I write like a mother?

February 26th, 2010

My cherished friend just informed me that my first post, while well written, didn’t hold a candle to my creative writing. “Where’s the fire?” she challenged. “Why should people care about what YOU have to say about business – above anyone else? Your business writing is sweet – but you’re writing like a mother.”

hmmm. Well, I am a mother. But I’m also a businesswoman. And I’m determined to do something important with my life outside of raising my two boys.

It’s true that the audience matters, and that when clients call upon me for academic material or executive training packages, I produce exactly what they want. I investigate, synthesize and prepare a case study or technical note complete with video elements on spec. But I’m rethinking my voice when it comes to this blog or any articles I write for business periodicals. This Harvard Business Review article proposal is no exception. I re-read my second draft yesterday at dawn, just after my morning cup of steamy hot chai latte. She was right: It read like a paper for college.

The HBR article discusses corporate bankruptcy and the do-s and don’ts of communication during a restructuring event. It’s based on interviews my colleague Professor Erika James and I conducted with managing partners and senior directors at four of the largest restructuring firms operating in the US and Europe. I read through my careful series of quotations and excerpts, immersing myself in the CRISIS of it all. Then I threw it all in the fire and started over with a narrative and a main character: the CEO, captain of a cumbersome boat:

“You’ve spent a decade at the helm of a corporate barge that’s about to go under. Your debt is out of control and your CFO couldn’t keep the tiny cracks in the hull from spreading – the gushing leaks have grown to massive proportions and the flooding has pulled two-thirds of your boat underwater. The first to jump ship were your able-bodied seamen. The star players you’ve counted on all these years to run the ropes and tie up eagle-scout knots smelled the wind changing months ago and have all abandoned you for newer models. Everything you’re sitting on is outdated: your capital structure, the capabilities of your people, your facilities, even your products. You’re going down.

The public – that pesky reality of operating in a context – blames you for your failure to predict the storm that’s brought you to your knees. The mariners who remain on board are crowding in the upper levels, scared and fighting for air. You’ve got a skeleton team of exhausted chief-level officers, working 16-hour days and bickering about their equity stakes. Most of them refuse to join you on the upper deck to survey the damage or to fully recognize that there’s no going back.”

I’ll make the scene come alive. Every chance I get. And slowly, slowly, people will care about what I have to say about business – because I do.

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The Closing of Bethlehem Steel

February 14th, 2010

Bethlehem Steel was one of the US’s most prominent steel manufacturers for over 150 years. It produced the steel that built much of our national infrastructure: thousands of miles of railroad ties and structural beams as well as landmarks such as the George Washington Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, Alcatraz Island, and the Bonneville, Grand Coulee, and Hoover Dams, among others. Due to international pressure and inexorable changes in the steel industry they were forced to close their doors in the late 90’s. Instead of simply planting grass and walking away, they developed a comprehensive community revitalization plan on their former site in South Bethlehem that incorporated a community center complete with fine dining, retail, and transportation centers as well as Sands Casino. A National Museum of Industrial History was established in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution to commemorate and exhibit America’s important industrial history.

The visionary thought and skilled communications strategies employed by Bethlehem Steel’s leadership team during this time was exemplary. A high level of trust and coordination was required from an extremely broad cross-section of stakeholders: the local, state and federal governments, corporate leaders, lenders, educational institutions, land developers, strategic consultants, the Smithsonian Institution, the media and of course, the populace of Bethlehem.

What can we as individuals and corporate and community leaders learn from the success and commitment of Bethlehem Steel? What aspects of their thoughtful and creative approach to honoring our country’s rich industrial history are ripe for the plucking?

First and foremost, a commitment to doing the right thing. When a corporation has been entwined with a community for generations, the threads of coexistence are strong and tightly woven. Ghost towns and abandoned factories are unnecessary when smart, well-intentioned people put their heads together. The mission statement of a company shouldn’t just be jargon posted on the CEO’s office wall: it should be a set of principles and intents that finds its way into the entire life cycle of a business entity, including its conclusion.

Second, innovative repurposing. For example, the US is just one big Bethlehem Steel that we can’t afford to walk away from. What are our collective assets and our collective needs, and how can we use the former to achieve the latter? Can we retool more closed auto plants to manufacture solar panels? Shred more tires for playground mulch? Grow more of our own food? And what about the people who need jobs? They are an idle asset that is just as valuable as a non-functioning manufacturing facility. Can we reeducate senior citizens who have lost their retirement savings to participate in jobs that add to our GDP? What are our products of value here in the US – what are we actually making and not just managing, consuming, repackaging or reselling – and how can we create a match between the skill sets of our population and the competencies necessary to create more of those things?

Third and perhaps most important is the high degree of trust that the community, lenders and politicians had in Bethlehem Steel’s leadership. Credibility and a thoughtful approach to community involvement and communication is essential to the maintenance of trust. When our leaders, be they governmental, corporate, familial or religious, consistently reach out to us and show us through their actions that they care, plan, partner with others, follow through and create value, we begin to trust them.

Small actions build momentum. What will be the next change in your government agency, corporate office, educational institution or family that will draw from these three elements of Bethlehem Steel’s success in making lemonade out of a long-gone lemon? Do the right thing and live out your principles at all points in an entity’s life cycle, including bankruptcy and closure. Broaden your viewpoint and cast the net wider when considering options for creative repurposing of assets, be they real estate or human capital. Consult others whose expertise may be different from your own. And finally, maintain trust and credibility with all relevant stakeholders by communicating clearly, with short, regular real-time information and opportunities for feedback. Let me know what happens!

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