Is your organizational culture a good one?

Organizational culture is the unwritten and often unspoken assumptions on which all organizational decisions are made and action is taken. It is the result of demonstrated behavior over a period of time. In other words, it is behavior that has become organizational habit over the years. Organizations pursuing a true quality culture are finding that developing the long-term behavior consistent with that pursuit is more difficult than realized.

Management behaviors consistent with a quality culture include coaching, guiding, and facilitating an empowered work force toward organizational goals and objectives. In more traditionally managed organizations, management behavior involves goal attainment through the direction of others. Problem solving is largely seen as a management responsibility. The challenge many managers face today is demonstrating quality behavior in "moments of truth." Moments of truth are those daily situations that require immediate attention. Often times, our routine behavioral tendencies guide us to actions that can only be defined as disempowering. However, it is in these situations where we have the best opportunity to demonstrate our organization's respect for the ability of our employees to add value, and to have an empowered workforce.

Below are some things to remember when you are faced with moments of truth.

•Think before you act. "How can I involve and empower my people in this situation?"

•Seek first to understand; get all of the facts straight before moving forward.

•Your employees are watching your behavior; set a good example that is consistent with the message you want to send.

•You are not expected to have all the answers; respect the idea of teamwork in problem solving.

•Think of how you would like to be treated by your manager. Most times, this will hold true for how you manage your people.

If you are trying to ensure a culture of employee involvement and empowerment, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). Tweed-Weber can provide you with a tried and true method for obtaining employee feedback that can help you strengthen your organizational culture.

Employee Surveys = Involvement and Empowerment

Ongoing customer satisfaction is a result of a focused and well-managed process for continuous improvement. Design your products and services to meet or exceed customer expectations, and you'll enhance your ability to grow your market share. Design the processes that provide those products and services to be performed in the most effective, efficient, reliable, and consistent manner possible, and you’ll enhance your ability to meet your organizational strategies. Proactively involve and empower your people in the previously mentioned steps, and you have the elements for gaining and sustaining long-term competitive advantage.

Even in organizations where there is a demonstrated understanding of this logic, many efforts to succeed in implementing strategies to achieve a more empowered workforce fail. Many times, this failure can be attributed to a lack of understanding regarding the nature of empowerment and the four basic elements required for successful implementation.

Involvement and Empowerment

One of the foundational principles of continuous improvement is “respect for employees demonstrated by employee involvement and empowerment.” The goal of this principle is respect. It involves genuine respect and the understanding that employees have the ability, based on their knowledge and experience, to add value to the organization’s success. While most organizational leaders intellectually and emotionally buy-in to this principle, the positive results of involvement and empowerment are sometimes elusive. To help understand why this occurs, let’s look at how the words “involvement” and “empowerment” are defined and used in a business environment.

Involvement is the ongoing process of informing employees and gathering input from them. This process results in a workforce that continuously thinks of ways to improve performance and acts in a manner consistent with that thinking. Involvement takes the form of information-sharing and can be accomplished in a number of ways. It can be achieved in state-of-the-company meetings, informal group sessions, one-on-one discussions, the Intranet, etc. Whatever the method, the objective must be to provide employees with an ongoing understanding of what is happening within the organization (and why), and how their actions impact the success of the organization.

Empowerment is the ongoing process of providing anyone in an organization with the ability to address anything that stands in the way of doing the right thing at any given time. It means that an employee is given the ability to solve a problem or improve a condition. It means that, at no time, does an employee feel ‘trapped’ in a situation. If something is standing in the way of a quality result, the employee can contribute to correcting that situation. Successful empowerment can be achieved by addressing four basic elements or “tools.”

Four Basic Elements of Empowerment

Belief
Employees need to genuinely believe the company’s leadership sincerely intends for them to be empowered. An employee also needs to believe that he or she has the capability of performing in an empowered manner. Rarely will an organization experience successful empowerment if employees do not believe management is supportive of their individual ability to solve a problem or improve a condition.

Information
Employees need to have information regarding the results of their actions, as well as information relative to the processes they are performing. In order to determine the need to solve a problem or improve a condition, employees need to receive feedback on these measures. If employees are unaware of the conditions that surround them, the chances of developing empowered actions are minimal at best.

Skills
Employees need the skills necessary to act in an empowered manner. These skills fall into two areas; technical skills and interpersonal skills. Technical skills involve those skills specific to an employee’s job. Acting in an empowered manner requires that an employee be trained and consistently updated on the technical skills needed to perform in their area of responsibility. Interpersonal skills involve the skills required for an employee to effectively work with others when acting in an empowered manner. These skills include effective communication and respect for themselves and others, as well as understanding personal styles and how they affect individual and team performance.

Opportunity
This element involves providing employees with the time, tools, and resources necessary to act in an empowered manner. Expecting empowered actions while neglecting the required time, tools, and resources will result in employee frustration. Additionally, it is extremely important to provide employees with the process and guidelines for being empowered. Employees need to understand the steps they can take to solve a problem or improve a condition. Without clearly defined guidelines and processes, many well-intentioned empowerment initiatives bring unsatisfactory and, in some cases, disastrous results.

How involved and empowered do employees in your organization feel? 

There is one way to find out – ask them. Conduct an Employee Perception Survey. Putting in place an effective employee feedback program is the responsibility of strong and confident leaders. In order to develop an involved and empowered workforce, an organization’s leadership team must provide the necessary coaching, guidance, and facilitation to foster its development. Identifying the areas employees feel are in need of special attention and focus will help direct those development efforts.

If you are trying to ensure a culture of employee involvement and empowerment, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). Tweed-Weber can provide you with a proven method for obtaining employee feedback that can serve as the foundation for the elements of genuine employee engagement.

Are you providing unrivaled customer service?

Because the business climate in virtually all industries has become increasingly competitive, and the marketplace continues to change, it is even more important for all employees of an organization to demonstrate responsiveness and respect toward their customers. This means developing a whole new orientation toward customer service.

Business in general is becoming much more customer-focused in this new era of ubiquitous technology that allows for instant personal contact. Companies are recognizing that the degree to which they meet or exceed their customers' expectations will dictate their relative success in the marketplace. In order to be customer-oriented, it is important that your people understand these expectations and perform accordingly. It is also important that your people develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable and empower them to demonstrate customer responsiveness and respect.

Two Points of Focus

Unrivaled Customer Service begins with two points of focus, customer expectations and organizational outcomes. Customer expectations fall into two areas: needs and wants. When a customer's problem is solved, his or her needs are met. When a customer is made to feel good, his or her wants are satisfied. Providing unrivaled customer service means that your people understand both your customers' needs AND wants.

The first step in identifying what customers want and need is to ask them. Conducting a Customer Perception Survey to identify exactly how your customers view you is essential to understanding how to satisfy them in the future. Annual customer surveys are a best practice among the top organizations that taut unrivaled service.

Organizational outcomes fall into three areas: quality in fact, process outcomes, and final results. If your organization is not getting the outcomes it needs to survive and succeed, then you risk being marginalized in the market, or worse yet, going out of business. It is critical that you are able to balance customer expectations with organizational outcomes.

The Internal Customer/Supplier Chain

Experience shows that most external customer disappointments are created by internal process problems. Often, people within the organization are not working together to serve the customer. An effective way to deal with this is to clarify the internal customer/supplier chain. Every employee in your organization has other employees who are their internal customers. Everyone also has internal suppliers, people they depend on for support to do their jobs.

Organizations with a focus on unrivaled service work hard to clarify this internal customer/supplier chain. Every person needs to know precisely who his or her internal customers are, and what they need and want. Imagine everyone in your organization focusing on their internal customer, and working together to serve your external customers.

Knowing what your customers need and want and delivering it are two different things. The critical ingredients in are people and processes. First, your people must have the knowledge and skills to serve your customers effectively. Second, your internal processes must be designed for unrivaled service.

If you are trying to differentiate your organization through unrivaled service, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). Tweed-Weber can help you identify what your customers need and want, not only today, but in the future, so that you can be the consistent market leader.

Tweed-Weber’s Strategic Planning Q&A

1) What is strategic planning?

 

Strategic planning is the process by which an organization envisions its future and develops the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future. The basic steps of the strategic planning process include preplanning research, SWOT analysis, strategic assumptions, identification of key issues facing the organization, and the development of mission and vision statements, long-range strategies, strategic actions and operational objectives. Overall:

• Defining how you will differentiate your organization in its service area.
• Determining the direction in which your organization should be headed.
• Building change activities into the organization’s daily work activities.

2) Why should an organization do strategic planning?

The primary motive for organizations to do strategic planning is to make decisions based on preplanning research and purposeful thinking. There are many specific reasons for an organization to initiate a strategic planning process, including the following:

• provide a structure for management
• give the organization better control over external forces 
• serve as a tool for decision making and resource allocation
• develop a strategy for innovation so the organization can compete effectively
• bring everyone together in the organization so that they are on the same wavelength
• raise management/employee awareness of current issues and operations 
• reawaken and motivate key people within the organization 
• position the organization for a merger or joint venture 
• create a document suitable for fundraising and/or public relations 
• increase morale within an organization and develop a sense of trust and cohesion 
• set the stage for the organization to make a "quantum leap" to a new level of product/service development or functioning

3) What is the difference between strategic planning and annual planning?

Annual planning has an operational focus and is concerned primarily with concrete goal setting and the scheduling of specific tasks to meet these goals. It does not usually concern itself with an analysis of the external environment or the fit between the organization and the environment. Strategic planning gives explicit recognition to the organization’s outside environment and places an emphasis on the organization’s strategic advantage in meeting the contingencies in this environment. Although strategic planning also involves goal setting, it is broader in scope and much more comprehensive than operational planning.

4) How long does it take an organization to complete a strategic plan?

The amount of time it takes an organization to complete a strategic plan varies greatly depending on a number of factors, including; the size and complexity of the organization, past experience with strategic planning, accessibility of planning data, and time and availability of planning participants. In general, it will take an organization about two to three months to complete a strategic planning process.

5) When should an organization do strategic planning?

While there is no “right” time to do strategic planning, it is usually inadvisable to initiate a strategic planning process if the management team is extremely weak, if there are serious internal conflicts, or if top leadership has recently left the organization. There are advantages to doing strategic planning when the organization is in a relatively strong position, as management may feel more confident about undertaking a serious, in-depth examination of products and services. If things are going well, however, people may feel no real need to change. On the other hand, if the organization is in a state of transition and introspection, there may be more openness to a process of renewal and to consideration of a new direction for the organization.

6) How often does an organization have to redo their strategic plan?

It is a good practice to review and update the strategic plan on an annual basis. For most organizations, adjustments are made at the level of strategies and perhaps goals. Most of the time, changes would not be made on an annual basis to the language of the mission and vision statements unless there have been dramatic changes and shifts in the organization's external environment during the past year.

7) Who should staff the strategic planning activity?

There is no one right answer to this question that would apply to a broad range of organizations. It is typically a mixture of management and staff members. However, it is important for one person to be responsible for guiding and monitoring the process. Even if the group uses an outside consultant, it is still important that there be a staff person on the inside who works closely with the consultant and the strategic planning committee. Typically, this staff person is the president.

8) How much do you mix management and staff in planning?

In general, the planning process will be more productive if it includes participation of management and key staff members. In preparing to plan, one of the important steps is the establishment of the strategic planning committee. All members of the planning committee need to receive an orientation to the planning process so that they understand what strategic planning is, the steps involved, as well as the time commitment required. Beyond the strategic planning committee, other stakeholders can be involved in various information gathering activities including completion of surveys, participation in focus groups, and attendance at periodic review sessions.

9) When implementing the strategic plan, what factors most significantly enhance or inhibit that part of the process?

What is always most critical is the level of involvement that people have while developing the strategic plan. In general, if people are involved in the process in meaningful ways, they will be ready to do their part in implementing the plan that results from the process. The opposite is also true - if people whose involvement is critical to the successful implementation of the plan have not been involved in meaningful ways, they will not be excited about the plan nor will they be very motivated to take some responsibility for implementation.

10) How does an organization stay focused on its vision when there is a major change in the organization's management? Does the organization have to start all over?

If the strategic planning process and the development of organizational vision involved a wide circle of management and staff, it is less likely that a change in leadership will cause the organization to lose focus. You don't have to start over in most cases. In fact, having a strategic plan in place should help in recruiting the new leadership.

If you would like to learn more about strategic planning, give us a call. We can help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Tweed-Weber's Information Assessment Profile

Have you ever wondered about your organization’s current level of awareness and knowledge relative to your market(s)? Tweed-Weber has developed a tool that can help you focus on the three essential areas of market information: Market Characteristics, Market Perception, and Competitive Information.

 

In this assessment, we ask you to decide to what extent 15 specific descriptions are true of your organization today. The following are five to show you as an example:

• We have identified the markets that represent opportunity for us. We have further prioritized these markets to focus our efforts on those that represent the greatest opportunities for us.
• We have a tool to monitor our customers’ needs. We systematically use this tool on a continuous basis. As a result, we know precisely, at any time, the needs of our customers. This tool includes an established method to statistically measure our customers’ level of satisfaction with our products and services. As a result, we are continuously aware of our customers’ level of satisfaction with our performance.
• We conduct a competitive assessment with our customers on a regularly scheduled basis. As a result, we are completely knowledgeable as to how our customers perceive us versus our competitors.
• We have an instrument and systematic method to understand the key steps in our markets’ purchasing and distribution processes. We use this instrument on a regular basis. As a result, we are constantly aware of shifts in our markets’ purchasing and distribution behavior.
• We have a tool and method to monitor our markets’ needs. We use this tool on a regular basis. As a result, we are constantly aware of the needs of our markets and their product and service preferences.

After completing the full assessment, Tweed-Weber will score your answers and provide you with your own personal Information Assessment Status. The result will help you to focus on the areas of most need (Market Characteristics, Market Perception, and/or Competitive Information), so you can enhance and optimize your organization’s overall knowledge about your market(s).

 

If you would like to learn more about Tweed-Weber’s Information Assessment Profile, feel free to contact us. We will help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

 

Assessing a High Performance Team

Teamwork in business has become one of the hottest subjects in business and supervision literature. Everywhere you look, there is another article on self-directed teams, self-managing teams, cross-functional teams, project teams, quality improvement teams, and of course, management teams. The primary reason for this is simple.

 

It appears that baby boomers and other people born after World War II like being part of a team. Where their parents relied on themselves, their own skills, their own motivation, and their own ability to get the job done, later generations look to their peers for the support, motivation, and assistance to achieve work-related objectives. Whereas those people born prior to 1946 (the year traditionally used to mark the beginning of the baby boom) generally want to be told what to do and simply allowed to do it, the people born after 1946 want to be involved in as many aspects of their business lives as possible. They want to participate. They want to be “in on things.” They want to know why they are doing the work they are doing. They want to feel they are contributing to a “greater good.” They want to feel they are part of a team.

 

This emerging reality causes us to focus on two fundamental questions:

1. What is the difference between a group of people and a team?
2. What is the difference between a team and a “high performance” team?

The key difference between a group of people and a team is a team is a group of people pulling together in the same direction and dependent on each other for their common success. 

 

The distinction between a team and a high performance team is not so easily drawn. In order for a team to be properly described as high performance, it must possess seven characteristics. These characteristics are: 

1. A mission that motivates 
2. Common goals 
3. Mastery of the fundamentals 
4. A communications system 
5. Trust 
6. A need for continuous improvement and the ability to correct course
7. A task/social mix

When all seven of these characteristics are present, the performance level of a team increases significantly. It moves from average performance to high performance, and its members enjoy the corresponding benefits. Let’s take an in-depth look at each of these characteristics and the role they play in team building efforts.

 

A mission that motivates

A mission raises people above the day-to-day tasks that make up the bulk of what we call work. This is no less important when attempting to focus a team than when attempting to lead individuals. In order for a team to rise above the average, it must have a focus that is above the average. High performance teams have a clearly defined mission. They are able to look beyond the immediately visible and see the future. Most importantly, it is a future that is worth the extra effort required if the team is to distinguish itself through its performance.

 

Common goals

While a mission is the first characteristic of a high performance team, it alone is not enough to unite the individuals who comprise the team. Somewhere along the path to exceptional performance, that mission must be converted into specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based goals – goals that can be seen and touched.

 

Organizations invest a considerable amount of time, effort, and energy in establishing strategic goals, annual performance plans, and budgets. Once established, these goals should be measured on a regular basis. If you learn about and pay attention to these planning functions, you should be able to connect the vision of your mission with your actions as team members.

 

Mastery of the fundamentals

Once a team has a mission that motivates its performance and goals to direct its activity, it is essential the individuals who comprise the team have the skills necessary to successfully achieve the first two characteristics. Average teams have ability. High performance teams master the fundamentals. They know the basic skills of their work so well their execution of those basics is instinctive.

 

A communications system

On closer examination, however, you would find the main reason people feel communication is a problem is there is often no real agreement as to what they should be meeting or talking about. The business world does not suffer from a lack of communication, but rather from unfocused communication. Everyone is talking; we just are not talking about the same things.

 

High performance teams do not just communicate, they agree as to what the communication should center around. They have a system for communication.

 

Trust

Whenever two or more people work together, the question of trust is bound to be raised.

 

High performance team members understand there are three different kinds of trust that must exist if true trust is to exist. Those three kinds of trust are:

1. Disclosure trust is the trust that exists when any member of a team believes he or she can say absolutely anything to any other team member without fear of being criticized, ridiculed, or talked about behind his or her back.
2. Contractual trust is knowing when someone makes a commitment to you, they have every intention of keeping that commitment – at the time it is made.
3. Informational trust is the ability to trust what a person says to you is, to the best of that person’s knowledge, true, complete, and accurate.

A need for continuous improvement and the ability to correct course

All teams perform at some level. High performance teams perform at a level consistently above the average team. One reason is they are never satisfied with their present level, whatever it might be. They consistently strive for continuous improvement as a natural part of their day-to-day activities. Course correction is the ability to realize you are going down the wrong path and having the courage to change direction. This is often easier said than done because it sometimes requires an admission that an earlier decision was wrong.

 

A task/social mix

The final characteristic of high performance teams may seem trivial at first, but upon closer examination you will find it is actually the result of the presence of the first six elements. This seventh characteristic is a task/social mix. Sometimes referred to as the “beer and pizza syndrome,” task/social mix is the ability of team members to enjoy and appreciate each other’s company on a personal, as well as a professional basis. It is the ability to grow and improve from simply being together, regardless of the setting.

 

As you invest your energies in building a high performance team, it is essential you understand the role each of these characteristics plays in your efforts. All are required if you are to build a truly high performance team. Most importantly, you, as a member of your team, must constantly and objectively evaluate your team’s progress toward them. The status of being a high performance team does not come without effort. The results, however, are clearly worth the work.

 

Everyone enjoys being part of a winning team. Research shows that winning teams demonstrate certain characteristics and patterns of behavior. By assessing how frequently and effectively your team demonstrates these characteristics, you will be able to make improvements that are necessary to become a truly high performance team. For more information on how to embark upon a High Performance Team Assessment, call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

 

 

The Role and Responsibilities of a Director: Not-for-Profit Governance Best Practices

By Al Weber, President, Tweed-Weber, Inc.

Given the number of not-for-profit organizations we work with, it is not uncommon for the leaders, both professional and volunteer, to ask us for some guidance as they develop their boards of directors. They typically want to get a better idea of what their (the board's) responsibilities are and exactly what they need to do to fulfill their fiduciary and governance responsibilities. Additionally, they want some idea of how they can function more effectively. Below is a checklist addressing the common role and responsibilities of a board member and the best practices that should be adopted by a board to help ensure those responsibilities are fulfilled.

 

Over the coming months, we will address these areas in greater depth through our blog. In the meantime, feel free to download your own copy* and incorporate them into the governance dialog within your organization.

*If a preview does not appear on your screen, click "File," then "Download." You will need Adobe PDF.
 

 

Role of a Director

 

The role of a director is to serve as a steward of a community asset. Effective stewardship requires the commitment of time, talent, and treasure. 

 

Responsibilities of a Director

• Hire and manage the President/Executive Director.
• Approve the mission and strategic direction of the organization.
• Approve the budget/financial plans of the organization (to include borrowing, capital expenditures, investments, etc.).
• Oversee the performance of the organization (relative to established plans, defined standards, and required regulations).
• Promote/represent the organization in the community.
• Provide advice and assistance as requested.
• Participate in the assessment and perpetuation of the board.
• Support the organization financially.

 

Governance Best Practices

• Develop a board matrix and recruit directors based on it.
• Establish and enforce term limits.
• Define, in writing, expectations of board membership.
• Conduct new board member orientation.
• Conduct “industry” training for all board members.
• Provide board members with ongoing industry and good-governance information.
• Conduct a board self-assessment on a predefined basis.
• Evaluate each director prior to re-nominating him/her.
• Evaluate the Executive Director annually.
• Establish standing committees with written charters and annual goals.
• Develop board and committee meeting formats.
• Produce and distribute (widely) board and committee meeting minutes/reports.
• Evaluate committee performance annually.
• Develop board and committee leadership succession plans.
• Engage board members in strategic and annual planning activities.
• Provide board members with opportunities to socialize.

 

If you would like information on how to conduct a board self-assessment or a CEO/Executive Director performance evaluation, feel free to contact Tweed-Weber through any of the following methods: via telephone at 1-800-999-6615, by email at mail@tweedweber.com, on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.), or on Twitter (@TweedWeber).

Social Media and Market Research

In today’s ever-changing society, social media impacts everything it touches. From everyday tasks to communicating to friends and those in different countries, social media opens the door for new and improved ways of thinking, communicating, and doing. But how does social media affect research?

With everything in life, utilizing social media the right way will help benefit a business with marketing, branding, and other important aspects that shape a business. There are six easy “tips” for implementing social media in a business, ultimately improving results.

Tip One: Track trends
You may be asking yourself what a trend is. According to Webster, a trend is a general direction of change, a way of behaving, proceeding, etc. that is developing and becoming more common. A trend can also be depicted as a trend line – showing the general direction that a group of points seem to be heading – either upwards, downwards, or staying the same over time. But how does one track changes? It’s easy. Social media – Twitter or Facebook – makes it simple by offering many ways to analyze trends. These sites allow one to search posts, both new and old, and popular ideas, giving insight to the emerging trends of customers and prospects. By doing this, it allows one to see what people are looking for and what they need.

Tip Two: Learn the language of your audience
Learning the language of your audience is extremely important because it helps a business grow. The language you may think is appropriate may not always be what your customers are thinking or view as being important. Social media gives an outlet to businesses because it is a free tool where one can analyze comments and data about certain products, services, or brands offered by a business. By utilizing these results, a business can change their direction and focus on the areas where they see the greatest impact to costumers.

Tip Three: Social media = quick research
Market research, traditionally speaking, involves the implementation of surveys or study groups, but today with social media, the implementation is easier because it is so fast. Because of its fast-paced nature, the results may be there, but beware: are they always correct?

Tip Four: Broaden the scope of your market research
According to a Nielson report, 80 percent of people use the Internet to utilize social media. With such a large percentage, it gives a business a larger audience to conduct market research.

Tip Five: Discover unnoticed trends
Research is driven by questions, and asking the right ones, the right way, will give great results to those burning questions businesses want to know. With social media, information is gained through interaction and observation, which is easy since it is all just a “click” away. It gives a person the choice to be either an observer or a participant in the discussions found on social media, but it can also help a business discover new and innovative ways of thinking and doing.

Tip Six: Cost-effective
Social media is  cost-effective. It is a great tool for research, as well as advertising because it reaches millions of people. Though it does take time to use social media, if it is used right, it can greatly benefit a business.

Now that the journey through the six “tips” of social media is complete, it is up to you to see if it fits for you. Social media is present in everything we do; it surrounds us. But is that always a good thing? Do we want everything at a “click” of a button? Social media is very accessible to those who know how to operate the different sites and how to use it to benefit their business. As you saw throughout this article, social media helps you track and discover trends, broaden the scope of your market, and is cost-effective. These are all enticing, but how does it influence research?
It makes it easier to find results and to analyze trends to who don’t know where to begin. Social media is always changing to adapt to society, and so must a company. It helps a business know the markets surrounding them and how they can create a niche to adapt to them. How do you exactly do this? 

Market opportunity assessments and market perception surveys allow a business to see how they are doing in their given markets, and if they should look into a new and/or different niche. If you don’t know where to begin, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).Today, sit back and allow us to do all the work, and help you figure out the perfect picture for your company. No one can guarantee certainty, but market research can guarantee clarity. You will Know More, so you can Do More.

The Five Sources of Cost Advantage

There are five commonly recognized sources of cost advantage – people, material/supplies, processes/systems, facilities, and capital. It is not necessary to focus on all of them in order to experience the benefits of being the lowest cost producer in your industry; any one could be enough. However, by achieving a true cost advantage in more than one source, you further ensure your company’s success.

 

Now, let’s explore each of these five sources and determine the relationship it has on your business.

 

People

 

Many organizations boast that their people are their most important asset. While this may be true, people can also represent the most significant cost to a company when you shift from the balance sheet to the operating statement.

Companies do not become the lowest cost producers by paying their people the lowest wages and benefits possible. They become the lowest cost producers by leading and managing their employees to performance levels that exceed those of their competition. To do this, they continuously focus on enhancing the skills of their people. They create highly flexible employees who are capable of meeting the demands of an ever-changing marketplace.

 

Lowest cost companies create highly disciplined teams who understand their real competition is outside of their organization, not inside. They: 

• tell their people what to do
• support them in their efforts to do it
• measure how well they do it
• reward and/or discipline based on their measurements

Materials/Supplies

All companies use materials and supplies to produce their products or perform the services that their customers buy. Lowest cost companies do not simply focus on the lowest unit price of materials or supplies, they establish purchasing practices that result in the lowest total cost for these materials and supplies.

 

This distinction is essential because the lowest unit price for a particular purchased product may not be the lowest total cost for the same material. Lowest cost companies identify and separate their strategic purchases from their low-risk purchases. They then align their purchasing resources to ensure that strategic material purchases receive the level of attention they deserve. They understand and track their total purchasing costs and work hard to continuously reduce them.

 

Processes/Systems

 

Everything that a company does is a process. From the way it hires to the way it fires, from entering orders to collecting receivables, from manufacturing products or delivering services to the way you ensure their quality, everything that an organization does can be reduced to a series of definable steps. Processes that are linked together become a system. Lowest cost producers design their processes and resulting systems to be highly efficient.

 

Organizational processes and systems can be classified into four basic categories:

• Sales processes – positioning your company and products, generating leads, converting those leads into orders, and entering those orders into your operations
• Operational processes – engineering and manufacturing your products, and ensuring the quality of your products/services
• Distribution processes – getting your products or services to your customers
• Support processes – human resource activities, management information systems, financial management, administration activities (to name a few). Support processes are essential for your sales, operational, and distribution processes.

As a company grows, these processes and systems tend to evolve with it. Lowest cost companies recognize that evolution does not always yield efficiency, and they constantly evaluate and re-engineer their processes to ensure they are performed in the lowest cost way possible.

 

Facilities

 

After people and materials, the most significant cost center for companies is often their facilities. Facilities include physical plant (offices and factories), equipment and technology hardware.

 

Lowest cost organizations work hard to ensure their offices and/or manufacturing facilities are designed to produce the most cost-efficient performance. They invest in the most effective capital equipment to do the essential work of their business. Increasingly, lowest cost companies look for ways to use technology to increase their productivity and reduce their costs.

 

Capital

 

The last (but not least) source of cost advantage is capital. Capital falls into two fundamental categories, money that you have (cash on hand and equity) and money that you don’t have (receivables and credit availability). Lowest cost companies recognize and maximize the advantages that come from effective capital management.

 

What does this mean for your business? All of these sources are just the first piece of the puzzle. The rest is actually performing them. Once all of these pieces come together, the picture it paints will be one that customers can’t look away from. But how does one figure out if all of the pieces are working together? It’s easy; conduct an employee perception survey. This survey is designed to allow you to get into the minds of your employees. It helps you recognize areas that are and are not working. Most importantly, it instills the fact that you care about your employees and the success of both them and the business.

 

If you’re wondering if an employee perception survey is right for you, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).Today, sit back and allow us to do all the work, and help you figure out the perfect picture for your company. No one can guarantee certainty, but market research can guarantee clarity. You will Know More, so you can Do More. 

Market Research and Strategic Planning: Tools for Strategic Management

Over the past several years, much has been written about the value of teams and the positive impact a successful team culture can have on an organization. We believe that to be true, and conduct employee surveys all the time to assess the health and climate of organizations. Greater levels of involvement and empowerment have resulted in statistically supported levels of enhanced productivity. But what about at the leadership level? That is a different ball game. Balancing traditional executive leadership behavior with the elements of successful teaming can be frustrating. A number of actual case studies show that team failures can result in detrimental effects to an organization's overall competitiveness. Where do these initiatives often fail? Typically, they are flawed from the start. You cannot approach a management team the same way you approach a project or functional team. The level of responsibility is obviously different, as well as the nature of the work for which the team is responsible. Successful management teams are created with these differences fully understood from the start by all team members.

A model for high performance teams at the management level is essential because a strong management team "at the top" can be a tremendous source of competitive advantage. In addition, a strong management team is extremely enabling to an organization looking to leverage leadership from a designated individual to a natural team. It takes time, but starting correctly can improve the probability of success.

Developing a game plan
When it comes to strategic planning, it is hard to avoid sports analogies. This is perfectly logical. Business, like sports, requires scouting, planning, skill and execution – all performed in a competitive arena. You could never imagine a professional team in any sport sustaining a winning tradition without a well-constructed, well-executed game plan. A strategic plan is your organization's game plan for winning. When the management team has defined its primary role as providing effective guidance and leadership for the organization, it recognizes strategic planning as the tool. The following are three basic actions that need to be taken in order to develop winning organizational "game plans."

#1 – Involve your management team in discovering what is truly going on in your competitive arena.
Perform a meaningful market analysis that includes a significant level of customer input. This is critical for two reasons: 1) you can't develop a sound plan based on intuitive hunches alone; and 2) your management team needs to develop a consensus relative to what is going on out there. In order for a management team to perform its primary role, the elements of market awareness and urgency will be essential. A purposeful information gathering activity will help address this requirement.

#2 – Develop long-term objectives and define strategies to accomplish those objectives.
It is critical to know where you are heading. Are you looking for a 20% growth in sales with a minimum 12% net profit? Are you looking to increase market share by 50% in a specific area? Are you determined to establish a dominant position in a given market? Whatever you determine, make it a stretch, but attainable. Defining the strategies to get you there depends upon your organization’s source(s) of market advantage. The five sources of market advantage are low price, product differentiation, unrivaled service, niching, and partnering. Upon which source(s) will you base your organization’s growth? In order to determine your organization’s sources(s) of market advantage, you will need to reference the findings of your market research and your team’s assessment of your organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses.

#3 – Communicate the plan and implement the strategies.
Communication is key for successful implementation. Winning companies have a large percentage of employees that understand the mission, vision, values, and strategies of the organization. This common understanding directs their actions. It is extremely important to work towards making communication a more efficient process. Keep in mind that effective communication is an ongoing process which takes discipline.

Bringing it all together
Implementing a strategic plan is an ongoing effort, one that involves the alignment of people and processes behind defined objectives and strategies. We believe this is the responsibility of the management team. Successfully addressing this issue will require your management team to make (and truly believe) the assumption that the large majority of people in the organization (if not all) would rather do a good job than a bad job. People need direction, guidance, feedback, and appraisal in order to work in an effective and efficient manner. Providing this ongoing support should be the responsibility of the management team, and the process and appropriate skills should be developed in order to provide this support effectively. This aspect of managerial performance is often overlooked. Professional management behavior does not naturally evolve, it is developed purposefully. Accountable organizations are those that recognize and act on this principle.

Conducting research and developing a strategic plan is not as daunting as it may appear. If you believe it has merit, it is probably best to talk to someone who has experience in helping similar organizations through the process. Doing this will help you increase your level of awareness and understanding about the requirements, benefits, and potential pitfalls. As you and the people of your organization approach the end of 2013, ask yourselves whether you are ready to make a significant change to take your business to the next level. If the answer is yes, then you will need to do something significantly different, and we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). We would be glad to share our experiences with you and help you decide the right plan of attack for your organization.

A Metric by Any Other Name...

By Al Weber, President, Tweed-Weber, Inc.

 

For some time now, I have become increasingly aware of the use, or perhaps I should say misuse, of the word “dashboard” among managers and executives. I suggest misuse might be the more appropriate description because, as I think back to the first time I heard the term, it had a very specific meaning. That meaning defined the metrics on an organization’s dashboard as leading indicators for the organization. Much like the gauges and warning lights on an automobile’s dashboard, they would communicate what was going on within an organization in (relatively) real time. And as important, they would be immediately actionable. You could do something about them, in short order, to change them. More and more, however, I hear virtually ALL metrics being described as dashboard metrics, and when I look at dashboards, often proudly presented, I find them to be outcome measures or lagging indicators.

 

While outcome measures have value and should represent an effective rear view mirror look at an organization’s performance, they are not always helpful in generating short-term, quick response reactions to the current circumstances going on within that enterprise. Imagine how helpful (or perhaps unhelpful) it would be if, instead of a fuel gauge on your car, you received an automatically generated report stating you had run out of gas four times over the past calendar month. Even if this report had a cumulative year-to-date column and multicolor graphs and charts, you wouldn’t be any better off. Or what if you received a regular report letting you know that you exceeded the posted speed limit 308 times over the past 30 days? While that may only be and average of 10.26 times per day, how many of those events might have resulted in a long conversation with a state police officer?

 

Both a fuel indicator and a speedometer are perfect examples of dashboard instruments. Their jobs are to tell you when you are having a problem, not that you had one. If you know you have a problem, you can apply corrective action. If you don’t know you have a problem, and worse yet, you won’t know if you are having one in the future, all you can do is count the number of speeding tickets you have received and pay your fines in a timely manner to avoid additional penalties.

 

As you look at the metrics you are currently using to run your organization, you need to ask two key questions. 

1. Is the information your metrics provide real time (or as close as possible to real time) data?
2. Is the data actionable?

If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you really aren’t looking at true dashboard indicators. You are looking at some form of outcome measures. You can call them Key Result Areas, Critical Measures of Success, or Key Performance Measures, but don’t confuse them with the dashboard indicators that precede, and often predict, your outcomes.

Research and Strategic Planning: A Foundation for Strategic Change

The word change means to make different, to alter in condition or appearance. In business organizations today, change is all around us. We see constant technological change, political change, social change, economic change, environmental change, and market change. Some change just happens to us. It is beyond our control. Other change happens because we make it happen.

The word strategy means skillful management in getting the better of an adversary or attaining an end. In business organizations, strategy refers to the planned actions we will take to gain and sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Strategic change, therefore, is the process of purposefully making our organization different in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace. It is to make our organization more productive and more effective than our competitors.

Leading Strategic Change
Our work over the years with various manufacturing, service, health care, and human service organizations has focused on developing and implementing strategies. We begin the strategy development process by gathering feedback from important stakeholder groups to avoid “planning in a bubble.” Those stakeholder groups can include employees, customers, prospects, industry leaders, community leaders, etc.

Strategic change begins with the strategic planning process. As top executives of an organization work through the planning process, they identify one or more strategic actions that must be taken to achieve the mission of the organization and to create differentiation in the marketplace. Whenever strategic actions are implemented, change occurs.

The Planner Perspective vs. The User Perspective
The planner is the person or group of people who conceives, develops and implements the change. Users are all of the people who are affected by the change and, to some degree, are expected to change their behavior. Planners tend to concentrate on the physical or mechanical change. They construct plans to deal with this change from their own perspective. However, physical change is almost always accompanied by behavioral change. We ask people to do things differently, yet we fail to look at this change from the user's point of view. Actions to achieve behavioral change must be specifically integrated with those plans which produce physical change.

The process of managing strategic change, from a planner's perspective, follows a linear path from plan generation through implementation and renewal. Specifically, there are seven phases involved in the process: 1) research/information gathering; 2) action plan development; 3) pre­implementation planning; 4) implementation; 5) de-bugging; 6) refinement; and 7) plan renewal. Each phase addresses issues as seen from the planner's perspective.

As the strategic change goes through these seven phases, the people who are affected go through a series of experiences. While the process from a planner's perspective is very linear, the process from a user's perspective contains a number of different iterations. The series of experiences are first explained in levels of use: non-use; mechanical use; and routine use. As the change process goes through the seven phases and users progress through the three levels of use, they also go through eight stages of user concern. Those stages are: 1) awareness; 2) information seeking; 3) personal concern – (how will this affect me?); 4) mechanical concern (how will this work?); 5) new understanding achieved; 6) concern for consequences; 7) acceptance; and 8) commitment.

Facilitation
An experienced facilitator, one who understands the issues discussed in this blog and has demonstrated expertise in research and strategic planning, will add value to an organization's strategic change activities. If you are trying to identify and implement change throughout your organization, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). 

Tweed-Weber’s stakeholder research, coupled with our strategic planning process, can help you proactively execute change within your organization that will help you gain and sustain a competitive advantage in your marketplace.

Understanding Customer Perception is Key to Increased Opportunities

What do you know? Or more important, what should you know? Hearing and clearly understanding the voice of your customer in today’s competitive environment has become an essential and fundamental requirement to future planning. It is ultimately your customer’s voice that matters the most. Successful organizations hear that voice and effectively use it to guide their activities. You may have heard rumors about what your customers are thinking, or even whispers from them along the way, but it is up to you to clearly understand the thoughts and opinions of your customers in order to compete effectively. Your market, and the business environments of your customers, likely have changed significantly over the past few years. The following are just a few examples of crucial information that can be obtained from your customers to see how you can increase your sales volume today.

 

Your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. Does it really matter what you perceive as your organization’s strengths and weaknesses if your customers view them as something entirely different?

 

Competitive information. Recognizing your customers’ opinions about your organization is paramount. Knowing what your customers think about your competition is even better.

 

Unmet customer needs. Your customers are connected to your industry from different angles.

 

Future trends. The state of the economy over the past number of years has been unprecedented. You may have found your industry changing at a pace so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up.

 

Take a moment to consider the importance of customer perceptions on your business and the impact their reality has on your organization. Think also of your organization’s current actions with regard to customer perceptions:

• Can any of the performance issues you face today result from inaccurate awareness of customer perceptions?
• Are your organization’s improvement efforts targeted at addressing critical performance issues as prescribed by your customers?

Many well-run and well-intentioned organizations fall short in these areas. As a result, many improvement efforts target issues that have a relatively low impact on improving customer satisfaction and, therefore, competitive advantage. Management-generated improvement ideas prove effective, but often, and especially in the ongoing stages of organizational improvement, general feelings and intuitions are inadequate triggers for positively affecting customer satisfaction.

  

Many organizations have learned the importance of consistently measuring customer perceptions and satisfaction through a formal customer survey program. A formal process allows customers to share their views about an organization’s performance in a way that is timely and objective, and in today’s market, it is a requirement to staying ahead. Many organizations have expressed a desire to go it alone, but eventually find it challenging to do it in the most effective manner. We have found organizations often ask: 

• Where do I start?
• What method(s) should I use?
• Who should I survey?
• How often should surveys be conducted?
• Who here should implement the surveys?
• How should results be communicated to management?

Our response is simple: we’ll handle it. With nearly three decades of combined experience in market research, our professionals have seen it all and can guide the development and implementation a customer perception survey that will provide an organization with numerous opportunities such as:

• Significant improvement in an organization’s ability to target improvement efforts that will have a real impact on their overall success.
• Improved insight for management and employees into the effects of their actions on customer satisfaction.
• Opportunities to strengthen relationships with key customers.
• Increased business opportunities.

Overall, customer perception surveys can help organizations make strategic decisions, and they provide organizations with a clear understanding of the market’s awareness and perceptions of their products/services. A customer perception survey helps an organization keep its finger on the pulse of a rapidly changing marketplace. 

 

If you’re wondering if a formal customer research program is right for you, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at

www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). The result will be the knowledge you need to make the right decisions to guide your organization into the future. In a world of uncertainty, the ability to clearly focus your organization creates a distinct competitive advantage. No one can guarantee certainty, but market research can guarantee clarity. You will Know More, so you can Do More. 

Are You Measuring What Matters?

We human beings are strange creatures full of contradictions. We often dislike the very things that are best for us. Such is the case with being measured. On one hand, being measured makes us very uncomfortable. It creates within us a degree of anxiety, fear, and apprehension. On the other hand, we almost always improve our performance in areas where we are specifically and regularly measured.

 

Remember high school? Teachers gave homework assignments. Some teachers were not consistent in collecting the homework and never corrected it. Other teachers consistently collected the homework, corrected it carefully, handed it back, and gave you very specific feedback about what you needed to do to improve. Although you might not have liked getting that feedback, it is what helped you learn. Today, those are the teachers you remember. They are the ones who helped you the most and for whom you have the most respect.

 

This is the principle behind Critical Measures of Success. What gets measured gets managed. What gets managed gets done. What gets rewarded gets repeated.

 

Critical Measures of Success are statistical indicators of an organization's performance. A Critical Measure is a statistic or data point that, when tracked over a period of time, will enable you to determine the progress your organization is making toward the intended outcome of the goals you have set. For example, one of our clients established a Critical Measure of a 4.5 for overall customer satisfaction for her company (based on 5.00 being the highest satisfaction rating possible). She asks us to conduct an annual survey of her customers which allows her to benchmark overall satisfaction, as well as other specific areas such as quality, technical abilities, customer service, pricing, lead time, and on-time shipping performance (just to name a few). This survey activity allows her and her management team to evaluate their performance with customers and apply course corrections and improvements as needed, with the goal of achieving and maintaining a 4.5 rating. 

 

The concept of Critical Measures of Success is to identify the critical indicators of your organization. You then monitor these indicators on a regular basis and report the results to your management team. Monitoring and reporting the Critical Measures becomes the basis for communication, problem solving and continuous improvement within your organization.

 

Here are six steps you can use to make Critical Measures of Success a key ingredient for you:

1. Define your Critical Measures of Success.
2. Develop systems to gather the information you need.
3. Display your Critical Measures of Success in a visual form throughout the organization.
4. Build your Critical Measures of Success into your monthly management meetings and employee communication.
5. Involve employees in generating ideas for improvement when your measures are off track.
6. Use your Critical Measures of Success as the basis for employee recognition and rewards, and celebrate your successes.

Many of our clients use these steps to bring people together around common areas for continuous improvement. If you are wondering what’s most important for you to measure within your organization, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

 

Tweed-Weber can help you develop a strategic plan that includes your unique Critical Measures of Success. We can also help you measure your performance from the perspective of your customers so you know, in real numbers, how well you are satisfying your customers in today’s competitive business environment.

Happy Employees = Happy Customers?

Recently, a coworker stepped into our “Morning Jolt” – our rendition of a daily morning meeting or catch-up – telling the most horrid story about customer service. After a few laughs and jokes, we discussed how often we find in our clients’ research that bad customer service is linked to employee satisfaction. It’s inevitable. Employee satisfaction is essential to the success of any business.*

In today’s society, most are driven by money and making that money fast, but they fail to look at all aspects involved in achieving success. With every transaction, every product, and every achievement, there is something hidden in the framework – the employees who make those actions a reality. As such, it only makes sense to keep those “little gems” in your company happy, which will aid in your overall business success.

But what exactly makes an employee unhappy? There isn’t always a flashing neon sign saying “I am unhappy with my job.” The reasons are likely to be more subtle – high stress, lack of communication, and/or limited opportunities for growth, just to name a few. In order to be at peak performance, management should focus on these factors to improve the workplace environment, ultimately increasing satisfaction and reducing turnover rates.

In a recent study by Gallup, businesses with higher employee satisfaction also had 86 percent higher customer ratings, 76 percent more success in lowering turnover, 70 percent higher profitability, and 78 percent better safety records.* What do these statistics mean to you? It’s simple: happy employees equal happy customers. They are the scene-setters for your business. They are the ones interacting every day with your most valued assets – your customers.

Every aspect of a company is somehow linked. For example, imagine the inner workings of a business as a spider web, with the spider being the company. Everything revolves around the spider – each thread of the web (department, employee, policy, etc.) is meticulously constructed to provide the utmost support for its daily life. Each intertwines in some shape or form, and any “hiccup” in the daily business functions of the company, regardless of where, could decrease profitability. For instance, when employee satisfaction dips, so does employee performance, affecting everything in the company.

Research from the University of Missouri shows CEOs who pay attention to employee job satisfaction are better equipped to increase customer satisfaction, as well as the volume of customers who intend to do repeat business.** By asking employees their thoughts on key areas in the company, it gives them a voice. It makes them feel like they belong, and that they are shaping the future of the company. This is extremely vital, especially when maintaining satisfaction on all fronts. But how do you go about doing this? It’s easy; conduct an employee perception survey. Employee research gives you the opportunity to identify what is, and what isn’t, working. By honing in on certain areas, such as overall work environment, employee empowerment, and management support, employee research can help change the “web” of your business.

If employee satisfaction research is an area you are interested in exploring, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). Tweed-Weber can help you include your employees and their perceptions as a foundation for your continued success. 

* Adapted from http://www.neumann.edu/academics/divisions/business/journal/review2011/gregory.pdf.

 

** Adapted from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1039-workers-happy-customers.html.

Creating Long-Term Sales Growth

Whether you make widgets or sell a service, sales growth is always a major issue affecting your company's long-term success. But if you are like many other organizations, how you go about creating long-term sales growth is a daunting challenge. Sell harder? Advertise more? Modify your product or service? What's the most effective path to take, AND how can you do it without spending an inordinate amount of money?

In order to understand how to go about creating long-term sales growth, it's best to get back to fundamentals. The first fundamental understanding involves general market dynamics. If you want your market to buy more from you than your competitors, you need to give them a reason to do so. Is your price consistently lower? Do your products/services better meet their needs? Do you provide better service during and after the sale? Do you understand their business better, or have you established better relationships with their people?

The market is very difficult to predict in many areas. But one area that is predictable is that the market will, by itself, vote for the company that is perceived as meeting their needs the best. And the market votes for the winner with dollars. 

The second fundamental understanding is more specific to your market(s) and your company. What is the nature of your market, its current and evolving needs, and what is your company's perceived ability to meet those needs relative to your competition?

The reason to gain this fundamental understanding is undeniable. As is common with most of us, our perception of the forces and trends affecting our markets and our companies is based on a combination of issues. It is based on our interpretation of various events and situations over time, as well as our many experiences in dealing with those events. Sometimes our interpretations closely match our market's interpretations, but many times they are off base, either by a little or by a lot. If you believe your perception of the market is closely aligned with the market's perception of you without testing that assumption, then you may be in trouble.

Setting sales growth strategies based primarily on subjective perceptions will probably result in something less than what you desire. Furthermore, if you want to get your people behind a strategy, you need to support it with something better than just your good thinking and intuitive prowess.

Obtaining that information is critical. It will serve as the fundamental basis for a strategy to create long-term sales growth. But how do you go about getting that information and what do you do after you've gotten it? That's where research strategic planning comes in and the use of an outside, integrated consulting firm proves its value in helping out.

Research/Information Gathering

Determining market dynamics and your company's competitive advantage is a result of learning your customers' perceptions of their industries, their current and evolving needs, and their interest in companies that are vying to fill those needs (including yours). Normally, this is accomplished through intensive surveying using a number of proven methods. This is best done by an expert, third-party consulting firm. By combining this information with internally generated data, (e.g., sales history, financial performance, etc.) the dynamics of the market and your position within it can be viewed and discussed objectively by your management team. As a result, a consensus can be achieved as to the starting point for determining the sales growth strategy that is right for your company.

Long-Term Sales Growth Strategy Development

Determining the correct sales strategy for your company is the result of combining the work done previously with the fundamental understanding of general market dynamics mentioned earlier. The market embraces the company that meets their needs better than the others. Determining your company's long-term sales strategy will involve defining what those needs are and what you can do to stand-out in meeting those needs in the marketplace.

Think about the affect the activities described previously would have on your company's ability to create long-term sales growth. Your people would see the logic that was involved and be more enthusiastic in supporting and contributing to the company's new and/or revitalized direction.

If you are trying to establish long-term sales growth, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). Tweed-Weber can help you include your market(s) and their perceptions as a foundation for your continued success.

Tweed-Weber Announces a Turnkey, Cost-Effective Board Assessment Survey

Reading, PA - As of September 2012, there were 1,080,130 charitable and religious tax-exempt organizations in the United States. Of them, 82.3 percent had operating budgets of less than $1 million*. Each of these organizations, however, has a board of directors that has an enormous impact on the organization and its ability to fulfill its mission and remain financially viable for future generations. It is not oversimplification to say, no not-for-profit organization ever became great without a great board of directors.

As the summer winds down and not-for-profit boards begin to reconvene, board leaders and organization executives begin to confront the continuing issues of board focus, engagement, and effectiveness. Questions that inevitably emerge include:

• Are board members clear about the mission of the organization?
• Do board members believe the organization's work activities are aligned with the mission?
• Is the board fulfilling its oversight responsibilities?
• Do board members receive the information they need to serve as effective governors of the organization?
• Do board members believe their talents are being used effectively?
• Is the board properly engaged in its work?
• Is the board configured in a way that will deliver the best results for the organization and its key stakeholders?

There is only one way to be sure of the answers to these questions: ask the board members.

Tweed-Weber, Inc., a business consulting firm in Reading, PA, with extensive experience in the not-for-profit community, has developed and tested a board assessment survey reflective of governance best practices.** It has conducted this survey for a wide range of not-for-profit organizations and found it delivers to these organizations the information they need to determine what, if any, changes are needed to ensure they are functioning as good stewards of the community organization for which they serve.

The assessment enables the board to evaluate itself in the following areas:

• Knowledge of the organization's mission/role/purpose
• Involvement in organizational planning
• Oversight of the organization's work activities
• Resource adequacy
• Fiscal oversight
• Marketing and public image/reputation
• New board member selection and orientation
• Board configuration and operations
• Overall organizational status

This survey is conducted online and a complete report is submitted to the board within ten days of the survey's "close" date. It is a complete turnkey process that makes it simple and easy for a board to learn about itself while satisfying an acknowledged best practice. Because Tweed-Weber understands the budget constraints of most not-for-profit organizations, especially the 82.3 percent of small not-for-profits operating under $1 million in revenue, it is offering this entire process from beginning to end for $595.

For more information, contact Tweed-Weber through any of the following methods: via telephone at 1-800-999-6615, by email at mail@tweedweber.com, on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.), or on Twitter (@TweedWeber).


*National Council of Nonprofits.
**McDermott, Will, and Emory list as board best practices the "establishment and maintenance of director orientation, training, continuing education, and self-evaluation programs, with particular emphasis on (i) the effectiveness and adequacy of the Board and its committees; (ii) the sufficiency and timeliness of the information provided by management to the Board; (iii) the background and qualifications of individual directors; and (iv) the contributions of each director to the Board and to mission effectiveness."