Introduction
Success: Everyone wants to have it but only a few achieve it.
In school, you are taught different ways of how to achieve success. If you had studied a little more hard, it would have worked, but when it comes to your goals, then you should have a lot of enthusiasm.
But the point is this: just learning how to be successful will not make you successful.
You will need some tools and steps to be successful.
In this summary, you will learn about the tools that many CEOs have used to make their organization successful. You will come to know which things you need to give priority to and which things need to be taken care of. Most importantly, you will learn how to run your organization in the long run.
So are you ready to make your loved ones come true?
Mastering Growth
Alan Rudy was the CEO of Express-Med in 1999. Express-Med was a medical supplier that delivered through the mail. At that time, this business was absolutely unique. Express-Made did not have any competitor in that area. You must be feeling that the CEO would be very happy with this and would be playing with the money.
But in reality, Rudy was always angry and almost hopeless. His business was not doing well and he did not even know why this was happening. Express-Med was getting profit but it did not look like profit because there were many expenses in it. In addition, Rudy’s employees were also out of control. Some used to beat him during work and some used to puncture the tire of his colleague’s car in the parking lot.
But in 2001, Express-Made changed completely. From a small business, it has become a continuously growing company. The biggest thing was that now that company was earning a lot of money.
Growth can make or break a small business. In the case of Express-Made, growth made it successful. When it comes to growth, there are 3 hurdles in the way. If you cross them then your business will grow, but if you are not able to do this then your business will fail.
The first hurdle is having an executive team in place to be the leader. The second hurdle is having systems and structures in place to handle difficult things. The third hurdle is knowing everything about the new market you are entering.
The first hurdle is having leaders who can break down the company’s work and have the ability to predict. Most entrepreneurs prefer to work alone. Some even do not like to work with their employees. That’s why some CEOs don’t want their business to grow or expand because if it happens, they will have to interact with a lot of people everyday.
If you do not know how to get the necessary work or task done by others, then your business cannot be successful. CEO Doug Harrison understood this very well. Doug was the CEO of ‘The Scooter Store’. He used to make machines to help disabled people move around.
The Scooter Store used to be a small business back then. Doug knew he needed to bring on board people with expertise in sales, operations and finance.
Of course, those close to Doug, such as his family and business partners, dissuaded him from doing so. According to them, it would have been very expensive to hire experts at that time and in a way it was hasty but they moved forward. He himself was not an expert in sales, operation and finance.
Handing over the work to someone who is an expert in it proved to be a good decision. The Scooter Store grew from two to five different locations operating in just one year. His business was expanding and Doug felt like he had everything under control because everyone else was helping him.
The second hurdle is having systems and structures in place. Assuming you already have the right management structure, that means you have the right people in each area, like Doug had. So now you need to focus on the system and structure.
As long as your business is small, it is easy to take care of everything. You know how many people work in which department and how much money will be required for revenue and expenses. But if you want to grow, then you have to keep the system in the right way.
You have to evaluate your performance, keep a schedule for when to pay salary and plan the whole process. It can be difficult to keep track of everything, so having a system keeps you from panicking.
The last hurdle is to pay attention to how things play out in the new market. Although expanding your business opens up new opportunities, it will also give you more competitors. You have to understand how to survive in the new market.
Something similar was done by architect Steve Smith. Steve was part of the ‘Lawrence Group of Companies’. The company specializes in designing and manufacturing radio stations. Even though he had many clients, Steve felt he needed to grow further in his market.
And so Steve came up with the idea that the Lawrence Group of Companies should look at architecture as a business and not just a profession. He created a network of architecture firms across the country that followed similar practices and principles.
This business model, coupled with the rise of the Internet, became a huge hit. Having a network makes it easier to grow and overcome challenges that come your way.
The step to further your business should be taken very carefully. This is a very obvious thing, but you will be surprised to know how many CEOs do not think about it properly.
Joe McKinney of McKinney Lumber says you need to know where your business stands in the industry. In other words, how is your business doing. Can you beat the other competitors? If you grow your business, are you sure that your business will continue to be successful?
Mastering a One-Page Strategic Plan
Do you remember when you started your business, you had less than five people working for you? At that time there were no systems and processes as they were not needed. Everyone knew very well what they were working for. You could also easily talk to your employees.
As the business grows it becomes impossible to maintain this type of set up. Then there are some people about whom you do not even know that they work for you. There are meetings that you are not a part of. If your business is growing, then it is a very good thing, but it becomes difficult to talk to each other in the organization.
Therefore, to be able to communicate easily inside the organization, you have to make a plan with strategy. This makes sure everyone is working together and knows what their goal is.
The lack of internal communication can be compared to a class of students where they are asked to produce a play or drama that lasts for an hour. The leader of the play only tells the three classmates what they have to work on first, which is: the script for the play.
Because he told this to only a few people, the rest of the classmates had no idea what to do. Some started working on stage design and some on costume. But not a single thing was happening properly because it was not matching with the story of the play.
So did you see how disorganized the whole class was? Exactly the same happens when there is no proper internal communication in a business. Then there is a lot of debate and time, energy and money is wasted.
That’s why growing companies must have a planning pyramid. This is a simple way to describe what your business is about and what it aims for. The planning pyramid consists of your values, purpose, targets, goals, actions, schedule, and responsibilities.
Start with your core values. Think of it as the Eightfold way of your company. What are the things you should or should not do as an organization? The thinking of every person should be in line with the core values of the company.
Vern Harnish, the author of this book, has 6 core values for his company. Gazelles, Inc. Provides expert educational and consulting services to companies that want to implement effective strategic plans. Verne identified some of the values that made Gazelles, Inc. Helped attract and retain more clients.
Gazelles, Inc. Attracts customers who are full of enthusiasm. His employees also work as they tell. He encourages everyone that anyone can become an entrepreneur and they should not give up.
When should you have core values? With the beginning of your business, you should know about it. Your core values should not change over time. It should guide you and your employees in good times and bad.
The second factor in the planning pyramid is your purpose.
Answer these questions – Why is your company doing the things it is doing? What is the purpose of your every transaction? Why are you so passionate about your business?
A company’s purpose is like its heart. For example, Walmart aims to help common people buy things that rich people have. Whereas, Gazelles, Inc. aims at: freedom for them, their clients and those associated with them.
Vern values freedom a lot. They do not like it at all when someone orders without any reason. It puts restrictions on freedom as a person cannot do important things due to long steps and procedures.
The third factor in the planning pyramid is your target. Target means where do you want to take the company in the next 3 to 5 years. Your goals should be such that they can be measured. In other words, they should be something you can measure and track in numbers.
Gazelles, Inc. Verne created the planning pyramid in 1999 for Here are some of the targets he had for 2004. In five years, Gazelles, Inc. Should have had a revenue of fifty million dollars. His profit should have increased by 15% from what it was in 1999.
The fourth factor in the planning pyramid is your goals. So far, you’re only halfway up the pyramid. This means that now the time frame of the factors that will be told will be small, that is, you will do them again and again.
At the beginning of every year, you should decide your goals. Think of your goals as a way of achieving a long term goal. Your goals answer the question: What are you planning to achieve this year?
In addition to the numbers you want to achieve, write down your key initiatives. Key initiatives are like New Year’s resolutions for your company. You can also revise them with the passage of time.
Come Gazelles, Inc. Let us look at the goals and key initiatives of the His goal is to achieve a revenue of $ 25 million by the end of the year. At the same time, his key initiative is to refine one service at a time, that is, to improve or improve it further, which he started with the coaching process. Think of key initiatives as the things that you have to give the highest priority for that year.
The fifth factor is action. If you look at progress only once a year, it will be difficult to measure. Do you remember how many times you exercised last year? This is impossible to do so you need action steps.
Actions are small pieces of your goals. Divide your goals into smaller parts. This will help you see whether you are on the right track or not. For example, suppose you focus on attracting more clients from January to March. Then from April to June, you will pay attention to whether the clients are happy with your service or not.
Quarterly actions help you keep track of your goals and keep you from worrying or panicking.
The sixth factor is schedule. It is very important to keep all the things in the right order like, when to do which thing? What to do now and what to do later? Keep in mind that the schedule should be made by keeping all the people in the organization together.
This is the time when CEOs talk to their executives and managers. They all report to him what each department is doing and what it is planning to do next. Every department should also have its own quarterly action, that is, it should have its own small actions.
Quarterly actions should be worked on every week. Think of it like a progress bar. You have to work every week so that it all adds up to a completed goal by the end of the quarter.
The seventh and last factor is accountability. It comes at the top of the planning pyramid. Every person involved in the organization should be responsible for something. Being responsible sounds negative. It seems that if something goes wrong, only you are to be blamed.
But being accountable is the only way to assign a task or responsibility to a person. Think again of the example in which a class was asked to play. Let’s say the leader assigns some classmates to act as “managers” for different parts of the play. One has to work as a costume manager and the other classmate as a scriptwriter. This helps the leader to easily ask for updates and information from the “managers”. It also makes it easier to discuss problems and solutions.
Mastering Organizational Alignment and Focus
How often do you put off washing your clothes? How often do you say, “I want to study”, but never follow through? Procrastination means postponing work is such a habit that it is difficult to get rid of.
This is not a problem that only people have to face. Many organizations also keep postponing their work. You often procrastinate when you have something important to do but you don’t want to do it, or sometimes you don’t do anything because you don’t know where to start.
Being an organization, knowing your priorities saves a lot of money, time and energy. Do you have more than one priority? So, you have to give more priority to any of your priorities.
Verne says that you should know your top 5 priorities. Out of those top 5, you should know your top 1 priority. Once you know these, then you can immediately work on your goals, targets and responsibilities.
Don’t you know how to know your priorities? After talking to several CEOs, Vern listed 7 common pitfalls an organization can face. So, there are 7 priorities that you can keep in mind.
The first common problem is when an organization is not big enough to compete with others. Think of Company A that is doing its best to improve everything about itself. She responds promptly to customers and tries her best to maintain a good working environment.
But the CEO of Company A knows that the company will not last long. Do you know why? That’s because Company A is like a rat in front of its competitors, who are bigger hawks. In other words, Company A is very small compared to other companies.
The CEO of Company A thought about a solution for several days. Finally, he found a solution. By using the internet, they merged with a big company. Over time, he dominated the industry he was in and rose to the top.
Another common problem is that your company lacks a key i.e. important player. Your company will never be successful if the people working for you are not good.
For example, it may be that the CEO has to handle a lot of work and he is not delegating it because he has not found the right person for that job. Maybe he just wants to play that role even though he doesn’t have that much experience. So the way to eliminate this problem is to bring qualified people into the company.
The third common problem is that the economic engine of the company is not right. Have you ever tried to solve every problem of your organization? Have you tried your best but still not been successful as you had hoped? Sometimes the problem is that you are in the wrong market or the economy is doing badly.
Then, it makes sense to shut down your company. It is not because you do not trust your company but it is because now is not the right time for your business to succeed.
The fourth problem is that things are out of your control. A good example of this would be that a competitor is copying your idea or service and making it better than you. For example, Kelly’s restaurant was the first restaurant to introduce an express lane in which people can place their order by pressing a button on the machine. This means that they do not feel pressure from the server or cashier. This service was for takeaway orders only.
Then, William’s restaurant did the exact same thing but they didn’t keep the express lane just for takeaway orders. People could use it even if they wanted to sit inside the restaurant and eat. This attracted more customers as the express lane was not just for takeaway.
Therefore, always keep improving your business because there may be a competitor offering the same service or product as you. If you don’t change with the times, you will be in trouble.
The fifth problem is that you need a lot of money for your business. You need to act fast. Collect as much money as you can so that you can grow. your competitors
As a result, the company got very little revenue that year. Matt’s business wasn’t doing well so he changed his top 1 priority. He put the money deposit aside and focused on selling more. The executive team, even Matt himself, became a salesman for three months.
And this method worked. After three months, sales at Matt’s company had increased by 40%. The company was now doing well and the high sales attracted many investors. Finally, all their hard work paid off.
The last problem is that you have to get back down on the scale or you won’t be able to survive. Everyone loves to grow, but sometimes you have to scale back so that your company can last longer.
Let’s see the example of Amy’s business. Amy had a retail business. She sold clothes for young and middle-aged women. Amy had decided that her top 1 priority would be to expand the business quickly. She also started selling clothes that fit teenage girls. It started opening more branches and hiring more people.
But when she was expanding her business, the economy was not doing well. People weren’t buying as many clothes as Amy had expected. People were paying more attention to their needs, such as food and shelter. The cost of expanding Amy’s business was much higher than the profit she was making.
Amy didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to back down because it would make her look like a failure. But the situation had become such that it was necessary to close some stores and lay off some people. This would have saved his business from coming to a complete standstill and by doing so he was also saved. A few years later, Amy’s reopened its closed stores. This was possible because he reduced the scale of his business when the need arose.
So, working on your top 1 priority will not be easy but it will always pay off.
Conclusion
First, you learned how to master growth. Growing your business is bound to make it successful, but to master growth, you must overcome three barriers.
The first hurdle is that leaders need to distribute work among people. Second is the need for systems and structure and the last hurdle is the need to understand how things work in the new market.
Second, you learned how to master a one-page strategy plan. Strategic plan helps in running an organization properly.
A strategic plan is like a planning pyramid. There are different layers in it which show the essential factors of a good organization.
At the bottom are your core values. What should your company do? What shouldn’t you do?
Next, everyone in the company should know their purpose. Like, why was this company created?
Targets, goals, key initiatives and actions should be created. Write them down and make a schedule of when you want to receive them.
Responsibility comes at the top of the planning pyramid. Everyone in the organization should take responsibility for something or the other.
Third, you learned how to work together and focussed in the organization. This can be done by understanding your top 5 priorities in the organization. Out of top 5, you can set top 1 priority.
To know your top 5 priorities, here are 7 common problems an organization may face. Identify from that what is your biggest concern.
Here are the first three problems. It may be that your organization is not big enough to compete with others or there may be a lack of important players in your company. It may also happen that the engine economy is not right at that time. Because of this, your company is not growing.
Here are some problems that you should pay attention to. Competitors will always try to beat you. You should always keep improving your products and services. You may not have enough money to grow your company.
The sixth and seventh problem is this: you can’t make much money until your company gets bigger and you may even need to scale back down to keep your company afloat.
No one can know with absolute guarantee that his business will be successful. There is no secret way to make your company successful. But there are some things that you can follow to increase your chances of being successful and you can do this through the methods that you have come to know through this summary today.
Understand these methods carefully and apply them as much as possible in your organization. Have some patience, and soon you will see your company getting where you want it to be.