Blogs

Innovation has become a buzzword in recent years, a term that has been thrown around so much it risks losing its meaning. The fact is, innovation is hard and that’s why so many fail at it. I explore how leaders can lead in this area using the methods outlined by Eric Ries in his book ‘The lean start-up: how today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses.’ For innovation to happen, Ries asserts that leaders need a process for implementing, testing and refining great ideas and concepts to truly live up to the definition. According to Ries, by using the lean start-up approach, companies can create order not chaos by providing tools to test a vision continuously. These [...]

As a strategy consultant, I am all too aware of the enormous amount of time and money companies invest drafting strategy documents, only for them to languish in drives. Winning strategies change the fates of organizations and bringing them to life is something I am passionate about. The authors of ‘Strategy that Works,’ Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi say this is an unnecessary occurrence and there are steps leaders can take to close the strategy design and execution gap. How execution plays out in the real world In studying lessons from companies which have closed this gap including IKEA, Natura, Pfizer, Starbucks and Apple, Leinwand and Mainardi discovered that the best companies manage themselves through a set of differentiating capabilities. [...]

Doing more has become something of a cultural addiction, as we pack more tasks and longer to-do lists in our days. The belief that doing more results in bigger results is one that McKeown debunks, and this is why I think he’s on to something. The error in trying to do it all It’s a misnomer to think we can do it all, that we can fit everything in 24 hours, be an all-rounder and achieve everything we set our minds to. The truth is that there will always be more ideas than there is capacity to execute, therefore being selective is crucial. Therefore, we have to focus on a few vital choices rather than pursuing the trivial many. McKeown [...]

Business strategies are the playbooks that organisations use to determine the direction of their organisation, focus their efforts and ensure that everyone in the business is working towards the same goal. But what happens when we find ourselves in an uncertain world, where all the knowns and unknowns are new and the direction set out is no longer relevant?   The approach for volatile times The Covid-19 crisis demonstrated just how unpredictable life can get and the disruptions in the normal operation of firms and institutions were confronted with revealed a complexity that could not be understood and explained through a lens of ‘normalcy’. Predominantly, the strategies laid out pre-pandemic haven’t been able to hold up in a post-pandemic world. [...]

The past year has seen massive challenges and disruption, yet some businesses managed to not only buck the trend but create massive success with new products and services. Enterprises that managed to successfully pivot and grow are grappling with the question of scaling to maintain those gains in the long run. The challenges of scaling are numerous, and one of them is taking areas of strength or pockets of excellence and spreading embedding them throughout the organization without messing it up. In their book ‘Scaling Up Excellence’,  Robert I. Sutton and Hayagreeva Rao assert that when scaling, leaders should strive to spread a mindset, not just a footprint as their organization expands. Scaling up excellence has various facets, some of [...]

Many leaders believe in the allure of a magnificent idea, killer innovation or magic strategy that creates amazing results and sky-rocketing profits. But just how true is this? Jim Collins, author of  ‘Good to Great’ says huge, sporadic turns aren’t where success is. He says instead that, when building greatness, there is no single defining action, no solitary lucky break or miracle moment. “Instead, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough.” The power in compounding effort The Flywheel effect describes a process of pushing with great effort, and by doing so you get the flywheel to inch forward. At first, any movement will be barely [...]

The challenges facing today’s organisations go beyond markets, location and industry. The organisations with the most success in responding to new, never ending changes are those with the cohesion and dexterity to flow through challenges as one well-oiled machine. Connected organisations strike the delicate balance between being engaged, yet autonomous enough to be effective. The teams work collaboratively but have boundaries that allow for independence, creativity and decision making. As highlighted in our ‘Connected Leader’ article, developing a connected organisation starts with the leadership; how leaders influence others to establish and nurture critical connections at the strategic level and across every team across the organisation. Connected organisations are those that have developed a culture that is able to respond, adapt and operate [...]

As challenging as the recent past has been, it has provided a unique opportunity, due to necessity, for companies to innovate. One of the biggest challenges leaders are facing is ensuring that the organisation and people are moving cohesively while navigating unchartered territory. Steve Jobs once famously said, “Musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra,” a perfect analogy of what a connected leader can achieve, compared to one whose team is playing out of step with each other. Pawel Korzynski, a visiting fellow at Harvard University, noted that because all leaders will be working in virtual environments within a few years, the role of the traditional leader will be transformed to a ‘leading interweaver who coordinates and facilitates the [...]

"In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses leading a turnaround requires focus, courageous decisive action and deliberate culture transformation” EOH case study… turnaround in play Once a giant in the technology space and an icon in the South African corporate landscape, EOH became embroiled in a corruption scandal that led to its near demise. The ICT services group’s failings are particularly poignant in a country where ethics and corruption have become endemic. When these corporate wrongdoings take place in an emerging economy such as South Africa’s, the destruction caused by corruption isn’t just a business issue, but one with strong social and ethical ramifications. EOH was facing a triple threat of transparency, liquidity, corruption when Steven Van Coller stepped in as [...]

Most companies still interact with customers only episodically, but authors of Connected Strategy Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch say, “Instead of waiting for customers to come to them, firms are addressing customers’ needs the moment they arise—and sometimes even earlier. It’s a win-win: Through what we call connected strategies, customers get a dramatically improved experience, and companies boost operational efficiencies and lower costs.” Instead of pursuing a one-size-fits all approach, businesses are using data to develop tailored experiences around their customers’ needs. Technology has enabled companies to use advanced tools for collecting customer data without interrupting the customer experience. Connected strategy allows companies to capture customer data and connect with them in a meaningful way. Increasingly, the most successful companies [...]

"In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses the relentless implementation at the heart of a business turn-around” A business turnaround is often a sign that a company is at a crisis point; it is often last-ditch effort to save a company that is out of tried and tested options and needs a spectacular comeback strategy. While the concept of a turn-around sounds invigorating and even exciting, only 20% of turnarounds succeed. This is because bringing a company in the ICU back to profitability takes grit, resolve and relentless implementation. As we emerge from the biggest crisis of recent years, we can anticipate that some turnarounds are imminent. Business leaders are going to have to turn around businesses that went into the [...]

"In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses how to measure what matters for your strategy and business context” Part of what sets winning businesses apart from those that fail is the leadership’s ability to cut through the noise and excitement of launching a never before seen product or innovative service, to knowing what the real success factors are. Measure what matters Any business can get its success factors wrong, but this especially true with startups which haven’t had the benefit of years of usage, or considerable consumer insights. When you're in a startup environment, what you measure is different from what you would in an established business. In a startup context, measures like Customer acquisition cost (CAC) are important to have [...]

"In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses re-thinking your strategy, and how now is the time to assess which metrics you should be prioritising, how to best measure them, and if they are aligned” The disruptions of the past year have been so massive that when it comes to strategy, keeping old metrics in play would be a huge mistake. The Covid-19 pandemic and the social and economic shifts that rose out of the tumultuous time have changed business as we know it. Many reliable indicators of progress or success now no longer apply. Even if some metrics have endured, their significance may have changed, which means the way you target and measure them will need to change as well. As [...]

@page { margin: 2cm } p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; line-height: 120%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2 } a:link { color: #0000ff } "In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses how strategy implementation is a dynamic game of intense discipline, sustained focus and unwavering follow through.” Implementation: Where your Strategy comes to life Corporate servers are littered with strategic plans that were intended to be game changers but fell short of expectations. Often, strategies have the hallmarks of success, but fail because organizations do not effectively execute them. In fact, Harvard Business Review says an estimated 67% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution. The strategic plan itself as a written document that details the steps and processes [...]

"In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses how getting all hands on deck is critical to ensure strategy implementation success” The pandemic forced a massive reset of the ecosystems of many businesses and has altered the assumptions leaders have operated from. Given the upheaval of the past year, parts or even the entirety your strategy may be outdated or been rendered irrelevant. Many companies are embarking on new strategies that attempt to direct them down a path to success. Given the turbulence and destabilisation of 2020, leaders should be aware that their people require more clarity and credibility from them than ever before. Many initiatives to become “leaner”, “fitter”, “more agile”, can sound abstract or even threatening to employees who don’t [...]

"In this article Maanda Tshifularo discusses creating a fit-for purpose strategy for the rapidly changing consumer behaviour” Our world has undergone the biggest reset in generations; the way we live, and work has been turned on its head. Established industries have vanished, and new ones are emerging out of their ashes. Once predictable markers such as year-end sales and academic calendars have been erased and businesses large and small have been blindsided. If your strategy was based on ‘reliable data’, proven success factors, established consumer behaviours and once-predictable government regulations, you need to question the validity of all those assumptions and prepare for a new world. If you’re not convinced, here are some reasons why you need to re-imagine your [...]