Author: Dr. Don Sweet

Wow, not much of a contest, was it?  What can we learn as business people from Seattle’s victory?

First thing that came to my partner’s mind was that we witnessed a simple plan well executed.  There wasn’t a lot of flash.  The Seattle defense got after Denver.  Their offense moved the ball.  Yes, there were a couple of misdirection plays, but for the most part it was straight forward smash mouth football.

Offense is sexy.  Sales is sexy.  Manning had set records in passing yardage and touchdowns.  So what?  His offense was ineffective all night.

Same thing can happen with sales.  We can set records, yet not get the right product or service shipped.  How often has your top line exceeded budget while the bottom line was under water?

We need to execute in all areas; offense, defense, special teams, coaching to win the big games.  Sales, production, development, finance, leadership must all be at the top of their game and work as a team.  A season of excellence in one area will not mask issues in the others with big opportunities on the line.

Keep the plan simple and execute it.  Don’t try to get fancy.  Do what you do very well and success will more often be yours.

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

Core values are integral to your company Strategy.  How, you ask?  Good question.  Core values provide the foundation for a team to work within and they inform organizational culture.  They comprise the rules of engagement, the social contract, how we expect to interact with each other.

“Who” decisions, not “what” decisions are often the most important decisions that leaders of organizations have to make.  Many organizations claim, and we agree, that their people are their most important asset.  People devise and execute an organization’s strategy.  The better they work together, the better the strategy and execution will be.

As Jim Collins writes in Good to Great, “…to build a successful organization you must get the right people on the bus.”  Core values help organizations determine who those right people are.  When people share values, they work better together as a team.  They have the same understanding of what is important and how to deal effectively with each other.  We work with our clients to interview for core value fit with every new hire.

Since core values inform organizational culture, they impact strategy on a deeper level, too.  We believe that culture is the only thing the competition can’t copy.   Culture provides the way a team works together and interacts with the marketplace.  From vendors to partners to customers, an organization’s culture is both evident and impactful.

Core values also provide the direction and help in everyday decision making, so important to execution of any strategy.  When they become an integral part of an organization’s culture, core values also help to improve teamwork.  As Pat Lencioni writes in his business classic, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, teamwork is a strategic choice.  Core values provide both the structure and the gearing in which teamwork operates effectively.

Strategy itself, without execution, is just so many words, an empty vessel.  Execution requires commitment from a team that works well together.  The team is determined then strengthened and guided by their core values.  Without those accepted norms of behavior, teamwork and execution both suffer.

Core values are at the very foundation of a solid and sustainable strategy.  As Steven Covey wrote in First Things First, values clarification helps determine the “true north” when determining what is most important.  We suggest that is at the core of all successful strategies.  To that end, first work on making your core values alive and exercised daily within your organization.

By Dr. Donald N. Sweet

We believe your brand promise is at the core of your strategy.   We define brand promise as our business commitment to the marketplace.  We promise that every client, every customer can expect the same specific high level of service or product from us.  In doing so, a brand promise:

•    Brings clarity and focus both internally and externally
•    Defines our uncommon offering
•    Demands we know our core customer well
•    Require metrics to measure delivery of our promise

Bob Bloom in his book, The Inside Advantage, talks about identifying what he calls your “uncommon offering”.  It’s what our business uniquely offers the marketplace and separates us from competitors.  Our uncommon offering is important to our core customer and brings them unique value.

Bloom then suggests that we identify our core customer in great specificity.  Bloom suggests using both demographic and psychographic descriptors when we identify our best (core) customers.  He points out there may be several.  Bloom takes it a bit further in that he suggests giving each one a name to further emphasize their characteristics.

When we better identify our core customers we are freed up to focus specifically on them.  Our business, and therefore our brand promise, also:
•    Provides focus on the core customer(s)
•    Brings targeted messaging to attract more (core) customers
•    Helps free up resources from non-core customers for redeployment

It is just as important that a business know which set of potential customers will never be core customers.  They won’t pay for value.  They are hard to work with.  They take more resources than they are worth.  A focused brand promise with a well identified core set of customers allows us to profitably redeploy resources.

We suggest a lead promise and two supporting promises.  Southwest Airlines (before they started charging for bags) brand promise was, Lower Fares, More Flights, More Fun.  Low fares are the lead promise supported by the other two.  Just as importantly two of those promises could be measured, low fares and more flights.

We believe that the best brand promises can be measured.  We need to be able to objectively determine if we are meeting our promises or not.  Measurement is key.

Our brand promise also informs how we organize our business to best deliver our uncommon value.  To ensure that we are meeting our promises we need to have an organization that:

•    Is committed and understands their roles to effectively deliver on promises
•    Frequently measures results and is quick to take corrective action as needed
•    Has the right people on the bus, as Jim Collins would say

Finally our brand promises must be constructed with an eye toward execution.   We must be able to meet our promises to the marketplace.  We should always build in the execution steps when developing any type of plan or program.  Making promises we are unable to keep is silly and often leads to commercial suicide.

When you consider all the aspects of constructing a solid brand promise you can see why we believe it is central to any company’s strategy.  At its very core, strategy is about delivering value to the core customer while being different from the competition.

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

When we ask that question we get several different responses.  Sometimes it’s the deer in the headlights look.  “Our strategy said in one sentence?”  Other times the CEO will launch into a rather long, convoluted sentence.  When our follow up question is, “Will your management team say the same thing?”  The responses differ from the deer above, to “I hope so” to “I don’t know”.

We have been accused of using that as a trick question.  Is it really?  What happens when the entire management team can express their strategy in a single sentence?  Please spend a moment to ponder that before reading on.

When your entire team can express the company strategy succinctly, they better understand that guiding light.  Many of you will remember GE’s strategy under Jack Welch.  “We will be number one or number two in the markets we serve.”  How powerful that was.  Every executive, every employee knew if they weren’t one or two they really needed to get bigger or they would probably be spun off or tossed out.

Southwest Air took it a step further to a one phrase strategy, “Wheels Up”.  Southwest realized they only made money when the planes were in the air taking people to their destinations.  Everything Southwest did was aimed at getting “wheels up”.  They moved people in and out of the plane quickly.  They didn’t have meals to put on the plane or clean up as a result upon landing.

Furthermore they standardized on one type of plane in their fleet, the Boeing 737.  That allowed spare parts to be interchangeable.  Mechanics were all trained to work on the same plane.  They got really good at understanding their equipment.  In a pinch they could move parts and mechanics from one airport to another easily.  It was the same situation with pilots.   The flexibility and concentrated expertise they gained was enormous.

Strategy should inform all our decisions.  “Wheels Up” clearly did that for Southwest.  How many of us when faced with day to day decisions can look to our strategy for guidance?  How powerful would it be if we could?  We’re not talking about just the management team either.  Everyone at Southwest could see why many decisions were made as they furthered the company strategy.

We at Vital Growth are passionate about total company alignment.  When your entire team, from CEO to sweeper is pulling in the same direction, it’s powerful.  That is enhanced when the entire team understands the company’s strategy.  Keep it simple, straightforward, and meaningful.  What is your company strategy in a sentence?

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

Do you have a “management” system?  When I ask most CEOs this question they usually respond regarding an accounting or ERP system.  Those are both management information systems.  While they are important to keep track of things, they are not what we mean by a management system.

A good management system keeps track of important things, too.  Items like core values, purpose, long term goals, current strategy, brand promises, target market(s), three year goals, quarterly priorities, key performance indicators, etc.   These are many of the critical pieces of information a well-run and successful business needs to communicate to the entire team.

We believe a key competitive advantage can be had by making sure that every person in the organization understands at least those nine items listed above.  Core values are the social contract we live and operate with.  They help us make better interpersonal, hiring, vendor, and customer decisions.  They inform our communications with all stakeholders.  When the entire team adheres to core values things run smoother.

When the entire team understands the strategy, purpose, and long term goals, we find people are more likely to pull in the same direction.  Too often we find organizations where the right hand doesn’t know what the left one is doing.  That’s no way to run a railroad or a business. 

When the team understands the company’s target market and brand promises we empower them to make better customer and commercial decisions.  At the end of the day, we need more people in our organization understanding that the customer is our reason for being in business.  It is up to us to educate them about those issues.

Priorities are key to get the right things done.  We all have long “to do” lists but it’s usually impossible to get them all done.  Focus on the important few is critical to making the progress we desire.  Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help us keep score of our progress.  Data reduces subjectivity.

A good management system will help you accomplish all of these and more in your business with less effort.  We help our clients implement the Gazelles One Page Strategic Plan to this end.  It’s simple, straightforward and elegant.  It helps to get the entire team on the proverbial same page.  Communication is critical to get everyone understanding the most important aspects of your business.  A good management system will help you do that effectively.

by Dr. Donald Sweet

We often ask prospects to name their top five priorities.  They struggle to do that.  Setting clear priorities is critical to getting the most important things done.  If your priorities are not clear, then your team doesn’t know where to focus its energy.

Priorities, along with data and communications, are the fundamental building blocks of a growing business.   If it is not clear what the most important things are, lots of effort will be spent on less important ones.  Priorities must be clear.

We ask clients to determine their five most important priorities are for the quarter.  This is where the heavy lifting is done.  Determining the top five priorities requires spirited debate by the leadership team.  They must adhere to the overall strategy and move the organization toward its BHAG (long term goal).

Spirited examination about what is best for the business is key.  There is no room for protecting turf or pet projects in this debate.  In determining the five most important goals for the quarter, a number of others are left on the sideline.

We often see teams and individuals with “to do” lists that take up a whole page.  When you have twenty seven different things to do it’s almost impossible to get the most important ones completed.  As Pat Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, says, “If everything is important, nothing’s important.”

Pareto famously stated 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  This is also known as the Vital Few.  When we focus on the vital few priorities we improve our probabilities of getting the most important tasks accomplished.

We also ask our Gazelles clients to name their number one priority for the quarter.  We call that the Top One of Five.  By agreeing and communicating the most important priority for the quarter we leverage the efforts of the entire organization.  When the goal is clear, people respond.

Once this process is in place, it is important to spend the time and effort moving toward the top priorities.  We see too many organizations that set priorities and then discard them when the next shiny penny appears.  This is one of the vital reasons a vigorous debate is required up front.  If we have used a solid process to determine the priorities, we must have the discipline to see them through for the quarter.

So much energy is wasted tacking back and forth, switching priorities during a quarter.  Believe in the process, stick to your decisions and work on your top priorities.  This is the best way to ensure you and your team get the most important things done.

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

Leadership is responsible for the mega issues surrounding an organization’s vision, communication of that vision, motivation, providing resources, results, organizational health and balancing stakeholder conflicting interests.  That sounds like some sort of text book statement, doesn’t it?  Be that as it may, leadership is responsible for all of those items.  How does leadership ensure they are effectively accomplished?

In our view the individual leader, alone at the top of the organization, is at a distinct disadvantage with this responsibility.  We believe there is a compelling need for a team to effectively guide the organization.  Therefore one of the most important responsibilities of top management is ensuring that the entire management team is comprised of good leaders.  The Gazelles suggest asking CEOs the following question of their leaders, “Would you enthusiastically rehire everyone on your team?”

The two important activities that we believe provide a CEO with the most leverage are a strong management/leadership team and a healthy organizational culture.  Top on the list is recruiting, motivating, and retaining a highly functioning management/leadership team.  We are not suggesting a leader should focus on finding the best functional experts.  We actually prefer leadership teammates that have had multiple functional management roles and have a track record of putting the team ahead of their functional area.  Our belief is that team players trump functional whizzes in an organization.

For leadership teams to be effective they must be comprised of people that both trust one another and can accept ideas that are better than their own.  They must be able to argue the merits of issues passionately and then commit to the final decision.  They have to be ready to be held accountable by others on the team and in turn to hold teammates accountable when appropriate.  Finally, they must all put the team results above their own functional area of responsibility.  For more information about building high functioning teams see Pat Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

We believe your corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage your organization can create.  Everything else from products to processes to technology can be copied.  Your culture can be imitated but it can’t be copied.  It remains uniquely yours. Culture is what draws and keeps the right people on your team.  It is also the lubrication that keeps the organizational machine running smoothly.

Central to culture are core values and purpose.  Core values form the basis of the social contract team members have with each other and the organization.  They are the straightforward rules of engagement both internally and externally.  Purpose is the reason the organization exists at a higher level than just making profits.  Don’t misunderstand, profits are important but not the higher purpose that unites the organization.

Companies that solely focus on profits usually attract employees that are only focused on a paycheck.  That is not enough for any of us to be truly dedicated.  Consider how much of our time and energy is spent at the job.  If there is not a higher level commitment, we won’t give our all because the work is not truly fulfilling.

Building a strong culture and a management team are at the highest levels of a leader’s responsibility.  Sure it’s important to get the everyday tasks done.  However a well-functioning team should have that responsibility.  The leader must champion these more important items, allocate resources to debate and codify them, then continuously reinforce them with the organization.  These activities will enable the organization to be ever more effective in the marketplace.

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

You probably found yourself saying, “of course”, when you read the title of this blog.  But stop for a moment and ask yourself how many organizations you’ve been in have values that are alive and well and clarity that is crystal.  We have written before about the pivotal role core values play in a business.  In this blog I’m going to expand on that and discuss the all important aspect of clarity.

Done right, core values are the social contract between the individual and the organization.  They communicate what to expect and how to act.  Our clients often use their core values as guideposts in making decisions.  It’s common for them to ask the, “what do our core values say about this” question.  One client says, “If you stay true to your core values it’s hard to go wrong.”

The enterprise and everyone in it benefits from having a set of living values.  Difficult conversations can often profit from the “what do our core values say” question.  When those challenging dialogues are with team members, addressing them in relation to a core value keeps the discussion from becoming personal.

Core values not only apply to employees and the hiring process.  They can also be pertinent to discussions and decisions about vendors, prospects and customers.  Sometimes we see those disconnects between our values and those of prospects.  When we do, we know the fit will not be good.  We also have clients who have decided to “fire” a customer because there was a major mismatch in values.

Clarity means that in addition to understanding the core values, the entire team is also clear about 1) the organization’s strategy, 2) the core customer, 3) the brand promise, 4) the long term goal, 5) the top three quarterly priorities and 6) what specifically is required of them to be successful.  When the entire team has this type of clarity they become a formidable force in the marketplace.

This is heavy lifting.  Most of us don’t naturally do a good job of making sure these items are clear.  The leadership team must passionately debate and commit to the first five answers above.  Many teams have a difficult time with that, as Pat Lencioni’s business fable, Five Dysfunctions of a Team would indicate.  Those items then need to be well communicated to everyone in the business.  Then they need to be reinforced, if needed, repeatedly.

Clarity of purpose provides power, leverage, or whatever you call the phenomenon that happens when the entire team is pulling in the same direction.  This is where smaller teams with fewer resources can compete effectively with larger competitors.  The most natural state seems to be organizations that are dominated by politics instead of values and confusion instead of clarity.  Many of us have worked for, and some of us have led, those types of enterprises.

Values and clarity can also improve how the individuals in the enterprise feel about themselves and their work.  If we can help people to feel better at work they might take those feelings

Feeling bombarded by lots of issues and options coming at you in your business?  If so you’re not alone.  How do we effectively wade through all the stuff coming our way?  Nineteenth century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto developed the principle we know as the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle.

In the principle, Pareto states that usually 80 percent of all benefit is derived from 20 percent of the items.  You’ll probably find that 80 percent of your sales come from 20 percent of your customers.  Same with profit, although it may not come from the exact same 20 percent as sales does.

Focus on the important few and bypass the trivial many.  So many get caught up in all the details that the real benefit gets lost in the weeds.  Decide where that 80 per cent is to be found and then go after only those items for details.

It’s hard work to keep from being distracted.  Email, texts, phone calls, blogs (like this one), LinkedIn, tweets, etc. constantly bombard us and beckon for our attention with beeps and dings and rings.  You get the idea.  Sometimes it seems as if a Pavlov disciple is trying to train us.  How many times have you been talking with someone, when their phone made a noise, and they stopped listening and grabbed for it?

Then there are the other options that come up and seem more inviting, even alluring.  Some blame that on ADD when in fact it can be just plain difficult to stick with a task.  Our age is not alone in facing this dilemma.  Virgil, Roman writer from the time of Caesar Augustus, wrote about this very issue that his protagonist, Aeneas wrestled with too.  He found it hard to stay focused on his goal to found Rome.   There are always many distractions.

We believe the way to success is to work with your team to set a long term goal.   It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be “found Rome” but it has to beyond your current reach.  Next step is to decide on incremental goals and priorities that move you toward the long term.

The team should passionately debate which priorities are most important.  We suggest most teams focus on a top three list.  Once the three near term priorities are agreed, it is time do a deep dive into the details necessary to implement them effectively.  Then assign a responsible person, allocate them resources, determine milestones, deadlines and finally review progress regularly.

Keeping focused on the top three priorities for the next quarter provides the most value.  A quarter is short enough so that if conditions change dramatically your business can adapt with new priorities for the next quarter.  Remember Pareto’s principle, fight distractions, keep to the plan and success is more likely to be yours.

Pareto was genius, arriving at his view.

Pay attention dear friend, to those important few.

The benefit we get, derives from only them.

Immersion in many, should our leaders condemn.

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Stay focused on the goal, beware the decoy.

Like Aeneas whose quest, was to found a new Troy.

He could not succumb, to Dido’s ample charms.

Achieving arete, as Virgil sang of arms.

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Don’t get distracted, by gadgets and calls.

They want our attention, our wallets our balls.

Often feels like Pavlov, has been employed to train.

Ringtones beeps vibrations, that stimulate yet drain.

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Scaling the next level, in your search for success,

a maniacal focus, on your goal works best.

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