Technology alone
won’t find your
company’s sweet spot
IF THERE’S A SILVER LINING to the post-Internet economy, it’s the growing realization that business must focus on the fundamentals.
During the 1990s, technology became the driving force in business decision-making, and many executives reluctantly turned over their responsibility to plan and lead to trusted advisers who appeared to know and understand the appropriate use of technology in their organization. Unfortunately, these trusted advisers did not have knowledge or experience in basic planning and managing change. Consequently, the CEO was left with major investments in technology that did not meet the needs of the organization.
Today, corporate executives and entrepreneurs alike have realized the fallacy of this approach. A return to the fundamentals in business means strategically balancing people, processes and technology – and understanding that technology can only be a silver bullet if it’s used correctly, by the right people for the appropriate purpose.
So how do you know if your organization is out of balance? Consider these organizational assessment questions:
- Are decisions obvious and quickly confirmed by your leaders?
- Is the business plan an accurate description of your organization’s activities for the next nine months?
- Are investment choices clear and unanimous? Are forecasts accurate?
- Do adjustments to industry changes rally your organization and its leaders to new challenges?
- Are people within your organization passionate about what they do?
- Most importantly, are the right activities being done, and the wrong activities stopping?
If you can answer no to more than one of these questions your organization probably is out of balance and a lit- tle chaotic. This is fairly common and shouldn’t be a cause for undue concern. However, it should be a trigger for organization leaders to make changes, or at least begin planning for change.
Transforming chaos
Many organizations are chaotic, struggling to operate in an environment riddled with difficult problems, competing solutions and aggressive managers with a bias for action. In these organizations, the quick fix is preferred over thoughtful evaluation and analysis, driving the leader to make decisions based on symptoms versus the root problem.
This can lead to many false starts, misuse of resources and the loss of valuable time. Even worse, symptom-based decision-making can lead well-meaning managers down the wrong path, or headed in divergent or competing directions.
The CEO is usually the first executive to suspect the presence of organizational chaos, while business-unit managers ensconced in their individual silos are the last to know. Your customers or clients, however, may have figured it out long ago.
Fortunately, organizational chaos isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s pretty natural. Organizational chaos is a sign that your company or organization is changing or that it’s out of balance. It could be out of balance with the industry, within itself, or both. The trick is to transform chaos into clarity by making it work to your advantage. Many companies have done just that by finding and maximizing their sweet spot.
Tennis players know about the sweet spot. It’s that place on your racquet where the ball fits and hits best, allowing you to control the direction, trajectory and speed. Within organizations, it’s the right people doing the right things at the right time with the right tools. When you’re not in the sweet spot, your competitor dictates the flow of the game, leaving your team struggling to keep up.
The first step is simply realizing you’re out of balance. Next comes corporate soul-searching, or what some call strategic planning. This process should help your organization sort out where you are now and, most importantly, where you want to be in the near-term and long-term future.
Once a company has a firm handle on its vision and desired destination, it becomes much easier to determine whether your current team, processes and technology tools are properly aligned to get you there. A classic example can be found by looking at GrandMet when it was still that beloved Minnesota company, Pillsbury.
Prior to its acquisition by GrandMet, the management of Pillsbury realized that there wasn’t a rosy future in the grain business – no doubt the result of some strategic planning and corporate soul-searching. Based on that information, the company realigned its resources, essentially taking profits from the grain business and pumping it into a new growth opportunity: restaurants. This allowed the company to develop new profit centers while still keeping part of its traditional business up and running. This change also called for shifts in the employee base and a radical transformation of the company’s culture.
Pillsbury executives realized that transformation was critical to survival and they didn’t rely on a new software package to magically make that happen. Obviously, this example pre-dates the software and technology revolution, but it’s useful to remember that management is a larger responsibility than simply approving the IT budget.
Achieving balance
This is not to say that technology can’t or shouldn’t play a large role in achieving your overall mission. We’ve just seen too many examples of companies that think the technology is enough to carry the ball.
When your company achieves balance, you’ve found the sweet spot where people, processes and technology converge and all are working together for maximum efficiency. The larger your sweet spot, the greater your chances of realizing your vision and achieving your mission.
Connecting with your organizational sweet spot isn’t difficult, but it does require planning and, in many cases, major changes in your organizational design, governance structure and even your technology tools. Operating in the sweet spot causes the unexpected to happen, like when the unknown tennis player upsets the long-time champ. The sweet spot can transform the smallest of companies into industry giants.
Contact
Nick Eian is CEO of Endurant Business Solutions, Eden Prairie, a management consulting firm that provides solutions to tough business problems: 952.918.2192; nick.eian@endurant.com
