7 Simple Stories of Building ‘Making-it-Happen’ Organization

1. 7 Simple Stories of Building ‘Making-it-Happen’ Organization Its a paradox that while Execution is the weakest link in corporate success, it has not emerged as a management-discipline in it own right. Conducted for LMA– Jan 06, 2012

2. Minimizing ‘Follow-up’ People waste 10-35% of their time, doing follow-up. What if you do not have to?

3. Reducing time in Follow-up from ~20% to ~5% What was done? • Laid out ‘No Follow-Up’ expectations from ALL employees & managers (1 day) • Had a brief session with employee every week on key tasks to be completed • Agreed on when and in what situation employee will provide an update on progress/completion • Even if was not getting done in time, manager was expected to know it before the deadline • Manager had to hold-back the ‘compulsive follow-up’ Time- 9 months of persistence. Benefits • Better planning and clarity • Sense of ownership & accountability at all levels • People respecting deadlines

4. Minimizing ‘Multiple Accountability’ and ‘Upward Delegation’ If there are two people are responsible for something, it will not get done

5. Reducing time to co-ordinate and arbitrate down by 50% What was done? • Laid out ‘there is only one person responsible for a task’ to ALL • Trained & coached people on how to get things done with & through others • Minimized Follow-up • Empowered the person accountable to co-ordinate & drive everyone including the manager • If there is a conflict or issue, the person to gather all involved and drive decision with manager Time- 9 months of persistence Benefits • A higher sense of accountability • Manager become a support and not a driver

6. Making People ‘Think on their Own’ When people ‘think on their own’, ‘they do on their own’

7. Improving an Employees Self-Reliance Right questions to ask • ‘What will you do if you were me?’ • ‘What are top-3 things you would like to change, if its your company?’ What can you do about it?’ • What do you think is expected to happen? What should we do about it?

8. Doing HR basics very well 80% of employee performance and motivation is to be good in fundamentals

9. Strengthening the Core- HR Engine What was done? Complete HR Engine (manual/templates/Training..)- 30 days Setting everyone’s goals-behaviors-Self Development- 30 days Quarterly Persistence on Feedback and Appraisal Honest Performance Feedback- Online and Quarterly Self-Development Behaviors Goals Performance Plan

10. Sales Activity-Productivity- Performance Engine If we know ‘what?’ Of sales person’s activity, consistency and intensity, one can guarantee that sales will go-up

11. Strengthening the Core- Sales Productivity Engine What was done? Complete Sales-Engine (Process/templates/Training/Reports)- 45 days Achieved smooth activity data- +90 Days Performance Review and Productivity Increase- +90 days Support-Train-Coach-Drive Week After Week Sales Activity-Productivity-Performance Review Daily-Weekly Sales Activity Data Leads Management Process Daily Work Management/ Activity/Productivity Norms

12. Resilience Test Real-Ideas of Cost-Savings Come, When you do not have the Money

13. Resilience Test- What will we do if we have 25% less money? What was done? Total Actionable Ideas Identified- 15 (resilience test passed) No. of ideas actioned immediately- 5 Cost-Saving 12% over 6-9 months Consolidated Sales Travel Quickened Invoicing and Reconciled Accounts Consolidated Offices Put five vacant properties on rent Cleared two big inventory blockage points

14. Managing the Real World By Recognizing ‘uncertainty’, you will have greater ‘certainty of success’

15. When you create a plan- think-through ‘Can and How will you Execute it?’ • Have we validated our assumptions? • What are early warning signals on key assumptions we have made on customer-market-price- tariffs? • What will be our measures, how will be report our performance and when will we have red-alert? • What if competition reduces price OR input cost goes up? How will we maintain the flexibility of margins? • What are minimum core capabilities needed to achieve our plan, and how they can be deployed in time? • What are the five internal things we have to do very well? How are we ensuring that we will do it? • …..

16. Thank You