Vision (part 3) – The Way We Do Things
Posted on January 11th, 2010 by Paul McArdle – 5 CommentsI posted, early in January, about where our bus is headed (you might refer to this as our Vision). I have progressively refined this, since then, to improve the clarity of this core message.
For those who are interested, I have also started posting more details about some aspects of this Vision – as falling under any of these core headings. Posts that have preceded this one are:
1) I posted about my vision for growing clients (and revenues) 20x.
2) I also posted about how we’d deliver this growth in clients with only a 3-4x growth in employee numbers.
It does not take a rocket surgeon to realise that we become much smarter if we are to achieve these growth targets. Specifically we need to:
1) do more of the right things;
2) do the right things more efficiently and effectively, and
3) stop doing the wrong things.
Our Systems, Process and Culture will be the keys to getting us there…
.
A. What are “Systems, Processes and Culture”
There are plenty of definitions about what these are, and they are all slightly different. Such is the variety of definitions that there are some sure to appeal to any taste.
1) A simple definition
My context when talking about these three facets can be summed up in the statement that they are each related to “the way we do things here”.
Coincidentally, had a coffee with a possible future contributor to the business over the weekend, and he used precisely the same term. Honestly did not steal it from you, Hans!
If you want to get technical, my frame of reference is that:
(a) Processes are ways of doing things that are in our conscious mind;
(b) After processes are followed for a period of time, they migrate into an organisation’s collective unconscious mind – therefore becoming culture.2) A focus on “Shared Understandings”
I have previously posted in agreement with Mike Cohn’s view that, too frequently it seems, we have switched from a focus on shared understanding to a focus on shared documentation. Less clarity and effectiveness has resulted.
For us, as we move forward, we will need to continually reinforce our own “shared understanding”.
To achieve this “shared understanding”, we will use whatever communication & recording tools most appropriate for the situation – be it verbal, visual, User-Story on Post-It Notes, Whiteboard, DOC, PDF, Wave, Wiki, Blog or “Blicki”, etc….
Hence, if your paradigm is that a “process” is defined by a document, then that’s not the way we’ll be working - because it is much more than that (for us).
B. Where we are at now
The past 10 years has comprised an series of iterative experiments, through which we have uncovered a way to continue to grow the business into the future.
The picture is not perfectly formed, but it’s a good start. These posts about Vision are one way in which we’re attempting to summarise many of the things that we have learnt (at least at a high level, as we can’t share everything).
The next 10 years will also comprise its own fair share of experimentation, but at least we have a core foundation of “the known” from which to root our growth.
In terms of our core functional areas, the following are some key points:
1) Business Model (NOW)
Our business model is one of the things (we believe) we have correct.
We provide shrink-wrapped, off-the-shelf software to a broad range of clients, supplied on annual licence fees that vary (generally speaking) depending on the number of users.
We have a high retention rate (though I can’t give you a specific number at the moment – see below).
2) People & Culture (NOW)
Back about 8-10 months ago, I started to gain a clearer view of the price we had been inadvertently paying by not painting a clear picture (for all concerned) about who we are, and where we are headed.
I had thought our level of shared understanding was better than it was! For much of the past 10 years I had been focused on growing sales as top priority for the company.
Resulting from this, I spent a considerable amount of time working to ensure clients (and potential clients) knew who we were, and what our brand positioning is.
I have done a reasonable job at this – at least to the extent where sales have grown fairly consistently, year after year.
However, I have (belatedly) recognised that this clarity of message was not reaching other key groups of stakeholders (e.g. potential employees, partners and investors).
Hence, we have initiated a number of initiatives to begin to redress this shortcoming.
Specifically, we want to provide avenues such that any potential stakeholders (customers, employees, partners, investors, raving fans, etc…) could learn more about who we are, what we stand for, and where we are headed as it relates to them.
This blog is one of these initiatives.
Sharing some of the madness in our methods well help people to make their own judgement as to whether our bus is right for them.
3) Product Development (NOW)
Our company has grown over the past 10 years on the back of a handful of successful products (which we call “mature products”) that provide the cashflow that is the lifeblood of the company.
The essence of all of these products was conceived in the early years of the company, when we had a different bunch of people on the bus. During those early days, our focus was on prototyping, and initial development (i.e. a focus on “Disruptive Innovation”).
The focus, over more recent years, has been moreso on consolidation – where we have taken the same core products and progressively enhanced them in order to better (or more fully) meet client needs, and so grow revenues (i.e. a focus on “Incremental Innovation”).
In future, we will need to deliver on both more effectively.
4) Marketing & Sales (NOW)
As noted previously, our Marketing & Sales Division is essentially a single person.
This has been sufficient to deliver consistent growth in revenues from software sales across the past 10 years. But it will not be enough to get us where we want to go…
C. Where we are headed
Currently, we are in a stage similar to that labelled “Adolescence” in the book “Ready, Fire, Aim”.
As noted in this book, part of our challenge in 2010 will be getting the business to run with just 3 or 4 simple management reports. Hence, in each of the areas below,
1) Business Model (FUTURE)
We don’t envisage major changes in our business model.
2) People & Culture (FUTURE)
As noted in other posts, we need to do quite a bit of “getting the right people on the bus” – not just immediately, but also as we continue to grow the size of our bus over time.
To facilitate the growth of our bus simultaneous with an acceleration on our chosen route, we will be placing more emphasis on ensuring alignment with our Core Values for all employees.
Hence, look forward to some posts about what our Core Values are – though you could probably hazard a guess already, based on the posts that have been made to date.
3) Product Development (FUTURE)
There are a number of aspects that we need to be reinforcing and enhancing in our Division for “Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the Customer Needs”.
(a) Customer Focus
We need to reinforce a culture whereby everyone in the Division has a relentless focus on delivering real value to the customer.
For some, this will mean that they need to be particularly skilled at understanding what the customer wants, and translating this into User Stories.
As part of our journey to this end game, we will:
i. start by understanding what the customer wants; and
ii. progress to ascertaining what the customer needs
only when we have a full understanding of who our customer is, and the market they operate in.(b) Innovative
As I noted in another post, there are two different (and possibly conflicting) schools of thought with respect to innovation.
We need to be proficient in both:
i. We need to nurture and facilitate disruptive innovation in the prototyping of new products, or products for new markets (and possibly other spin-off ventures).
ii. We need to skill-up in the implementation of processes supporting incremental innovation, through which we continue to enhance the value delivered by our “mature products”.
Both of these processes need to be supported by the use of a software development processes that enables us to be more nimble & responsive than we have been in the past…
(c) Agile
I have previously posted about my stipulation that we are going Agile.
Since that time, it is to the credit of the team that we have taken some initial steps in this direction (our delivery capability is already much greater than it was 6 months ago).
However, there is much still we have to do in this respect.
4) Marketing & Sales (FUTURE)
We obviously need to expand our capability for Marketing & Sales!
(a) Two-Part Focus
We will have a dual focus in the marketing of the software we develop:
i. We will continue to use low-cost strategies to grow our “long tail” of clients.
ii. We will also focus on opportunities to serve some clients more comprehensively from within this long tail.
In doing this, we will continue to adopt the approach of “try lots of things and keep what works”, as promoted by Jim Collins & Jerry Porras.
(b) Australian & International
We will use Australia as the springboard from which to grow our global marketing focus.
(c) Marketing Management System
We have invested considerable time in identifying aspects of our “Marketing Management System” that will facilitate the growth above.
From 2010 onwards, we will be selectively implementing components of this system (as the need and opportunity arises).
C. Can we get there?
As with many aspects of our vision, I understand that this will be a challenge for us.
It won’t be easy (but if it was there would probably be no return in it for us, anyway). Hence, this is just one more part of our own “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” (BHAG).
Stay tuned, on this blog, for future updates to our progress..
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