Strategy of People and Products

The third leg of our series on Strategy is on People and Products. This follows last week’s lesson on Purpose.

What strategy is required in order to leverage your Human assets within a business? It is not just about headcount or workforce: we need to consider the intellectual capital, wisdom, experience and relationships that come with each of your staff members.

The strategy implemented within a business should include the following:

· Staff retention

· Staff empowerment

· Staff education

· Legacy planning

Products and services within a business are also assets that need to be looked after and protected. Each different brand has a reputation in the marketplace, a following with the customers and a future of expansion. Strategies need to include the following:

· Product brand development

· Brand footprint expansion

· Existing customer retention

· Switch over customers per brand

· New customers per brand

· Associated or bundled up-sell potential

· Income diversification per product

All these may seem a little overwhelming and unattainable if you are new to all this, but these are the things that should be on the agenda of directors meetings and a part of the long-term strategic planning for any business.

We will, of course, expand on these during our weekly webinar on Wednesday. Go here to register that.

Any questions or want some help with this, please give us a call or click to make an appointment in person or via Skype.

By |2017-10-25T13:49:44+02:00October 16th, 2017|Strategy|0 Comments

The Strategy of Purpose

What is the purpose of your business? You should at some stage compose a set of purpose statements, that when reading together, define the business’s purpose.

These are some ideas to start with:

1. What are the reasons for starting your business?

2. Where is the business destined to go?

3. What problem are you solving?

4. Who are you planning to reach?

5. What resources do you need?

Watch the video below for the full master class.
By |2017-10-12T15:56:59+02:00October 12th, 2017|Strategy|1 Comment

Perfomance Measurement: Product & Service Quality

We continue this week with our discussion on Performance Measurement. Last week we explored some practical examples on how businesses in different sectors can measure their performance using NFPIs.

This week we conclude the topic by looking at the product or service that the business offers and how the business can measure the performance of their operations.

The product or service that the business offers is the ‘raison d`etre’ of the business or the purpose of its existence. A lack of quality can lead to customer dissatisfaction and loss of sales. A company should always critically and objectively review their offering and compare it to the competition and customer expectations and needs. Business owners or managers should ask themselves:

·         Is my product or service offering good value?

·         Does it deliver quality superior performance?

·         How does it fair relative to competitors?

·         With industry developments, can my product or service remain relevant with changing technological trends?

In Summary, the following are good examples of NPFIs:

Product quality

  • Percentage of items rejected by quality control
  •  Number of items returned by customers

Product delivery  

  •  Percentage of customer orders delivered on time
  •  Waiting time from order to delivery
  •   Cycle time

Customer satisfaction      

  •  Number of customers returning
  •  Number of complaints

After-sales service             

  • Waiting time
  • Number of complaints
  • Use of customer surveys to measure their satisfaction.

Benefits of Non-Financial Performance Indicators

The balanced scorecard philosophy asks the critical questions at the heart of business growth and sustainability. It looks at performance from four perspectives:

1.       Customer Perspective –how do we look to the client, customer ratings?

2.       Internal business process perspective –at what must we excel?

3.       Learning & growth perspective –continuous change and growth in a dynamic innovative age.

4.       Financial perspective –how do we look to shareholders?

These four factors complement each other; for example, relatively greater customer satisfaction will result in greater revenues and profits, consequently improving the financial perspective.

Financial performance measures are lagging indicators of performance, this is because financial performance is a result of past decisions. On the other hand, NFPIs are lead indicators in that they drive future financial performance as they focus on the customer, internal business processes and learning and growth.

By |2017-10-25T13:51:04+02:00October 11th, 2017|Strategy|0 Comments

What is the purpose of your business?

This is a question we ask many of our clients. Purpose and the related strategy seem to be more accidental than driven, by the people we chat to. So what does it mean to have a Purpose Strategy for your business?

Defining the purpose of a business comes from a number of different purpose statements. The first is for the reason for starting a business. Many people start their business due to financial reasons. They need to earn money. This is true for all businesses but there are often underlying reasons such as wanting more personal freedom, to do good in the community or to gain fame and fortune. What is yours?

The second purpose statement comes from the long-term purpose. Where is the business destined to go in 10 or 20 years from now? This may be a very long-term view and often too far ahead for any clarity, but knowing an idea goal determines the actions of today. Is your business going to be handed down to family members to build a legacy? Do you want to sell it in a few years and do something else? Are you planning to franchise or list on the stock exchange? Each of these options is key to the actions of incorporation that you take when registering your business.

We can now progress onto the initial problem you want to address as a business. This purpose statement is now more focused as you define the attention of the business. This needs to clearly define the problem, the people you address and the proposed solutions you will implement, sell or offer in order to address the defined problem.

Join us on Wednesday for more explanation of these and others on this week’s webinar

By |2017-10-09T11:40:53+02:00October 9th, 2017|Strategy|0 Comments

How to get a Strategy for your business

To get from HERE to THERE requires a strategy. Not just a plan with a dash of hope: but a full strategy. But what is this thing called a strategy? What does it contain? What does it mean? And how can I get one?

The webinar video this week unpacks the various elements of a good strategy. Watch the video below (27 min) to get a full understanding of the different elements. Here is a short summary:

Vision: A written image of what the future will be if all goes according to plan.

Focus areas: select up to 5 areas that require focus and change to realise the vision.

Goals: write out 5 goals per focus area that need to be achieved in order to obtain the vision

Actions: What actions are required and by whom and by when in order to achieve the each goal.

Watch the video for the full story and an explanation of the WIGS required to get all this done.

By |2017-10-05T09:47:04+02:00October 5th, 2017|Strategy|0 Comments

Business Growth Strategy Part 1

October is here and with only 3 months until 2018 we are embarking on a final 2017 strategy sprint to help us all get to those items on the list that we planned to get done in January.

This month we are going to take a trip through some of the Business Growth Strategies that we use to coach our clients. So please join us over the next four weeks as we go under the covers a bit and unpack the secrets of business growth.

The first item we need to define and unpack is STRATEGY. Strategy is a word we throw around a lot in our business: we use it in marketing, coaching and a lot when doing talks. But what is strategy? What does it imply or contain? Let’s unpack for a bit.

Strategy is a means to an end: it defines the process of getting from here to there. But it assumes that you know where here and there are and that there is where you want to be. Got it?

So first we must assess where we are, in all aspects of our business. Then we must discover and understand where it is that we must or want to be. This second destination is determined based on available resources, market-driven indicators and a desire to change.

Now, with an understanding of here and there: we can employ our strategy to reverse engineer the process and then drive it forward from today into the future. But just having an ideal of a future destination is not enough: this needs to be developed with a plan. The plan has actions, accountability levels with resources, a critical path and defined outcomes. This is a strategy.

Join us this week on our Weekly Wednesday Webinar as we unpack the elements of a growth strategy and create a framework for the next 90 days in your business.

By |2017-10-02T12:02:19+02:00October 2nd, 2017|90 Day Sprint, Strategy|0 Comments
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