Tag Archives: Effective

How Do You Maintain Focus on Your Core While Growing? Six Considerations

Situation: A company has established a strong core business and it is time to diversity. The most promising opportunity for growth is complimentary to but a different business model from the company’s core. What are best practices for maintaining focus on the core business while developing a new opportunity? How do you maintain focus on your core while growing?

Advice:

  • Most importantly, be emotionally and strategically ready to make the bet and commit to action. In doing so you must “know thyself.” Specifically, take a long look to determine whether you tend to overanalyze or are too quick to pull the trigger. Understanding your tendencies will help in the steps below. 
  • Establish the prerequisites for pulling the trigger. This means determining:  the level of operating stability for the core business that will allow you to split focus; the level of financial stability and predictability that will support both core and expansion efforts; and the level of organizational and process stability that will allow you to take on the new opportunity.
  • Understand and define the differences between the old game and the new game. What are the financials of the growth opportunity? How do they differ from your core business? Are there conflicts that must be resolved? Can you launch an innovative solution to differentiate the new offering?
  • Gather enough understanding of market need that will satisfy you with the new opportunity so as to be able to address it effectively.
  • Establish a sound execution strategy and timeframe for launching the new business. Some of your decisions will be wrong. You need the resources to tolerate a learning curve while running fast towards your goal.
  • Draft a leadership development plan for both the core and new business before you start. This plan must define the skill sets and growth needs of each business.

Thanks to Clark Avery for his contribution to this article.

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How Do You Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance? Six Solutions

Situation: A CEO says that he typically works long hours and frequently works weekends. This taxes his family life and he is neglecting activities that were previously enjoyed. Are you living for work or working for a living? How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Life is more than work. Just the fact of you’re asking this question indicates that you already know that too much focus on work is not good for you.
  • Develop and devote time to your hobbies. The CEO and engineers in one company developed a company robotics club, and participate in robotic competitions. This has a number of benefits. It provides fun away from work while keeping their creative engineering skills sharp. As they compete, they meet and form relationships with potential business partners and customers. It builds camaraderie and cohesiveness within the team. They have the opportunity to involve their kids in this activity. In addition, they translate this into a public service by assisting local schools who have their own robotics clubs.
  • Regular exercise, particularly with a group, helps you to be more effective at work. This is supported by substantial objective research.
  • Involve other people – friends and family – in your hobby or exercise activity. It will help to both strengthen relationships and resist distractions.
  • To assure that this becomes part of your life, put it on the calendar and don’t let other priorities displace it.
  • Learn to say “no” to things that would displace this activity.

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How Do You Work with an Off-Shore Business Partner? Six Recommendations

Situation:  A company has an off-shore business partner. Primary concerns of the CEO involve team performance, process documentation and anticipating sales/marketing problems before they become issues. What have others found effective to monitor these areas? How do you work with an off-shore business partner?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • At the executive level, keep things simple – identifying the major goals and pieces of projects that are make or break.
  • Simplify the high level summary and assure that all aspects of the supporting activity are aligned with and support key project or company goals. Some members manage projects with reviews and updates during weekly or bi-weekly meetings.
  • The benefit of keeping it simple in your own mind is that you can always return to this simplicity when dealing with detail level queries from the partner. It keeps you grounded and on track.
  • One company uses project timelines that clearly show each of the teams where they fit into the project and how important it is for them to complete their portion of the project on time and to spec. Keep everything simple and direct.
  • Sales tracking and management are different from development projects. Monitor forecasts, pipeline, and achievement of metrics that track with the forecasts.
  • In working with an off-shore partner, organize your presentations so that the key points of emphasis are readily visible. Have back-up slides to show detailed aspects of particular projects or initiatives, and be prepared to cover the details if needed. This will help to build confidence between you and your business partner.

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How Do You Get Doer/Sellers to Sell? Four Recommendations

Situation: A company has a geographical sales and service organization. Much of the sales effort comes from the consulting reputation of the managing director of each geographical unit, but he directors’ core values usually favor consulting over meeting sales plans. How do we get these directors to meet sales goals? How do you get doer/sellers to sell?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • One company shared their experience turning around a consulting organization with no sales culture. This was a 5-year process. It started with a leader who sells successfully and teaches by example. As the company made the transition, they selected new hires for sales skills to complement their consulting skills. This facilitated their transition to a strong sales culture.
  • Another CEO pointed out that you need to commit to build a sales culture. Moving to an account manager team versus an engineering/professional team is a big shift. It took time and patience. Hire effective sales people to jump-start the process. Most of the successful seller/doers will be new hires. Revise the reward and recognition structure around the new sales objectives. Make rainmakers the best paid people. This will bring others out of the woodwork.
  • A third CEO recommended biasing sales compensation for doer/sellers toward variable compensation. Allow successful individuals to make over $200K per year. Consider a 3-year phase-in by not increasing base pay through raises. More than make up the difference in available variable pay. This will give directors more incentive to hit their sales numbers
  • This is a difficult change in both sales leadership and culture. It may require significant changes in leadership within the company.

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What are Effective Performance Incentives? Four Examples

Situation: The CEO of a company is considering options for both team and individual recognition. What have other companies found to be effective? What are effective performance incentives?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • One company has foremen compete on project quality, cost containment, and other measures. Bonuses are based on a mix of team performance, project difficulty and individual initiative.
  • Another company uses year-end bonuses, but places more emphasis on frequent small recognitions such as a pedicure, manicure, and going out for a meal on the company. These are rewards and recognition that let the employees know that they are appreciated on a regular basis. Any incentives paid are based on a mix of individual and team performance.
  • A third company completely eliminated bonuses. Salaries were raised to make up the difference, and individual incentives are created and paid during the year. Incentives reward specific accomplishments which are highlighted when the incentive is paid. Incentives are a mix of team and individual performance.
  • A fourth company is very generous with bonuses – $5K to $10K at a time at the discretion of the CEO. These are paid face to face by the CEO and the individual is congratulated on their performance. However, the bonus recipient also signs a paper pledging not to talk about the bonus. If they tell others about their bonus, they are eliminated from the bonus pool. This company also uses publicly announced annual awards, performance-based monthly awards, shirts, etc. that are presented at company meetings. Interestingly, the smaller rewards and public recognition appear to have the most impact.

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How Do You Sell in an Adverse Market? Three Points

Situation: A CEO is concerned that while interacting with trusted advisors and key contacts in the market the challenge is not the words, but in the environment of nervousness about the state of the economy. He feels a need to increase prospecting and to become more proactive – particularly with trusted advisors. What is the advice of the CEOs around the table for doing this? How do you sell in an adverse market?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Get the team to believe – adjust the message to the environment.
• Get together with the team and brainstorm how your company’s offering provides advantages in an uncertain market. Craft this into a message that everyone can use.
• To spark the discussion get a digital copy of the movie Glengarry Glen Ross and watch it together. This is a wonderful example of what NOT to do, but will engage the imaginations of the team. After watching the movie brainstorm what your more effective message will be.

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How Do You Interview New Tech Hires? Four Necessities

Situation: A CEO wants advice on hiring new technical staff. Important considerations are cultural fit, identifying the characteristics of effective people, assuring that the right people are hired, and evaluating people for specifics tasks. In the past hiring technical people has proven challenging and poor hires have inhibited company growth. How do you interview new tech hires?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • It is critical to be clear on the factors necessary to be successful in the enterprise. Once these have been identified, align the factors with existing individuals in the organization as role models. Also align these factors with those who will be involved in candidate selection. This facilitates identification of good candidates.
  • Develop clarity on candidate evaluation. Identify and develop questions that will allow candidates to describe what is important to them and what they want to get out of their career choice.  In addition to specific knowledge, candidates should demonstrate a personal value system compatible with the company’s culture. They must also demonstrate a high energy level.
  • Once there is clear articulation of desired characteristics of candidates work with others such as college placement organizations, friends of the firm, Craig’s list, and so on to assist with candidate identification. A well written position description not only describes the type of individual desired, but also why someone would want to join the firm.
  • It’s imperative to be able to give a sales presentation on the company including specific reasons why people should join it. Avoid getting so wrapped up in the selection mode that you fail to recruit. Some who have done this were stunned to find that after they have made their selection the candidate was no longer interested.

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How Do You Minimize Hiring while Launching a New Market? Five Points

Situation: A company is planning to expand operations into a new geography. The CEO wants to avoid hiring a new sales person out of the main office as they make this move because he wants the expansion to fund itself. How do you minimize hiring while launching a new market?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Start by profiling the ideal customer for the new geography.
    • The definition should include business sector, company size, current capabilities in terms of the service provided by the company, and openness to working with outside service providers.
  • Consider a satellite office or franchise option. The two key employees to staff the office will be an engineer and a principal manager for the office. The principal manager will be the sales person.
  • Target initial clients that meet the profile of the existing business but in the new geography.
  • Use what has been learned over the years in the principal location to build an effective culture in the new location. Select key people for the new location that would fit well into the current location.
  • How can the principal manager network in the new location to attract clients?
    • Clubs
    • Organizations
    • White Papers
    • Advertising and Mass Mailing
    • Author a book or be featured in a chapter of someone else’s book
    • Generate partnerships or affiliations for business development

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How Do You Manage Growth? Six Points

Situation: Many companies face challenges managing growth. Growth is a complex process involving strategy, staff and company culture. What guidance can the group give to help guide planning for growth? How do you manage growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Think of growth in term of five major components of organization and growth: structural, cultural, facilities, documentation systems, and people.
  • Structural
    • Consider different ownership and profit sharing options. Look for options that fit the objectives of the company.
    • If you are looking at multi-location solutions, develop a structure that can be easily copied in new locations that are added but which is complementary to the home office structure.
  • Cultural
    • If the business is family-run and looking at moving to a non-family structure, look for options that will preserve the best aspects of the culture as it has developed.
    • Keep company values intact.
    • Focus on maintaining engagement and commitment.
  • Facilities
    • The transition from single-site to multiple-site is particularly traumatic. The jump from 2-sites to 3-sites is much easier because an effective model is already in place.
  • Documentation Systems
    • Growth can compel the company to adopt entirely new systems, especially when passing certain thresholds for government regulations (i.e. 50+ employees).
  • People
    • Hire and retain for the right mindset – consistent with company culture and structure.
    • Specialists can be a real asset for their particular talents, but they seldom have the view of the “big picture” that is required for a turbulent environment.
    • Compensation – align compensation with company culture and priorities.
    • “Ownership” may have to change from sole ownership to shared ownership in order to keep key talent engaged.
    • Add new skill sets to address needs but assure that these complement existing skill sets.

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What are Effective Website Features and Metrics? Five Options

Situation: A CEO wants to revise his company’s website to be a more effective source of leads. What has worked well for others gaining leads from their companies’ websites? What has intrigued potential clients and prompted them to contact the company about its products and services? What are effective website features and metrics?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Have as much usable content as possible – useable by those who visit the site. This will drive traffic to the site. Traffic will produce leads from a certain percent of users who are impressed by the company’s capabilities.
  • Does the site meet the company’s target customers’ needs? If so, are the search terms optimized to attract them to the site when they perform searches?
  • Create an interactive demo on the site that will be of interest to the company’s current customers and potential customers.
  • Use the company’s customer extranet to create a “wow” experience that will create buzz within client companies and help to attract additional business from those companies.
    • An extranet is an intranet that can be partially accessed by authorized outside users, enabling businesses to exchange information over the internet securely.
  • Put a freebie tool on the public site and extranet that helps clients to solve a frequent problem. This helps to segue customers and potential customers from personal use to product or service choice.
  • Whatever tools are used, include a unique link to each approach or tool and offer the customer a modest discount for using the link.
    • Counting the frequency of links used is a simple way to determine which tools or features are most effective with customers.

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