Five Skills Key to Successful Business Operations Management

Five Skills Key to Successful Business Operations Management

by | Business, Performance

You cannot be a good business leader unless you thoroughly understand the Business Operations in your organization and how it links to its performance. I have noticed one big reason business strategies fail – it is the unbelievable reality that senior leadership many a times doesn’t understand the basics of their business. How it runs and what makes it run. An operations mindset is extremely critical for all leaders – No matter how good you are at framing strategy; it also has to get executed successfully for an organization to succeed. This is where the business operations team can play a big role, by not only providing insights to the leadership on the ways to improve business performance through profitable growth and strategic management of costs and risks but also to reduce the gap between strategy and execution through disciplined process implementation. Quite a few big buzz words there. But it boils down to one thing – to succeed in business, you have to understand and be good at operations. I strongly believe an operational mindset is a mental “muscle” that can be developed. For all those who want to develop this muscle or are thinking of a career in business operations, this post is for them.

So without further ado, here are the five top skills/loves that I believe are must-haves for those who want to enhance the performance and productivity of organizations through understanding and improving their operations:

Must-Have #1 – You love people:

Lee Iacocca said: “In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.” Understanding people across multiple functions and roles and leveraging their strengths is extremely important to meet objectives – in an operational role where you have to work mainly in a matrix structure where you have lots of responsibility but not always the required hierarchical authority, this becomes paramount. You must know how to connect with people and energize and enthuse them. Communication skills, beyond the verbal and the written, the ability to listen and read between the lines is an useful asset to align people to your goals. And all this is not possible unless you have a genuine interest and love for people.

Must-Have #2 – You love numbers:

Does the idea of deciphering lots and lots of rows and columns of numbers spread across sheets give you the shivers ? As they say, the devil lies in the details and to be good at operations, making sense of numbers must excite you. Plenty of common sense plus and an ability to derive meaning out of the different ways numbers can be combined or dissected to arrive at the right performance metrics for early warning signals for the business as well as measuring the results is part and parcel of the operations role. Knowing your numbers and the different levers that can be applied to them makes you the master of the game.

Must-Have #3 – You love wearing multiple hats:

In operations, you have to be put yourself in the shoes of different functions on a day-to-day basis – sales, IT, finance, business, delivery – to be able to understand the requirements from all perspectives and execute on it. A specialist in operations with a generalist bent of mind to connect all the dots in the organization for the right solutions. You have to become the subject matter expert in many things at the same time. Quoting from an article by Vikram Mansharamani in HBR – there appears to be reasonable and robust data suggesting that generalists are better at navigating uncertainty. Professor Phillip Tetlock conducted a 20+ year study of 284 professional forecasters. He asked them to predict the probability of various occurrences both within and outside of their areas of expertise. Analysis of the 80,000+ forecasts found that experts are less accurate predictors than non-experts in their area of expertise. Tetlock’s conclusion: when seeking accuracy of predictions, it is better to turn to those like “Berlin’s prototypical fox, those who know many little things, draw from an eclectic array of traditions, and accept ambiguity and contradictions.” Ideological reliance on a single perspective appears detrimental to one’s ability to successfully navigate vague or poorly-defined situations (which are more prevalent today than ever before).

Must-Have #4 – You love solving puzzles:

Providing smart and creative recommendations for business process improvement is one of the key areas in which business operations team can be key contributors. As an operation person, you have to identify the problems, dig for knowledge in the vast amounts of available data and then analyze it to arrive at the areas of focus. As per research by Gartner, through 2012, 80% of organizations will struggle to recruit the talent required to meet their business analytics objectives. This needs an inquisitive mind, a persistent approach and deduction skills. If you are a crossword or Sudoku fanatic, you are in the right “zone” here ?

Must-Have #5 – You love WORK:

Back end work, strategic work, boring work, last-minute deadline work, grunt work, thinking work, transactional work, delegated work, filling in for someone else work – your work landscape in an operations role will constantly be changing and switching. So, you must have a great love for work by itself and in itself in all its myriad shapes and forms. If you are particular about doing only one type of work and consider certain types of work below you – this is certainly not the role for you. The duties and responsibilities in this role are fluid and are different from company to company or even business head to business head. I have rarely across a defined job description that remains constant over a period of time in my career. So, your guiding principles and measuring stick for your work should be based on what you want to achieve, not what type of work is needed to get there. A passion for work coupled with an ability to set your own standards for excellence is crucial in this role.
In addition to the above, a business operations person must be able to exude confidence, have conviction and be firm on what he/she believes is the right thing to do. It is only then that by focusing on some of the points where structure, processes, people and systems intersect, and engaging and influencing all the stakeholders involved to work on those critical junctions, the business operations team can release benefits that ripple across the organization.
What other skills do you think are necessary for successful business management and operations? What have I missed? Please share your experiences below. I would love to hear and learn from you.

Five Critical Components of Business to Ensure Operational Excellence

Five Critical Components of Business to Ensure Operational Excellence

by | Business, Performance

In the day-to-day busyness of business, it is very easy to get mired in transactional stuff and lose sight of your mission and the reason you are in business and why you do what you do. How much more effective the organization would be and how superior the results if every person working on every task in the company can link it upwards stage by stage to the overall vision for the company ? If the person went home every day with a sense of fulfillment through finding meaning in work and knowing that his/her work contributed to a higher purpose? A shared vision is a very powerful motivator for people and operational excellence is possible only when there is a critical mass of people for whom business is personal. Wishful thinking? Not really, when you consider that many studies have proved beyond a doubt that meaningful work leads to personal happiness, professional success AND profitable growth for the organization that provides this (clarity of vision, mission and inter-linkage to the efforts at ground-level). So, how do you align your day-to-day Business operations to ensure that you and your people are finding meaning in work? It all comes down to how well you have thought through, communicated and implemented these components of business:

Business Component #1: Vision Statement – A vision statement has the potential to become a rallying cry, a clarion call to unite every person in the company towards a higher purpose. Too often, vision statements are not clear enough or even inspiring enough to really become the powerful tool that it can be. Consider Nelson Mandela’s statement – “one team, one country” or Microsoft’s in the 90s – “A computer on every desk and in every home; all running Microsoft software.” A bold, definitive statement that shows people the destination and the purpose of their work is the starting point for everything. Coupled with a clear guidance on values and desired behaviours, a great vision statement can truly work to drive excellence in the organization. Read how Zappos.com CEO focused his team from “needing to motivate people to get things done” to “inspiring them to want to do things beyond expectations” (and so successfully) here.

Business Component #2: Strategic Planning – This is the next step, moving from the “where” to the how. A good strategic plan provides the map to achieve the vision. Working through the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, it should outline the actions that need to be taken to meet the goals. The plan should have clarity (admittedly difficult in the flux that exists in business today) and well-defined accountability and timelines so that it becomes clear and easy for everyone in the company to enable them in the decisions they need to make today to arrive at to where the organization needs to be tomorrow. You will know if your strategic plan is clear if people around you understand what the story is – what leadership wants to do. Also, a strategic plan is not just about the future, referred to regularly, it can also be quite useful in assessing the current issues that are causing problems. Have a long-term strategy but refresh the plans operationally in shorter term periods so that the plan remains achievable and is not completely disconnected from reality.

Business Component #3: Budgeting – I call this “putting your money where your mouth is” or walking the talk. There is no point having a strategy if you are not willing to invest in it. This is where strategic planning gets transformed to operational realities. The budgets should be completely aligned to the strategic plan and not just the target numbers – in the short term and the long term – and thus serve as the guideline for communicating and executing on the business strategy. Break down the budget into tasks with timelines, identify the stakeholders best suited for each task, align existing processes and design new processes to ensure sustainability in advance. Assign accountability within the organization not just at the senior levels but right up to the front-line staff to ensure everyone knows and is signed up for the budget. This helps in providing a clear line of sight for achieving the budget and hence the vision while building confidence in the budget within the organization itself.
Business Component #4: Measurements or Metrics – Numbers keep you honest provided they are not manipulated. Metrics help measure the effectiveness of the plan and the execution but is important to measure what is important :). Care must be taken to set metrics that actually drive the desired behaviors and do not risk people running after the wrong goals. The choices of key metrics need to be reviewed periodically – business is dynamic, why should metrics remain static? What makes sense to measure in today’s scenario may be irrelevant tomorrow. Also, it is not enough to measure, you also need to act. No metric is useful unless there is an action plan that arrives out of it and is communicated and implemented with urgency. Otherwise, a metric becomes just another number on a report that nobody pays attention to till it is too late. Metrics also serve the purpose of “milestones” or “scoreboards” for your vision to keep a track of the successes along the journey, create competitive spirit and very importantly, serve as reasons to celebrate wins along the way.
Business Component #5: Execution – And finally, the most difficult part of the process – execution and execution at the speed that is needed. Larry Bossidy, the former CEO at Allied Signal, Inc. and Honeywell, and the co-author of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, said it like this: “Corporate strategies are intellectually simple; their execution is not. The question is, can you execute? That’s what differentiates one company from another.” I have written about getting things done in complex organizations earlier – the point in this context is injecting the right “dose” of urgency into the organization. Spread energy and enthusiasm into the organization through the execution phases to generate alignment, urgency, and engagement in a majority of employees in the organization – to answer the “what is in it for me” question and to make the work “personal” and hence drive operational excellence through meaning.
The common important thread through all the above is of course, the culture that is built, lived and sustained throughout the organization – without the right culture, you may set everything up perfectly but the desired outcome will be far from reality. If people do not feel they have a safe environment or that there is mutual trust and respect, the energy gets drained out battling office politics, pacifying egos management and conflict management. There is no energy left for people who wish for meaning in their work, look for it and work towards it in their everyday activities. Operational excellence becomes a mirage. As Louis Gerstner said – ‘I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.’
What have you seen worked in finding meaning in work in your organization? What vision statements do you think are great examples? How do you give meaning to your own work? I would love to hear and learn from you.

From Murphy to Triviality: Five Adages for Balance, Productivity, and Laughter

From Murphy to Triviality: Five Adages for Balance, Productivity, and Laughter

by | Performance, Productivity, Skills

In the ever-evolving world of work, with technology racing forward like a caffeinated cheetah, each day unfolds as an exhilarating adventure. Just picture it: you, in your pajamas, navigating the virtual wilds of the digital frontier. While remote work and its digital companions may appear to be the latest entries in the technological carnival, the trials and triumphs they usher in have been etched into the human experience for centuries. It’s in these moments of transition and adaptation that we often unearth hidden pearls of wisdom. These nuggets of insight have the uncanny power to not only elevate our work-life balancing act but also supercharge our productivity.

As someone who relishes the charm of wisdom-bytes, I couldn’t resist sharing these five timeless adages that have played an integral role in my own work journey.

1. Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”):

In the world of work, Murphy’s Law is the ultimate curveball. Just when you think everything is running smoothly, it decides to remind us that life is unpredictable. Picture this: you’re about to make a crucial presentation to a big client. You’ve rehearsed, you’ve got the perfect slides, and then, right as you click to start, your computer freezes. It’s Murphy’s Law making an uninvited appearance, reminding us to always have a backup plan in the world of work and that unpredictability is part and parcel of the terrain.

2. Pareto Principle (“80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts”):

In the hustle and bustle of the modern workplace, the Pareto Principle stands tall, offering a beacon of efficiency. It tells us that not all tasks are created equal. Imagine this: you have a mile-long to-do list, but you know deep down that only a handful of those tasks will make a real impact. It’s the Pareto Principle in action, nudging us to focus our efforts where they matter most and achieve more with less.

3. Parkinson’s Law (“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion”):

Parkinson’s Law loves to make a cameo in our work lives. Ever noticed how when a project deadline is distant, tasks seem to take their sweet time? But when that same deadline looms, everything suddenly accelerates. Picture this: you have a report due in a week, but you start working on it the night before. That’s Parkinson’s Law playing its time-bending tricks, urging us to set deadlines, avoid procrastination and set boundaries in our remote work to avoid time slipping through our fingers.

4. The Law of Diminishing Returns (“The more you do, the less you accomplish”):

In the relentless pursuit of productivity, the Law of Diminishing Returns often steps in. It teaches us that there’s a limit to how much we can achieve by pushing ourselves harder and emphasizes the importance of striking a balance between productivity and self-care in the remote work environment. Imagine this: you’re working late into the night, trying to finish a project. But as exhaustion sets in, your output becomes less effective. It’s the Law of Diminishing Returns reminding us to find a balance between work and rest for optimal productivity.

5. The Law of Triviality (“Members of an organization give disproportionate weight to trivial issues”):

In a virtual world, even the tiniest details can sometimes take center stage, impacting productivity and focus. Picture this: your team is scheduling a crucial Teams video meeting involving members from Asia, Africa, and North America. While the agenda is vital, the bulk of the discussion turns to deciding the best time for the meeting. Hours are spent meticulously comparing time zones, and everyone weighs in with their preferences. It’s a Time Zone Tango and the Law of Triviality at work!

As you explore these adages and their application in the realm of remote work, I invite you to reflect on your own experiences. Have you had eureka moments while reading these timeless principles? What simple principle or law did I miss that has come in handy for you in your work-life ? Share your insights in the comments below. Your anecdotes might just be the inspiration someone else needs to navigate the remote work landscape with a dash of humor and a hint of wisdom.

Five Skills Key to Successful Business Operations Management – You Could be Great at Operations if..

Five Skills Key to Successful Business Operations Management – You Could be Great at Operations if..

by | Business, Business Operations, Career, Leadership, Management, Managing Yourself, Performance, Productivity, World of Work

You cannot be a good business leader unless you thoroughly understand the business operations in your organization and how it links to its performance. I have noticed one big reason business strategies fail – it is the unbelievable reality that senior leadership many a times doesn’t understand the basics of their business. How it runs and what makes it run. An operations mindset is extremely critical for all leaders – No matter how good you are at framing strategy; it also has to get executed successfully for an organization to succeed. This is where the business operations team can play a big role, by not only providing insights to the leadership on the ways to improve business performance through profitable growth and strategic management of costs and risks but also to reduce the gap between strategy and execution through disciplined process implementation. Quite a few big buzz words there. But it boils down to one thing – to succeed in business, you have to understand and be good at operations. I strongly believe an operational mindset is a mental “muscle” that can be developed. For all those who want to develop this muscle or are thinking of a career in business operations, this post is for them.

So without further ado, here are the five top skills/loves that I believe are must-haves for those who want to enhance the performance and productivity of organizations through understanding and improving their operations:

Must-Have #1 – You love people:

Lee Iacocca said:  “In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.” Understanding people across multiple functions and roles and leveraging their strengths is extremely important to meet objectives – in an operational role where you have to work mainly in a matrix structure where you have lots of responsibility but not always the required hierarchical authority, this becomes paramount. You must know how to connect with people and energize and enthuse them. Communication skills, beyond the verbal and the written, the ability to listen and read between the lines is an useful asset to align people to your goals. And all this is not possible unless you have a genuine interest and love for people.

Must-Have #2 – You love numbers:

Does the idea of deciphering lots and lots of rows and columns of numbers spread across sheets give you the shivers ? As they say, the devil lies in the details and to be good at operations, making sense of numbers must excite you. Plenty of common sense plus and an ability to derive meaning out of the different ways numbers can be combined or dissected to arrive at the right performance metrics for early warning signals for the business as well as measuring the results is part and parcel of the operations role. Knowing your numbers and the different levers that can be applied to them makes you the master of the game.

Must-Have #3 – You love wearing multiple hats:

In operations, you have to be put yourself in the shoes of different functions on a day-to-day basis – sales, IT, finance, business, delivery – to be able to understand the requirements from all perspectives and execute on it. A specialist in operations with a generalist bent of mind to connect all the dots in the organization for the right solutions.  You have to become the subject matter expert in many things at the same time. Quoting from an article by Vikram Mansharamani in HBR – there appears to be reasonable and robust data suggesting that generalists are better at navigating uncertainty. Professor Phillip Tetlock conducted a 20+ year study of 284 professional forecasters. He asked them to predict the probability of various occurrences both within and outside of their areas of expertise. Analysis of the 80,000+ forecasts found that experts are less accurate predictors than non-experts in their area of expertise. Tetlock’s conclusion: when seeking accuracy of predictions, it is better to turn to those like “Berlin’s prototypical fox, those who know many little things, draw from an eclectic array of traditions, and accept ambiguity and contradictions.” Ideological reliance on a single perspective appears detrimental to one’s ability to successfully navigate vague or poorly-defined situations (which are more prevalent today than ever before).

Must-Have #4 – You love solving puzzles:

Providing smart and creative recommendations for business process improvement is one of the key areas in which business operations team can be key contributors. As an operation person, you have to identify the problems, dig for knowledge in the vast amounts of available data and then analyze it to arrive at the areas of focus. As per research by Gartner, through 2012, 80% of organizations will struggle to recruit the talent required to meet their business analytics objectives. This needs an inquisitive mind, a persistent approach and deduction skills. If you are a crossword or Sudoku fanatic, you are in the right “zone” here 🙂

Must-Have #5 – You love WORK:

Back end work, strategic work, boring work, last-minute deadline work, grunt work,  thinking work, transactional work, delegated work, filling in for someone else work – your work landscape in an operations role will constantly be changing and switching. So, you must have a great love for work by itself and in itself in all its myriad shapes and forms. If you are particular about doing only one type of work and consider certain types of work below you – this is certainly not the role for you. The duties and responsibilities in this role are fluid and are different from company to company or even business head to business head. I have rarely across a defined job description that remains constant over a period of time in my career. So, your guiding principles and measuring stick for your work should be based on what you want to achieve, not what type of work is needed to get there. A passion for work coupled with an ability to set your own standards for excellence is crucial in this role.

In addition to the above, a  business operations person must be able to exude confidence, have conviction and be firm on what he/she believes is the right thing to do. It is only then that by focusing on some of the points where structure, processes, people and systems intersect, and engaging and influencing all the stakeholders involved to work on those critical junctions, the business operations team can release benefits that ripple across the organization.

What other skills do you think are necessary for successful business management and operations? What have I missed? Please share your experiences below. I would love to hear and learn from you.

Image courtesy – http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelheiss/3090102907

Five Sales Performance Metrics Key to Successful Business Growth

Five Sales Performance Metrics Key to Successful Business Growth

by | Business, Business Operations, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity, World of Work

Every metric has a story to tell. Dig in over a period of time, break apart all that goes into the metric calculation, join the dots and there you have your story. But then you also have to ACT – your success depends on what you do after you figure out the story. What do you need to do more of? What do you need to eliminate? With the budget season in progress, sales performance metrics are on my mind again. In this Accenture analysis of Sales Performance Optimization Study, sponsored with CSO Insights, sales leaders say their top priorities for the past year was increasing sales effectiveness (56 percent), followed by increasing revenues (52 percent) and improving up-selling/cross-selling (39 percent). The Operations team can play a big role in increasing sales effectiveness with their clear understanding of the various moving parts and inner workings that contribute to high sales performance. These insights can help determine which levers (metrics) can actually help improve sales efforts and align the sales organization to the business strategy.

When it comes to sales metrics, one size definitely does not fit all. The key is to select a good mix of lagging and leading indicators – a set that not only helps you to measure results but more importantly, gives you the ability to predict outcomes. Going beyond the standard booking or quota achievement vs. target, here are five other metrics that I believe go a long way in ensuring sales effectiveness:

Sales Performance Metrics #1 – Funnel or Opportunity Pipeline:

In the current quarter, there is not much you can do to increase sales radically but you can still implement steps to make the sales grow for the rest of the year if you know where to focus efforts. This metric helps determine the nature of funnel and sales expected in future quarters/months. Organize and record each opportunity the sales team is prospecting and assign them a status such as “qualified” or “suspect” or “proposal” along with an estimated value associated with each of them. Assign probability percentage to each status based on your past performance at each stage. The sales people can then prioritize their time according to the probability of a win (status) and the impact of a win (estimated value). This metric is a dynamic metric and will keep changing as new opportunities come in or old opportunities move out as delayed or lost. The value of sale multiplied by the status percentage gives estimated total sales that you can expect at any period in the future provided the opportunities and stages of each opportunity are diligently tracked and recorded.

Sales Performance Metrics #2 – Sales Mix:

Based on the sales strategy of the year, one can come up with different mixes or ratios that need to be tracked as metrics for the year. This is essentially categorizing your funnel into different fields – say by nature (new, renewals or farming), by market segment (products, services, maintenance), by demographics or geography (Americas, Europe, Rest of World), by channel (direct, indirect). The ratios are arrived at by dividing the mix value by total funnel value. This gives a view on how far your strategy is being implemented at the ground level or if there is a possibility of good returns on investment made in any particular area. The sales mix ratios help zoom in on decision areas and decision types and can change from time to time based on the granularity of information available. Again, here is where the operations team can play a big role in ensuring that data strategy, quality and integrity is maintained in all systems – and garbage in-garbage out decision making is avoided.

Sales Performance Metrics #3 – Cost of Sales to Revenue Ratio:

This is a metric that used wisely and measured as a trend over time can show the overall efficiency of the sales team by segment, market or any other growth area that is in the strategy plan. The calculation should be based on the total costs for the selling efforts of each area of business. Total Sales Costs includes salaries, commissions and expenses for sales management, sales people and sales support. Divided by the revenue in the same period from the area of business, you can arrive at the ratio. I like this metric better than sales productivity (Revenue by number of sales people) as, in a global organization, salaries vary across regions, so does the revenues based on the nature of the business area. Measured over a period of time, it can give useful insights into where sales investments in terms of people is needed to get higher revenues, how long it takes for additional sales headcount to generate revenues and other such trends.

Sales Performance Metrics #4 – Conversion Rates and Ratios:

Conversion rates are very useful in identifying sales methodology or process issues, including poor proposal preparation, inaccurate forecasting or funnel categorization efforts, insufficient research into customer buying behaviors, core strength and weakness of sales persons. Conversion rates need to be measured at various steps of the sales process – the most common one is the win ratio –what percentage of qualified opportunities get closed as won. Other useful rates could be the percentage of deals that get lost after responding to proposals, percentage of qualified opportunities that show no movement over a long period of time, percentage of opportunities that are lost without any reason for loss – to pin point where the improvement is needed in the process and is useful in the qualification and prioritization of opportunities.

Sales Performance Metrics #5 – Gross Margin % by Sales Person:

This metric is a bit controversial as it is not generally used to measure performance of the sales team nor used in sales incentive plans. The general idea is that sales team is responsible for getting in the bookings and revenue and the rest of the organization has to ensure that margins are made. I am of the view that unless we track and reward sales people based on not only the volume of the bookings but also the quality of bookings, the organization cannot achieve its margin mandate. Discounting practices, pricing, “value” selling, terms and conditions on scope, timelines, milestones all affect gross margins and sales team has the highest influence with the customer to ensure favourable terms in these areas. So why not measure not only the actual gross margins of revenue by sales person but also future margins based on the funnel details? This will help the entire organization to plan and also help the sales teams to make the “right” (read profitable) sales.

“Gut feel” is all good but you also need the right data and indicators to validate your gut feel. On the other hand, no sales leader will want to go overboard on metrics and measurements that put additional load on the bandwidth of their teams taking time away from “selling” to filling in all sorts of data requirements. So, it is important to choose the right set and number of metrics to help focus strategy and efforts based on not only past performance but also through a rationalized view into the future to enable course corrections as necessary for the success of the business before it is too late.

So what is your story? What sales performance metrics do you think are must have leading indicators to improve forecasting accuracy? What are some of the more creative sales metrics that you have seen ? I would love to hear back and learn from you.

Pic courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericparker/1537862310

Five Critical Components of Business to Ensure Operational Excellence – Business Operations Performance Management

Five Critical Components of Business to Ensure Operational Excellence – Business Operations Performance Management

by | Business, Business Operations, Career, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity

In the day-to-day busyness of business, it is very easy to get mired in transactional stuff and lose sight of your mission and the reason you are in business and why you do what you do. How much more effective the organization would be and how superior the results if every person working on every task in the company can link it upwards stage by stage to the overall vision for the company ? If the person went home every day with a sense of fulfillment through finding Meaning in Work and knowing that his/her work contributed to a higher purpose? A shared vision is a very powerful motivator for people and operational excellence is possible only when there is a critical mass of people for whom business is personal.

Wishful thinking? Not really, when you consider that many studies have proved beyond a doubt that meaningful work leads to personal happiness, professional success AND profitable growth for the organization that provides this (clarity of vision, mission and inter-linkage to the efforts at ground-level).

So, how do you align your day-to-day business operations to ensure that you and your people are finding meaning in work? It all comes down to how well you have thought through, communicated and implemented these components of business:

Business Component #1: Vision Statement – A vision statement has the potential to become a rallying cry, a clarion call to unite every person in the company towards a higher purpose. Too often, vision statements are not clear enough or even inspiring enough to really become the powerful tool that it can be. Consider Nelson Mandela’s statement – “one team, one country” or Microsoft’s in the 90s – “A computer on every desk and in every home; all running Microsoft software.” A bold, definitive statement that shows people the destination and the purpose of their work is the starting point for everything. Coupled with a clear guidance on values and desired behaviours, a great vision statement can truly work to drive excellence in the organization. Read how Zappos.com CEO focused his team from “needing to motivate people to get things done” to “inspiring them to want to do things beyond expectations” (and so successfully) here.

Business Component #2: Strategic Planning – This is the next step, moving from the “where” to the how. A good strategic plan provides the map to achieve the vision. Working through the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, it should outline the actions that need to be taken to meet the goals. The plan should have clarity (admittedly difficult in the flux that exists in business today) and well-defined accountability and timelines so that it becomes clear and easy for everyone in the company to enable them in the decisions they need to make today to arrive at  to where the organization needs to be tomorrow. You will know if your strategic plan is clear if people around you understand what the story is – what leadership wants to do. Also, a strategic plan is not just about the future, referred to regularly, it can also be quite useful in assessing the current issues that are causing problems. Have a long-term strategy but refresh the plans operationally in shorter term periods so that the plan remains achievable and is not completely disconnected from reality.

Business Component #3: Budgeting – I call this “putting your money where your mouth is” or walking the talk. There is no point having a strategy if you are not willing to invest in it. This is where strategic planning gets transformed to operational realities. The budgets should be completely aligned to the strategic plan and not just the target numbers – in the short term and the long term – and thus serve as the guideline for communicating and executing on the business strategy. Break down the budget into tasks with timelines, identify the stakeholders best suited for each task, align existing processes and design new processes to ensure sustainability in advance. Assign accountability within the organization not just at the senior levels but right up to the front-line staff to ensure everyone knows and is signed up for the budget.  This helps in providing a clear line of sight for achieving the budget and hence the vision while building confidence in the budget within the organization itself.

Business Component #4: Measurements or Metrics – Numbers keep you honest provided they are not manipulated. Metrics help measure the effectiveness of the plan and the execution but is important to measure what is important :). Care must be taken to set metrics that actually drive the desired behaviors and do not risk people running after the wrong goals. The choices of key metrics need to be reviewed periodically – business is dynamic, why should metrics remain static? What makes sense to measure in today’s scenario may be irrelevant tomorrow. Also, it is not enough to measure, you also need to act. No metric is useful unless there is an action plan that arrives out of it and is communicated and implemented with urgency. Otherwise, a metric becomes just another number on a report that nobody pays attention to till it is too late. Metrics also serve the purpose of “milestones” or “scoreboards” for your vision to keep a track of the successes along the journey, create competitive spirit  and very importantly, serve as reasons to celebrate wins along the way.

Business Component #5: Execution – And finally, the most difficult part of the process – execution and execution at the speed that is needed. Larry Bossidy, the former CEO at Allied Signal, Inc. and Honeywell, and the co-author of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, said it like this: “Corporate strategies are intellectually simple; their execution is not. The question is, can you execute? That’s what differentiates one company from another.”  I have written about getting things done in complex organizations earlier – the point in this context is injecting the right “dose” of urgency into the organization. Spread energy and enthusiasm into the organization through the execution phases to generate alignment, urgency, and engagement in a majority of employees in the organization – to answer the “what is in it for me” question and to make the work “personal” and hence drive operational excellence through meaning.

The common important thread through all the above is of course, the culture that is built, lived and sustained throughout the organization – without the right culture, you may set everything up perfectly but the desired outcome will be far from reality. If people do not feel they have a safe environment or that there is mutual trust and respect, the energy gets drained out battling office politics, pacifying egos management and conflict management. There is no energy left for people who wish for meaning in their work, look for it and work towards it in their everyday activities. Operational excellence becomes a mirage. As Louis Gerstner said – ‘I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.’

What have you seen worked in finding meaning in work in your organization? What vision statements do you think are great examples? How do you give meaning to your own work? I would love to hear and learn from you.

Pic Courtesy : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/4395780325/