In today's challenging economic times, I just pinch myself that I'm not working with or for one of America's Big Three automakers. They can't seem to catch a lucky break with their plight, playing out in front of us as a symbol of failed strategy and out of touch management.

Nowhere are the contrasting styles of strategy and management more evident between Japan and the United States than in hybrid car technology. Pop quiz -- what flagship vehicle from anyone of the Big Three comes to mind when you think of the "hybrid" moniker?

Thinking, thinking…

Now the same question for Japanese manufacturers. How quickly did Toyota's Prius come to mind? If you could even find one today on crowded dealer lots, you'd pay a premium for it, despite falling gas prices.

Here's the kicker -- and something all of us can learn from in regard to making a product that's so dialed in and coveted you can charge a premium price for it. You can't cost justify the additional expense of the Prius versus domestic or otherwise in gas savings alone! Instead Toyota created a molten hot product by capturing the very real, but very challenging to define, consumer "green mindset." The mindset that puts a premium on environmental impact of the products consumers buy.

The question for all of us regardless of industry and marketplace is, how do we define the "green mindset" that either exists today or surely will tomorrow in our markets spaces? And then, how do we position our companies and products to capitalize on this ever increasing consumer perception to create our own version of the Toyota Prius?!

Furthermore, it is becoming no longer politically acceptable the world over to be in business for the mere profit of it. The emergence of these two factors has propelled green technology embracers like Toyota to the forefront in their field. By rewarding forward-thinking companies with their patronage, consumers have spoken with their most powerful voice -- their wallets! If you haven't heard them yet, and responded accordingly in your market, there's only one thing that's certain, some other eco-prenuer will!

I come from the camp where luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness. So take a lesson from America's decidedly "unlucky" Big Three and prepare your company now for the emerging green movement that has no limitations on its reach. You just might be rewarded with your own "Prius" product in the process.

Blood and guts! That's what's going on everywhere in the marketplace right now. There's the credit crunch, decreased consumer spending, the bailout quandary, the jobs report, fuel prices and surcharges, the stock market falling, the pending election, our uncertain future. One part of me fully comprehends how today's economic, political, and social climate could leave people paralyzed. Yet, I'm more determined and motivated to do the hard work, the sometimes seemingly impossible work, to succeed despite what the world is throwing at us.

If business is war, here's a pertinent analogy. In Patton, the famous movie featuring George C. Scott depicting World War II Gen. George Patton, one scene stands out. Walking amongst casualties of a battle, with blood and guts and carnage everywhere, Scott, playing Patton, looks to the heavens and says, "God help me because I love this stuff!" Gen. Patton was one of this country's greatest strategist and military leaders, even if he was a bit twisted. As an entrepreneur, you too have to be a bit twisted to do what you have to do day in and day out to succeed despite today's chaotic times.

Personally, I could not muster the resolve to do the hard work if it weren't for the motivating factors of our country's and my organization's challenging times. It's exasperating to have to downsize good people in order to do what I have to do in right-sizing my ship. But you can't, as an entrepreneur, not respond aggressively to threats to your organization from outside influences. Being paralyzed, in today's paralyzing times, is just not an option if you are going to survive. Instead, the media, the banks, the instability we face, needs to fuel the entrepreneurial fires in a way the status-quo business environment never could on its own.

Today, everything we do and how we do it is being sifted through with a fine-tooth comb to make certain of the cost-benefit returns on our investment. When the cow's fat, how do you motivate an individual or team or even an organization to do that? Like every business today, we need to increase sales while decreasing costs and Houdini ain't around to help us. That's why the last thing any of us can afford to do today is to be paralyzed by fear. To quote another famous American leader who said this in the middle of our country's worst economic times, The Great Depression, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory." (In case it doesn't sound familiar, that was President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933.)

As entrepreneurs, it is up to us to prevent fear -- however well founded it is -- from gripping our organizations and creating company-paralyzing self-fulfilling prophecies. I say, praise God for the motivation that's been amply provided by our economy today and the subsequent motivating resolve it brings about in me.

I recently read an opinion piece by Steven Katz in the Chicago Tribune that discussed bringing business logic to the search for a presidential candidate. While politics does play a role in business, the hiring of a CEO and the voting of a candidate into office are as different as McCain is from Obama.

But what if, the author wonders, we used an executive search firm -- the way businesses usually do -- to qualify our next President? What criteria would a president of the United States or a CEO be judged by as an indicator of success? Mission critical factors were organized into seven categories: strategic skills, operating skills, courage, energy and drive, organizational positioning skills, and personal and interpersonal skills. Both quantifiable hard skills and less quantifiable soft skills compose a great leader. What I found interesting about the piece was the general consensus from executive search firms that when leaders fail, it's almost always related to soft skills. People IQ, self-awareness, chemistry, values, ability to motivate, etc.

Edward Santimauro of executive search firm Korn/Ferry International says "study after study says executives fail not because of their technical skills or industry experience but because of their lack of ability to lead and fit into a culture." The conclusion: it's not what someone knows or who someone knows. Instead, the most important factor in an executive's success is the soft skills. Teamwork, motivation, leading others while playing well and overall chemistry with the organization they are in charge of.

The soft skills come naturally for some, but are the hardest things to master for others. That's a lesson every leader needs to be cognizant of when striving for success.

Summertime is my favorite time of the year. For one thing I don't work! The majority of the summer I'm at the lake in Wisconsin, dreaming and scheming. Some might call that work -- that is, thinking about work when you're not there. But to me those precious few months when I mostly stay away from the office (and even better yet the airports) are the most productive part of my year on a number of fronts:

Continue reading "Investing in Summer"

I just finished reading a great book called "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior." Finally, I thought, when I first read the title, a book to explain why the rest of the world that doesn't agree with my thinking is so messed up! I snatched it from the shelf and eagerly delved into its pages, looking for the explanations my logical brain craved. Well, as you may have guessed, the answers I got were a little different from the ones I thought I'd find.

Newsflash: People, even when given a choice of thinking logically and getting beneficial results, will often act emotionally despite the consequences. The effects of this irrational behavior on businesses can be far reaching. And it has many causes. Here's one: A person's internal barometer for "fairness," the researchers point out, is a powerful emotion that "sways" even the most straight forward of business decisions. One case study in particular struck a chord with me:

Continue reading "It's All About the Relationships"

I got a chuckle reading a Reader's Digest article a while back telling the story of a New York City road crew that found an interesting way to earn some extra money. Apparently, during the noon lunch hour, they'd sell a few minutes on the jackhammer to suit-wearing paper pushers more than happy to drop ten or twenty bucks to take out their frustration on an innocent chunk of asphalt. This enterprising road crew struck a chord of human nature left unmet by your typical white-collar desk job. I was reminded of this story after calling my college buddy "Mike" who had recently exchanged his desk job for one in the field building ponds.

Continue reading "I Want to be Like Mike"

Tony Sargeant from Atlanta is someone I've billed as "one of my favorite customers." Tony's the rare bird who spends his time doing what he loves and is good at it while not being overwhelmed with running his business. Which also means he spends his time building and selling water features during the day and then comes home at night to Live the Lifestyle with his bride of 25 years. I wonder how many entrepreneurs out there started out doing what they love and were good at it only to find themselves dragged down to doing things they hated and subsequently weren't that good at -- all in a desperate attempt just to keep their heads above water while managing their own businesses? How nuts is that?!

Continue reading "Living the Lifestyle"

One of my favorite times of the month is when I meet with my teammates one-on-one for what has been dubbed "15 minutes with the Pond Guy."

HR tries to get any new employees slotted into these brackets and to round out any open slots with whomever else wants in. The goal of these sessions is for me to get to know the employees a little better (and vice-a-versa) -- while offering my advice on how they can succeed here. Although the sessions always seem to end on a high note, they often begin -- especially with new employees -- with some trepidation. The other day, however, I had anything but the normal interaction with a new employee hired for our construction division.

Continue reading "Fifteen Minutes with the Boss"

For the sixth year in a row, I spent spring break in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with a bunch of college-aged men. If you remember back to your college spring breaks, it was all of that and then some. The "all of that" is pretty self-explanatory; it's the "then some" that's most unusual. The American Leadership Academy (www.ALACabo.org) is based there and with a goal of "training tomorrow's leaders today" it's an organization I'm proud to be affiliated with. The ALA is the brainchild of Jerry Nelson, a 78-year-young serial entrepreneur who, among his many exploits, started Ticketmaster and found water in Scottsdale, Arizona, before the city was developed.

In 2008, the ALA will introduce more than 700 young men to industry leaders, scientists, motivational speakers, and successful entrepreneurs -- all there to share the life lessons they've learned outside the classroom. Where were these kinds of programs when we were going to school?!

Whatever information I give each year, I get back just as much, if not more, from these young men. As much as I try to stay hip and cool -- and even though I'm only 37 and college seems not that long ago -- the generation gap is ever present. I've seen professional speakers who are used to motivating rooms full of other middle-aged business people bumble over words they've spoken many times before, semi-paralyzed at addressing a t-shirt wearing, sandal clad, next generation. As unusual a situation as it is for many of the speakers, however, it is even more unusual for the young men eager to hear things they probably never heard in school or at home.

What they hear is exactly the kind of stuff all kids should get a chance to hear -- one generation talking to the next on lessons of life, love, and regret; on victories and defeats; on getting up after you fall -- all dished out from the same real world these men will soon be facing. And as impossible as it is to summarize with one word exactly what it is they get out of these sessions, I'd say "confidence" comes close -- confidence that with the right attitude, the hard work needed to succeed at whatever endeavor they pursue, and the ability to dream big and then stretch to get there, yes, it's possible they too can succeed. Their ears, their minds, and their hearts need to know this, and you can just feel the positive energy throughout the sessions. I always leave charged by that energy and feeling good that I played a small part in generating it.

Here's where the business part comes in. Many of the people who work with me at Aquascape and with you at your companies are the same age as the ones who go through the ALA each year. Why deprive them of the important thoughts, words, and feelings their minds, hearts, and souls so desperately need? If there's one thing almost everyone from our younger generation needs to hear from us, it's the encouragement and confidence to believe in themselves. They might be as scary to us with their iPod rocking ways as we are to them, but it's our genuine interest in them that just might give them the confidence they lack in themselves to make their dreams a reality.

So, the next time you're riding that young worker for yet another mistake, take a step back and think about yourself at 20-something and what it is you know now that you didn't then. Then share it! It just might make all the difference in the world. For both of you.

South Bend, Indiana. Ever heard of it? There's a school there of about 8,000 students that also has a football team (at least, it had one until last season). But it's also got a much greater challenge than restoring Notre Dame’s gridiron greatness. And that is restoring its city's overburdened and ailing sewage and stormwater system back to full functionality. Current estimates for the town of 150,000 to do just that come in at a whopping $200,000,000! Do the math. That’s just over $1,300 for each and every resident currently living there! All of a sudden, the rebuilding program that head coach Charlie Weiss has ahead of him seems a heck of a lot easier than the challenges facing South Bend’s municipal government.

Continue reading "The Trillion Dollar Opportunity Right Beneath Our Feet!"