Putting the focus back on the Customer

Staying connected with how your Customers view your company, products and services is crucial to maintaining high levels of customer retention and growth. After all, the end point of the products and services that your business markets is the Customer. The most logical way of finding out how your Customer feels about your Company’s performance, is simply to ask them.

Surprisingly, companies are often reluctant to reach out to Customers and take honest feedback. I believe that the root of this phenomenon is twofold. Firstly, folks don’t want bad news … and human beings are inclined to avoid it like the plague. Years ago an outfit with which I was involved (details not provided for obvious reasons) held a Customer conference of sorts, with a view to taking Customer feedback. The take out from the event was that “Customers were ganging up on us … and we are providing them with a beating stick to do so!” All the great feedback that was received was simply brushed under the carpet. Nothing achieved. Rather bizarrely, the primary learning was never to have a repeat of the event. This introduces the second reason why companies may be disinclined to take feedback from Customers … very often, they simply are not confident that they have the capacity, staying power or political will to act on the input provided. If you ask your Customers what you could do better … and they give you the answer, they expect you to follow through. If you don’t, you lose face.

The long and the short of it … if you intend to canvas your Customer’s opinion … you need to be brave and you need to be committed to act on the feedback provided. If your organization has the maturity to want to work with Customer feedback, it is advisable to make “touching sides with your Customer” a component of your annual strategic planning cycle.

A great way for companies to make sure their whole organization stays informed about what is happening in their Customer’s world is to make use of Focus Groups. It is generally advised that Focus Groups are run by an independent professional, someone that has the necessary skill to steer the conversation such that you get the required feedback. You will need to brief the Focus Group Convener that you hire. The briefing that you put forward will be a key determinant of the quality of the feedback that you acquire. Some thoughts regarding the types of questions that you may want to put forward to the Convenor during the briefing session are presented below:

1. How do you feel about our products and services?
2. How do you feel about our company?
3. What’s your typical buying process for this type of product or service?
4. What criteria do you use to evaluate potential suppliers?
5. What’s the decision making process and who’s involved?
6. If you were looking for this type of product again, what would you do?
7. What would you type into Google to find a business like ours?
8. Is our website a helpful resource for you? What would improve it?
9. Is it easy doing business with us? How can we make it easier?
10. Where do you experience frustration when doing business with us?
11. Who do you consider to be our competitors?
12. What can we learn from our competitors?
13. Where are we better than our competitors?
14. What trends do you see in your market right now?
15. How is the market in which you operate changing? What do we need to do to make sure that we remain relevant to your needs?
16. If there was one thing we could do better, what would it be?
17. How could we improve our products / services?
18. What line extensions should we be looking into?
19. What are our strongest selling points?

When selecting a Focus Group Convenor, it is suggested that you ask the following questions of the prospects:

1. Is the session held in camera? Will we be given a copy of the footage?
2. Is an audio recording taken of the session? Will we be given a copy?
3. Will a written transcript of the proceedings be made available?
4. Will the Convenor provide a report that details their independent assessment of the outcome?
5. Will the Convenor present the above report to your Executive?
6. What experience does the Convenor have that is relevant to your line of business?

The ideal candidate will respond to questions 1 to 5 in the affirmative and his or her response to question 6 will give you a sense of comfort.

Choosing a venue for the Focus Group is also important. It’s generally better that you don’t use your offices. Neutral ground is better … and it puts the participants at ease. There are some really great facilities available, so have a look around. The professional facilities typically have a one way mirror in place that will allow your Team to monitor proceedings without getting in the way. The Convenor will periodically interact with your Team and take guidance with respect to areas where you would like him or her to probe.

Typically, the Convenor would also play a role in selecting the Focus Group participants. Generally, you would provide the Convenor with your Customer database and he or she would randomly select prospects. A set of prospects that are willing to participate would be identified, a date set … and there you go! There is some degree of science to determining the appropriate sample size and selecting participants. You can rely on your Convenor to guide this process. A well constituted focus group should be representative of the dynamics of your Customer base. As a heads up, you can expect to have to compensate the participants for their time in some way or another. Your Convenor will guide you accordingly.

When you run a Focus Group, you may want the session to be company anonymous … i.e. you don’t tell the participants which company has initiated the session. Anonymous sessions generally provide better competitive context, whereas company specified sessions often give feedback that is better suited for deriving a Customer Service strategy. It’s a complex question. The route that you take will need to be informed by your objectives. I would suggest that you take guidance from the Convenor that you engage.

Once you have held your Focus Group, it is imperative that you develop an action plan to align your company to the observations made. The hard work then becomes prioritizing and taking actions on the feedback. It’s generally advisable to close the loop with the Customer. They have taken the time to give you feedback. You owe it to them to communicate back what you have done with it!

Over a period of time, businesses tend to become inwardly focused … and it’s often easy to forget that there is a Customer out there. Why not allow your staff to review the video footage of the proceedings … and ask them for their thinking? It’s an ideal opportunity to put your Customers back where they belong … centre stage.

Is poor service your Customer’s fault?

The Frustrated Customer

Some time ago a blog article caught my attention. The gist of the article was that if you are receiving poor Customer service, it may well be that you are simply a bad Customer. Initially I was a little irritated by the thought, but after thinking it through, I decided that aspects of the argument hold true.

Let’s step back a little. A few years back I was doing a project for a Client of mine, who for the sake of this article will be called Acme Incorporated. In short, Acme sells a fairly complex set of services to consumers. Acme had an ecommerce web site that had been underperforming their expectations and they wanted to know why their Customers were disinclined to use it. One evening, the Acme Team and I were sitting behind a one way mirror while a focus group of their Customers was being led through a discussion relating to the merits or otherwise of the Acme service offering, both relating to the website and the Acme service offering in general. One of the participants of the focus group was an elderly gentleman who was an absolute fan. The Acme Team loved the old chap. There were lots of comments like, “If only all our Customers were like that!”

For the sake of this article, let’s call the elderly gentleman Mr Smith. What made Mr Smith so different? In short, he was well versed in how to do business with Acme. He seemed to know all the “Rules of Engagement”. He also knew a couple of unpublicised “tricks” that he could use to make the process a little easier. Many of the other participants, particularly the ones that took the opportunity to vent, were clearly not well versed in the Rules of Engagement. Doing business with Acme was by all accounts hard work. The bottom line … the better versed the Customer is with respect to the Rules of Engagement, the easier it is for him or her to do business with you, and as a consequence the more profitable the relationship. Sadly, companies seldom place much emphasis on communicating the Rules of Engagement to their Customers.

Therefore has developed a product, Therefore Quantum™, which has been designed to allow for the efficient resolution of queries. One of the benefits of the Therefore Quantum™ offering is that it allows you to identify queries that occur repeatedly, which one would logically use as context for reengineering your business to make it less error prone. None the less, one of the typical observations that we have made over the years is that approximately 50 percent of queries are the consequence of errors made by Customers. Why would this be the case? Perhaps half of these Customer led errors are unavoidable. The balance of the Customer led errors are typically a consequence of the Customers not knowing the Rules of Engagement. The resolution of queries is an expensive exercise, albeit often difficult to quantify. The more your Customers know your Rules of Engagement, the less likely they will be to make errors in their dealings with you. Consequently, less of your resource will be tied up in query resolution. Perhaps more importantly, you will be saving your Customers a great deal of frustration, thereby making it more attractive to them to do business with you.

One of Therefore’s specialities is to assist companies that take product to market by means of Distributors, to change to a new Distributor in a low risk fashion, without disrupting the flow of product to market. A key component of these supply chain transition projects is the communication of the new Distributor’s Rules of Engagement to our Client’s Customer base. We have over the years developed a pretty slick recipe for this exercise. The interesting thing about supply chain transitions of this nature is that our Clients normally see a sustained turnover uptick, generally to the tune of between 10 and 15 percent. Logically, this can in part be put down to the new Distributor being more efficient than the old one. I believe that the bulk of the increase in turnover is attributable to the communication of the Rules of Engagement that occurs as a component of the transition project. Again, if your Customer base knows how to do business with you and the processes that they have to follow to do so is user friendly, they will be more inclined to transact with you.

In closing, some thoughts relating to the communication of Rules of Engagement to your Customer base follows:

1. Marketers, particularly those that operate in a B2B space, are always looking for content. Surprisingly, they often overlook Rules of Engagement material as viable content … probably because they are that close to the subject that it gets overlooked. Similarly, the Rules of Engagement make great content for your Sales Representative Team … and it shows that you want to make the Customer’s lot easier, which reflects positively.
2. New Customers need to be “on boarded” in much the same way that new staff are introduced to the organization. Ensure that the communication of the Rules of Engagement to new Customers is centre stage in your “new Customer on boarding” process. Surprisingly, I know many companies that in fact have no “new Customer on boarding” process. New Customers are left to figure things out on their own. This practice tends to result in relatively few “Mr Smiths” and a lot of Customer frustration.
3. Don’t just accept the status quo. If your Customers don’t find your Rules of Engagement user friendly, it’s time to start doing some re-engineering. You may find the “Moments of Reality … and the development of Strategy” blog article to be a useful read in this regard.
4. Communicating the Rules of Engagement is not a once off exercise. You need to continually be on the search for new mechanisms that you can use to make sure that your Rules of Engagement are communicated to your Customer. Customers are only human, they tend to forget.
5. When Customers are in need of help regarding doing business with you, they tend to resort to a visit to your web site. It stands to reason that your web site must accurately and simply document your Rules of Engagement. Your social media strategy should likewise operate on the same basis.
6. In business, change is often the only constant that we are in a position to predict. Your Change Management procedures need to be drafted in such a manner that any changes in the Rules of Engagement are clearly communicated to your Customer.
7. The better your Customers understand your Rules of Engagement, the lower your exposure to queries that are the consequence of Customer error. This will have cost, service and ultimately profitability benefits.

What is Moore’s Law?

In 1965 Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future.

In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law, which Moore himself has blessed. 

The simplified version of this law states that the overall processing powers of computers will double every 18 months.

If you were to look at processor speeds from the 1970’s to 2009 and then again in 2010, one may think that the law is nearing its limit. However, a careful look indicates otherwise. In the 1970’s processor speeds ranged from 740 KHz to 8MHz ... Moore's Law held true. At the face of it, from 2000 to 2009 there has not been much speed advancement. Processor speeds have ranged from 1.3 GHz to 2.8 GHz, barely doubling. The transistor count however tells a different story. In 2000 the number of transistors in a CPU numbered 37.5 million, while in 2009 the number went up to 904 million. The issue at hand is connected to the introduction of multi-core CPUs. The 2.8 GHz processor is a Quad Core while the 1.3 GHz processor is a Single Core. The actual power of the 2.8 GHz processor would be found if you multiply by four, which would give you a whopping 11.2 GHz, which is a far cry from 1.3 GHz.

Most experts, including Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another two decades. Fascinating times ahead indeed.

What is the practical take out from Moore’s Law? 

By inference, Moore’s Law could be read another way … your value for money from computer purchases made will double every 18 months. My thinking is that Moore’s Law tells us to use your existing computer hardware for as long as practically possible. Naturally, you need to ensure that you always have sufficient processing capacity to meet the needs of your business, so I am not in any way encouraging irresponsible behaviour here! The reality stands, the more that you delay the purchase, the more value for money you will be buying. Make those computing assets work. When the time does come that you make a purchase of computing equipment, go for the fastest kit that you can get your hands on. This will ensure that you extract maximum value from your IT expenditure.

If the writing is on the wall … read it!

I have of late been reading the Neil Young autobiography - Waging Heavy Peace. As a heads up, if you are a Neil Young fan, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable read. In Waging Heavy Peace, Young raises the impact that the introduction of the MP3 format has had on the music industry. Coupled with the Internet as a distribution model, the MP3 format has seen the music industry literally fall off a cliff.

Playing different tunes

Generally speaking, the traditional players in the music industry have not kept pace with the shift in technology. New innovative entrants, such as iTunes, have filled the vacuum and redefined the industry, leaving the legacy players fighting for their very existence. The legacy players have literally found themselves being new entrants into their own market. New business models are being hastily introduced, with varying degrees of success. The relatively strong are buying the weak. We are seeing a whole series of poorly considered “knee jerk” reactions and bankruptcies. The music industry is currently at a cross roads … only the strong will survive, and the strong may well be the new market entrants.

The reality is that the music industry has always been subject to shift, typically introduced by new formats. Some landmarks along the way … the introduction of piano rolls (1896), 78 RPM records (1906), 33 1/3 RPM records (1928), the LP (1948), the 7” single (1951), the cassette (1964), the 8-track (1966), the compact disc (1978), MTV (1981), the MP3 (1990), streaming (1995), Napster (1999), Pandora (2000), iTunes (2003), YouTube (2005), and Spotify (2008). If some of these dates sound earlier than you expected, well, let that be a lesson to you. These formats did not storm the industry and decimate it overnight.

The big shift occurred with the introduction of MP3 … and from thereon out it was downhill. We are literally talking an industry that, at the face of it, is used to format changes … and should have been far more agile given its history. The writing was on the wall and the industry failed to respond.

More examples

History is littered with stories of companies that fell by the wayside overnight as a consequence of the emergence of a new technology.

Who remembers the slide rule? For those young enough not to know what I am talking about, the slide rule was a ruler of sorts with a shifting bar in the centre that was used for doing math. The slide rule became extinct overnight as a consequence of the introduction of the pocket calculator. Here today, gone tomorrow!

Another classic example of a product that did not survive a shift in technology is the telex. The telex was replaced virtually overnight by the fax machine. The fax machine itself is now bordering on extinction, thanks to the introduction of the email. Again, for the youngsters, the telex network was a switched network of “teleprinters” similar to a telephone network, for the purposes of sending text-based messages. The telex had a speed of approximately 66 words per minute.

Its happening right now

Satellite and Cable TV coupled with the introduction of PVR recorders have pretty much sounded the death knell for the corner video store. The cinema industry is likewise seeing a falling off.

The future of the printed book is also in the balance. Sales of eBooks are on the up … and their printed counterpart is on the way down. Many periodicals have ceased doing a print version … and are now only available in the electronic format.

What do we learn?

The long and short of it … companies that fail to innovate will eventually cease to exist … it’s simply a matter of time. Innovation is not a once off event … it’s a survival prerequisite. Innovation is not a strategy; it’s a way of life.

When the writing is on the wall, you are advised to read it!

Moments of Reality … and the development of Strategy

It is sobering to note that every time a Customer interacts with your business, they are provided with an opportunity to evaluate your company and pass judgement. Over the course of repeated interactions, Customers are inclined to form an opinion of your company, either positive or negative. The longer the time frame, the more interactions and the more entrenched these opinions will be. If a negative opinion is sustained for long enough, Customers are inclined to jump ship and move their business to your competitors.

Further, should a negative opinion be formed, Customers will engage in negative “Word of Mouth”, which will slowly erode your Customer base and profitability. Alternatively, should a positive opinion take root, you are likely to be on the receiving end of positive “Word of Mouth” publicity.

In keeping with recent articles relating to the development of Strategy, I have decided to provide a quick overview of a powerful strategic tool … Moments of Reality. The Moments of Reality methodology is ideally suited to guide the development of a tactical level Customer Services strategy.

Touch Points

The first step in doing a Moments of Reality review is to identify your Customer touch points.

A touch point is a point at which you interact with a Customer, even if it’s just in a small way. Touch points are in effect the points at which your Customers have an opportunity to form an opinion. If all of your touch points reflect positively, your Customers will develop a positive impression of your business and you are likely to hold onto them for longer, thereby enjoying a more profitable relationship. Holding onto the Customers that you have is a key ingredient in growing your Customer base … more to follow in a future article.

Provided below are some example touch points.

1. A Customer visits your website
2. A Customer visits your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page
3. A new Customer wants to open an account
4. A Customer calls into your switchboard
5. A Customer phones in to order goods
6. A Customer takes delivery of your goods
7. A Customer unpacks your goods
8. A Customer signs your delivery note
9. A Customer receives your invoice
10. A Customer receives your statement
11. A Customer phones in with a query
12. A Customer has a problem with an invoice or a statement
13. A Customer has quality problems with your goods
14. A Customer requires technical detail regarding your goods
15. A Sales Representative calls on a Customer
16. A Customer calls in for a quotation
17. A Customer wants to close an account

It is critical to dig deep when drafting a list of touch points. Even the smallest touch point provides an opportunity to form an opinion … so items should never be written off as trivial. Key to success is pulling together the right people to help in touch point identification. Typically, you would draw in your Customer Services Team, your Sales Team, senior staff, perhaps the Executive and their direct reports, as well as any “Thought Leaders” that exist within your business.

When identifying touch points, it is generally useful to consider the Customer Life Cycle. Customers go through a journey from the point in time that they initially start doing business with you through to the point in time that they leave you. Your objective is to make sure that the touch points identified cover each phase in the Customer life cycle. Provided below is a high level view of the Customer life cycle.

1. Acquire – It is during this phase that a Customer is on-boarded. Common touch points include the Customer applying for an account, the Customer requesting a quotation, the communication of your Rules of Engagement to the Customer and the like. More to follow regarding Rules of Engagement in a subsequent article.
2. Serve – It is during this phase that the needs of the Customer are serviced, either by the provision of goods or services. Common touch points are the receipt of goods, the receipt of invoices and statements, the processing of orders, the resolution of queries, the launch of new products, the extension of product ranges and the like.
3. Grow – It is during this phase that you attempt to up-sell / cross-sell to the Customer to add additional value to the relationship and derive incremental revenue. Common touch points include Sales Representative visits, marketing campaigns, the provision of quotations and the like.
4. Retain – It is during this phase that a Customer either becomes an advocate of your company, in which case you can expect to retain them, or becomes a detractor, in which case you will more than likely see them churn. Key to this phase is the provision of after sales service, the continual emphasis on adding value as well as relationship management.

Evaluating Performance

Once you have identified your touch points, it is imperative that you optimize them to ensure that your Customers will judge each touch point interaction positively.

By way of an example, let’s assume that the receipt of an invoice document is one of your key touch points. Do your Customers like your invoice? Is it easily read? Does it look professional? Does it provide the detail that they require? Is it easily processed by the Customer’s Accounts Department?

Perhaps your Customers phone in to place orders. Is the call answered within a reasonable time frame? Do you provide an order by email or fax service? Do your Customers want to fax or email orders? Are you able to give your Customers an order number while they are the phone? How do you provide Customers with their order number if they fax or email their orders? Are your Call Centre Agents polite, accurate and quick? Do your Call Centre Agents have the appropriate degree of product knowledge? If the Customer can’t recall his / her Account number, how friendly is the process to establish their authenticity and give them their account number? Are the operating hours of your Call Centre suited to the operating hours of your Customers? Is the voice quality of the telephone call acceptable to your Customer?

In short, all touch point failings are to be identified, a correction plan is developed and then implemented - it’s as simple as that. A Moments of Reality exercise results in a tactical / task level plan, so all that remains is for it to be managed to a close. The Therefore StratIQ™ application allows for the management of strategically focused tasks to a close in a controlled and transparent manner and may be worthy of evaluation, particularly if you operate in an environment of high complexity.

Ask your Customers

It stands to reason that your Customers themselves are best equipped to guide the “Evaluating Performance” step outlined above. If your budget allows, it is ideal that you interact directly with your Customers to get their input. A couple of options available for deriving Customer feedback follow:

1. Sales Representatives / Customer Services Management personally call on key Customers and interview them regarding their touch point needs. Should you decide to go this route, it is advised that you clearly brief the Team that will be interacting with your Customers so that they have clarity as to what the objective of the exercise is and what is expected of them. Remember that Customer visits are touch points … make sure that they leave a positive impression.
2. Surveys can be done, preferably by an independent third party. Your identified touch points should be used as a starting point for drafting the survey questionnaire. Independently run surveys provide an ideal opportunity to benchmark your performance relative to your competitors. Areas where you fall far short of your competitors would logically be worthy of prioritizing.
3. Mystery shopping is an extremely useful tool. When last did you phone into your Call Centre? How long did the call take to be answered? For those in the retail trade, mystery shopping is critical to ensuring that service standards are both appropriately pitched and consistently met.
4. Customer queries provide a low cost opportunity for evaluating touch point failures. To effectively use queries to drive the identification of touch point failure, it is critical that they are categorized so that error prone touch points can be identified. The Therefore Quantum® BPMS is worth evaluating as it allows for queries to be resolved and then reported on with a view to identifying areas where your performance tends to fall short of Customer expectations.
5. Establish a Customer Forum which meets periodically and use the opportunity to take feedback regarding their requirements. It is advised that you only establish a Customer Forum at the point in time that you feel that you have pretty much got your touch points in order. Further, ensure that you are truly committed to listening to your Customers if you decide to establish a Customer Forum … as non-delivery will simply translate into a failed Moment of Reality!
6. Should you be servicing the mass / consumer market, Focus Groups are an invaluable tool for identifying touch points and ensuring that your business is correctly managing them. It is advised that focus groups be run by independent / professional third parties so that they deliver their maximum value.

What do Customers want?

When aligning your touch points to the needs of the Customer, there are a number of questions that need to be answered in the affirmative as a sanity check before you implement your touch point refinements. Details follow:

1. Have I simplified the process as much as possible?
2. Have I cut out as much red tape as possible?
3. Is the Customer being kept in the loop?
4. Will it leave a positive impression?
5. Am I minimizing Customer inconvenience?
6. Am I maximizing Customer value?
7. Is it Customer centric?
8. Is this what the Customer expects from the touch point?
9. Will the Customer intuitively understand the process?

In short, you want to ensure that you focus your attention on making it easy for Customers to do business with you.

It’s not a once off exercise

The competitive environment is continually shifting, as are the needs of your Customers. It is imperative that one performs a regular review of the effectiveness of your touch points to ensure that you continue to delight your Customers. It is proposed that touch points be in a state of continual refinement and that a formal review be done annually.

The “Black Box” issue

A Moments of Reality evaluation only focuses on Customer centric inputs and outputs. It is important to note that a Moments of Reality exercise is a “black box” affair and is not in any way cognoscente of the underlying processes required to achieve a positive outcome. It stands to reason that the corrective action taken when fine tuning your touch points must be cognoscente of process efficiency.

It’s a time game

It takes time for people to change their impressions. If you historically had Moments of Reality that were poorly aligned to the needs of your Customer, you can expect your Customer’s mind-set to shift far more slowly than you would hope for. Remember that the negative impression that your Customers have, was reinforced over a long period of time.
A Moments of Reality Strategy requires a long term vision … give it time, the end point is worth the application of patience. The sooner you start … the sooner you finish.

Stakeholders

As a closing thought, you can do a Moments of Reality exercise on any Stakeholder. This article has centred on the Customer, given their importance as the primary Stakeholder. Ideally, you should do a Moments of Reality exercise for all of your Stakeholders. Other Stakeholders that may be worthy of such treatment are Staff, Shareholders, the broader community and the Government.

As a further thought, a Moment of Reality exercise can also unlock value within your organisation. For example, what are the touch points that are in play when your staff members interact with internal departments such as Human Resources or Information Technology? Are these internal touch points experienced in a positive or negative manner? Departments such as Information Technology and Human Resources are often seen as “land locked” in that they don’t directly interact with the external Customer. The reality stands that they are critical in the delivery of service to the Customer, albeit indirectly. Optimizing touch points between your departments can positively impact on the overall efficiency of your organization.

Strategy planning … discovering the Tactical

In a previous article mention was made of the importance of ensuring that your Strategy is translated into a tactical plan … something that your team can buy into. Developing a tactical plan is not as easy as it looks. The key question is, “How do you avoid the plan becoming a meaningless list of uneven tasks that are not fine-tuned to add real value?”

Let’s consider the process. You have created a great Strategy. At the high level you know that you are on the right path for making a huge difference to your business’s performance. The next step you followed was talking to the market and taking a few pointers. So far, things are looking great. Now you need to build the tactical plan … but where do you start?

Deriving a tactical plan is hard work. It requires strategic conversation between the right people … and it generally takes more time than you were expecting. The first trick is to select the Team that you want to draw into the debate. Typically, you would draw in your senior staff, perhaps the Executive and their direct reports. Drafting the Executive and their direct reports into the process makes sense, as it will be them that are accountable for the execution of the plan.

I would generally suggest that you also set about identifying “Thought Leaders” that exist within your business and drawing them into the process too. Thought Leaders can exist at any level of the organization and are probably your future leaders. Fundamentally, Thought Leaders are staff that demonstrate a surprising degree of business maturity, have an exceptional understanding of the market that you serve as well as the dynamics that exist within the organization. Most importantly, Thought Leaders have a bent to strategic conversation. Chances are, you have already identified them and have plans to fast-track their progress through the ranks.

To ensure that your Strategy gets unpacked from all functional points of view, it is critical that the Team that you assemble is cross functional. Each Team member must be allowed to contribute to the discussion, both as it relates to his or her function and as it relates to the functions of others.

Now that you have assembled your cross functional Team, the next step is to unpack each of your Strategies one at a time and determine each tactical item that needs to be undertaken to allow your Strategy to become a reality. The trick is to move quickly and to allow for all contributions to be put forward and debated, irrespective of their relative strength.

Once you have all of the proposed tactical items listed, the next step is to choose the ones that you wish to move forward with. Consider the following image.

The process to follow when sifting through proposed tactical items is a relatively simple one. As indicated by the image above, work with your Team to identify the relative “Ease of Implementation” (Difficult or Easy) and “Impact” (High or Low) of each item. You may want to introduce a basic spread sheet based model to allow for the classification to be done a little more objectively, the design of which I will leave up to you.

Some thoughts on the four quadrants follow.

1. Bottom Left – These items are not easily done and carry little impact. Carefully review all items that fall into the bottom left hand quadrant. As a general rule, consider dropping them from your plan. You may well find that there are quite a few items in this quadrant. Excluding them will make the implementation of your strategy easier and reduce exposure to cost without materially taking away from the impact of your Strategy.
2. Top Right - These items should typically be prioritized, as they are easy to do and will have a large impact. It is worth bearing in mind that, given the ease of their implementation, your competitors will catch up with you rapidly. It is therefore critical that you plan to derive benefit from these items in the short term prior to your competitors entering into the fray.
3. Bottom Right - These items build capacity, which is critical for the medium to long term well being of your business. I have often seen business’ under invest in the infrastructural aspects of their Strategic planning, presumably because it doesn't generate immediate gratification. Should this attitude persist into the medium term, the available capacity will be sold into and the business will soon find itself in a position where it has insufficient capacity to support future growth. Turnaround Strategies often find a lot of traction in the grey quadrant.
4. Top Left – This is where the true magic sits. "Strategic Wins" are typically hard to do, which makes it difficult for your competitors to emulate you. Given that they are hard to emulate, they inevitably provide you with a Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

Strategic Planning ... It only counts if it happens

I have been involved with the development and execution of strategy for more years than I would care to recount. My most profound observation in this regard is bound to disappoint … Even the best strategy plan will only add value if you implement it.

I once had the pleasure of compiling a strategic plan for a Client, only to receive the complaint that I had put forward the previous year’s plan in error. Having not been involved in the previous year’s strategic plan, I was a little perplexed. On further investigation it became clear that the “new” strategic plan that the Team had put together was indeed very similar to the previous year’s plan. The underlying issue was that the previous year’s strategy had not been executed … at all. A year lost, and a year in which competitors had sadly covered a lot of ground. In short, too many strategic plans fail because, once approved they proceed directly to “file 13”, never again to see the light of day.

How does one ensure that strategic planning actually results in tangible benefit? Some thoughts in this regard follow.

1. Strategic plans are often drafted as “high level” documents and not broken down to the tactical level. For a strategic plan to have legs, it needs to be broken down to the tactical level … something that the staff that need to do the actual delivery can relate to.
2. Make sure that there is sufficient funding available to allow your Team to deliver against your strategic plan. Your strategic planning should be done before the annual budgeting process, to ensure that there is sufficient budget available to make execution viable. Oddly enough, I have seen any number of cases where the annual strategic planning has been done after the budgets have been set!
3. Make sure that the staff that are accountable for delivery of your strategic plan have the necessary skills to guarantee success. In my experience, the primary skill required to deliver against a strategic plan is the ability to project manage in a cross functional context.
4. There needs to be alignment between the tactical layer of a strategic plan and the KPIs of the staff that are accountable for delivery. Staff must have a clear understanding that their performance with respect to delivering against the strategic plan will be taken into account with their next Performance Appraisal and will affect their financial well being.
5. I have frequently worked in environments that do not have a culture of delivery. For the sake of your business’s long term ability to deliver on its strategic vision, it is essential that a culture of delivery is developed.
6. Ensure that tasks are allocated to staff that carry the appropriate levels of authority to allow them to succeed.
7. Regular progress reviews must be done, and performance, or the lack thereof, must be managed accordingly.
8. Someone needs to own the overall plan. That someone should be the Chief Executive Officer or the Managing Director. The owner of the strategic plan needs to take complete accountability for its successful delivery and should be incentivised accordingly.
9. A strategic plan is a “living document”. It should be frequently reviewed to continually refine it. Strategic plans should be “versioned” documents.
10. Frequent reviews of performance relative to the strategic plan are essential. Every two weeks or monthly sounds about right. I have seen cases where strategic plan performance reviews are done quarterly or biannually … and by the time you work out that delivery is falling behind it may well be too late to affect a recovery.