How successful businesses link objectives to actions

You run a business, you have objectives and you sell stuff.

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End of story right?

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So how come you’re not automatically exceeding those objectives?

It might be because you haven’t got your golden thread sorted.

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You’re not joining the dots.

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I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses and one of the most important pieces of work we do is to understand specifically what actions drive the success they’re working towards.

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I’ve pulled together some of the key elements of joining the dots.

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Have really clear objectives

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Before you roll your eyeballs and think, yes I know, objectives have to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound), take a step back and add another element in: Are your objectives customer-led?

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Have you designed your objectives around your customers?

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No? Then why on earth would you think you’ll serve them better than anyone else?

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Here’s an example from a supermarket client I work with:

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Old objective

Deliver an annual increase of 1% in revenue in the convenience sector

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New objective

Deliver an annual increase of 1% revenue, by attracting XXX more of Segment A customers, by meeting their needs for speed and healthy diet in the convenience meal market.

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By putting the customer at the heart of your objective, you put in place your golden thread knot. The knot holds every strategy and action together.

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Share accountability

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Once you have customer-led objectives, you can start to build shared accountability for meeting those goals.

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To use the same example, now we have a more rounded objective for revenue growth in our supermarket, the following approach might be developed:

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Chief Customer Officer has a clear responsibility for understanding customer needs and competitor responses.

The Product Director has a clear brief as to where their priorities lie.

?Distribution knows that Segment A is a revenue growth priority and plans channels and layout to meet that goal.

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And so on.

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And those individuals have to report back collectively about progress.

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An added bonus of this approach is that there’s nowhere to hide. No blame. You’re in this together.

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Now I realise that most businesses may not have these roles in their organisations, but the same principles apply.? Use your objectives to get the knot to hold your golden thread and then create your actions off the back of that knot.

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Build cross-functional teams to create and deliver customer strategies

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Let’s go to a manufacturer client of mine for an example here. They make widgets. Originally, their goal was to make more widgets to make more money.

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But now, they work on their differentiation to attract more customers because they service them better than the competition. They’ve done this in part through cross-functional working.

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The manufacturer developed a segmentation model and then created ‘segment hit squads’ off the back of it.

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Every month, the sales & marketing, product design, production and finance sit down and talk about how they’re meeting their segments’ needs, what they’re worried about and how they can do things better.

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They brainstorm ideas, talk about how they could do things differently and figure out the implications and limitations.

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It’s brilliant to watch.

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And once you have all parts of the business agreeing on what needs to be done, it’s easy to translate into specific actions.

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Measure the impact of the actions

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What do you measure?

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Inputs? Outputs? Or do you actually measure impact?

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Let’s use an IT client example.

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They could measure their inputs:

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Meetings held.

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Or they could measure their outputs:

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Websites built

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But they’ve started to measure impact:

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Client goals achieved.

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Because it doesn’t matter how many meetings they have or websites they build, if their clients aren’t meeting their objectives, the IT firm won’t keep winning business.

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The key to Golden Thread Planning is to simply look at things through this lens:

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If we meet our customers’ needs better than anyone else, we will succeed in our goals

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And then put that at the heart of everything you do.

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Stay tuned for more leadership lessons or drop me a note to see how we can work together.

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How you can work with me:

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?? Strategy Advisor: Your guide, mentor and coach.

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?? Strategy Sprints: Working together to get from zero to brilliant customer strategy in six weeks.

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?? Training: Bespoke training days designed to bring focus and alignment to your business.

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?? Consultancy: Just need it done? I’ll come into your business and get the strategic development and execution process up and running.

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Get in touch

?? [email protected]

?? 07717 516069

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