How do YOU impact the bottom line?
Saar Gillai
Chairman & Independent board member | Exec Mentor | Strategic Advisor | former CEO
In the mid-2000s, as part of my role driving products and solutions for 3Com , I spent a lot of time working closely with the engineering team of our 新华三集团 division in China. One of the things that struck me was the difference between how many of my 3com and H3C engineers described their roles in the company.
When asked what they do, my 3com engineers would typically talk about the technology and product they were developing, maybe referencing target customers as well, but rarely being specific about revenue goals.
However, when I asked my H3C engineers the same question, their response was much more business-centric, typically starting off with, "The product I am developing needs to achieve this revenue target in this time frame."
In H3C, it seemed every person's primary focus from the top down was how they would specifically help the company achieve its business goals and bottom line. Not surprisingly, H3C was highly successful, growing fast to dominate China's enterprise networking business.
Given some of the other cultural differences and distance, I couldn't always get 100% alignment from H3C on all the projects I was driving. However, I did know that even when they did not follow my guidance 100%, they were focused on trying to make money for the company. Thus, despite disagreements at times, resources were rarely wasted on irrelevant science projects or other adventures.
The lesson here is that, no matter how large a company is, it's essential for everyone to understand their specific role in helping the company manage its top line and bottom line. Of course, this is easier to understand the closer you are to the customer, from sales to marketing to product, but it's important for any role!
For example, If you are a support function (HR, Finance, etc.), you should work to understand the financial goals of the group you support and how you are helping them get there (via talent management, financial analysis, etc.).
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At the end of the day, every person and function in the company is there to help the company achieve its financial goals, and if they can't map out how, maybe they aren't actually needed.
As companies work to refocus on getting results in a more challenging environment, a good first step is ensuring every single employee understands how they help the company achieve its bottom line.
Do you agree? are there downsides? let me know your thoughts.
Consultant exclusively to Daedaelus Corporation
1 年Well said, Saar! The HP I joined out of college in 1980 had been carefully organized by Bill and Dave into standalone business units of no more than 1000 people (remembering this was a hardware company, so there were 800 people doing manufacturing downstairs and no more than 100 doing R&D upstairs). If a product development effort failed or was delayed, the revenue bump it was supposed to deliver had to be made up elsewhere. If there was a warranty problem with a product, it didn't just come out of some big pot of money, the division had to find it. The account teams for the division's high revenue accounts had division execs on speed dial. The saying was, "A division manager who makes 10% net is God. A division manager who doesn't, isn't a division manager any more." (That was net profit after taxes of 10% of top line revenue.) Every division had a written plan on file for what to do if there was a significant revenue shortfall, which was executed automatically. That delivered a performance culture. It did not scale as the computer business grew, and did not survive the centralization of thousands of engineers in that business. I was sad to see it go. H3C is a good team, with good people. Reminded me a lot of 1980 HP
Building high performance teams in medtech and digital health
1 年In times of plenty many employees might not care. The lean periods cause more people to pay closer attention to the connections between their contributions and the financial success of the company. Some of the biggest companies in tech have faced their first ever lean times in the past 18 months and the inexperience with dealing with those situations is clearly evident in the response of both the senior most tier of executive management and the complaints from the rank and file.
Global Client Director | Automation | Innovation
1 年Powerful example, and surprising! Great way to underscore the message.