Reached a plateau? How to breakthrough to growth!

Most organisations will experience plateaus in growth at some point in their business lifecycle.  Unless you have the resources, time, energy, thinking and people to anticipate these and put strategies in place to proactively move through them - which let's face it, would make you more than super human!





The fact is that often what has worked in the past to build business success is not always what will be needed for the future.The good news is that within every plateau there is opportunity and having the desire to grow and change is key to recognising these opportunities and doing something about them.

Get an outside perspective

The challenge can often be letting go of what has worked in the past or knowing what needs to be done differently to move forward. Extensive research shows that when people know something, it is impossible for them to imagine not knowing it. Getting an outside perspective can be key to changing things up.

Business coaching is a cost effective means of achieving great growth results for business owners. Coaching provides for an individual “thought partner” to help you confidentially think through important decisions. A business coach can help you confront the issues, develop options for managing them, challenge existing approaches and ask the difficult questions.

Change the way you Lead

When an organization is small and entrepreneurial the leader of the organization has a greater role in shaping, directing and controlling it. As new employees come on board a different leadership style may ultimately be needed – empowering and inspiring employees to “own” the business becomes key.  Often the style of leadership which enabled the organization to reach its current position will not be suitable for the next phase of growth.

Do less

Most organizations that I have worked with suffer from an ever growing to do list and when it comes to growth can get into the mindset that they need to work harder and do more to grow. Often the key to growth is to stop thinking of all the things you might do and focus on the top few activities in your business that will deliver 80% of the results. It’s essential to discover:

1.      What’s working really well for the business to grow, so you can do that more!

2.      What are your core business strengths, that you can further build on

3.      What isn’t working for you, so needs changing

4.      What three things will be important for you to focus on now

Involve your Team to change Culture

Research suggests that there is an inter-connectivity between internal and external service and profitability (Heskett et Al the service profit chain). Research is not new but many organisations still do not recognise that employees need to live the brand promise in order to both attract and retain profitable customers and create a customer culture.

Involving the team in the process of changing culture and growth planning is key to building a long term sustainable business. In order to do this an organisation needs to:

1.      Focus on values that are relevant to their customers

2.      Involve employees in the development of values

3.      Link these values to their brand

4.      Work with employees to change their behaviour in line with values 

5.      Reward people for ‘living the brand’

  

How to create fabulous customer experiences

According to Bain and Co. 95% of firms say they are customer focused, with 80% claiming they deliver a superior customer experience. Asking the same questions of these firm’s customers the survey found that only 8% agreed they received a superior customer experience. (Closing the delivery gap)



So what can you do to make sure you are creating great customer experiences from the point of view of your customers?

1. Think Outside In

Most people will describe their business from the inside – mapping out a service or product for the company employees to understand. If you look at your business from the outside in then you will get into the customer experience – you will see what they see when they interact with any part of your business.

To do this you need to get into your customers mind space, environment and see the world through their eyes. Literally, find ways to live a day in the life of your customer.

When I worked as a brand manager at Birds Eye Walls, many years ago, we had to spend 1 day /evening a month doing something with our target customers – this included attending a knitting circle, helping a mum prepare dinner for her 3 kids and going to bingo. It was cheap, easy to do and generated a wealth of insight into our customers’ world which would have been difficult to gain from purely formal research.

2. Know your customers’ touch points

Touch points are all the moments at which your customer interacts with your company, product or brand. Look at everything with which your customer comes into contact - from your branding, communication channels, vehicles of delivery (face to face, online, mobile), marketing materials, processes (purchasing, invoicing, delivery) communication, follow up, customer service, people, signage, physical space.

Really get into detail here. Focus on the need or desire that the customer is trying to fulfill by using your service and then map the touch points by channel (website, phone, face to face etc) and by activity or tool (brochure, customer helpline, instruction manual, packaging etc).

3. Map the experiences

Once you know where, how and when your customers are engaging with your brand (or the industry that you work in), you need to get an experience of your own business or industry through their eyes. At each touch point ask what are they thinking, feeling, doing, seeing, and hearing.

This should not be an exercise based on what you perceive your customers to experience, it should focus on what they actually experience. So you need to be honest. You need to be rigorous. And you need to involve everyone in your business. Experience the touch points yourself, as a customer not as an employee or business owner. Use qualitative and quantitative data to get the facts in relation to the experience. 

4. Tear up your business model

There is no point in doing a customer experience exercise if nothing is going to change as a result. So it’s time to tear up the existing business model and processes (for a moment at least!) and see where and how you can enhance the experience. 

Ask - What works, what doesn’t? What imperfections have been overlooked? How can we find ways to go beyond expectations and thrill our customers? What would make their day? How can you make the interactions easier, faster, safer and more engaging for them?

You should develop a clear understanding of what each touch point is for (why it is there and what it is meant to do for the customer) and know how the individual parts interact with each other to build up a complete picture of the customer experience.

5. Develop the long term game plan

It is sometimes tempting to focus on one big market event, major launch or relaunch of a product or service and believe that this is sufficient to deliver great on-going customer experiences.

Experience is built up of small moments of wow. It’s the smiley face in your coffee, an unexpected gift, a new widget, a customer care employee that goes the extra mile and memories ignited through photos shared.

Developing a pipeline of moments for your customers throughout your touch points, enables them to discover and experience your brand over time keeping it fresh, engaging and one step ahead of customer needs. 

Image by Edanly

Get your teams working brilliantly!

The success of your business is largely determined by the commitment, productivity and motivation of the people who work for you. Yet it could be that up to 60% of your employees, are underutilized in their roles at work. Creating a culture of excellence is essential to growth and achievement of your long term goals. Here's our thoughts on how to make this happen...

1. Stop demotivating people!
A research study published in Harvard Management Update (January 2006) showed that the majority of employees are very motivated when they start out and after less than a year, motivation drops dramatically. The main reason cited? The management style and overall behaviour of their managers. So as a business leader your job is not to motivate anyone - this is an intrinsic drive individual to each person. All you have to do is make sure you are not demotivating them. So here are some thoughts...

• Set a purpose which inspires people and goes beyond profit and making money
• View your employees as a group of customers
• Tell your employees what they "want" to know not just what they "need" to know
• Address poor performance - there is nothing more demotivating to someone working their pants off than a colleague who does nothing and gets away with it!
• Recognise people for a job well done - praise does not breed complacency it re-inforces success.

2. Be clear about what you want from people
Involve people in defining the sort of business or team they want to be and the targets they want to set for themselves. Focus on outcomes that are essential to meeting your inspiring business purpose and make sure everyone is clear on what these are. Understanding the level of performance required gives people a sense of achievement when they meet it.

Set specific goals in 90-day increments - this enables you to monitor progress and experience wins on a routine basis.

Share, share and share. You can't overcommunicate your expectations.

3. Define repeatable models
Whether looking at your sales and marketing strategy or your core business model, defining repeatable processes which people can understand and work to will improve performance. Many people shy away from processes fearing that these will kill creativity, constrain people and drown the organisation in bureaucracy. Indeed this will happen when the process becomes the end point rather than a clearly defined structure for doing what works best, and when you don't involve people in defining how they do it best.

Think about it. If you have a sales person who consistently over achieves his sales targets by 25%, would you not want to understand how he does this and get others to follow the repeatable steps?An effective process improves each individual’s performance by establishing a common base of best practice for everyone. It also enables greater visibility of activities that work and don’t work and how people are delivering against expectations.

4. Train people
Whenever I work with organisations who want to improve performance I ask the same questions - Do you know what skills and competencies are needed to meet your business purpose? Do your people have the skills, knowledge and competencies to achieve your business purpose? For many the answer is well...not really.

Many organisations don't understand the nature or purpose of training. There is a plethora of research supporting the ROI of training. A US Department of Education survey in 2003 showed very interesting results - increasing an individual’s educational level by 10% increased productivity by 8.6%; increasing an individual’s work hours by 10% increased productivity by 6.0%; and increasing capital stock by 10% increased productivity by 3.2%

Training should be used to enable people to obtain new skills and knowledge, re-enforce existing skills and knowledge, be aligned to the business purpose and be measured.

5. Build resilience through Coaching
Consider ongoing coaching to drive performance. External coaches are often used by high performance organisations to help embed behaviours and attitudes over time. There are various individual and group coaching solutions available which can help to achieve the desired skills and competencies for high performing teams.

Coaching can help push people beyond their limits, expand skills, build confidence, maintain focus and address the real barriers to achievement - e.g. limiting beliefs, motivation and commitment. Coaching enables a person to review what works and what doesn't work for them. When it comes to world-class performance, resilience and self-discipline are just as important as mastery of the technical skills in question.

Discover your business purpose

If you are setting up a business or are already in business and not sure that you have a clear purpose here are some thoughts on how to discover it. We say discover, because the "why you exist" is inherent in your organisation. You may not be aware of it or you may be painfully aware of it but have moved away from your core purpose due to market, competitive or financial pressures.

1. Involve everyone in your business

Often the pressure to make money, find new customers and stay in business can blur the very purpose of your organisation.  The people working at the coal face, who deal with customers or handle your products and services on a day to day basis can have a clearer view of what the business is about. In addition your people are an inextricable part of your current and future business. Involving them in discovering your business purpose ensures alignment, commitment and motivation to deliver it. 

2. Ask some questions

·         What do we stand for?

·         Why do we exist?

·         What change do we want to make? (to people, the market, the planet, society)

·         What problem do we solve?

·         What values inspire the way we work?

·         What do we want to be remembered for?

·         What are we proud of? 

3. Articulate it emotionally

There will be a theme that emerges from asking questions. Write it down. Make it as emotionally engaging as possible.

4. Test it

·         Does it have substance and meaning? 

·         Is it inspiring to those inside the company?

·         Will it be valid 100 years from now?

·         Is it authentic to your company/brand?

5. Make it Live!
 

Many organisations have mission statements (essentially an expression of purpose). But if your mission statement sits on the wall, in the bottom draw of people’s desks, or is plastered on mugs and screen savers without being demonstrated in all that you do, it is simply a platitude. Organisations that really embrace their purpose don’t have to write it on the wall for people to remember. It is part of the very fibre of the organisation, implicit in activities and processes of the company and the behaviour of the people.  To get to this level everyone needs to continually focus on how their decisions, activity and contribution fit with the business purpose.  

You may be wondering - How is purpose different from value proposition? You are right in thinking they are inextricably linked. Your value proposition is the demonstration of the thing that you do best and the benefit that you deliver which solves a customer problem. The purpose of your business is the why behind your value proposition. You can therefore have 2 companies with the same or similar purpose but who deliver their value proposition in very different ways. 

Photo by: Gematrium

Have we forgotten our purpose in business?

Ask anyone what the purpose of business is and the first response you may hear is “to make money”. But profit can never be the “purpose” of your business. Profit, essential as it may be, is how you measure the success of your business purpose.  Purpose is all about the “what your business exists to do”.

Some of the greatest companies - both in terms of profitability and in terms of their contribution to the world – have purpose at the heart of their organisations which they live and breathe. Think about the likes of Disney (to make people happy), Ford (Change the world through automation), Dyson (Revolutionalise everyday design), Google (To organise the world’s information), 3M (To solve unsolved problems innovatively). Each of these consistently work to fulfil their core purpose.

A large part of our work is helping leaders connect with their business purpose to build stronger, more powerful and resilient organisations. Here we offer up some thoughts on the importance of purpose.     

1. Purpose helps you leap ahead

Connecting with purpose inspires leaders to leap forward and change the rules of their markets. Amazon is a great example of a company with purpose that continues to change the rules. Its purpose is to create a place to discover and buy anything centred on customer obsession and access to all.

This relentless drive to serve the customer has lead to a raft of firsts - one-click shopping, customer reviews, e-mail order verification. The philosophy is that “People should talk to their friends and family, not to their merchants. If a customer has to call us we have failed them”. So every part of the online experience is geared to making it easy to discover and buy anything.

Even new products such as Kindle fulfil this purpose. Rather than competing with iPad as a device, which focuses on hardware and apps, Kindle is all about media streaming.  It is a portal to Amazon’s cloud universe where users can store up to 20 GB of music for free on the company’s servers (or an unlimited amount of music bought from Amazon) and stream it freely.  Focusing on purpose has not only enabled Amazon to extend beyond buying and selling stuff, but has enabled them to change market fundamentals. 

2. Purpose leads to a happier, more engaged workforce

Helping your employees to engage in meaningful work and feel that they are doing something that matters can help them feel happier and more motivated. A University of Alberta study discovered that people who are able to find meaning and purpose in their work, and can see how they make a difference through that work, are healthier, happier and more productive employees. Urging employees to simply rethink their jobs was enough to drop absenteeism by 60 per cent and turnover by 75 per cent in the companies studied.

You may say that this all very well and good if you are doing interesting work, but what if you are stacking shelves or working on the factory assembly line. Many may define their purpose as being anything other than work! In fact in these instances connecting with purpose is even more important. I have the pleasure of currently working with a manufacturing company where meticulous attention to detail pervades the factory floor, with hours spent polishing, shaping, checking and calibrating to ensure that the finished product is a work of art. Why do they do this? Because the company’s purpose - lived by all - is to raise standards in their industry.

3. Purpose offers a foundation for clear decision making and action

Your purpose will enable you to make tough decisions. It gives you a barometer by which to assess opportunities and decide if they fit with where you want your business to go.

When Steve Jobs took over leadership of Apple in 1997 he killed off a number of high revenue, high profit parts of the business. People thought he was crazy but he had a clear understanding of what Apple stood for. These brave decisions enabled him to focus single-mindedly on the purpose of Apple turning it into the £480billion business that it is today, 15 times the size of Dell.

Importantly in large organisations, where effective decision making is needed at all levels, purpose can help keep people going in the same direction whilst being open to new opportunities. If everyone knows what the organisation is in business to do and is committed to it, then relinquishing control to your people becomes easier. When people understand the why, they can work out the what, when and how.  

4.  Purpose builds brands
The search for meaning is a fundamental part of human nature. At the heart of finding meaning is to connect with something that is relevant to you and provokes an emotional response.  A clear purpose, lived through every part of your business allows people to easily download why you exist. And it is the why that helps people connect what you do with their own values, beliefs and attitudes on an emotional level that enables people to have a powerful relationship with your brand.

With the enormous changes in how people consume and importantly create media (anyone can be a publisher today) it is even more important to ensure you know your business purpose and can demonstrate this, in order to be heard in an ever noisy market space.  

Photo by: KaneroadCul-de-sac

How to "package" what you do

I posted the following on a linked in group and had some fantastic feedback from people in the group, so thought I would blog it this week. Packaging your skills, especially when you are multiskilled and help people in a mutlitude of ways can be very tricky. Here are some tips which may help:


1. Start by thinking about "what people get" from working with you. Really spend time focusing on the benefit that you deliver rather than the "what you do". What problem do you help them solve? Ask your clients what they get from working with you. Why do they keep coming back? There is likely to be a consistent idea or theme that keeps coming up.

2. Think about what it is you do best. This is the unique thing about what you deliver, and the way you deliver it that no one else can deliver as effectively. It may be the way you put programmes together, your style of working, your values, your attitudes, other added value you give to your clients.

3. Focus on one idea. It is likely that you deliver lots of benefits, do lots of different things and do lots of things uniquely. There will however be one thought that keeps on coming through which captures the what you get and what you do best. You want to be able to give people a single idea which allows them to download the benefit very quickly. Think big!

As an example a sales development agency in my network (Ruby Star) talks about "ooomph for business" - you can immediately download that this company will help you move forward and grow. In my own business I talk about moving your business "from good to awesome" - I help people who want to be remarkable and make a difference in the world. Another company supporting young people in enterprise, career, personal development is called Striding Out - they help people stride out to success. etc.

Use a thesaurus to explore words that capture your essence. Or ask others to sum up what you deliver best.

4. You may have a number of "packages". It may be that there is not a single idea that captures everything because you have a number of different packages - because you are either targeting a different group of people, with different needs or the benefit you are delivering differs significantly. It is ok to have a number of packages if this is the case, as long as each of these packages has a single idea.

5. Don't try to win everyone. Not everyone is going to love how you package yourself and they don't have to. You want to come up with a proposition which will make the people who share your values, attitudes and world view love what you do.

Ready for growth? 5 things to consider

There is a tipping point in any business, whether moving from start-up to going concern, from going concern to taking on staff or from single business to replication whereby you need to review and assess your business's readiness for growth. Here are 5 things to consider:

1. Do you have solid Foundations?

80% of the internal pain I see in organisations is due to leaders wanting to acquire new business without the appropriate systems in place to manage existing business smoothly. At each stage of growth you need to review your core processes – IT, HR, business development, customer service etc. Even a small start up needs to make consideration to these and make sure they operate effectively as growth diverts resources from core. You  need ensure that they are appropriate for the current delivery of services (i.e. without any pain points) and make an assessment of what would need to happen/ change to move to the next stage.

2. Is your value proposition clear?

Many organizations miss this part. Why? Because it takes time and it takes discipline. If you’re managing a project or enterprise, figure out what it is that you really do better than anyone else. Clearly understand what problem your service or product is solving. Figure out what’s important, what contribution you make and what you offer that others can’t. If 1,000 people can provide a service the way you do, it is going to be very hard to grow.

3. Is there a sound economic engine at the heart of your business?

This is all about having a clear and robust business model which defines how you deliver value to customers, and how you can organize your enterprise to best meet stakeholder needs and get paid for doing so. The business model determines your sustainability – your ability to deliver your organisations’ vision and mission and continue to deliver the benefits to the people you serve. Without a robust business model it is hard to scale up, be that through funding, investment or access to new customers and markets.

4. Do you have a learning culture?

Growth brings change and change brings stress to an organisation. The people within that organisation need to be in the mindset where change can happen with as few growing pains as possible. An organisation which has a learning culture (as opposed to a blame culture, a targets culture or an innovation culture) will stand a better chance of managing the change. A learning culture encourages experimentation, review and reflection, all of which are important in the change process.

  

5. Do you know where you want to go?

This is all about having a clear, inspiring and shared vision and strategy for growth. It’s about making choices over where you want to go, putting small steps in place which go in the right direction and being disciplined in thought and action so that you get where you are going.