Doing the right thing and doing things right

Ok, so we’ve established talent as a key ingredient to my recipe of luck.Now, time to set the vision and strategic direction for my talents to deliver on. Here’s a little bit on how we’ve been doing this.

Simply put, we had to define where we wanted to go, and how we’d get there. But, here’s the important bit — could we define our way forward without knowing where we really were? Did we even have the foundations in place — could we walk before we decided to run? We needed the baseline!

Having led many a transformation for others, I knew what I needed for that, to now lead my own: a view on people (talent!), the organization’s shape (how our talents are set up), processes (how we do things), and systems (how the things we do are enabled with technology). Having the right CEO dashboard was critical. It was the mirror reflecting the state of the business — financial performance, people and their engagement (think, organizational health) and my leaders’ individual performance. I could now ascertain where we were doing well (or not): whether we were backed by a unique asset, a better or cheaper resource, hard to replicate skills (talent, again!) or a form of market access (be it brand name or network).

Baseline understood, it was time to set the strategy. Having lived the last decade amidst a million frameworks, I was (pleasantly) amazed that I picked what is the simplest of all — SWOT! For each business, I and my business leaders looked at our Strengths and Weaknesses and listed out our areas of Opportunities and Threats. The plan being, to use our strengths to capitalize on opportunities, and by the same token mitigate our weaknesses and threats.

Scouting for areas of growth, we married two ways of looking at the situation:

1) How could we expand our existing capabilities? or “sell what we could make”

2) Where were other opportunities we could capture? or “make what could be sold”

I am well aware of the market reality that what made money in the past or even today, may not do so in the near future. Therefore, strategy is no longer a once in three- or five-year type of effort. I and my leadership group actively keep an eye on the happenings out there, talking to our clients, and working to evolve as the market does; maybe even stay ahead of it where possible!

For us (and I know this isn’t divulging much) it is simply stabilizing our core businesses, sweating and stretching their assets and building ‘add on’ revenue streams. In addition, we’re dipping our toes in new markets where we see space to play, and have either the skills or connections to make inroads. My old boss used to call it a ‘Zen garden’ approach — have a few ‘big rocks’ surrounded by several tiny pebbles. I think that is what he meant anyway 😊

The right things being done, we move to doing things right! Delivering, which is another matter entirely.

Poor execution is the number one cause for failed strategies. Executing well, be it a project or day to day business, needs a well thought out plan with clear objectives and milestones.

We do this with monthly business reviews where each entity leader presents their dashboard (I mentioned earlier), and more qualitative elements on the ground — what has and hasn’t worked last month, challenges and opportunities for the next month, what is needed from the center and how I can help. The rhythm allows us to have a pulse on all our business operations, to identify and rectify issues in advance, connect the dots between our businesses and simultaneously look ahead towards growth.

The other critical piece in implementation is having the ‘strategic thinkers’ linked up with realities on the ground — get them out of the ivory towers! My strategy folks dive into execution and my gang of what I call ‘feet on the ground’ are with me when strategizing. I roll up my own sleeves whenever my teams need that extra hand. (A confession though, I do it also because I miss it!)

This is certainly a lot easier said than done. There is an inevitable ‘stress in the system’, a mindset friction between the perceived detached and demanding folk compared to the practical reflectors. That said, the friction, if managed well, truly enables all to row in the same direction.

We tried this out when we created a new healthcare solutions company a few months back. All hands, on deck, we were about to play in a market that had suddenly shown a spurt of growth. I formed a ‘taskforce’ made of a few people (and limited available resources).

With people’s capacity at a premium, I pulled in our Director of Internal Audit & Business Excellence and Head of Digital Marketing to work with me in setting up shop, in addition to their day jobs. Even my Group Assistant was making sales calls and doing very well at it! We’d have two daily check-ins on targets and tasks and to discuss evolution of product offerings. This kept us on top of our overall approach to market and was informed by the daily inputs the team were getting from their market contacts.

The entity went from pure PPE distributorship in week one to an end to end solution offering in week three of its existence, drawing on several sister entities for the full value proposition. Talk about being agile! Of course, once we were properly moving, we hired the talent to run this formally.

That is a prime example of shortening a typically lengthy planning time in an agile way. There wasn’t room for ‘analysis paralysis’; we used our ‘taskforce’ to plan the work, work the plan, regularly check its progress and tweak / course correct as we moved.

Never has there been a need to move this fast, often in multiple directions, without taking an age to plan, or even sticking to it if feedback suggests otherwise. Those who marry the strategic and tactical, and can adapt quickly, succeed. And those who can make it fun and challenging will have a dedicated team adding to, and following the vision with their blood, sweat and tears (of joy!).

As I roll out new businesses, and manage the existing ones, here is what I have learnt:

1) Know where you are and what you have. Do not create grand visions without the basics in place

2) Capitalize on your strengths, and know that what makes money tomorrow may be different than what works today

3) ‘Stress the system’ — have a taskforce combining strategists and do-ers making the direction a reality

4) Be agile. Plan the work and work the plan asap. Keep track and tweak as you go

Ok. Now you’ve identified your talent, pulled up vision and strategic direction and are about to get going…but wait! You can’t just barge in as this new CEO and change it all! There’s a legacy to your organization, and there are people who’ve run it all this time that you weren’t around… Why would they listen to you? Let’s cover that next, on ‘how to deal with people and key internal stakeholders’