Tag Archives: Driver

How Do You Generate Buy-in as You Change the Business Model? Six Points

Situation: A company is changing its business model from fee for service, driven by individual contributors, to a contracted project model with teams delivering service. The driver for the new model is to deliver full solutions to meet client needs. The CEO is struggling to obtain buy-in to the new model from all stakeholders – employees, managers and shareholders. How do you generate buy-in as you change the business model?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The objective is to obtain agreement on vision and direction as the company adapts over a 3-5 year horizon.
    • Benefits include: product vs. service sales, a growing annuity revenue base, increased stability for the company and improved career paths for all members of the team.
    • Risks include: massive change, fear accompanying any change, too rapid growth, and the changes to company culture that will accompany this
  • Acknowledge and celebrate what the company and team have done well and the success that this has generated. In addition, share the lessons learned from experience to date, as well as the new opportunities that these lessons have created and the reasons to change to take advantage of these opportunities.
  • Create an exciting vision that expresses the new opportunities. Consider an off-site “WOW” event to announce your vision.
    • Focus on what’s in it for them as stakeholders. Address how they can participate in the change.
    • Where are the opportunities? Do they include investment and ownership?
    • Focus on the next major steps and the doable objectives associated with each step.
  • The new direction will require a different type of manager – with skills and experience managing teams. This is a growth opportunity for all involved. Provide training to assist the transition.
  • Employee and manager skill sets (including the CEO’s) will need to adapt – identify what skills will be needed and how they can be found or developed.
  • The past culture has been highly entrepreneurial with little middle management. The new model may be different from the current model, but it can still be entrepreneurial in a different way.

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How Do You Fit In Time For Yourself? Three Suggestions

Situation: The CEO of a high tech company has been working long hours, and has had no time for himself, or even for much sleep during the past few months. As is typical in a small company, the CEO and everyone else wears many hats. What have you done to successfully fit in time for yourself?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Take a calendar, and mark all of your time for several weeks to a month. Then look at the ways that you spend time and prioritize them into categories:
    • Life – eating, sleeping, etc.
    • Must do – mission critical
    • Must do – could possibly delegate
    • Free Time
    • See how many of the “Must do” activities you can delegate or otherwise handle and recategorize this time into Life or Free Time. You may be amazed at how much more efficiently you can use your time. Ask all employees to do this every 90 days to assure that they are utilizing their work time effectively.
  • If you have long commutes or lots of travel time, get an extended battery for your laptop. This will allow you to make travel time more productive.
  • Or, if you have a long commute, hire a semi-retired driver to drive you to and from work. Turn your commute time into productive work time.
    • Semi-retired drivers are available for as little as $10 per hour. You can pay them $1,000 at a time in advance, and the driver keeps a log of the time spent driving the client.
    • Use your car, or the driver’s car and if the latter, reimburse the driver for mileage.
    • To make this work effectively set the rule that you are the client, and not looking for conversation. You want to accomplish as much work as possible during the trip.
    • Look for professional drivers, with the proper licensing. Do an MVR check on the driver’s history as part of your evaluation process.

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