Strategic intent is more than an ambition or a vision for your company. It is an obsession to attain a desired goal (or market position), and it establishes the criterion that the organization will use to chart its progress toward that specified goal.
This concept also encompasses an active management process that includes:
- Focusing the organization’s attention on the essence of winning.
- Motivating people by communicating the value of the target.
- Leaving room for individual and team contributions.
- Sustaining enthusiasm by providing new operational definitions as circumstances change.
- Using intent consistently to guide resource allocations.
As I travel throughout the U.S. working with many owners and managers, I’ve seen how strategic intent can mean the difference between “trying to dig out a living for the boss and the employees” and companies that “seem to come out of nowhere.” Suddenly, they’re a major competitor within the industry.
In both cases, the desire is there, but desire without a permeating strategic intent running through the company is simply a dream or a wish.
FOCUS ON WINNING. What is it you really want? There’s an old saying, “It is better to have a target and to miss it than not have a target and hit it.”
I’ve gone into organizations and asked what the goals are and the owner will say, “To be the biggest agency here in Smallville.” When I ask how many cars do you need to sell or how much service volume you need to be number one or how much monthly revenue would that be or how far are you from that goal, the answer is usually, “I don’t know.”
Not only don’t they know, but none of their employees know anything about the goal either. It’s like having no profit and loss statement and wondering what happened at the end of the month. Everyone does his or her own thing and there is no tracking, no coordination, no goal.
On the other hand, I’ve seen companies that have grown substantially because there was strategic intent. A company I am presently working with had a 31 percent sales increase in 1995. The managers told me they didn’t believe in recessions. They are growing quickly in the midst of “bad times” and new laws and regulations that consistently bombard California businesses. They have a growth vision they all share — they know what they want to accomplish and they keep discussing it at their meetings.
The growth is measured by everyone, much like traveling across the U.S. on vacation. You have two weeks to make the trip. You research the areas you want to visit and decide how long to stay at each one. You know where you will be on specific days and you follow that plan. If you spend an extra day or two somewhere — you cut from somewhere else, but you still have the same goal — to be finished on a certain date. You always know where you are in relation to your goal.
If a baseball team is behind by two runs in the fifth inning — everyone knows about it. If there were two or three people on the team that didn’t care — they probably wouldn’t survive very long. We have to get the job done, and measurements help us check our progress.
MOTIVATING PEOPLE. What’s in it for me? If I’m your employee and you want to be the biggest contractor in your city or state by the year 2000, what’s in the company’s success for me?
Keep in mind that people generally do things for their motivations, not ours. It is important to share dreams and benefits of those dreams. Here are some examples:
For us to become the biggest contractor in the city, we must meet the following criteria. List what sales must be won, what services must be done, what hiring and training schedules have to be readied, etc. You know that you’ll need more supervisors, sales people and managers. Your volume will be up and you’ll be able to offer profit sharing, more benefits and a better future.
What would your aim be? What would your goal be in the future for your company? If an office or service person tells you she would like to get into sales, you could say, “Ok, but we need to have you licensed by _____ and trained by _____. While we are going to work toward that, you can begin thinking of some ideas on getting a replacement for you. Perhaps you also know someone that would fit into our plan, someone who would also like to grow with us.”
TEAM IMPUT. Leave room for individual and team contributions. Most of the people I have met over the past 20 years have worked with another company before they went on their own. The most common reason is, “They wouldn’t listen to my ideas.” Sound familiar?
What happens is that because they won’t let anyone contribute, their best people leave to become their competition. Excellent employees are lost because no one listens. Now that you are the boss, be careful. Don’t make the same mistake your boss made with you.
Ask for input. Listen. See if you can adapt to new ideas. If your attitude is, “You don’t get paid to think — shut up and work!” you will lose the aggressive thinking individuals that can help you grow, and you’ll keep the kind of individuals you’d rather see your competitors hire.
Great Ideas: From Your Employees |
Remember the rules for brainstorming: No criticism of ideas, encourage many ideas in many directions, then later try to find linkages. |
SUSTAIN ENTHUSIASM. The industry is changing. Due to new technologies, new laws and regulations, as well as consumer demands and the environmental movement (which is continuing to grow), the lawn and landscape industry isn’t what it used to be. The good old days may have been more fun and/or easier, but they are gone.
We must update our personnel and accept change as the norm. I realize that change doesn’t come easy to most of us. In fact, it’s said that the only person who does enjoy change is a wet baby.
Others realize that change is the norm. Customers must be educated that we are also environmentalists, and we care about the environment because we live in it. We are concerned about safety and maintaining safe ve-hicles. We must change with the times and technologies.
GUIDING RESOURCES. As you maintain a strategic intent program you must also guide the course. Much like a pilot going off course — the sooner you get back on course, the less trouble you will have getting to your goal.
When I refer to guiding your resouces, I am referring to both monetary resources and human resources. You have to stay on target, keep people informed of where you are and remind them where you all want to go.
Too many companies remain in the destiny of chance. They go along and make do. The managers say things like, “Five years ago, I thought I would have been a lot further along, but...” Then, these companies continue to do what they’ve always been doing. If you want something different for your company, you have to do something different to get it.
This means keeping up with our employees’, customers’ and potential customers’ changing values. Times and people have changed. Selling techniques have changed. Life in this country has changed.
Too often we are too close to the trees to see the forest. Bring in some help. If you simply continue without any strategic intent, you will continue to see other newcomers come in and leave you in the dust. By changing and forming a new strategic intent, perhaps you will be the one to leave the others in the dust wondering, “Who was that guy?”
The author is a consultant, author and speaker specializing in sales, management and strategy training for the service industry. He is based in Oceanside, Calif.
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