How One Simple Tool Can Transform Your Business

Without a clearly defined business strategy, your business is destined for decline and failure. By business strategy, I am not referring to the behemoth, 10,000 page business strategy document that takes years to write and now just collects dust on a shelf in your office. I am talking about a simple, concise, focused, nimble plan that you constantly refer to and measure progress against.

When I first moved from a technical role into a business leadership role, I created a strategic business plan masterpiece that covered all areas of our business including marketing, sales, proposals, project execution, competitive analysis and even customer analysis. This document took quite a few months to put together and was very impressive. I still keep a copy of it in my office as a reminder . . . of its futility!

Are Your Customers In Pain?

Are you actively looking to partner with your customers and add value to them by helping them identify and solve their biggest pain points or are you just trying to sell them another product?

When we become so focused on meeting sales quotas and goals we lose sight of the real reason our businesses exist . . . they  exist because we provide something of value to our customers. One of the most important tasks for any business is not to sell their product or service but to work with their potential customers to understand where the customer needs help and how your business can fill that need and provide real value.

I have seen many businesses over the years slip into the trap of myopically focusing on selling products or services. They spend more time coming up with the “perfect” charge rate sheet or the “perfect” product discount sheet then they do working with their clients to understand the challenges that are being faced and how they can assist the client in overcoming these challenges.

Guess what happens to these business . . .

What Boats Should You Be Burning?

History tells us that when Alexander the Great invaded Persia, he burned his ships upon landing on the shores of Persia and then told his men if they wanted to go home they would have to go home in Persian ships. This provided significant motivation to the Greek soldiers and they fought hard and conquered the Persians even though they were far outnumbered. This same strategy was repeated on the shores of Mexico in 1519 by Hernan Cortes with his small army of 600 Spaniards. Turns out Cortes also won this war and conquered Mexico. It is amazing what motivated people can do!

Now, I do not recommend burning boats or vehicles or other modes of transportation in today’s world. However, metaphorically speaking, you need to ask yourself what boats have carried your business to some distant shores and now need to be burned so there is no way back? In other words, what mission critical initiatives were rolled out in your organization that did not get 100% buy-in from your staff because you allowed old behaviors or tools or processes to continue?

Is the Price of Oil Collapsing or Recovering?

This is the million dollar question for those of us living in Alberta, Texas, Norway, Russia or any other area that is heavily dependant on the price of oil and gas! Will the price of oil collapse further or begin to recover? Seeing the price of oil stuck floating between $40 and $50/barrel is painfully frustrating. As leaders in businesses that depend on a strong oil market, we want to see the price of oil rise above $75/barrel so that our business can begin to grow and flourish like they were over the last 5 years. And, we would like to understand how quick this recovery will happen so we can better position our companies for this recovery.

I recently did a Google search on “collapse of oil prices” and it returned 24.1 million search results. I then did a search on “recovery of oil prices” and Google returned 52 million search results! So, who is correct?

How To Successfully Deliver A Flash Track Project

Have you ever been involved in a fast track project where the project schedule has been accelerated for some reason and the project team has to scramble to meet the key milestones and deliverables? How did that go for your project?

Generally, it ends in one or more of the stakeholders being disappointed because the project drops the ball on cost or quality or scope management and still ends up missing the fast tracked schedule deadlines!

In a post a few weeks ago, I described a research project that I worked on with CII regarding the Successful Delivery of Mega-Projects. At the same conference we presented our findings on Mega-Projects, another research team, RT-311, delivered their research results and recommendations on the Successful Delivery of Flash Track Projects. Basically, a Flash Track project is a fast track project executed even faster but successfully by using the processes developed by this research team.