Be Different or be dead

June 27, 2016

10 simple ways to make your business plan execution great

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10 proven ways to make your business plan execution great.

Amazing results don’t come from the eloquence of your plan; successful performance depends on how well you execute.

Most organizations are challenged to execute well; these rules will help turn your “brave idea” - theory - into a “crude deed” - practice.

Rule #1 — Loosen up on strategy development (get your strategy just about right) and tighten up on strategy implementation.

You can’t execute if you spend all of your time trying to perfect your plan. Every hour you spend trying to fine tune your direction reduces your ability to get anything done.
Spend the extra time you would normally spend on your plan on detailing what has to be done to “breathe life” into your strategy.

Rule #2 — Don’t repeat the same mistake twice. Learn what works and what doesn’t work from your execution tactics.

Rule #3 — Don’t try to boil the ocean in terms of the projects and tactics you undertake. Focus on the critical few things that will achieve 80% of your strategic goal and do them well.

Rule #4 — Stay focused on the direction you have chosen. Avoid getting sucked in to Yummy Incoming: the over-the-transom work that comes to you and is a distraction but is not on strategy. t’s fun to chase Yummy, but progress eludes you when you do.

Rule #5 — Cut the Crap. You can’t execute if there are internal barriers in the way. And if you are busy with activity which may have been important in the past, but is no longer relevant. Cleanse your environment of the non-strategic!

Rule #6 — Ship lot’s of imperfection fast. Be ok with no getting it exactly right; chasing perfection is a waste of time and prevents you from getting anything done.

Rule #7 — Use what you learn from execution to inform your next steps. Don’t take your next step without incorporating what you’ve learned from your last step.

Rule #8 — Get every function - marketing, sales service, operations etc. - in the organization to determine the critical three things they must do to achieve the top 3 organizational priorities. Make this task non-negotiable. If every department in your organization doesn’t have direct line of sight to your overall strategy, people will tend to march to their own drummer and effective execution doesn’t happen.

Rule #9 — Build execution deliverables into every employee’s annual performance plan. If you don’t make it a personal matter to every individual, it won’t get done.

Rule #10 — You need a voice for execution - The Strategy Hawk - in an organization to ride herd on execution. To monitor progress. To kick ass when things are not proceeding as planned.

Build execution as a core competency of your organization and you will definitely stand out from the herd.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.27.16 at 04:58 am by Roy Osing
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June 13, 2016

Expert advice on how to build a winning business plan

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Expert advice on how to build a winning business plan.

Much has been written about how to build a business strategy that is effective in today’s height volatile and competitive world.

Here are a few tips from the experts on how to build a business plan that works in today’s highly volatile world, and on the common mistakes organizations make.

▪️“The granddaddy of all mistakes is competing to be the best, going down the same path as everybody else and thinking that somehow you can achieve better results.” — Michael Porter, Business Strategy Guru

▪️“Everyone in the industry follows the same advice. Companies benchmark each other’s practices and products. Customers, lacking meaningful choice, buy on price alone. Profitability deteriorates…. Nothing is more absurd — and yet more widespread — than the belief that somehow you can do exactly what everyone else is doing and yet end up with superior results.” — Joan Magretta, Stop Competing To Be The Best

▪️“I saw that leaders placed too much emphasis on what some call high-level strategy, on intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not enough on implementation. People would agree on a project or initiative, and then nothing would come of it.” — Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

▪️“The extraordinary—and accurate, as I see it — hypothesis is that we inordinately pay attention to strategy, customers, innovation, and the like, but not the true discriminator between success and failure — implementation!” — Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

▪️“Abandoning activities is not as sexy as acquiring them or building them up, but it’s just as important – and the most overlooked aspect of leadership. Yesterday’s star product may produce profits now, but it soon becomes a barrier to the introduction and success of tomorrow’s breadwinner. One should, therefore, abandon yesterday’s breadwinner before one really wants to, let alone before one has to. Of course innovation is risky. But defending yesterday is far more risky than creating tomorrow.” — Peter Drucker on Purposeful Abandonment

▪️“If you want to grow your business; before you decide where and how to grow - the first thing you need to do is stop doing what’s not working and get rid of the outgrown, the obsolete and the unproductive.” — Peter Drucker on Purposeful Abandonment

These are all excellent points which highlight the critical ways to make your business plan successful and to differentiate your organization from every other one in the markets you serve.

My takeaways:

1. A business plan based on copying others will never produce a winning strategy;

2. A business plan without execution isn’t a strategy, it’s a wish;

3. A business plan built on a base of irrelevant activity will never work until the CRAP in the organization is purged.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.13.16 at 04:50 am by Roy Osing
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May 16, 2016

Is your product really worth taking out for dinner?

Is your product really worth taking out for dinner?

Or would you make a weekend out of it?

A dinner conveys a certain amount of value being derived but a weekend is at another level completely.

And of course if you wouldn’t even talk to your product, that’s another story.

The amount of personal time and money you are prepared to invest depends on the value you receive.

How is value described? 

By how your product functions? Does it work as promised? Does it deliver to specifications?

Or is value related to how your product makes you feel when consumed? Are you proud of it?

Does it blow your mind?

Does value derive from function or does it come from feelings?

Which is more important? Which is the better metric of product performance?

Most organizations believe a product is performing well if it consistently does what it’s supposed to do.

Product specifications are delivered 24X7. Dependability is the key success factor.

The issue is that performance doesn’t go far enough today; customers expect products that work as promised. And when they do, they are at best satisfied.

No loyalty is created and the customer will leave for a better mousetrap when it shows up.

On the other hand, when the product amazes, when memories are created and when magic happens, customers buy in at a completely different level.

They turn into maniacal fans who go out of their way to support your organization in every way.

And they spread your word to others.

By all means ensure your product performs consistently, but don’t stop until you wrap it up with an AMAZE layer that delights.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.16.16 at 04:04 am by Roy Osing
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May 9, 2016

5 practical ways to diversify your revenue growth

“It’s not good to have all your eggs in one basket” is a saying that speaks well to the business risk of relying on too few assets for a disproportionate amount of your income.

Too much from too few leaves you vulnerable to the negative effects of unexpected economic and competitive events.

Five steps will help you develop valuable diversity.

Target customers where your wallet share is low

These are customers whose spending on your service or product comprises a low percentage of their overall spending in your particular business sector.

Sell current product applications

Focus on applications provided to your most popular customer groups and market them to other customers who don’t currently use your products in the same way. Use existing marketing materials in the sales process to maximize return on investment.

Develop new applications

Develop new applications for your current products based on the wants and desires of your high-value customers. New application success depends on the clarity and ‘intimacy’ of the customer requirements you identify. Emphasize the value derived from your products, not the technology used to deliver it.

Go fast and easy

If you are tempted to pursue new customers for your products, employ the fast and easy approach. Identify those who have good revenue potential and are easy to pitch to and quick to buy. Business risk is increased by going after new customers who pose difficulty and consume too many of your resources as you try to sell to them.

New products

For the longer term, develop new products to satisfy unmet customer demand. This usually involves new technologies that are more difficult to adopt and take longer to assimilate.

But don’t be too diverse.

Provide what your customers care about, and be the sole provider.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.9.16 at 05:08 am by Roy Osing
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