Astro4Business Intersections

Business success through Astrology

Entries (RSS)

Posts Tagged Business Life Cycle

Signs of the Times – the for-profit nonprofit

Mar 12

Posted by Ellen in Introduction to Astrology for Business, Neptune in Aquarius, Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra, Signs of our Times, Uranus in Pisces | No Comments

Hello, everyone. 

Have you heard about the new “low-profit limited liability company?”  This new form of organization, enacted in Vermont, blends elements of for-profit and nonprofit corporations. 

Ben and Jerry’s 

The plight of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream is an example of why this is needed.  When a small business gets to the point where additional investors are needed for expansion, one way of raising capital is to become a public corporation.  However, once a public corporation, the key goal of the business becomes maximizing shareholder value.  In other words, anything that can be done to increase the value of the stock, must be done. 

When a European corporation, Unilever, stepped in with an unsolicited bid to buy Ben and Jerry’s for far more than the current value of their stock, the Board was forced to sell or face a potential lawsuit from the shareholders. 

This case highlighted several issues.  Ben and Jerry’s, as well as many other small businesses, had a philanthropic purpose as well as a financial purpose.  However, once a business takes on outside capital, the shareholders can decide whether or not the philanthropic goals can be pursued.  Yes, Unilever agreed to continue to give 7.5% of Ben and Jerry’s profits and to fund the Ben and Jerry Foundation with an upfront $5MM as part of the deal.  But what happened to the other social principles, like BHT-free milk and fair trade practices with Mexican and Brazilian farmers? 

Vermont steps in 

Vermont, the home state of Ben and Jerry’s, recognized the need for a form of organization that would meet the current social enterprise trend in the business world: philanthro-capitalism, venture philanthropy, green technology, and fair-trade practices, to name a few examples of this trend.  This hybrid model, the L3C, applies to companies formed for charitable or educational purposes, but it can generate profits for the owners as long as those profits are not “a significant purpose” of the company.  

However, there is no sanction against profits, even significant profits.  And since it is based on the Limited Liability Company model rather than corporate law, there are no stringent laws pertaining to the buy/sell decisions of the owners. 

It remains to be seen how this initial statute will morph as other states take it up and as the public begins to use it.  There is also the issue of the IRS and how they will regard the entity.  But I think it is an interesting example of the times: 

  1. With Pluto in Capricorn, traditional forms of business that no longer serve are breaking down, and new forms are emerging.
  2. With Neptune in Aquarius, the rights of people to transact business as they wish without interference from government or shareholders, has gained strength.  Connections between for-profit and not-for-profit organizations are being formed and distinctions between the entities are blurring and merging.  And entrepreneurs are recognizing more and more their individual responsibility to the whole.
  3. With Uranus in Pisces, we see innovation to overcome the mature stage in the business life cycle where shareholders and the public have more power than the original owners.  We see a movement toward collaboration with other forms of business, such as foundations and non-profit entities.
  4. With Saturn in Libra, we see the support of the law to implement structures of partnership, fairness, and balance.  Saturn in Libra bridges two independent entities, making a stronger prototype through a hybrid entity. 

A step in the right direction, I’d say.  What do you think? 

For further reading on this subject, check out the Neptune in Aquarius, Saturn in Libra, and Uranus in Pisces categories at the right.  Here are some other related posts:

Business life cycle – mature stage

The Globalization of Ben and Jerry’s

Vermont Secretary State – L3C

Don’t forget. If you have an astrology-related business question (or a business-related astrology question) send it to me at ellen@astro4business.com. I’ll answer it in these posts, anonymously of course, and we can all learn from each other’s experiences. I look forward to it! Have a question now? Email it and let’s get started!

Tags: , , , , ,

Uranus in Pisces – Cisco Systems

Sep 23

Posted by Ellen in Businesses in the news, Signs of our Times, Uranus in Pisces | 6 Comments

Cisco_logo_svg

AUDIO VERSION:  Uranus in Pisces – Cisco Systems Audio File

Cisco Systems is a name we all know, but few of us know exactly what they do.   During the dotcom boom Cisco was the supplier of most of the gear that guides data through the internet, like switches and routers.  In March 2000 it was considered the most valuable company in the world. Then during the dotcom bust in 2001 much of its stock market value was lost.  In the last seven years, it has responded not only by diversifying its businesses but also reworking its organizational model to meet the new realities of today.

Branching out

A company in the Mature Stage of the business life cycle,  by 2001 Cisco’s core business had already peaked and would never again reach the annual average growth rates it once had.  So the company has developed a strategy to move quickly into new businesses, businesses that can capture the higher rates of growth that are expected at an earlier point in the business life cycle.  This branching out has become institutionalized in the company culture in the last seven years.

The company calls new areas of growth “market adjacencies”.  The CEO of Cisco, John Chambers, gives an interesting clue for this kind of diversification.  Of the thirty or more market adjacencies the company is exploring and investing in, he says he hopes that at least half will be successful.  (Clue #1 for small businesses:  don’t expect everything you try to pay off.)

Cisco’s biggest current bet is on video communication, which it believes will increase tenfold by 2013.  (I believe so too, with Neptune moving into Pisces in 2011, but that’s a different post.)  And Cisco’s not waiting passively by for someone else to develop the technology.  It is planning to push its own video communication tool, TelePresence, into homes, and give “match-day experience” in people’s living rooms. 

Cisco’s TelePresence utilizes high-definition screens, spatially sensitive microphones, custom video-processing technology and networking equipment.  Cisco already uses the TelePresence technology at an impressive rate in its own business, turning videoconferences into approximate face-to-face meetings, 5,500 times a week.  These updated, upgraded videoconferences offer the nuances of body language and tone of voice, allowing coordination and cultivation of relationships among employees across the globe.

“Welcome to the human network”

In addition to and really more fundamentally innovative than diversification into adjacent business lines is Cisco’s restructure of its management process.  Cisco has continually restructured internally, first operating in divisions according to lines of business, then changing to a functional structure.  (The company has a Sun/Uranus conjunction in its chart which indicates its leaders, symbolized by the Sun, are engaged constantly with change, Uranus.) 

Now Cisco has developed an elaborate system of cross-functional committees to bring new products to new markets.  Some of these committees function without a formal leader although there is documented “replicable processes” for how groups are set up and how decisions are made.  Jay Galbraith, a noted management consultant, calls Cisco’s system a “culture of collaboration”. 

There have been drawbacks to this though.  Some people can flourish in a structure like this; lone wolves, as talented as they may be, cannot thrive, and loss of talent ensues.  A fifth of Cisco’s leadership has left the company. 

But Uranus in Aries is coming!

So what do we see here, from an astrological point of view?  This is an excellent example of a company using innovation (Uranus) during the mature and transitional stage of the business cycle (Pisces).  Natural Pisces attributes abound in the story:  diversification to deal with new market forces, committee leadership, and collaboration, as well as global connection, dissolution of structures, termination of hierarchies.

And the risks to this strategy?  If I were their astrologer I would tell them, good job!  You used the Uranus in Pisces time well, taking the last seven years to restructure your business innovatively, both in products and internal culture.  But Uranus in Aries is coming!  The innovation during the next seven years will come through the start-up phase, of the business cycle, from the efforts of the entrepreneur, the lone wolf that you just forced out.  The committee/matrix structure will not lead to ongoing innovation.  And the diversification strategy which worked so well with Uranus in Pisces will need to find a single overriding focus as Uranus moves into Aries during the next year.

Over the next two years, we’ll watch Cisco as we go through the transition between Uranus in Pisces to Uranus in Aries.  My hunch is that the current management will not be able to be weather the shift in focus under the weight of all those committees.  They will be forced to segment the company into smaller units to retain innovation and competitive edge.

We’ll wait and see…

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Learning from the Behemoths

Sep 22

Posted by Ellen in Businesses in the news, Introduction to Astrology for Business, Long-term Planning, Uranus in Pisces | 1 Comment

Cover Image, The Economist, August 29, 2009.

Cover Image, The Economist, August 29, 2009.

The August 29th issue of The Economist featured a cover story called “Big is Back:  The Return of the Corporate Giant”.  The magazine cover pictured a huge whale with a tiny person bouncing around on the jet issuing from the whale’s spout – I guess that’s you and me, small business owners.  I was in the airport when I saw it and I had to grab the magazine:  the whale is a key symbol of the sign Pisces. 

With Uranus in Pisces and moving into Aries soon, I’ve been thinking a lot about innovation (Uranus) in companies at the end of their life cycle (Pisces).  What did they do to embrace the energies of Uranus in Pisces?  And how will they transition themselves into the kind of entrepreneurial companies that will survive the transition to Aries?  What innovations are they bringing in now that will carry them over the cusp into the new part of the cycle?

The end or the beginning?

During the Pisces stage of the business life cycle, the business has gotten so big it has begun to come apart at the seams.  At this stage of the cycle, there are so many “hands in the pot” so to speak that the company runs the risk of dispersing in all directions.  The company needs to focus on how to transition from the dissolution stage (Pisces) into the next stage of the cycle, the entrepreneurial stage (Aries).

But The Economist is saying these businesses are not nearing their end but staging a comeback! 

With Uranus having been in Pisces the last seven years, there has been innovation in this part of the cycle that has allowed certain companies to thrive while others have collapsed.  So what innovations have these large companies made that earns them an “end of cycle” feature on the cover of The Economist and an exhaustive study in a major new business book, SuperCorp: How Vangaurd Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good ?  How have they been able to survive?  What will become of them as we move into Uranus in Aries?  And most important, are there lessons we can learn that will help us make the transition as well?

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor at Harvard Business School, sums it up this way in SuperCorp:

The best of this breed aspire to be big but human, efficient but innovative, global but concerned about local communities.

Sounds a lot like Pisces to me.

What can the behemoths teach us?

Uranus will be in Pisces only a few more months.  During 2010 it progresses into Aries for five months and in 2011 it leaves Pisces permanently (well, about 80 years) and enters Aries where it will stay for the next seven years.  If we can anticipate the movement into Aries and how it will differ from the last seven years in Pisces, we’ll have a leg-up on the changes and innovations we’ll need to bring to our business in order to stay in touch with the current times.

And since, as The Economist states, “the most successful economic ecosystems contain a variety of big and small companies”, let’s see if there is some synergy we can develop between our small businesses and the behemoths.

Happy whale. (Source:Wikipedia)

Happy whale. (Source:Wikipedia)

In coming posts we’ll look at some of these behemoths and how they have managed to stay viable through innovation.   A thorough look at this phenomena will yield insight into the coming times, beginning next year.  And let’s keep in mind the innovations we have brought to our businesses in the last seven years and how we may need a paradigm shift as Uranus enters Aries.

We’ve all been through this phase, either in our businesses or in other areas of our lives.  The Pisces to Aries transition is marked by dissolution of something that has gotten large and unwieldy and eventually finding that spark of your own individual self that allows you to start over with only your own resources to guide you – your inner pioneer.

So what have we seen in the last seven years with Uranus in Pisces and what is coming when Uranus moves into Aries?

To be continued…

Tags: , , , , ,

The Zodiac and the Business Life Cycle – Maturity & Transition

Sep 11

Posted by Ellen in Astro4Business Basics, The Zodiac Signs for Business | 5 Comments

Business Life Cycle

Business Life Cycle

We’ve been looking at the stages in the business life cycle, Start-up, Growth, and Expansion, and correlating them to the developmental cycle of the Zodiac.  In this post we look at the final two phases, maturity and transition. 

In Reframing Organizations. Artistry, Choice, and Leadership , the authors Bolman and Deal perfectly describe the last signs of the zodiac cycle, stating, [with my additions]:

The proliferation of complex organizations has made almost every human activity a collective one.  We are born, raised, and educated in organizations.  We work in them and rely on them for goods and services. [Capricorn]  We learn in schools and universities. [Sagittarius] We play sports in teams. [Aquarius] We join clubs and associations. [Aquarius]  Many of us will grow old and die in hospitals or nursing homes. [Pisces]  We build organizations because of what they can do for us.  They produce consumer goods, bring entertainment into our homes, provide education and health care, and deliver the mail.

Capricorn

Capricorn signifies the beginning of the phase when the business becomes a complex, collective organism or institution. This phase is another major transition for the business, with great rewards.  However the risks are very real.  At this point the business is known in the marketplace and the community.  There is prestige, honor, and success before the public.  There are loyal customers and a significant volume of repeat business. 

Yet, now that the business is so integrated into the overall economy, economic changes due to societal or market conditions can impact sales and profits.  The bureaucracy which has allowed the institution to reach the mature stage has become imbedded in the organizational culture.  This bogs down the entrepreneurial spirit needed to respond to market changes with new products and innovative services.

The business is beholden to and may become run by stockholders, and employees may wield control with collective bargaining.  The business is less and less able to compete with smaller, more responsive competitors.  Capricorn qualities of strength, dependability, persistence, efficiency and practical response to internal and external threats are needed at this stage.

 

Aquarius

In the Aquarian phase the entrepreneur’s original goals of individual self-expression and gain have been left long behind.  By this phase, not only has the bureaucracy made innovation highly cumbersome and unlikely, but the company has become an arena for union activity, employee ownership, and pension obligations.  The social has overtaken the individual.  Costs are high and productivity may stagnate.  If the company attempts to reduce costs, it must fight against entrenched attitudes and the status quo. 

When a company is in the aging side of the lifecycle, it is less likely to be able to call upon traits such as adaptability and flexibility.  These are the “too big to fail” companies and government intervention may shore them up but at a high price in terms of reputation and control.

In order for innovation to be created, it must come from the bottom up, and management must provide the means for employee team contribution.  Or the business may look to collaboration with outside partners and open innovation for new ideas and invention.  Yet this carries risks if outsourced suppliers deliver inferior goods, as was the case with toy company contracts in China.  The Aquarian traits of mental pioneering, and independent, imaginative, creative, thinking are critical to see the company through this phase. 

 

Pisces

The Pisces stage is the transition stage, either to decline or to a new cycle of innovation.  Retiring staff and owners are interested in management succession and exit strategies.  Key employees may break off from the behemoth institution to begin their own start-up activities, taking talented resources with them.    The company may be broken up into smaller divisions in an attempt to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit. 

This is the phase when high costs and declining sales can lead to dissolution.  The company may falter, leaving it open to attack by corporate raiders.  The business retreats from the public eye to retrench, restructure, or terminate.  A successful retrenching will allow the giant company to retain the competitive advantages of its size while discovering and harnessing the entrepreneurial talents of individual contributors.

This leads the business to the start-up phase again, as our Zodiac wheel turns to Aries.

Tags: , , , , , ,

The Zodiac and the Business Life Cycle – Expansion

Sep 10

Posted by Ellen in Astro4Business Basics, The Zodiac Signs for Business | No Comments

Business Life Cycle

Business Life Cycle

We’ve been reviewing the business life cycle and correlating its phases to the signs of the zodiac.  We’ve examined the start-up phase and its correlation to the qualities of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, and the growth phase, with its correlation to the signs Cancer, Leo, and Virgo.  Now the business is ready for the expansion phase.

Libra

Libra marks the beginning of a phase when the business will either continue to expand through entering new markets, enlarging the company through mergers and acquisitions, or taking the company public, or it will maintain the status quo, rest on its laurels, and coast toward its ultimate termination.  A business that does not move forward with the times and respond to social forces with innovation will eventually reach its termination.

At the Libra point the business begins to establish partnerships to aid in its expansion and deals with responsibilities to investors.  There will be a focus on networking to expand the customer/client base as well as a further shift in management to a more broad-based model.  As the employee base expands as well, effort goes into recruiting the right people and dealing with human resources complexities.

Leadership in this phase will bring in outside consultants and new board members to engage the skills necessary for expansion.  Legal issues may become more serious now, with outside threats to product brands and legal challenges as the company becomes more known in the market.

This phase is characterized by a period of growth into new markets and distribution channels.  This effort makes this phase similar to the Aries time, with an emphasis on entrepreneurial pioneering spirit and research and development of ideas that complement the existing business and capabilities.  The Libra qualities of diplomacy, equilibrium, and objectivity shepherd the business through this phase.

Scorpio

The Scorpio phase brings a dramatic point of crisis.  The power of the original owner has been usurped by the structure of the business they have created.  Banking relationships and investor dynamics have made the company reliant on outside resources, with corresponding requirements for compliance and control.  Advisors, lawyers, and tax agencies seem to conspire to wrest the business from the owner. The original entrepreneur must decide whether to leave the company altogether or transform him/herself into a cog in a machine much bigger than he/she is.  A seasoned, possibly international, management team must function in order to take the business forward into new markets.  

There is no way even a very great leader can handle the business single-handedly at this stage.  The business will be transformed during this stage, whether that means regression to a prior state, expansion, or failure.  The business that survives will have its operating structures in place, its financing secured, and a strong management team ready for expansion.  The Scorpio traits of discernment, integrity, and willingness to dig deeply to find the truth are important during this difficult phase.

Sagittarius

At this stage the business has weathered the Scorpio crisis and is preparing to be an institution.  The hard-won lessons have turned into capability to operate, communicate, and lead. 

In this phase there is expansion into new territories and products or services.  There is a natural rise in risk tolerance because of the stable financing established in the prior phase.  The new leadership team has weathered the storm and acts with confidence; this is the top of their game.  The focus is the forward thrust, the move into the future to gain a larger market share and find new revenue and profit channels. 

This is also when the business participates in philanthropic causes, whether born of a sincere desire to support the public or as a ploy to gain customers.  The risk at this stage is that lack of organizational discipline, born of a company moving into too many new ventures at one time, will take its toll on planning and profits.  The Sagittarian traits of optimism, risk-taking, judgment, and looking for opportunities near and far are characteristic of this phase.

In the next post, we’ll look at the mature phase of a business, and the transition into the next cycle.

Tags: , , , , ,

The Zodiac and the Business Life Cycle – Growth

Sep 9

Posted by Ellen in Astro4Business Basics, The Zodiac Signs for Business | 6 Comments

Business Life Cycle

Business Life Cycle

Today we’ll continue looking at the zodiac and the business life cycle.  In the last post we examined Aries, Taurus, and Gemini and the start-up phase of the business life cycle.  Today we’ll look at the next phase, the growth phase.

Cancer

At the Cancer stage, which corresponds to the solstice point in nature, we reach a major “make or break” point in the business cycle.  No longer in the start-up phase when we’re intent on fulfilling our own dreams, in order to grow our business  we have to begin to respond to the needs of our customers in order to generate additional revenue.  We may revise our original business plan based on feedback from our clients and customers to develop into areas that serve the customer and are profitable to us.  We may hire new employees to meet the demands of the business and this presents a major test in the business.  When employees begin to represent the business to others the business begins to develop a separate identity from the owner.  The Cancer qualities of receptivity, flexibility, and response to the needs of others are important at this stage.

Leo

In this phase we’ve made it through the first growth crisis and have arrived at the point where a more formal structure of leadership is needed to consolidate and perpetuate the growth of the business.  It is time for a leader, presumably the owner, to take charge and structure the business to deal with increased sales, customers, and employee issues.  With growth comes the challenge of steady profitability and at this stage there is a constant array of challenges bidding for time and money.  Effective leadership is critical to make decisions and stay on course.  In the Leo phase, the traits of courage, leadership and vision are important to pilot the business to success.

Virgo

At the Virgo stage the company needs to professionalize management and develop consistency, training, and customer service.  More administrative elements are necessary and more complex accounting and management systems need to be set up.  Leadership should focus on training and delegation to free them to plan and prepare for the expansion to come in the next phase.  Formal business analysis is necessary to make sure the business is on the right track and can sustain itself without hands-on guidance from the owners.  To increase efficiency, documentation of business processes, policies, and procedures is important at this stage.  The Virgo’s penchant for analysis, order, organization, and detail are critical to the business in this phase.

We’re now half way through the zodiac, and ready for the next transition in the business cycle.  In the next post we’ll take the next step and move into the expansion phase.

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Zodiac and the Business Life Cycle – Start-up

Sep 8

Posted by Ellen in Astro4Business Basics, The Zodiac Signs for Business | 8 Comments

Hello, everyone.

Writing to you from outside London, in Sevenoaks, Kent.  I’m staying in an apartment with a sweet back yard full of flowers, apples, and plums, lush, green, and about 20 F degrees colder than Georgia, USA!  Change of scenery, change of pace, Mars in Cancer still working its way through my life.  How about yours?

In recent weeks we’ve looked at long-term influences correlated to the slower-moving planets with an eye to understanding current and future conditions that will have a bearing on our business plans for 2010.  We’re getting there!  We’ve looked at Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Aquarius, Saturn in Virgo, and we’ve begun looking at Uranus. 

Before we examine Uranus in the sign of Pisces, I want to give an overview of the cycle of the zodiac and the standard business life cycle.  The progression through the zodiac is a map of the natural cycles of development and change that all life goes through, including the life cycle of a business. Over the next few posts, we’ll look at these natural cycles and how they are also reflected in business life cycles.

Aries

Business Life Cycle

Business Life Cycle

In Aries, a fire sign ruled by Mars, the spark of life is new.  In business, this is the pre-start up phase, when the idea has just formed.  This is a highly entrepreneurial* time, when the owner is evaluating his or her personal reasons for going into business, making the decision to begin operating a business, and deciding what type of business he or she will begin.  This is also referred to as the “seed stage” in the business life cycle and the focus is on perceiving the business opportunities at hand and matching them with the owner’s skills, experience, and passions.  *(Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to [begin] a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome. Source:Wikipedia)

Whether a new product, or an established product or service in a new location or market, this is the initiatory phase, the spark has ignited but it has not burst into form yet.  At this stage the Aries traits of courage, independence, and enthusiasm are apparent.

Taurus

This is the stage of business development when the spark of Aries begins to take a form.  Taurus is an earth sign ruled by Venus, and as such, is concerned with manifesting an idea in the physical world. At this stage the business owner chooses and registers the name and opens a bank account in the business name. There may be research and product development, obtaining financing, and setting up the legal structure for the business.

This is the phase when products or services begin to be in production, and when there begins to be a customer base and market presence.  Hopefully at this phase the business begins to create cash flow.  The Taurus traits of practicality, persistence, and patience are needed at this stage.

Gemini

Gemini, an air sign ruled by Mercury, brings to the business sales and marketing efforts, signing procurement contracts, setting up the bookkeeping, and obtaining the necessary licensing.  In this phase advisors such as accountants and lawyers are chosen and usually the form of the business, whether incorporated, limited, or sole proprietorship is chosen and legally established.  Producing sales and services to generate cash flow becomes a major focus for the business.

The Gemini traits of versatility, rationality, and communications ability are important to the developing business at this stage.

These are the signs that correspond to the start-up phase of a business life cycle.  Once these initial steps have been taken, more complexities come into play, as we’ll examine in the next few posts.

Mercury Retrograde Stories

Any Mercury retrograde stories?  I’ve got one.  My daughter-in-law Natasha went to the train station today to buy a monthly commuter ticket for her job that starts tomorrow in London.  The very nice man at the ticket counter said that the computerized ticketing system had been down all day and they were trying not to sell tickets today because they would have to process them manually.  She had to patiently wait (she’s a Taurus) as the man repeated himself eight times that he was trying not to sell her a ticket.  Her Taurus persistence won out and she finally bought the ticket, although we’re hoping it is in the system by tomorrow morning at 6:30 when she has to catch the train.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,