In the 20 years of my career, I have seen many great strategies that fail miserably despite their greatness. Why?
One of the main differences between a losing strategy and a winning strategy is whether the strategy is translated into plans and executed.
Many losing strategies could have been effective strategies – had they been implemented. It is easy to say that your strategy is X, but then you implement Y. By doing so, you effectively ditch your strategy. So, it's no different from not having a strategy at all. Having no strategy is the same as aiming to fail.
For example, many companies claim that their strategies are: "focusing on helping customers to achieve their goals." Sounds like a good strategy. It is easy to say this. But then, most of these companies aren't really doing this. Because to do this consistently requires commitment and hard work.
For the strategy to work, the companies must ensure the focus is consistent across their business units, functions, and geographies – from top to bottom. To ensure this, there are a lot of things that the companies must do, e.g.,
Communication campaign from top to bottom.
Performance systems that are geared to deliver focus on customers.
A corporate culture that encourages customer focus.
Policies and procedures that are customer oriented.
Etc.
As you can see, between 'saying you will do X' and 'really doing X' is an enormous chasm.
Similar example: It is easy to say my strategy to lose weight is: "ensuring calorie deficit by eating less and exercising more." Indeed, a good strategy. But then, many people with this strategy aren't really doing it. Because to do it consistently requires commitment and hard work.
In the GOSPEL approach of winning strategy, we stipulate that for it to be a winning strategy, you cannot stop at S. You must also have P, E, and L (where S = Focused Strategy, P = Faithful Plans, E = Relentless Execution, L = Vigilant Look Out).
One example of a company that successfully did what it said it would do is Cisco System Inc., the company supplying networking equipment and network management for the internet.
Photo by Kjetil Ree from Wikimedia Commons
Cisco found that its customers have very different goals, e.g., some of them are publicly listed companies chasing quarterly performance targets; some of them are governmental entities pursuing public sector priorities. Therefore, Cisco's strategy was to tailor its approach to each customer and focus on helping the customers achieve their specific goals.
But Cisco didn't just stop at saying this. To support the strategy, CISCO also:
Launched a massive communication campaign to ensure everyone in the company understood the strategy. They used multiple mediums to share the strategy, including putting the strategy phrase "customer success" on every employee's security pass and desktop background. In addition, they make sure the salespeople regularly share and communicate issues faced by the customers. This way, the non-client-facing employees could also understand the customers' challenges.
Introduced appropriate KPIs that steer employees' behavior toward the strategy, such as customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and the number of solutions customers purchase. The KPIs were then measured regularly and communicated to the people, so everyone focused on the customers.
Ensured people's bonuses and compensations were linked to those customer-oriented KPIs. This way, the employees were incentivized to ensure customer satisfaction always.
Instilled a culture of collaboration across divisions so the entire company could work together to deliver what's best for the customer. This way, Cisco can bring the entire company's resources to address a customer's specific needs. The salespeople also perpetuated this culture of collaboration through regular sharing and communication.
Upgraded the skills of their people. For example, the salespeople are trained on a customer's industry, market, end-consumers, competitors, and competitive positioning to help their customers better. Furthermore, salespeople were trained to ask questions, empathize, and listen to customers' problems. This way, they could proactively figure out the solutions those clients need.
Because Cisco did all of these hard words, it managed to grow steadily in its highly competitive and turbulent market.
These hard works are what transform merely saying "our strategy is customer-success" into really having a customer-success strategy. These hard works (or, more accurately, the absence of them) are where most companies fail.
In sum, to avoid failure, don't just stop at having a strategy. Because no matter how good the strategy is, it is useless if not executed. Continue all the way to the planning, execution, and look out phase.
Remember, there are six winning phases, i.e., G. O. S. P. E. L. (which you can read here).
Continue exploring winning strategy here.
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