Authorpreneur Dashboard – Warren Martin
Winning in the 21st Century
Business & Investing
"I was fortunate to have Warren on my management team for several years and in several key positions during my period of Chairman, CEO of Coltec Industries. Warren's leadership skills were exceptional resulting in both financial and cultural improvements with every assignment. He is the real deal." —John W. Guffey, Jr., Former Chairman and CEO, Coltec Industries
"Warren's passion for all aspects of a business is second to none. He not only understands, but can dissect the idiosyncrasies of markets, suppliers, customers, processes, and functional areas of a business as well as their relationships. In doing so, he is able to bring new life and profitability to an organization along with discipline and strong internal control." —Andrea Simon, Divisional Finance Director, Weir Oil & Gas
Winning in the 21st Century: Business Principles & Processes That Really Work provides the reader with key principles and processes, best practises, and personal experiences on how to operate a business to achieve consistent success. I have often said that if I had known what I know now in my first corporate President's role, I could have done so much more to drive that business to even greater success.
This book provides the reader (CEO's, Presidents, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and those aspiring to these positions) with real-life examples and straight to the point principles, processes, and best practices that made all the difference in the world for me in my 15-year career operating winning businesses.
Book Bubbles from Winning in the 21st Century
Innovation Process
In today's business world, if you want to be a market leader and stay there, you must be completely committed as an organization to a constant innovation process that yields new products which are desired by your customer base. In chapter 8 of my book, "Winning in the 21st Century: Business Principles & Processes That Really Work," I layout a detailed process that when executed, will lead to the creation of new and innovative products and processes. Many businesses simply lack the structure,discipline, and open-mindedness needed for innovation to flourish. gain the insight needed to foster an environment and process that will allow innovation to be the norm and not the exception in your business.
Acquisitions & Divestitures
In Chapter 7 of my book, "Winning in the 21st century: Business Principles & Processes That Really Work," I give my insight into the basics of acquisitions and divestitures. I list primary reasons for failure with explanations as to why and how to avoid these mistakes. I also discuss the details of a great Due Diligence process as well as the specifics and importance of an outstanding Integration process. If you are considering buying or selling a business, this is a must read chapter!
The Principles of great execution
Execution is an oft used term in referring to winning or losing in business and sports. The lack of execution or the ability to execute is an excuse often given for losing or poor performance. Whereas, great execution most often results in performance that yields a winning result. In my book, "Winning in the 21st Century: Business Principles & Processes That Really Work," I detail the methods that I put to use that yielded the ability for my businesses to execute on a consistent basis. Here is an excerpt from that chapter.
Creating a Strategic Plan for your business t
I would venture to guess that 90% of the industrial products manufacturing businesses do not know or don't care what their share is of the market(s) they participate in. This is dangerous because they don't know what could be coming at them.When surprised by a disruptor, it may be too late to react. Every business needs a roadmap to the future, no matter the size. A good strategic plan requires the creator to be brutally honest about market size and share, competitor strengths and weaknesses, and their own strengths and weaknesses. The more time and effort put into getting these things right, the better the chance the strategic plan can be executed and result in success.
Measuring Process Excellence using KPI's
In chapter #4 of my book, I focus on KPI measurements for each business functional department. There are illustrative charts for each department as well as defined KPIs as well as world class target performance for each KPI. These charts can be imbedded in the business by your IT department and updated each month by the department heads. If your IT people do it right, you can see performance for the month and YTD for each department as well as an entire business unit roll-up.
People are key to success
I started my book, "Winning in the 21st Century: Business Principles & Process That Really Work," with a Chapter on the importance of hiring and developing great people as the primary key to success in business and any team function. Even though this Chapter is not long in terms of number of pages, I think it cuts straight to the key points a business leader needs to implement in their own enterprise if they want to operate a winning business on a consistent basis.
