Innovate or die
I am right now on board an American Airlines plane on my way to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I am coming from Cancun, Mexico where I spoke at the annual convention of a well known insurance company serving the Latin American market.
This company understands the need to have their associates motivated and mentally alert in order to be able to seize opportunities in the market they service.
They were willing to fly 200 people to the HN Riviera Maya resort in Cancun, all expenses paid and to hire me to talk to their people.
This company understands that when things are tough, you need to, more than ever, be aggressive in the marketplace so as to increase market share left behind by timid companies that do the opposite, cut back, allow customer service to deteriorate and lose clients to the more proactive companies.
They introduced several very innovative products, with clearly differentiating features and benefits so as to help their salespeople approach clients serviced by competitors and yank them away.
I overheard a conversation by a couple of associates, one telling the other one that he was ready to go back to his country to sign up an account that he knew that their vendor couldn’t do what this new product would do for them.
I had long conversations with the CEO of this company and he is a man who feels passion for what he does and understands what needs to be done to be successful in an uncertain market.
He gave a welcoming address the day before I spoke where he told everyone that they should not be limited by their negative thoughts and that they should look at the mirror and that if the mirror doesn’t reflect a positive, full of energy person, you need to change and change fast.
He knows that now, more than ever, leaders must win not only the minds of their followers, but also their hearts. In other words, he must enter their hearts before he enters their mind.
At one point in the speech, he had his wife and six children go up in the stage and he introduced them one by one. He also has told his people that he really wants to have ten children in total, in other words, four more.
What is he accomplishing by doing this?
First of all, he is putting a human face to a company, he is communicating the fact that he has a family, that he wants his family to be well taken care of and that he will do anything within his means to reach his goals. The only way he can do this is if his people are successful, so right there and then, he has his people thinking that he will be fair, honest, trustworthy, creative and innovative in order for the company to be successful so that all involved can win.
Why did he tell them that he wanted four more children?
Subliminally he is selling the idea that the reason he wants to have more children is because he knows that the company will be successful and he will be able to provide for them. If he was pessimistic about the future, he would not have more children.
In the hallways I heard people talking about his speech and how they had been touched by his sincerity and his willingness to involve his family in the business.
By the way, it was the first time in my career that I have a three year old child, one of this gentleman’s children, sit for one and a half hour, and paying attention to everything I said. I was giving a speech for adults and yet this kid was soaking it all in, at the tender age of three.
I later made a comment to his father about this and he said that he was also surprised that his son had stayed until the end and that it seemed he was enjoying the speech quite a bit.
I had a chance to talk to some of the people that represented a few of the countries attending the convention.
The Venezuelans are scared to death with the situation in their country. They understand that they have a president that wants to stay in power forever and become a dictator. They were hopeful that their referendum on February 15th will be won by the opposition and that the president will not be able to stay forever. They are also feeling the new limit of $2500 dollars they can spend when they travel abroad. It used to be $5,000 just a few weeks ago. Oil prices are down, productivity has decreased quite a bit and they know that tough times are ahead. They have learned, though, to survive with what they have and to understand their reality.
The Ecuadorians are really worried about their country with oil prices coming down and their perception that their president is aligning himself with the left in Latin America instead of with the successful countries such as Chile and Colombia. They all believed the dollar should be the country’s currency.
The Panamanians feel that their economy is still strong but the bubble has finally hit them. The rampant speculation in real estate taking place these last few years has come to a halt and prices are coming down rather quickly. Lots of people that have deposits on properties hoping that they were going to sell those options for a higher price are going to have to let them go at a loss. Not the time to buy a property there yet.
In general, there is a lot of worry about the current state of affairs worldwide. However, after listening to the CEO and to myself, they had renewed hope and they understood that crises or no crises, they can be successful if they do what they need to do.
I landed in Miami to go through customs and to connect to this flight I am in now and it is the first time in my career, going back 30 years that I get to the immigration line in Miami and there wasn’t one single passenger in line. I was the first one out of my flight but there was no one from any other flight standing in line. This was very scary and I even mentioned it to the immigrations officer. He said that after the holidays, things had slowed down considerably. Keep in mind that Miami is one of the top 5 airports in the States in volume of passengers.
Yes, things are tough but if you understand the situation, look for ways to serve your clients that will differentiate you from the competition, eliminate unnecessary expenses and watch your cash flow carefully; you should be able to emerge from this crisis stronger than you were before.
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