Challenges, Chillies and a Snapshot

First the snapshot. My background: Maths degree
from Oxford; qualified accountant; corporate planner;
Finance and IT director; head of a European Strategy Development team.

Now working with clients like T-Mobile, Freshfields
(the magic circle law firm), Mars and Adidas.

For relaxation: by night I’m Carlos, lead singer in a
local rock band. Everyone needs to let off steam - some people go to the gym and take it out on punchbags.
I murder songs instead!

The challenges

I found three things incredibly difficult when I was heading up the Strategy Development team. Sure, we did all the classical strategy things that you’d expect. But I really struggled with these three topics.

The first thing was competitor analysis. It was a little like panning for gold.  You would sift through huge piles of data in the hopes of finding some useful nugget; some insight that would mean something, and change the way you competed.

And then I realised something – something so fundamental about the psychology of corporations – that I decided to rethink the whole approach.

Our competitors had the same data – maybe not in the same format, and certainly in much more depth – but basically the same data.  But they weren’t sifting through it to find an interesting nugget; they were using it to run the business. Could we use their data in the same way?

Let me put it this way. Successful sales people put themselves in the shoes of their customers, so that they can uncover their problems and provide solutions. Wouldn’t it be insightful to put ourselves in the shoes of our competitors? Wouldn’t that tell us a lot about how they thought, and what they were likely to do? And wouldn’t that be useful to us?

That simple thought led me to develop Competitor Wargames, and they were more successful than I could have dreamed. You can read more about them here.

The second difficult thing was the time taken by the whole strategy planning process. It was designed by a committee, and yes, I was on the committee. But we only ever made things more complex and time consuming. The ‘process’ became a monster, eating up time and numbers and commitment. And the monster lived high on a hill, remote from the everyday lives of people who actually worked in the business!

All the most successful processes were fast and frequent, not slow and occasional.  (Think payroll for instance.) Could there be a way to ‘do’ strategy faster? And in a way that got people from different functions talking to each other?

I began running one- and two-day workshops for brand leaders from different markets. With over a dozen brands and twenty national markets, I got plenty of practice.

Gradually I figured out what worked and what didn’t. The keys seemed to be: Have clear aims. Get senior management sponsorship. Commit beforehand to act on the conclusions of the workshop. Involve a small team from different functions. Follow a loosely-structured process. Make it fast, fun and competitive.

All of these approaches are now fundamental to Strategy Action Teams.

The final difficult thing was implementation. A great plan isn’t so great if you don’t implement it. There seemed to be a ‘disconnect’ between plans and people – the plan lived independently in some sort of bubble, removed from everyday work. And that bubble was normally in the back of a desk drawer.

That’s one of the thoughts that got me interested in coaching. The key thing about coaching is not so much helping people to think up better plans, though that can happen. The key thing is holding people’s feet to the fire. Following through. Making plans happen.

So when I set up my own consultancy, I was determined that I would help my clients with implementation, not just planning. That means my programmes include coaching teams and individuals until they’re satisfied that the job is done.

Oh, and why the chillies? A good consultant in an organisation is like a chilli in a recipe. They add warmth and spice. And they make you smart! (Geddit?!)

That’s me. Now, to get started on breaking down your growth barriers and developing your team, contact me.