You’ve worked really hard on your strategy and plan. You’ve communicated it to the troops. You’ve done this frequently though a variety of channels. But six months later, your strategy isn’t getting traction? There are lots of reasons strategies fail.

In a study by Donald Stull (MIT Sloan School of Management) and Kathleen Eisenhardt (Simple Rules), only 55% of middle managers can name one of their company’s top five priorities. Worse, when given five chances to list their companies strategic objectives, half fail to get even one right!

If you say this is unlikely to happen in your organization, then ask the questions. The CEO’s we work with are often shocked at the statistic above, but the problem is due to one simple error in thinking. Communications doesn’t equate to understanding.

Even if your team can parrot back your key initiatives and strategy, it still doesn’t mean understanding. And without understanding, it’s likely all your hard work on strategy will not materialize. What can you do about it? By now, you’ve discovered that yelling louder doesn’t help.

Here are a few recommendations:

1. Determine your audience first. Is your message for internal, board, stakeholder, or industry consumption? Messages need to be tailored differently for different audiences.
2. Keep it simple. The greatest communicators often have just one message. As humans, we have difficulty remembering three things, much less a dozen.
3. Explain why. Why is this your strategy? Why is it imperative? What’s changed?
4. Explain how. How are you going to implement the strategy? What’s the plan?
5. Use stories. We are geared to understand stories, metaphors, and examples. It’s the way we simplify and remember.
6. Help them see their role and what is expected. Participation in the process by all levels, not just the C-Suite helps.
7. Ask for confirmation. At all levels, confirmation helps reinforce understanding.
8. Incorporate your strategy into your performance standards and measures for employees.
9. Make sure your strategy communication is not just top down. It has to be top down, middle-to-middle, and peer to peer.
10. Test and measure.

Again, there are multiple reasons why strategies fail. This is just one. When you reach a level of understanding, remember that is only the first step. Then the real work begins.

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Principal
Prairie Sky Group
prairieskygroup.com
651-357-0110 (C)

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A CEO of a $50M SaaS company is faced with a strategic implementation problem. In order to recognize his strategic vision of double-digit growth he has challenged his sales team to get so many orders that his implementation team leader literally cries.

Failure of managers to work across disciplines to implement strategy is one of the top three killers of strategy. After working to develop a great strategy and plan, you’ve communicated and helped your organization understand the strategy. Then you’ve put performance standards in place. Your objectives are cascaded. It’s what happens next that’s important to your success.

80% of managers say that their objectives are limited, specific, and measurable. An incredible 84% say that they can count on their bosses and their direct reports to support them in working on the strategic objectives. But here’s the rub. Only 9% say they can count on a colleague in another discipline all of the time. And only 50% say they can count on them most of the time! (Donald Sull, Rebecca Holmes, Charles Sull -HBR Mar15)

Consider the ramifications. Sales waits on marketing to launch a new campaign. But marketing is waiting on development to release the specs. Compound interactions and delays will kill the launch. Of course it’s nobody’s fault. Everyone has a valid reason or rationalization.

Here’s what the CEO in the “Make Implementation Cry” situation above did to solve his problem. He brought all the leaders from each of marketing, sales, development, implementation, and service together. He’d made sure that they all had a common objective and reward for hitting the vision when the strategy launched. So he congratulated sales for making implementation cry. He reminded them that they weren’t going to make their bonuses if they couldn’t figure out how to help implementation because their bonuses were tied to revenue that wouldn’t be recognized if their software wasn’t installed. Within an hour the team had figured out a solution. Marketing would give implementation $200K to hire more installers and trainers. Problem solved. They hit their year-end mark.

Is your strategic implementation hanging fire because different departments aren’t working together? What did this CEO do? Here are a few solutions to the inter-department strategic implementation killer:

1.    Make sure your team has the same key objectives and rewards.
When a new strategy is launched many hang onto the old strategy. You can’t have a tacit strategy and an official strategy. Everyone needs the same strategy, objectives, and rewards.

2.    When you launch a new strategy and plan, makes sure you’ve budgeted for it.
One reason strategic plans fail is for lack of budgeting, both financially and resource-wise, as well as management attention. When you add new objectives or work, have you also budgeted for it or taken something off the table? Many managers complain they can’t support new initiatives (or cross-discipline efforts) because of this.

3.    Try Agile Development across other disciplines
A solution to doing many things poorly or slowly is to do one thing really well and fast. If this is supporting a new strategic initiative or another discipline then your rate of success is improved. (see the Prairie Sky Group e-Book on Agile Marketing)

4.    Hire for Teamwork
More than all of these there is one thing that the CEO did in this example. He made sure that one of his company values was teamwork, and he hired for it. Marketing didn’t see giving up part of their budget as an obstacle because they were wired to work as team. They all knew they had each others’ backs. Look at your core values if your have cross-discipline issues in supporting your strategic initiatives.

Solve the cross function issue and you’ll be well on your way to a successful implementation of a new strategy. How many other solutions to this problem are there?

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Founder
PrairieSkyGroup.com
hobart@prairieskygroup.com
651-357-0110 (C)

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The first thing to die on the battlefield is the battle plan. The same thing applies to strategic plans.

A big problem with strategic plans is that they often assume a static view of the world or the competitive landscape. For example, assuming that if you reduce your price, competition will just let you take more market share. The real world rarely works like that.

Yet many CEO’s are insistent that the “Plan” be followed. After all, you’ve spent a lot of time and resources working on it.

Two keys to success here are making sure your team understands the plan objectives, and then giving them the freedom to work out problems when they hit new obstacles. Only 20% of managers say their companies do a good job of moving resources, budgets, people, and focus to respond to new contingencies in implementation of a strategic plan.

One reason for this statistic is that resources and budgets are tied up in non-strategic initiatives. For example, many companies are slow to exit or sell lagging businesses. There are lots of reasons for this.

Like a bad bluff in a poker game, it’s hard to walk away from the chips you’ve already put in, but it hurts like hell when the guy across the table (or the market) keeps raising your bluff. Prairie Sky Group sees this reluctance in many companies looking to raise money for blue ocean strategic opportunities. The first question we ask is, “How is your current business.” Often we find CEOs and Managers reluctant to abandon bad bets. And most often, we find personal reasons such as loyalty to a manager running the business.

A smart response to changes on the battlefield is to allow your team flexibility to respond. This means moving attention, resources and budgets quickly. The ability to do this is called Agility, “the ability to think and draw conclusions quickly; intellectual acuity… the power of moving quickly and easily; nimbleness.”

Agility should not be confused with pursuing everyone’s new idea. Otherwise you’ll be chasing your strategic soccer ball like a group of five-year olds.

The freedom to overcome obstacles is real Agility. Companies that allow for flexibility of resources and budgets wind up being more profitable and successful.

Do Great Things!

Lee Hobart Stocking
Founder
Prairie Sky Group
651-357-0110 (C)

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It’s not just your differentiation that makes your strategic plan successful. It’s where that differentiation occurs in the Value Chain, and whether it’s worthwhile.

When my daughter was younger, she came to me and asked me to help her develop a plan for a terrarium business. I thought it might be a teaching moment. So the first question I asked her was, “Are you going to cast your own glass?” Admittedly, I can be a pedantic jerk sometimes. (Look pedantic up.)

She said of course not. Then I asked her why. She said it would cost too much to buy a kiln and blow glass for the terrariums. She could buy them online. Then I asked her if she was going to build a green house to grow the plants? She said she might because she enjoyed gardening. Next I asked her if anyone would buy her terrariums if she grew the plants and put them together? She said that she thought they would.

So finally I asked, why not try to sell them before you grow them and make them? She asked why.

I told her that it’s important to do the last experiment first, a lesson taught me by an old 3M research chemist, Dr. Gerry Larson. When I ask him why you would do the last experiment first, he said that way I would know if all the other experiments were worth doing. Why waste your time otherwise?

There are two critical strategic principles in this little story that many CEOs often overlook. The first is where in the value chain you are going to compete. The second is whether it’s worthwhile.

Too many organizations miss value chain analysis. They rely on history (the way they’ve always done it) or simply ignore it. It’s especially important to consider it when industries are going through disruption.

Try getting your team to think this way in your next strategic planning session. It’s an inexpensive way to avoid costly mistakes. It’s also the last experiment.

Do Great Things!

-Hobart

Lee Hobart Stocking
Founder and Chief Provocateur
Prairie Sky Group
651-357-0110 (C)

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At Prairie Sky Group we listen to dozens of business plans for small and medium sized businesses each quarter.   We have a belief that focus and execution are keys to business success.   Often by asking one key question, we can determine how the client is doing.   That question is, “What’s your strategy?”

Strategy is tantamount to focus.  Without a clear strategy, it doesn’t matter how much effort or execution you put into your business.  You will be pursing any road that is convenient, and often many roads at the same time.  This can be confusing to your organization.

For example, if you are a sales person, should you cut the price to get the deal or walk away?  It depends on your strategy.   Is your strategy to be the biggest or the most profitable?  Does your organization start pursuing new market opportunities only to have them fail?  It depends on your strategy.  Is it to dominate one segment or sell in as many as possible?

Unfortunately, too many CEOs, Presidents, and Owners can’t articulate their company’s strategy.  As a result their organizations waste effort and often suffer cultural confusion.  It is said that culture trumps strategy in success, but certainly a clear strategy helps culture.

At Prairie Sky Group we often hear confusing replies when we ask, “What’s your strategy?”  For example, from one client we heard, “Our strategy is to help people get healthy.”  From another we heard, “Our strategy is be honest and work hard.”  And from another, “Our strategy is to be the biggest aircraft seat supplier in the North America.”  None of these are strategies.  The first is a mission statement, the second is a set of values, and the third is a vision statement.   So let’s outline the hierarchy of company statements and what they are first.

1.    Mission:  Why you exist.
2.    Values:  What you believe in, and how you will behave.  (Especially when there is a conflict.)
3.    Vision:  What you want to become.

All of these are required for growing your business.  But what are the elements of a clear concise strategy?   There are three.
1.    Objective:
2.    Scope:
3.    Advantage:

Your objective is the ends the strategy is set to achieve.   This includes a time frame.  So for example, “Our objective is to… become the leading online web assessment tool in our segment in four years.”  Often we will hear, “Our objective is to grow profitably.”  To which we ask, “Which is it, to grow or to be profitable?  It’s hard to do both.”  So in your objective statement, avoid platitudes, be specific, and include a time frame.

The second element is scope.   Scope is the domain in which you play.  So for example, “Our scope is to serve US hospital marketing departments.”  This provides both a geographic component and a market segment.   It helps avoid confusion of whether you would also serve the Managed Care markets or sell outside the US.

The final element is your advantage.  This is the most critical aspect of your strategy.  We get to this question when we ask, “What is your value proposition?”  This is your uniqueness or differentiation.  It answers any of three questions for your prospects.
1.    Why should I change from what I am doing now?  (Process)
2.    Why should I by your product? (Product or Service)
3.    Why should I buy from your company? (Company)

The second part of scope is answering how (Means) you are going to deliver that value to your customers?”

For example,  “Chief Medical Officers say we offer the most evidence-based medical assessment in an easy-to-use online subscription form.”

At the highest level, it is easy to outline what goes into a strategy statement.  But a blog post only does it lip service.  It’s can be much harder than that.  So if you are struggling with top line growth, ask yourself if it’s because you can’t articulate your strategy.   At Prairie Sky Group, helping clients with this problem is the first thing we do.

Do Great Things

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

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It’s the strategic planning season again in corporate America, and it’s difficult for me to not be a little cynical.  I’ve been through dozens of strategic planning sessions, some good, but most just awful.

There are lots of good strategic planning processes and facilitators.   That’s usually not the issue.

As Americans, we are culturally programmed to be optimistic about the future.  Though we spend very little time actually doing anything to prepare for it.  It’s apparent in our politics, and in our business.  We want the immediate result, so we take the short-term action.   If oil prices are up, we release strategic petroleum reserves.  If profits are down, then we cut jobs.  If we want jobs, then we create highway projects… that help facilitate our consumption of petroleum.

We are also connected everywhere in real time.   And we expect the ability to connect, to give us a competitive edge, so we answer our emails at midnight.  But there are other business and social cultures that take a longer view.  These cultures think in terms of decades.   They’re asking, what is the ultimate endgame or result that we want?  Continuing the energy analogy above, China is now the world’s largest exporter of green technology in the world.   They’ve been working on this for a decade or more.  The longer-term view is a trait that we might be well served by, though I suspect that it’s too big a leap.

In my observation, there are two related sins in strategic planning.  The first is making your plan entirely short-term and tactical.  This can happen if you are constrained by current budgets, finances, conditions, or competition.  You become so focused on what needs to get done in the near future that you make today the enemy of tomorrow.  The second is that you come up with a great strategic plan, and then spend no time working on the tactical plan to get there.

This year, let’s resolve to take an intermediate view past the short term tactical.  You don’t need to think a decade out, but three years would be ideal.  Then establish the key steps it will take you to get there.  Past that, work the tactical plan every quarter, and review your strategy yearly as you go along.  You say you do that?  Then have you arrived where you set out to go three years ago?

To coin a term, think and act… stratactically.

Do great things.

Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)

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