What's missing from business success

I was asked this morning what I thought was more important - having an effective strategy or effective execution?



To me the answer is obvious - Doesn't matter how good your strategy is if it does not get executed properly and effective execution is only effective with a strategy. Execution isn't the best thing it is the only thing!


While creating a well-formulated strategy is vitally important for business success, the biggest challenge for most business leaders is getting their team to effectively execute their chosen strategy.


- Consider the following alarming research:
–90% of strategies fail due to poor execution
–Only 27% of employees have access to their company strategic plan
–Only 5% of employees understand their company strategy
–92% of organizations do not measure Key Performance Indicators



We have just been trialling a execution tool called execution driver and I have to say it has been fantastic in my own team becoming more egaged and accountable for better execution of our strategy. Not only does it put a big tick beside each of the above statistics it has freed me up personally to concentrate on more of the things that I am best at.



Visit http://www.executiondriver.com/



Happy executing

Karl

Empowering People

One massive challenge I witness is the ability of organisations and leaders to empower their staff. Make it safe for people to make decisions. When they don't it creates bottlenecks and business can not move forward as much. Here are the only 5 questions you staff need to answer to make a decision without you.

1. Is it right for the customer?
2. Is it right for the company?
3. Is it ethical?
4. Is it something you would be willing to be held accountable for?
5. Is it consistent with the Company's values?

If the answer to all 5 is yes then - DON'T ASK - JUST DO IT

The Layers Of Complexity

Working with different Business Leaders and Company owners everyday means I hear about their challenges and frustrations. One common theme is the growing layers of complexity they face each day in their business. There are a number of contributing the factors to this. Firstly the complexity (red tape) that large company's seem to drown their team leaders in. Complying with the requirements of the parent organisation can actually dictate much of the days work and hugely reduce productivity. Who reads these reports? Why is the ability to make decisions not pushed down to the managers on the job so they can be made and dealt with?

Complexity caused by growth is also a common issue. All businesses experience added complexity as they add client numbers, staff numbers, different products or enter new markets. The challenge is to get these company's focused, efficient and their leaders free from daily clutter so they can work on their businesses. It is the evolution of all organisations that as they grow and evolve so too does complexity and this requires new systems and an awareness of the likely problems that will present and tools to overcome them.

Whilst solutions to these issues are also varied the main focus should be on ensuring leaders int he organisation have the delegation and authority to make decisions as they need to rather than having to create a bottleneck by having to push them up the chain. Having simple team KPI's, measuring the numbers that are important to the lifeblood of the business and focusing the whole team onto some simple relevant quarterly goals is essential.

Of course the fact a business is growing in itself is good news.....making it fly is just gold!!

Karl