GROWTH STRATEGY - The next steps

Is the company fit to the next steps? Don't get ahead of yourself. You have to walk before you can run. Let’s analyze few aspects that are serious topics to be considered in any transition strategy.

There are many strategies to help to improve teamwork : lead by example, build up trust and respect, encourage socializing, cultivate the open communication, outline roles and responsibilities, organize team processes, set goals, recognition programs, sense of belonging, etc. Once you are confident about the implementation, which are the the considerations to move forward?

1.     Teamwork

Is my team ready? This is the most important question. Having the right players on the leadership team is the crucial factor that defines a company’s ability to compete and win.

Executive boards play a critical role in building their companies’ leadership teams and setting them Up for success. Decades of experience has revealed that successful executive teams use best practices to ensure productive dialogue and effective decision-making within their leadership teams.

2.     Strategy

Every company runs its business through people working together in teams. In today’s complex world, individuals working alone are not able to make a difference anymore. It is always the teamwork that makes things happen. Think about the most recent success that your business has had; it is always the result of teamwork.

A well-informed executive board thinks in terms of teams and debates their capabilities to deliver on strategy. A shared language should be created and this starts with agreeing on the strategy that the team has to deliver. Without a shared understanding of the strategy, it is impossible to reach a conclusion on the capabilities the team needs.

3.      Fit for growth

Strategies changes like the weather, it is important to understand if your team is fit for growth. This is a key management task and needs to be undertaken with great care and diligence. Set conventional expectations.

Once the strategy is clear you can set the goals including the parameters to measure achievements (Key Performance Indicators). Therefore, the team should recognize:

1.      The CEO is the guardian of the values and behaviors that are fundamental to the leadership discussions (business ethics, safety and Quality at the top). This will ensure they remain at the forefront of these discussions and guide decision-making.

2.      Required capabilities: Functional executive boards seek to understand the critical capabilities required at the team level. Given the team’s objectives, which is the combination of skills and experiences does the team need to possess? This overview defines the key areas of risk and helps to set priorities.

3.      A 5 W’s - What, Where, When, Who, Why to How - matrix with the team members usually offers a good starting point. This allows the board to understand where their opinions converge or diverge. Once this high-level understanding is established, the board can zoom into the individual level, where a more granular assessment of each person can be determined based on a defined criteria for the ‘how’ and the ‘5 W’.

The methodology is simple for releasing creative sessions, when the people dry up and run out of ideas. They are also useful to help take different views when defining the problem. You can also use it to ask questions when selecting an idea to carry forward for further development. One approach with this is to use the questions in a particular order to help to guide you through a sequence of thought towards a complete answer, such as:

•  What is the problem?
• Where is it happening?
• When is it happening?
• Why is it happening?
• Who do we need to get involved?
• When had happened this problem?
•  How can we overcome this problem?

4.      Evaluations. Each potential team member will then be evaluated against the required capabilities. Profiles, personalities and working styles should also be considered to select team members who can work together. A full range of skills must be considered to build an effective team.

Match capabilities with the complexities of the strategy

Ideally, the company’s executive board makes the connection between the capabilities of the team and the complexity of the strategy to be delivered. A ‘on hold strategy’ (‘do tomorrow what you can do today’) has a different level of complexity compared with an ‘ambitious growth strategy’. Usually the team discussions and outcomes are not considering complexity and innovation unless it is in the agenda.

Think about that a second-tier team rarely can be successful with sustainability in the champion’s league. This is not because of the team, there is a mismatch between second-tier capabilities and first-tier supply -approach- and delivery expectations. When we are talking about business, this simple principle is frequently unnoticed.

A rigorous comparison between the capabilities of a team and the complexity of the strategy is essential. We can suggest to:

Assess team members’ capabilities independently. The decisions are not always black and white. Some are straightforward while others are more challenging because have different perspectives and priorities. The executive board uses assessments to validate decisions, not to drive them.

The best sources of information are third parties assessments. Assessments can be a great instrument when used in the right context. The right context can be rolled out with the team involvement, a clear strategy and the key questions to the individuals assessed. Draw a hard line in the sand about the performance expected in the first years and share the results with your teams. Check if objectives for the future can be compared by performance on similar types from the past. Keep in mind the huge costs involved when an executive fails with his team and dig deeper when the stakes are higher.

Finally, remember the communications. A well communicated team takes better decisions and shapes the strategy. A tennis player takes his own decisions. A basketball team should manage horizontal and vertical communications. Football teams manage functional communications. Rugby teams manage effective decisions based on communications.

The importance of communication in sports is clear to researchers - it is integral part of a successful organization. Teams that promote positive communication and respect among players improve overall motivation. Coaches who learn to communicate effectively with their athletes can deliver positive feedback and constructive criticism in ways that actually influence players' performance.

Value your Outlook. Can we make it?

Evaluate your potential within four (4) dimensions of your organization. You may understand and conclude if you can make it or miss the leap forward. Try to be objective and confident but remove emotional factors. It is imperative that the context should be aligned with the strategy. Confrontation between reality and the near future should be credible and come close to rationality:

1.     Customer perspective: Is the company meeting the customer’s expectations? We need to measure customer’s satisfaction, retention, new acquisitions, market share, on time delivery and performance. Are the measures realistic?

2.     Processes: Is the company improving in the critical processes? Are we going through tough reforms? This is about quality, rate defects, and led time, stand by, suppliers, material turnover, theoretical and practical capacity. Are we moving in this direction?

3.     Financial Performance Indicators: Is the company achieving its financial goals? Usual measures like operating income, return of assets, increase of revenues, cash flow from operations and overheads analysis are few statistical records. Are we comparing with industry benchmarks? How is our rating?

4.     Innovation and associations: Is the company improving in this area and gaining market share? Here you may evaluate also employee training, retention and satisfaction. Number of new products, technologies, patents, copyrights, participation in the market and new sales against total sales breakdown. Are the innovations, training and associations tailing the actual market share?

The idea behind the four perspectives represents a balanced view of any organization and by creating measures under each of these headings all the important areas of business would be covered. It is important to note that this is just a frame work and it doesn’t say what the specific measures should be. It is a matter for people within the organization to decide upon.

The set of measures for each organization or even sections with the organization will be substantially different. Much of the success depends on how the measures are agreed, the way they are implemented and how they are exerted.

The four perspectives are highly interlinked. There is a logical connection between them. The explanation is: If an organization focuses on the learning and the growth aspect, it is definitely going to lead better business processes. This in turn would be followed by increased customer value, producing better products which ultimately gives a rise into the financial performance.