Economy & Credit Chest

When I was working as an internal consultant on the organizational effectiveness team with the telephone company, the company’s leaders didn’t like the information we reported. In fact, the president contracted with an outside consulting group to come in and assess our internal consulting group. This outside firm found conducting the assessment a frustrating experience—so frustrating that they cited the company as one of the most difficult clients they’d ever encountered.

They went so far as to report that their efforts were “sabotaged” and the reliability of their assessment was compromised due to lack of cooperation. Ultimately they advised against basing any future decisions on their internal assessment. They felt it was a waste of their time and the company’s money. Leadership’s mistake was pitting one group against another instead of having the two teams work together. Had the president encouraged the latter strategy, the internal consultants could have advised the outside consultants about the company culture and the political landscape. At the same time, the outside consultants could have contributed a fresh and objective perspective.

Effective decision-making depends on a collection of leadership skills that can be learnt and are often closely linked. These include the following:

• An ability to foster innovation and creativity and to exploit synergies between people, sometimes disparate and distant teams.
• The intelligence and courage to recognise and learn from mistakes.
• The perception and sensitivity to analyse competing options, and the ability to help others to find their solutions.
• Skills of delegation and empowerment so that decision-making can be devolved to others in the organisation with sufficient time or insight.
• The capacity to motivate people so that they are inspired to prevent or solve problems themselves, as well as proactively implementing decisions.
• An ability to focus others on the twin issues of serving customers and managing change.
• Skilled communication.
• The courage and ability to make critical decisions.

• Brand management
• What is the purpose of the brand? What values does it need to emphasise to customers?
• How can the brand be used to greatest effect?
• Is sufficient attention given to building and publicising the brand?
• Is the brand used consistently?
• Is the product in the best part of the market, or is repositioning needed?
• What is the best way to appeal to customers? How should the product be sold?
• Avoiding a head-on confrontation with the market leader is often a wise course. Is this happening, or are you in danger of waking a sleeping giant?
• Is a simple, consistent and compelling message being used to sell the product?
• Do you measure the profitability of customers?
• Are you targeting, attracting and retaining the most profitable customers?
• What plans are in place to keep customers loyal? Are they appealing to customers and difficult for  competitors to copy?