Tag Archives: strategy

Stop chasing shiny objects and focus on your core business

Posted on July 19, 2010 | 11 Comments

[read time: 4 mins]

Stagnation is the enemy of progress and growth but chasing after every opportunity that comes your way can be just as detrimental to your business. I have a name for these myriad choices that appear like opportunities but in most cases are distracters: shiny objects.

When I ask leaders where they expect their future growth to come from, quite frequently I hear the response, “we have so many opportunities for growth that it’s difficult to stay focused.” Therein lies the rub. Most opportunities are simply mislabeled as such and end up using up valuable time, money, and people resources within organizations. These shiny objects are difficult to choose between because no filter is in place to help evaluate the difference between them and an actual opportunity that the business should go after.

Here are four questions you can ask yourself that will act as a filtering mechanism to differentiate between shiny objects and opportunities:

What are the realities of our business today? We’re taking facts, not opinions here. What is our SWOT+V: break down our strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats, and vulnerabilities? In case you’re wondering, the difference between a threat and vulnerability is that a vulnerability can take your business its knees whereas a weakness is an area where we are not able to compete readily against our competitors. This question can only be answered properly in a culture of candour – a culture where the truth is spoken and can be heard. As difficult as it can be for a senior team to face up to the shortcoming of the business, it’s the only way to truly create a solid plan for the future.

What are the simple, underlying patterns, hidden in the complexity of our business, that make us great at what we do? If we were to capitalize on our greatest strength, what can (not want) we become world class at and as a result we can we not be world class at? What is the single denominator in the key economic equation for our business success, usually stated as “profit per X” [Good to Great, by Jim Collins. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001]. Finally, what does our business stand for that we are truly passionate about?

Do we have access to the resources of money, people, and time? Many a great idea has been stalled by a lack of access to, or an underestimation of, resources. Passion without the ability to execute is daydreaming. For each opportunity before you, review the necessary action steps and time frames that would be required to reach the end goal. Then take stock of the budget required to support these action plans. Finally, determine whether or not you have the right people in your organization to tackle the necessary action steps, or whether you have the ability to hire from outside the business.

If I say yes to this, what am I saying no to? With limited resources available executives need to learn the skill of appropriately, with purpose and clear communication, stopping a project from moving forward, or preventing one from even getting off the ground when it does not fit within the strategic framework. Resources misallocated to objectives that should have died on the vine are being taken away from the core opportunities that will help create a more compelling future for the business.

As a leader, working through the answers to these questions with your team to distill down to the core opportunities you should focus on is far more compelling and inspiring than the alternative – reacting by gut feeling to initiatives that you don’t feel fit the business, without having a clear reason why. The difference in the engagement level of your team will be huge.

BIV Boardroom Strategy – Shiny Objects – July 2010

→ 11 Comments

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Uncovering your strategic plan’s hidden innovation.

Posted on June 29, 2010 | 1 Comment

[read time: 4 mins]

If you have done a strategic planning session in your organization then you’re familiar with SWOT analysis: uncovering the inherent strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats that form the basis for a situational analysis of where your company is at today both internally and externally.

In many cases the SWOT analysis is simply part of the raw data included in the pre-reading or pre-work for the session and usually ends up in the final document to disclose the background assumptions that underlie the plan.

Standard practice in strategic planning is to discuss the SWOT as part of the context setting for the strategic session, ensuring that everyone is working from the same set of base assumptions.

There is a less commonly known way to leverage this analysis to uncover hidden opportunities for innovation and growth that is grounded in reality instead of hubris: the TOWS matrix.

Originally designed by Heinz Weihrich, professor of management at the University of San Francisco, the TOWS matrix (also referred to as the SWOT matrix), is a simple and effective way to leverage your SWOT analysis as a tool for bridging the gap between your organization’s current state and the opportunities for growth and innovation that leverage your current environment.

Not unlike a SWOT analysis, the TOWS matrix looks at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but takes it one step further to create four unique quadrants of analysis: strengths and opportunities, strengths and threats, weaknesses and opportunities and weaknesses and threats.

Here are the four quadrants of the TOWS matrix in detail.

Strengths and opportunities

The SO quadrant examines how we can use our strengths to take advantage of key op- portunities in the market today. If your company has significant experience with outsourcing production and low-cost foreign producers begin to enter your market- place you can move deeper into outsourcing to further re- duce your cost of goods sold.

Strengths and threats

The ST quadrant includes strategies that use our strengths to take advantage of the core threats that we’re facing from outside the company today – from market to industry, economic and competitive forces. If one of your strengths is customer relationships and you have identified a low barrier to entry into your industry, then one approach you can take is to look for opportunities to take your customer experience to a level that is difficult for a new competitor to replicate.

Weaknesses and opportunities

The WO quadrant contributes strategies that allow your company to work around a weakness to take advantage of an opportunity in the market- place. A company that sees the opportunity to use technology to step ahead of the competition but does not have the internal resources to pull it off might use the approach of collaborating with a supplier or technology partner that does have the in-house expertise.

Weaknesses and threats

In terms of strategic leverage, the WT quadrant is the least attractive of the four quadrants. When your or- ganization has a weakness that corresponds to a strong threat it can require drastic action to respond. The Tesla Motors/Toyota partnership is an excellent example of a strategy that leverages weaknesses and threats. Tesla’s weaknesses were a lack of mass production capability and volume price discounts from suppliers. Combine that weakness with the threat of the large automobile manu- facturers launching hybrids and all-electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and Tesla was struggling to come up with a way to compete. The introduction of Toyota’s manufacturing expertise, volume pur- chasing, kaizen philosophy and quality standards level the playing field for Tesla.

The TOWS matrix looks at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but takes it one step further.

To truly take advantage of the power of the TOWS matrix, the key is to carefully compare each of the multiple strengths and weaknesses to each of the opportunities and threats. An easy way to keep track of the matched pairs is to nickname each of the different data points with a number, for example, S1 versus O1 (the first strength we recognize as compared with the first opportunity we have uncovered), W2 versus O1, etc. This will ensure that you have looked at all the different strategic possibilities.

The value behind the TOWS matrix is that it takes a traditional SWOT and makes it actionable. By com- paring internal strengths and weaknesses with external threats and opportunities, you can create specific actions, grounded in reality, that turn challenges into opportunities.

If you would like to learn about more about the complete matrix, I have posted an in-depth article by Weihrich on my blog at www.mikedesjardins.com.

BIV Boardroom Strategy – TOWS Matrix – June 2010

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , , , ,

TOWS Matrix Instructions

Posted on June 27, 2010 | Leave a comment

Here are the instructions for completing the TOWS Matrix that I outlined in my June 2010, Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy column.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , , , ,

Strategic Planning: 200 ft above Grouse Mountain

Posted on June 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

A few days ago I had the unique experience of being able to run a portion of a strategic planning for a client 200 ft in the area above the Peak of Grouse Mountain, suspended in a viewing platform on the Eye of the Wind, wind turbine.

My friend Sarah McNeill recorded a guest post video on my blog a few months back where she spoke about the importance of taking your team away from the day-to-day environment to re-energize the team, be in a creative mindset, and set the plan for the future. I’m not sure this is what she meant!

If you haven’t experienced the difference between strategic planning on-site and off-site know that it’s certainly worth the investment. Not that you have to be 200 ft in the air above the highest point in Vancouver!

Some quick facts on Eye of the Wind:

Tower

  • Overall height: 65 metres, 215 feet
  • Made of structural steel in three sections
  • Weight: 133,946 kg/285,300 lbs (145 tons)

viewPOD™

  • Diameter: 7 metres, 23 feet
  • Height: 5.5.metres, 18 feet
  • Weight: 13,600 kg/30,000 lbs (15 tons)
  • Capacity: 36 people
  • Framework: Structural steel and glass
  • Glass: Tempered 2.5 cms/.5 inches thick
  • Viewing Area: 360 degrees (all points on the compass)
  • Elevation: 57 metres (187 feet)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in strategy

Tagged , , , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: How to measure your company against the competition

Posted on May 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

[read time: 4 minutes]

Why do your customers choose you over your competitors? What is it that makes you stand out in your industry?

Let’s look at sustainable competitive advantage – understanding what yours is and how it positions your business in the marketplace.

“A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value- creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential player,” according to Managerial and Decision Economics author Jay Barney. Where many firms miss out is the sustainable part of the equation. A competitive advantage that is easily duplicated by a competitor is not sustainable or an advantage.

The theory of competitive advantage was first postulated in Michael Porter’s 1985 book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Porter’s definition of “superior” is favourable (when compared with your competitors), profitable and sustainable.

Using Porter’s five competitive forces model, here is a series of questions to ask yourself as a way of determining where your organization sits in terms of its competitive advantage.

Threat of new entry. Don’t underestimate the possibility that others can enter easily into your market. Consider the effect online gambling had on the traditional console and PC game market: traditional retailers could be bypassed. Take the time to get clear on how big the threat of new entrants really is. What are the capital cost requirements of entering into your industry? How easy is it for your customers to switch from your product or service to that of your competitors? How much weight do your customers put on brand equity?

Supplier power. Understanding the power your suppliers hold over you is key to assessing your competitive edge. Are there a few or many suppliers in your industry? What is the cost to switching from one supplier to another? How important is volume-buying to your suppliers? How much of the cost of your goods or services is connected to your suppliers? Are your suppliers capable of becoming competitors, should they choose to, with relative ease? How is your purchasing power when compared with the overall industry? Are your raw materials available to be bought from multiple suppliers? We only need to look at the computer chip market to see an example of this force. If Intel and AMD decide they don’t want to sell a manufacturer their chips there are few other choices for supply.

Buyer power. Take a look at your customer base. Do you have a few large customers or is your revenue split between many buyers? How easy is it for your customers to substitute your product or service for your competitors’? How much information do your buyers have about your product or service as it compares with the rest of the industry? How sensitive are buyers to the price of your product? What incentive do decision-makers have to buy from you? How does your product or service quality affect your buyer? In a commodity business, for example, understanding buyer power is key. When buyers know your product is aging or becoming dated, the key to your success might just be to avoid desperation selling by saying “no” to customers who want to grind you on price.

Threat of substitutes. In a perfect world, your product or service would be so unique that nothing else could achieve the same result. Smart strategies include an understanding of how easily your customers can find another way to do what your product or service is d ing for them. Does a shift in price lead buyers to consider alternatives? How often do buyers switch suppliers? What is the cost to your buyer associated with switching to another supplier? For example, Palm owned the PDA marketplace until smart phones came into play and made it easier for customers to switch over to other devices with greater functionality.

“A competitive advantage that is easily duplicated by a competitor is not sustainable or an advantage.”

Industry competitors. How intense is the rivalry between competitors in your industry today? How likely are competitors to react to your strategic direction? How easy is it for your competitors to copy your innovations? How strong is your brand compared with your competitors’ (from your clients’ perspectives)? Are you growing faster than the industry’s growth rate?

Answering these questions will help you understand your current position in the competitive landscape and the strength of your competitive advantage. You can also use what you discover from your answers to assess a strategic move before you make it. From here, take some time to review your current plan and decide how you can shore up areas of weakness to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Mike Desjardins is the CEO at ViRTUS (www.virtusinc. com), an organizational development consulting firm with expertise in strategic planning and implementation, leadership development, change management and suc- cession planning for medium to large organizations. This column was co-written by Glenn Wong, a mentor at ViRTUS.

BIV Boardroom Strategy – May 11-17, 2010

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Your business strategy needs to focus on what your customers care about

Posted on April 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

[read time: 4 mins]

As you go about your day-to-day business, it’s easy to get caught up in a flurry of activity that doesn’t really mean a thing to your customer.

Making the decision to be more “customer-focused” is easy, but making the shift toward a customer-focused approach is another story. It requires putting customers at the centre of business decisions, company-wide, and consistently thinking about what you can do to meet or beat your customers’ expectations. It’s not an initiative that can be taken on by one department alone, but one that sees the customer become the driving force behind everything your company does.

A pro-active plan to be more customer-focused can generate trust in your brand and create a partnership between you and your greatest asset: your customers.

Here are five ways to move your strategy toward a customer-focus.

  • Make it authentic. If I had to pick one thing that can either make or break a customer-focused initiative, it’s authenticity. A customer-focused initiative that’s authentic shows up in a corporate culture in different ways. Money, resources, passion and accountability are all powerful signals from management that the customer experience is a priority. It requires getting people passionate about the business you’re really in – so much so that your customers get wrapped up in the experience of doing business with you. Every member of your team is critical to the customer experience.
  • Get everyone on the same page. This might seem like stating the obvious, but it’s easier said than done. Uncover the multiple interpretations of customer-focused initiatives and ensure everyone understands what is required to be truly customer focused. Take a look at cross-departmental initiatives. Do they work together from your customers’ perspective? Limit the initiatives that run counter to your customer focus and reduce the silos by communicating what needs to be done across the organization so customers are not getting lost between departments.
  • Consistently ask, “What’s in it for me?” Evaluate decisions and actions by continuously putting yourself in your clients’ shoes and asking, “What’s in it for me?” Make WIIFM part of your culture, and commit to understanding how everything you do affects your customer. Evaluate goals by asking how they show that you understand and value your customers.
  • Try a new approach. When it comes to customer-focused initiatives, ask yourself: are we doing things this way just because it’s the way we’ve always done it? What used to work, might not work anymore. Are your new initiatives just adjusted versions of things you’ve already tried, with a different name? Make a change. Instead of spending time looking for opportunities to make more money from your customers in the short-term, be on the lookout for opportunities to build loyalty and trust.
  • Turn ideas into action. Two of the best ways to guarantee action on any initiative are relevant resource allocation and metrics. Send a message about what’s important by setting up measures of success that are focused on the customer experience, satisfaction, retention and loyalty – and give them as much value as sales and marketing metrics. Then, consider how your resource allocation might be running counter to your customer-focused initiatives, and rework them to support your efforts.

If you’re looking for inspiration from companies that have excelled at making the customer their No. 1 priority, pick up a copy of The Starbucks Experience or The New Gold Standard (about the Ritz Carlton Hotel chain), both written by Joseph A. Michelli.

Mike Desjardins is the CEO at ViRTUS (www.virtusinc.com), an organizational development consulting firm. This column was co-written by Shannon Lawder, content director at ViRTUS.

Click here for the original article in PDF:  BIV Boardroom Strategy – April 2010 – Customer Experience.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, customer experience, strategy

Tagged , , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Building a better company using the balanced scorecard approach

Posted on April 6, 2010 | 1 Comment

Founded by David Norton and Robert Kaplan, The Balanced Scorecard Management System has been heralded as a transformational business tool for the past 20 years.

The short version? The Balanced Scorecard management system essentially ties day-to-day activities or short-term actions to long-term strategic objectives. The approach includes two main components: a strategy map, which is a one-page diagram depicting the strategy as a hypothesis (if we do these things, we will accomplish these results); and four perspectives on managing strategy – financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth.

Used as both a communication and management tool, the Balanced Scorecard system forms the basis for focusing an entire organization on strategy by integrating itself into critical management processes like business planning, resource allocation, performance management, and more.

Here are The Top 5 Benefits of using the Balanced Scorecard management system:

  • It clearly articulates strategy in a standardized way so you can understand and communicate your company’s strategy to anyone in under 30 minutes.
  • It covers critical business management considerations from four perspectives. Building strategy and measures within four scorecard perspectives – financial, customer, internal processes and learning and technology – ensures integration and alignment of business management functions. An added bonus of the four perspectives approach? Employees learn to consistently consider all four, and how they come together, at all times.
  • It opens up conversations. First, because it provides a forward looking management tool that includes specific measures of success and targets that can be easily understood and cascaded down through the organization; and second, because people at all levels of the organization can have conversations where they are informed about the changes in strategic direction, making the possibilities for creative new solutions endless.
  • It fosters engaged, excited and productive employees. Employees are more engaged and excited when they understand how their job supports the bigger goal – how what they do everyday contributes to the company’s vision and mission. The balanced scorecard system ensures that high-level objectives and measures are linked to the targets and measurements for individual departments, and additionally translated into personal scorecards for individual employees, building productivity and engagement at every level.
  • It is flexible. The strategy map and scorecard are useful for all sizes and types of organizations. It can be used by for-profit, and non-profit organizations, as well as individuals (personal scorecards), and can be adapted for triple bottom line management requirements where the social and environmental perspectives are managed along with the financial.

If you want to learn more about The Balanced Scorecard Approach, check out, “The Strategy Focused Organization” and “Strategy Maps”, both written by Kaplan and Norton.

Mike Desjardins is the Driver (CEO) at ViRTUS (www.virtusinc.com), an organizational development consulting firm with expertise in strategic planning and implementation, leadership development, change management and succession planning for medium to large organizations. He regularly blogs at www.mikedesjardins.com. This column was co-authored by Tana Heminsley, a Mentor and Executive Coach at ViRTUS.

BIV Boardroom Strategy – Balanced Scorecard – March 2010


→ 1 Comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , , , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: When it comes to company vision, get wildly courageous

Posted on February 2, 2010 | 2 Comments

[read time: 3 mins]

Motivation and inspiration are closely connected to doing meaningful work. For most people, doing meaningful work translates into achieving something either on a personal, local or global level that makes a difference. As business leaders, part of our job is to provide a vision for what the long-term goal and benefit of being part of our company is.

Enter the concept of the Wildly Courageous Decision (WCD)™. A WCD is a powerfully worded statement that describes the long-term goal, 10-25 years out, that your company is striving to achieve. It’s bigger than revenue, bigger than profit, bigger than market share; it’s what the company will stand for after years of hard work and dedication to its purpose.

As day-to-day challenges and opportunities get in the way of a clear picture of the future, your WCD acts like a lighthouse for your business, allowing you to stay on course in the roughest seas, knowing that any movement towards your long term goal is far better than allowing the turbulent seas to decide your destination for you. In this way, the WCD acts as a strong filter for decision-making.

Your WCD is a destination, and your corporate strategy and goals are what link your current reality to the WCD. Make it wild, so that you can easily create excitement about it.  Make it courageous, something that requires some bravery to achieve. By taking the big risks your competitors aren’t willing to achieve, you’ll stand out from the crowd and attract positive attention. And last but not least, make it a decision. A vision or a goal denotes the possibility of failure. A decision is just that – a decision that it will happen.

Here is a step-by-step process for helping you discover your company’s Wildly Courageous Decision:

Step One: Choose your “Type of WCD”

Choose which of the five types of WCD’s might work for your company:

  1. Compare to a company in another industry you admire: “The Apple of the consulting world.” (this is our company’s WCD)
  2. Compare to overall company (as a division): “Most profitable division of GE.”
  3. Target or end state: “To become world famous.”
  4. Competitor driven: “We’re going to beat Nike.”
  5. Internal transformation: “Transform this company from a technology distributor into the best diversified high-technology company in the world”

Step Two: Brainstorm

For each of the WCD types you have selected write down any ideas or phrases that come to mind and create a first draft list of potential WCD’s. You may end up with two or three different WCD’s that might work for your business. That’s okay as the next step is to test out your draft statements.

Step Three: Test Each Phrase

Test each potential WCD using the following criteria (a “no” for any of the five criteria rules it out):

  1. Is it wild? Do you feel enthusiastic and excited when you read it out? Is it bold, and bordering on unattainable? Does the path to achieving it seem unclear right now (that’s okay)?
  2. Is it courageous? Does thinking about the steps it will take to achieve it frighten you a little? Will bravery, a dauntless spirit and the ability to endure adversity be required to achieve it?
  3. Is it a decision? Are you willing to commit to this? Is it a concrete decision we can make to stay focused and on target until we achieve it?
  4. Are you thinking far enough into the future?
  5. Is it clear? Will people get it right away?

Step Four – Select the Most Compelling Statement

Read through each of the potential WCD’s that passed the test, to find the one that’s most compelling. Tweak the wording a bit if you think it needs work.

Step Five: Get Feedback

Share your newly crafted Wildly Courageous Decision with the other members of your leadership team to get their feedback. Are they as inspired as you are? How might they reword the statement? What might the organization start doing differently today that will reflect your new WCD?

I’m interested to hear about your success developing your own WCD. Please post the WCD you come up with in a comment on this blog post.

BIV Boardroom Strategy – WCD – Feb 2010

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , , , , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Execution: the missing piece of the corporate strategy puzzle

Posted on January 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

[read time: 3 mins]

This is the time of year when many businesses are deep into strategy planning. It’s the perfect time to talk about the missing piece of the strategy puzzle: execution.

The more time you spend focused on strategic planning the more you will start to notice a trend. Let’s call it the “10/90 Rule.” 10% of the value of strategic planning is in the creation of a solid plan that outlines strategic direction and priorities for the coming year. 90% of the value of a strategic plan comes from an organizations ability to effectively execute that plan.

This begs the question: if 90% of a plan’s value comes from successful execution, why do so many organizations focus on creating a plan and fall short when it comes to execution? Unfortunately, most of the time there exists a Grand Canyon-sized gap between what needs to be done to execute the plan successfully, and the approach within the organization to making it happen.

Here is a four-step process to help you make the shift towards execution:

Step 1: Clearly Define Actions and Accountabilities

Without clear action steps connected to each objective, owned by a person, with clear dates, budgetary requirements, and metrics, most plans are simply position papers on “where we should focus for some period of time”. Focus on fewer priorities attached to realistic budgets and time frames. The pay-off will be a powerful momentum that builds as people start hitting target dates, versus the motivation drop that comes with consistently missing accountabilities.

Step 2: Connect the Strategy to People

The second challenge of execution is having the right people in the right places to handle the action steps required within the plan. Start by bringing the organizational chart into the picture during the planning process, and demonstrating an openness and willingness to shifting roles and responsibilities. Avoid the trap of assigning accountabilities to people by default – instead, choose the people who have both the motivation and the competence to produce results. Ensure people understand what is expected of them, and reward them when they produce great results.

Step 3: Create a Culture of Change

Creating a culture of change requires openness to exploring possibilities outside of the framework of “how we do things here.” At the same time people would far prefer to be engaged in the process of change versus simply being told that changes are coming.

Work on improving candour within your organization by encouraging, supporting, and training on difficult conversations. Ensure that the leaders in your company are following through and demonstrating openness to candour and new ideas. Align your day-to-day decisions and actions with the priorities outlined in the plan – especially those that people are skeptical of, and others should follow suit.

Step 4: Review, Evaluate and Revise

The current pace at which industries, markets, competitors, and the economy is changing puts pressure in the form of a reality check against your strategy plan. Even plans that were strong at inception get sidetracked and what was once a solid plan now ends up as a binder collecting dust on the shelf. Schedule quarterly strategic planning follow-up sessions that are designed to review, evaluate, and revise the plan and provide a check and balance around individual accountabilities. Schedule them early, and demonstrate follow-through by placing equal importance on the follow-up meetings as you did on the original planning session.

The success of your strategy plan is inextricably tied to your organization’s ability to execute against that plan. A less robust plan executed flawless will trump a complicated plan left in the filing cabinet any day of the week.

If your organization has faced some of the challenges discussed in this article and you’re interested in reading more on this topic, I’d recommend reading “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.

BIV Boardroom Strategy – Execution – Jan 19-25, 2010

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Corporate culture is critical to implementing business strategy

Posted on December 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

BIV Boardroom Strategy, Dec 15-21, 2009 – Corporate culture is critical to implementing business strategy

[read time: 3 minutes]

As you start to develop your business strategy for the new year, look at all of the factors that can support it, one of which you might not have linked directly to your strategic initiatives in past years: your company culture.

Strategy and culture both affect a company’s bottom line. While a strong culture can’t replace or act in lieu of a strong strategy, there are several ways that you can leverage your culture to support and drive strategic initiatives.

Here are nine ways you can leverage corporate culture to drive strategy.

Employee engagement

Engaged employees have higher commitment levels. They’re willing to go the extra mile, are consistent performers and are more likely to buy in and commit to the strategy and long-term goals of the company. Improve engagement to achieve your strategic initiatives by ensuring that you’re providing employees a direct line of sight to how their work contributes to the company’s growth.

Accountability

This is a key factor in the successful execution of strategy. The critical first step in leveraging a culture of accountability: translate strategic initiatives into objectives and actions, make sure all your staff members know what’s expected of them and hold their feet to the fire from the word go. Being able to hold others accountable is tougher than it sounds, especially since the first step is to lead by example: do what you say you were going to do, when you said you would do it.

Values, vision and mission

We all know that our company values, vision and mission are only as valuable as they are easy to understand, remember and repeat. Spend some time ensuring that leaders not only know the values, vision and mission of the company, but that they understand what they mean and how they connect with strategy. Here’s a great way to leverage a strong vision and mission: start looking for, talking about and rewarding real examples of employees living out the vision and mission.

Performance management and rewards

Your strategic plan for the year is full of initiatives and actions designed to take you where you need to go. What gets measured gets done, so use current performance-management practices to influence how corporate business objectives get translated into action across departments or business and involve each department in creating performance measures to generate buy-in and increase accountability and success.

Physical space

We don’t often consider how things like office space contribute to the bottom line, but it could be worth your while to note how your physical environment supports or contradicts your strategy. Does your office space reflect the innovative, forward-thinking ideas represented in your plan? Does your plan encourage or even require a flattened organizational structure, when all of your upper-level executives, including the CEO, have offices on the same floor, away from all others? Examine how you can rework your physical space to encourage successful execution of your strategy.

Decisions and authority

How easy is it for employees to navigate the levels of official and unofficial power in your organization. Are the people responsible for doing the work empowered with decision-making authority? Do the unspoken behavioural norms make it difficult to get things done or approved before the “by when” dates? Increase the chances of achieving objectives on time by aligning lines of authority with strategic initiatives.

Counter-culture

With every culture there is a counter-culture – a group within the organization that opposes or is critical of the organization’s norms and values. Be aware of these counter-cultures and leverage them by allowing them a voice that holds you to a higher standard of performance. Learn the lesson from Toyota and reward employees who find problems, announce them to everyone and work toward a solution that works consistently.

Leadership

When it comes to buying into strategic direction, employees will always look to their managers to lead by example. Leverage this opportunity by acting with discipline and following through on your commitments. Take performance management seriously, hold others accountable and make sure you’re focusing on the priorities you and your teams have agreed on.

Communication

The way we think we should communicate and the way we actually communicate are key to your company’s culture. Leverage the communication norms of your culture by using the mediums that people really respond to. Make sure the emphasis is on the actions expected from what’s being communicated. Clarify goals and provide consistent updates on outcomes.

The best strategy without the right cultural platform to executive upon it is simply an intellectual exercise. If you’re the CEO of a large company you’re probably far away from the reality of the culture of your business. Start by asking your frontline staff, “What is the culture of our business?” And then work your way back up the hierarchy. •

Mike Desjardins is the driver (CEO) at ViRTUS (www.virtusinc.com), an organizational development consulting firm with expertise in strategic planning and implementation, leadership development, change management and succession planning for medium to large organizations. He regularly blogs at www.mikedesjardins.com. This column was co-written by Shannon Lawder, a certified coach and the content director at ViRTUS.

This article from Business in Vancouver December 15-21, 2009; issue 1051

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, strategy

Tagged , , , , ,