Posts Tagged ‘business planning’
We thought the “perfect storm” was over, and we had just begun to roll out our growth strategies, and inspire market confidence. Mid 2010 finds the Euro is in free-fall, and the roller coaster ride appears to have begun again. Once more, our investors are nervous, and our workforces anxious. More uncertainty, more cautious investors, and less confidence in our future survival? How do we, in these conditions position ourselves to thrive in 2011?
3rd Quarter – The time for Visionary Leadership!
This article argues that this is a not a time for timidity, and one that requires truly creative vision and strategy, and truly aggressive action.
Q3 2010 – strategic planning time… and time to get really creative! Consider these suggestions – they may be painful, and they may not be for you…. BUT…..
Get Blue Ocean
Have revenues grow in 2010? – or have you been content to ‘hold your ground’? Did you plan for new acquisitions? or major product innovations, or the potential to enter new markets?
Survival strategies are not success strategies! Now is the perfect time to get BLUE OCEAN in your thinking:
* seek out the un-served market segments;
* search for pioneering technologies;
* challenge your supply line model and break the value – cost trade-off;
* Challenge existing market boundaries, and create uncontested market space.
Blue Ocean – An Illustration
The NANO motor car, created by the TATA Group in India, represents Blue Ocean thinking in action. In targeting a previously un-served segment of the Indian car market, those who could spend only $2500, TATA needed to reinvent its ’supply chain’. This required placing a limited number of suppliers in one place , wot work through all potential problems in manufacturing the NANO at a viable cost. By doing so, TATA were able to create a new value proposition based on low unit profit margins, but enormous market presence, which was underpinned by a radical overhaul of supply chain strategy and management the ‘Blue Ocean’ opportunity..
Re-Align your Organization
How did you react to the recession? Did you simply belt-tighten, or did you merge business units, re-align departments and teams, or divest non-essential management?
In this turbulent environment, how will you maintain your competitiveness? How will you meet your earnings targets, while retaining the same structure? Winning companies see the challenges as an opportunity to consolidate, merge entities, and invest now in differentiation
To position for success in 2010, companies need to take portfolio decisions which:
1. Exploit their core and ideally, unique competencies;
2. Build on core competencies through acquisition of complimentary businesses, and
3. Divest complex, or ill-fitting businesses which require additional management resources, and drive up costs in times of uncertainty.
What’s has been clear from our experiences in 2010, as in 2009, is that there is the potential for discontinuous change in the structure of most industries. Your, success hinges on your ability to adapt immediately and continually to structural changes, and seize strategic opportunities. These opportunities are likely to be present in front of you now.
Senior Leaders must ask themselves:
* Are these lines of business vital to the future of the company?
* Will this business generate sustainable growth opportunities for the company?
* Does this business offer potential for returns greater than investors could achieve in other areas of their equity portfolio?
Most CEOs approach divestment of a line of business with extreme reluctance, fearing the loss of any revenue stream as irrecoverable. However, it is more likely that the loss of poorly performing , or declining assets, will actually free up capital to to invest in plant and facilities in more lucrative lines of business.
Re-Align your Organization Culture
The post recession period has been one of fear and anxiety across workforces worldwide. It continues today in 2010. Fear is the nemesis of growth, stifling motivation, and risk taking. Unfortunately, it is in such times that innovation an creativity are most in demand. By nurturing the creative spirit in an organization, we are creating the energy to pull organizations out of the economic stagnation they may face.
Organizational behavior therapist will claim that by applying “engagement”, motivational stimuli” and engendering “discretionary effort” etc. we will be able to extract more out of our demotivated and diffident workforces.
The truth on the ground will be more stark. In entering into any discussions of more assets realignment or divestment (human or other), senior leaders will need to work very hard to build confidence and trust.
It is important to first, truly understand your organization culture. Is the workforce in alignment with your vision and your value systems – do they trust you? Are the processes of decision making participative? Is the organization cohesive? Are your managers strongly performance – focused? If so, in a downturn, they will fail the pain most – in their egos and their pockets.
Conducting a Culture Survey will help you to quickly learn what norms and value prevails now, and what areas you need to focus on to prepare the organization for the uncertain future ahead. This will enable you to plan for organizational development programs which support your strategic agenda.
Build Leadership Competence
Many companies adopt fairly simplistic attempts at cultural re-engineering, with multiple statements of “shared values’ and ’shared futures’. Most high performers will find these to be platitudes, and will be highly skeptical of such noises. Most importantly, a lack of visible and capable leadership will significantly undermine all your attempts at culture change.
The cost of poor leadership is often considered hard to quantify, although we know if can be very costly. Just how costly can be seen with the litter of what were once giants alongside the economic highway today. Much of the blame must lie with the poorly trained, and often short-sighted leadership of many of these organizations.
We often consider the role of the leader to provide certainty in what are uncertain times. Certainty is, as has been seen, an illusion. The truly great leaders will instill the ability to ‘adapt’ and cope with the constantly changing environment which our economies face in the coming years.
We recommend investing in developing your leaders as a matter of high priority. The leadership of the future must be able to adapt to rapid change, to think strategically, and to manage continuous change in the workplace.
Go Web 2 – embrace the future
Web2 – not just having a web site. or an intranet. How much is your ERP costing you? How much is your CRM system costing?… what is the real ROI? what is the true cost of ownership – did it cost 5 times the original price of the software (the normal projected Total Cost of Ownership)? What are the alternatives?
Today, SaaS (Software as a Service) offers vastly lower Total cost of ownership, and delivers much, if not all the functionally of conventional locally hosted software – at a fraction of the price. (Salesforce.com etc).
Do you use Web2 communications? How often do you use wen-conferences for Quarterly Performance Reviews, or do you fly managers in from remote locations? Does the organization enable collaboration on projects through virtual networks? Do you create channels for employees to collaborate across time zones, and physical locations with having to leave their offices?
Web 2 also enables you to offshore numerous tasks which would have been unmanageable 5 years ago… where is your drawing office or your design facility located?
Don’t forget Marketing – Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo and many more.
Make 2011 your Year!
Learn more about Leadership Development, visit the Global Consulting site where you can find out more about Business and Executive Coaching and how we can assist your leadership team.