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Better Luck Next Year

October 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m an avid Cincinnati Reds baseball fan. And if you follow MLB, you know being a Reds fans has been difficult in the past 10+ years. Yes, 2010 was a fantastic season for Cincinnati. But they were swept in 3 games in the division playoff series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Better luck next year.

It’s late October (yes, another year has flown by). We at Creo Quality have started to reflect a little about the year. We are pleased but not complacent. We are definitely looking to 2011–yes, next year. However, we are doing more than crossing our fingers in hoping next year is better. We are tweaking our strategy to ensure 2011 exceeds 2010 (and 2010 continues to be the best year ever in our 3+ year existence).

The Cincinnati Reds made some significant changes in their organization (both management and players) a few years ago to be position themselves for the playoffs in 2010. I’m anxious to see how they do in 2011.

What does next year hold for you and your business? Are you crossing your fingers hoping 2011 is a better year than 2010? Or are you actively planning NOW to make sure it’s a better year? Do you have goals and objectives defined? How about a strategy?

I know–tough questions to answer. And often times, answering these questions requires some help. Maybe we can help. Give us a call (765 315 2736) or send us an email (info@creoquality.com) to find out.

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Strategy Is Strategy

April 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

About 18 months ago, we were contacted by the Footsteps Montessori school in Martinsville, IN. They were growing yet hadn’t defined any sort of strategy. The board members were very involved but agreeing on critical issues was difficult. I was asked if Creo Quality could help Footsteps with a strategy. I could tell this person had some concern:

I know you work in the medical device industry. I’m not sure your strategy expertise could help our school.

We proved these thoughts to be a myth. I don’t want to trivialize this, but to some extent strategy is strategy–whether you are developing a new medical device or trying to grow a Montessori school.

I recently followed up with Rebecca Nunley, director of the school, about the strategic action plan that Creo Quality helped developed with Footsteps Montessori. The plan was finalized about a year ago and identified several 6 – 12 months goals. Here are some of Rebecca’s comments:

“It’s working for us.  The strategic plan is being implemented, albeit much more slowly than we had anticipated.  The larger result that I see is a real unity in our Board of Directors, and a focused direction that we are deliberately working towards.  I feel a lot of support from the members of the Board, although certainly not blind ‘groupthink’ that I’ve experienced in the past.  Instead, a real true opportunity to agree or challenge one another, without it feeling personal.  We seem to get down to the real crux of the matter, and are able to debate the key issues and I think come to the best decision for the school.  And, a willingness to rely on one another’s strengths and judgment.  They are dedicated and  thorough.  The Board is interested in preserving our vision (without rehashing it again and again). It seems to work for us.”

What Rebecca and Footsteps is learning is that the strategy part is easy. Implementation is tough. Creo Quality played a major role in facilitation. We basically took their words and ideas and put them into a realistic, actionable “plan of attack”. I’m glad Rebecca and her team realize that for this process to work, it has to be fluid and dynamic. The ultimate vision is constant. The path to get there evolves.

If you are looking for a catalyst to help you with strategy efforts, contact Creo Quality. There is a good chance we can help.

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Recap From Strategic Doing Session With Ed Morrison

April 2, 2010 By 4 Comments

On March 23, 2010, Ed Morrison of Purdue held a “Strategic Doing Information Session” in Morgan County. We (Creo Quality) sponsored the event. Special thanks to the Community Foundation of Morgan County for hosting and Home Bank for providing the meal.

I’m including a few notes that I took during the session:

  • Old economic development model, which is primarily recruiting, no longer works in a global economy. Rural communities are suffering because of this.
  • Children are the guides to the “new world”. Focus is on connections and networks.
  • Our grandfather’s economy was centered on moving stuff (e.g. coal, grain, steel)
  • Our grandkid’s economy is knowledge-based–knowledge of networks. The challenge is to connect our grandfather’s resources with grandkid’s knowledge.
  • Brainpower creates a competitive advantage. Converting brainpower to innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship leads to wealth creation.
  • Strategic Planning invented by our grandfathers. It’s dead (or at least dieing).
  • Strategic Doing created by grandkids. Set a direction and move towards it.
  • Strategic Doing cycle: 1) What could we do? 2) What should we do? 3) What will we do? 4) How will we learn?
  • Strategic Doing has no hierarchy–no permission necessary, no gatekeepers, no veto power within the network.
  • Strategic Doing priorities: 1) Generating brainpower / talent; 2) Support innovation / technology; 3) Create healthy environment; 4) Establish new networks; 5) Personal improvements from collaboration.

I’m also including a couple of short videos from the session:

If you were in attendance or have comments, please chime in!

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Are You Allergic To Admitting Failures?

February 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We recently blogged about the importance of learning from failures in order to achieve success. It was a short post, so here is a follow-up. I just finished reading “10 Ways Failure Leads to Success” on BNET. I love one of the thoughts in the post:

Unfortunately, many leaders seem to be allergic to the whole idea of admitting failure. I’ve seen it dozens of times with business leaders, political leaders, CEOs, and executives.

Here are a few of the items from their list:

  • Change management. Ever try changing a company system or process that involves lots of people? If you have, then you’ve failed. And if you didn’t learn from it, then you’re still no good at it.
  • Managing people. I don’t care what business schools say; you don’t learn this in school. You learn it on the job by making mistakes and learning what works and what doesn’t. Period.
  • Strategic planning. Any strategic planning process must begin with an analysis of what’s working and what isn’t. The “W” in SWOT stands for weaknesses, and with good reason.
  • Post mortems. If you don’t do post mortems on lost customers and failed product launches and marketing campaigns, you’re far less likely to get it right the next time.

Be sure to read the BNET article for the entire list.

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Tactics & Strategy – Tricky To Keep Balanced

January 19, 2010 By 2 Comments

I saw a “tweet” today asking Robby Slaughter of Slaughter Development to define tactics and strategy. This is a topic that’s near and dear to Creo Quality.

Robby responded with an article on the topic “Choosing Tactics or Strategy”.  Here are a couple excerpts:

A successful organization needs both a grand plan and everyday victories. Yet, if an employee is struggling to complete all of their work or is mired by inefficient procedures or policies, listening to the CEO talk vaguely about his dreams for the company will probably demoralize rather than inspire. Thinking big is important, but a sweeping vision will never materialize if everyday tasks are not done quickly and correctly.

Sometimes companies do need a strategic plan with broad objectives and targets measured in years and major initiatives; however before an organization can think big, it must be able to successfully achieve small tasks completely and efficiently. Large sweeping changes will flounder and likely fail if the everyday details are not in order. An emphasis on tactics—and especially on empowering individuals to take charge of their workflow—not only increases productivity, but helps build stakeholder satisfaction.

Robby is correct, except it should be “tactics and strategy” not “tactics or strategy”. In my experience, there are too many tactics and not enough strategy. Why is this the case? My suspicion is one of two things:

  • Executive leadership defines a vision so grandiose and vague that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to execute. Basically, big strategy with little regard to tactics.
  • Executive leadership believes they are being strategic but really are purely tactical.

Dream big. Have those BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals). But be sure to come down closer to Earth to develop a sound strategic plan and then execute with tactics that are within your team’s capabilities.

Remember:

Strategy – Core directional choices that will best move you toward your hoped-for future

Tactics – Specific actions that will best implement your strategies.

If you are still stuck, contact Slaughter Development to help you with tactical plans and contact Creo Quality to help with strategic plans.

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More Explanation on Creo Quality’s 20/20 Strategic Vision Program

December 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Did you read our blog post a few weeks again introducing Creo Quality’s 20/20 Strategic Vision Program?

So what is this program?

From Erika Andersen, author of Being Strategic:

Strategy – Core directional choices that will best move you toward your hoped-for future

Tactics – Specific actions that will best implement your strategies.

Creo Quality helps our clients balance strategy and tactics. Creo Quality is a CATALYST that can help you CONNECT and CREATE in order to achieve success. How do we do this for clients?

  • Business Development
  • Operational Efficiency
  • Program / Project Management

Contact us to learn more about how we can help with your 20/20 Strategic Vision.

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reBlog: 10 Things Business Schools Won’t Teach You

October 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Here is an excerpt of a post from Venture Beat’s Entrepreneur Corner: 10 Things Business Schools Won’t Teach You.

10 things most MBA programs fail to teach you about startups

1.  No amount of strategic planning will ever substitute for managing your cash flow.  Financial statements are great.  The most important one is your bank account statement.

2.  There are always more things to do than there is time to do them.  Startups are a continuous exercise in deciding what not to do.  You can sometimes win by just not doing things faster than your competition.

3.  Sleep is that time you’re working on startup problems with your eyes closed.

4.  It helps if you don’t call people “human resources”.  They’re people.  And, as it turns out, people like to be treated like people. Go figure.

5.  No amount of academic theories on efficient pricing will prepare you completely for what people will actually do. Finding the “optimal” price is really hard.  In the meantime, remember that a sub-optimal price is a lot better than no price at all.

Read the rest of the list . . .

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reBlog: Future-Proofing Your Company’s Vision

August 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Most startups have a hard time defining a vision because they’ve seen visions from larger companies that seem so abstract. For example, here is a vision statement from a Fortune 500 company that I’ll leave unnamed, “Powered by Innovation, Guided by Integrity, We Help Our Customers Achieve Their Most Challenging Goals.” Generic visions like this don’t inspire or drive action and inevitably get tucked away in an employee’s desk.

Successful visions bring a unique perspective and are delivered with enough clarity and conviction to ensure they stick.

Read the complete post . . .

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