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I've spent my entire career turning
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around and growing companies generating
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over a billion dollars in value in the
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process by following this one framework
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which I've coined I which stands for
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initiatives actions and results I wrote
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about this years ago in my second book
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called out sizing and today I'm going to
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explain exactly how you can use
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initiatives in your organization to
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successfully execute your strategy but
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before we get into all that there are
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two phases of strategy that you should
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be aware of first is the design phase
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and second is the execution phase in
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this episode we're going to be talking
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about the execution phase but before we
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get into that let me walk you through
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what's involved with the design phase so
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in this phase this is where you build a
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strategy blueprint at cvore we help
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companies do this by following our
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process and our framework which involves
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first defining the company's purpose why
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it exists number two is outlining the
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principles or the behaviors that the
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company wants to see exhibited in order
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to fulfill its purpose then we get into
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the Strategic problem defining what's
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the number one obstacle or constraint
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that's preventing the company from
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growing and achieving its full potential
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we next move on to defining the shared
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aspiration of the business meaning what
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does winning look like not just for the
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company but for all stakeholders
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including customers employees investors
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vendors and everybody else who interacts
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with the business business we then move
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on to defining the market focus and
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position of the company and then outline
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the competitive behavior of the business
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and the resources and returns that will
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be required in order to make this
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strategy viable once we go through all
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of these components we bring it all
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together with a strategic narrative this
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is where the company puts together this
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narrative to communicate effectively its
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strategy to its customers to its
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employees to its vendors and investors
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and other stakeholders of the company
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all right so that's the strategy
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blueprint from a high level and this is
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the fun phase this is where a lot of
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Business Leaders enjoy working because
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you get to dream you get to explore all
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different possibilities and think about
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the potential of the business it's fun
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formulating strategy but then guess what
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bad news warrant warrant warrant you
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have to actually execute this strategy
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and this is where a lot of leaders fall
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short not because they're not smart or
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equipped with resources or lack certain
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skills rather it's because they don't
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have a framework to follow and that's
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what I'm going to be explaining today is
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the initiatives part of the I framework
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now when it comes to iirs I'm just going
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to touch on this really quickly and then
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we're going to just focus in on
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initiatives because if you can Define
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your initiatives and get this right then
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you'll be very successful with executing
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the rest of your strategy so when it
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comes to IRS this is how it works you
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have your strategy blueprint then you
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define the initiatives that you'll
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pursue in order to advance your strategy
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then you'll also Define what are the
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actions or the baby steps that you'll
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take in order to advance your
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initiatives and then the r which stands
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for results or key results will help you
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to measure the effectiveness of your
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initiatives all right so that's how I
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work but let's narrow in on
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initiatives when it comes to setting an
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initiatives the first thing you have to
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do before you start defining your
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initiatives obviously you have to have
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your whole strategy blueprint but you
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have to nail your strategic problem I
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emphasize this because often times
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companies they just want to skip over
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this part or they just want to Breeze
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past it because who likes to talk about
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problems but burying your head in the
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sand or hiding underneath the covers
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isn't going to make your problems go
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away and guess what if you don't solve
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the number one constraint your business
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is fac ing you're going to spend a lot
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of time and a lot of money until you do
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so because your company's going to keep
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bumping up against that constraint trust
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me I've done this before many times in
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my career and I had to learn it the hard
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way by spending a ton of money and
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wasting a ton of energy by not focusing
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on the main constraint but the
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constraint is going to be there it's not
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going to go away just by ignoring it so
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this is where defining the Strategic
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problem is super critical so let's just
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say a company has a strategic problem
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where it's Revenue is declining it's
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losing market share to competitors and
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therefore it's impacting their cash flow
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and if they don't solve this problem
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then they're not going to be viable
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they're going to be out of business all
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right when it comes to initiatives the
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first thing that an initiative does is
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it helps you to overcome your strategic
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problem this is the one of four that I'm
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going to be explaining here so going
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back to my example of the Strategic
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problem let's say a company is
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struggling with its top line declining
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right revenue is shrinking it's not
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getting the sales it needs in order to
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prop up the company well if this
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business is pursuing other initiatives
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that are not focused on helping the
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company to overcome a strategic problem
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guess what it's going to be completely
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off track and even worse if the business
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can't even Define what its strategic
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problem is how the heck is it going to
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set initiatives which will help it to
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successfully make progress all right so
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that's where defining a strategic
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problem is super critical and will help
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you to put in place initiatives that
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really matter and that will contribute
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to the biggest upside for your
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organization right so that's the first
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thing that an initiative does is it
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helps you to overcome your strategic
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problem number two initiatives help you
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to enhance the customer experience so
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going back to the strategy blueprint at
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the very core of the strategy blueprint
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is the customer at least that cart
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that's our framework we put the customer
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at the very center of the strategy I've
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seen so many strategy Frameworks that
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exist out there that are just all
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focused on the company they're not
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focused on the customer so when it comes
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to initiatives the second thing that
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they do is they help you to enhance the
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customer experience because guess what
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the customer is at the center of the
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strategy and you want to enhance the
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customer experience and you want to make
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it personalized you want to make it
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relevant you want to make it unique to
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the customer because if they have a
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great customer experience guess what
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they're going to continue to buy your
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products and services it's going to
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enable you to scale your organization
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successfully because if your turn is
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really high and you're losing a bunch of
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customers it's going to be really
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expensive to sustain growth because
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you're losing customers faster than
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you're bringing customers on and all
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that's going to do is it's going to
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increase your customer acquisition cost
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that's why it's so critical to enhance
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the customer experience when I go into
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organizations since I have such a strong
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background in finance often times
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leaders mistakenly believe that I'm all
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about profit and just cutting cost and
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just doing whatever it takes to maximize
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profitability and that is not true
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that's a giant myth in fact I'm a growth
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guy more than a cut guy and I'm more
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about enhancing the customer experience
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even if it means costs have to go up
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because I can tell you if the customer
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experience is enhanced and customers
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really love your products and services
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they're going to spread the word and
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your business is going to naturally grow
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and since I'm a growth guy that's going
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to contribute to more growth and less
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cutting in the long run all right so
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that's the second thing an initiative
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should do it should help you to enhance
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your customer experience right so number
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one what is it say it out loud it's to
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overcome your strategic problem and
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number two initiatives help you to
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enhance the customer experience all
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right you got this let's move on to
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number three initiatives help you to
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Foster Innovation now Innovation isn't
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about making things more complicated
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often times Innovation is all about
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simplification when I was a CFO of a
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large billion dollar company one of the
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first things I did to turn around the
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company is I changed the mindset of my
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department which trickled down
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throughout the rest of the organization
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I wrote on a whiteboard simplify that
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was the first thing that I did when I
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took my spot in the office I wrote on
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this whiteboard that was in the shared
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common space I wrote simplify and that
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was the whole Mantra that I followed
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it's just eliminate waste cut complexity
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just simplify everything so when it
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comes to innovation your business how
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can you simplify things how do you
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eliminate friction not just for your
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company for your employees but also for
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your customers and for your vendors so
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perhaps there's a technology that you
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can Implement in order to streamline
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things or maybe certain Technologies are
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complicating the process and you need to
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go in a different direction so whatever
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it may be it's all about streamlining
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your operating model improving your
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products and services in a way that
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drives greater value to your customers
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and just making everything frictionless
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all right as frictionless as possible
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that's Innovation so that's number three
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initiatives should help you to Foster
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innovation in your organization and
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number four the last thing is that
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initiative should do is they should help
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you to build competitive advantages
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whether those are positional advantages
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asset based advantages capability based
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advantages the key here is that you
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should be building advantages that your
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customers care about I was working with
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a company recently and they believe that
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their product and service had the secret
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sauce that was going to make them all
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this money and differentiate themselves
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in the marketplace well guess what the
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market turn in the economics of the
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industry went down the toilet and
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customers they just defaulted back to
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cost so the whole time this company was
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building this perceived differentiation
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strategy but the customers didn't care
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about that they really cared more about
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cost and more importantly they cared
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more about value the value they were
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getting and they just didn't see the
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value in all this other hoopla that the
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company was trying to promote out there
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so when you're building competitive
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advantages just make sure there are
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advantages that your customers actually
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care about and that will drive value to
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your customers and when you do this
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you're ultimately going to drive value
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to your organization as well so those
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are the four things initiatives should
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do when you have your initiative set you
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should go through this checklist and ask
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yourself okay number one is this
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initiative helping us to overcome our
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strategic problem or is it helping us to
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enhance our customer experience to
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Foster Innovation or to build
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competitive advantages and if the answer
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is no to all four of those guess what
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it's probably the wrong initiative and
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maybe should focus elsewhere it doesn't
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mean that every single initiative should
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hit on all four points but if the
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initiative doesn't touch on any of them
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it's probably the wrong initiative this
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is the framework that I followed over
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and over again to turn around and grow
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company and I can tell you it works it
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works when you can Define your
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initiatives outline your actions that
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you'll take to advance those initiatives
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and then measure your initiatives
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through key results everything changes
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and performance improves in your
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organization morale improves and there's
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just so much upside not just for your
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company but also for your customers I
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wish you the very best as you take this
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and apply it to your company if you need
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any help along the way remember you can
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always Reach Out
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and connect with me at cv.com I would
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love to help you in your business to
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achieve high levels of success thanks
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for tuning in until next time take care
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of yourself cheers
