About Haywood Mann

A company’s attitude to failure defines it and the progress it can make. If failure is encouraged as a way of learning and improving – ensuring we don’t repeat the same mistakes again and again – you create an environment, where your people are willing to have a go and expect to develop. If you add to that analysis of success, you are taking your people and your business to a different level of competitive advantage. It never ceases to amaze us, how few of our clients apply this approach before they start working with us – and the difference it makes, once they do so.

Highly successful businesses have great clarity about – (a) how they make money and (b) the value they deliver to their customers. Sadly, we’ve lost count of the number of business owners and leaders that have been unable to tell us where their profits come from – i.e. which clients, services, products, etc. and/or what their customers truly value in the products/services they buy. By implementing very effective systems and processes to ensure you always know how well you are doing against these criteria for value and profit – and by being ruthless in tackling any situations that are out-of-line – you will leave your competitors in your wake.

Yes – you do need all three and most business leaders would agree. A harder question, that many of our clients do not consider until we arrive, is: what is right for OUR business given our strategy? To have the capability to be competitive over the long term, we have found you need all three elements present at the same time. Therefore, we work with our clients to evaluate what they will need in terms of liquidity, cash flow and capital, so that they will have the financial foundation and flexibility to support the development of their people and operations that will deliver their growth strategy.

Research has shown that if you want to outrun your competition in the long term, you need to align, implement and renew faster than them – consistently. Pretty scary prospect. The market, industry and development knowledge you need to do this well is awesome. Therefore, you need to involve all your stakeholders – internal AND external – in helping you gain and process that knowledge, so you can apply it to developments that appeal both to your current market and new markets – and continue to do so in the years to come.

Organisational capability – understanding the operational needs of today and the business you are aiming to become, ensuring you have the right talent in the right roles now and in the future, managing and developing your people to fit the bill today and tomorrow – is business critical for long term competitive edge.Some of the C-Suite executives we meet have this in hand but many declare their concerns about how well they are addressing this. We usually find a lack of rigorous systems and processes that ensure follow-through on strategic intent and short term operational pressures get in the way of the necessary long term analysis, planning and implementation.

Rigorous standards of financial management start with clarity about what information is needed by the business as a whole. What will support you in delivering the strategy, staying alert to deviations from plan, responding to unexpected or unanticipated events? This is a leadership responsibility. An effective finance function will translate these business imperatives and put in place appropriate systems, processes and standards that are attuned to the needs of the business (not just the finance team). Operational leaders should then be accountable for ensuring the systems and standards are understood by their people and used effectively.

Clarity of role is usually taken for granted. People received a job description when you hired them, didn’t they? (Did they?) How long have they been in your employ? How much has their role changed since then? How much has their environment changed since then? When did you last review specifically what is within/without their remit? Those are the questions we discuss with many of the senior Executives of our clients – and the answers are not always what they need to be. Working with our clients to help them get those answers right, makes a big difference to their businesses.

If collaboration is optional, it often doesn’t happen. The same goes for communication. Or rather it happens in pockets between people who ‘get on’ – which looks like a good place to start, but it actually isn’t, as businesses we get to know have found out at quite some cost. It creates silos, ‘friendships’, networks based on personal preference, which usually lead to disenfranchisement of people excluded from those pockets. All of this gets in the way of a constructive, professional working culture and climate, which fosters engagement, effective feedback and collaboration. So let go of the illusion that ‘collaboration happens between good people’ – it only does if it is facilitated and fostered by structures and processes that create a highly collaborative attitude.

Systems are created by people; people that are often several steps away from the strategy and motivated by other factors. This kind of poor communication leads to inefficient systems that are difficult to change and, in the worst case, cause the strategy to fail from poor implementation.

Successful companies ensure that the strategy and the value it brings to the company are clearly understood by their people and when you make that relevant and show people how they can contribute, you not only get systems that effectively support your strategy, you get motivated staff and innovative ideas for an even better business.

This may seem like an odd question – surely everyone in your business knows that? Our experience is that clients often make that assumption and then find part of the reason their people don’t always deliver of their best is because they lack an adequate understanding of how the business really works – by which we mean, how it makes money, how it delivers value to clients, why clients buy from it, etc. Putting in place effective induction activities for new staff and development processes for new managers massively enhances understanding – especially as part of an informal learning culture.