Building business capability and focus

Identifying current business capabilities

Consider carefully your current business capabilities. What is your business excellent and/or very good at? Identify these areas.

Possible areas of strength or comparative strength are usually:

• Technical competencies of people within the business;
• The ability to gain the long term confidence of 3-4 key groups of clients;
• Operational excellence - the ability to execute or get things done, on time, to spec, and repeat that execution under stress;
• The ability to identify market niches, and use market share knowledge for commercial gain. If this is a strength in your business, then you have a true market edge and you must nurture that capability at all costs.
• Strong brand and brand awareness, built up over 20+ years.
• A strong balance sheet, built up by delayed satisfaction i.e. the retention of tax paid profits within the business, for the purposes of investment in business capability and business growth. If this is strength in your business, then you have many options to grow and at the same time become more efficient, to deliver sustainable growth and profits over time.

Identification of current areas of focus:

The best way to identify areas of focus within your business is to:

1. Identify your current business capabilities, (as described above);
2. Identify clearly both your current business goals and your goals as a business owner. Then:
3. Identify and map the gaps in your business capabilities (see below). These are the gaps between your current business capabilities, and the business capabilities you need and are going to need.

A significant part of my work with clients is in this area. You can have the best funding, the best brand, and the best execution. However, without a process to continually identify and map your gaps in business capability, you will not realise the true potential of your business and achieve the personal and team goals that you desire.

Identification and mapping of gaps in business capabilities and focus:

This process is the single most important task that you can ensure operates effectively, regularly and successfully.

Every single excellent or exceptional business that I have ever seen, known about, and worked with completes this task effectively, regularly and successfully. Ask yourself right now if you do this. If not, start doing it.

And so how do you successfully map the gaps in business capability and focus within your business?

Firstly, eliminate all excess ego:

You simply cannot, as the leader of your business, allow either your own ego or the ego of your key people to get in the way of this process. Pride comes before a fall in business, it really does.

Secondly, take time to reflect, consult, and then act:

You will not make sound judgements regarding the current gaps in your business capabilities unless you:

? Identify the gaps;

? Test the gaps that you have found – are they really there? If they are, are they truly small, large, or somewhere in between?

? How important are these gaps, to both the current state of your business, the near term future of your business and the foreseeable future of your business?

? Decide on and reconnect with the real reasons that you are in business. Are these gaps symptomatic of fixes you need within your business? Or are these gaps indicators that you are partially or completely in the wrong business? Or that the market has simply moved past your business and your business has failed to keep up and is, therefore, starting to become irrelevant?

? Having arrived at your view of the gaps in your business capabilities, arrange a session with your key people. A dedicated full-day session with them, free of operational interruption. Too hard to organise? Right there is a key gap in your business capability.

? Carefully structure the day with your key people, give them your view of the current state, allow them to come to the day prepared, tell them that you expect them to come to the day with solutions to the problems that they see.

? After this day with your key people, incorporate their views into your views.

AND THEN LEAD. ONLY YOU CAN LEAD.

The wife and co-owner of one of my client businesses said to me recently, “Murray, as my Mother said to me if you are not in charge of your family, what are you in charge of?” You must lead.

Examples of my work with current and past clients on building business capability and focus:

1. One of the first steps I take with clients is firstly to identify the current state of business capabilities. We discuss, analyse, and agree on the improvements that are needed. Through this process, a gap analysis results and we agree on the improvement in business capabilities necessary to achieve agreed objectives.
2. The second step is to work with my clients, and together, complete actions and investments needed to close the gaps in business capability. This ensures my client’s business is battle-ready to either overcome or overtake the competition. In some cases, closing this gap takes months, but in most cases to truly close this gap, and ensure that this gap remains closed takes one to two years.
3. The third step is to ensure that the business capability gap remains closed, despite the many changes that all business must address. These include raising of standards and barriers to further progress presented by either the market, the marketplace, and/or competitors – often all at the same time.

A very wise client of mine has two sayings:

1. Nothing lasts
2. Without the facts, you are just an opinion.

There is classical wisdom within both of these sayings. I help my client live these sayings and use them to overcome barriers to success and/or further success.

A key component of business success that I spend significant time on with my best clients is summed up well in a video clip I would like to share with you (link below). It addresses the areas detailed above:

• Identification of current areas of focus;
• Identification and mapping of gaps in business capabilities and focus;
• Elimination of all excess ego;
• Take the time to Reflect, Consult, and then Act;
• In summary, you must control the following as a leader of the mind and emotions: courage, commitment, humility and empathy.

Watch Chancellor McRaven speak to UTSW graduates of 2015.

'Building business capability and focus' is the third of the 7 principles used to deliver revenue increases to businesses from $5m to $10m plus.

My next LinkedIn article will explain the fourth principle: Measurement and KPIs.

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