Having a background in Strategic Analysis and Planning has served me well during my career. It has been especially useful when coaching clients and building my start-up. My passion is sharing my experience and training folks on the fundamentals of strategy development.
This week I had three opportunities to indulge my passion. Meeting with several members of our Executive Leadership Team regarding our Strategic Review, I listened to their thoughts about growing our brand. I talked with a prospective client about a senior level search. We discussed the ideal candidate profile for a small, growing enterprise. And, I spent time working with my consultants developing diagnostic tools to help our clients identify risk and opportunities. I was in my sweet spot and it was exhilarating!
Strategy is about engaging an optimal combination of resources to meet an objective and create a competitive advantage. The strengths of the enterprise are the foundation for strategy. These strengths are required to ensure success. Has anyone ever suggested that you take stock of your weaknesses and build a strategy around them? I don’t think so. Crafting strategy must be grounded. A mismatch of desires and capabilities will be disastrous. Do the firm’s resources; people, processes, systems, and cash flow support the strategy? Strategic analysis will create filters to sort out these issues. For the best result, focus your analysis on people, processes, and systems, as well as the strength of your brand. The result of your work will validate objectives and begin the process of strategy formulation.
A company’s objectives must be relevant to the current state of the business. Is a solid foundation in place to execute the strategy? Are your people engaged and aligned? Is the culture solid and supportive? Are processes and systems in place to track performance and hold people accountable? Procedures and systems are necessary for management to provide guidance, track progress and take corrective action. Are financial resources available to support the strategy? Is the company’s brand equity strong enough to ensure success? If the answers to any of these questions is no, intermediate objectives must be considered.
There is significant downside risk in pursuing an objective that hasn’t been properly validated. Confidence in the leadership team will be shaken. Overall, morale will be diminished. Rebuilding confidence will become a time-consuming distraction which may put the primary objective out of reach.
Likewise, if the culture doesn’t support the initiative, the organization may become mired in their own confusion. Creating buy-in is mandatory. A lack of support will create resistance and derail success.
If a new hire is required, one must understand the time it takes for that person to become effective. It may take three to six months to fill the position. On-boarding, and ramp-up time must be considered. Becoming an effective contributor could take a full year’s worth of effort. Setting performance goals for a new hire, should be pushed out one year, and even then, the incumbent may not reach their full potential for two or more years.
I am reminded of a marketing strategy a former employer attempted without validating the building blocks for success. I thought the basis of the concept was sound but needed more testing. Instead, the company executed a national roll-out without buy-in from the organization. What seemed like a viable concept, became a complicated program that layered on new packaging, a contest, and bounce-back coupons. Communicating the value proposition for the initiative was a monumental task that failed miserably. Before launching the campaign, I asked the VP Marketing why he was opposed to starting small, then building on the concept over time. I had recent experience in a similar situation which I thought to be relevant. He told me that he needed a big win to improve the morale of the department. Not a convincing rationale, I thought. Ironically, this failure further demoralized the department. A brilliant concept, in my opinion, was never realized because they went for a home run instead of a series of base-hits, to use a baseball metaphor. They didn’t build a foundation for success. The concept was never tried again.
I realize that time is of the essence in this highly competitive, disruptive environment. However, mistakes are costly and time-consuming. Big mistakes at a critical time in a company’s development can be fatal. Good leaders understand this dynamic and its tradeoffs. Often, an objective requires intermediate steps to be realized. Is the foundation ready? If not, people, processes, or systems need to be addressed.
When developing
Thank you for visiting our blog.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
Jim Weber, Managing Partner
ITB PARTNERS
Author of: Fighting Alligators, Job Search Strategy For The New Normal