Consulting

Would you be disappointed if 2020 looked exactly like 2019?

September 13, 2019 Tags: , , , , , , , Mike Chirveno

I’ve been asking myself that question. And now is the right time to ask it. The time between now and mid-December has been called the “100 day sprint” or “the most important 100 days of the year”. Why? Because everyone is back in the office after summer, back in the routine and hunkered down for a busy three and a half months. For some companies, it’s the run-up to a busy holiday season. For others, it’s time to prepare 2020 strategic plans and operating budgets.

In a very real way, the foundation for your organization’s 2020 is going to be laid in the next 100 days. Do it well and 2020 could be your best year yet. Do it poorly or don’t do it at all and 2020 might be just a carbon copy of 2019.

So, what should you be looking at right now? I have a longer list, but if you can’t swing a full-blown strategic planning exercise (which, in my opinion, you should commit to), I’d turn my attention to these four items first –

  • Ask hard talent questions – Do you have the right people in the organization who can take you where you want to go in the next 2-3 years? If not, can you develop existing staff or do you need additional talent? Do you have chronic personnel problems you’ve been reluctant to deal with – people who are poisoning the culture or who are consistently under-performing? If so, what are you going to do about it? Are there one, two or three people, who, if they left, would put your organization at risk? If so, what have you done to mitigate that risk?
  • Gauge organizational health – Is the company culture healthy? For example, is there clear and complete communication up and down the org chart? Is there transparency so that people have the information they need to make good decisions? Are you and are the other leaders in the organization setting a good example in your approach to work and in your interactions with every stakeholder group?
  • Reexamine value creation activities – Do you know the key drivers of the value surplus for your customers? When was the last time you examined your entire value creation chain looking for opportunities to improve vendor performance, inventory management, cross-department collaboration, processes, quality and logistics?
  • Measure what matters – When was the last time you revisited the metrics on your balanced scorecard? Are they really indicative of organizational health? Are your systems providing data quickly enough and to the right people so your field decision-making is data-driven and your longer-term decision-making is data-supported?

Inertia is strong. The pull of ordinary daily days will drag you right into the holiday season before you’ve taken any time to plan for 2020.

I’ve rewritten this last paragraph several times. Originally it said that you’re busy and looking at just these four things is better than doing nothing at all – that’s true. But, I want to encourage you to do the hard thing and take a much deeper dive into your organization. Don’t make 2020 slightly better than 2019. Make it much better by critically and accurately evaluating the current state of your organization, thoughtfully envisioning what you want 2020 to look like and deliberately crafting a plan to get you from the former to the latter.

I Want to do for Strategy what Chip and Joanna Gaines did for Shiplap

May 31, 2019 Tags: , , , , , , Mike Chirveno

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that six years ago, you had no idea what shiplap was. Neither did I. But thanks to Chip and Joanna Gaines and their hit HGTV show FixerUpper, shiplap is now part of the national consciousness. Everyone wants at least an accent wall’s worth of six-inch, horizontal wood goodness in their home.

Even though shiplap has been around for decades, it took someone to champion it – to sing its praises to a new generation of homeowners. I want to do for strategy what Chip and Joanna Gaines did for shiplap.

I love strategy –

Truthful evaluation, thoughtful options and deliberate actions to move an organization from the current state to the desired state.

Leaders in every organization feel the tension of the gap between where they are and where they want to be. That tension is supposed to be there. It’s one of the things that gets us to the office, shop, kitchen or factory every morning. But tragically, many leaders feel the pressure to close the gap but lack the tools to make it happen. Leaders randomly marshal the resources of traditional functional areas like marketing, production, finance and HR to transform the organization and close the gap, but in the absence of an overarching discipline that coordinates the objectives and work of these functional areas, the transformation is uneven and short-lived and the organization reverts back to business as usual. Businesses of 6, 8 or 10 people need the same overarching discipline, just like businesses of 6, 8 or 10 thousand.

That’s why I love strategy. It’s the neglected discipline – the one that, when employed, spurs conversation, creates collaboration and generates a singular focus for the organization. It’s the discipline that deliberately and methodically moves the organization to where it wants to be and, in the process, engages and builds up everyone involved.

Just like every homeowner who says, “I’ve got to have some shiplap in my house”, if I can get a business owner or manager, no matter the size of their enterprise, to say, “I have to incorporate strategic planning into my organization”, I’ve done my job. And if I have the privilege of helping them in that process, that’s a bonus.

What Is It Exactly That You Do?

September 13, 2018 Tags: , , , , , Mike Chirveno

I have one of those jobs – Strategy Consultant. Even after following the advice of branding and messaging experts, what I do doesn’t seem to be crystal clear to the people I want to reach the most. Thankfully, I got some help recently from one of those very people. This potential client and I have talked several times – in person, on the phone and via email – but this interaction was like somebody flipped on the light in a dark room.

I sent this potential client a service offering I had just designed. I was proud of it and thought it was just the ticket for him and his organization. His response caught me off guard because, in our previous meetings, I thought I had done such a good job of explaining my value proposition. But his response made it obvious I had not.

In his response to my email, he told me that before he signed on the bottom line, he’d be interested in knowing what strategy I had in mind for his organization. Seems logical, right? I’m a strategy consultant so I should bring one with me into a consulting engagement. At that point, I knew I’d failed miserably in delivering the message.

The most rudimentary skill in strategy consulting is starting an engagement with an unbridled amount of curiosity. Add to that a pile of probing questions and a proven framework with which to conduct the strategic planning exercise.

The most rudimentary skill in strategy consulting is starting an engagement with an unbridled amount of curiosity. Add to that a pile of probing questions and a proven framework with which to conduct the strategic planning exercise.

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A strategy consulting engagement at the outset is a discovery process – discovering the values, priorities, goals and dreams of the owners and managers, discovering the true, current state of the organization, discovering the current state of industry and unearthing every other piece of useful information you can find.

It’s only at that point we create what most business owners and manager consider “strategy”. With a clear picture of the organization’s current state and a clear vision of the desired future state, we can craft the roadmap to move the organization from current state to the future state – the strategy.

The component parts of the strategy, depending on what is learned during the process, could touch any number of disciplines in the organization. For example –

  • People – Are the right people in the organization? Are they equipped to do the work the company needs today and in the future? If not, what is the best way to make that happen? Are they being managed well? Are they being compensated correctly?
  • Operations – Does the organization operate efficiently – producing the maximum number of outputs with the minimum number of inputs? Does the quality of the products or services satisfy the customer, maximizing sales and minimizing or eliminating complaints? Does the supply chain obtain the appropriate materials from the highest performing vendors with the best pricing?
  • Marketing – Does the organization tell its story in a compelling way? Does the organization effectively target the best prospects and speak to them in ways are that are meaningful to them? Is the organization effective at identifying the jobs current and potential customers need to be done?
  • Technology – Does the organization employ technology that speeds delivery of products and services? Is the organization effectively managing the relationships with technology providers?

In a well-executed strategic planning exercise, we will –

  • Organize and quantify what the principals know intuitively. We’ll nail down those things that they know exist. They’ll know how many, how often, which ones and more importantly, how they impact the long-term health of your organization.
  • Discover what they don’t know or reverse errant perceptions – Sometimes, the things they think they know intuitively aren’t true at all. A good strategic planning methodology accurately assesses the real truth about what’s going on with employees, vendors, customers and shareholders.
  • Focus the attention of the owners and executive team on a relatively small set of levers that need to be pulled to make larger, investment-grade moves that propel the organization forward – outpacing competitors and protecting against new entrants.
  • Marshall the resources of everyone in the company towards one or two specific strategic objectives – The end game of the exercise is to identify one or two things that transform the organization. The exercise might uncover four or five or ten things that need attention, but organizations can’t change ten things at a time – just one or two. A good strategic planning exercise will identify the one or two highest impact items and create a roadmap for executing those items – pushing down the implementation through the entire organization. When those are done, the organization can move on to the next item or two.

 

There’s more to the “what is it exactly that you do” question, but that’s a good start. It’s a joy to me to work with owners and managers to help them dig deep into their organizations, gain new insights into their business and watch them set a course that means success for them and meaningful work for those on their team.

If I’ve still not answered the question, let me know. If you’re overflowing with kudos for this extremely clear explanation, I look forward to that feedback too.

We’ve Got Data, Yes We Do. We’ve Got Data, How About You?

February 28, 2018 Tags: , , , , Mike Chirveno

For those of you who had a quick flashback to high school sports complete with cheerleaders, sorry about that. But, in the age of POS systems, big data, analytics and visualizations, it’s hard to believe we’re still asking this question.

Most of our businesses, even small businesses, are awash in data – transactional data from our ERP systems, customer sentiment from our marketing management systems and financial data from our accounting systems. Long gone are the days when we polled subsets of customers to predict the behavior and preferences of the population at large. We can easy pull together and analyze the actions of every one of our customers and the financial impacts of those actions in our organization. We know what they bought, when they bought it, what they paid for it and how they liked it after the fact.

So why do we still struggle to make data-driven decisions? The short answer is cognitive biases – a mistake in reasoning, evaluating, remembering or other cognitive process, often occurring as a result of holding onto one’s preferences and beliefs regardless of contrary information (Chegg). As Anais Nin said, “We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.” In my work, I’ve observed 4 specific obstacles to data-driven decision making. I want to offer some suggestions on how we can deconstruct them and replace them with something better. As futurist and philosopher Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

We believe all smart people think the way we think. It’s not surprising that we interact with people who think differently than we do. The variety in our nature, nurture, experience and education guarantees that no two of us are exactly alike. However, the remarkable thing is, we think those people who do think differently from us are not nearly as smart as we are. We believe, that presented with the same set of facts, all smart people will draw the same conclusion, make the same selection or opt for the same methodology. That’s not the case. Different isn’t dumber. Different is just different. When we examine data and discover findings that don’t square with us intellectually, I see a couple of choices – make a decision that aligns with the data and entertain the option that the data’s disagreement with your own opinion might not be an indictment of your intellect or, if you just can’t get over it, dig deeper and find the why behind the findings. Sometimes the data presents customer choices that have a root that you’ve yet to discover. Whichever option you choose, you’d probably best judge your intellectual horsepower with this quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

We believe that the way things worked in the past will be the way they will continue to work in the future. We all seem to have an affinity for systems and processes that we know and have experienced. The line at the grocery store is more comfortable than the Blue Apron box delivered to our home. However, when we see data moving towards a new sales channel or towards an emerging product and away from an existing product, we must muster the courage to follow the data. If we, personally, are an early adopter, it might seem easy. But, if we’re part of the late majority in adopting a new product or service, it borders on the painful. Battling this bias requires more academic rigor than the others. I’d encourage you to examine the histories of formerly successful companies who assumed that the business model they had ridden for, in many cases, decades would continue to return stellar revenues for them going forward. Think about Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Kodak, Blockbuster and Toys-R-Us. When well-vetted data says it’s time to make a change, it’s time to follow the data.

We tie our own personal worth and identity to our tastes or work product. Maybe I should leave this point to Dr. Phil, but I’ll take a shot at it. Over the course of a long career, we will all come up with some great ideas. We’ll also come up with others that could use some work. Unfortunately, we’ll probably love both types just the same. When the data shows that the widget we designed isn’t gaining traction in the widget-buying community, we take it personally. Sometimes even more painful is watching customers lose interest in a product or service in which we have an intense personal investment. Maybe it’s been the staple of the organization for a very long time. The customer’s decision to purchase something else feels like personal attack on us. Make no mistake – you are not what you do. Your worth is not the number of times your product is rung up at the register, sold online or positively reviewed on Google or Facebook. Living that way will drive you crazy. Data is just data. It reflects the collective sentiment of the population who provided it regarding a single item or interaction. It is not a measurement of the worth of the person who created it. Get your worth from something that cannot be taken away. I personally find it in my Christian faith.

Make no mistake – you are not what you do. Your worth is not the number of times your product is rung up at the register, sold online or positively reviewed on Google or Facebook. #datadriven

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When the data creates this situation – and it inevitably will – separate your personal tastes and most-prized creations from your personal worth. To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, “treat the two impostors of customer love and customer rejection just the same.” Make decisions consistent with the data and move on.

We believe that experimenting with something new is expensive and risky. As we examine the data and the tide seems to be turning to new products or delivery methods, we assemble, in our heads, an entirely new manufacturing facility, a complicated new delivery infrastructure and sophisticated, new customer service capabilities. Each of these carries an excessively high price tag. Before we know it, in our heads, we’ve retreated to the comfort of the status quo before we even start. If the data indicates movement towards a new product or service, it’s a good time to employ a methodology from Jim Collins’ book, Great by Choice – Fire bullets, then cannonballs. Before creating an expensive, new infrastructure for a new product or service, construct a low-risk, low-cost, low-distraction experiment to prove the new direction indicated by the data. The ability to calibrate the offering by taking small, measured shots (bullets) and evaluating their appeal and effectiveness can be followed by crafting full-blown products (cannonballs) with the benefit of the empirical evidence you’ve gathered during the test. Some concrete ways to implement bullets then cannonballs – create a 3-D printed version of a new product instead of a full-featured version from an assembly line, roll out a service to a small test segment of your customer base, outsource the support of a test item to a third-party who could rapidly ramp up the support function and quick shutter it when the test is over.

Making the move to data-driven decision making isn’t easy. It often flies in the face of our “gut” and it often has a higher emotional price tag. But, when it’s all said and done, it’s the right thing to do for the organization. The findings from data analysis force us to have discussions we need to have. Implementing data-driven decisions reduces unnecessary risk and position us for success. The new decisions will create more data that we can examine and use to further refine our work.

Five Strategic Things I Wish I Could Force You to Do in 2018

December 21, 2017 Tags: , , , , , Mike Chirveno

There’s not a better job in the world than being a consultant. I have the opportunity to see the inner workings of multiple industries and competitive companies inside those industries. And, I get to work with great, smart people all the time. The one thing I can’t do, however, is make decisions for clients. I supply informed opinions, actionable recommendations, a framework for execution and accountability to get it done, but I can’t pull the trigger.

But, if just for a moment, I had free reign in every client organization in 2018, here are five things I would do.

Ratchet Up the Employee Engagement – According to a Gallup survey, unengaged employees comprise 70% of the workforce. These unengaged employees collectively cost business owners $550 billion annually in lost productivity. The mechanics of creating, increasing and retaining engagement are not mystical, but they do require a specific set of attitudes and behaviors from employers. To get started, download Employees As, a primer for Employee Engagement.

Innovate Using Jobs Theory – Of all the big thoughts devoted to innovation over they past 20 years, I find those of Clayton Christensen in his excellent book Competing Against Luck to be the most practical, most easily grasped by an organization and most likely to yield a viable new product or service. Jobs Theory positions innovation as supplying the best alternative for the progress a potential customer wants to make in resolving a problem.

Implement a Plan for Focused Execution – Most organizations either throw up their collective hands and run from crisis to crisis OR undertake strategic initiatives that have too many moving parts. To effect real change in an organization, only work on one or two initiatives at a time. When those are done, move to the next one or two. Successful execution requires a laser-like focus, shared vision, education, identifying the correct leading indicators, overcoming the obstacles that surface in the course of the project, great teamwork and accountability.

Clarify Your Messaging – Great marketing and subsequent sales all hinge on an easily understood message. Make sure potential customers know exactly what you do. The message from salespeople, your company website, your social media channels and your sales collateral should be simple and unified. The value proposition should be communicated in language that correctly identifies the client’s problem, positions your organization as a capable resource that can guide them to resolution and describes a desirable future state.

Set Aside Time for Deep Work – I can’t say enough good things about Cal Newport’s book Deep Work. I was challenged by the empirical and anecdotal evidence he presented to regularly and methodically step away from our distraction-fueled world to do work that requires complex, contemplative and deep thought. It’s changed the way I approach my preparation for consulting engagements and the engagements themselves. It’s the best defense I’ve ever seen again distraction and the always present “tyranny of the urgent”. Make time to do this no matter what else is going on in your organization.

There are very few guarantees in this world, but if you take these five things into your organization, I can almost promise that 2018 will look markedly different from 2017.

Again, I encourage you to download the Employees As guide to Employee Engagement. I also have resources available for the other strategic initiatives discussed in this post.

 

Depreciating Employees

January 4, 2017 Tags: , , , , , , , , Mike Chirveno

Sorry to bring this up, but in just a couple of months it will be tax time. Very soon the Finance folks will be talking with us about deductions, assets, 1099s and more. One of the conversations will likely involve depreciation. Depreciation is the mechanism that allows us to account for the portion of an item’s value we’ve used to create products or services in that year. It’s fairly intuitive – the truck we purchased in 2014 delivered products, picked up materials or made service calls – all allowing us to serve customers and make money. At the same time, the truck is another year older – more wear and tear, more maintenance required and certainly worth less than when we bought it. Even with top-notch maintenance and lots of replacement parts, we’ll not return its value to the original purchase price.

This type of depreciation is unavoidable and, in reality, desirable since it enables our mission and money-making. But there is another type of depreciation that’s damaging and unnecessary. Can employees depreciate? Think about it. You’re most likely handing out raises with those year-end performance reviews. Certainly your benefit costs are going up. So, if you get the same amount of value from those employees this year that you received from them last year, but you’re paying more for them, they are depreciating.

If you get the same value from employees this year that you received from them last year and you’re paying them more, they are depreciating.

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Let me hasten to say, I realize they’re another year smarter with greater experience.  That should allow them to successfully ride the experience curve and add more value to your organization. But what if you could supercharge their growth? Unfortunately, I spent a good portion of my former corporate life focused on projects and processes and not on people. It never dawned on me that I was contributing to employee depreciation, since I was giving more of the company’s money (through yearly raises and benefits) to employees whose development was primarily just what they caught by osmosis over the course of the year.

Fortunately, since my switch to consulting and through my own personal and professional growth, I’ve had the privilege of helping clients create and implement robust employee development plans; plans that make people smarter, give them vital experiences that prepare them for new responsibilities in the organization and equip them with new tools that bring them personal satisfaction and allow them to better meet the needs of the organization’s customers.

It’s just the opposite of employee depreciation. It’s employee appreciation. Each passing month, the value of the employee’s new knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences far surpass the increased compensation. This makes for an organization that’s growing, transforming and competing because its team members are growing and transforming.

To download the initial Employee Development Plan Worksheet that my clients use to start the Employee Development conversation with their employees, click here.

Be Like Mick

December 20, 2016 Tags: , , , , Mike Chirveno

2016 marked the 40th anniversary of Rocky – the story of a down-on-his-luck boxer who won the heart of Philadelphia when he went the distance with the undisputed heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed.

There’s no question that Rocky was a compelling character and the star of the movie. But let me make the case for a different hero – Rocky’s trainer Mick. Mick was, all at once, mentor, teacher, friend, cheerleader, butt-kicker, confidant and counselor. He was the voice in Rocky’s head, bringing him back to the truth, when all of life’s circumstances were telling him lies. Even in later reboots of the franchise, after Mick’s death, his words echoed in Rocky’s head giving him strength, instruction and calling him to action when he was literally down for the count.

Rocky Balboa was and continues to be one of the greatest characters ever forged by Hollywood, but if there were no Mick, there might not have been a Rocky.

So, what’s the point? In our professional life, most of us aspire to be Rocky – meeting the challenge, rising above and getting the accolades. Could I encourage a different focus? How about being Mick? Be the voice in the ear of that client or customer that makes them better, stronger, smarter and more successful. Nothing is more rewarding than helping someone else achieve their dreams, meet their goals or just be happier and more fulfilled. Knowing that you had some small part in making that happen is one of the best feelings ever. So, come along side that family member, employee, boss, customer or client and be like Mick.

Be the voice in the ear of that client or customer that makes them better, stronger, smarter and more successful. #belikemick @cvconsulting

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What I’ve Learned from 10 Years in Consulting

December 4, 2016 Tags: , , , , , Mike Chirveno

This month marks 10 years in consulting and therefore the 10th birthday of ClearVision Consulting. I count myself one of the fortunate few who get to make a living doing what they love. A giant thank you to dozens of clients who have invited me into their businesses and trusted me to help them build the business they’ve always wanted.

I can’t cram all the things I’ve learned into the few short words of this post, but I’ve got to try and hit the high spots.

Business owners and their teams are some of the finest people I’ve ever met.  There’s something different about the person who foregoes a weekly paycheck and risks everything to run their own business. The passion and purpose they bring to their work is inspiring and humbling.

There’s a fine line between running a business and being run by a business. I’ve had the opportunity to see both. The demands of running a business are off the charts. Without a deliberate approach, the right team and defined processes, there are plenty of things to keep you up at night. On the flip side, there are business owners who, by employing the right tools and methodologies, are having the time of their life.

There’s a lot of confusion about what it means to engage a consultant. It’s a bit daunting to think about exposing any or all or your business to a stranger – especially if you think the end result is going to be a list of problems you already knew you had and a bunch of expensive-to-implement recommendations – all written in consultant-speak and accompanied by a large bill. If that was the experience, I’d also run screaming.

Velocity is daunting. The rate of change in competitive landscape, employee expectations, technology, distribution channels, communication channels and more is dizzying. Pile that on top of every day operational demands and it seems like there’s no way to stay current and really no way to pay for it. Business owners without a true North Star feel constantly behind existing competitors and aggressive new entrants.

The privilege of consulting and coaching has provided a front row seat for watching some wonderful business transformations. I’ve been able to witness owners and managers overcome some initial reluctance to bring in a trusted advisor and experience the change that comes by making deliberate choices and employing proven tools. Unless you can be Batman, it’s probably the best job ever.  I’m pretty pumped about the next 10 years.

Consulting has provided a front row seat for watching wonderful business transformations. Unless you can be Batman, it’s the best job ever. @cvconsulting

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