Execution is Critical to the Customer Experience The 11 leadership imperatives for greater profits
I
n any industry, and given identical market condi-
Warnings
that outperform the competition. They’re not lucky;
execution? Or are you getting in your own way? Be aware of
tions, there are always five percent of companies
they are simply better at planning and executing. Having solid
systems in place for both garners measurable results in terms of employee engagement and customer experience — and therefore your bottom line.
Is developing talent an organizational imperative at your
company? If not, you’re undoubtedly missing opportunities
to convert your customer base into effective and committed brand evangelists. An organization is always a reflection of
its leadership. In his book The Breakthrough Company, Keith
Are you doing all you can to systemize your planning and
these factors, which are often stumbling blocks on the way to great execution:
• Being good: Being good is actually the enemy of great-
ness. It is very difficult to execute at a higher level when your company is having a good year. Most CEOs have a
hard time getting their organization to embrace change
when things appear to be going well. However, change is required to elevate daily execution of plans to make the customer experience even greater.
McFarland writes, “the best way for a leader to get the right
• Being comfortable: Comfortable is close to complacent. If
In Jim Collins’ newest research book, he characterizes 10
zation is performing, it will not be willing to raise the bar
people on the bus is to create a bus worth riding.”
companies that outperformed the general stock market by 32
the executive team is comfortable with the way the organiand make execution a top priority.
times as being “fanatical about discipline.” Both Collins and
• Leadership fit: If the CEO is not willing to embrace or
outside experts as “scaffolding” to help in specific important
nization, then he or she must be willing to accept that the
McFarland also state emphatically that these top CEOs use business areas.
sponsor a complete assessment of every leader in the orga-
team will have some leaders who are simply never going to execute at a high level. The research is clear
An organization’s inability to execute — which funda-
mentally means keep its promise to its customers — is the number-one reason for CEO terminations. Equally sobering is
this fact: “High performers generate 48 to 129 percent higher revenue than average ‘C’ performers,” says a McKinsey &
Company talent survey. In Collins’ book Built to Last, which is
still one of the top 12 business books of all time, he states great performance is about one percent vision and 99 percent align-
ment and execution. In the Balanced Scorecard Report, David
Norton was quoted as saying “90 percent of organizations fail to execute their strategies.” Steven Taub of CFO.com draws a
Fall 2012
clear and important correlation, in that companies are deliver-
ing only about two-thirds of their potential due to failures in
planning and execution. In a Fortune magazine article titled, John Lankford
18
“Why CEOs Fail,” authors Ram Charan and Geoffrey Colvin
Customer Care News
don’t attribute failures, or at least 70 percent of them, to bad
mean to your company’s future if your top two competitors
that: not getting things done, being indecisive, not delivering
ence their top three pri-
strategy. Instead, they state, “It’s bad execution. As simple as on commitments.”
Of course, your front-line employees are usually the ones
who touch customers every day. Unfortunately, in a Harvard
Business Review article, Robert Kaplan states, “95 percent of the typical company’s workers are unaware of, or don’t understand, its strategy.”
Data drives the customer experience
Peter Drucker famously wrote, “What gets measured gets
decided to make planning, execution and customer experiorities? Surely it would
90 percent of organizations
loss of market share.
fail to execute their strategies
mean
a
significant
So, here are 11 proven leadership
opportunity.
solutions
to
help
tackle
your
execution
• Complete a company-wide leadership talent assessment
• Instantly make leadership development an organizational priority, including in your budget
managed.” So what data is critical for leadership teams to
• Launch a leadership training curriculum of core
moving forward? Systems need to be in place to measure the
• Conduct an organizational employee engagement survey
possess in order to allow measurement of the improvements following:
• Customer loyalty
• Where new customers are coming from
• How effectively each leader is performing
• The implementation of each leader’s individual development plan
• Employee engagement
competencies
o Hold
every leader accountable for the design and
implementation of the survey “action plans” for every team or department
• Design a company-wide, quarterly strategic planning system
• Modify or improve your company’s performance management system
• Employee turnover
• Hold leaders responsible for effectively using the account-
• How effectively leaders hold other leaders accountable
• Conduct a complete audit of your talent management
• Customer retention
• Internal customer satisfaction
In a recent national study performed jointly by Premier
Development Solutions and Naviga Business Services, busi-
ness owners and executives were asked, “What percentage of your organization executes its plan of top priorities con-
sistently?” Nearly 40 percent of those executives surveyed
ability system systems:
o Recruiting o Hiring
o Onboarding o Training
and development
o Accountability o Compensation
answered that less than half of their organization does.
• Remove every employee or manager whose performance is
rehire less than half of their entire management team as top
• Do not allow any leader to remain in his/her position who
said that less than half of their entire management team
• Create an effective one-page leadership scorecard
Additionally, 36.1 percent of respondents said they would performers. And the icing on the cake? Almost 35 percent
could effectively articulate their individual top four priorities for 2012.
With statistics such as that, most of those companies
likely have poor morale. Even worse, customers’ experiences
with those companies’ products and services are surely low as well.
At this point, many executives might begin to rationalize,
“That is not true in my company,” or “We just do not have
the budget to make the necessary changes.” What would it
www.customercarenews.com
is not an “A” or “B” performer
How many millions of dollars of revenues and profits are
being left on the table because YOU have allowed it? Are you ready for change? CCN
John Lankford is a Master Business Advisor and the founder
of Premier Development Solutions. He is a highly sought after keynote speaker, author and former syndicated business
Fall 2012
Leadership responsibilities/solutions
not at an acceptable level
columnist whose business expertise has been tapped by the New York Times and CBS. Lankford can be reached at john@premierdevelopmentsolutions.com.
19