Article 7: Defining the Challenge and Creating the Guiding Policy
We have spent what may seem an inordinate amount of time in the internal and external analysis, trying to ascertain “What is going on here”? If you have done good analysis, you should be able to take the results of all this analysis and create some very real clarity for your organisation and your team. You should now be able to answer the following questions with great clarity:
When you create this level of clarity people throughout the organisation can make decisions about what they do and don’t do, where they expend energy and don’t, and where they should be putting their focus. In the final article in this series, we will look at defining the Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), creating scoreboards and tracking progress.
We have spent what may seem an inordinate amount of time in the internal and external analysis, trying to ascertain “What is going on here”? If you have done good analysis, you should be able to take the results of all this analysis and create some very real clarity for your organisation and your team. You should now be able to answer the following questions with great clarity:
- What exactly is the “Promised Land” to which you are taking the team? What will your organisation be like when it has reached the promised land? What will things look like? This really is a vision statement, but please, I beseech you, stay away from fluff and claptrap. No “world-class”, or “supplier of choice”. This does not need to start out as a vision statement that will end up on a wall – although it could be the inspiration for that. Say what you really mean so that everyone knows where they are going and what it will look like when they get there. Rather use pedestrian language that everyone can understand, than fluff that says very little in a very fancy way. Your analysis will give you a sense of either where you could go, if you played to your advantages, or it will give you a sense of where you must go, if you are to resist falling victim to your competitors’ advantages. One way or another, your “Promised Land” must be a place where you are distinctive and different in some way that really matters to you and your customers.
- What is the key challenge that you and your organisation must face head on in order to achieve a meaningful competitive advantage? Please note that “key challenge” is singular. This is the first important choice you must make. I did not ask about “key challenges”. I said “key challenge”. What is the one thing you must grab by the scruff of the neck? The clarity for this challenge will have come from your internal and external analyses. Review your analysis completely. You will see that there will be a few key challenges that jump out at you. If you have multiple key challenges, you absolutely must get them in priority order. You must be able to make an unequivocal statement such as “If we do not solve our after-sales service problems, we will never become the most profitable brand in the extra-heavy, premium product category.” This is not a time for keeping multiple constituencies happy. This is a time for tough choices. This must be wrestled with until there is agreement on the key challenge that must be overcome first – before anything else.
- Now that you are clear on the key challenge, you need to define your proximate objective. A proximate objective is a feasible goal that you’re going after right now—something that the organization can actually achieve. It will create a strong position and create options. What is the target your organisation could reasonably be expected to hit or even overwhelm? What ONE single feasible goal, when accomplished, will make the biggest difference? Essentially this proximate objective must be the thing which, when achieved, will mean that you have overcome the key challenge identified above and created a real competitive advantage – that is, it will put you well ahead of the competition. A proximate objective is not a BIHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal). It is an objective that is actually achievable within a reasonable time frame. A compelling example of a proximate objective was John F. Kennedy’s famous “put a man on the moon by the end of the decade”. This was not, in fact, a BIHAG – although it is often lauded as such. It was eminently achievable with the technology the United States had at its disposal in the 1960s, and its achievement would put the USA way ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.
- You cannot have 2 proximate objectives. You must have only one. You may decide that there are other objectives to go for after the achievement of the first proximate objective – and you can address these in order. But there can only be one proximate objective at any time. Now you get to the part that creates real focus. You need to decide on your defining policy that will guide all decision-making and ensure that you achieve your proximate objective. Your defining policy makes some critical decisions about what you do and don’t do, where you do and don’t invest time and resources. This is another area of strategy in which some tough and unequivocal decisions must be made. This policy will determine:
- What do you have to get right, and in what order, in order to achieve your proximate objective?
- What are the critical links in the chain?
- What investments must be made in each link in the chain? Where will you spend money and where will you not? What resources will be allocated
where, and what will not be resourced?
- What is the focus that must be achieved? What will you do and who will you do it for or for what purpose will you do it? What will you not do, and
who will you not do it for?
- How must you coordinate action and resources in order to create advantage?
When you create this level of clarity people throughout the organisation can make decisions about what they do and don’t do, where they expend energy and don’t, and where they should be putting their focus. In the final article in this series, we will look at defining the Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), creating scoreboards and tracking progress.
