First thoughts on a “Fast Start Plan”

 

George Patton is considered one of the most successful combat generals in U.S history.  He was instrumental to the liberation of Germany from the Nazis in WWII.  

Quick planning and vigorous execution could translate from loosing to winning a war. And it’s no different in today's competitive business world as well !!!

Imagine this is your 1^st day in the new leadership role and now you need to deliver – significantly and quickly!! Where do you start?

Building on to 3 key areas that we discussed earlier, I will start with a basic plan for

• 1^st week (7 days plan)
• 1^st three months (30-60-90 days plan)
• 1^st half year plan that will lead in to the plan for 2^nd half of the year
• After 1^st one year, you will have all the insights for the next year’s plan

Quickly building a 1^st week’s plan, immediate execution and a meaningful review to assess how you’re going could be key to start on quickly delivering results. 1^st week plan will then be enlarged and become part of your 30/60/90 days plan. If things are working then you will have some best practices to re-use. If things are not working you may need to look at doing things differently because if you keep doing what you were doing to get minimal results (if any) then you’ll keep getting the same mediocre results. 

Key is to start quickly with a simple plan/ execution. This is your living and breathing plan that need to be dynamically improved/ executed upon by adding deeper insights as you go deeper in the new role and as you make deeper inroads with people, product/ technology value props and business insights over period of time.

Here are some example plans

1st one week

·         People side – Get to know your teams, immediate and cross functional management team, other stake holders and extended team; ask questions; learn from their knowledge and experience

·         Technical side – Get to know your key products/ solutions and underlying technology, start on building a CxO deck with a compelling story (High level over view, portfolio, value proposition, roadmaps) that you can leverage to gain access to partner/ customer executives for “Reason of Call” to have an opportunity to present your story

·         Business Side – Get to know your mission, targets, customers & plan to over achieve

o        Create 30, 60, 90 days plan

ü       Identify focus areas, best practices, challenges,

ü       Top 3 regions, top 3 customers, top 3 opportunities..

ü       Resources, key issues (resolving which can produce immediate results),

ü       etc.

1st Month 

• Work with your manager to understand his business focus & priorities, so the same can be implemented in your plans
• Attend business meetings/ sales calls with your manager to get a feel for status of business, opportunities, issues/ challenges to capture in your plan
• Meet/ connect with key stake holders, understand their perspective on what’s working, what’s not, key issues/ challenges

• In addition here are some example considerations for a sales leader

o        Key stake holders -  how can you leverage them.. how can you create momentum

o        Pipeline/ coverage/ win rates - how can you create more pipeline

o        Deal progression - top deals that covers 80% of targets, roadmap to budget

o        Key competition - their strengths and weaknesses - how can you position your story

o        Top 3 opportunities in each region – where you need to be involved personally

o        Top 3 opportunities in each region - for competitive win back

o        Technical Sales eminence

o        Initiate creation of Go-To-Market Community for your business and enable them

o        Collaborate with stake holders - share experience, best practices, issues/ challenges and resolutions

o        Periodic Teleconference with the regional leaders - to ensure you are well connected with them and to  stay on the same page all the time to deliver business results with end in mind

o        Quarterly All Hands Call, newsletters/ flashes, launch of your business community, wins/ success stories, references, enablement

o         

o        Travel to 2-3 regions - to meet teams/ partners/ customers

2nd/ 3rd Month

o        Keep building on above

o        Travel to more regions to meet teams/ partners/ customers

o        Keep building your plan, focused execution, assess results and make changes if you’re not getting significant results

1^st Half of the Year

• Expand your plan for 1^st Half Year
• Issues and challenges
• Best practices
• Promote best practices and encourage teams to try out new things where things are not working

2^nd Half of the Year

• Include learning from 1^st half year (what’s working, what’s not and adjust the plan)

Continue to motivate the team – Remember, people are your biggest assets and #1 priority, because if people side is fixed (they are happy, motivated and driven) then results will follow automatically

You would want business stake holders/ team, to feel that they are part of a special business unit that provides a unique value to the business and would want them to see their role providing them professional fulfilment and one that offers them a great opportunity to advance their career.

In my next append, I will provide an example of how many years back, I started in a new leadership role that seemed to have unachievable targets and how building a quick plan & focused execution helped me expedite and deliver some great business results leading in to career progression for me.. will be back soon !!!

My 1st append to kick off group discussion..

In 1998 I undertook my first serious leadership role as “Asia Pacific Leader for Storage Technical Sales” and that started me on an amazing journey of learning in the management and leadership roles. Some times I wonder, what would have been the outcome, if I had known what I know today, in my earlier years. So I started mentoring and coaching many of my peers and colleagues. Recently, one of my mentees thanked me for the value he received and said, “Gee, why don’t you share your thoughts with the wider community, so they can get the similar benefits as I have received” and I thought yes, that’s a really good idea!.

So starting today, I will be sharing my brief thoughts on various topics pertaining to my experiences from many roles in sales, technical sales, services and business development leadership roles that I undertook at IBM covering ANZ, Asia Pacific and Global markets. I will cite some examples and personal stories to reflect my learning where possible.

So with out any more do, let me start with my first topic. Many people who got in to leadership roles ask me - “I started in this new role and need to start brining results immediately. I don’t know where to start. Can you help”? This was the same dilemma that I encountered many years back when I started in my first serious leadership role. What I learnt, I applied again and again, in my many other later leadership roles and the strategy worked.

So, if you don’t know where to start then start by focusing on 3 key areas
1. People side - Know your teams, immediate and cross functional management team, other stake holders and extended team
2. Technical side – Know key products/ solutions, technology behind those products, why should a customer buy your products i.e. a compelling value proposition
3. Business Side - Know the mission, targets, customers & plan to over achieve

In my next append, I will expand on above three aspects and how I will go about, by addressing each of these. You may have your own thoughts but I will be keen to know if this is some thing that will be of value to you?