|
369 words.
Reading time: 2 minutes.
Exorcising
Financial Demons
from Your
Strategy.
by Dov Gordon
Today we share
a very brief, edited excerpt of our newest white paper, “Spitting In the
Wind: A Single Obvious Insight to Sharpen and Focus Your Strategy.” The
full paper will available on or before Sunday, May 18th, 2008.
Following the
excerpt are some of the enthusiastic comments we’ve received from people who
have previewed the paper. If you would like a preview copy as well,
just ask.
-----
What follows will
sound like heresy to many, so please give it thought before rejecting it.
Financial
guidelines are a very important part of setting strategy. We need to know what
is considered minimum acceptable performance and ensure that we exceed it.
The danger,
however, is when financial targets usurp the strategy; which happens more often
than not.
Like a demon that
has taken up residence in your compass, the financials must be exorcised.
The key insight
here is to recognize that you never wake up in the morning and “make money” or
“meet your targets.” Strong revenue and profits are the results of doing
other things well. Which other things? All those activities that create the
right perception in the minds of your target markets.
No one has trouble
with this when times are good. In good times, it is easy to focus on sticking
to our strategic decisions about products, markets, competitive advantage and
key capabilities. It’s the tough times that challenge us.
When times are
tough we are tempted to offer products we have previously shunned to markets who
can be better served by others. We justify such activities by insisting that
“we need to meet our numbers!” “The board is expecting it.” “Wall Street will
punish us severely!” And so on.
Notice what is
really happening:
We are straying.
We are becoming opportunists; out to make a quick
profit instead of strategists out to build an enduring enterprise.
The warning sign
is this: People advocate actions that fall outside the framework of your
previously defined strategy. They use rational sounding justifications like
those above, usually together with a claim that “We have no choice!”
Beware. Strategy
is not a prison. It MUST change over time. However, that change must be
grounded in the kind of careful thought and analysis we’ve advocated throughout
this paper and not sparked by external pressures and internal fears.
When our decisions
are guided by pressure to reach numbers, they are not guided by our values and
the values of the people we want to serve, both out there in the market, and
inside our own offices, stores and factories.
-----
If you are a
subscriber to our "CEO Thought-Provoker" newsletter, a link to the full white
paper should come crashing through your inbox in about a week. If you find it
as insightful as did our friends below, please share it with your friends and
colleagues and via your favorite social media tools.
-----
What others are
saying about Dov Gordon’s newest white paper
“Spitting In the Wind:
A Single Obvious Insight to Sharpen and Focus Your
Strategy.”
"Take five minutes
to read Spitting in the Wind and you'll get some incredibly valuable and
straightforward advice that you can put to work right away. Dov does a great job
at focusing on the few issues that make a big difference to business success --
and presenting them in an easy-to-understand way."
-- Lois Kelly,
partner in
in Beeline
Labs and author
of Beyond
Buzz, Winner of the Gold Medal in the 2007 Axiom Business Awards.
---
“Dov Gordon’s
strategy guidance blends theory and practice to provide the busy executive with
immediate value. I have been surprised at how often the case studies he
presents are relevant to daily business challenges.”
-- Jules
Polonetsky, Senior Vice President, AOL LLC
www.aol.com
---
“Dov - Great white
paper. Thank you for sending. I found your framing and Socratic approach to
strategy both engaging and helpful.
“Your timing was superb, as we are facing a myriad of like issues here in
China. Please keep me involved in your future works. I'm impressed with your
clarity and effectiveness in creating desired outcomes.
“I'm going to use your article as a basis for discussions when my partners from
wall street arrive in China week after next. Thanks again.”
-- Matt
Brandt,
Director – China, Trenwith Group, LLC.
www.trenwith.com
---
“Dov, your white
paper Spitting In the Wind: A Single Obvious Insight to Focus and Sharpen
Your Strategy is really impressive. You question the traditional
understanding of the WHAT and the HOW of strategy development in order to focus
companies on the real issues. Too often we get lost in formalities that don’t
contribute to a successful strategy and merely satisfy the intellectual or ego
needs of management.”
-- Dr. Guido Quelle, Managing Partner, Mandat Managementberatung GmbH and
member of the Million Dollar Consultant™ Hall of Fame. http://www.mandat.de
---
“Dov Gordon cuts
through the nonsense that often pervades strategic planning, and focuses on
what’s really important.”
--Lawrence
Kutner, Ph.D., co-founder and co-director of the Harvard Medical School
Center for Mental Health and Media. Author of six books, most recently “Grand
Theft Childhood.”
www.academicentrepreneur.com
---
“Dov, thank you for sending me your white paper, Spitting in the Wind.
It was refreshing to see your clear insights on strategy. It came as I was
working on a plan for a new Integrated Holistic Health Center and Spa I am
planning in Jerusalem. It helped me in re-looking at my basic vision and mission
for the project and gave me some excellent tools to use in clarifying my
objectives for this new venture. I was especially pleased with the Four Seasons
case study as what they have based their business on is exactly the type of
model I am trying to create. This information is extremely valuable.
-- Walter Drimer, President and founder of Genesis Group International
www.g-g-i.com
---
Hi Dov, I am
working with Walter at GGI and he passed along your Spitting in the Wind
white paper for me to look at and use in re-working a business plan we are
developing. I just wanted to let you know that I think it is an excellent
document, and it really helped me out. I will definitely be keeping this as a
reference piece!
-- All the best, Mika Sullivan,
www.g-g-i.com
---
“Dov, thanks for
sharing this with me. I really enjoyed reading it since your ideas are simple
and easy to implement without being simplistic.”
-- Avi Fine,
Director of Strategic Planning, Fine Group PLC. www.finegroup.co.uk
---
“In his latest
whitepaper, Spitting In the Wind: A Single Obvious Insight to Focus and
Sharpen Your Strategy, Dov Gordon provides a simple, highly practical and
definitive answer to the age old C-suite dilemma: What exactly is strategy?
Eminently readable and immensely valuable, I gained an entirely new perspective
on formulating and implementing strategy, all within a fifteen minute read.”
-- Patrick Gray,
president of
Prevoyance Group and author of
Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology
---
“I have nothing but positive things to say about
this white paper and I love how you used the first page to position yourself.
As I was reading the
first few paragraphs I found myself thinking ‘These CEO guys and gals are smart
cookies. What can Dov teach them about strategy?’ Then all of a sudden
you brought to the surface exactly why even the brightest people struggle with
strategy, followed by your approach for quickly achieving strategic results.
Brilliant!”
-- Wayne McKinnon, president of the McKinnon Group of Companies.
www.waynemckinnon.com
+++++++++++
DOV GORDON
helps senior executives make better, wiser decisions and quickly get things
done. He is sought after for his perspective and advice on formulating and
implementing strategy, developing an innovation culture and cultivating superior
team work. Dov can be reached via his websites
www.GordonGroupEC.com and
www.Superior-Strategy.com or via email at
dovgordon@gmail.com.
Archives
of The CEO Thought-Provoker™ are here:
http://www.gordongroupec.com/articles.html
+++++++++
Dov Gordon
helps senior
executives at small and mid-sized companies around the world to earn the respect
and admiration of their marketplace. Clients benefit from clarifying their
strategies, sharpening their focus, better decision making, improved teamwork
and growing into great leaders.
Management and Strategy
Consulting.
Executive Coaching.
+++++++++
You may
republish and redistribute this article provided that you include (1) the full
article with the attribution at the end, (2) a link to
www.GordonGroupEC.com in the
attribution and (3) You must notify us
before you use this piece to confirm this is still available.
Please
email me your thoughts and feedback.
See our
recommended reading list at:
www.GordonGroupEC.com/books.html
Copyright 2008 © by Dov Gordon. All rights reserved. |
