FEATURED POST OF THE WEEK

Our long-form article of the week. You can always view the current and past featured posts on Empower’s blog.

Strong operations: A key ingredient to bringing your business strategy to life

What happens when you have a great strategy but can’t act and make the outcomes a reality? You lose.

That may sound blunt, but it’s true. Even with the best strategy, if you can’t execute, you won’t fulfill your potential.

Let’s use an example from the past to illustrate this point.

Toys “R” Us had a strategy that worked well for a while. However, at a certain point, they stopped being laser-focused on the customer and the strategic direction that would allow them to continue delivering a differentiated value proposition.

There are plenty of cautionary tales from the past, but the big takeaway is this: If you’re investing time to formulate a winning strategy, you should also think critically (i.e., invest the appropriate amount of time and resources) about how to execute effectively and remain flexible enough to evolve when the market shifts.

Often, a strategy-execution gap exists among teams, which can further these struggles.

This occurs when:

• Strategy isn’t clearly and continuously communicated to everyone on the team.

• Leaders forget it’s not just about communicating a message, but rather that a strategy must be distilled into language that everyone can understand.

• Resource availability and allocation weren’t carefully considered when establishing a strategy, so your team isn’t equipped to succeed.

• You lack flexibility, limiting your ability to adapt if market factors change mid-course.

• Strong accountability structures don’t exist across the team.

What can help your ability to implement a strong strategy? Ding, ding, ding! Strong operational design.

Operations can be a broad category, and sometimes it’s hard to fit it into a well-defined “box.” However, simply put, operations ensure the daily activities of your business align with long-term objectives.

Strategy and operations are interconnected and you need strength in both to succeed. There’s a complete feedback loop: Operations takes direction from strategy, and strategy is refined and improved based on operational performance. I’ll explain how below.

How strategy informs operations

• Resource allocation: Strategy clarifies what resources should be leveraged to achieve objectives. Operations takes those inputs and makes the appropriate allocation decisions to align execution to the strategy.

• System and process focus: Strategy informs which systems and processes should be refined by operations first, again based on the outlined long-term objectives.

• Metrics: Strategy should define what success looks like, enabling operations to establish the right metrics for measuring performance.

Operations also serve to refine strategy

• Real-time feedback: Insights and data collected on performance metrics provide real-time, continuous input to the strategy’s effectiveness. This allows leadership to make more dynamic adjustments and not hold fast to a strategy that isn’t working.

• Capability assessment: Operations should be able to surface internal capabilities and limitations, which is necessary feedback to stress test whether a business’s strategy is achievable.

• Surfacing innovation: Observations from front-line operations often uncover new opportunities to innovate, which can inform strategic direction.

While strong operations can make a business with a great strategy shine, it can’t put lipstick on a bad strategy. If you’re targeting the wrong market, don’t have a strong grasp of customer needs or lack a differentiated market positioning, no amount of optimization can make you successful. Therefore, spend adequate time developing a sound strategy and then focus on operational excellence to make it a reality.

WEEKLY DOSE OF EMPOWERMENT

The weekly dose of Empowerment is meant to provide one weekly tip that’s both practical and approachable, to help drive incremental improvement to your day-to-day. We’re always open to your contributions as well. If you would like to submit a tip to be shared with the Empower community in a future newsletter, please reach out at [email protected] with the subject line “Weekly Dose of Empowerment Submission.”

Kick your day off right

I’ve never been able to pull off (nor am I sure I want to) the 2-hour morning routines of CEOs you sometimes read about — the 3:30 a.m. alarm, followed by meditation, exercise, a balanced breakfast, reading the news and catching up on important emails, all before 6 a.m. However, I do appreciate the benefit of certain morning rituals to get my day off to a positive start.

For me, this typically looks like a 6 a.m. alarm followed by at least 30 minutes of exercise. I then get ready for the day and make sure I spend time with my daughter before I start work and she goes to daycare. Finally, I grab myself a caffeinated beverage and a light breakfast. Important in all of this, I keep my phone notifications muted until 7:30 a.m. and try my hardest not to look at anything work-related before then (It doesn’t always work out, but we’re all human!). When I keep this routine consistent, my days and weeks start way more positively.

We’re all busy as business owners. Maintaining a two-hour morning routine amidst the chaos adds too much pressure and intimidation. If it happens to work for you, great, keep going!

All I’m here to tell you is there are still ways to start the day right with just a few key rituals. Like many habits, the key is to get started and stay consistent.

JESSICA’S READ, OR LISTEN, PICK OF THE WEEK

A little something that got my gears turning this week and might pique your interest as well!

From the NFIB: Inflation Continues to Plague Main Street

TL;DR

In August, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released a survey indicating inflation remains the top operating issue for small business owners.

The survey recorded the highest level of optimism since February 2022, but rising costs, particularly labor expenses, are a headwind that doesn’t seem to be abating.

Key stats highlighted in the report summary:

• 33% of those surveyed indicated they raised compensation in July.

• 38% of those surveyed indicated they had job openings they struggled to fill.

• 22% of those surveyed indicated they planned on raising average selling prices.

• The frequency of reports with positive profit trends was a net negative 30%.

How is this impacting you?

I always want to hear more about the challenges facing emerging businesses so that Empower can better serve them. If you’re feeling the pain of inflation or other macro headwinds, reply to this newsletter and share how it’s impacting your growth and profitability.

JUST FOR FUN

Really, this section is just for fun. Who knows what will be in store each week?

Can you feel the crisp air of fall yet?

While I always lament the end of summer after Labor Day, I must say I’ve grown an increasing affection for the fall months as I’ve gotten older.

Below are my five favorite things about this season.

What are yours?

LOOKING FOR MORE EMPOWERMENT?

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