Moving up the

You want to grow your business and take the next step. But how can you go about achieving that? Consultant David Fox offers some key advice about rising to the challenge

S

quash clubs are like ladders – you know where you stand; you can fi nd opponents of a similar standing and moving up can be quite challenging and rewarding.

Last week I played in a club championship with

someone 10 leagues above me and the result was predictable. But it turned out to be a terrifi c networking opportunity. Talking after the match I found myself in conversation with someone who had tried to grow a business and failed. Four partners in a joint venture, each one convinced they were agreed on the way forward and yet they never managed to grow the business beyond a certain level. Sound familiar? My experience tells me that this is a common phenomenon.

There are four key areas I want to discuss: 1 Desire – the will to succeed; 2 Commitment; 3 Techniques/skills/abilities; and 4 Results.

Let’s look at each of these in turn and relate them to a practical example.

1 Desire – the will to succeed

Many businesses will say they have a clear strategy and know how they will achieve it. Wrong. Most businesses have a very poor understanding of strategy and how it impacts on their business and if you ask for a written copy you are often told: ‘Well, I had it somewhere’; or: ‘We had a great away-day and we all agreed on what we should be doing’; or: ‘I think it was about making more money – isn’t that enough?’ Managing a transition to the

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ECA Today Summer 2010

About the author

David Fox

David Fox is head of FoxBreeze Limited. After a successful corporate career turning around failing companies, he has spent the last 20 years assisting individuals and companies to maximise their potential. FoxBreeze is a preferred provider for the ECA.

ladder

next level is not diffi cult but it does require focus and discipline. The focus is provided by a strategy that clearly sets out what the business will achieve. The key here is being clear about the outcomes you want to achieve – and clear means detailed, with timescales. At this stage you don’t have to set out how you are

going to achieve the outcomes you want. You do have to be clear about where you are going – and the vision you have of the future should be something you have a great desire to achieve.

2 Commitment

Drawing up a strategy and fi ling it is a waste of time. Strategy has to be lived and breathed every day. If you are the chief executive, managing director or owner you have to drive the strategy forwards every day. If you don’t then who will? The reason why it’s easy to put to one side is because

there are always other things more urgent, more pressing. Strategy concerns the future so it’s easy to leave until tomorrow. The way to get around this is to make a clear and unambiguous commitment to moving the important elements of the business forward consistently. The clients I work with do this through a process of making commitments (rather than a simple ‘to do’ list) and ensuring that those one, two or three major commitments are moved forward each day. I fi nd that at this stage of their careers, senior people

are often in a rut without even being aware of it. One of the skills I have is in helping people become aware of that and assisting them, through a series of processes, to work out for themselves how they want to change. Once they have decided, and committed, themselves to a course of action, they work hard to make it a reality and they succeed.

3 Techniques/skills/abilities

Senior, competent people have developed a set of skills. In terms of managing a transition, these skills can be very useful. It’s also likely that some of the skills and abilities they have developed may not be the ones required to Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68