Executive Imperatives For 2012

Most of us like to operate from a list. Lists help us organize our thoughts and actions, serving to remind us about something that we would likely otherwise forget. Given that, it seemed like a good idea to offer-up a short list of business-related New Year’s Resolutions this week – all pertaining to the “organizational maintenance” items that we know need our attention but likely have neglected in terms of action taken.

This list was kept to just a few critical items for brevity, addressing some key items that concern the internal workings of the organization as well as some that go beyond the walls of the the business. Additionally, each maintenance item is intentionally broad in scope, to allow for general adaptability in diverse business environments. Where personal New Year’s resolutions might be very specific (e.g. “go to the gym three times a week”), each item of this short list represents a theme that is most likely already interwoven into your strategic plan…but may not be expressed sufficiently in operational terms.

Let’s explore the following executive “maintenance” imperatives.

The 2012 (and ongoing) Organizational Maintenance Checklist

1. Improve upon operational effectiveness

Business leaders have to find ways to do more with less. Due to the recession and lagging economy, labor may be cheaper and in more abundance today, but it is still one of the most significant costs facing businesses. As part of routine organizational maintenance, we must challenge the status-quo in sales, marketing, finance, technology and other business functions to improve efficiency and maximize our investment in human capital through process improvement. In short, we must find ways to produce better business outcomes with less. For instance, when we look at our technology group, we should see clear benefit to the business through increased efficiency in the delivery of products and services. These benefits should be the filter we use to prioritize initiatives. Likewise, our purchasing / supply-chain function should be providing year-over-year incremental optimizations to improve overall cost effectiveness and shorten lead times needed for orders. That function must focus efforts on improving supplier and partner relationships. The list could go on and on.

The starting point for improving any business function should include reviews of core business processes to insure alignment to business goals. An organization’s strategic goals should provide the key direction for this review, but efficiency and effectiveness of core processes must also be considered in terms of the organization not just focusing on “doing things right”, but also on “doing the right things”. Operational improvements should be our way of life. Organizations that constantly seek to improve upon the status-quo will boost their market value and realize competitive advantage for the organization.

2.  Take action to become a more customer-centric organization

Improving customer centricity is a vital part of the ongoing organizational maintenance that executive teams must address. Ever-changing customer needs combined with hyper-competitive markets underscore the importance of aligning business organizational structures and processes to respond quicker and achieve higher customer satisfaction levels.

It takes a concerted effort to develop a customer focus throughout the organization’s structure, process and culture. The executive mandate here is to resist simply accepting the ways things work today. Instead, leadership should systematically re-examine the organization’s structure and make changes over time to become more customer-centric. The action item is to challenge the status quo by re-architecting work processes in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness. As a byproduct, a cultural shift will take hold…one that operates with the purpose of always doing what it takes to create value for customers.

3. Develop leadership skills in the executive team

The next maintenance item to address is leadership growth. The executive team as a whole must be ready to step up and provide the leadership needed to bring about success. To determine what growth is required, assess top-leadership’s core competencies in terms of the ideal mix required to fuel success and meet the organization’s strategic goals. What skills are missing and where will these skills come from?

Through evaluation of individual executive core competencies, it can be determined if the sum of the parts equals a whole. If additional management talent is immediately required in order to fill it crucial gaps, that should be identified and corrected now. Regardless, executive staff development must be addressed strategically and be an ongoing maintenance task. Just as the status quo must be challenged in all aspects of the organization’s model, leadership competencies must be re-assessed as well.

The Business Imperative

All of the above mentioned maintenance checklist items are essential for organizations in today’s business climate. The overarching goal is to move value creation closer to the customer and remove layers that separate the business from the customer. This goal applies to all for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies.

The organization’s strategic goals and purposes (Who are we, what do we do, and why do we do it?) should provide the baseline for this ongoing analysis. The organization’s customers are the answer to the question, “Why do we do it?”. The purpose, beyond remaining a viable concern, is to serve the customer. The task at hand is to begin now by aligning the organization’s structure and work process to realize the goal of serving the customer better.

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