14 July 2012
THESE past weeks, I interacted with various Malaysian corporate leaders and observed a common thread among them they always achieved their goals, regardless of circumstance.
For example, Suhaimi Sulong, current HR leader at Proton, shared with me a personal story when he was a young sales person at IBM. He had a meeting with a potential client at the airport and was close to nailing the sale. Unfortunately, the client's flight to Japan was boarding but he had yet closed the deal. Suhaimi did not want to lose that sale. So, got a ticket to Japan, sat next to his potential client on the flight and convinced him to sign the deal. He took the next flight back with the closed sale in hand.
A man wipes the logo of the Dell IT firm at the CeBIT exhibition centre in Hannover. Dell’s business model and strategy is public property yet few have been able to replicate its success. The reason is no company is able to copy the manner in which Dell executes its plans. — Reuters
Mission accomplished
Datuk Lee Choong Yan, President of Genting, shared stories of numerous occasions early in his career, where he had to work hard and execute. His ability to execute was the determining factor on his performance and success. It sounds so easy, but the ability to get things done, is one of the most treasured acts in business.
Just like many of you, I battle distraction and am overwhelmed by numerous tasks and opportunities daily. There is always a torrent of attention-grabbing things tempering my curiosity. A rib-tickling YouTube video, a thought-provoking article, 500 emails a day and never-ending meetings. There is never enough time to do “real work”.
This battle for execution is one that I wage daily. And it never ends. Yet, it is this battle that needs to be won. Great leaders not only triumph over distractions, they succeed and get real work done. They understand that the art of getting things done.
A study from Fortune reveals that 70% of CEOs failure is the result of CEOs not taking action. What actions did these CEOs fail to take? By not getting things done, by being indecisive, by not delivering on commitments and by bad execution.
Charles Schwab rose from laborer to the executive ranks through his ability to execute. “Schwab was not an originator, he was a builder”, commented his boss Andrew Carnegie. Schwab once told a story of a highly talent mill manager who worked for him who just could not get his mill to produce fully. The manager tried everything he could but failed.
Schwab went over at the end of the day, took a piece of chalk and asked the day supervisor “How many heats has your shift made today?” The supervisor answered “Six”. He chalked a big “6” on the floor, and then passed along without another word. When the night shift came in they saw the “6” and asked about it.
“The big boss was in here today,” said the day men. “He asked us how many heats we had made, and we told him six. He chalked it down.”
The next morning Schwab passed through the same mill and saw that the “6” had been rubbed out and a big “7” written instead. The night shift had surpassed the day shift. That night he went back and the “7” had been erased, and a “10” paraded itself. He had somehow created a competition among the night and day shift without a single word. This went on for months until the mill, formerly the poorest mill, became the highest performing plant of all. He somehow managed to get it done.
The best leaders, like Schwab, know how to ensure work gets done. So, do great companies. In the 80s and 90s, Toyota produced better results than General Motors (GM) because it executed better.
Execution is critical
The number one enemy of any strategy is poor execution. Dell's business model and strategy is public property yet few have been able to replicate it. The reason, according to Michael Dell, founder of Dell, on why his “direct business model” continues to work, is because “we execute it. It's all about execution.” Southwest Airlines has been profitable every year for the past 30 years. Its' strategy is known, yet like Dell, no company has successfully copied its execution. Walmart won for years through the power of its ruthless execution, becoming the world's largest store.
Banking is great example of execution determining success. Most retail banks have strategies that are practically indistinguishable. Their strategies generally revolve around targeting and engaging the same customers, having world-class service and relationship management, innovative product development, and risk management. Yet, there are winners and losers in banking. The winners: Banks that distinguish themselves by the quality of their execution.
The windows of opportunities open and shut much quicker than ever before. Customers today expect everything from service to resolving their problems instantly. Delay is not acceptable, is costly and can destroy businesses. The best leaders never procrastinate. They possess an innate drive that values speed and action to complete a task.
Ideas are critical. Businesses get created through the development of innovative products that aid people, resolve problems, create value and are scalable. Yet, there will always be more good ideas than the capacity to execute them. Yet this capacity to execute will determine if a good idea ends up as a product in the market or dies an unlived life.
Having an idea is meaningless unless someone steps in and does some work. That separates an idea from an actual innovation. But taking action is pretty tough. It requires decisions to happen, products to be made, politics to be navigated through and budgets to fought for. It all boils down to execution.
Years ago, HP hired Carly Fiorina, as CEO to take the company forward with new innovative ideas and a bold new direction. She set in place the greatest merger in history and planned to have innovative new products from this merger. Seven years later, the merger failed and she was fired. New CEO Mark Hurd came in and pulled a great turnaround through ruthless execution and no-nonsense discipline. He cut expenses, improved efficiencies and put the right people into key roles, driving operating results in the process.
Learn to execute
Mark Douglas, an expert trader said, “The proper execution of your trades is one of the most fundamental components of becoming a successful trader and probably the most difficult to learn. Most traders find it is much easier to identify an opportunity, than it is to act upon it.” The same applies to all fields. Making opportunities a reality requires discipline and focus.
The key problem is habitual. Taking action is painful and forces us to do stuff, requiring discipline. Most of us hate discipline as prefer to remain in our comfort zones.
The trick is to start at the beginning stage of a task. Starting is very hard so start immediately. Start working on your to-do list the moment you wake up and don't procrastinate. Once you get one task done, even if it is a seemingly insignificant task, adds momentum to your day. This is first lesson on getting things done: Don't wait for a perfect opportunity. Just Do It Now.
Everyone can learn execution. There is no secret ingredient. It's all about hard work and discipline, but it can be mastered. Here are my top 10 ways on how to master getting things done:
1. Win the early morning battle daily. Resist the temptation to get sucked into checking email or wasting time in meaningless work. A quick win in the morning sets the right tone for determining how the rest of the day plays out.
2. Make a list of the tasks you need to accomplish. Assign realistic priorities to each task (due today, tomorrow, next Friday etc). Work on your MITs (most important tasks).
3. Work on small portions of each task daily. Don't wait till its near due date to complete the task. When you hit a wall, stop working on the task and work on another task. Don't watch TV or go on Facebook. Keep working on another task instead.
4. Eat the Cockroach: Do your most unpleasant task first. If the first thing you do in the morning is “eat a cockroach”, the day can only get better from then on.
5. Work in intervals and then take a break by rewarding yourself with a chocolate (or a healthier snack!) and then return to finish another portion of work. Make sure you decide upfront on your intervals to work and your timing for the break and stick to that decision.
6. During your break, reassess where you are and see if there is a new perspective you can bring to the work for the next interval.
7. Always keep track of your progress. Cross things off the list as they are completed. It will give you a good sense of achievement and motivate you to complete all other tasks.
8. Be Clear About your end goal. Reassess your execution list daily. Rewrite and reprioritise as needed. The clearer the end goal is, the easier it is to get moving. Always ask yourself “What needs to be done next to move this project forward?”
9. Leverage technology to complete tasks more quickly, efficiently or accurately. There is always a shorter and better way to get things done. Look for the fastest option which will give you the best results.
10. Be passionate about your work. Passion brings energy. If you don't actually care about what you're doing, it's very unlikely you will not do it.
Final thoughts
I love the African tale about the importance of running and getting things done: “Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up and knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed and eaten. Also in Africa a lion wakes up and knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death. It does not matter if you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better start running.”
This same tale applies to us as individuals and as businesses. If we want to succeed, planning which shoe to wear for the run may be important, but never as important as the running itself. That is what great leaders do. They just get things done. As Nike would say, they “just do it”. Are you getting things done?
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