Patient for growth, impatient for profits (part 2)

 




1. Defining and interpreting the meaningful outside

2. Answering, time and again, the two-part question, What business are we in and what business are we not in?

3. Balancing sufficient yield in the present with necessary investment in the future

4. Shaping the values and standards of the organization

Balance is Art not science, comes with experience. New ceos very short term define realistic growth goalsI had to decide what would be “good enough” to deliver in the short term. Early on as CEO, I announced that we were reducing our goals. The stock price increased more than 8% as investors recognized that our lower goals were realistic and we were making the right decision for the long term. 

to create a flexible budgeting process. We have a rolling budget forecast with flexible short-term and sustainable long-term goals. We have clear portfolio roles. 

We deliver in the short term, we invest in and plan for the midterm, and we place experimental bets for the long term. As long-term bets are qualified, they become midterm priorities and then, on a rolling basis, the short-term results we focus on delivering consistently year after year.

allocate human resources in a way that identifies and develops good people for today and tomorrow. Drucker said, “Effective CEOs make sure that the performing people are allocated to opportunities rather than only to ‘problems.’ 


Customers ‘hire’ products to get specific ‘jobs’ done (P&G 2000s)

Emergent strategy is the cumulative effect of all the day-to-day decisions made to invest and prioritize resources.  - being flexible to listen to the org. And lean in to what works, and make efficient what will not drive more gth?

Minimize the use of profit from the core business to subsidize losses in the new-growth ventures. Be impatient for profit and patient for growth. If a venture is profitable, it remains likely to continue even when the core business is struggling.




Comments