Do you know this person? Planning for change without ever changing.

On December 4, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson
Business Model Resources
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Do you know this consultant/manager?

They are great at planning and strategizing and planning and brainstorming but never execute on anything?

I’ve seen managers inside companies take multiple quarters or even years to put plans together. By the time it’s done everything’s changed and they have to start all over again.

Consultants are notorious for this. They can build beautiful PowerPoint decks and churn out reams of paper in reports and strategy docs without ever really telling you what to do and are gone long before you realize you’ve been screwed. (The latest flavor of this of course is the social media consultant.)

Neil Beam and I were ranting about this when he reminded me of this great video from the “good days” of SNL (not to be confused with the “good old days” of SNL).

The Change Bank.

But planning, brainstorming and creating strategies but they are absolutely worthless if no one can implement them.

If you’re trying to determine if a new hire or consultant is right don’t let them wow you with their client lists or strategery ask for examples of projects they’ve actually taken from planning to execution to measurement. (Hint: run away if they don’t have any metrics.)

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Marketing Strategies vs Quarterly Reporting

On October 19, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson
"An Execution by an Eliphant", from ...
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There is a lot of dissent within the marketing ranks of Corporate America about quarterly reporting. The common argument is that by basing your marketing strategy on quarterly earnings you aren’t giving your company enough time to let your decisions play out. I’ve often heard people advocate for the Japanese approach to strategy which advocates for a 100 year strategy. Wow 100 years, that’s a long time. What happens if things aren’t working out after 20 years? 80 years is a long time to wait to adjust.

Having worked with and for several fortune 100 companies I’ve come to the conclusion that the real problem is how long it takes companies to come up with and execute a strategy. It typically takes at least one full quarter for you to develop a strategy. Actually it takes about a week or two and then 2 1/2 months to sell it in, get approval and budget. Then it typically takes about a full quarter to execute on that strategy. Half the year is now gone and you don’t even know what the results of your strategy are.

The reason quarterly reporting upsets most strategists is because they never know if what they are doing is working or not. (Personally, I think that’s part of the reason why marketing and measurement are in the shape they are.) The problem isn’t quarterly reporting. The problem is that it takes so long to create, approve and execute on a strategy.

The sick irony is that quarterly reporting has created a crippling fear inside public companies that has lead to so many barriers and hurdles being put in place to ensure you don’t create the wrong strategy that ultimately you’re crippling yourself from ever creating a good strategy. At best most companies end up creating an okay strategy that then has to suffer through it’s own hurdles to survive until execution. (That was a pun in case you missed it.)

There is nothing wrong with quarterly reporting. Yes it makes some companies do some crazy things but money always does. Quarterly reporting is what drives companies to improve. It motivates companies to innovate and create wealth (remember we are all capitalists here and money is still a good thing) I know (hope) I get some flack for this statement in the comments.

What needs to change is you need to tear down the hurdles that are stopping your marketers from creating truly great strategies and executing on them swiftly.

Again it’s not the reporting that’s broken, but the speed of innovation. It’s the fear and the hurdles that cause middle managers to kill real innovation. Of course the other truth is that for every innovation that was unjustly killed, there were thousands that were rightfully euthanized. You need to stop stifling your engineers and innovators from really innovating not iterating.

(And no, I really don’t know why I chose that photo. It was one of the Zemanta recommendations and it somehow seemed fitting.)

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Transparency = Trust. Trust = Greater Profits.

On March 6, 2007, In Biz, By Tac Anderson
Hsssssssss....Trust in me - Vertraue mir
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For a long time now I (and many many others) have been talking about transparency. I’ve even gone so far as to translate it into to corporate speak by telling companies that they need to adopt a Transparent Business Strategy. Most people when I say this nod their head and agree with me as if to say “oh yeah we have one of those,” which is quickly followed by a slight look of confusion as they start to wonder what that actually means.

The goal of a Transparent Strategy is to have trust.
To have trust in others and to have the trust of others.

I hate throwing around the much over used word, “strategy” without some context. The best definition of strategy that I’ve heard is: to create fit within all practices of an organization. Each function of a company should support the other business functions to drive profit. That is the goal right?

I believe that transparency drives trust which drives greater profits.

  • When your employees trust you they will work harder.
  • When your customers trust you they are more loyal.
  • When your stakeholders trust you they are more likely to invest in you.
  • When your strategic partners trust you they will more likely share valuable information.

I don’t know a single company (I’m sure they exist somewhere) that doesn’t want to have the trust of their customers, or the trust of their employees. Far fewer companies are willing to trust their customers or employees. Most say they do, but how many actually do?

If a company trusted their employees, why would it be so scary to let them blog or have an internal forum? If a company trusted that their customers would come to their defense if some wayfaring naysayer wondered by, why wouldn’t they have a company blog?

Of course an even more poiniant question is: if a company has trust in themselves what do they have to be afraid of? I think they are afraid of the truth.

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