Abstract

There is no question that Business Intelligence can play a significant role in increasing internal productivity as well as competitiveness. To some extent I am going to play the role of devil’s advocate in this article and challenge people to utilize Business Intelligence at the right time and by the right people.

Why do firms suddenly need Business Intelligence?

I have read a number of articles recently that advocate the use of Business Intelligence by many people within an organization. Actually the reasoning seems to be valid. IT departments are swamped with requests for service by more and more people. Many of these requests are Business Intelligence oriented. People see things happening in their market place and need to respond as quickly as possible. Business experts say that we need to become more agile, ready to change our operational and sales strategies in an instant to meet an ever more chaotic competitive environment. Business Intelligence tools are becoming more and more powerful.

The recommended solution is simple. Teach people how to utilize Business Intelligence tools so they don’t have to wait on the IT department several weeks. The underlying assumption is equally simple. If people know how to use Business Intelligence tools, they can react quickly as market conditions shift.

Do you really need to move this quickly?

I don’t think that Business Intelligence for SMBs and SMEs needs to be based on the assumption that we need to react quickly; almost it seems as if there’s a panic. If we don’t address the crisis de jour, our opportunity to meet the challenge will pass in just a few weeks. That’s what some industry experts seem to be saying. Be ready to react instantaneously and in order to do so you need instantaneous information from your Business Intelligence system. Since IT cannot react that quickly, it’s up to the individual to generate the information they need. That means these individuals need to know how to use the Business Intelligence system.

I accept the fact that firms need to react to changing market conditions, but I don’t agree that reaction times are measured in days, not months. Business conditions do change, but you shouldn’t try to react with a speed of a commodities trader. Yes, some firms make money in the commodities market, but there are also far too many examples of firms and unsupervised individuals making bad bets.

Maybe the underlying issue is the whole notion of reacting to changing market conditions. If you need to react quickly, that’s a knee jerk motion and you may not have all of the information you need simply because you tried to use your Business Intelligence system to react quickly.

Maybe you should be more proactive?

Rather than trying to use your Business Intelligence system quickly in order to react quickly, you should proactively use your Business Intelligence system to put you in a position where you can react quickly and effectively. I think that’s the issue. You cannot achieve long term success if you are constantly reacting to changing market conditions.

This doesn’t mean you should never react quickly. Sometimes you need to do so, but the key issue is creating a proactive Business Intelligence system so that when conditions change, you already have simulated the conditions. Proactive means that you have discussed various scenarios and have the information at hand when and if conditions change. Actually you should have already defined market scenarios and used your Business Intelligence system to help you determine what your reaction should be. Proactive means that you have already asked and answered the question.

Who should generate the intelligence?

If you have decided that it’s best to be more proactive, who should be responsible for generating the information you need to make sound business decisions? I am still not convinced that people need to be spending their precious time designing Business Intelligence reports. Many Business Intelligence systems are very powerful, but this power tends to be wrapped in complexity. Most people (and firms for that matter) need to concentrate on what they do well. Sales and marketing executives should spend time determining what the firm should do, not determining how vital information can be extracted from the Business Intelligence system. That should be the responsibility of the Business Intelligence guru. Sales and marketing executives should be using information effectively, not generating it.

Does IT need to be responsible? Possibly or you could create one or more super users that know the Business Intelligence system intimately. Business Intelligence for SMBs and SMEs (given their rather limited number of employees) has to be more of a one man or woman show. That’s not the best scenario due to the risk of losing that valuable person, but then that’s an issue for all SMBs and SMEs and every one of their most talented employees. The key question you need to address is in essence the experience/benefit ratio of any Business Intelligence system. People who use a Business Intelligence tool infrequently are going to take longer to extract the information simply because they need to refresh their memory before they begin. At the same time their reliability of the data extracted might not be as high, again simply because they are not quite as knowledgeable as someone who does this more frequently.

In the end there are two objectives you need to keep in mind. If you proactively take the time now to determine what information you might need in the future and create the decision support tools (reports as well as what if analysis tools) you will need, you won’t have to react in a crisis mode when market conditions change. Second, you need to determine whether it makes sense to train people on a complex Business Intelligence tool when they may not need that tool except on an infrequent basis. Again, if you take this step now, you will be ready when the need for information occurs.

Creating an internal Business Intelligence system

Business Intelligence for SMBs and SMEs isn’t just about reacting to outside market influences. It can and should be just as important to control internal business operations. Actually this is the case for any firm.

While there is no doubt that sound business decisions are based primarily on the person making the decision, these decisions need to be based on sound information. Seat-of-the-pants decisions might work for small firms where the experience of the primary decision maker is the key element, but there is just too much information spread over too many decision makers for this practice to work in larger firms. In this case accurate and timely information must serve as the foundation upon which sound decisions can be made.

Why do you need this information?

Accounting and ERP systems can store and regurgitate just about anything you want. Actually it’s possible that for every transaction posted there can be 20, 30 or 40 fields that will allow you to slice and dice data any number of ways. The fact that you can carry reporting (intelligence?) to this level of detail doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it.

Start by asking yourself why you need the information. If it doesn’t lead to a decision, then you don’t need it.

In what format should this information be presented?

With the exception of audit trail reports, rows and columns are out. In no case can they lead to a decision.

Pie charts and bar chart are out as well. They, like row/column reports, are no more than a snapshot of a specific condition at a specific instant in time. People should never make snap decisions and that’s all this information can support.

Having said this, there is one use to which some specific data can be applied. Exception Management or Business Alerts are usually triggered by a specific value, but only if that condition falls outside an expected range. As an example, if a customer’s account exceeds its credit limit or a specific invoice becomes “x” days overdue, that condition should be brought to the attention of a named individual. Business Alerts handle the notification process while Exception Management gives users the ability to deal with an alert in a contact manager like application that allows them to track the steps they (and others) take to resolve an issue.

If rows and columns, bar charts and pie graphs are not acceptable, what’s left? Line charts are the only form of reporting that actually lets users develop a sense of the history and future of business conditions that can then give people the total picture. It really doesn’t matter where a company is today, nor does it matter where a company has been. All of that has already happened and cannot therefore be changed. What can be changed is the future and that’s where people need to concentrate their thoughts.

Think of a line chart as a beginning, a middle and an end. Historic values form the anchor upon which the line chart is constructed. The last current piece of data is the jumping off point and the extension of the line formed gives us an idea as to where our future “might” be.

Once we see the total picture, we can determine if it is heading in the right direction. Well, that’s part of the analysis, but not everything. The extended line chart gives us a hint of our future, but we still haven’t figured out if that’s where we want to be. You need a second line chart that acts as our target. Now we can see in an instant our past, one possible future and our target.

There are still two adjustments we might need to make. If the volatility of the data is significant, we may have to utilize some form of smoothing to make the data more understandable. Second, data does not follow a straight line path. Sometimes it’s increasing/decreasing over time. If that’s the case we may need to utilize some form of analysis that let’s us see these trends.

Now we can “see” the data and make a decision. If the trend seems to be within the acceptable range or budget we created, then no decision is required. If the trend seems to be heading in a negative direction, then we know we need to take action. No data analysis will ever tell us what to do, but this approach will help us determine if we need to do something and most importantly if the decisions we have taken seem to be having a positive affect.

One last thought. The key to the charts we have been discussing is that they give us an opportunity to become more proactive. If you see that your actual results are starting to trend in a negative direction, you can proactively take steps to make changes before the raw data indicates that you need to do something. Of course this is just another form of forecasting, but in this case the forecast is operationally oriented.

What information needs to be extracted and displayed?

While it is certainly easy to create graphs once the data values have been identified, the hard part is determining what you need to track. Remember, you can create any number of fields than can be used to feed your data analysis engine. Picking the right fields is the tricky part.

Think of an Income Statement. It’s got lots of data that could be graphed. Now think of virtually every accounting and ERP system’s ability to support drill down. If you can drill down from a data value to underlying information, then the information is of no use to you because it is being influenced by other data. Since you cannot track everything, you need to identify those basic factors that have the most influence on your business. Identify your profit drivers.

Maybe inventory turns in a distribution environment can be thought of as a Profit Driver. Don’t forget though that it’s not going to be possible to track every single item your carry. Maybe start with inventory turns as a whole, then by product line or possibly region. Where you start is not as important as your ability to quickly see where you may have a problem developing. Then you can drill down to a more detailed analysis.

Profit Drivers are a bit like the concept of a common denominator. You need to identify those values that are not influenced by other factors. If you can track and control these key business drivers, the Income Statement will take care if itself.

Summary

Effective business decisions drive business profitability. These decisions need to be rooted in facts that can be brought to light instantaneously. People do not have the time to guess. They need to know where to place their attention. They also need to know whether the decisions they make are having the desired effect. If there is too much data, the issues may remain clouded. If there is no way compare actual results against targets, how can you ever know if you are where you want to be or need to be. Finally, people need to identify those Profit Drivers that have the most significant impact on the organization.

Business Intelligence systems are the vehicles by which critical information can be extracted from an accounting or ERP system and used to not only monitor internal processes, but also support the strategic decision making process whereby firms can identify opportunities to create tactical advantages or meet market challenges. Since changes in tactics might need to be implemented quickly, there is no time to waste. You do not have time to query your Business Intelligence system and you certainly need to avoid the creation of erroneous data analysis.

If you are going to rely so heavily on your Business Intelligence system to support the decision making process, your analysis needs to be proactive and it needs to be managed by people that are Business Intelligence experts, not casual users. If you can determine in advance what your competition might do, then you can also determine in advance what you might do. Rather than waiting (and doing nothing) until your competition strikes, you can and should be using your Business Intelligence system to support the planning process, not support the reaction process.

Abstract

Why do so many accounting and ERP software selection projects fail to achieve their objectives or fail altogether? Absence of executive buy-in? Implementation failure? Ineffective communication. All of these are legitimate, but maybe there’s a fundamental problem that isn’t addressed adequately. The process of selecting a new accounting and ERP system isn’t just about features and functions. Maybe firms just don’t create a strong enough foundation for success. Maybe they forget that individual people drive a firm’s success. Maybe they forget that the new accounting and ERP system has to help these people do their jobs better and make better business decisions. Maybe they forget these people and their needs and therefore doom a software selection project from the get-go.

Basic Research

Before you launch into your analysis, you might want to spend some time on research or background knowledge accumulation. The more time you spend educating yourself about software selection, the industry and specific products, the better prepared you and others will be when you begin your analysis.

From the point of view of individual people within your organization, how can they know what they need to be successful if they don’t know what’s possible? Rather than one or a very few number of people researching product and functionality options, extend this investigative process to as many people as practical. Rather than building your requirements document from the top down (only including project leaders and departmental manager), build it from the bottom up as well. This might actually give you a more accurate picture of what you need as a firm.

Efficiency and Effectiveness

Efficiency and effectiveness are two key business success elements. From an operational point of view, you want to minimize the cost of doing business per dollar of revenue. However, efficiency isn’t the only answer. People will want to purchase from you because the perceived and actual benefits (other than cost) of doing business with you far outweigh the benefits of purchasing from your competition. In other words, customer service is just as important as price. The way to maximize your customer service is to maximize the effect of what you do. People must work effectively as well as efficiently. Maybe one of your fundamental areas for improvement has nothing to do with software. Maybe it has more to do with customer service and the way you interact with customers.

Identify Requirements, Constraints, Strengths and Weaknesses

Organizing the software selection process is certainly a critical step. Having formed your selection committee, one of your first steps is giving people the ability to critique their own jobs as well as the organization as a whole. Give people the ability to describe their job objectives as they see them, critique the information that flows into them from other sources, critique their portion of the accounting system, and put into their own words what they believe the organization should do well and doesn’t do well.

While you want to launch this software selection process by meeting with most of the people who will be participating in the process, it will not be possible to meet with them personally to discuss requirements. Instead, create what I refer to as a Preliminary Needs Definition document and then let everyone fill it out. The format is open-ended text responses to specific questions as listed below. I have used the term “we” because individuals don’t feel very comfortable talking it terms that refer to them directly.

• What do we do now?
• What works and doesn’t work?
• What can we do individually to improve business process efficiency?
• What can we do to improve customer service?
• What should we be doing that we are not doing right now?
• What changes should be made in the business management system to help us work more effectively?
• What can other people do to help us do better?
• Are these goals or changes reasonable?
• Where is the organization today?
• Where should it be in the future?

If you consider the questions above, you will see that most have very little to do with specific functional requirements. The questions you pose here are designed to build a picture of the type of organization you want to be in the future. Improve the organization first. If you don’t look inward first, how can you possibly define how the accounting or ERP system should assist you from a functional or reporting point of view?

As you move this process forward, you are going to start to build a picture of where you need to be in the future. You may also identify opportunities for improvement (problems are no more than opportunities for improvement). Deal with these issues first as any flaws within the organization can negatively affect the effectiveness of the new accounting/ERP system.

As you move forward, please keep in mind the following suggestions.

• Build a sense of teamwork by giving each person, not just the right to participate, but the right to be heard and taken seriously.
• Begin to build a consensus of what needs to be done by holding open-ended meetings with all groups that will eventually participate.
• Start collecting improvement / requirements information from individuals and workgroups.
• Identify the most important factors affecting your success as a unique business, whether they have anything to do with the accounting or ERP system or not.
• Determine what your customers want.
• Critique current system (software and business processes).
• Determine if specific business processes will require substantial improvement.
• Build a picture of the most important functional requirements.
• Build a picture of the most important reporting requirements, keeping in mind the fact that the reports found in most accounting/ERP systems are static pictures of the firm at a single point in time. What you really need is an effective set of business metrics that help you determine where you are and where you are possibly going.
• Keep in mind the fact that your new accounting/ERP system can produce so much information that it may become difficult to identify where you need to spend you time. Consider supplementing your reporting/metrics system with some form of exception management or alerts.
• Consolidate software requirements into a high-level needs definition document that can be used to review potential candidates.

Commitment to the Process

Now you have reached the point where you must dedicate yourself, your employees and your company to the process of selecting a new accounting / ERP system. I’m not suggest­ing this is anything like a holy crusade, but the commitment is similar. This project will consume a great deal of time and ultimately money to bring to fruition. There will be a tendency on the part of some to lose interest. Their participation and input is critical. They and you must support the project until it has been completed. This is the only way to insure the product you select meets your needs, and will be accepted completely by the people who will have to use it.

Summary

This first step toward selecting a new accounting or ERP system sets the stage for everything that will follow. If you don’t give people the ability to contribute toward the critique of your current system and even the organization itself, you may not receive suggestions that could otherwise prove to be quite valuable, and you run the risk of being seen as imposing a solution on people who have not been included in this process. These people may support your final purchase decision, but they could also resist any changes you might make or resist the new system. That you do not want. Create an inclusive software selection process that will generate enthusiasm. If you ask people how you can help them, they will respond accordingly.

The power of technology has had little effect upon long term profitability because that potential cannot be released without the assistance of people, and people have not generally been included in the design, selection, installation, implementation and use of ERP and business management systems.

Whenever you start dealing with people oriented issues, things start to get complicated. Maybe that’s why you see so many efficiency projects that seem to ignore people. Just organize the workflow and the technology and everything will be fine! Well, you can’t ignore people. People are customers, suppliers, employees, supervisors, managers, and business owners. At its most basic core, business is all about one individual working with another individual toward some common goal. If you want to achieve what I call Business Excellence, then you are going to have to admit that people matter, particularly your employees.

Excellent companies start with excellent owners and senior executives. They in turn recruit excellent line managers and supervisors. That’s the basic foundation, but it’s the regular people, the staff and line employees who will really make a difference. Regular everyday employees will make or break your organization. I know that seems contrary to the popular notion that excellence lies in technology and the management of the firm, but maybe I like to take a contrary viewpoint sometimes just to make a point. In this case I am speaking from the heart. Business Excellence is all about people. Business Excellence starts with the assumption that all people have the capacity to contribute to the success of the organization. Give people the tools they need to do their jobs well. Give them the encouragement to do their best. Give them a physical environment that supports efficiency. Give them a psychological environment which supports effectiveness. Give of yourself to each person in your organization and you stand a very good chance of becoming successful.

Maybe achieving Business Excellence starts with something as simple as remembering each person’s name. Maybe it starts by showing people that there is nothing to fear from change. Maybe all you have to do is to encourage people to let the excellence which has always been locked up inside them to come out. Maybe Business Excellence isn’t as difficult as you might otherwise think. All you have to do is give people just the smallest shove in the right direction and let them take it from there.

Business Excellence starts with people and never really leaves people. It starts with the recognition that people matter; not just in your mind, but in your actions. It has got to start at the top of the organization and move from one level to the next. You can’t have excellent employees unless you have excellent managers. You can’t have excellent managers if you don’t have excellent executives. It really isn’t’ that difficult as long as you realize that the power of the organization can be released only if each person has the same goal, and that goal is excellence through mutual dependency. Organizations don’t achieve excellence if they rely upon a few stars. Each person must be willing to contribute according to their ability and share equally in the rewards. Business Excellence isn’t about a few benefiting at the expense of the many.

Certainly there are any number of techniques for maximizing the contributions of each member of the organization. Teams seem to help a group of people focus their individual expertise into something more powerful. Incentive systems share the wealth people help to create. Becoming a learning organization recognizes the power which lies inside the minds of each employee. All of these techniques help, but the single most powerful tool you can bring to bear is your concern for each person.

People work more effectively with other people whom they admire or feel some form of friendship, even if it’s only a business friendship. That’s really the core philosophy which supports Business Excellence; people caring for other people. It really is that simple. No one person has the ability to carry other people on their back for very long, nor does any one group of people have the ability to carry a privileged few on their back for very long. All it takes is the recognition that every person has the ability to contribute something of value to the organization. All it takes is someone taking the time to treat other people as if they would want to be treated if they were in the same position. It really is that simple. Give of yourself because the people who work with you really do matter.

Business Reporting has always been one of the many soapboxes I love to jump on (http://www.accountinglibrary.com/blog/category/business-intelligence/, http://www.accountinglibrary.com/blog/category/business-alerts/, http://www.accountinglibrary.com/blog/category/exception-management/). While there is no doubt that sound business decisions are based primarily on the person making the decision, these decisions need to be based on sound information. Seat-of-the-pants decisions might work for small firms where the experience of the decision maker is the key element, but there is just too much information spread over too many decision makers for this practice to work in larger firms. In this case accurate and timely information must serve as the foundation upon which sound decisions can be based.

Why do you need this information?

Accounting and ERP systems can store and regurgitate just about anything you want. Actually it’s possible that for every transaction posted there can be 20, 30 or 40 fields that will allow you to slice and dice data any number of ways. The fact that you can carry reporting (intelligence?) to this level of detail doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it.

Start by asking yourself why you need the information. If it doesn’t lead to a decision, then you don’t need it.

In what format should this information be presented?

With the exception of audit trail reports, rows and columns are out. In no case can they lead to a decision.

Pie charts and bar chart are out as well. They, like row/column reports, are no more than a snapshot of a specific condition at a specific instant in time. People should never make snap decisions and that’s all this information can support.

Having said this, there is one use to which some specific data can be applied. Exception Management or Business Alerts are usually triggered by a specific value, but only if that condition falls outside an expected range. As an example, if a customer’s account exceeds its credit limit or a specific invoice becomes “x” days overdue, that condition should be brought to the attention of a named individual. Business Alerts handle the notification process while Exception Management gives users the ability to deal with an alert in a contact manager like application.

If rows and columns, bar charts and pie graphs are not acceptable, what’s left? Line charts are the only form of reporting that actually lets users develop a sense of the history and future of business conditions that can then give people the total picture. It really doesn’t matter where a company is today, nor does it matter where a company has been. All of that has already happened and cannot therefore be changed. What can be changed is the future and that’s where people need to concentrate their thoughts.

Think of a line chart as a beginning, a middle and an end. Historic values form the anchor upon which the line chart is constructed. The last current piece of data (the most recent value) is the jumping off point and the extension of the line formed gives us an idea as to where our future “might” be.

Once we see the total picture, we can determine if it’s heading in the right direction. Well, that’s part of the analysis, but not everything. The extended line chart gives us a hint of our future, but we still haven’t figured out if that’s where we want to be. You need a second line chart that acts as our target. Now we can see in an instant our past, one possible future and our target.

There are still two adjustments we might need to make. If the volatility of the data is significant, we may have to utilize some form of smoothing to make the data more understandable. Second, data does not follow a straight line path. Sometimes it’s increasing/decreasing over time. If that’s the case we may need to utilize some form of analysis that let’s us see these trends.

Now we can “see” the data and make a decision. If the trend seems to be within the acceptable range or budget we created, then no decision is required. If the trend seems to be heading in a negative direction, then we know we need to take action. No data analysis will ever tell us what to do, but this approach will help us determine if we need to do something and most importantly if the decisions we have taken seem to be having a positive affect.

What information needs to be extracted and displayed?

While it’s certainly easy to create graphs once the data values have been identified, the hard part is determining what you need to track. Remember, you can create any number of fields than can be used to feed your data analysis engine. Picking the right fields is the tricky part.

Think of an Income Statement. It’s got lots of data that could be graphed. Now think of virtually every accounting and ERP system’s ability to support drill down. If you can drill down from a data value to underlying information, then the information is of no use to you because it is being influenced by other data. Since you cannot track everything, you need to identify those basic factors that have the most influence on your business. Identify your Profit Drivers.

Maybe inventory turns in a distribution environment can be thought of as a Profit Driver. Don’t forget though that it’s not going to be possible to track every single item your carry. Maybe start with inventory turns as a whole, then by product line or possibly region. Where you start is not as important as your ability to quickly see where you may have a problem developing. Then you can drill down to a more detailed analysis.

Summary

Efective business decisions drive business profitability. These decisions need to be rooted in facts that can be brought to light instantaneously. People do not have the time to guess. They need to know where to place their attention. They also need to know whether the decisions they make are having the desired effect. If there is too much data, the issues may remain clouded. If there is no way to compare actual results against targets, how can you ever know if you are where you want to be or need to be. Finally, people need to identify those Profit Drivers that have the most significant impact on their organization or on their specific area of responsibility.

Forget about columns and rows. Forget about bar charts and pie charts. Adopt a proactive system that helps you track not just where you have been or where you are today, but where you could be tomorrow.

Here is another article by David Dierke, president of AccountMate Software. AccountMate (www.accountmate.com) is an excellent middle-market product that offers users four different versions (SQL, LAN, Express and SaaS) as well as source code, thus enabling firms to select exactly the environment they require and then tools to give then exactly the functionality they require.

The fundamental attributes that define a successful business leader have not really changed in thousands of years when they were first recognized. The prominent attributes were defined at that time as individuals who possessed an understanding of fair ethics and personal integrity–two incredibly simple concepts, yet as vitally important today as they were then.

In 1954, Raymond Cattell, a pioneer in the field of personality assessment, built upon these attributes and developed the Leadership Potential Equation. It is still used today to determine the traits which characterize an effective leader. They are:

• Emotional stability: Good leaders must be able to tolerate frustration and stress. Overall, they must be well-adjusted and have the psychological maturity to deal with anything they are required to face.  
• Dominance: Leaders are often competitive, decisive and usually enjoy overcoming obstacles. They are assertive in their thinking style as well as their attitude in dealing with others.  
• Enthusiasm: Leaders are usually seen as active, expressive and energetic. They are often very optimistic and open to change. They are generally quick and alert and tend to be uninhibited.  
• Conscientiousness: Leaders are often dominated by a sense of duty and tend to be very exacting in character. They usually have a very high standard of excellence and an inward desire to do their best. They also have a need for order and tend to be very self-disciplined.  
• Social boldness: Leaders tend to be spontaneous risk-takers. They are usually socially aggressive and generally thick-skinned. They are responsive to others and tend to be high in emotional stamina.  
• Self-assurance: Self-confidence and resiliency are common traits among leaders. They tend to be free of guilt and have little or no need for approval. They are generally unaffected by prior mistakes or failures.  
• Compulsiveness: Leaders are controlled and very precise in their social interactions. They are very protective of their integrity and reputation and consequently tended to be socially aware and careful, abundant in foresight, and very careful when making decisions or determining specific actions.  
• Intuitiveness: Rapid changes in the world today, combined with information overload result in an inability to know everything. In other words, reasoning and logic will not get you through all situations. In fact, more and more leaders are learning the value of using their intuition and trusting their gut when making decisions.  
• Empathy: Being able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes is a key trait of leaders today. Without empathy, you can’t build trust; without trust, you will never be able to get the best effort from your employees.  
• Charisma: People usually perceive leaders as larger than life. Charisma plays a large part in this perception. Leaders who have charisma are able to arouse strong emotions in their employees by defining a vision which unites and captivates them. Using this vision, leaders motivate employees to reach toward a future goal by tying the goal to substantial personal rewards and values.

I believe leaders are rarely (if ever) born. Circumstances and persistence are major components in the developmental process of any leader.