1CMO

Growth strategy | Advisory | Force multiplier

Organization

The Value of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

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“Because the purpose of business is create and keep a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” – Peter Drucker

There may be no more critical, yet inconsistently defined, senior leadership role than that of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

For any organization seeking to grow (dare I say that should be every organization!) having an experienced marketing leader is vitally important.

In collaboration with other senior leaders, the CMO is responsible for presenting the organization to the market, developing the strategy, and then executing the go-to-market plan to drive growth.

Does your organization need someone with the skills and experience required to be a CMO?

The answer is, “it depends.”

To define the unique value of a CMO we must think through several challenging aspects of the marketing function that sometimes feel like a Catch-22. These are:

  • Every CMO is a marketer, but not every marketer is a CMO.
  • Every company needs a head of marketing, but not every company needs a chief marketing officer (CMO).
  • The purpose of marketing can mean something very different between organizations, depending on factors like the industry and customer target (i.e. B2B vs B2C)

Defining the CMO Role

Before we define the unique value of a CMO and explore whether you need one, let’s begin with a high-level job description:

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) – Responsible for overseeing the planning, development and execution of an organization’s marketing and advertising strategy. Reporting directly to the CEO, the CMO’s primary responsibility is to help generate revenue by increasing sales through successful marketing for the entire organization, using market research, pricing, product marketing, marketing communications, advertising and public relations.

In many organizations, the scope of the CMO role expands to include sales enablement, sales team management, new business development, product development, channel partner management and customer success.

The Chief Marketing Officers is a member of the company leadership team and usually reports to the chief executive officer. In larger organizations, it is common to have a number of senior marketing managers responsible for various parts of the marketing strategy reporting directly to the CMO.

NOTE: The CMO role has traditionally been a full-time, in-house executive position. However, in recent years, as the value proposition and complexity of marketing strategy have increased, there has been a growing number of the part-time CMO or Fractional CMO roles. Stay tuned for an upcoming article that will explore the value proposition and use case for a fractional CMO.

The Unique Value of a CMO

It is true that every CMO is a marketer, but not every marketer is a CMO.

Once you understand the true complexity and scope of the CMO role, you can begin to see that it is a challenging role. Only the most seasoned and experienced marketers, typically those who also have extensive company leadership experience and strategy development in their background, can be effective as CMO.

Furthermore, while every company should have a head of marketing, not every company needs a CMO.

There are a number of variables to consider when answering the question of whether your organization needs, and can justify having a CMO. The answer is ultimately very company-specific. However, there are some general factors to consider that can help make the decision. Rate each of the following criteria for your organization, on a low-to-high (or, small-to-large) scale:

  • Size of company
  • Company growth ambitions
  • Product/service value
  • Market size
  • Geographic scope
  • Market ecosystem complexity
  • Lead sources
  • Complexity of buyer’s journey
  • Length of sales cycle
  • Sales channels
  • Size of go-to-market (marketing and sales) team
  • Customer lifetime value
  • Industry competitiveness

Scoring: Generally, the higher you rank your organization on most or all of the above criteria, the more you can justify and should consider having a CMO on your leadership team.

The CMO Role is Complex and Evolving

As you saw in the brief job description above, the CMO role is complex. It is also rapidly evolving to meet unique company and market dynamics. The increasingly disruptive VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment that most organizations now operate in is just adding more fuel to the fire.

Driven by the forces of technology, increasingly complex digital interactions with the marketplace, and the growing ubiquity of social media channels, the marketing role has a growing sphere of influence in many organizations. The expectation is for the modern CMO to drive growth, deliver the brand vision and manage the customer experience across all touchpoints and intersections: print, digital, retail, mobile, social and more.

The role of marketing no longer ends with a sale. That is just the beginning. The span of marketing now extends into building relationships and delivering value to customers throughout their buyer journey. To be successful, CMOs must create and maintain a delicate balance between growth strategy, brand purpose and value, customer success, employee engagement, creative, technology, data and analytics.

Easy, right?!

Once you decide that your organizations needs a CMO, you must also think about what type. Depending on the maturity of the organization, the industry, the growth objectives, the skillsets and interests of the CEO and leadership team, and the type/scope/complexity of the sales process there can be different focal points for the CMO. This examination will drive different requirements for the CMO and create a different profile for the role.

An upcoming blog will examine the most common CMO archetypes.

More than Just a Marketer

While it is true that a head of marketing, a VP of marketing, and a CMO all have responsibility for the marketing function, that is where the similarity ends. The level of experience, strategic vision, and cross-functional leadership that a CMO provides is what sets them apart.  

A CMO is much more than just a great marketer for the organization’s products and services. They are growth strategists and partners with the CEO to promote the company and its vision. They collaborate with the leadership team to formulate the growth vision and strategy, and lead the execution of the go-to-market plans that propel the organization into the future.

Every CMO is a marketer, but not every marketer is a CMO.

-Onward

Survival of the Most Adaptable

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“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

You often hear Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, first published in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859, summarized as “survival of the fittest.” It turns out this is not exactly the correct interpretation.

In reality, Darwin actually meant survival of the most adaptable to change.

This concept of adaptability applies perfectly to today’s chaotic VUCA environment. I believe those organizations (and leaders) who are best able to adapt to change will grow and thrive. Those who don’t, won’t!

VUCA is the New Normal

Let’s face it, 2020 has been one wild rollercoaster of a ride. Across industries, the global pandemic has accelerated many changes that were already in motion, and created a number of new ones.

This unprecedented pace of change and disruption is only going to continue. This new VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment is here to stay.

As a result, leaders of organizations have a simple choice to make:

  • Will they stand by and hope for things to revert?
  • Or, will they choose to adapt to the new environment?

When you step back and think about it, the correct answer is obvious.

Things are very unlikely to return to where they were. Ever.

The world has changed. As a result, leaders and their teams need to adapt. Quickly.

Adaptability is the Key to Survival and Growth

The key to survival and growth in times of disruption is your mindset, your preparation, and your willingness to embrace change.

Leaders, organizations, and industries who are operating in survival mode are in deep trouble. When survival instincts prevent movement from the status quo, then extinction is near.

Those leaders, and their teams, who are adaptable and operate with an empowered, strategic, and future-focused way of thinking will win. The ability to be flexible, make quick decisions, and then take action will help them out-wit, out-play, and out-last their competitors. This is the key to survival and growth in a VUCA world.

Leaders and their teams need to get out of the building. They must be ever vigilant, always prepared to act quickly and decisively when confronted with moments of need or opportunity, adversity or change.

VUCA Strategic Planning is Your Secret Weapon

Any battle-hardened leader will tell you that no plan survives its first contact with the market! Therefore, it is wise to have a robust, yet flexible, approach when making plans for the future.

The VUCA Strategic Planning framework provides a disciplined approach to planning and achieving the Envisioned Future of the organization, while maintaining flexibility the ability to pivot quickly when VUCA strikes.

We do not always see it immediately, but disruptions also bring opportunity. We need to be observant and open to the possibility. Be calm and clearheaded enough to recognize it and react appropriately.

Strategic organizations and brave leaders are even willing to disrupt themselves!

To win in a disruptive VUCA environment, you must win in your mind first! This begins with preparation, and a comprehensive strategic plan.

To survive and thrive, high performing leaders and their teams:

  • Know their purpose, their why.
  • Understand their long-term goals. Their what.
  • Know how they need to work together. Their strategy. Their how.
  • Have connection. Share common core values.
  • Have robust situational awareness, considering both internal and external perspectives and market forces.
  • Have a comprehensive plan. Everyone on the team has a role to play.
  • Have considered and planned for alternative scenarios. Leaders are constantly asking “what if?…”
  • Maintain an active strategy portfolio in case the primary one fails.
  • Actively manage the execution of the plan to monitor progress, control resources, and have the ability to make quick course-corrections.

Conclusion – Adapt or Risk Failure

This is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time to be a business leader.

Regardless of your industry, or the size of your organization, today’s business climate is chaotic, fluid, and changing rapidly. Every leader and their team will have a unique set of problems to solve and challenges to overcome, requiring new ways of thinking and different tactics than the past.

As our new VUCA world continues to unfold, I believe there will be unlimited opportunity to grow and thrive for those organizations who are best able to adapt.

I encourage all leaders and organizations to embrace change and build adaptability as a core competancy.

-Onward

Can We All Work From Home?

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“The challenge of work life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.” – Stephen Covey

Introduction

I don’t think Stephen Covey could have predicted the rapid and far-reaching impact the pandemic crisis has had on the world of work, and how it has changed the definition of work-life balance for much of the workforce.

As we continue down the path of finding a “new normal” the economy is slowly re-igniting in sporadic bursts. Unemployment is still at historic highs in the US and around the world, but it is starting to level out. Many workforce experts are predicting the great workforce shakeup of 2020 will likely continue to unfold and recover for the next 12-24 months.

One of the most startling outcomes has been the rapid enablement and adoption of “work from home” (WFH) policies by many organizations. While this movement has been discussed for years by HR theorists and was slowly gaining traction, it literally exploded in the matter of a few weeks this spring when it became a widespread requirement for people to shelter in place because of COVID-19. Many organizations that had been forced out of necessity to temporarily implement WFH policies are now extending them, and in a growing number of cases making WFH a permanent option (at least for some workers).

This movement brings with it both challenges and opportunities for business leaders, and it surfaces many of the inequities in the workplace.

The World of Work is Not Fair

Yes, it is true: the world of work is simply not fair or equitable. It never has been.

And I’m not referring to racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination which we all know are still very much a systemic and serious problem in our society and the workplace.

The bitter truth is that remote work only amplifies a number of the historical discrimination problems in the workplace. Research by the Economic Policy Institute highlights two examples:

  • Less than one in five (19.7%) of black workers and roughly one in six (16.2%) of Hispanic workers are able to work from home.
  • Higher-wage (earnings greater than 75th percentile) workers are six times as likely to be able to work from home as lower-wage (earnings below 25th percentile) workers.

Making matters even worse, work from home has exposed the painful reality that many jobs simply are not possible to do from home. For example, most service jobs (ranging from food services, to hospitality, to retail, to home/auto repair, to healthcare, etc) by definition are done at the point of sale or service. While some can be brought to the home, many of these “hands on” tasks are physically impossible for workers to perform while working remotely.

Early Feedback on Working From Home

Early reports on the overall effectiveness of working from home have generally been encouraging. Many organizations have noticed a productivity bump in their remote workers which they attribute to factors like eliminating commutes, shorter meetings, and less social talking.

According to a recent Upwork survey:

  • 56% of hiring managers think working from home has gone better than expected, and one-third said productivity has increased (while less than a third said it decreased). 
  • 62% plan to offer more remote work opportunities going forward. 

And workers seem to like the arrangement as well:

  • According to recent Gallup research, 59% of U.S. workers who are working from home because of the pandemic want to continue working remotely.
  • Evernote research found that 48% of respondents reported adopting a slower pace during quarantine, and 51% allowed themselves to broaden their definitions of “productivity” to include learning new skills. 

To be fair, even with the above positive data points it is not all sunshine and roses. There are both positives and negatives to working from home.

Pros and Cons

There are a number of positive benefits to working from home, for both workers and organizations:

  • Lower overhead cost: Potentially less overhead costs for organizations as they reduce the amount of office space they need. However, this is a longer-term potential benefit, as it will take some time to unlock. And, it remains to be seen if social-distancing becomes a permanent fixture, in which case organizations will need more space for the remaining workers. A related benefit (depending on where you stand) it is likely the end of the loved/hated “open office” trend, as organizations will be forced to put in more physical barriers and space between those workers who do come into the office.
  • Lower wages: Organizations are contemplating the opportunity to pay workers less by playing regional/global labor cost arbitrage (i.e. not having to pay Silicon Valley or New York City wages to equivalent workers living in lower cost areas). This is a longer-term play since it will be difficult for organizations to retract salaries for existing workers who are now working from home, but relevant as they begin to recruit new workers working in other regions.
  • Work/life balance: Workers have a newfound opportunity to find a better balance between their work life and their home life. Some workers are reporting more family time, exercise, and better diets.
  • No commute: Those who are able to work from home can eliminate their commute time, and all associated transportation costs.
  • Meetings: No in person meetings…but still plenty of online ones!
  • Health: Clear health benefits for workers (less COVID exposure risk).

There are also some negative challenges to working from home:

  • Meetings: More virtual meetings. In fact, many remote workers are starting to report “Zoom fatigue” because of the number of virtual video conferences they now attend.
  • Team building: It is more difficult to build and maintain teamwork, camaraderie, and creativity with remote workers and teams.
  • Productivity: Lingering concerns about productivity from some managers.
  • Work/life balance: Ironically, some workers report they are having a hard time balancing work and home life with home distractions like cleaning, maintenance, and childcare. Also, many workers are now putting in several extra hours a day because their commute has disappeared, and as a result are having trouble separating work from their personal lives.
  • Managing remote workers: Managing remote workers is more challenging, and is a skillset most managers have not yet perfected.
  • Worker privacy: Loss of worker privacy as employers increase their monitoring activity of remote workers.
  • Technology: Increased technology cost and infrastructure support complexity

Implications and Trends for Leaders

For organizational leaders thinking about the world of work and making VUCA strategic plans for the future the above pros and cons are worth thinking deeply about. In addition, there are a number of implications and interesting trends to keep an eye on, as these scenarios will likely have an impact on future workforce planning.

  • More remote workers: Many experts predict up to 50% of the workforce could work remotely. Moving forward, more organizations will leverage the work-from-home experience and embrace remote work. The enlightened ones will realize it can also deliver many productivity and psychic benefits to the worker, the less altruistic might do it purely for cost savings and access to cheaper labor.
  • Workforce design: Individual contributors, those who perform routine tasks and can be autonomous, and those who don’t need to collaborate in person with co-workers are well suited to working remotely.
  • Contingent workforce growth: Gartner research reveals that 32% of organizations replaced full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure. Gartner analysis goes on to predict that organizations will continue to expand their use of contingent workers to maintain more flexibility in workforce management post-COVID-19.
  • Trust: If employers don’t figure out how to trust workers to work when they’re working remotely it will increase burnout, hurt morale, and ultimately lead to turnover.
  • VUCA-proof the organization: We are entering a new era of uncertainty, often characterized as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) which makes strategy formulation and planning much more challenging. One proven tactic is to transition from designing for efficiency to designing for resilience.A 2019 Gartner survey focused on organization design found that 55% of organizational redesigns were focused on streamlining roles, supply chains and workflows to increase efficiency. While this approach captured efficiencies, it also created fragility and weakness, as systems became less robust and lost flexibility to respond to disruptions. Resilient organizations were better able to respond and quickly change course.
  • Culture: Eliminating in person contact and many of the casual interactions workers have in the office runs the risk of organizational culture loss/degradation.
  • Geographic worker dispersal: Technology-enabled remote working will drive an exodus out of historically job-rich, but high cost of living, urban areas like the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. It has been reported that more Americans would like to live in rural communities than would like to live in cities. An interesting longer-term impact will be on home construction as houses will need more dedicated WFH space and tech infrastructure to accommodate home workers.
  • Time block work: Managers should think about how to re-design and structure work so that it can be performed in specified blocks of time. This becomes especially important for workers who have children at home. This structure will help workers to manage their home/work boundaries better by establishing more defined work periods before switching to domestic and caring duties.
  • Projectize the work: A related concept is the very nature of work itself will change. Once you start to revisit where work gets done, you can also revisit who does it, and how it is packaged. I think more work will be structured as projects (new verb: projectize!), with a focus on outcomes and deliverables, versus the traditional role based work output. This will help to build more responsive organizations, with roles designed and structured around outcomes to increase agility and flexibility and formalize how processes can flex. Also, related to this concept, is the guidance to make sure you provide employees with varied, adaptive and flexible roles so they acquire cross-functional knowledge and training.
  • Employee policies: Working from home will be an option for some but not all workers. Some organizations must have workers come in (for example, healthcare, factories, distribution, retail) others might not need to (most white-collar professions). Organizations will need to think carefully about the implications of their policies, carefully balancing the needs of the business with what workers want. Providing options and flexibility will be an important talent attraction and retention tool.
  • Force worker interaction: Beyond forcing all participants to contribute on a Zoom call, managers need to think about how to design events and interactions that foster sociability. This could include virtual coffee breaks, and social events. These types of casual encounters foster camaraderie, reinforce empathy, and build trust within teams.
  • Videoconferencing: Adoption of videoconferencing technology (Zoom!) has been rapid. As more of us learn how to manage our days remotely and more of our business interactions through video, it will be natural to continue doing so even when we are able to meet in person again. Many organizations are learning this technology lends itself better to reporting and management meetings than it does to strategy and brainstorming meetings. This will have interesting long-term implications for business travel and traditionally heavy travel dependent professions and organizations.
  • Technology-enabled: Another aspect to working virtually will be broader and deeper adoption of software to improve collaboration for distributed teams, store and share work artifacts, and manage remote workers. In parallel, with so much work being done outside of the traditional secure office environment, spending on security software will definitely grow in volume and importance in order to protect the organization. Another key learning is that many routine jobs are at the lower end of the pay scale, and employers can’t assume that employees have computers or internet access that match what is available at an office.
  • Talent scarcity: I predict that once we move past the pandemic (i.e. have a vaccine and widespread immunization) and all the economic devastation has been absorbed and cleaned up, that we will enter a new era of talent scarcity. This will likely take 24-36 months to play out. Those organizations who have figured out the new world of work, including how to support and enable a remote workforce, will be set up to find and attract the talent they need.
  • Practice humanity: I saved the most important consideration for last. Enlightened organizations have recognized the humanitarian crisis of the pandemic and prioritized the well-being of their employees and treated them with compassion as human beings. Unfortunately, some have pushed employees to work in conditions that are high risk with little support – in effect treating them as workers first and human beings second. There is great short- and long-term risk in dehumanizing workers. Smart organizations will work towards equity and inclusiveness, striving to treat all their workers fairly.

Conclusion

Where will this all end up? What will the workplace of the future look like? Who knows – predicting the future is always a tricky business!

One thing is more certain: the truth, as always, will probably end up somewhere in the middle:

  • Will every worker in every organization be able to work from home or remotely? – Not very likely.
  • Will more people be able to work from home or remotely? – Yes.

This will take some time to work out. We have to remember that this started as a crisis-induced work from home experiment. Many organizations are now starting to think about the issue more intentionally.

Leaders of strategic organizations will recognize that there is no single universal answer. It is highly situational. Depending on their organization, workforce, industry, markets, etc. it will likely be a combination of new workforce strategy, updated policies, job redesign, and technology.

I hope that this happens quickly, as there is still the lurking question of if we will see a wave 2 of COVID-19? And even worse, is there a COVID-20 lurking around the corner? What then? Leaders should be thinking now about possible responses to these scenarios today.

-Onward

The Emperor Has No Clothes

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“The strength of any organization is a direct result of the strength of its leaders. Weak leaders equal weak organizations. Strong leaders equal strong organizations. Everything rises and falls on leadership.” – John Maxwell

We are living in a strange and challenging era. As the global pandemic continues to have a profound economic and social impact, two things have become very clear – this level of VUCA disruption is not going away, and the need for strong leaders has never been greater.

The virus in some way has affected each of us – Hundreds of thousands have lost their lives; tens of millions have lost the jobs; billions have been inconvenienced or stressed.

Against this catastrophic backdrop, there is no question this has also been a challenging period for leaders of organizations of all types: government agencies, public and private companies, and non-profits.

Times of crisis are an inflection point, providing an opportunity for true leaders to reveal themselves. Many have stepped up and demonstrated their true leadership attributes, while others have stumbled.

Crises can also reveal weaknesses in organizational alignment or teams that are often hidden, or conveniently ignored, when times are good. It is exactly at times like this that we can witness real leaders, showing their true characters and capabilities.

There isn’t an established playbook for leaders to follow in this type of disruptive and chaotic environment, but there are some timeless leadership principles that still work. In this article, I’ll share a few observations and some guidance for leaders as we slowly begin to re-start the economy.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

I was thinking the other day about some of the business leadership failures I have either witnessed, or heard about from my network, in the past few months. For some reason this topic reminded me of one of my favorite childhood stories, The Emperor’s New Clothes, by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Even though this folktale is almost 200 years old, it still has relevance.

CAVEAT: Although the parallels to some of our current political leaders are obvious, and it would be far too easy to pick on them, this article has absolutely no political aspirations or intent. My focus is purely on the world of business.

In case you have not read the story, or it has been a long time since you last heard it, here is a quick summary:

A vain emperor, who cares only about his status and appearance, and has a penchant for wearing fancy clothes, gets enchanted by two scheming weavers who promise to make him a new set of clothes unlike anything else in the kingdom. They bluff him with promises of an outfit made of fine and rare fabric that has the special power of being invisible to anyone who is unfit for their position, stupid, or incompetent. This proves to be too big a temptation for the emperor, who engages them immediately. In reality, the weavers only pretend to make the clothes. As a result, no one, not even the emperor nor his royal court can see the alleged “clothes” when they are finished, but they all play along lest they appear unfit for their positions. And the public has the same reaction when the emperor parades with his new clothes, lest they appear stupid or incompetent. Finally, a child, completely ignorant of the ruse, cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”

As a child, I found this tale, in its profound absurdity, to be very amusing. As an adult, I am coming to appreciate some of the applications to the modern business world.

Over the years, literary scholars have noted that the phrase, “Emperor’s new clothes”, has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of pretentiousness, pomposity, social hypocrisy, collective denial, or hollow ostentatiousness. Others have suggested that the real moral of the story is in having the courage of one’s convictions – to speak the truth and challenge authority, no matter what the repercussions or humiliation to the recipient.

All pretty relevant to effective leadership and today’s disrupted business environment.

Some Recent Examples

This got me to thinking about some of the lapses I have seen in the world of work over the past few months:

  • Companies with predominantly white male executive teams and boards, claiming they care about diversity and inclusion…
  • Organizations undertaking massive RIFs while simultaneously recruiting for “exciting career growth” job opportunities…
  • Public companies securing huge CARES relief loans at the expense of small ones who didn’t have the resources to apply quickly…
  • Leaders who claim they “lead from the front” yet have never visited their teams, or major clients, out in the field…
  • Tone deaf celebrities and business leaders sharing pictures of their swanky shelter-in-place digs (from mountain retreats to yachts)…
  • Companies who claim to be high-touch and people-centric in their recruiting firing people by email or group conference call…
  • Companies that have been hell-bent on growth and retail outlet expansion to gain market share, now demanding rent relief from property owners…

I’m sure you’ve probably seen a few notable examples as well.

Takeaways for Today’s Business Leaders

Of course, not all of the bad behavior examples above are attributable to vain or out-of-touch leaders, but I think many are. A few of them have garnered media scrutiny and negative publicity. Deservedly so.

Being the leader of an organization is a privilege. One that comes with responsibility.

It is appropriate to hold leaders accountable for what happens within their organizations. Depending on the example, individual leaders may not have done anything egregious, but they do craft organizational strategy, they do own the culture, they do set the tone, they should care about the well-being of their people, and by default every good leader should take full accountability for the actions of anyone in the organization.

In this new VUCA world, this time of turmoil and stress, it is time for leaders to step up.

Do the right thing.

Be a leader.

In that spirit, here are a few takeaways for today’s business leaders, which I think are also good values for any organization to embrace:

  • Display empathy. Run every decision and communication you make in regards to your workforce past this filter: In the past 3 months, nearly 40 million Americans have lost their jobs. Over 100,000 have lost their lives. Unemployment is now at historic highs. Is your decision empathic to those affected already, or those who are worried they may soon be?
  • Practice humility. It is not a time for grandstanding or braggadocio, it is a time to get busy, and do the hard work. The concept of servant leadership has great application here. Leaders should serve those on the front lines who are doing the work of the organization. Helping to solve problems and remove obstacles. Be a visible leader, but don’t take the credit for it.
  • Be honest. Nobody expects leaders to have all the answers. However, lies and deception always catch up to the owner. If leaders do not have the answers, then they should promise to work through it and find solutions. People don’t always expect you to have to have the final and definitive answers, they just want to know that leaders care and are working towards a solution.
  • Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. In fact, you cannot over-communicate to your organization in an environment like this. Practicing the above traits (empathy, humility, honesty) while providing frequent and transparent updates to your team. They will appreciate it, and you.
  • Lead by example. Great leaders lead from the front, and they walk the talk. If leaders are going to open a plant or office back up, they had better be the one opening the door and greeting each worker who enters. It would not hurt to be the one serving them coffee or lunch too!
  • Be human. I left this for last because I think it is the most important. Remember, business is all about people. Focus on them. Act with integrity. If all else fails, follow the golden rule: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Be human.

Conclusion

Organizations and their leaders show their true colors in the difficult times. In this new and unpredictable VUCA business environment, I hope more leaders step up and lead.

The world needs it. Now more than ever.

-Onward

What is Your Envisioned Future?

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“If you don’t know exactly where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?” – Steve Maraboli

In today’s disruptive VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) business environment it is critically important for organizations, teams, and individual contributors to have clarity on their vision of the future and what their long-term goals are.

This clear direction becomes a guiding beacon for building an effective VUCA strategic plan, one that clarifies your strategic intent and enables your organization to quickly make decisions and then take action in order to get there.

The Foundation for VUCA Strategic Planning

There are two foundational elements required effective VUCA strategic planning: Your core ideology and clarity around your envisioned future. Your long-term goals should be based on, and in alignment with, your mission, values, and purpose. Together these become the core ideology for your organization.

  • Core Ideology – defining the mission, values, and purpose of the organization. As a previous article explained, these elements describe why the organization exists and what it stands for. With this foundational framework you will have greater clarity when making critical business decisions that impact the future of your organization.

However, before any strategic VUCA planning can begin we must also have clarity around the envisioned future state of the organization:

  • Envisioned Future – defining a clear vision for what the organization aspires to become or achieve, and your long-term goals. These elements explain the desired future state of the organization, and the long-term goals you and your team are working towards achieving in order to get there.

Defining Your Envisioned Future: Vision and Goals

Articulating the envisioned future of your organization has two main components: a vision statement, and long-term goals:

  • Vision – Your vision statement defines what the organization aspires to become or achieve. Based on the current status of your organization, an effective vision will articulate where you want to take your organization in the future. Because of this future focus, your vision statement often sounds much different from what the organization is today (mission statement).

A specific and compelling vision statement can and should help drive decisions and goal setting. This description of what the desired future state looks can be extremely powerful for strategic planning because it provides inspiration and direction, and a focal point for the mission statement and an overall goal or destination for the organization. A clear vision will also help to identify and define potential strategies; and clarify what is within or outside of the organization’s limits.

  • Goals – The goals for your organization are brief, clear statements of significant outcomes to be accomplished within a longer timeframe, typically 3-5 years. A goal is defined with a broad, general, tangible, and descriptive statement – It does not say how to do something, but rather what the singular end-result will look like.

Goals are sometimes described as outcome statements that define what an organization is trying to accomplish both programmatically and organizationally. Some common examples of business goals are, grow profitability, maximize net income, improve customer loyalty, increase market share, etc. Note the brevity of these statements.

Goals are critical to your company’s success. Ultimately, your organization’s goals need to align with your vision, and support your mission, values and purpose. Together this planning foundation will propel each team member’s individual actions and decisions.

Goals Versus Objectives – What’s the Difference?

Business consultants love to develop complex models and invent proprietary terminology for each element of their frameworks. Strategic planning practitioners are no different. This often creates unnecessary confusion.

My bias is to keep things simple, defaulting to the most commonly used terms and definitions, and in the process hopefully making it easier to understand and adopt the VUCA strategic planning framework I’m proposing.

It has been my experience that most organizations, both large and small, public or private, do not understand the difference between a goal and an objective. As a result, they do not effectively communicate them to their teams. This has obvious negative ramifications when you think about the lost opportunity to cascade goals and objectives, and gain buy in, throughout an organization.

Here’s an explanation of the difference between goals and objectives to make sure there is no confusion or ambiguity when it comes to your long-term and short-term plans.

  • A goal is a broad and long-term desired result you want to achieve. You might use company goals to inform yearly strategies and guide the direction of all your efforts.
  • An objective, on the other hand, defines the specific, measurable actions individual employees or teams must take to achieve the overall goal. It is at the objective level that the ownership of the strategic plan shifts from organizational leaders to teams and individuals. This is where the actual work gets done!
  • A goal is where you want to be, and objectives are the steps taken to reach the goal.

Timeframe-based View of Vision, Goals, Objectives

In strategic planning, all the elements need to fit together, and build from one to the next. In other words, your vision statement should inform your goals, which should then inform your objectives. To eliminate any lingering confusion about the differences between vision, goals, and objectives, here’s another way to look at it. Since all strategic plans are time-based, that becomes the key differentiator between these sometimes contradictory and synonymous terms.

  • Vision – this is an aspirational statement that is not time-bounded. In fact, your vision may never actually be attained, but rather serves as an imagined picture of the future.
  • Goals – these are broader and longer-term, typically 2-5 years in timeframe. Your strategic VUCA plan will undoubtedly have several goals.
  • Objectives – the short-term, tactical action items to be accomplished within the next 12-24 months max. Each of your goals will have multiple objectives behind them, and they become a key component of the organization’s VUCA plan. Much more on that topic in future articles!

Next Step Towards Creating a VUCA Plan

In summary, your mission statement focuses on the present, and clarifies what the organization does and for whom. Your values define the core beliefs and provide moral guidance for the organization, becoming the operating system that determines how you get there. While your purpose defines “your why” to provide market-facing clarity on the value you deliver to your constituents.

Defining this core ideology for your organization creates a solid foundation and starting place for overall strategic planning to begin. It comes to life when you combine it with your envisioned future, to articulate a vision for what the organization aspires to become or achieve, and then defining your long-term goals in order to get there.

Organizations achieve their goals by creating strategic plans, within which they define the strategy, and key objectives the team must accomplish. Many organizations struggle with setting up actionable objectives. Next time I’ll share a methodology that I have successfully used for years – the SMARTER framework for setting objectives that get done.

-Onward