Should we really hire a Business consultant ? Why should we invest so much for someone who would give us a list of strategies? Should we really have a trainer on board ? How would that matter ? What difference would that make in my team or in our results ?
These are some of the subtle questions that ponder through the minds of MSME owners as we approach them , some of them are asked and some of them are hidden behind the silent nods.
Reason being, most business owners small or big are not sure or rather have less clarity as to what results are these strategies going to fetch them.
How could an intervention like ours really benefit them? Numbers, Projections and Data, all sound good but they do come with a benefit of doubt and they are at times too good to be true.
Research suggests that most companies’ strategies deliver only 63% of their promised outcomes, especially in terms of the finances. Now the question arises where should the consultants or leaders focus on , better execution plan or sounder strategies. In fact Strategic planning and Execution are unavoidably linked to each other.
At Skillquest our consultants have always been influenced & inspired by the seven straightforward rules as suggested by Mankins and Richard Steele in their article in HBR (2005)- Turning Great Strategies into Great Performance.
By applying these rules , we have not only been able to convince the business owners/ leaders on results that strategies can fetch but most of the times , the results fetched have surprised us , we have seen teams taking ownership, processes getting into their own flow, less hiccups as we bring in new strategies into place and much more.
Here’s our perception on the seven simple rules and how has it benefitted us –
1. Keeping it as simple as possible – Since most of our clients don’t belong to a category of “Passionate Entrepreneurs” but are “dedicated professionals”. It was mandatory for us to keep all our strategies simple and we worked with them on building a “Founder-Led Brand”. We avoided describing heavy goals for them , instead broke it down to simpler ones and just got them to achieve it. Technically we reduced their fear and built confidence in them by making it simple for them to achieve. We helped them build clarity around what their company would and would not do.
2. Challenge Assumptions- Being Industry experts, most of our clients had their own stereotypes when it came to agreeing with us on certain strategies,however we were able to suggest and challenge their assumptions ending up in they executing more realistic plans and contributing dramatic turn around.
3. One language – We had them unified across departments , goals , objectives and targets were shared in the same alignment across HR, marketing, finance , Sales & Operations team which made a huge difference when it came to executing strategies, they knew their purpose , what they are working for and what outcomes to aim at.
4. Resources were made available– This was something we ensured happened across all levels, we wanted them to list all resources that they might need to execute the strategies and it was ensured that they have it all, we didn’t want them to come revert with the usual , no resources no work excuse and it totally worked.
5. Focus on Action Marks – Delivering Planned performance requires action marks to be taken at the right time hence they need to be discussed , followed up at the right time. One of the important rules of our intervention was to make strategic priorities explicit so everyone knows what to focus on.
6. Continuous Monitoring- Though it was not necessary to get involved into the Operations of our clients but for us it was important that we fixed the KPIs for our clients and published them regularly in order for them to remain consistent, though the KPIs were just between us , it didn’t lead to any penalty or any appreciations but just the feeling that they are being tracked made the leaders perform a lot better.
7. People Development- Identifying, recruiting, training and developing, empowering the team that would align with the purpose, strategies and support in execution is an absolutely necessary part of reducing the Strategy to performance gap.
Closing the gap between Strategy and Performance each year can lead to huge results for sure , around 60-70 % increase in performance is what research reports, however what comes as a result of this alignment between strategy and execution is a cultural multiplier effect which leads to great performance and greater confidence among the leaders
