Strategic Discipline Blog
Douglas A Wick
Recent Posts
Take Your Company from Good to Great – Jim Collins 12 Questions: #3-5
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Thu, Apr 2, 2015
Topics: Good to Great, Business Growth, Jim Collins, Hedgehog Concept, Stockdale Paradox, 20 Mile March
Topics: Discipline, Good to Great, Strategic Discipline, 10Xers, Jim Collins, Level 5 Leadership, FACe exercise: Functional Accountability Exercise
If you’ve been following this blog you know we’ve been covering the Four Decisions in growing your business that you must get right or risk leaving significant revenues, profits, and time on the table. These four decisions: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. We’ve been sharing the Four Decision Growth Tools we provide for our Gazelles and Positioning Systems Customers to help them to consistently grow their business.
Topics: Four Decisions, Cash, Fundability Optimization Checklist, Recurring Revenue, Increase Equity Value of Company
Cash Growth Tools – Labor Efficiency Ratio & Your Cash Flow Story
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Mon, Mar 23, 2015
In life and in business your decisions equal success. I’m reading an excellent book by Richard Flint, Behavior Never Lies. It reinforces much of our Gazelles and Rockefeller Habits resources and coaching. On the need for clarity, and how important that the essence of any person is not what they say, but rather what they do. In your business do your actions, your decisions contradict what you say? If so you will have a trust problem with your people. I’ll explore the book further in a future blog.
Topics: Four Decisions, Cash, Power of One, Labor Efficiency Ratio, Your Cash Flow Story
4 Decisions Tools – CASH – Cash Conversion Cycle, Four Forces of Cash Flow
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Thu, Mar 19, 2015
Our last several blogs have discussed the importance of four critical decisions and the role they play in the success of your business. Decisions equal success – and there are four decisions, in growing your business, that you must get right or risk leaving significant revenues, profits, and time on the table. These four decisions are: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. Even though most growth firms face continual challenges in all four areas, at any one time the challenges in one of these areas overshadows the rest. Therefore, your first decision is to choose which one of the four to focus on next.
Topics: Four Decisions, Cash Conversion Cycle, Cash, Four Forces of Cash Flow, Growth Sucks Cash, How Fast Can Your Business Grow?
Final Execution Growth Tools – Dashboards and Success Criteria
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Mon, Mar 16, 2015
Our final blog on Execution Decisions focuses on displaying and monitoring your metrics. In the Four Executions Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling, their Fourth Discipline is Dashboards. In Positioning Systems and Gazelles Coaching we include dashboards within the execution discipline of metrics.
Topics: Four Decisions, success criteria, Business Scorecards, Execution, Dashboards
How important is the Execution Decision in your business? Execution results in achieving higher gross profit margin which translates into higher earnings and net profit. Execution is all about efficiency and performance. It’s achieving better results with fewer people, better systems, communication and relationships. It means effectively translating priorities into metrics, meeting frequently to monitor progress and achieving successful outcomes.
Topics: themes, Four Decisions, Execution, growth tools, Individual Plan
Execution Growth Tools: eNPS, Annual Planning, and Quarterly Planning
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Mon, Mar 9, 2015
Topics: Business Growth, Annual Plan, Execution, quarterly plan, eNPS
Execution Growth Tools: Critical Number, Customer & Employee Feedback, NPS
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Thu, Mar 5, 2015
We continue sharing the Gazelles Growth Tools that Positioning Systems and Gazelles coaches provide for our customers on Execution, one of the Four Decisions your company needs to get right or risk leaving significant revenues, profits, and time on the table. A reminder that these four decisions are: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.
Topics: Customer Feedback, Net Promoter Score, Employee Feedback, Four Decisions, Execution, Critical Numbers
Execution – Rockefeller Habits Checklist, Priorities, Metrics, Meeting Rhythms
Posted by Douglas A Wick on Mon, Mar 2, 2015
Execution is about turning your hard-earned revenue (top line income that remember comes from Strategy) into bottom line net profit. Companies that are strong on top line performance and yet struggle to make a reasonable or attractive bottom line profit typically have challenges with Execution – that is being both efficient and effective operationally. In this blog we will cover the principles and habits that John D. Rockefeller used to build an operationally excellent company and which Verne Harnish (Scaling Up and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits) has adapted for mid-market growth companies.
Topics: Discipline, Strategic Discipline, meeting rhythms, Four Decisions, priorities, metrics, meetings, Execution