All the Pieces Must be in Place

Organizations are usually conservative in their approach to starting new ventures—and for good reason!  Few new undertakings produce positive results.  Even fewer become highly profitable.  The factors for success are difficult to assemble.  Let’s explore in this Weekly Insight what those factors might be.

                                                                                                                        RESULTS IN

Source: Based on “Managing Complex Change”, http://www.cydjournal.org/Brandeis/smith_0322.html, downloaded April 18, 2005.

Let’s explore these from the bottom up:

No Action Plan

What if the organization has developed a motivating Vision, has the right people with the right Skills, the proper Incentives are in place, and the Resources to accomplish key objectives as well—but there is no Action Plan?  This may result in a series of False Starts.  Ah yes, the “devil is in the details.”  How many of you have been involved in developing a Strategic Plan that went nowhere?  Sure, everyone was fired up about the Plan during and after the planning session.  But then, life got in the way of meaningful accomplishment of objectives.  Good intentions stayed just that—intentions only.  There is a way to ensure that an effective Action Plan is developed and followed through on (this is part of the value of having DayStar Consulting facilitate a Strategic Planning retreat for your organization). 

No Resources

This is classic.  We’re all dressed up and nowhere to go, so to speak.  We’ve gotten our people pumped up about our vision and where we’re going to take this company—with no regard as to the resources required to get us there.  That’s a sure recipe for developing frustration among the ranks.  The Bible is clear about “counting the cost” first. 

No Incentives

This is dangerous territory in which we’re treading.  Developing effective incentives for anything is tricky business.  Why?  Because you tend to get more than you bargained for.  Example: Let’s incentivize our sales clerks to “upsell” customers.  What may happen?  You produce some happy sales clerks and some very dissatisfied customers.  But in regards to carrying out the tasks needed to accomplish strategic objectives, there is a way to provide incentives to employees to ensure that they accomplish key tasks on time.

No Skills

This one reminds me of one of the principles in Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, i.e., getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats.  When conducting a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis for a firm, it is critical that the executives leading the business be candid about what skills they and their leadership staff have in place—and what ones they need to be successful.   Matching the right person with the right skill set (and attitude) to the right job is not an easy thing to do—but it’s a major responsibility of senior management.  Without it, your plans do nothing more than create anxiety among those who are not capable of doing what you’re asking them to do.

No Vision

The consequences of lack of vision are fairly obvious—there is confusion in the ranks.  What is important?  What is not important?  The Bible goes as far as to say, “Without a vision, the people perish.”  (Proverbs 29:18)  This gets back to the necessity of working “ON” on your business, not just “IN” your business.  Let’s face it—things change.   Your original organization Vision may no longer be relevant in the 21^st century.  It’s at least worth some quiet, thinking time to ponder whether your current vision is worthy of resource expenditure.   

Value of Vision

A vision statement is a concise picture of where you would like to see your company in 5-10 years from now.  What do you want your company to become?  In many ways, your vision statement is more important as a direction setter for your company than your mission statement.  It embodies your vision as the company’s leader.  Like a mission statement, your vision statement should be short and memorable, but in addition it should be inspiring and achievable.  It’s the vision of the company that drives the company forward. 

What the company currently is best at is incorporated into its mission, but while pursuing its mission, a firm also must have a vision for where it wants to go next.  That is, develop new options to achieve competitive advantage when your current business slackens.   

Thus, your company strives to achieve what it was (and perhaps still is) good at (i.e., your mission) while simultaneously moving toward a vision of what you would like to excel at next.   Firms cannot just stand still.  They must continually reinvent themselves.  To succeed over the long run, businesses must regularly remake themselves.  Of course, in attempting to do this, you will be faced with at least two roadblocks:

·         Your competition will not let up

·         Internal lethargy 

And so, the challenge remains.  What will you do to make sure that the following Elements of Success have been thought through and provided for in your company?

·         Vision

·         Skills

·         Incentives

·         Resources

·         Action Plan 

Next Week

I was privileged recently to listen to a presentation on Chick-fil-A’s leadership model: S.E.R.V.E.  We’ll begin to examine this model next week.