How does a CEO set a strategy in which people see themselves?

How does a CEO set a strategy in which people see themselves?

Setting strategy is not a boardroom activity or a C-Suite prerogative. Strategy is best set by people all around the company. While CEOs might have the most experience, they don't have the most expertise. The best strategies combine the experience of the CEO with expertise from people throughout the company.

Set Your Strategic Stage

How should you set your strategy? Lead your team to set your strategic stage, identify your strategic sweet spot, and establish your strategic foundation. Work with your people to set your strategic stage, answering the four fundamental questions:

• What do we look like in three to five years? What is our end in mind?
• What is our reason for being? What is our purpose, our vision, and our mission?
• What do we expect from each other? What are our values?
• What are we here to do? What are our goals?

What do we look like in three to five years, what is our end in mind?

Start with your vision for the future, a simple statement of tomorrow. Will you double in size? Will you lead your industry in customer satisfaction? Will you create a product breakthrough that changes the world? Set an aspiration, a dream, a giant ambition on which to center your strategy.

What is our reason for being; what is our purpose, our vision, and our mission?

You exist to serve your purpose: what you do for your customers. You exist to be true to your vision: why you do what you do for your customers. You exist to deliver on your mission: how you do what you do for your customers. Your Whats, Whys, and Hows are your reason for being.

What do we expect from each other, what are our values?

What behaviors do you expect from each other? How do you expect people to act towards each other? Popular values are respect for the individual, integrity, selflessness, excellence, courage, and perspective. Define your values, in word and deed, to cement your trust in each other.?

What are we here to do, what are our goals?

What are your operational and financial goals? Common operational goals include customer experience, product excellence, and people engagement. Common financial goals are revenue growth and investor return. Set targets for each goal and paint a picture of today and tomorrow.?

Your end in mind, purpose, vision, mission, values, and goals set your strategic stage.

Identify Your Strategic Sweet Spot

You set your strategy by leading your team to set your strategic stage, identify your strategic sweet spot, and establish your strategic foundation. Once you set your strategic stage, work with people to identify your strategic sweet spot, answering three essential questions:

• What problems do we solve for our customers?
• What customers do we serve?
• What value do customers get from our products and services?

What problems do we solve for our customers?

You don’t really sell a product or service, your products and services help your customers solve a problem, address a challenge, or seize an opportunity. What do your products and services do for your customers? For example, do you help insurance customers process claims faster, life science customers conduct more clinical trials, government customers pay their bills with less manual effort, or manufacturing customers speed new products to market? Catalog all the problems you solve for customers, then pinpoint the three to five most common problems you solve for your customers.

What customers do we serve?

Dig into your customer data. What industries do they represent? Financial services, healthcare, retail, distribution, or manufacturing? What size customers do you serve? Very small, small, medium-sized, large, or extra-large? Where are the customers you serve? In what cities, states, and countries are they located? Now, nail down where your customers are concentrated. Are they medium-sized financial services companies in the Midwest? Extra-large healthcare customers in New England? Very small manufacturing customers across the country?

What value do customers get from our products and services?

Customers buy products and services and expect a return on their investment. What return do your customers get when buying your products and services? Once you know the problems you solve, work with your customers to understand the economic value of solving the problems. Compare the problems you solve to the value your customers get from solving them and see where your customers get the greatest return using your products and services.

Your strategic sweet spot defines, for you, The Perfect Customer, your TPC. Your TPC is the intersection, the combination of 1.) the short list of most common problems you solve for 2.) a concentrated set of customers that 3.) drives the biggest bang for the buck for them.

Establish Your Strategic Foundation

You set your strategy by leading your team to set your strategic stage, identify your strategic sweet spot (your TPC, The Perfect Customer), and establish your strategic foundation. Once you set your strategic stage and identify your strategic sweet spot, work with people to establish your strategic foundation, answering three elemental questions:

• How do we approach the marketplace? What is our go-to-market strategy?
• How do we make our product stand out? What is our product strategy?
• How do we set employees up for success? What is our employee engagement strategy?

What is our go-to-market strategy?

Your go-to-market strategy includes lead generation, sales motions, and setting your team up for success. How do you generate leads? Common methods are running advertisements to attract visitors to your website, sending letters to prospects inviting them to events, and attending trade shows. What are your sales motions? You might sell directly to prospects or indirectly through partners. You might have leads come to you or go out and look for leads. Popular sales motions are inbound, outbound, channel, and partner. How do you set your go-to-market team up for success? Identify the important traits for your sales and marketing athletes, people who understand and live for closing deals. Set up a constant and consistent training program to keep them current. Give them the tools they need – method, process, customer stories – to do what they do best every day.

What is our product strategy?

Your product strategy includes your competitive position, your product vision, and your product roadmap. Start by deciding how you set your products and services apart from the competition. Are you of the highest quality? The cheapest? Do you provide superior customer service? Is your product the most capable? The easiest to use? It is tempting to be all things to all people. Restrain yourself and pick one, maybe two, product attributes on which to be great. What is your product vision? Create a picture of what your products and services look like in three years, five years, and ten years. Define the big features, functions, and capabilities. Explain your future vision and the value your customers get from your products and services. What is your product roadmap? Make your product vision real by showing the evolution of your products and services over the next three years. Identify the investments, enhancements, and improvements you are making this year, next year, and the year after. Publish updates frequently and invite your customers to give you feedback.

What is our employee engagement strategy?

Your business, your organization, is your people. Your employee engagement strategy allows employees to answer “yes” to three questions: Do I know what is expected of me? Do I have the tools I need to do my job well? Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day? How do you set expectations? Common methods range from communicating the big picture in Town Hall meetings, to regular performance updates in performance appraisals, to detailed documentation like goal sheets and scorecards for each employee. Employees need to see how they fit in your strategy, day-to-day execution, culture, and organization. How do you make sure people have the right tools? Regular employee meetings focused just on tools, employee surveys, and monitoring internal social channels are common. Document your tools gap and the schedule for filling the gap so people know what is coming. How do you make sure people are in the right jobs? It’s common for great people to be in the wrong job and, when in the right job, to blossom. Many create job descriptions and do regular reviews with employees. Some do monthly touch base meetings with employees and assess fit. Employees need to know how they contribute to your overall success. Being in the right job, having the opportunity to do what they do best every day, is paramount.

Your go-to-market strategy, product strategy, and employee engagement strategy are your strategic foundation.

Set a Strategy in Which People See Themselves

Lead your team to set your strategic stage, identify your strategic sweet spot, and establish your strategic foundation and help people – employees, customers, partners, and owners – see themselves in the strategy and make their dreams come true.

That’s my view. What do you think?

- Bob