Originally posted on LinkedIn on October 27, 2017.
Increase your business growth in 90 days!
It sounds preposterous, doesn’t it? However, it really is not if you follow these five steps:
- Demand Change: Business leadership has to affirm that they want change, and will do what it takes to make it happen. Key people required to be on board are invested in the change. They must have the will to stop doing tasks that are not focused on the change process.
- Establish the Facts: Determine what your customers or potential customers want and will pay for. This assumes you have the potential to fulfill their needs and address their desired outcomes.
- Define the Objective: Clarify the future state you want to achieve and when you need that to happen. Capture the challenges that must be addressed to achieve the future state.
- FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS: Identify, prioritize, and commit resources to those few top initiatives that must be addressed. Be sure to specify when and by whom. Empower the organization to do the work.
- Invest in Growth: Resource to win. Eliminate those rate limiting activities. Look to the outside for help—as needed.
The Drivers of Change
There are four key principles that drive this change and lead to business growth:
- Commitment is required! All must agree to think and do their jobs differently while the business continues to run on autopilot. The paradox here is you can’t stop what you are doing simply because you fear that something bad will happen while you are making renewal happen.
- Think outside of the box! Here, you must go beyond your current customers. By knowing the outcomes desired by downstream, you can apply true intelligence about what your direct customers must deliver.
- Be prepared to invest in analytics! No matter how exciting some concepts may be, without an analytical assessment that clearly identifies the real drivers and economics associated with your concept for growth, buy-in will not happen and market success will suffer.
- Get the organization involved at the right time! Organizational mindset is critical. Without it, renewal is destined for failure. This has been the number one problem in many companies, and becomes an entrenched barrier over the years.
