A traditional view of entrepreneurs is that they are creative individuals who tinker in garages, lack social skills and can’t run anything. So when their innovation starts gaining traction, they need to bring in an MBA to run the company. Of course, this is not always true as many innovative entrepreneurs continue to run their own business successfully for years.
The important point is you need both innovation and execution skills in your organization. You have to continually create new products and services that meet real needs in the market and you have to be able to execute on your business concept. If you are strong on both of these skills you are in great shape to grow your company. If you are strong on one or the other, you may need a partner who has the skill set that you lack.
4 Steps to Successful Execution of a Strategy
1. Set clear priorities.
Entrepreneurs might fail in carrying out their strategy if they set too many priorities. Establish only one priority at a time along with supporting initiatives. For example, a priority might be penetrating a new territory. Supporting initiatives could be leasing an office, hiring staff and initiating a marketing plan.
Having too many priorities is like trying to keep too many balls in the air. Then it's problematic if only one gets focused on. Chances are good that eventually all the balls fall to the ground.
2. Collect and analyze data.
Entrepreneurs often specify measurable goals in their strategic plans. But once the planning process is a wrap, the document might be set on a shelf and not revisited for quite a long time.
A key to ensuring execution is staying on top of results. Entrepreneurs should develop key performance indicators (or KPIs) that can be measured and monitored on an ongoing basis. They need to procure operating data related to these indicators and evaluate results on schedule (daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly).
The executives should evaluate what's working and continue these processes and enhance them to boost performance. With failing results, they should determine what processes don't work and make immediate adjustments to prevent further deterioration.
3. Keep a rhythm to meetings.
Without continuous communication, employees can lose touch with an entrepreneur’s goals and objectives. Over time employees, and even the entrepreneur, can veer off course. This leads to poor results, which can have a disastrous effect on an organization.
To ensure that the entire organization keeps in sync with the entrepreneur's vision and strategic plan, the staff should gather periodically for different types of update meetings.
Daily huddles should take place within operational groups at the start of the day and last no more than 15 minutes. Such daily meetings aim to ensure that everyone is on the same page and aware of important recent developments such as performance updates, price changes, new products or media reports.
The daily huddle can provide rapid-fire updates specifically tailored to the group. The entrepreneur can oversee the daily huddles at small companies. In larger organizations, line managers should take responsibility.
4. Evaluate the strategy.
The entrepreneur should also meet with the executive team and key management personnel on a monthly or quarterly basis to evaluate the progress with the strategic plan. These strategic meetings should be more in-depth and designed to determine if changes are required.
The periodic strategic meetings should discuss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (or SWOT). They can help executives determine if the strategy's soundness in light of changes within the organization, industry and economy. The meetings should aim to exploit strengths and opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and threats.
Entrepreneurs can also wield another important tool: a one-page strategic plan. All the essential elements of the strategic plan are boiled down into one page -- and give to all employees. A benefit of this information sharing is that employees will feel like they are contributing to the organization's overall success and will feel excited, motivated and engaged.
Business owners must be careful, however, that the one-page strategic plan doesn't disclose company secrets and other intellectual property. Do a careful review of the one-page strategic plan prior to its release.
Improving innovation.
Innovation is a process, not a natural gift. It requires spending a great deal of time in the field with your customers. See how they respond to your products. See how they respond to your competitors’ products. Find out what they like and don’t like about existing solutions being offered. Ask them to help you create better solutions to their problems and pain points. Find out how they would like various products designed and delivered. Including your customers in your product development strategy will enhance your ability to innovate. Again, innovation is a process, and the process can be learned.
Improving Execution
Execution is all about setting and achieving goals that are critical to growing your business. Successful entrepreneurs set weekly, monthly and quarterly goals. The first step is to establish the critical goals you must achieve to move your business forward. The second step is to define the activities required to achieve each goal. For example, if your goal is to improve sales by 20 percent this quarter, important activities might include visiting existing customers to increase their orders, calling on 10 new customers each day and following up with each potential customer within three days. You will significantly improve your execution skills if you set critical goals regularly and complete activities important to achieving your goals.
In sum, the ability to innovate and the ability to execute are both important to building a successful business. Continue to develop your skills in both areas, and as your business grows, bring in team members who can help you create new products and services, and set and achieve critical business objectives. Good luck building your company.
Barbara you really inspire me, you are headed to being a motivational coach
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