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Do You Have a “Business” New Year’s Resolution?

The calendar now reads “2010.” Is it time for a “business” New Year’s resolution? You might have easily come up with a personal resolution such as losing weight or exercising more, but have you considered a resolution for your business? Is this the year to take a bold initiative to offset the negative effects of the recent economic collapse?

If so, how about using this opportunity to transform your business by launching a corporate strategy to yield breakthrough performance, changing your long-standing product mix, altering your customer base, acquiring a principal competitor and/or committing to another strategic action to put your business on a new playing field?

If this is your 2010 thinking, good for you! You’ve made a great start, but how you execute your resolution is critical.

Many thoughtful business leaders are looking at 2010 as the year they “disrupt” past norms and practices to provide a sea change for their businesses’ future performance and results. This might include strategies they’ve been meaning to pursue, but for some reason just never found the “right” time to undertake. Or, they might be opportunities provided by the “new normal. In any case, many companies will move forward with bold, business-transforming initiatives in early 2010. The question is: Will they succeed? And, more to the point, why and how?

Our experiences working with middle market companies clearly show that successful companies have their strategies in place and teams fully on board before moving forward—and then act with speed and purpose. In other words, they make sure everyone is rowing toward the same goal and then fast and straight!

Robert H. Miles, President of Corporate Transformation Resources, sees the same trend. In his article titled “Accelerating Corporate Transformations (Don’t Lose Your Nerve!)” published in the January/February 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Miles writes that the phrase he hears most often from business leaders when assessing their company’s performance is, “We should have—and could have—moved faster.”

According to Miles, business leaders “have a long list of regrets” when it comes to failed initiatives. These include wishing they had:

• Unified the leadership teams at the outset
• Engaged staff earlier and gotten needed organizational buy-in (Editorial note: We find that this takes having a clear, transparent and often-communicated vision!)
• Tested assumptions faster to help refine key components of the initiative
• Outlined (and communicated) those small successes early on, to reinforce the likely overall success to employees, customers, suppliers and investors

The biggest barrier to corporate transformation Miles has found, however, has been getting organizations to execute quickly. He advises that transformations must be bold and rapid to succeed.

Yet, embedded in most organizations are what Miles refers to as six kinds of “speed brakes” that can grind initiatives to a halt. They are as follows:

Speed Brake #1: Cautious Management Culture—A preoccupation with incremental improvement to avoid big mistakes

Speed Brake #2: Business-As-Usual Management Process—Letting day-to-day management tasks trump the launch of a transformation

Speed Brake #3: Initiative Gridlock—Piling new initiatives on top of failed, older ones out of fear of admitting that wrong paths were taken earlier

Speed Brake #4: Recalcitrant Executives—Protracted tolerance of team members lacking enthusiasm or having another agenda altogether

SpeedBrake #5: Disengaged Employees—Uninvolved and/or uncommitted employees who were not brought into the fold early on

Speed Brake #6: Loss of Focus During Execution—Failure to set concrete, actionable and measurable goals to maintain focus over the course of the process

Any one of these “speed brakes” can push an initiative off track and ultimately into a “Could’ve been,” “Should’ve been” pile of hurt, anger and frustration.

So, how can you release these brakes and reach your end goal with all due speed?

As we noted earlier, begin by getting your strategies in place and teams fully on board before moving forward. Then take one step at a time. A purposeful one. A directed one. An urgent one. And keep going, keep communicating. And, most importantly, keep the “prize” in everyone’s sight at all times.

Your end goal will be more readily achievable if management plans ahead, maintains focus and discipline, and is fully committed, not just to the anticipated benefits of the transformation, but also to the success of the process itself.

It’s 2010. The economic conditions seem to be favorable. The time to transform your business is now. SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY!

This publication is part of Blackman Kallick’s marketing of professional services, and is not written tax advice directed at the specific facts and circumstances of any person and/or entity. Contents of this publication are of a general nature, and you should not act on this information without obtaining professional advice from your business advisor that is appropriately tailored to your individual needs and circumstances. This written advice is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code.