CORPORATE MOMENTUM THROUGH STRATEGY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The most valuable element

Kirk — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:10:21 +0000

Before you get your hands on an organization and start to work your magic, there are a few things you have to establish or everything afterward will be a struggle or fail. This brings me to what I describe as the most valuable element, trust. As an intangible asset it can’t be measured in a physical sense, but if you could it would be worth more than gold by weight.

Trust determines the degree to which you will be able to impact and influence change within an organization. Relationships, credibility and consistency of follow through earn you trust. For as much as being a great planner is dependent on your skills, it begins with the impression you make and a judgment about you as an individual.

Abundance mind-set

Kirk — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:20:11 +0000

There are many different ways to look at the world, and one important decision relates to the degree of abundance in your paradigm. People often carry thinking habits from their personal lives into their thinking for your organizations. Hard times creates habits that many people keep when the market turns around, and some [...]

Why planning exists

Kirk — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:06:05 +0000

Planning has one main job. It's to ensure people are moving, and moving in the right (read: same) direction. Not everyone moves at the same pace, but not moving is never good enough. If people don't know where they're supposed to go, some will move in different directions and others will sit [...]

Your potential is far greater than you realize

Kirk — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:13:25 +0000

Why is it so important to get into detail on strategy? It's a simple answer: When your job is to organize groups of people to achieve a task, they have to know 2 things: 1) What do you ultimately want to accomplish? (vision, long-term direction, mission, etc...) 2) What do we need to focus [...]

How do you change old behaviors within an organization

Kirk — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:23:55 +0000

I recently posted up on the Execution Premium website to a colleague who had a question about how to change old behaviors within an organization: We are in the middle of transforming our business and I was in your shoes about a year ago. The good news is that we’re making a lot of progress. [...]

Reiteration: Be purposeful in what you do

Kirk — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:21:44 +0000

The three primary motivators for purchase intent are as follows: 1) Price 2) Unique product and 3) Best total fit/customization. The basis is that customers are always primarily motivated by searching for one of three forms of value when they look for a product or service. To that end, an organization needs [...]

Plans driven by strategy

Kirk — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:13:05 +0000

The quality of internal alignment become apparent at various points during the year. Core strategy leaders need to be held accountable for the quality with which they align. Teams that are externally focused need to concentrate their change efforts on better alignment with a corporate standard for customer experience, while internally focused teams [...]

Is merging the solution?

Kirk — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:33:48 +0000

Too many companies enter into mergers without clearly defining what the impact will be or how the potential gains are to be created. Even if the potential is real, it's unlikely that the people in the trenches will make decisions that support the creation of that value without providing this as context. It's [...]

The purpose of measures

Kirk — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:34:28 +0000

Leading a company requires a lot of courage. It also requires the ability and willingness to engage in conceptual thinking. Something I learned a long time ago was that no matter how many designations follow a persons name, no one has all the answers. Selecting the right measures and getting full value [...]

The world revolves around planning

Kirk — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:03:33 +0000

Okay so for those of you who do planning for a living, you quickly realize that most people don't believe this statement is true. I say this jokingly but I also believe that planning is the path to create greater levels of cooperation toward common goals within your organization. It's actually the only [...]