Case Study: Breakthrough Results through Persistent Problem-Solving

Push forward

You’re on the verge of a breakthrough

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Lyrics from the song ‘Push Forward’

By iDeli Napi

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In a previous article, “From Red to Black,” I claimed that if done well, strategic marketing can be a company’s fastest way to turn around sales and create significant year-over-year revenue growth. This article describes the value of adopting a simple problem-solving approach to achieve impactful outcomes—and sometimes breakthrough results.

Identifying obstacles and committing to their resolution represent essential strategic practices not necessarily maintained by all organizations. Companies perform best when continual problem-solving is an embedded cultural habit. Organizations that have chosen a strategy of innovation require this.

Problem-solving is most impactful when it is directly connected to organizational imperatives. In this case, a manufacturer needed high-volume applications to create more consistent and reliable demand, improve profitability by covering its fixed costs as early in the year as possible, and become more essential to its customers. ?

The market opportunity identified in ‘From Red to Black’ was a sound reduction application between floors in multi-family construction. The existing market was large and forecasted to grow for the foreseeable future. Company leadership realized this and took steps to further this market opportunity.

However, once one problem is solved and a degree of success is attained, the obvious question is, ‘What’s next?’

Does your organization continually look for problems worth solving? How does your team or company identify problems most worth solving right now? What criteria does your leadership use to identify them?

Does Your Organization Continually Look for Problems Worth Solving?

In this case, the answer was no. While the company had developed innovative applications, it did not do so consistently or systematically.

The leadership had identified one significant market opportunity, yet it did not possess the cultural or strategic habit of repeating the process to uncover subsequent growth areas.

Unfortunately, I have found this to be true for many organizations in a variety of areas. This article focuses only on solving problems related to new market opportunities.

How Does Your Team or Company Identify the Problems Most Worth Solving Right Now?

The most crucial decision leaders make is where to place their attention at any given point in time.

In this case, company leadership needed to claim responsibility for continually asking the question, where will continued growth come from?

Reducing sound in walls was?identified as a durable growth market six times greater?than the one for floors. However, the company’s wall solutions were high-cost and low-performing, a lousy combination. To penetrate the market for sound reduction in walls, the firm needed to significantly lower the cost of its solution, improve its performance, or both.

Given these stark realities, why did the marketing group commit further resources to resolving them? Its leadership decided that solving these problems was?the best way?to accelerate the market acceptance needed to ensure meaningful, ongoing revenue growth.

It created simple, repeatable criteria to evaluate new market opportunities.

What Criteria Does Your Team Need to Evaluate Them?

1.??? Can it be sold through the existing sales force and delivered through existing channels?

2.??? What problems exist in your team or in your company that, if solved, would provide meaningful and sustained benefits??

3.??? Is your company willing to forego efficiencies in the short term for longer-term payoffs? How does your organization respond to failure??

4.??? What are the consequences for your teams and company by not having repeatable processes to identify the best problems to solve?

What overarching questions need to be asked?

1.??? What problems exist in your team or in your company that, if solved, would provide meaningful and sustained benefits?

a.??? What is our most limiting factor?

b.??? How do we currently damage our credibility with stakeholders?

c.???? What nagging issues persist that drain energy and resources?

d.??? What opportunities, resources, and capabilities remain untapped?

2.??? What is the projected impact of resolving the issue?

3.??? Does fixing it give the company a more compelling story to tell internally and externally?

4.??? What are the risks? What are the costs?What Were the Existing Barriers in the Case Study?

Previous failures to solve the problem led to the belief that it was unsolvable.

Other demands for leadership’s time and attention. ?

Competing budget priorities, including facility and technology upgrades, an aging workforce, and diminishing raw materials.

What Were the Potential Benefits?

The benefits of resolving the problem were substantial.

Long-term access to a large untapped market that could facilitate revenue growth whether the market was growing or not?(payoff over time)

A sustainable competitive advantage – the firm would become the only solution provider of its kind for both walls and floors?(solve customer problems)

The company could leverage the impact of its marketing and sales efforts across two large complimentary markets?(align with core purpose and initiatives)

The group identified too many potential benefits for participants throughout the supply chain, all “in the path” of work, people, and processes already in place, to list here now.

What Was the Approach?

More failure. Initial testing in conjunction with other products was unsuccessful.

Analyzing competitors to learn from their approaches to success.

Working internally and continually talking with outside experts to determine better questions to ask.

In this case, the solution resulted from paying attention to a fundamental law of acoustics. It came from analyzing competitive data, asking what made competing products more successful, and wondering if the firm had missed something. It turns out it had.???

This result was made possible through persistent attention, analysis, and consideration of differing perspectives. The results proved that difficult, complex problems do not necessarily require expensive and complicated solutions.

They do require sustained attention.

What Were the Results?

The company was fortunate. The results surpassed what it believed was possible. The firm’s new wall assemblies?simultaneously made it the high-performance leader and the low-cost provider, truly a breakthrough.

It is critical to remember that it would never have achieved these results without the capacity to identify and evaluate worthwhile problems and the discipline to persist until they were resolved.

The same process was used to identify, evaluate, and solve many more problems across numerous business areas.?

Lessons Learned

The benefits of solving particular problems should be identified and quantified to evaluate their significance relative to others.

Problems with big payoffs are worthy of persistent focus and committed effort.

The inefficiency of failure must be tolerated and even encouraged as part of the innovation process.

Dedicated time for creative problem-solving and reflection by individuals and teams is required for meaningful advances.

Learning to ask better questions is the first step to getting better answers.

We needed to let go of hyper-focusing on production?(working in the business)?and failure to allocate appropriate time and resources to innovative problem-solving (working on the company), thereby forgoing enduring payoffs.

Determining responsible ways to identify and stick with solving your organization’s most potent problems, both big and small, generates improvements that collectively create sustainable competitive advantages and long-term success.

Worthy Inquiries:

1.??? What are your organization’s most significant cultural habits? How do you nurture them??

2.??? How do you identify your team’s and organization’s most pressing problems and most promising opportunities?

3.??? What problems exist in your team or in your company that, if solved, would provide meaningful and sustained benefits operationally, culturally, and systemically?

4.??? Is your company willing to forego efficiencies in the short term for longer-term payoffs? How does your organization respond to failure?

5.??? What are the consequences of your teams and company not having repeatable processes to identify the best problems to solve?

If you want to discuss ways to develop and grow your leadership to benefit yourself, your team, your family, or your organization, please reach out to me. I welcome the connection.

Robert Hackman, Principal, 4C Consulting and Coaching, helps people live and lead with fewer regrets. He grows and develops leaders through executive coaching consulting, facilitation, and training of individuals, teams, and organizations. He is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He facilitates trusting environments that promote uncommonly candid conversations. Rob is also passionate about the power of developing Legacy Mindsets and has conducted over 50 Legacy interviews with people to date.

A serious man with a dry sense of humor who loves absurdity can often be found hiking rocky elevations or making music playlists. His mixes, including Pandemic Playlists and Music About Men, among others, can be found on Spotify.

Bravely bring your curiosity to a conversation with Rob, schedule via voice or text @ 484.800.2203 or [email protected] .