Posts Tagged ‘implementation’
Your business model, strategy, organization & execution: A year of CEO Challenges!
Posted by Rick McPartlin on April 6th, 2010
It seems like only yesterday that we were throwing around ideas for what would become the CEO Challenge. It’s been a year now, and we’re so pleased with the feedback we’ve received from clients, colleagues and collaborators. Seems we’ve struck a few chords, and that’s great to hear, especially because our messages aren’t always pleasant. “Your business model is Best of the Worst! Your organization is in chaos! You need to think like a Chief Revenue Officer!”
This month, Jane and I decided to revisit the twelve posts we’ve published to date. For those of you who have been reading a while … how many of these Challenges have you accepted? Have you implemented the action plans?
You know the saying about assumptions. Why are you still making them?
Posted by Jane Adamson on March 2nd, 2010
Assumption testing has always been important in organizations. Right now, however, it’s more critical than ever. Markets are evolving so fast that the wrong assumptions can be fatal.
Worse yet, an organization’s inability to routinely identify and test assumptions is a cultural defect that can be very difficult to correct.
Rick and I often see this problem when we participate in leadership meetings held by our clients. During these meetings, we frequently hear executives mistakenly state assumptions as if they were facts.
“We have a great strategy but have trouble executing it.”
Posted by Jane Adamson on April 8th, 2009
Have you had this thought lately?
“This year we’ll include a wide range of employees to assist in developing our revenue strategy. People will feel involved, they’ll fully understand the reasoning behind why we’re moving in this particular direction, and they’ll have ownership of the strategy. In fact, this is so important we’ll even hire an outside facilitator and conduct the strategy sessions off-site so there will be no distractions. The result will be a well thought out plan for moving the company forward. Perfect.”
Not really. Because, as we all know, the challenge of implementing that strategy is what trips us up. We put a great deal of time and energy into developing a strategy, but daily tasks, emergencies, and problems cry out and divert us from strategic initiatives. Six months down the road we’re sitting in a meeting struggling with familiar issues, and the great strategy we developed is long forgotten or ignored.
