Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - A Lesson in Leadership

Commercial Strategy is evolving in many organizations, and in others, the question remains, "How do you get three departments to align their strategies to optimize for one goal?"?

The situation as we know it today is best analogized using planes, trains, and automobiles. We all know that the three modes of transportation, or revenue disciplines, in this case, can get us from Point A to Point B.?However, if you use the three together, you can get much further by optimizing the mileage! Sales, revenue, and marketing drive top-line revenues with specific skill sets that take years to perfect.

Many organizations moved to a commercial structure years before the title of Commercial Strategy became relevant.?This move at the time to combine Sales, Revenue, and Marketing under one umbrella allowed efficiency in leadership and cross-functional knowledge to be utilized.?We started to recognize the intersections between the disciplines that sometimes merged and, once in a while, created an HOV lane.?It was less about working together and more about not working apart.

In recent years hospitality has adopted the term Commercial Strategy; however, we are still exploring the true meaning.?Some stand by, watching others change titles, recruit new talent, and set different goals.?Some are jumping in with both feet, using real-time learnings to make real-time decisions, and evolving.?The first example is the safe route; there is little risk, no speeding, and no train car jumps; these companies are in the stands of the speedway, watching other companies figure it out, which at times looks like a demolition derby.?The second example wants to believe they are taking their well-oiled machines for a spin on the track, hoping for a picture-perfect finish.?The reality is that by the first turn, there will be collisions when asking "like" teams to work as one.?These teams had been working side-by-side, careful to stay in their lanes, and now we are inviting them to a race to the finish using each other to draft off of and ultimately allow one to win.?Power struggles emerge as each discipline fights to win and take its place on the podium credited for its strategies.?

Out of the speedway and back to the highway!?Sales, Revenue, and Marketing disciplines can drive on the same highway with guardrails, no passing lanes, and traffic cops to slow down speeders. Lessons learned thus far are that while each discipline ultimately solves the whole, they are still parts of a bigger picture.?The responsibility for a holistic strategy is that of the leader.?The leader is the one that puts a strategy together using all three disciplines' tactics and goals to get the "Win."?

The latest "aha" moment we have had in adopting Commercial Strategy is that the strategy is not the responsibility of the teams and rather the sole responsibility of the leader. Each of the three disciplines is specialized and requires expertise in a skillset that masters their tactics. They are asking the three teams to act as one threatens to slow the team down as you can only go as fast as the comprehension of the common knowledge between the three. Common knowledge will not get you to your goal. Optimized knowledge will take the expertise of three teams and incrementally expand it to create record success. The synergies between the disciplines will appear as the leader organizes the teams within the common goal. It will be the role of the leader to minimize the distractions of a changing environment and manage the team dynamics.

In a Commercial Strategy organization, the role of the leader is to lead and stay focused on each team to remove obstacles and allow them to flow unobstructed.?We shift from the highway to the Air Traffic Control Tower.??

Leaders are Air traffic Controllers.?They are the ones that direct take-off, landing, and flight patterns in the sky. A leader must first learn to stay in the tower and off the tarmac.?The leader knows the flight plans for all of the planes.?Everything is at risk if you leave the tower to solve something on the tarmac.?Planes cannot take off, they cannot land, and those planes in the air are at risk of collision.?Leaders must lead from an altitude that allows them to see all of the tactics, for all the strategies, with a laser focus on the goal.?

Leading teams is a skill, it takes practice, and even in the best of circumstances, it is messy!?The best leaders are not those that know how to do every task but rather someone that can recruit and lead the experts at the tasks.?The expertise the leader must possess is well-versed in managing team dynamics.?Facilitating the mechanics of a team takes practice.?It is a study unto itself and should be taken seriously.?Keeping the Commercial Teams moving in the same direction requires a thorough knowledge of the dynamics of a team that includes the states of forming, storming, norming, and performing.?

Key Learnings - Knowledge is Power

1. Define the common goal of the three disciplines by building a strategy and defining each discipline's tactics.
2. Collaborate as one Commercial Team regularly.?Roll the goal out as one team, meet regularly on the tactics and results as one team, and provide an open forum for feedback.???
3. Celebrate the results as ONE team.?

This is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.?Commercial Strategy requires constant tweaks, fast fails, and resiliency in leadership to equally dust yourself off and those around you so you can push again.

This is the intersection of Commercial Strategy, where the three drivers of top-line revenues come together to optimize for a collective profitability win. Commercial Strategy invites sales, revenue, and marketing to coexist on a three-lane highway where merging, passing, and HOV lanes are welcomed and encouraged. We will have collisions; however, this is where new roads are paved, and guardrails are built.?

As a leader, you determine the speed limits. As a leader, you must stay on alert at all times. There is no place for cruise control on the instrument panel of a leader. Pay attention; pull out the checked flag when you see a win, pull over those storming so hard that they create a road hazard, and continue to hone your leadership skills.?

We are no longer planes, trains, and automobiles. We are one vehicle that can drive beyond the line where revenue meets expense, creating more significant profits as a team than we were able to do as a discipline.??