Let's be honest, most of us have worked in jobs that met some but not all of our needs and strengths, for the right reasons at the time. How long were you comfortable in that position before you started to look over the fence for the next opportunity? Generally, we know within 90 days (and often a lot sooner) whether we've made a good move, or whether this is just an interim move. If you're an employer, that's incredibly frustrating and expensive. What works much better is to know the best profile fit for the job, culture and team at the beginning. Of course, that's true, and that's what everyone wants, yet, we don't have great ways of getting there, do we? Actually, in 2021, we do...yet most employers are doing it wrong. Does this story sound familiar?

Tried & True Method

Susie saw an ad on a local job board that surprised her. It sounded like her dream job in an organization (*Fabulous company) that had a great reputation in the community. She really liked her current employer and team, but this seemed to be a rare opportunity. She submitted an application.

Fabulous company's human resource specialist, Annette*, reviewed the incoming applications from the job board, and noted that Susan's application fit the keywords in the job description. She downloaded Susan's cover letter and resume, and added it to the growing pile. Annette had a goal to fill this position within 30 days with a qualified candidate, since her organization was tracking time to fill as one of the performance metrics for her department. She began contacting the applicants within 3 days of the position posting. Annette had 150 applicants to screen, and Susan was #39. Susan was at work when she got the call on her cell. She briefly identified a date/time for a screening interview.

When Susan jumped onto the virtual screening interview, Annette was welcoming, and provided a brief overview of the company and the role. She asked Susan why this was of interest, and to expand upon her background and skills for the role. She asked a few more questions, and then said that she would be in touch for the next steps soon. Meanwhile, Annette finished the screening interviews for the qualified candidates. Literally, it took three weeks to complete the screenings, resulting in 25 potential candidates. Annette contacted the hiring manager, Jared*, to share the 25 candidates to have him filter the list to a manageable number to interview - typically 5-10. She provided her notes from the screening interviews, resumes, and cover letters. This position involved leadership of a small work team, so that experience or ability was key to candidate fit.

Jared reviewed the 25 candidates within the next two days, and identified 10 that he thought were a potential fit. He asked Annette to schedule the interviews over the next two weeks. We were now four weeks into the hiring process for this position. Annette worked quickly to schedule the interviews, which happened to include Susan. When she got the call at work, Susan was in a meeting, and called Annette back as soon as possible. Susan's interview was now set at the end of next week, week six in the hiring timeline.

Susan's interview day was here. She was excited to learn more about the company, the reason for this opening, and the specific position expectations. Jared spent about 45 minutes with her, and there was a good discussion about the areas of need and Susan's fit to fulfill the requirements. Susan felt excited. Jared felt that she was a good candidate. He had three other candidates with high potential fit. Jared completed the interviews by the end of the following week, now seven weeks into the open position.

Ultimately, Susan was offered the position, accepted, and began with her new employer in November, ten weeks from the position vacancy. She had some questions about her new team within the first two weeks, but decided that she needed to learn about the organization and the team before she raised her concerns. A month later, her concerns magnified, and she spoke to her supervisor, Jared, about them. He acknowledged some challenges, and indicated that her role was to get her team moving in the right direction. Susan decided two weeks later to return to her former employer, where her old job was open.

A Better Method

Annette was informed by Jared that there was a new position vacancy in one of his departments. Annette asked Jared to complete a position assessment for the role online, which he did within 15 minutes. Annette reviewed it, compared it to similar roles, and created a job profile that aligned the position responsibilities to the behavioral and cognitive profile of a successful candidate. She sent the proposed job assessment profile to Jared, and he said that it was perfect. This was day one of the open position. Annette posted the position on the company's job board, along with a link for prospective candidates to take, to match behavioral profiles to the targeted job profile.

Susan saw the position posting, and was excited to consider this opportunity. Jane also saw the posting, and felt it might be an option of interest. Both submitted applications, cover letters and resumes, and completed the online position assessments. Within three days, Annette identified 150 prospective candidates, and she was able to review their behavioral profiles for a best match within 30 minutes. She identified 20 candidates to submit to Jared for consideration. It was day 4 of the position vacancy.

Jared reviewed the candidates, and their respective behavioral and cognitive match to the role. He decided to pursue 8 candidates that were a best match for interviews. It was day 5 of the position vacancy. Annette set up interviews for the candidates, and Jared was amazed at the caliber of candidates that he received. Each had a striking match to what he was looking for, although some were not a perfect match to the job requirements. He was able to easily align their match to the team, culture and organization in a way that he couldn't before. His final selection was Jane, who was excited to begin within two weeks. He selected her three weeks into the vacancy. 

Jane began in her role, knowing what was required, and how she needed to engage and transform her team. Since this was part of her appeal to the position, she was excited to create a plan, and see progress toward the team's transformation. The team also saw her passion, and was inspired by her leadership and commitment to a better future. Six months later, the transformation was well underway, the team had higher engagement scores, and some of the best talent had been retained, resulting in higher productivity. Jane and Jared planned for their next goals, confident that they would achieve them.

Power of Data

The future of talent optimization is here now, for leading companies who want to position themselves ahead of the pack. Consider the costs of the delays in the current process, and of missed hires. In this example, three to four weeks of a gap in leadership, often with team attrition, and lost productivity. When Susan left, the team wasn't surprised - they saw that she wasn't a fit quickly, and Jared lost credibility in the process. The cycle starts over - a painful and expensive process that is all too common.

It sounds like the process that Annette & Jared used was magic, and in some ways it was - the power of data magic, to drive better decisions. Annette used data analytics tools to select a better candidate to fit the role, while shortening the timeframe of the entire hiring process by more than three weeks. What's the value of three weeks in your organization? Typically thousands in lost revenue or talent. Finding better candidates, faster, improves your organization's talent pipeline, providing a strategic business advantage that leading companies have been leveraging for years. It's time for every business to explore the power of data in the talent pipeline, to save time and money, while improving results. It also generally costs less than the current flawed process!

If you're interested in your next career opportunity, and a prospective employer asks you to take a behavioral or cognitive assessment, have confidence that the employer is focused on creating the best fit in the organization, and absolutely consider them! Leading organizations know that matching the right behavioral match and skill set to a position opportunity is better for the new employee and the existing team, leader and culture. With the right fit, teams can achieve amazing results, and be well-positioned for the future.

If you're an employer, we're happy to give you a sample of the process, and share how it can turn your organization into a high-performing talent engine. With the right talent, your company is unstoppable. With the wrong talent, even the best strategy will fall short. The choice is yours, wherever you are in the U.S. Let's chat soon!

*Names used are aliases for a real company's experience, to protect privacy. 

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and performance execution. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help sometime; great leaders get help early, realizing greater returns.

When you need help, consult the experts. We're here for you and your business! 

Your Success is Our Success

A new year brings new hope, new beginnings, and new plans for success. Is your business ready for a new year? As we talk with hundreds of business leaders throughout the year, we know there are two keys to business success - an effective business model, and the right talent to bring it to life. 2020 placed significant challenges on many business models. Did yours thrive? If so, how will you maximize it for 2021? Where else you can add value and meet your customer's needs? If you're not sure that you did, or if a little checkup would be helpful, then this is the first article you should read for 2021!

GETTING STARTED

John* is a local business owner who's been in business for nearly two years. He started his business as a life coach, as a side business, helping clients to understand and overcome their challenges, and build healthy sustainable habits. He achieved a coaching certification, knew the fit was right for him personally, and was ready to help clients. His coaching course covered a bit of the business model, focused on 45-minute coaching sessions over multiple sessions. Beyond that framework, John didn't know how much he could generate as a life coach, where to find his best clients, or how to develop and modify his business model, to evolve this into a full-time career. Let's explore through John's story how you can develop and build a sustainable business.

CUSTOMERS FIRST

John's first challenge was to identify who were his best prospects, what their pain points were, and where to find them. He began with a conversation with another life coach, to get a sense of what they saw in the market as needed, and what they delivered. This may seem odd, however it is actually a great strategy in the service sector, because everyone has some unique skills and characteristics that fit best with some needs, and not exactly with others. For the ones that don't fit well, simply refer those individuals to a colleague, and they will likely reciprocate. He learned the biggest pain points in his prospects, and it sparked some ideas of how he could differentiate his services from others in the market. He was getting excited! He also decided to ask his first initial clients a few questions at the end of their sessions with him, to learn where he could add more value, and potentially have them return in the future.

GETTING PAID

One of John's next decisions was how to offer his services, and the value respectively. While his coaching program gave him some general ideas, he also reviewed the websites of other coaches in the area, to learn what they were offering in packages and pricing. He wanted to be solidly positioned in the market, and not appear as the 'bargain-basement' option. He knew that he could bring great value to his clients, and he deserved to be compensated fairly for that value. He created three packages for the key services that he believed would be needed by his clients. He projected how many clients he would likely acquire in each category, and the associated revenue. He tiered his projections for growth over the first three years. He wasn't ready to move to this full-time yet, but as he added repeat clients who saw great value, he could see it happening soon. 

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

John was thrilled. He knew what he could offer, to whom, and how he would get paid. His dream of being a successful business owner, and doing the work that he loved was coming together. He could hardly believe it was possible!

As he was beginning to develop some marketing for the key services that he knew were needed, he paused to make sure that he could clearly differentiate his services from others in his local market. Then he thought, I'm not limited to the local market. I can deliver services anywhere through technology, and advance my reach and reputation faster and further! He migrated his virtual coach concept into his logo, business name, website, and service graphics. His brand was coming together, and he could see that this would help him be more memorable, and stand out from others. Flexible times, access, and locations were not the norm for others, yet he believed they would be better for client needs. He would integrate this flexibility into his service schedule and pricing.

BUSINESS EXPENSES

In John's business, he was fortunate that there was little overhead cost - largely his time and expertise. He established a marketing budget to build client awareness, a website, some social media campaigns, and participation in a local business network. He identified each of these as overhead expenses in his business model, knowing that they would not generate revenue, yet they were essential parts of his business design. He deducted these costs, both ongoing and fixed, from his projected revenues. He made sure to manage these expenses as a fixed percentage of his projected revenue. 

READY, SET GO!

John now had a great plan, knew what he needed to do, and how he would track his progress. He decided that he would track his progress monthly, and re-evaluate his business model quarterly for intended client volume and revenues. As he began to reach out to prospects, his first five clients materialized. True to his plan, he asked them what they liked most about his services, and what one thing might make it particularly valuable for them. One thing he learned was to show measurable results. When his clients saw measurable results on their goals, they were incentivized to not only continue on the program, but to share John's services with others. He thanked them with a referral incentive. John was on his way to living his dream career, and loving it!

Access a Business Model Canvas to build your 2021 plan here

ARE YOU READY?

John learned how to get his business ready to go as a relatively new business, but what about established businesses that have hit a rut? The same principles work. Start with a clear understanding of your customers needs, pains, and current options. This usually identifies gaps in the market that you can leverage. We often hear from clients who have thrown spaghetti against the wall without a solid plan. Results suffer. Then, they need a resource to restructure their business model, and overcome these mistakes. The good news is that an early fix can be a great learning experience. If you are facing customer demand challenges, pricing, talent or overhead challenges, take the time to have a conversation with a business consultant, and get the right fix now. Wasting time may cost you the business, and your dreams for the future. A conversation may create an even better dream! Here's to your dreams!

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and performance execution. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help sometime; great leaders get help early, realizing greater returns.

When you need help, consult the experts. We're here for you and your business! Click the button below and let's connect.              

Your Success is Our Success

*John is an alias to protect the privacy of the business owner. 

We've been talking to lots of business leaders about life and their business trajectory over the past few months. A few common themes have emerged: early panic, checking in on customers and suppliers, and most recently taking stock of what may be working and what isn't anymore. If you have not revisited your value proposition to target what your customers need most, you may have missed an opportunity. Here's how to do that, for best results.

Know Your Market

First, you must know your customer market quite well. What are they seeking when they come to your business? How do they find you, versus others in the market? New competitors are always entering high growth markets. Existing competitors may be offering new services, or there may be fewer competitors surviving in tight economic markets. Your priority is to understand and update your value proposition to the changing market needs. A few areas to check:

Is your customer demand the same, higher, or lower?

What new issues are facing your customers? Do you offer a solution for those?

Are you still relevant and preferred, or is there a bright, shiny new competitor?

Have you talked with your customers about their biggest challenges, concerns or pain points? How can you best help them before someone else does? 

If your customer's biggest issue is not where you add value, you may be on the path to irrelevance. Take stock, revisit your value proposition, and make some changes. Always keep close communication with your best customers to build agility and value. The hardest part may be to listen and learn, yet smart business leaders listen, learn, and make effective changes as quickly as possible. Get started now, if you're not already in discussions. In fact, you're doing market research, which offers a huge advantage in the long run. Yes, it takes time and skill. If you're not comfortable or confident, hire an expert. 

Revisit Your Business Plan

Once you understand where the market may have shifted, it's time to revisit your business model. Does your business focus on current customer needs, pain and value expectations? If not, changes are needed. Have you reconsidered what you specifically produce that your customers want, and how much demand is present in the market? What is your market share position, and where are there growth opportunities? Take stock of your assets, and consider where you can reduce expenses and add more value. We recommend a review and modification of the business or strategic plan at least annually. 

Innovate & Focus

What can you do to help customers get more done faster, easier, or at a better value, targeted to their biggest problem? When you focus on the most important customer problem with a value-added solution, you've added to your value proposition substantially! Can you solve more problems, solve a more important one than before, raise the solution up a notch to create more desired value, serve more customers with the same problem, or solve the problem better than anyone else? These are your value proposition assets. Here are some examples of ways that you may be able to innovate and expand:

• Create a new solution for a given customer profile (avatar)

• Imagine a new product or service that you've not done before, but have the assets and ability to deliver in the future

• Create a new advantage for a certain customer profile

• Dramatically lower your cost structure to lower your costs substantially

• Build upon your existing capabilities, including patents, infrastructure, skills and user base

• Develop a new value proposition based upon a new partnership

• Develop a new value proposition that your competitors can't copy

• Create value based on a new technology trend, or turn a new regulation to your advantage

• Be first to apply an existing business model from another sector to your sector

Design, Test & Deliver

You've identified what products or services to tweak, change or deliver going forward. Next comes the design and build phases, of exactly what and how to deliver the new value proposition. What is your marketing strategy to reach new prospects? There are at least seven critical questions to assess your model design for value, sustainability and profitability, before you deliver. Take a few minutes to review your business model design assessment, and assess your value proposition when your market changes. We also recommend that you sample any product or service changeswith your target market to find out what works well, and what needs tweaks before you expand. Once you refine your offerings, you're ready to capture a broader market at a better ROI! 

Business Value Proposition Checkup 

If you aren't sure how strong your value proposition is, click on the Business Value Proposition link above, and take our Checkup Survey. If you see many areas of opportunity, we recommend that you follow the outlined process above, or contact us to help navigate the process faster and easier. The strongest businesses see downturns and economic challenges as opportunities to recreate themselves even better. That's our vision for your business...

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need!  Every business needs help sometime; great leaders get help early, realizing greater returns.

When you need help, consult the experts. We're here for you and your business! 

Your Success is Our Success

 Let's face it, life at work over the past six weeks has been challenging for most of us. Whether you've been working from home, not working, or are considered an essential business, you've had to make many changes in your day-to-day role. Many of us have engaged in virtual meetings to lead our teams, to connect with current and prospective customers, and to engage in training programs. Meanwhile, the freedom of attire, time and commute savings are appealing too, especially to introverts. As a result, about 40 percent of our team members probably don't want to come back to the office, even to better work. Now, you're thrilled to bring people back to work amidst this, right? We're here to help you make this picture brighter by leveraging five key areas of opportunity for a better work environment upon return. Check these off before you re-open the door, and your customers and team members will thank you.

Take Inventory

Every change in your business impacts your work team, your customers, and your business model to some level. Take inventory on what changes have actually transpired that have helped you deliver your services or products to your customers, and which ones are practices that you had to do in the short term, that should naturally end. It sounds obvious, but get your team involved in this as well. This is the first part of successful change management - realize what has changed, and evaluate the impact. We recommend that you use a simple and proven tool: Start - Continue - Stop. Take a sheet of paper, and write on the top Start; in the middle write Continue; and at the bottom write Stop. Jot your thoughts on which practices should you start upon return, which new practices should continue, and which ones should stop. Then send it to some or all of your team. Get their input to what should be kept, tweaked or dropped. This is a huge benefit to not miss insights that are not under your radar, and it builds incredible buy-in and respect from your team. Even better, share your findings with the team for validation and modification before proceeding to make the changes. Creating better work also saves time and stress. 

Evaluate the Impact

Next, consider the impact of each identified change to your customers, stakeholders and team members. First, start with an impact to measures of importance to your customers, like time to respond, the quality rating of a service, and perhaps new sales or repeat sales. Then consider the impact to your stakeholders, or those that have a vested interest in your ongoing success as a business. These may include things like your financial position, support to the community, brand reputation, and other key measures. We include in this item an impact to your mission and vision. Lastly, consider the measurable impact to your team. Have you seen increases in employee engagement, retention, productivity, or volunteerism? If so, it's critically important to evaluate the practices that contributed to those changes, and preserve some of them for continued benefit. We recommend using an objective weighted matrix, like a Pugh Matrix to limit the inherent bias. If you're new to these tools, and would like to get more information, reach out to us below.  

Design the New Reality

Now it's time to revisit your business strategy or plan, and consider both a short and long-term new reality. What is substantially different both in your business and in your industry because of economic or market changes? Chances are you will need to revisit your business strategy at least in the short term. Perhaps, you will need to reduce your product or service offerings, adjust your pricing structure, or adjust the structure of your organization with different roles or a more flattened leadership. Perhaps you'll need to dial back on the proposed expansion to another site. We recommend creating a few different scenarios for short term modifications that each support the long-term strategy for sustainability, on track to your mission and vision. Once you're comfortable with the right short-term changes, then consider the impact on your long-term strategy. For many of us, it's tempting to think we know these pieces from our gut. Take the time to consider, plan, and project the impact of each change to business results. It will benefit the next steps.

Develop the Plan

You've designed a short and long-term return to your business. Now, how will you make that happen smoothly and effectively? In this step, you'll need to break down each change into implementation steps, to ensure a smooth progression. For example, if you're reducing the product or service options, how will you ensure that you have the right talent in place for the ones that you keep and promote? Do you need to shift your marketing materials to promote this service? Do you need to make any changes in your delivery or pricing? Does your team need additional training to achieve higher performance levels as you promote this service at a higher level? Is your competition in this space? What is your unique value proposition? All of the steps of evaluating a new product or service should be considered when promoting or changing an offering. This step ensures that you've planned for that successful implementation. 

Execute the Plan

Once you've reached this step, you have confidence in your analysis of the change, and have a clear plan to proceed toward a return to operations. As a leader, a key facet of executing any plan is a communication to those involved and affected. Translate your plan into key messages for the different groups affected, in language that is easily understood, and that matches their experience through the change. Be respectful, authentic, and transparent, as much as possible. Some messages will be in writing. Others that are more sensitive need to be in person, and still others may be in video to key stakeholders. Map each change to a communication strategy, and then determine the content and timing. We recommend developing this communication with your key leaders, to ensure sensitivity and alignment of the message across the organization. We also recommend that you use a tiered communication process to provide the most sensitive communications personally and first, and then systematically deploy the more general communication of the changes. Remind your team members of your social media policy. Reinforce messages in several different forms to reduce the potential for misinterpretation, recognizing that any sensitive message may get to the media. Build and reinforce trusted relationships through your communications. 

The second key aspect of execution is leadership alignment, support and accountability. Ensure that the plan is clearly understood by leadership, and that lines of accountability to specific activities and groups are known and accepted. Recognize that the work of leaders in this shift will be harder, and some will not be able to make the transition. While this should have been a consideration in developing the plan, if there are unforeseen impacts, recognize that this aspect is probably the greatest risk to your revised plan, and your employee retention and productivity. We recommend a high level engagement of your leaders to their teams, whether virtual or in person, with at least biweekly group check-ins, and weekly check-ins for key individuals. Depending on the span of control, there may be challenges to implement this level of support and engagement, however high level interaction is key to a successful transition. 

Evaluation - Talent Challenges? 

You may identify as you complete your plan, and return to a better new reality in your business, that you have some significant talent gaps. That's not uncommon, especially when you're creating conscious changes from former roles, with new competencies, skills and behaviors. As a senior or company leader, your role is to evaluate where your mid-level leaders are well-positioned, and where there may need to be additional training, or even a shift of roles to maximize natural wiring and preferences. It's much better to recognize this early in the process, to retain the team working with that leader. We recommend having weekly connections with your leaders, and to also connect with their teams informally to keep the lines of feedback open, boosting early awareness. 

If you find issues of leader misfit to the role, we recommend using a data-analytic tool to evaluate objectively the needs, drives and behaviors of the leader, to move them to a better fit, and to find a replacement that is better suited to the role required. The difference in performance results from this process is incredible, and worth the process to save key talent! If you'd like to discover more, select the link below to get more information.

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help at some point; great business leaders actually get help when needed, realizing greater returns. See the difference in your business, when you work with a trusted business advisor, delivering just what you need.

When you need help, consult the experts. Our success is your success! 

Now, more than ever, business leaders must deliver services with streamlined resources, yet still meet customer expectations. Smart systems can get more done with less. Use technology to automate the routine aspects of your business, for better reliability and value! Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms were designed years ago to meet this very need. Now, they are essential tools for business efficiency. Using an integrated set of software programs helps to minimize tedious steps in the process, by having the software seamlessly sending information to carry out specific functions automatically. Sound terrific? It really is. Automating and integrating back end functions save time, money and headaches, while actually growing your business!

How it Works

What kind of activities can be automated through an ERP? Routine functions where information is passed from one individual or system to another are great ERP uses, either in a message, document, invoice, or other means, triggering an action. Here's an example: managing a sales lead through a sale. 

1 - Prospective customer lands on a facebook post, and is interested in connecting for more information. They click on the link, taking them to the website. 

2 - Once on the website, the prospect is welcomed by a chat box with a bot, who is able to reply and route answers to the top 5 questions from most prospects. The prospect clicks an area of interest, and a lead form opens. The prospect enters a couple pieces of info, and sends. 

3 - An automated email is sent to the prospect, thanking them for their interest, and offering to download the answer to their question. When the form is accepted, the prospect is added to the CRM, and is routed to a sales associate for a follow-up call on the next business day. 

4 - An automated thank you message is sent once the prospect downloads the document. Included in the message is a special offer to receive a 20% discount on a related service, available for a low monthly fee. The prospect is interested, and clicks "learn more."

5 - Selecting the "learn more" option opens a next message that offers the discounted service, at the referenced rate. The prospect only has to select yes, enter payment information, and can begin right away. It's a great offer. The prospect engages, and submits payment.

6 - Completing the payment window triggers the service subscription for the prospect, referencing the information in the CRM. Additional fields or information are populated based upon the payment form completion, and the subscription service is activated. An order confirmation email is sent to the customer.

7 - A monthly recurring invoice is established automatically, with routing of revenues realized to the business bank account. Invoicing is auto-generated, and sent based upon order criteria (monthly on a set date, or other selection). Your sales are seamlessly recorded on your business financials. 

8 - An update to the customer account is now posted for the sales associate with a task for their follow-up call on their daily task list, for the next business day. Your customer is amazed with the efficiency and value of your services and team, and offers a raving testimonial on your site!

Realize, the first payment has been ordered and received without any human contact, with services delivered when and how the customer wanted, with all related documentation retained in the systems involved, for easy report generation. This is how easy it is to provide some services to customers through technology, reliably, and efficiently. Your business operates like a large business, at a fraction of the cost. That's smart business operations!

Getting Started

There are some essential background and setup pieces to make the system work exactly as you need it. First, you need to have systems that are capable of integration across types of functionality. Second, you need to have the specific processes set up within each program, and connected by rules and automation. Third, you need to test each of the processes, and likely build some content in specific messages for prospective customers, to make it all make sense on the customer side. That said, an ERP system typically includes at least: 1) a sales/CRM cluster, 2) financial management & bookkeeping cluster, 3) communication/task/project cluster, and 4) people/human resource cluster. Often software systems can be integrated through APIs, where the systems are programmed to talk to each other. If this sounds amazing, but you're not a tech guru, then you'll need to work with a professional to set this up, or plan on spending months learning how to do it yourself. Either can work, depending on your time, skills, and patience, however your customer will get a better experience when you use experts, and it helps you leverage the benefits a lot faster. 

Systems & Resources 

Like most professionals in this space, we have preferred systems that allow us to set up workflow functionality reliably and efficiently, using systems that are easy to integrate, or are already built for this purpose. If you're interested in finding out how this could work for your business, click the ERP Evaluation form on the link below, and we'll evaluate your business for a software system fit for greater efficiency. There's no cost to check it out...Why not? 

ERP Evaluation - Find Out More

Change can be hard, and yet staying on the same path may be dangerous if the world around us continues to change. In the midst of major work flow and talent disruption, explore how you may be able to maintain high levels of work quality using technology supports. When you use technology supports for the backend work, you free your team from the tedium, and allow them to expand their skills along with business growth. Most businesses find that they can automate as much as 30% of the routine tasks. That's a huge competitive advantage. Let's connect on the link below and explore your next steps! 

Your Success is Our Success

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help sometime; great business leaders get help early, realizing greater returns. 

When you need help, consult the experts. We're here for you and your business!

If you lead a business, your mind is likely focused on survival and minimizing your losses, both economic and people-related. There’s another key element to put front and center though — a timely and effective recovery. Take it from one who has led emergency efforts in large organizations: plan now for life on the other side. If you do, you’ll come out better, and in a better market position. Count on it. 

The good news is that this work is also part of the healing process, to begin to put in motion steps to return to normal operations. Depending on your business type, there are different ways to plan your business recovery, however we recommend considering a phased return, especially in health emergencies. That allows you to ramp up production and revenues as you have a more consistent workforce presence. Also, if there are waves of illness over time, you will still have the core workforce to proceed effectively. Other than that broad recommendation in view of this situation, here are five key steps to guide your project plan for a business recovery: 

1. Adjust your mindset. Look in the mirror, and find the positives around you. Attitude is key to a successful recovery, and that starts from within. What are the new discoveries that you and your team learned through the crisis? How did it help you to advance skills, knowledge or new services? What of those learnings and changes should be continued, or built upon? It’s easy to see the challenges, yet if we look, there are likely a lot of positives too. Positive energy and focus is energizing and engaging. Lead with positivity, and watch the recovery truly begin. Balance every challenge with a positive outcome.  

2. Evaluate your current state. As a leader, you need to set the direction for the company’s future, in full reality of your current position. Survey the damage, and take an honest view of a phased recovery in terms of revenues, market impact and resources. If you have had some workers work out of their home, and it’s working for you and them, can that continue? If you have had to shut down entirely, what are the product or service lines that are strongest, and most in demand, that you should scale back into operations first? Are you marketing now to be top of mind once the recovery is clear? We recommend doing a risk evaluation/assessment of your business and talent strategy, customer relationships, infrastructure/needs, operations & financials. You may also need to evaluate a long-term capital or facility plan. Be clear, honest and confident. If you need a tool to help you objectively evaluate your organization, we can help. 

 Business Recovery Assessment Tool     

3. Update the long term strategy. This may seem counterintuitive, however taking a longer-term view first helps to manage the short-term recovery more effectively. Did you have a business strategy before the crisis? What were the key items that you committed to do? Where are those priority items now? It’s absolutely OK for strategic priorities and objectives to shift. Often they remain, however, there are some interim actions needed to get back on track. Those items need to be added to the implementation action plan, and likely some timeframes need to shift. Engage other key leaders and stakeholders in offering feedback to the plan and changes needed. Broader input helps to reduce blind spots, and gain buy-in, especially if additional steps are needed. Once the long-term plan is set and considers all of the additional learnings and strengths through the crisis, it’s time to move to action. 

4. Identify short-term priorities. Identify the top three things for stage 1 recovery, up to 25% of your business operations. These often fall into a few themes: 

Structure/Infrastructure - what physical changes need to be restored? 

Financial - what accounts payable and accounts receivable need attention, either to support your brand reputation, or cash flow? 

People - what changes have you experienced in your workforce and talent needs? Where are the biggest gaps that you need to fill first? 

Customer care - how are you planning to engage your current, former, and new customers? Have you updated your marketing strategy?  

Operations - have you identified ways to increase efficiencies through the crisis? Can you standardize those modified processes? 

Recognize that you can’t do everything at once. Balance is key to recovery. Create specific priority actions with the goal of achieving 25% of your former monthly operating revenue within 30 days. From there, target a phased increase each month until you’re back on track. 

5. Be visible and show your cultural values. In the midst of a recovery, your team needs to see you, and hear from you often. Even though you have 500 items on your to-do list, the most important one is to connect with your team and your customers. No one else can do that for you, and everyone is watching. If you listen, engage, problem-solve, and reflect trust and transparency in action, your team will rally like never before. They want you to partner with them. Do it. This truly is a great opportunity to strengthen and align your culture like never before. You’ve just been through a horrendous challenge, and everyone is thankful to be on the path to a mend. You’re leading it, and they need to have confidence and trust that you’ve set the right direction. If you’re present, you can answer questions timely, show respect and gratitude, and learn more about what your customers want and need from your products and services. That builds relationships, and dramatically increases your chance of success with your business recovery strategy!

There are many other relevant best practices for business recovery in specific industry sectors. We serve as trusted advisers to guide the process with you, for the best results. Making mistakes in a recovery process can cost you the future. Make wise choices, and call us to get it right the first time!       

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Your Success is Our Success

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help at some point; great business leaders actually get help when needed, realizing greater returns. 

When you need help, consult the experts. We're here for you and your business!

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, business and talent strategy, and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System and The Predictive Index® for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help at some point; great business leaders actually get help when needed, realizing greater returns. 

When you need help, consult the experts. Our success is your success! 

 Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, strategy and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System for your business, and achieve real results! Every business needs help at some point; great business leaders aren't afraid to ask for help.  

When you need help, consult the experts. Our success is your success! 

If you've heard people talk about an OKR system, or KRAs, and you're wondering what that is, let us explain. These are initials for a leadership system, designed to yield better business results, focused on what is most significant for your business success. Sounds like a great idea, right? It's time to do it. 

Why OKRs?  

About 25-30 years ago, the best management practice for leaders was management by objectives, or MBOs. The concept was one of spending significant time and effort to identify specific leadership objectives, plans, and a level of accountability overall for getting things done. The focus was on the objectives, not the results. While the concept of setting strategic objectives was a great one, it was missing something - a clear picture of the results needed to reflect business success. The premise was that setting a strong plan would generate the right results. That wasn't exactly reality.  Many leaders considered planning as their work, not results. 

Enter OKRs about 20 years ago, starting in technology companies like Google and Intel. OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results; KRA stands for Key Result Areas. Highly competitive and dynamic organizations struggled to achieve alignment and active movement in the industry amidst rapid growth until visionary leaders realized that they needed active team collaboration and transparency across the organization toward clear, foundational and aspirational objectives. A foundational objective is a business requirement. An aspirational objective is a stretch goal that would potentially be disruptive in the industry. This was the beginning of a true OKR system. Over the years, OKR's success has led to broader adoption, yet many organizations still lack execution of the basic principles: shared, aligned, priority objectives, and result accountability to each person, role, and department. It's interesting that one of the consistent reasons why employees leave organizations is because of a lack of clear role expectations and work alignment to the mission. It's time to change this through OKRs!

OKR Value Equation

An OKR system depends upon clear identification of 3-5 strategic objectives by the leaders, alignment of accountability for key results to each member of the organization, and an ongoing system of results monitoring weekly, monthly, and quarterly to ensure progressive results achievement. The hardest part of using OKRs is getting a reasonable number of the right objectives identified to focus on. Generally the best way to implement OKRs is through the senior leaders spending some time to get acquainted with the concept and use, and holding themselves accountable for up to six months or more. Once the senior leaders get comfortable with OKRs, then cascading them to the middle management team is next. Senior leaders are typically early adopters of the process as they see the value, while the middle management group is often more conflicted with expectations from their team and senior leaders. Once the system is deployed to the leaders, then alignment to the workforce is actually pretty straightforward, as long as there is a system to visualize and reward progress transparently across the organization. The true value of the OKR system is through aligned collaborative performance toward the most important strategic objectives. Most organizations achieve 10-30% or more performance gains as a result of the OKR system. Think about that potential in your organization!

Small Business Benefits

Using an OKR system as a small business offers as many benefits as it does for a larger business, by helping the leader, owner or partners to be on the same page, and hold themselves accountable for key results. When the responsibility for effective business operations and growth falls on a single leader, who holds the leader accountable? An OKR system can. Wearing many hats, as most business leaders must, makes it easy to lose focus or set the performance bar too low. An OKR system creates a clear focus on what's most important, especially when supported by a business advisor or consultant. Most OKR systems are cloud-based software tools with performance dashboards that are viewable by the advisor or consultant, to boost accountability and just-in-time solutions. Another significant small business benefit is the transparency with the work team, to harness more productivity and empowerment. When an owner reflects confidence in the team, and shares key business results, it boosts employee morale and retention. Organizations that have a clear plan simply achieve more, and that creates business success.

A Digital OKR Solution

Those who have been using an OKR system for a number of years swear by a cloud-based transparent software solution as key to success. While there are a number of different OKR options in the market, our recommendation is to find one that isn't too complex, that delivers a great value as you grow. Key features that we recommend include: 1) the ability to easily set and enter annual and quarterly objectives at the organizational, leader and department/team levels, 2) dashboards and status updates at all levels, 3) measurable key results for each objective, 4) feedback, communication and recognition elements to reward progress to targets, 5) and weekly plans to capture the key activities needed to achieve results. For example, if a car sales business were using OKRs, the sales team would have OKRs focused upon the number of sales per month, per quarter and annually, perhaps by model or brand. In addition, the sales team would have weekly plans to achieve certain levels of contacts, follow-ups, or referrals, in order to build the opportunity to make monthly and quarterly sales targets. A dashboard would reflect the performance of the sales team, visible to the manager, while the sales team could also see the targets and progress of the service department, as key to organizational revenues, customer satisfaction and retention levels. As team members see each other's progress, they can explore creative solutions to achieve targets. Teamwork works!

Getting Started  

As you consider the advantages of identifying the most important business objectives and bringing them to life, there's not a better time to get started with OKRs! Fortunately, there are a number of systems on the market that are quite good. You just need to determine which one might work best for you, based upon the size and scale of your organization, your team's maturity with leadership accountability, and your budget. Pursuit of Excellence (POE) Digital Solutions services can help make this easier through an initial meeting with your leaders, to identify these elements, and recommend a best fit system for your needs. Find out more at the link below.

About POE Digital Solutions

Pursuit of Excellence Digital Solutions (POE-DS) is a division of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, a business management consulting agency that focuses upon helping leaders to be more effective, advance strategic performance, and achieve high-level performance results. POE-DS offers a variety of state-of-the-art solution packages for different business technology needs, including an OKR setup, coaching and monitoring service, and a suite of enterprise relationship programs to meet the dynamic  needs of small and mid-sized organizations. If you or your leaders need to advance your digital strategy for competitive positioning, POE-DS should be your first stop. If your organization is not ready to get on board with digital solutions yet, consider that your competition has already been moving there...Let's connect now!

Dawn Garcia is Principal and Founder of Pursuit of Excellence LLC, an independent business management consulting firm specializing in service-based businesses; delivering leadership, strategy and execution expertise. Experience the Excellence Driven® System for your business, and achieve the results you need! Every business needs help at some point; great business leaders actually get help when needed, realizing greater returns. When you need help, consult the experts. Our success is your success!