which you can use your strengths.”

Personal achievers need feedback regarding their success and failures. This feedback gives them additional energy to move forward aggressively. The information they value offers specific data, for example, reports on sales, revenue, profitability and inventory turnover. Future prospects energize personal achievers. They like to plan and set goals. Then, they can translate these plans and goals into the end result: money.

“Expert Idea Generators are people who have ideas for business that can provide a real competitive advantage.”

Personal achievers have great personal initiative and commitment to their organizations. They can act without direction or support from others, and, at same time, they do not like to share credit. Personal achievers believe they, alone, are the driving force behind their success. However, their commitment to their organizations or companies is genuine. Often, personal achievers talk about their organizations like a parent lovingly talks about a child. And like a parent, they aggressively defend their child from attacks. Personal achievers also have a strong internal locus of control: They believe they control their lives. Similarly, they believe that personal goals - not goals set by other people - guide their actions. They do not like to participate in activities that are group-directed because group activities dilute their individualistic success. Consequently, they are not effective business partners, and tend to break off into independent businesses as soon as possible.

“Personal Achievers are the only type who really must become entrepreneurs to succeed; in other settings they may fail.”

When you view the seven characteristics of personal achievers as a whole, you might use the term "quarterback" to describe their approach. Like a quarterback, they like to lead the team to victory. They frequently become the company expert in many areas, because there is often no one else around in the early stages of a firm’s life to do those tasks. But since personal achievers are highly individualistic, generally they are not good employee managers. They tend to get impatient when other people are doing jobs they know they could do themselves.

“To succeed, Supersalespeople need to sell.”

What can make a personal achiever fail? Four traps can halt a personal achiever’s professional progress. First, personal achievers must acquire the necessary knowledge before they start to work. Second, personal achievers must recognize that they are personal achievers, and understand their own strengths and weaknesses. Third, personal achievers must avoid being blocked along the way by either corporate venture constraints, investor restrictions, or family pressures. Finally, personal achievers must be alert that their organizations don’t become too large for their operating style to be effective. As a general rule, businesses that grow beyond five million in annual sales and have more than thirty employees have moved past the ability of a personal achiever to control. This point in the growth process necessitates outside management and structure.

The Supersalesperson

Generally, onlookers don’t view supersalespeople as having the potential for entrepreneurial success. Their entrepreneurial strength is their approach to selling. They truly cater to the needs of clients and customers, thus placing a strong stress on service. Supersalespeople are interested in managing the customer into a sale, not in applying pressure tactics. They have personal characteristics that relate to entrepreneurial success, including:

  1. Capacity to understand and empathize with another person.
  2. Desire to help others.
  3. Belief that social processes are very important.
  4. Need to have strong relationships with others.
  5. Belief that a sales force is crucial to carrying out company strategy.
“If you are a corporate manager, you have only a limited chance of having entrepreneurial potential. If you are an established entrepreneur, you have only a limited chance of possessing the potential to be a successful corporate manager. This ’limited chance’ is the ground occupied by Real Manager entrepreneurs.”

Supersalespeople reveal their capacity to empathize in their work. They innately emphasize human interactions, feelings and emotions. They are able to probe and to draw out the feelings of others. They enjoy pleasing others, are good listeners, and are very supportive. Conversely, they dislike confronting unpleasant situations face-to-face. Sometimes they will change their position to avoid a difficult situation and to maintain friendly relations with co-workers and clients. Their desire to help others is similar to the feelings expressed by people in other helping professions, such as medicine and the ministry. This desire probably stems from a strong concern for others, though internal satisfaction could also be its driving force.

“To understand the Real Manager entrepreneur it is important, therefore, not only to recognize the type of person, but to recognize the environments in which that person will thrive.”

Supersalespeople believe social processes are important and reflect a person’s value. They need strong personal relationships to feel at ease with themselves. Their self-esteem is linked to the opinions others have of them. These characteristics both reinforce a supersalesperson’s belief that a sales force is crucial to carrying out company strategy, because the sales force is an extension of the need for positive relationships. Supersalespeople do not have to become entrepreneurs to feel happy. Many have long-term careers working for corporations. Yet, they have the ability to start ventures and to be very successful entrepreneurs.

“A desire to innovate causes Expert Idea Generators to enjoy coming up with new ideas and getting them into play.”

What could make a Supersalesperson fail? As with the other personalities, Supersalespeople need to acquire the necessary knowledge before entering a field and need to understand their personal identities as supersalespeople, with the attendant strengths and weaknesses. Supersalespeople should not be detoured from focusing on selling but, given their extra concern with other people’s opinions, they can be easily swayed off their chosen path.

The Real Manager

Real managers exhibit some of the traits of established entrepreneurs and some of the abilities of corporate managers. They possess at least three of the following six traits:

  1. Desire to be a corporate leader.
  2. Decisiveness.
  3. Positive attitudes toward authority.
  4. Desire to compete.
  5. Desire for power.
  6. Desire to stand out from the crowd.
“Possessing multiple entrepreneurial patterns, and thus having potential to follow more than one route, gives a major advantage to an entrepreneur.”

Real managers want to be corporate leaders. They view reaching the upper rungs of management as ratification of their goals and desires. They see upward mobility as a way to utilize their talents fully. They have faith in their abilities and feel secure.

Real managers are decisive people who are quick and self-assured decision makers. They also have positive attitudes about authority because they recognize that they need high level support for their actions. Their desire to compete - individually or team to team - is a logical outgrowth of their desire to lead. They are not afraid to be assertive and are proactive in resolving conflicts, a trait that is important to their competitiveness.

“Complex entrepreneurs want to grow an organization; private practices are thus not fully satisfying.”

Real managers want power. They are not afraid to direct subordinates’ actions. They pay attention to specific facts, rules and procedures. They prefer short fact-filled communication and dislike committees and group decision making. Real managers want to stand out from the crowd, a quest for high visibility that mirrors their desire to climb the corporate ladder. They cannot advance unless they stand out as individuals.

What makes a real manager fail? First, real managers need relevant knowledge about their core businesses. Second, a real manager may over-manage a small venture. Third, a real manager should avoid being forced off the management career route. Some real managers develop an affinity for selling and strive to use their talents for other responsibilities instead of managing.

The Expert Idea Generator

Expert idea generators are people who have ideas for a business that can provide a real competitive advantage. They become tremendously enthused about their ideas and spend a great deal of time implementing them. Unlike personal achievers who spend energy on an overall venture, expert idea generators tend to focus on the idea exclusively. Very often, they will try to persuade others to contribute to implementation and, if unsuccessful, they will abandon the idea.

They possess a majority of the following five characteristics:

  1. Desire to innovate.
  2. Love of ideas.
  3. Belief that new product development is crucial to carrying out company strategy.
  4. Good intelligence.
  5. Risk avoidance.

Expert idea generators want to innovate. The desire to do something new reinforces their sense of accomplishment. They love ideas, want independence, dislike rules, and seek recognition. They have a high tolerance for ambiguity, prefer loose control and may be prone to take risks. Others may see them as dreamers, difficult to control, and idealistic. They tend to focus on long-range thinking; their time orientation is toward the future. Their biggest problem is that when conditions become stable, they tend to abandon ship.

Expert idea generators value intelligence. They are able to deal with abstractions. They focus on conceptual thinking, reasoning, and judgment. To succeed, most expert idea generators will need graduate degrees. Because they wish to avoid risk, their most difficult business decisions involve deciding which ideas will sell. Since ideas are plentiful, expert idea generators must be able to separate marketable from unmarketable ideas.

To avoid failure, an expert idea generator must avoid a work environment where those in charge stifle ideas, keep ideas under tight control, or believe there is only one, best way to do something. Even with post-graduate education, the expert idea generator never feels as if he or she has gained enough knowledge to be an expert. To succeed, expert idea generators must stay on an idea-generating career path and should be careful about voluntarily leaving their area of expertise. Having a successful idea may make expert idea generators less cautious about avoiding risk in the future. It is important for expert idea generators to remember, always, that they are capable of having really terrible ideas.

About the Author

John B. Miner specializes in entrepreneurship and human resource management. His professional practice includes writing on various business subjects, consulting organizations and individuals, serving as an expert witness in trials, and speaking to professional and business groups.

Read summary...
The Four Routes to Entrepreneurial Success

Book The Four Routes to Entrepreneurial Success

Berrett-Koehler,
 



All Articles
Load More