Author: Editor

Building a Team to Support Growth Strategy

Throughout this blog series, we have made the case that creating and implementing strategies is a full-time job best completed by an owner with the authority to hold others accountable. In many cases, this means creating a growth focused executive role (Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Growth Officer, etc.). In this blog, we will discuss the spectrum of ways that an organization can provide support for this new executive position.

The Purpose of the Growth Strategy Team

As growth executives create, analyze, and adjust the strategies that they create, they also work to align every piece of their organization to that strategy. In very few cases are these activities one-time events or with small groups of people. Instead, these activities are constant day-to-day initiatives that occur simultaneously with team members throughout the company. Therefore, in many cases these responsibilities require the support of a team rather than the focus of a lone individual. The key question is how does one create that team?

How to Build a Team for Executing a Growth Strategy

A spectrum of team types exist with relation to differentiated growth strategies. On one end, organizations create a full-time team that allocates 100% of their focus towards supporting the Growth Executive and driving the team forward. On the other end of the spectrum, organizations instead instill existing leadership and other team members with strategic responsibilities but do not have those team members report directly to the growth executive.

Fully Focused Team – Benefits and Challenges

A fully designated team that directly reports to the growth executive both benefits and suffers from that specific org structure. A team such as this takes ownership of the strategy themselves while motivating and encouraging others to become involved.

Benefits include:

  • Clear ownership and accountability of strategic initiatives
  • Does not add additional responsibilities to leadership team
  • Full focus of a number of team members on strategic priorities

Challenges include:

  • Functions can perceive organizational strategy as the exclusive responsibility of the full-time team
  • Full-time team must heavily rely on insights from customer-facing teams
  • Must add and demonstrate value for the broader organizational teams

Partially Focused Team – Benefits and Challenges

A team that assumes parts of the organizational strategy and indirectly reports to the growth executive also has its own unique benefits and challenges. While these leaders are likely experts at communicating to and motivating their team, managing their existing team is a full-time job in and of itself without any additional responsibilities.

Benefits include:

  • Constant leadership focus on strategic initiatives
  • Customer-facing teams are pushed to have a strategic focus
  • Existing credibility within the organization to motivate teams to action

Challenges include:

  • No clear ownership over strategic initiatives
  • Adds to the responsibilities of already busy leaders
  • Splits focus of strategic priorities among many

Mixing and Matching

As organizations find what works best for them, they may come up with their own unique combination of the two types of teams (ex. a couple designated corporate strategy team members reporting directly to the growth executive and a couple of existing leadership team members having a “dotted line” report to the growth executive), hence the spectrum. Each location on the spectrum has benefits and challenges associated with it, there is no one correct answer.

Capabilities of a Strong Growth Executive

Regardless of the type of team that is created to support the growth executive, a certain skill set will be helpful as the growth executive looks to drive a differentiated growth strategy forward. First and foremost is leadership. Growth strategies embedded with differentiation are difficult to implement. It will undoubtedly be challenging as the organization changes its mindset, looks to assume new responsibilities, and achieve new heights. The organization will constantly look towards the growth executive for support, encouragement, and direction. Therefore, the growth executive’s leadership capabilities will play a large role in the success of the strategies they own.

Another key tenet of a growth executive is open-mindedness. As we have alluded to, no matter how much effort goes into the creation of a strategy, the reality is it will likely not be 100% correct. Even if it is perfectly accurate, the world changes and new opportunities may arise that require a new strategy or at minimum an adjustment. Leaders without an open-minded approach to their strategy may find themselves battling against an organization looking to assume a new direction, in essence holding an organization back rather than driving it forward.

Conclusion

In conclusion, establishing an adept team for executing growth strategies is pivotal in navigating today’s competitive business environment. The right team structure coupled with the leadership acumen of a growth executive can steer an organization towards remarkable success.

Written by: Mark Slotnik and Jack Draeb

Mark Slotnik has spent nearly 20+ years advising clients in the areas of designing and taking to market high-value business solutions, solution portfolio management, talent development, resource management, business process re-engineering and commercial software.  

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.

Ownership and Accountability of Organizational Growth

In the last three blogs of this series, we outlined our framework for organizing a differentiated growth strategy, aligning the organization to that strategy, and evaluating and adjusting the strategy as new information is received. Because of the iterative nature of these activities, the work of creating and driving organizational growth strategies is a full-time job best fulfilled by an owner with the power to hold others accountable.

The Opportunity – and Challenge – of finding a Growth Owner

Today, two common scenarios underscore the challenges of ownership of organizational growth initiatives; the absence of a true owner or the presence of multiple owners, both of which can lead to managerial confusion and fragmented efforts.

In some organizations the absence of a dedicated owner stems from leadership’s initial enthusiasm to drive the strategy forward. While leadership likely creates a comprehensive and well thought-out strategic initiative, the issue arises when leadership’s attention is diverted to other pressing matters. This often leaves the strategy without the alignment, evaluation, and adjustments necessary to drive to success. Without a consistent driving force, the strategy may lose momentum, hindering its successful implementation.

Conversely, another prevalent challenge emerges when organizations opt for multiple owners instead of a single high-level owner with the authority to hold business units, business functions, and their leaders accountable. This scenario often unfolds when organizations name specific owners for each component of the growth strategy, potentially resulting in a lack of cohesion and shared accountability. In essence, having multiple owners creates a situation where individuals are tasked with owning specific aspects of the growth strategy, but there’s no overarching owner responsible for ensuring the alignment and synergy of the entire strategy. The risk here is returning to a state where no one assumes ownership of the holistic growth strategy, leading to disjointed efforts and a potential loss of strategic focus.

The Rise of the Growth Executive

The key challenge in both of the aforementioned scenarios is the absence of a single owner with the authority to oversee, lead, and hold the organization accountable for the implementation and execution of the growth strategy. Regardless of the reasons behind the absence or multitude of owners, finding the right balance by appointing one owner with the ability to drive, adjust, and align the business remains paramount for sustained and successful growth. In response to this need, growth-focused executive positions have risen to prominence. These executives ensure that strategic priorities remain a focus for the entire organization by driving strategic alignment, evaluating strategic success, and making adjustments as available.

Some examples of growth focused executive roles include the following:

  • Chief Commercial Officer
  • Chief Business Officer
  • Chief Growth Officer
  • Chief Strategy Officer
  • Chief Implementation Officer

As organizations continue to recognize the need for growth focused executives, new positions with new titles will arise, but many of them are focused on the same problem. The confusion around these titles in some cases extends past that market to individual organizations, where some companies can have many of these positions on their executive board, all focused on a similar topic. No matter the official title, the solution lies in having one owner, and it matters less what their position is called as long as they possess the authority and credibility required for the task.

Conclusion

The success of growth strategies in organizations hinges on having a dedicated owner with the power and credibility to lead, align, and hold others accountable. However, even a growth executive who is informed and powerful may not be able to achieve success in isolation. In our next installment of the series, we discuss how leveraging a shared growth mindset amongst a team can help to amplify the impact of the executive owner’s leadership.

Written by: Mark Slotnik and Jack Draeb

Mark Slotnik has spent nearly 20+ years advising clients in the areas of designing and taking to market high-value business solutions, solution portfolio management, talent development, resource management, business process re-engineering and commercial software.  

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.

Evaluating and Adjusting Organizational Strategy

To this point in our organizational Growth Strategy blog series, we have shared our framework for creating a growth strategy embedded in differentiation and outlined some best practices for aligning the organization to that growth strategy. However, the initial crafting and alignment of a strategy is not designed to achieve perfection from the start; rather, it’s focused on embracing the learning that comes with imperfections and change. In this blog post, we will explore how constant evaluation and adjustments are not an outcome of failures, but instead opportunities to further the growth strategy.

Creating the Framework for Ongoing Evaluation

While we aspire to get everything right the first time we define and implement a strategy, the truth is that learning is an inherent part of the process. Therefore, defining the planning and tracking mechanisms for a strategic growth initiative is not about achieving perfection but about having the ability to identify, make, and communicate adjustments through ongoing assessment.

While this may seem intuitive, we often find organizations do not track, measure, and ultimately execute on the implementation of their strategies for a few key reasons:

  1. SMART goals are not set to evaluate the organization’s progress – In the contemporary landscape, goal setting is commonplace, but when defining targets for a long-term strategy, additional detail can be helpful. We recommend using SMART goals, or goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
  1. Methodologies have not been created to repeatably complete the evaluation – In many cases, organizations set strong goals only to sporadically revisit them. We recommend creating financial and operational dashboards that can quickly be reviewed and setting a cadence to formalize those reviews. 
  1. No one true owner is assigned to the growth strategy – The final and most difficult challenge of assessing and adjusting a growth strategy is determining who is responsible for doing so. We will discuss this challenge at length in our next blog.

Making Adjustments

Consider the following scenario: Your organization has defined its strategy, driven alignment, and outlined the process for evaluating its success. After some initial experiences in the new market space, a number of team members from the Sales and Professional Services team have mentioned that a new opportunity is arising in an adjacent market that customers are asking about. As you discuss this opportunity with more customers, you find that your organization is perfectly poised to become a major player in this new growing market.

For many, this is a dream scenario and the goal of creating a dynamic strategy and agile organization. However, often times we associate the word “adjustments” with negative connotations. A common sentiment is “when things go wrong” people then make adjustments. In the case of growth strategies, however, adjustments are generally positive. Your organization will grow, learn, and find new opportunities to pursue, such as in the example above, while also making adjustments as mistakes are made.

It is worth noting that too large of a pivot too quickly may cause frustration and failed initiatives. If we set our sights on creating a new piece of hardware in a tangential market and pivot to creating software in an unfamiliar space, success cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, as adjustments are made, once again considering the “where to play, how to play, and how to win” of the new strategy as outlined in the first blog of this series can be helpful.

Unfortunately, this in many ways means entering another cycle of aligning, evaluating, and adjusting. We may not necessarily adjust our end goals (we might actually become more aggressive with them), but we likely need to re-align the organization which means re-communicating a new message and potentially updating our financial and operational dashboards. We never said that creating and driving a growth strategy would be easy!

Conclusion

Organizations often feel pressure to find the needle in a haystack with a perfect strategy in a growing market on their first try. In reality, starting anywhere and creating the mindset of agility can often lead to better results. We likely will not be perfect; we are going to have to change, and it is going to be difficult. In the end, however, embarking on this journey will create the growth that the organization desires.  Another key piece to this puzzle still remains; who owns doing all of this? In our next segment of the Growth series, we outline the challenge of growth ownership in the world today and share our insights on solving it.

Written by: Mark Slotnik and Jack Draeb

Mark Slotnik has spent nearly 20+ years advising clients in the areas of designing and taking to market high-value business solutions, solution portfolio management, talent development, resource management, business process re-engineering and commercial software.  

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.

Aligning the Organization to the Growth Strategy

In our first blog of the Growth Strategy series, we shared our framework for crafting a comprehensive growth strategy. While this framework helps to bring clarity to the strategy, it is only the beginning of the journey. Once defined, a variety of roadblocks exist that deter success, the first of which is organizational alignment. In this blog post, we outline the importance of alignment, share some tips and tricks for creating alignment, and overview some of the challenges associated with creating alignment for a dynamic strategy.

The Vital Role of Leadership Alignment

Organizational success hinges greatly on the alignment of its leadership. Much like an airplane flying a long distance needing to stay aligned to its course, even a one-degree deviation from the charted flight path can substantially alter the flight’s destination by hundreds of miles. In a business context, the flight path can be likened to the business’ growth strategy, and leaders serve as pilots steering the organization. If the pilots aren’t fully aligned with the intended flight path, keeping the organization on the path to fulfilling its growth strategy becomes an arduous task.

Alignment as a Recurring Objective

Navigating the ongoing battle of alignment within an organization is a continuous process that extends beyond a single meeting. We often find that business leaders assume that creating alignment is a single, one-time event. In reality, even as they define their strategy, different leaders can walk away from the same meeting with different focuses and takeaways. Then, as leadership communicates the message they interpreted to their direct reports, a game of telephone arises leading to additional miscommunications and confusion. As this confusion is discovered, leadership rinses and repeats the same conversation they started with, once again communicating the message to direct reports who understand a bit better. However, as weeks and then months go by, they may forget other key aspects. Achieving true alignment requires a consistent effort to check in with employees across the organization, ensuring they grasp the nuances of the strategy and how it can be applied to their roles. Employees are immersed in their demanding day-to-day responsibilities, layering in strategic initiatives on top of their existing workload presents a challenge. Regular discussions provide a means for them to grasp and maintain alignment without being overwhelmed.

In the quest for organizational alignment and understanding, going beyond verbal exchanges and creating tangible documents can be valuable reinforcement tools that serve as constant reminders as to what the strategy is and what the strategy is not. This documentation not only acts as a reference for the current state of alignment but also lays the foundation for future conversations. In addition to tangible documents, we’ve found that developing short videos for weekly team updates or establishing a frequently asked questions (FAQ) summary can also be useful. Regardless of the medium, repetition and reminders help to support organizational alignment.

Alignment Within a Dynamic Strategy

Alignment challenges arise not only as a result of our own human tendencies but also as a core tenet of dynamic strategic planning. As highlighted in our last blog and to be further discussed in our next blog, dynamic strategies built upon differentiation are constantly being evaluated and adjusted as new opportunities arise. For a leadership team focused on alignment, re-adjusting a strategy means updating communication plans to be cascaded through the organization so that everyone understands what the adjustment is, why it is being made, and whether or not they are impacted. After all, what is the point of identifying an opportunity and making an adjustment if we are not going to unify the organization to go and achieve it?

This may sound like a lot of work (because it is), but we can leverage our creation of previous documents and build upon existing understanding. Simple discussions framed with what the strategy was, what the change is, and how that change effects individual responsibilities can help steer the organization one degree in the right direction with every repetition, and as we mentioned at the beginning of this blog, one degree makes all the difference.

Conclusion

The pursuit of organizational alignment is an ongoing and dynamic endeavor with leadership alignment acting as a pivotal force steering the collective course toward strategic objectives. Alignment achieved is not a guarantee of alignment months later. By embracing the reality that strategies built on differentiation are not static, organizations can create a continuous commitment to alignment that positions their business to navigate the complexities of change. In our next blog in this series, we further discuss this need for evaluation and adjustment of the growth strategy.

Written by: Mark Slotnik and Jack Draeb

Mark Slotnik has spent nearly 20+ years advising clients in the areas of designing and taking to market high-value business solutions, solution portfolio management, talent development, resource management, business process re-engineering and commercial software.  

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.

Organizing a Growth Strategy

The cornerstone of a successful business is a growing business. However, in the competitive world of today’s B2B companies, determining where that growth might come from and how to capitalize on it is often a challenge. Even for businesses in the fortunate situation of having clear growth paths in expanding markets, creating a comprehensive strategy that drives the entire organization in a unified direction can often be an overwhelming task. In this blog, we will walk through our framework for creating a differentiated growth strategy to unite your organization and set the stage for success.

Where to Play, How to Play, and How to Win

When crafting a strategy built on differentiation, there are three foundational elements to consider: Where to Play, How to Play, and How to Win. By considering each one of these elements, organizations can create a holistic strategic plan that is easy to communicate.

Where to Play – At the highest level, creating a growth strategy begins by defining which markets, market segments, and sub-segments the organization will target for growth. While in some cases these markets present themselves clearly, in other cases defining where to play can be challenging. A common difficulty is targeting the market segment that is right for your organization and not just the largest or fasting growing segment. While in some cases these might align, there are many times when they do not.

How to Play – When defining areas of opportunity, organizations can also begin to identify the offers (i.e. the products, services, or solutions) they will use to capitalize on those markets. In some cases, existing offers may resonate well with new positioning and strong go-to-market efforts. Other times, however, organizations may look to center their strategy around new offers.

How to Win – This final cog in the wheel represents where the rubber meets the road for an organization’s growth strategy. Now that a market segment and relevant offers have been identified, leaders can begin to identify ways that they can enter the market in a differentiated manner. Some organizations might benefit by acquiring or partnering with existing players in the space, others by transforming their selling methods and approach to the customer. Regardless of the methodology, organizations will be compelled to differentiate themselves to win in their new market segment.

Strategy Creation and Customer Intimacy

Without Customer Intimacy, each piece of the strategy creation puzzle can feel challenging if not impossible. As your organization looks to define its strategy, it may be helpful to keep the following customer intimacy related questions in mind.

Where to Play

  • What are the most pressing challenges and problems to be solved?
  • Where should we be operating that we are not today?
  • Where does the market expect us to operate?
  • Which markets are too far away from my core business model to operate in?

How to Play

  • What offers does the market need right now?
  • Why is the market looking for those types of offers?
  • What offers does the market expect my organization to be offering?

How to Win

  • How do I differentiate myself in these segments?
  • What competition exists in this segment with similar offers? How will I overcome that competition?
  • How is the product or service differentiated?
  • How can my sales and marketing approach cut through the clutter?
  • How can I create lasting relationships with accounts?

 Conclusion

A well-defined growth strategy is the bedrock of success. The decisions of Where to Play, How to Play, and How to Win are foundational components of a growth strategy embedded with differentiation.  However, a nagging question may still remain no matter how well you feel you have accomplished creating your strategy – what if I was wrong? What if my strategy is not the right strategy? The reality may come as a relief (or a disappointment in some cases); you are not likely to be 100% correct. That said, success does not require 100% accuracy, and organizing the strategy is only the beginning. In our next blog, we will discuss the alignment that helps teams to ensure a growth strategy’s success.

Written by: Mark Slotnik and Jack Draeb

Mark Slotnik has spent nearly 20+ years advising clients in the areas of designing and taking to market high-value business solutions, solution portfolio management, talent development, resource management, business process re-engineering and commercial software.  

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.

Preparing for a Successful Steering Committee Meeting

In the world of consulting and professional services, it is likely that you have worked on projects that have utilized a steering committee. A steering committee is a group of key stakeholders and decision-makers who are responsible for providing oversight, guidance, and support for a specific project throughout its lifecycle. The committee typically consists of high-level representatives from different departments of the client as well as members of your consulting team. The primary purpose of a project steering committee is to ensure that the project aligns with the organization’s strategic goals, remains on track, and delivers the intended outcomes. Further, the committee acts as a central governing body that makes critical decisions, resolves issues, and manages risks associated with the project.

With such a structure in place, it is critical that you, as a consultant, leverage the capabilities of the steering committee to their full potential. When the Steering Committee meets through the duration of a project, each event is crucial as it brings together key stakeholders to make strategic decisions and to provide guidance to the project team. To ensure the success of these meetings, you must guide the steering committee by taking several actions in advance of meetings to engage stakeholders effectively and to foster productive discussions. In this blog, we will explore the essential aspects of preparing for successful steering committee meetings.

Identifying Key Stakeholders

The first action you should take in preparing for a successful steering committee meeting is to identify the key stakeholders and establish an understanding of their perspectives and motives as it relates to your project. These stakeholders are typically individuals who have been assigned to the steering committee because of their strategic interest and ability to influence the project’s outcomes. Identifying these stakeholders is often as simple as acknowledging the steering committee members, but understanding their motives and ability to influence the project involves a thorough analysis of the project’s scope, objectives, and potential impact. Recognizing and understanding why these individuals have been assigned to the steering committee is the most important job of the consultant. To do this, understanding the personality types of key stakeholders is beneficial to anticipating how they might respond to different situations and information that you will share. Once the key stakeholders have been identified and their level of impact is understood, you can begin developing content that will be shared with the steering committee in advance of and during the upcoming meeting.

Pre-Read Content

Before engaging directly with the steering committee, you should develop and share a pre-read that provides context for the upcoming meeting. This is achieved by organizing a clear agenda and providing a deliverable with background information that gets their thoughts flowing. This deliverable prepares the steering committee for the meeting and enables them to formulate an initial point of view that will influence their ability to participate in meaningful discussions. It is essential to ensure that all relevant parties receive this information because assumptions about their level of preparedness can lead to an unproductive meeting. Preparing everyone, even beyond senior executives, is vital, as any participant could take ownership of portions of the meeting. Admittedly, it is difficult to predict how stakeholders will engage during these meetings, so establishing a level playing field through the sharing of pre-read content is imperative. With that said, you must be careful of how much information is shared in advance of these meetings.

How Much Information should be Shared?  

When sharing a pre-read, striking a balance between a high-level overview and a greater amount of detail is crucial. Overloading the steering committee with excessive detail in the pre-read can overwhelm them and reduce their ability to focus on the most critical aspects of the project in the meeting. Therefore, providing enough information, but not too much, is essential to keeping steering committee meetings focused and constructive. To ensure you are effectively striking this balance, you should utilize a meeting structure that simultaneously provides high-level project updates with a report out of the most critical challenges that face the project.

Project Update

As mentioned, it is always important to provide a brief update to the committee that presents the project’s progress and any new challenges that have been identified. As an important note, this update should be brief so that you can effectively shift the focus of the meeting to seeking help and guidance on the most critical issues of the project. Updates should only take up the first couple minutes of the meeting, at which point you should shift the focus of the meeting to the top 2-3 areas where support is needed. This meeting structure allows the steering committee to concentrate their efforts on driving the project forward through meaningful contributions.

Follow-Up

To ensure that stakeholders understand the presented information, it is essential to follow up with meetings after the meeting. This step allows for clarifications, additional discussions, and updates on new information that may have arisen. This post-meeting engagement is crucial to ensure that stakeholders can act on the decisions made during the meeting and stay aligned with project goals.

Overcoming Challenges

Despite careful preparation, conflicts may arise during the steering committee meeting. When disagreements or blow-ups occur, it is crucial to handle them with tact and empathy. Step one is to make sure the involved stakeholders feel heard and that their opinions matter. Demonstrating active listening and empathy can help de-escalate tense situations and foster a sense of collaboration.

Step two involves leveraging the champion or a trusted individual from the group to provide an alternative perspective. This step can help bring different viewpoints to the table and facilitate understanding.

In step three, the focus should be on moving forward together. Sometimes, it may be necessary to table certain issues temporarily to prevent the meeting from derailing, with a commitment to revisit and address them later. If a mistake was made, it is essential to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it.

Finally, once the issues have been worked out, we can bring the group back into the meeting for resolution. This approach ensures that stakeholders feel their concerns are valued and addressed, leading to a more cohesive and successful steering committee meeting.

Conclusion

In conclusion, preparing for a successful steering committee meeting involves several crucial steps. Identifying the stakeholders, understanding their perspectives, and providing context before the meeting are key aspects. Sharing the right amount of information, focusing on essential topics, and following up with post-meeting engagements are also vital. Additionally, handling conflicts with empathy and involving champions to provide alternative perspectives are key to maintaining a productive and successful steering committee meeting. By following these guidelines, project leaders can foster collaboration, make informed decisions, and ensure the project’s overall success.

Written by: Dean McMann

More from this Author

About the Author: Dean McMann is a Founding Partner at McMann & Ransford with 35+ years of experience in consulting and professional services.  He is a sought-after expert and speaker on topics of: B2B differentiation, professional services best practices, and overcoming commoditization.  In addition to his extensive experience in the Professional Services space, Dean also serves on the board of various non-profit organizations.

The Line of Safety and Service Chains

In some of our recent blogs, we have discussed the importance of having your entire organization operate Above the Line of Safety, that is the level in an organization above which roles are empowered with budget and resources to independently solve a problem. Many organizations discuss this topic in terms of selling to executives or the C-Suite, a well-known and often attempted idea that is of course difficult to put into practice. In this blog, we will outline how to get above the Line of Safety using Service Chains and why the two ideas are inherently related.

Service Chains

Service Chains comprise a pre-defined set of sales activities and projects that collectively deliver your solution and value proposition in a manner that facilitates the buyer’s journey to understand, evaluate, and implement new ideas. The fundamental premise of the Service Chain is disaggregation of the big purchase decision (i.e., buying the total solution) into smaller decisions scoped and sized to match the buyer’s position in their purchasing journey – the buyer’s investment grows as the understanding, credibility, and value achieved or achievable increases.

Service Chains are the primary method to formalize the topics and ideas from the Portfolio into executable “how to play” offerings designed for differentiation, intimacy, and/or pull through.  Specifically, Service Chains:

    • Formalize the deliverables of the client engagements and use those deliverables to build credibility and intimacy
    • Create a predictable stream of work that pulls through major revenue sources
    • Reduce the overall sales investment and the risk – for both you and the buyer
    • Provide the basis for account plans, communication plans, and executive interactions
    • Support demand creation by aligning to the way that an executive makes a buying decision 

How do Service Chains Help Get Above the Line of Safety?

The Service Chain frees the organization to go directly to the executive because it is geared to how the executive thinks. Often times, organizations create their offers with technical buyers below the Line of Safety in mind. These buyers act at the “With Whom to Act” stage. When organizations try to engage buying executives at the With Whom to Act stage, the executive is in many cases not interested because it is not a problem they are focused on. If they are interested, the selling organization must compete against others on price, features, etc.

Instead, by using Service Chains organizations can design entry projects that interest executives and open up discussions on problems they are focused on. Simultaneously, these offers are designed to meet the executive at a time when they are determining whether or not to act on the issue. Therefore, to get Above the Line of Safety, organizations need to create new Service Chain offers focused around a small first purchase that solves problems that plague executive buyers.

Conclusion

Working Above the Safety Line is both an offensive and defensive strategy.  It allows protection from competitors because the selling organization now has higher value and greater intimacy.  And, offensively, it provides a road to pull through the products and services that are more commoditized.  Finally, the Service Chain provides a mechanism for many existing sales resources to work with executives without having to replace the sales force. 

Written by: Anthony Paluska and Jack Draeb

Anthony Paluska is a Partner at McMann & Ransford with experience helping organizations overcome commoditization by developing stronger, more intimate, relationships with their customers. He has leveraged his management consulting, problem-solving, and change management skills to support 15+ Fortune 1000 organizations, across a multitude of industries.

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.

Effective Beginnings

“Begin with the end in mind.” This is powerful advice from Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which can be applied to kicking off any consulting engagement. Although change is inevitable in any consulting project, a foundation must be set from which a project plan can be made. By defining an end goal for the project, an agile project plan that is responsive to your client’s feedback and changing needs can be created. Simultaneously, beginning with the end in mind helps to navigate new project variables as they arise while maintaining a focus on the desired outcomes. The remainder of this blog is dedicated to the several strategies that can be utilized to effectively begin a project.

Utilizing Creative Sessions 

Anytime that an assignment comes across your desk, the first question asked should be, “what is the destination?” Answering this question is an effective way to kick-off a project, however, determining the correct answer is the true challenge when working with clients. Consultants will often take it upon themselves to determine the best possible outcome given their clients’ needs. Though it is important for individuals to think through and develop a solution to their assignment independently, it is critical to involve other, more senior members of your firm in the discussion. Remember, your success as a consultant is reliant on your ability to combine your own thoughts and opinions with those of your colleagues. The best way to do this (especially at the outset of a new project or assignment) is to schedule and conduct creative sessions with other members of your team.

Creative sessions are an organized form of brainstorming that facilitate a small group discussion focused around the end goal of an assignment and how that goal can be achieved. It should be noted that there is an important distinction between creative sessions and general brainstorming. Creative sessions are organized by the owner of the assignment and that individual should come into the meeting with a plan and an initial point of view on the end goal they hope to accomplish. This organization creates a foundation from which other, more senior members of the project or assignment team, can provide feedback while also sharing fresh perspectives on how they view the solution. Further, creative sessions organized in this way ensure that there is a clear and full understanding of the problem that needs to be solved. Utilizing creative sessions forces you to think about an assignment holistically, while also providing the opportunity to validate and defend your proposed end goal. This best practice enables you to begin with the end in mind, while simultaneously considering how you will get there. Primarily, creative sessions establish focus, but many young consultants struggle with planning for these sessions. So what can you do to prepare?

To reach any destination, you must begin with the first step. Admittedly, this can be daunting, especially when the assignment is challenging to think through. With that said, the key is simply getting started. No one expects you to be entirely correct at this juncture of the project and mistakes are anticipated. What matters most is showing initiative and establishing a foundation from which momentum can be gained. Taking action requires making predictions and assumptions regarding the end goal, which will be either validated or debunked in the forthcoming creative session. Remember, this is why you schedule creative sessions in the first place. As an individual, when you take the first step, you create an environment where you can gather more input to establish buy-in and consensus around the assignment outcome. When consensus is established, you are ready to build deliverables that should be accompanied by “check-my-thinking” reviews.

Check-My-Thinking Reviews

After you have taken the individual initiative to start an assignment and have held your creative session, you will have a good handle on the outcome you are seeking. With this new understanding, you can begin to build deliverables that support your client’s journey to the destination. Though you are tasked with building these deliverables, it is critical that you seek support and input from your supervisor early in the process. A best practice for this is to schedule quick “check-my-thinking” calls that ensure you are heading in the right direction.

“Check-my-thinking” reviews are exactly what they sound like. You, as the owner of the deliverable, schedule calls with your supervisor to validate the concepts that you have included in the documents. These meetings should occur early and often and are designed as a checkpoint to provide guidance and updates on the work that has been completed. The goal of these meetings is to mitigate the need for re-work. There is nothing more deflating or inefficient than putting time and energy into a deliverable that has missed the mark. Further, they provide an opportunity for your supervisor to guide you through any necessary course corrections based on changes in scope. Adjustments to deliverables are inevitable, which is why “check-my-thinking” reviews are a critical element to the beginning stages of any assignment or project.

These reviews should be scheduled when considerable changes have been made to the deliverables that you are producing. Like scheduling creative sessions, you, as the deliverable owner, must take an initiative in scheduling and planning the agenda for the meeting. This agenda can take many forms, but at a minimum should include changes made to the deliverables and a list of questions that will enhance your ability to make further progress. These meetings do not need to be long, however, it is important that the deliverable you share has evolved since the previous checkpoint. Further, the frequency of these meetings is dependent on the number of adjustments made to deliverables, which likely means most of these meetings will occur in the early stages of the assignment. As you know by now, adjustments are inevitable, but having check-ins early and often will ensure that you are on the right track to producing the agreed upon outcome. Though much has been said, this process is very simple: get started, ask for input, and adjust as necessary.

Conclusion

Effective beginnings are the cornerstone of successful consulting engagements. Starting with the end in mind provides a solid foundation for agile project planning, allowing you to navigate the uncertainties of a project while remaining focused on the desired outcome. Utilizing creative sessions with team members fosters collaboration and enables a holistic approach to problem-solving, ensuring a clear understanding of the assignment and its goals. While the initial step may seem daunting, acting and making informed predictions paves the way for you to gather valuable input and to achieve consensus within the project team. With this consensus you can produce well-crafted deliverables that are enhanced with check-my-thinking reviews. By combining strategic thinking, team collaboration, and a proactive approach to beginning projects, you can establish a strong trajectory towards achieving client objectives and delivering exceptional results.

Written by: Dean McMann

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About the Author: Dean McMann is a Founding Partner at McMann & Ransford with 35+ years of experience in consulting and professional services.  He is a sought-after expert and speaker on topics of: B2B differentiation, professional services best practices, and overcoming commoditization.  In addition to his extensive experience in the Professional Services space, Dean also serves on the board of various non-profit organizations.

The Line of Safety and Customer Intimacy

In today’s world, innovation commoditizes quickly. It used to be that truly innovative pieces of technology had years of market domination before competition arose. Today, competition enters the marketplace in a few months. In previous blogs, we have discussed that operating Above the Line of Safety, the point in an organization above which roles are empowered with budget and resources to independently solve a problem, is the key to overcoming commoditization. In order to get and stay Above the Line of Safety, organizations need to create Customer Intimacy.

Customer Intimacy

Let’s define customer intimacy as a business model: organizing business efforts to identify ideas to address true customer problems/opportunities at the highest level, bring those to the customers, and working with them to take advantage of those ideas.

It is a complete integrated model – not a sales program.  At best, customers see you as an extension of themselves.

If we are going to be preoccupied with identifying/creating ideas that fundamentally help our clients (and lets call them clients – customers buy things, we serve the best interest of clients) then more of our R&D spend must be about those ideas.  Let me give an example:  let’s say you provide some complex equipment for hospitals.  Some R&D spend must be on the broader Hospital problems – how to lower error rates in the hospital, how to get patients through faster.  You must bring better ideas to the client than other organizations in the marketplace.

How Does Customer Intimacy Relate to the Line of Safety?

To create the Customer Intimacy we desire, we must work with buyers Above the Line of Safety. This is because buyers Above the Line of Safety have a better understanding of their organization’s needs (due to being higher in the organization) and have budget and resources to assign to solve problems. Therefore, by creating Customer Intimacy with buyers Above the Line of Safety, we gain access to a high-level view of the buying organization’s needs (and likely the marketplace’s needs). This provides insight into whether or not the potential buying organization is actually willing to spend money to solve the problem.

Compare this scenario for a moment to Customer Intimacy with a technical buyer who is below the Line of Safety. Having a strong understanding of the challenges they are focused on could lead our organization down the wrong path of creating a solution that does not resonate in the marketplace with other organizations. In the worst case scenario, we could end up creating a solution that the buyer does not actually have budget for and cannot be sold at all.

The Business Model Shift: Creating Customer Intimacy Above the Line of Safety

It is important to remember that executives are very busy and there is significant competition to get their limited attention. Creating Customer Intimacy is not just selling to executives, nor is operating Above the Line of Safety. Commitment to these ideologies likely means fundamentally changing the way your business operates. Businesses must go from being a vendor that responds to customer needs to a trusted advisor that identifies issues and develops solutions as they are occurring.

Organization’s today often look for innovation to drive growth. In reality, innovative technology today has months, not years, of market dominance before competition arises. For organizations to continue to grow and succeed, they must be able to continuously identify challenges and their solutions. In order to do this, organizations need to find ways to create Customer Intimacy with buyers Above the Line of Safety to understand where the marketplace is headed and how they can capitalize on it.

Written by: Anthony Paluska and Jack Draeb

Anthony Paluska is a Partner at McMann & Ransford with experience helping organizations overcome commoditization by developing stronger, more intimate, relationships with their customers. He has leveraged his management consulting, problem-solving, and change management skills to support 15+ Fortune 1000 organizations, across a multitude of industries.

Jack Draeb is a Senior Consultant with McMann & Ransford who has experience working with Fortune 1000 companies to identify issues, define solutions, guide change management, and deliver lasting results.