Defining a cohesive business strategy is not easy, but implementing it is even harder.
After successfully implementing business strategy in major companies, Jim Gitney perfected the process and wrote a book about it - Strategy Realized
In this fascinating interview, Jim shares a detailed blueprint on how to successfully implement business strategy. He developed a concept he calls the Business Hierarchy of Needs (the business parallel to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs).
This is a highly practical episode with a step-by-step process you can follow, with great examples and powerful business concepts.
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Hi, It's Isar the host of the Business Growth Accelerator Podcast
I am passionate about growing businesses and helping CEOs, business leaders, and entrepreneurs become more successful. I am also passionate about relationship building, community creation for businesses, and value creation through content.
I would love it if you connect with me on LinkedIn. Drop me a DM, and LMK you listened to the podcast, what you think and what topics you would like me to cover 🙏
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim GItney (00:00):
We walk through a process.
There's 29 elements in thebusiness hierarchy of needs.
And people go, oh no, I can'tmanage 29 elements.
The reality is they already doevery one of those 29.
Okay?
Right.
So the business hierarchy ofneeds really summarizes what
businesses do on a routinebasis.
The issue is that they don'talign all those activities to
(00:25):
something that something is whatwe call the most important goal.
Isar Meitis (00:29):
Hello and welcome to the Business Growth
Accelerator.
This is Isar Meitis, your host,and the person you're listening
to is Jim Gitney.
Jim has helped over 200companies in implementation of
business strategy, and beforethat, he held senior leadership
positions in multiple companiesand has done this for his own
businesses.
(00:50):
So he has an immense experiencein strategy implementation, and
he's gonna share with us thestep-by-step process you can
implement in your business toeffectively implement strategy
in order to grow your business.
(02:02):
Hello and welcome to theBusiness Growth Accelerator.
This is Isar Meitis, your host,and I have an amazing guest for
you today.
As you know, business strategyis a critical aspect of the
success of any business.
The problem with businessstrategy, and there's a lot of
problems, but the problem isit's a very big word, and it's
(02:23):
not so easy to actually go anddo this and do this, right?
So too many businesses eitherdon't do it the right way or
don't do it at all, or make ittoo complex or more complex than
it should be, and the other halfof it is obvious.
Implementing the businessstrategy.
So now you have the strategy.
(02:43):
How do you actually put it inplace and put it to action so
the business becomes moresuccessful?
My guest today, Jim Gitney, isthe author of Strategy Realize,
which is a book about what hecalls the business hierarchy of
needs.
So kind of like Maslow's.
needs a period of needs, butinstead of for people, for
businesses, and he has anincredible clear approach on how
(03:07):
to implement business strategyfor success of businesses, but
different than a lot of othercoaches.
He has held.
More or less every leadershipposition you can name through
his career from VP to C O O to ce o, to a board member, to
chairman of the board, toexecutive chairman.
(03:28):
And in the last 20 years, he'sbeen leading a consulting
company that helps companies puttogether business strategy and
executor them in a successfulway.
So, He can talk the talk, but healso definitely walk the walk.
Hence, I'm really excited andhumbled to have Jim as our guest
today.
Jim, welcome to the BusinessGrowth Accelerator.
Jim GItney (03:50):
I thought it is wonderful to be here and thank
you so much for that greatintroduction.
I'm glad it's recorded becauseI'm gonna have to steal it.
Shamelessly,
Isar Meitis (04:00):
this is what we do here.
I, I appreciate it.
I'm glad you liked it.
I wanna start with asking youmore of a personal aspect of
this.
Like I said, you've done a lotof very impressive things in
your career, in leadershippositions.
When did it occur to you thatbusiness strategy is a) such an
important aspect of thebusiness, and B) that this is
(04:23):
the holy grail you wanna focuson in the rest of your career.
Jim GItney (04:28):
So, great question.
after 45 years and of workinginside of business, what I've
noticed is that seniorleadership teams are pretty good
at creating strategy.
But where they fall short isbridging the gap between
(04:48):
strategy and results.
And a lot of that has to, that'sprimarily driven by what I call
knowledge and change managementor level two of the business
hierarchy of needs.
It's about not only creatingstrategy, but creating strategy
that people inside theorganization, all stakeholders
(05:10):
understand.
And more importantly, understandtheir role in it.
So how did I come up with all ofthis?
Well, during my career withcorporate in corporate America,
I was primarily a fix it guy,and pe, and Black and Decker and
Sunbeam would send me tolocations around the country
(05:30):
that were in trouble.
What I realized was that inorder to create improvement
quickly, You had to leverageeveryone, every stakeholder,
they had to understand exactlywhat their role was and what
their contribution to thatstrategy was.
(05:52):
And as I got into it further, Irealized that strategy is the
primarily the domain of theboard and a C-suite.
Implementations of strategy isprimarily the domain of middle
level and what I like to callothers, with no disrespect to
the professionals or to theinfluencers or other
(06:16):
stakeholders such as vendors andcustomers.
And so, About 20 years ago whenI started Group 50 Consulting,
it was actually 18 years ago,but who's counting after I
started only, only, only 18years ago, only 18 years ago,
after I started Group 50, I'veworked with over 200 companies
and have refined the concept ofthe business hierarchy of needs,
(06:41):
which I created in 2013.
Trademarked it in 2015 and haveused it as what I like to call
the litmus test of everything wedo.
Because even if I'm working witha client deep in a project,
let's say redesigning a businessprocess, and I haven't been
(07:03):
engaged, we haven't been engagedas the strategic planning folks
even working on an individualproject, I always ask.
What's your business strategy?
What does a future state looklike and what's your most
important goal?
And that, that pulls people backfor a second because they go,
(07:26):
well, we want you to, toredesign a business process.
And I go, yeah, I understandthat.
But what we wanna make sure isthat when we redesign that
business process, that we arenot making any recommendations
that are gonna get in the way ofthe most important goal in the
business strategy, but moreimportantly is going to create
(07:48):
the appropriate base from whichthat process can grow and
support the company achievingits most important goal.
Isar Meitis (07:57):
Got it.
I, I think that's a great segue.
So if, if I, if I need tosummarize, you got there
literally by getting enoughscars and to prove during the
process that there's, thatthere's a big gap, right?
There's one thing in goingthrough either with a consultant
or on your own with an internalteam and, and defining the
strategy for the next fiveyears, for the next three years,
(08:18):
for the next one year.
But then you're saying theorganization.
Execute in that, and you've seenthat gap happen again and again
and again of getting, I thinkthere's, there's like three
steps there, right?
And again, you'll, you'llexplain this much, much better
than me, but A understanding thestrategy, B, being on board, and
three, executing it, which arethree different aspects of being
(08:41):
involved in that.
And then you said, you know, thefirst step is being aligned with
one goal.
So really let's go to yourprocess that you go with
companies who do not hire you tojust change one process, but to
come in and really do businessstrategy.
What are the steps a companyshould go through to really have
a solid strategy implementationwithin the business?
Jim GItney (09:04):
So we walk through, we walk through a process.
There's 29 elements in thebusiness hierarchy of needs.
And people go, oh no, I can'tmanage 29 elements.
The reality is they already doevery one of those 29.
Okay?
Right.
So the business hierarchy ofneeds really summarizes what
businesses do on a routinebasis.
(09:25):
The issue is that they.
don't Align all those activitiesto something that something is
what we call the most importantgoal.
So immediately what, what I dowith with clients in our
creating your most importantgoal workshop is sit down and
(09:45):
say, what is it?
What will you have achieved fiveyears from.
now One statement, one goal.
It might be double in sales, itmight be increase enterprise
value.
It might be exit the business.
And so once that most importantgoal with a very specific
(10:08):
measure associated with it,because increasing sales, okay,
how much by when?
Once we have that in place, thenwe take a look at the existing
strategies inside the business,because every business leader
has a business strategy, andwe're not gonna spend much time
(10:32):
today talking about how good,how good that strategy is, or
how you evaluate it.
Because what we do is we use themost important goal as the
litmus test we say.
Here's the most important goal.
Here are your strategies.
Do they really allow you?
Do they really support the mostimportant goal?
(10:55):
And do they allow you to achieveit?
And from that point, we then gothrough each one of the
strategies that they might have,and we often find that they're
incomplete.
And so we have to build them upfurther.
So,
Isar Meitis (11:11):
I think the biggest stake from the very first step
that you're describing, thenwe're gonna go through some of
the other steps.
The very first step, which isunique, right?
Because usually you got acompany saying, okay, what are
your goals in plural for thiscoming year or for the next six
months, or for this quarter, orfor the next five years?
It doesn't matter what thetimeframe is, and there's
usually a bunch of them.
(11:32):
And what you are saying iscrystallize it further.
Keep asking yourself, what isthat one thing that the.
Quote unquote, smaller goalswill support, right?
This one thing that is the corething you're trying to achieve
within, like you said, aspecific amount of time and set
a measurable parameter both intime and in quantities so you
(11:55):
can know if you're actuallylater on when you're measuring
your stuff, you, it will tell ifyou're going there.
So that's step one.
What, what do I do then?
So now I know my one goal.
I people agree on it.
What happens then?
Jim GItney (12:08):
So step two is to then once again, validate the
existing strategies.
Okay.
Redefine them.
Keep them, and move on or addmore.
Okay.
Because you sit down and you go,what?
The five, whats, once you haveyour most important goal, what
(12:28):
is it we're going to do toachieve that?
And when you ask that fivetimes, you very quickly
crystallize all of the majoractivities that you have to do,
the major strategies, once thoseare in place, by the way, each
one of those have to have ameasurable goal as well.
And we ask the team to provethat the, if, if I achieve each
(12:52):
one of these measures, that itwill move us forward toward the
most important goal.
Yeah, once those are,
Isar Meitis (13:02):
go ahead.
Kind, kind of like an O K Rprocess.
It
Jim GItney (13:05):
is the business hierarchy of needs is an O K R
process.
Got it.
Okay.
Okay,
Isar Meitis (13:11):
so 2 cents for opening parenthesis for a
second.
For those who are listening whodon't know what O K R is, it was
invented relatively long timeago.
I think Intel is the one thatinvented it, but then when
Google took that as the way theyrun their business, it became a
big deal and a lot of people arefollowing it.
Basically long term goal brokerdown to shorten term goals that
(13:32):
are measurable that will lead tothe longer term goals.
There's multiple systems outthere today that allow you to
manage OKRs and so on.
Closing parentheses, back, backto Jim.
so, so now I have that.
Now I have these other, you callthem strategies that are in the
company that we know that willsupport the longer term goal.
What's the.
Jim GItney (13:53):
So the next step is to take, well, number one.
Number one, the next step is tohave somebody in the
organization who is specificallyresponsible for each strategy.
Okay.
Who's aligned with it.
Okay.
Has agreed to be accountable toit.
Okay.
Right.
And then that person, each oneof, for each strategy, we create
a cross-functional.
(14:16):
Okay.
Not what, what that means is, soif you sit and think about it,
marketing and sales is abusiness function.
Sure.
The marketing and sales can't dotheir thing if they don't have
support from manufacturing orfrom finance, they don't have
the money they need or from, youknow, IT.
(14:40):
Because they don't have thetechnology necessary to
interface with the markets.
Right.
Okay.
So we create a cross-functionalteam that's responsible for that
strategy.
And then start developing.
Once again, that now is a mostimportant goal, that strategy.
And we break that down into itsfundamental elements.
(15:01):
But now we're starting to go to,to give it to in, we're starting
to involve more middle level.
People.
Now we turn that strategy into aseries of tactics, and when we
do that, we create projectcharters, we create teams, we
(15:21):
create goals for each one.
We, we even go as far ascalculating what the r o I is
for it.
Isar Meitis (15:28):
So I wanna pause you for a second.
I want to ask two clarifyingquestions.
Okay.
Question number, and I'll startwith question number one, and
then I'm gonna ask the secondone.
Question number one is, when yousay those supporting strategies,
give me an example.
Is this a marketing strategyversus a financial way to do the
business, or is it moresomething else that could
(15:51):
involve other, like differentdepartments within the company?
Jim GItney (15:54):
Well, it really depends on what your most
important goal.
Okay.
Isar Meitis (15:59):
Right.
So, so gimme an example again.
Let's, let's just
Jim GItney (16:02):
pick something.
Okay.
All right.
So I'll give you an example.
we were working with a companythat has had, as its most
important goal to increase sales50%, which in within three
years.
Okay.
All right.
That was its most importantgoal.
Now you stand back and you go,okay, what do I need to do to
(16:23):
increase sales 50.
Well, they needed new products.
They needed additional channelsof distribution.
They needed a new sales, theyneeded incremental sales force.
They needed incremental capacityin manufacturing and supply
chain.
Right.
Because their existing supplychain was capable of supporting
(16:45):
the existing business.
Yeah.
But was really gonna struggle insupporting 50% growth.
Got it.
Now, as it turns out, thatwasn't as big a struggle.
That wasn't as big of a struggleas it was identifying the new
products and the new channels ofdistribution and how they were
gonna sell into them.
(17:07):
So in essence, we broke it downinto the All right, in five,
three years, if I'm 50% larger,here are all the things that we
need to.
And that's where we get into theconversation about operating
gaps and strategic gaps.
Operating gaps are those thingswe don't do as well as we need
(17:27):
to.
And strategic gaps are thosethings we don't do at all.
Yeah.
That we need to.
So new products, new channels ofdistribution are two examples of
a strategic gap.
Isar Meitis (17:40):
And so for each and every one of those, you now put
a strategy in place.
How do we develop new products?
How do we get new suppliers?
How do we get new distributionchannels?
How do we get increased capacityfor our existing manufacturing
facility?
Each and every one of those hasits own now little standover
strategy with somebody incharge, with a multidisciplinary
(18:00):
team that manages that
Jim GItney (18:03):
strategy.
You got.
You got it.
Awesome.
Every strategy, every tactic,every project has to have a
sponsor.
Let me ask you a question,
Isar Meitis (18:12):
so this is, now, I told you I have two.
The second one is, what happensin smaller businesses like what
you just said?
Okay, corporate America, there's50 teams, five levels of
management.
What happens in a smaller team,like I have a c e O, VP of
marketing, VP of sales.
And, coo and, and that's it.
(18:33):
And each and every one of themhas five people reporting to
them.
I should still do this processsomehow, right?
But then I can't assign peoplewho are in charge of it because
there's just not enough people.
Jim GItney (18:43):
Well, that's a great, that's a great question.
But even small teams have tomanage the elements of the
business hierarchy of needs.
Okay.
So the difference is thecomplexity.
Okay.
What I'm talking about is thecomplexity of all of the
activities, not the complexityof the implementation.
(19:05):
So if I have a 10 millionbusiness that wants to go to 20
million, their strategies andactivities are gonna be
completely different than acompany that's 250 million that
wants to go to 500 million.
Correct.
But they still have the samecommon challenges.
Okay.
And in small companies likethat, one of those is the IT
(19:25):
infrastructure.
And the other might be, do Ihave the right people, even
though I only have twosalespeople?
Do I need to add a third?
And what skills does that personneed to have and how do I get
more products?
Do I do them myself?
Do I engage a third party todesign those products or.
(19:49):
I rely on a vendor, which wouldbe a third party to supply me
with those products.
And so I still have a mostimportant goal.
It's measurable.
And instead of having 30tactics, 30 strategies and
tactics, I might only havethree.
(20:11):
Right?
But I still need to ask thatquestion.
Do I have the right people?
To manage the future state.
Yeah.
Do I have the right resources?
And, and when I talk aboutresources, I'm talking about
financial and human capital.
Sure.
Do I have the right resources todo this?
And if I don't, where do I getthem?
(20:33):
Okay.
It's, it's inter, it'sinteresting, Isar that small
businesses.
Under, I'm going to pick anumber.
Around 30 million and down aretypically run in the heads of
two or three people becausethey're there.
They can have their hands aroundit.
(20:55):
They can feel it, they can touchit, but it's amazing when those
two or three people get togetheragree on a goal and the
activities to achieve that goal,how much more efficient they.
And how much more efficient thebusiness becomes.
Isar Meitis (21:13):
Yeah.
And, and I've seen thatfirsthand, right?
So I worked in an organization,I mean, we were bigger than
that, but we were running verymuch like a more of a startup
mentality.
And we were very, each of theteams were very tied together
and very close and knew exactlywhat's happening.
And then we got acquired andmerged with two other very large
companies and became this very,very large corporation.
(21:36):
And the ability to make stuffhappen becomes dramatically more
complicated.
Even the same simple things youdid before becomes way more
complicated because yourdependency on now 10 other
departments that do somethingthat you need for the thing, yet
you've done yourself beforebecause you had no option,
becomes very, very different.
(21:57):
So, I understand, I understandwhat you're saying.
You're saying small businesses,mid-size businesses still do the
same thing, not as complex and,and your cross-functional team
is probably just a team versuscross-functional teams that that
focus on on different stuff.
What's the next step?
So now I have, you know, I'vedefined the goal.
(22:19):
I defined the strategies, Idefined the people.
I have people in charge, I havecross-functional teams.
What
Jim GItney (22:25):
do I do then?
So what we've just describedtakes you through level one of
the business hierarchy of needs,which is strategy, analytics,
and planning.
Okay.
We're now moving into level two,which is knowledge and change
management.
Okay?
Okay.
Level two is all about theorganization.
It's all about the people in theorganization.
(22:48):
It's about skills maps.
What are the skills that I needinside the organization in order
to implement all of theseprojects and tactics and also
run the future state of thecompany?
So now, now this is primarilythe domain of the middle level
(23:08):
managers.
Right, because now we're talkingabout people, we're talking
about the appropriate skills.
Do I have enough skill intechnology?
Do I have enough skill inmanufacturing or marketing or
sales?
Whatever's required by thestrategies and tactics.
Then I now break those elementsfurther down in attempt to give
(23:34):
individuals in the organizationspecific goals that they're in
alignment, an agreement with andgive them accountabilities.
We call that cascadingobjectives.
So just as we talked about thetop level strategy, as we move
through the organization, webreak it down into more finite
(23:55):
elements.
So I might be an engineer.
In inside the company that hasan objective to double in the
size, to double its size withinthree years or five years.
And I now have theresponsibility for inter, for
creating a new set of productswith very specific timelines
(24:16):
behind it.
So, And perhaps I don't havethe, the skills or the tools
that I need.
Perhaps I need a new designsystem, or perhaps I need to
learn a new technology, orperhaps I need to do any number
of things that don't existtoday.
So it's incumbent on the middlelevel of the organization to
(24:39):
make sure I have those skillsand the resources necessary to
achieve my object.
I gotta ask a
Isar Meitis (24:49):
question.
going back to the, the, thechange management and the
personal slash teams side ofthings.
First of all, I, I, I wassmiling a big smile when you
started talking about thisbecause I literally released an
episode this week that talksabout what I think companies
should do to be successful in2023 and beyond.
And one of the things that Isaid is, once you define your
(25:09):
strategy, you gotta, youpotentially need to redefine
your personnel and your teamsbecause, The fact that these are
the teams and the people thatbrought you to this point
doesn't necessarily mean theseare the people in teams that
will support your future state.
Because it's a future state.
You cannot base it on your pastsetup.
(25:29):
Maybe sometimes it's, it's acontinuous, you know, linear
growth.
Then maybe.
How do you actually do this?
Like the practical aspect ofthis, because it's very
problematic, right?
Especially in biggerorganizations.
You have teams running, they'rein place, they have existing
goals, they've done somethinglast year, they're on this,
they're mach, you know, anorganization's a machine at the
(25:51):
end of the day.
So the finance people know howto do A, B, C, D, and the,
manufacturing people or codewriters knows how to do these
things.
And then now you're saying,okay, no, no, no.
Stop for a second.
In the next three months, I needyou to stop doing this and
instead I need you to do that.
But in between there's this,like the two states are clear
(26:15):
what happens in between and howdo you manage that in between
process.
Jim GItney (26:20):
So we seldom run into a situation where we make a
blanket statement where you haveto do this and you have to do
something else.
What we almost always run intois, what you're doing is cool.
Does it support the mostimportant goal or the strategies
of the business, and what do youneed to do differently?
(26:43):
So it's usually more of aquestion about what do you do
differently?
Rather than stop doing this andstart doing that.
All right.
Because what we find is, andI'll give you an example.
I was talking to chief operatingofficer of a university who when
I asked about what theirstrategies were, told me they
were going to add moreacademics, they were going to
(27:05):
add more athletic programs, theywere gonna open some facilities
in Europe, and he went on and Isaid, so what's your most
important goal?
And after asking the five, whatswe came to?
Well, it is about growth, but itwas about growth in Europe, not
in the United States.
And so once we got to that mostimportant goal, it became
(27:28):
abundantly clear that theydidn't have enough strategic
focus on growth in Europe.
So in this particular case, theyslowed some of the things they
were down, what they were doingin the United States and
accelerated the, some of thethings that they were doing in
Europe and took some of the USstrategies and actually added
them to the European strategy.
(27:50):
So if you said to think aboutit, when we got down to it, it
was significantly grow inEurope.
As the most important goal.
That's when we found out thatsome of the things we were
working on in the US weren'tgonna contribute to that.
So they had to make a decision.
In that particular case, theystopped doing a couple of
things, right, but it was afterthe team got together and
(28:13):
decided that this was the waywe, this is what we needed to do
in order to achieve that mostimportant goal.
Now, two things
Isar Meitis (28:20):
that I love about what you just said.
One is the importance of.
Not just defining the goal once,but using it as a prism, right?
The North Star, call it whateveryou want to call it, of every
decision you make in thisinterim, meaning, until you
define a new goal, has to goback and say, is this really
(28:42):
supporting?
The thing that we jointlydefined as the most important
goal.
And the second part of it that Ilike about what you said is the
jointly part of it, right?
Because if, if it's the c e o orone person or even the board
comes and says, this is what weneeded to do, but you don't have
the buy-in.
In the people that feel a partof that decision making process,
(29:04):
that's saying, okay, weunderstand why this is the goal.
We are a part of the decision,and hence we're on board.
You are gonna have issues and,and it's not unsolvable issues.
You may have to replace a fewpeople, but the best way to do
this is to have people on board.
How do you do that?
How do you, because you go to atoo big of a team in the
(29:25):
convers.
You start losing focus.
You have too small of a team,you don't have enough buy-in.
So you said you've done thiswith 200 companies, you probably
have best practices of who needsto be involved in which step and
and
Jim GItney (29:38):
when.
Yeah.
So once again, it's gonna bedependent on what your most
important goal is and what thesupporting strategies are.
But, but let's
Isar Meitis (29:48):
say, I wanna define the most important goal.
Who needs to be involved in thatconversation?
Jim GItney (29:52):
Oh, so that's typically gonna be the domain of
the board of directors and theC-suite.
In smaller businesses, it'sgonna be the domain of the
owner.
So let's, for example, here's aperfect example.
An owner of a company, we're,we're seeing the largest
transfer of wealth in thehistory of the United States
(30:14):
with owners transferring theircompanies to me, family, private
equity groups.
Employees.
Yep.
Employees.
When we talk about businessstrategy for them, we talk about
their, their personal mostimportant goal.
So let me break it down a littlefurther.
(30:35):
Say for example, I'm gonnaretire in a few years, and what
I want is to be able to sit onthe beach and drink pina coladas
for the rest of my life and havesufficient cash flow to do that.
We can build a business strategyaround that most important goal.
Sure.
But let's say I, that's not whatmy most important goal is.
(30:56):
Let's assume my most importantgoal is I want to pull back and
I want to do what I love to do,which is business development.
We can build a business strategyaround that as well.
But notice the difference,right?
I went from exit the business tohere's what I as an owner
(31:18):
specifically want.
And even if the owner says, Iwant to sell the business in
five years.
So we go down a most importantgoal of optimizing the business,
sell it in five years for Xamount of dollars.
We actually can build a strategyto deliver that as well.
Yep.
(31:39):
But each one of them aresignificantly different.
So the most important goal isgonna be primarily board of
directors, owners of thecompany, and the c.
And what, what we find is thatwhen we do establish that, and
the C-Suite has gone through theexercise of the business
hierarchy of needs and you know,detailing it down what needs to
(32:03):
be done in the measurablesboards and bankers and private
equity groups and others aremuch, much more confident that
the team is gonna be able topull it.
Isar Meitis (32:15):
So from a personal human perspective, now that you
have that, so the board or theC-suite members have decided on
that, how do you get the buy-inof, of, like you said, the
people you know?
At the end of the day, it'sabout middle management, right?
And, and you see that peoplecall it in different names, the
middle management.
Usually is where things startis, is where the gap is created
(32:37):
because you had the people whowere in the room when the
decision was made and theyunderstand why.
And now you have the people whoare A) were not in the room, and
B) are supposed to deliver theresults to support that one
goal.
So when and how do you get thebuy-in of middle management and
people below them in order toreally make that change happen
(32:58):
within the organization?
Jim GItney (33:00):
So before I answer that specific question, I want
to preface it with something.
Sure.
I rail against the idea thatmillennials and Gen Xers want to
feel like they're more, they'reinvolved in something more
important.
And the reason I saidspecifically said that is as a
baby boomer, I always wanted tofeel like I was part of
(33:23):
something more important.
So if I'm asked.
To be part of, not the creatingthe most important goal, but
creating all of the supportingactivities around it.
And I specifically see how whatI'm doing is going to support
the company being successful,and my opinion is asked, and I'm
(33:45):
part of the planning team, andmaybe it's only one project.
But if senior leaders have takenthe time to explain to me why
we're doing this and how myinvolvement in the very specific
thing or things I'm going to do,are going to contribute to the
success of the business, I feelthat my perspective and my
(34:09):
contribution is much more value.
And that's the process ofgetting that, that's what allows
you to develop, buy-in insidethe organization.
You know, I've, I've done wellover 200 Kaizen events and for
your listeners who don't knowKaizen, it's basically where
(34:29):
you, you get a group of peoplewho own a process.
It might be an assembly line, itmight be sales operational
planning.
It might be in accountsreceivables.
And you get them together andyou tell'em, look, we need to
fix this process.
Or We need to significantlyimprove it, and you put'em on a
two or three day and can be aslong as five day in a room.
(34:53):
Redesign this process.
The results are phenomenalbecause you've asked the people
who are frustrated by thingsthat don't work, that who
believe that they have, theirvoices haven't been heard, who
believe they aren't part ofsomething bigger, and once you
take those chains off and allowthem to actually own their
(35:16):
process and own the thingsthey're responsible for, the
results are phenomenal.
Isar Meitis (35:22):
Brilliant.
so to summarize what you'resaying is you're still giving
them the keys to be a part ofthe process.
They're just a part of their,part of the process, and hence
you get the buying and hence youget people, excited about the
thing that they're doing becausethey, it allows them, like you
said, not only.
(35:42):
To be a part of the process, butalso to fix the things that they
believe are broken.
And they're most likely, thereality is they, people who know
the best how to fix them.
So if you give them that,flexibility and that, A missing
award and that ownership of thatowner part of the process, now
(36:03):
you get their buy-in becausethis is now their baby, which
now becomes a part of the biggergoal that supports the
organization.
Phenomenal.
Jim GItney (36:09):
Right.
Let me, let me share, can Ishare an example with you,
Absolut?
Do you wanna move on tosomething else?
No, no, no.
For sure.
So back in the mid nineties, inthe late nineties, I was the
head of Black and Duckers.
I was a plant manager for Blackand Duckers, appliance Factory
in North Carolina.
The sales value of goods that wemanufactured was about 150, 200
million.
(36:32):
We became one of the fourlocations in the United States
for a Japanese, one of the, the,the most well known Japanese,
Kaizen continuous improvementgroup in the world where they
will hold quarterly meetings,quarterly kaizen events, people
from all over the co all overthe country coming in and
working with our process owners,not people coming from all over
(36:56):
the country and doing it ontheir own and telling these
folks what they needed to do.
They came in and they spent thefive days in the room with them.
The results were amazing.
Within three years we wereproducing, we tripled the output
of the facility.
Wow.
And we're producing almost 600million in sales value of goods.
And the other interesting piecethat I'll share with you is I
(37:20):
had almost 2000 people duringthe busy season and I did a
survey.
and I found that over 200 ofthem had master's degrees,
bachelor's degrees, builtcomputers, built race cars, did
all kinds of really cool things,but they, they were there for a
(37:41):
completely different reason, andthat was for the security of
having a job so that they couldgo off and do things with their
coach baseball teams and dotheir other passions.
Yeah, we engage them as part ofour continuous improvement
effort.
In doing these Kaizen projectsand statistical process control
because they had the skills todo it and the results were
(38:02):
phenomenal.
I love what you're saying.
Isar Meitis (38:07):
I'm gonna take you 90 degrees to the right because
I think it has a lot to do withwhat we're talking about right
now.
Specifically about the exampleyou gave in the companies I run,
and especially in the latest onethat was very obvious to me
that.
If you want people to beproductive and effective, they
need to be happy.
(38:27):
For people to be happy, theyneed to operate in their zone of
genius and feel that they cantake the thing they bring to the
table, which might be very, verydifferent than the person next
to them.
They have a outlet for theirgenius within the workspace,
which is basically what you'resaying, is, let people, okay,
(38:49):
you're, you know, how to buildcars from scratch.
Maybe you should be involved inthis process that we're doing
right now, redesigning themanufacturing facility even
though you're in accounting.
And so how all of that isconnected to vision, mission,
and core values of the company,which is more the stuff that
(39:11):
we're talking about right now isrelated.
Jim GItney (39:14):
So, there's actually a fourth mission, vision, values
and leadership traits.
Okay.
Okay.
Mission is our true north.
Okay.
Vision gives us more detailabout how we're going to get to
our true north, and perhapsthere's even some measurable
things in there, but mission andvision provides more clarity.
(39:39):
Values tells us how we want ourorganization, people in our
organization to treat eachother, right?
Leadership traits are the thingsthat we absolutely insist our
leaders have, and they need tobe actionable.
And one of the things I say inthe book, as are, is that.
(40:04):
Technology and the skill ofusing technology and leveraging
technology is probably one ofthe top five leadership traits
that need to exist inside anorganization because today
everything we do, especiallybusinesses are run and are built
around technology.
And how the businesses operateit..
(40:27):
And I even go as far assuggesting that we should be
organized around techtechnology, but I digress for a
second.
So, mission, vision, values,leadership traits are all part
of that foundation that tells uswhere we want to go, how we want
to get there.
Most important goal gives methe, the specificity around what
(40:50):
that vision is gonna look likeand strategies gives us much
more specifics on the activitiesthat we're gonna undertake to do
it.
You know, in in the book, I sayall of us as individuals and
contributors to the success ofan organization or a team.
Cuz this can be applied tochurch groups, this can be
(41:12):
applied to just about anything,right?
Sure.
It doesn't matter what kind ofbusiness it is.
I happen to be a manufacturingguy.
Technology companies, servicecompanies, all have the same
exact challenge.
All of us as individuals who arepart of a team or an
organization want to be led, butwe want to know from what to
(41:36):
what and by when.
And so by cascading objectivesand giving very specific
measures around what we're goingto do and communicating that
down throughout theorganization, we satisfy that.
Now I was blessed.
I was, well, maybe he was lucky.
I don't know but the Galluporgan, the, the Gallup
(41:56):
organization has CRE created achart for my book.
Oh, all right.
Awesome.
This is not group 50.
This is the Gallup organization.
Yeah.
Let me share some of the numberswith you When you have a fully
engaged workforce.
Engaged by the process thatwe're talking about right now.
I can expect 23% increase inprofitability.
(42:21):
I can expect a 66% increase inwellbeing and corporate
citizenship.
Stop there for a second.
Think about all theorganizations you've been
involved with, where you talk tothe people and they go, I hate
this place.
I can't stand being here.
I can't, you know, 66% increasein wellbeing in, 14% increase in
(42:42):
productivity, 10% increase in,customer engagement But here are
the eye-popping numbers that arereally appropriate to this post
pandemic environment that we'rein.
An 81% decrease in absenteeism.
A 43% decrease in turnover.
(43:06):
Now think about that.
Oh, you know, we've heard aboutthe great resignation.
We've heard about all of thesedifferent things.
By engaging everyone and makingsure they understand how they're
contributed, contributing to alarger good, we can
significantly impact the issuesthat businesses are currently
faced with.
Now, you can't do it overnight.
(43:26):
Obviously, this is a journey.
Right.
But just by starting with themost important goal and
communicating it to theorganization and asking everyone
to jot down on a piece of paperhow they contribute to that goal
is a really
Isar Meitis (43:43):
positive first step.
This is phenomenal.
I think what you just said issuch a great summary and such a
great.
Note for, like you said, it's,it's a different, slightly
different era than had we hadbefore the pandemic.
from, from two differentperspectives.
You know, one, I think there wasa huge acceleration of adoption
(44:05):
of technology just because wedidn't have a choice in some
cases.
And the other side of it isthere was a lot of money
available so companies coulddevelop these technologies
faster.
And the other part of it was wehad to work from home and
reevaluate strategies and so on.
So we, we live in a slightlydifferent era than we did just a
few years ago.
And what you did, I think is, isa beautiful summary of where
(44:28):
we're today.
What are the things to focus on,Jim, if people wanna find more
about you, about the book, aboutyour business, work with you,
follow you, what are the bestways to do that?
Jim GItney (44:39):
So, w Strategy realized.com.
Okay, is the website for thebook, okay.
And it's available in PDF today.
It will be available on Amazonand Kindle on the 11th of this
month, and available is hardcover on the 9th of February.
(44:59):
Okay, so strategy realized theBusiness Hierarchy of Needs is
the official title of the book.
group 50 Consulting is myconsulting.
And that's group fifty.com.
is a, and, and I have over 200blog articles there talking
about all of these, all of thesevarious things.
(45:22):
So that's how you can, listenerscan get to either the book or to
Group 50 consulting.
I want to close.
I, I, I, Just add one more thingto something you just said.
Sure.
With the significantly largeamount of people inside of
organizations working remotely,one of the things that we don't
(45:45):
get is that day-to-day interfacesitting in a meeting, having
lunch with our peers, going outfor drinks at camaraderie that
we had been used to prepandemic.
Right?
Yep.
By, by implementing the businesshierarchy of needs and taking
that into consideration, nowthat person who's sitting some
(46:08):
remote location in Idaho can,has a much more positive view
about how they're Im, they canimpact the organization to
contribute to its success.
And so in today's workforce, andit is so much more important
that companies focus on that setof activities.
Isar Meitis (46:31):
I love it.
I'll add my 2 cents to thatagain from my experience,
because I think it's very, veryimportant, critical for the near
and probably long-term future.
One is going back to, companyculture is something that was
always important and now became.
Maybe more challenging, but waymore critical because you could
(46:52):
before through osmosis, getcompany culture.
And now unless there's a verydisciplined process to create
culture and sustain it and growit involving everybody in the
organization, it's not going tohappen just because a lot of
people see it at home.
So that's aspect number one.
And aspect number two is,Because systems like this like
(47:19):
enable you to manage and trackspecific individuals, and then
teams and individuals,achievements and goals and so
on, existed for a very longtime.
But again, you could get in aroom once a week or once a month
and go over everything and talkto people and see what's going
on.
Now, in many organizations, thatdoesn't happen.
So com, so solutions like Jiraor Monday or Asana, or click up,
(47:43):
or whichever you are using, thatenables you to really take that
process, the O K R process, orcall it whatever you wanna call
it, and break it down intoquarterly, weekly, daily tasks
for specific individuals thatyou can.
And see their completion and seehow they're contributing to the
(48:05):
bigger strategies and the biggergoal exist.
And they're very, very good andthey can help you in today's era
to actually achieve this thingthat, again, before was easier
to do just because everybody wasin a building and you can call a
meeting and have 20
Jim GItney (48:21):
people sitting.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And at the end of the day, ifI've been engaged, I've been
asked my opinion, I feel like myopinion is valued.
I'm much more willing to havethe conversation about being
accountable.
Because for far too long we hadthese formal tracking systems,
(48:42):
right?
And people found all kinds ofways to hide behind why couldn't
get this done.
Yeah.
But by engaging everyone in theworkforce or as many people as
you can, and providing with themwith the skills, the remember
that I want to be led from whatto what by when.
(49:03):
Right.
they're much more acceptance.
They're, they, there's a muchgreater acceptance of the
concept of cascading objectivesand reporting on'em.
As a matter of fact, if I ownsomething, And I achieve it, I
will run to the presentation tolet everyone know Yeah.
(49:24):
What I've accomplished.
Yeah.
That's just human nature.
That's who we are.
Right?
Sure.
And so that's incredibly,important.
One last thing on culture.
Sure.
So inside the book, I actuallytalk about culture being a
figment of people's imagin.
(49:44):
So, more often than not, we talkabout mission, vision, values
and leadership trained traits.
Defining the culture of acompany, I've, I've heard that
more than anything else, right?
It doesn't define the culture ofthe company.
It defines how we want people tobehave.
Right?
(50:05):
Yeah.
If you follow the businesshierarchy of needs and you get
everyone engaged, I'm going tostand out on the edge here and
claim that you will realize aculture of strategic execution.
And what I mean by that is thatyou have a culture where
everyone's pointed in the samedirection.
They all have the same set ofaccounta.
(50:28):
They're all accountable they'reall participating.
And the mission, vision, values,and leadership traits is
defining how we really want youand I to work together how we
want you and I to talk to eachother.
Right?
Sure.
And so at the end of the day,what we're really talking about
(50:49):
is a culture of strategicexecution here, and that's the
culture that we want in order toachieve these kinds of numbers.
Isar Meitis (50:59):
Jim, this was really interesting, really deep
like that.
We touched on a lot of reallyimportant stuff here in a
relatively short amount of time.
I really, really appreciate youspending the time and sharing
from your experience andknowledge with me and the
listeners and thank you verymuch.
Jim GItney (51:16):
So it, so it's been my pleasure.
to be part of this podcast andto talk with, talk about what
you hope came across as mypassion, awesome.
Around the business hierarchy ofneeds and creating a culture of
strategic execution.
Isar Meitis (51:32):
What a great conversation with Jim.
He obviously has a lot ofexperience and depth in his
knowledge in the field ofstrategy implementation.
If you are looking to hear moreepisodes that talk about
business strategies, there aremultiple of them, but there are
three I would like to recommend.
One is very recent, it's episode168 it is called WIN in 2023 and
(51:54):
Beyond, based on interviews withover 150 CEOs and business
experts.
It's a solo episode that I'vedone just before the beginning
of this year in order to givethe best practices and the best
tips I can give you of what youhave to focus on in order to
grow businesses in the nextcoming years.
(52:14):
Another one is episode 98, Aproven business growth
acceleration framework shared bysought after business coach
Jerry McNamara.
Jerry is a brilliant coach andhe helped and is helping
multiple businesses in multipleindustries.
Crystallize their strategy sothey can, like he said, grow the
(52:35):
business while making it homefor dinner.
It's a great episode.
It's fun and it provides a lotof great tips.
And the last one, you'll have toscroll all the way back to
episode 16.
It's called Business GrowthGuru, Dwayne Deville reveals his
process.
Dwayne is the trusted advisor ofCEOs or some very large
(52:56):
companies.
His process is very strategicand yet very easy to follow.
All three are highly recommendedand attack the idea behind
business strategy in differentangles.
If you enjoyed this episode,please listen to more.
If you listen to a few and youlike the content, I would really
appreciate it if you subscribeand rate and review this podcast
on Apple Podcast and tell afriend that could benefit from
(53:19):
this podcast as well.
I would really appreciate all ofthose and until next time, have
an amazing week.
We walk through a process.
There's 29 elements in thebusiness hierarchy of needs.
And people go, oh no, I can'tmanage 29 elements.
The reality is they already doevery one of those 29.
Okay?
Right.
So the business hierarchy ofneeds really summarizes what
businesses do on a routinebasis.
The issue is that they don'talign all those activities to
(00:25):
something that something is whatwe call the most important goal.
Isar Meitis (00:29):
Hello and welcome to the Business Growth
Accelerator.
This is Isar Meitis, your host,and the person you're listening
to is Jim Gitney.
Jim has helped over 200companies in implementation of
business strategy, and beforethat, he held senior leadership
positions in multiple companiesand has done this for his own
businesses.
(00:50):
So he has an immense experiencein strategy implementation, and
he's gonna share with us thestep-by-step process you can
implement in your business toeffectively implement strategy
in order to grow your business.
(02:02):
Hello and welcome to theBusiness Growth Accelerator.
This is Isar Meitis, your host,and I have an amazing guest for
you today.
As you know, business strategyis a critical aspect of the
success of any business.
The problem with businessstrategy, and there's a lot of
problems, but the problem isit's a very big word, and it's
(02:23):
not so easy to actually go anddo this and do this, right?
So too many businesses eitherdon't do it the right way or
don't do it at all, or make ittoo complex or more complex than
it should be, and the other halfof it is obvious.
Implementing the businessstrategy.
So now you have the strategy.
(02:43):
How do you actually put it inplace and put it to action so
the business becomes moresuccessful?
My guest today, Jim Gitney, isthe author of Strategy Realize,
which is a book about what hecalls the business hierarchy of
needs.
So kind of like Maslow's.
needs a period of needs, butinstead of for people, for
businesses, and he has anincredible clear approach on how
(03:07):
to implement business strategyfor success of businesses, but
different than a lot of othercoaches.
He has held.
More or less every leadershipposition you can name through
his career from VP to C O O to ce o, to a board member, to
chairman of the board, toexecutive chairman.
(03:28):
And in the last 20 years, he'sbeen leading a consulting
company that helps companies puttogether business strategy and
executor them in a successfulway.
So, He can talk the talk, but healso definitely walk the walk.
Hence, I'm really excited andhumbled to have Jim as our guest
today.
Jim, welcome to the BusinessGrowth Accelerator.
Jim GItney (03:50):
I thought it is wonderful to be here and thank
you so much for that greatintroduction.
I'm glad it's recorded becauseI'm gonna have to steal it.
Shamelessly,
Isar Meitis (04:00):
this is what we do here.
I, I appreciate it.
I'm glad you liked it.
I wanna start with asking youmore of a personal aspect of
this.
Like I said, you've done a lotof very impressive things in
your career, in leadershippositions.
When did it occur to you thatbusiness strategy is a) such an
important aspect of thebusiness, and B) that this is
(04:23):
the holy grail you wanna focuson in the rest of your career.
Jim GItney (04:28):
So, great question.
after 45 years and of workinginside of business, what I've
noticed is that seniorleadership teams are pretty good
at creating strategy.
But where they fall short isbridging the gap between
(04:48):
strategy and results.
And a lot of that has to, that'sprimarily driven by what I call
knowledge and change managementor level two of the business
hierarchy of needs.
It's about not only creatingstrategy, but creating strategy
that people inside theorganization, all stakeholders
(05:10):
understand.
And more importantly, understandtheir role in it.
So how did I come up with all ofthis?
Well, during my career withcorporate in corporate America,
I was primarily a fix it guy,and pe, and Black and Decker and
Sunbeam would send me tolocations around the country
(05:30):
that were in trouble.
What I realized was that inorder to create improvement
quickly, You had to leverageeveryone, every stakeholder,
they had to understand exactlywhat their role was and what
their contribution to thatstrategy was.
(05:52):
And as I got into it further, Irealized that strategy is the
primarily the domain of theboard and a C-suite.
Implementations of strategy isprimarily the domain of middle
level and what I like to callothers, with no disrespect to
the professionals or to theinfluencers or other
(06:16):
stakeholders such as vendors andcustomers.
And so, About 20 years ago whenI started Group 50 Consulting,
it was actually 18 years ago,but who's counting after I
started only, only, only 18years ago, only 18 years ago,
after I started Group 50, I'veworked with over 200 companies
and have refined the concept ofthe business hierarchy of needs,
(06:41):
which I created in 2013.
Trademarked it in 2015 and haveused it as what I like to call
the litmus test of everything wedo.
Because even if I'm working witha client deep in a project,
let's say redesigning a businessprocess, and I haven't been
(07:03):
engaged, we haven't been engagedas the strategic planning folks
even working on an individualproject, I always ask.
What's your business strategy?
What does a future state looklike and what's your most
important goal?
And that, that pulls people backfor a second because they go,
(07:26):
well, we want you to, toredesign a business process.
And I go, yeah, I understandthat.
But what we wanna make sure isthat when we redesign that
business process, that we arenot making any recommendations
that are gonna get in the way ofthe most important goal in the
business strategy, but moreimportantly is going to create
(07:48):
the appropriate base from whichthat process can grow and
support the company achievingits most important goal.
Isar Meitis (07:57):
Got it.
I, I think that's a great segue.
So if, if I, if I need tosummarize, you got there
literally by getting enoughscars and to prove during the
process that there's, thatthere's a big gap, right?
There's one thing in goingthrough either with a consultant
or on your own with an internalteam and, and defining the
strategy for the next fiveyears, for the next three years,
(08:18):
for the next one year.
But then you're saying theorganization.
Execute in that, and you've seenthat gap happen again and again
and again of getting, I thinkthere's, there's like three
steps there, right?
And again, you'll, you'llexplain this much, much better
than me, but A understanding thestrategy, B, being on board, and
three, executing it, which arethree different aspects of being
(08:41):
involved in that.
And then you said, you know, thefirst step is being aligned with
one goal.
So really let's go to yourprocess that you go with
companies who do not hire you tojust change one process, but to
come in and really do businessstrategy.
What are the steps a companyshould go through to really have
a solid strategy implementationwithin the business?
Jim GItney (09:04):
So we walk through, we walk through a process.
There's 29 elements in thebusiness hierarchy of needs.
And people go, oh no, I can'tmanage 29 elements.
The reality is they already doevery one of those 29.
Okay?
Right.
So the business hierarchy ofneeds really summarizes what
businesses do on a routinebasis.
(09:25):
The issue is that they.
don't Align all those activitiesto something that something is
what we call the most importantgoal.
So immediately what, what I dowith with clients in our
creating your most importantgoal workshop is sit down and
(09:45):
say, what is it?
What will you have achieved fiveyears from.
now One statement, one goal.
It might be double in sales, itmight be increase enterprise
value.
It might be exit the business.
And so once that most importantgoal with a very specific
(10:08):
measure associated with it,because increasing sales, okay,
how much by when?
Once we have that in place, thenwe take a look at the existing
strategies inside the business,because every business leader
has a business strategy, andwe're not gonna spend much time
(10:32):
today talking about how good,how good that strategy is, or
how you evaluate it.
Because what we do is we use themost important goal as the
litmus test we say.
Here's the most important goal.
Here are your strategies.
Do they really allow you?
Do they really support the mostimportant goal?
(10:55):
And do they allow you to achieveit?
And from that point, we then gothrough each one of the
strategies that they might have,and we often find that they're
incomplete.
And so we have to build them upfurther.
So,
Isar Meitis (11:11):
I think the biggest stake from the very first step
that you're describing, thenwe're gonna go through some of
the other steps.
The very first step, which isunique, right?
Because usually you got acompany saying, okay, what are
your goals in plural for thiscoming year or for the next six
months, or for this quarter, orfor the next five years?
It doesn't matter what thetimeframe is, and there's
usually a bunch of them.
(11:32):
And what you are saying iscrystallize it further.
Keep asking yourself, what isthat one thing that the.
Quote unquote, smaller goalswill support, right?
This one thing that is the corething you're trying to achieve
within, like you said, aspecific amount of time and set
a measurable parameter both intime and in quantities so you
(11:55):
can know if you're actuallylater on when you're measuring
your stuff, you, it will tell ifyou're going there.
So that's step one.
What, what do I do then?
So now I know my one goal.
I people agree on it.
What happens then?
Jim GItney (12:08):
So step two is to then once again, validate the
existing strategies.
Okay.
Redefine them.
Keep them, and move on or addmore.
Okay.
Because you sit down and you go,what?
The five, whats, once you haveyour most important goal, what
(12:28):
is it we're going to do toachieve that?
And when you ask that fivetimes, you very quickly
crystallize all of the majoractivities that you have to do,
the major strategies, once thoseare in place, by the way, each
one of those have to have ameasurable goal as well.
And we ask the team to provethat the, if, if I achieve each
(12:52):
one of these measures, that itwill move us forward toward the
most important goal.
Yeah, once those are,
Isar Meitis (13:02):
go ahead.
Kind, kind of like an O K Rprocess.
It
Jim GItney (13:05):
is the business hierarchy of needs is an O K R
process.
Got it.
Okay.
Okay,
Isar Meitis (13:11):
so 2 cents for opening parenthesis for a
second.
For those who are listening whodon't know what O K R is, it was
invented relatively long timeago.
I think Intel is the one thatinvented it, but then when
Google took that as the way theyrun their business, it became a
big deal and a lot of people arefollowing it.
Basically long term goal brokerdown to shorten term goals that
(13:32):
are measurable that will lead tothe longer term goals.
There's multiple systems outthere today that allow you to
manage OKRs and so on.
Closing parentheses, back, backto Jim.
so, so now I have that.
Now I have these other, you callthem strategies that are in the
company that we know that willsupport the longer term goal.
What's the.
Jim GItney (13:53):
So the next step is to take, well, number one.
Number one, the next step is tohave somebody in the
organization who is specificallyresponsible for each strategy.
Okay.
Who's aligned with it.
Okay.
Has agreed to be accountable toit.
Okay.
Right.
And then that person, each oneof, for each strategy, we create
a cross-functional.
(14:16):
Okay.
Not what, what that means is, soif you sit and think about it,
marketing and sales is abusiness function.
Sure.
The marketing and sales can't dotheir thing if they don't have
support from manufacturing orfrom finance, they don't have
the money they need or from, youknow, IT.
(14:40):
Because they don't have thetechnology necessary to
interface with the markets.
Right.
Okay.
So we create a cross-functionalteam that's responsible for that
strategy.
And then start developing.
Once again, that now is a mostimportant goal, that strategy.
And we break that down into itsfundamental elements.
(15:01):
But now we're starting to go to,to give it to in, we're starting
to involve more middle level.
People.
Now we turn that strategy into aseries of tactics, and when we
do that, we create projectcharters, we create teams, we
(15:21):
create goals for each one.
We, we even go as far ascalculating what the r o I is
for it.
Isar Meitis (15:28):
So I wanna pause you for a second.
I want to ask two clarifyingquestions.
Okay.
Question number, and I'll startwith question number one, and
then I'm gonna ask the secondone.
Question number one is, when yousay those supporting strategies,
give me an example.
Is this a marketing strategyversus a financial way to do the
business, or is it moresomething else that could
(15:51):
involve other, like differentdepartments within the company?
Jim GItney (15:54):
Well, it really depends on what your most
important goal.
Okay.
Isar Meitis (15:59):
Right.
So, so gimme an example again.
Let's, let's just
Jim GItney (16:02):
pick something.
Okay.
All right.
So I'll give you an example.
we were working with a companythat has had, as its most
important goal to increase sales50%, which in within three
years.
Okay.
All right.
That was its most importantgoal.
Now you stand back and you go,okay, what do I need to do to
(16:23):
increase sales 50.
Well, they needed new products.
They needed additional channelsof distribution.
They needed a new sales, theyneeded incremental sales force.
They needed incremental capacityin manufacturing and supply
chain.
Right.
Because their existing supplychain was capable of supporting
(16:45):
the existing business.
Yeah.
But was really gonna struggle insupporting 50% growth.
Got it.
Now, as it turns out, thatwasn't as big a struggle.
That wasn't as big of a struggleas it was identifying the new
products and the new channels ofdistribution and how they were
gonna sell into them.
(17:07):
So in essence, we broke it downinto the All right, in five,
three years, if I'm 50% larger,here are all the things that we
need to.
And that's where we get into theconversation about operating
gaps and strategic gaps.
Operating gaps are those thingswe don't do as well as we need
(17:27):
to.
And strategic gaps are thosethings we don't do at all.
Yeah.
That we need to.
So new products, new channels ofdistribution are two examples of
a strategic gap.
Isar Meitis (17:40):
And so for each and every one of those, you now put
a strategy in place.
How do we develop new products?
How do we get new suppliers?
How do we get new distributionchannels?
How do we get increased capacityfor our existing manufacturing
facility?
Each and every one of those hasits own now little standover
strategy with somebody incharge, with a multidisciplinary
(18:00):
team that manages that
Jim GItney (18:03):
strategy.
You got.
You got it.
Awesome.
Every strategy, every tactic,every project has to have a
sponsor.
Let me ask you a question,
Isar Meitis (18:12):
so this is, now, I told you I have two.
The second one is, what happensin smaller businesses like what
you just said?
Okay, corporate America, there's50 teams, five levels of
management.
What happens in a smaller team,like I have a c e O, VP of
marketing, VP of sales.
And, coo and, and that's it.
(18:33):
And each and every one of themhas five people reporting to
them.
I should still do this processsomehow, right?
But then I can't assign peoplewho are in charge of it because
there's just not enough people.
Jim GItney (18:43):
Well, that's a great, that's a great question.
But even small teams have tomanage the elements of the
business hierarchy of needs.
Okay.
So the difference is thecomplexity.
Okay.
What I'm talking about is thecomplexity of all of the
activities, not the complexityof the implementation.
(19:05):
So if I have a 10 millionbusiness that wants to go to 20
million, their strategies andactivities are gonna be
completely different than acompany that's 250 million that
wants to go to 500 million.
Correct.
But they still have the samecommon challenges.
Okay.
And in small companies likethat, one of those is the IT
(19:25):
infrastructure.
And the other might be, do Ihave the right people, even
though I only have twosalespeople?
Do I need to add a third?
And what skills does that personneed to have and how do I get
more products?
Do I do them myself?
Do I engage a third party todesign those products or.
(19:49):
I rely on a vendor, which wouldbe a third party to supply me
with those products.
And so I still have a mostimportant goal.
It's measurable.
And instead of having 30tactics, 30 strategies and
tactics, I might only havethree.
(20:11):
Right?
But I still need to ask thatquestion.
Do I have the right people?
To manage the future state.
Yeah.
Do I have the right resources?
And, and when I talk aboutresources, I'm talking about
financial and human capital.
Sure.
Do I have the right resources todo this?
And if I don't, where do I getthem?
(20:33):
Okay.
It's, it's inter, it'sinteresting, Isar that small
businesses.
Under, I'm going to pick anumber.
Around 30 million and down aretypically run in the heads of
two or three people becausethey're there.
They can have their hands aroundit.
(20:55):
They can feel it, they can touchit, but it's amazing when those
two or three people get togetheragree on a goal and the
activities to achieve that goal,how much more efficient they.
And how much more efficient thebusiness becomes.
Isar Meitis (21:13):
Yeah.
And, and I've seen thatfirsthand, right?
So I worked in an organization,I mean, we were bigger than
that, but we were running verymuch like a more of a startup
mentality.
And we were very, each of theteams were very tied together
and very close and knew exactlywhat's happening.
And then we got acquired andmerged with two other very large
companies and became this very,very large corporation.
(21:36):
And the ability to make stuffhappen becomes dramatically more
complicated.
Even the same simple things youdid before becomes way more
complicated because yourdependency on now 10 other
departments that do somethingthat you need for the thing, yet
you've done yourself beforebecause you had no option,
becomes very, very different.
(21:57):
So, I understand, I understandwhat you're saying.
You're saying small businesses,mid-size businesses still do the
same thing, not as complex and,and your cross-functional team
is probably just a team versuscross-functional teams that that
focus on on different stuff.
What's the next step?
So now I have, you know, I'vedefined the goal.
(22:19):
I defined the strategies, Idefined the people.
I have people in charge, I havecross-functional teams.
What
Jim GItney (22:25):
do I do then?
So what we've just describedtakes you through level one of
the business hierarchy of needs,which is strategy, analytics,
and planning.
Okay.
We're now moving into level two,which is knowledge and change
management.
Okay?
Okay.
Level two is all about theorganization.
It's all about the people in theorganization.
(22:48):
It's about skills maps.
What are the skills that I needinside the organization in order
to implement all of theseprojects and tactics and also
run the future state of thecompany?
So now, now this is primarilythe domain of the middle level
(23:08):
managers.
Right, because now we're talkingabout people, we're talking
about the appropriate skills.
Do I have enough skill intechnology?
Do I have enough skill inmanufacturing or marketing or
sales?
Whatever's required by thestrategies and tactics.
Then I now break those elementsfurther down in attempt to give
(23:34):
individuals in the organizationspecific goals that they're in
alignment, an agreement with andgive them accountabilities.
We call that cascadingobjectives.
So just as we talked about thetop level strategy, as we move
through the organization, webreak it down into more finite
(23:55):
elements.
So I might be an engineer.
In inside the company that hasan objective to double in the
size, to double its size withinthree years or five years.
And I now have theresponsibility for inter, for
creating a new set of productswith very specific timelines
(24:16):
behind it.
So, And perhaps I don't havethe, the skills or the tools
that I need.
Perhaps I need a new designsystem, or perhaps I need to
learn a new technology, orperhaps I need to do any number
of things that don't existtoday.
So it's incumbent on the middlelevel of the organization to
(24:39):
make sure I have those skillsand the resources necessary to
achieve my object.
I gotta ask a
Isar Meitis (24:49):
question.
going back to the, the, thechange management and the
personal slash teams side ofthings.
First of all, I, I, I wassmiling a big smile when you
started talking about thisbecause I literally released an
episode this week that talksabout what I think companies
should do to be successful in2023 and beyond.
And one of the things that Isaid is, once you define your
(25:09):
strategy, you gotta, youpotentially need to redefine
your personnel and your teamsbecause, The fact that these are
the teams and the people thatbrought you to this point
doesn't necessarily mean theseare the people in teams that
will support your future state.
Because it's a future state.
You cannot base it on your pastsetup.
(25:29):
Maybe sometimes it's, it's acontinuous, you know, linear
growth.
Then maybe.
How do you actually do this?
Like the practical aspect ofthis, because it's very
problematic, right?
Especially in biggerorganizations.
You have teams running, they'rein place, they have existing
goals, they've done somethinglast year, they're on this,
they're mach, you know, anorganization's a machine at the
(25:51):
end of the day.
So the finance people know howto do A, B, C, D, and the,
manufacturing people or codewriters knows how to do these
things.
And then now you're saying,okay, no, no, no.
Stop for a second.
In the next three months, I needyou to stop doing this and
instead I need you to do that.
But in between there's this,like the two states are clear
(26:15):
what happens in between and howdo you manage that in between
process.
Jim GItney (26:20):
So we seldom run into a situation where we make a
blanket statement where you haveto do this and you have to do
something else.
What we almost always run intois, what you're doing is cool.
Does it support the mostimportant goal or the strategies
of the business, and what do youneed to do differently?
(26:43):
So it's usually more of aquestion about what do you do
differently?
Rather than stop doing this andstart doing that.
All right.
Because what we find is, andI'll give you an example.
I was talking to chief operatingofficer of a university who when
I asked about what theirstrategies were, told me they
were going to add moreacademics, they were going to
(27:05):
add more athletic programs, theywere gonna open some facilities
in Europe, and he went on and Isaid, so what's your most
important goal?
And after asking the five, whatswe came to?
Well, it is about growth, but itwas about growth in Europe, not
in the United States.
And so once we got to that mostimportant goal, it became
(27:28):
abundantly clear that theydidn't have enough strategic
focus on growth in Europe.
So in this particular case, theyslowed some of the things they
were down, what they were doingin the United States and
accelerated the, some of thethings that they were doing in
Europe and took some of the USstrategies and actually added
them to the European strategy.
(27:50):
So if you said to think aboutit, when we got down to it, it
was significantly grow inEurope.
As the most important goal.
That's when we found out thatsome of the things we were
working on in the US weren'tgonna contribute to that.
So they had to make a decision.
In that particular case, theystopped doing a couple of
things, right, but it was afterthe team got together and
(28:13):
decided that this was the waywe, this is what we needed to do
in order to achieve that mostimportant goal.
Now, two things
Isar Meitis (28:20):
that I love about what you just said.
One is the importance of.
Not just defining the goal once,but using it as a prism, right?
The North Star, call it whateveryou want to call it, of every
decision you make in thisinterim, meaning, until you
define a new goal, has to goback and say, is this really
(28:42):
supporting?
The thing that we jointlydefined as the most important
goal.
And the second part of it that Ilike about what you said is the
jointly part of it, right?
Because if, if it's the c e o orone person or even the board
comes and says, this is what weneeded to do, but you don't have
the buy-in.
In the people that feel a partof that decision making process,
(29:04):
that's saying, okay, weunderstand why this is the goal.
We are a part of the decision,and hence we're on board.
You are gonna have issues and,and it's not unsolvable issues.
You may have to replace a fewpeople, but the best way to do
this is to have people on board.
How do you do that?
How do you, because you go to atoo big of a team in the
(29:25):
convers.
You start losing focus.
You have too small of a team,you don't have enough buy-in.
So you said you've done thiswith 200 companies, you probably
have best practices of who needsto be involved in which step and
and
Jim GItney (29:38):
when.
Yeah.
So once again, it's gonna bedependent on what your most
important goal is and what thesupporting strategies are.
But, but let's
Isar Meitis (29:48):
say, I wanna define the most important goal.
Who needs to be involved in thatconversation?
Jim GItney (29:52):
Oh, so that's typically gonna be the domain of
the board of directors and theC-suite.
In smaller businesses, it'sgonna be the domain of the
owner.
So let's, for example, here's aperfect example.
An owner of a company, we're,we're seeing the largest
transfer of wealth in thehistory of the United States
(30:14):
with owners transferring theircompanies to me, family, private
equity groups.
Employees.
Yep.
Employees.
When we talk about businessstrategy for them, we talk about
their, their personal mostimportant goal.
So let me break it down a littlefurther.
(30:35):
Say for example, I'm gonnaretire in a few years, and what
I want is to be able to sit onthe beach and drink pina coladas
for the rest of my life and havesufficient cash flow to do that.
We can build a business strategyaround that most important goal.
Sure.
But let's say I, that's not whatmy most important goal is.
(30:56):
Let's assume my most importantgoal is I want to pull back and
I want to do what I love to do,which is business development.
We can build a business strategyaround that as well.
But notice the difference,right?
I went from exit the business tohere's what I as an owner
(31:18):
specifically want.
And even if the owner says, Iwant to sell the business in
five years.
So we go down a most importantgoal of optimizing the business,
sell it in five years for Xamount of dollars.
We actually can build a strategyto deliver that as well.
Yep.
(31:39):
But each one of them aresignificantly different.
So the most important goal isgonna be primarily board of
directors, owners of thecompany, and the c.
And what, what we find is thatwhen we do establish that, and
the C-Suite has gone through theexercise of the business
hierarchy of needs and you know,detailing it down what needs to
(32:03):
be done in the measurablesboards and bankers and private
equity groups and others aremuch, much more confident that
the team is gonna be able topull it.
Isar Meitis (32:15):
So from a personal human perspective, now that you
have that, so the board or theC-suite members have decided on
that, how do you get the buy-inof, of, like you said, the
people you know?
At the end of the day, it'sabout middle management, right?
And, and you see that peoplecall it in different names, the
middle management.
Usually is where things startis, is where the gap is created
(32:37):
because you had the people whowere in the room when the
decision was made and theyunderstand why.
And now you have the people whoare A) were not in the room, and
B) are supposed to deliver theresults to support that one
goal.
So when and how do you get thebuy-in of middle management and
people below them in order toreally make that change happen
(32:58):
within the organization?
Jim GItney (33:00):
So before I answer that specific question, I want
to preface it with something.
Sure.
I rail against the idea thatmillennials and Gen Xers want to
feel like they're more, they'reinvolved in something more
important.
And the reason I saidspecifically said that is as a
baby boomer, I always wanted tofeel like I was part of
(33:23):
something more important.
So if I'm asked.
To be part of, not the creatingthe most important goal, but
creating all of the supportingactivities around it.
And I specifically see how whatI'm doing is going to support
the company being successful,and my opinion is asked, and I'm
(33:45):
part of the planning team, andmaybe it's only one project.
But if senior leaders have takenthe time to explain to me why
we're doing this and how myinvolvement in the very specific
thing or things I'm going to do,are going to contribute to the
success of the business, I feelthat my perspective and my
(34:09):
contribution is much more value.
And that's the process ofgetting that, that's what allows
you to develop, buy-in insidethe organization.
You know, I've, I've done wellover 200 Kaizen events and for
your listeners who don't knowKaizen, it's basically where
(34:29):
you, you get a group of peoplewho own a process.
It might be an assembly line, itmight be sales operational
planning.
It might be in accountsreceivables.
And you get them together andyou tell'em, look, we need to
fix this process.
Or We need to significantlyimprove it, and you put'em on a
two or three day and can be aslong as five day in a room.
(34:53):
Redesign this process.
The results are phenomenalbecause you've asked the people
who are frustrated by thingsthat don't work, that who
believe that they have, theirvoices haven't been heard, who
believe they aren't part ofsomething bigger, and once you
take those chains off and allowthem to actually own their
(35:16):
process and own the thingsthey're responsible for, the
results are phenomenal.
Isar Meitis (35:22):
Brilliant.
so to summarize what you'resaying is you're still giving
them the keys to be a part ofthe process.
They're just a part of their,part of the process, and hence
you get the buying and hence youget people, excited about the
thing that they're doing becausethey, it allows them, like you
said, not only.
(35:42):
To be a part of the process, butalso to fix the things that they
believe are broken.
And they're most likely, thereality is they, people who know
the best how to fix them.
So if you give them that,flexibility and that, A missing
award and that ownership of thatowner part of the process, now
(36:03):
you get their buy-in becausethis is now their baby, which
now becomes a part of the biggergoal that supports the
organization.
Phenomenal.
Jim GItney (36:09):
Right.
Let me, let me share, can Ishare an example with you,
Absolut?
Do you wanna move on tosomething else?
No, no, no.
For sure.
So back in the mid nineties, inthe late nineties, I was the
head of Black and Duckers.
I was a plant manager for Blackand Duckers, appliance Factory
in North Carolina.
The sales value of goods that wemanufactured was about 150, 200
million.
(36:32):
We became one of the fourlocations in the United States
for a Japanese, one of the, the,the most well known Japanese,
Kaizen continuous improvementgroup in the world where they
will hold quarterly meetings,quarterly kaizen events, people
from all over the co all overthe country coming in and
working with our process owners,not people coming from all over
(36:56):
the country and doing it ontheir own and telling these
folks what they needed to do.
They came in and they spent thefive days in the room with them.
The results were amazing.
Within three years we wereproducing, we tripled the output
of the facility.
Wow.
And we're producing almost 600million in sales value of goods.
And the other interesting piecethat I'll share with you is I
(37:20):
had almost 2000 people duringthe busy season and I did a
survey.
and I found that over 200 ofthem had master's degrees,
bachelor's degrees, builtcomputers, built race cars, did
all kinds of really cool things,but they, they were there for a
(37:41):
completely different reason, andthat was for the security of
having a job so that they couldgo off and do things with their
coach baseball teams and dotheir other passions.
Yeah, we engage them as part ofour continuous improvement
effort.
In doing these Kaizen projectsand statistical process control
because they had the skills todo it and the results were
(38:02):
phenomenal.
I love what you're saying.
Isar Meitis (38:07):
I'm gonna take you 90 degrees to the right because
I think it has a lot to do withwhat we're talking about right
now.
Specifically about the exampleyou gave in the companies I run,
and especially in the latest onethat was very obvious to me
that.
If you want people to beproductive and effective, they
need to be happy.
(38:27):
For people to be happy, theyneed to operate in their zone of
genius and feel that they cantake the thing they bring to the
table, which might be very, verydifferent than the person next
to them.
They have a outlet for theirgenius within the workspace,
which is basically what you'resaying, is, let people, okay,
(38:49):
you're, you know, how to buildcars from scratch.
Maybe you should be involved inthis process that we're doing
right now, redesigning themanufacturing facility even
though you're in accounting.
And so how all of that isconnected to vision, mission,
and core values of the company,which is more the stuff that
(39:11):
we're talking about right now isrelated.
Jim GItney (39:14):
So, there's actually a fourth mission, vision, values
and leadership traits.
Okay.
Okay.
Mission is our true north.
Okay.
Vision gives us more detailabout how we're going to get to
our true north, and perhapsthere's even some measurable
things in there, but mission andvision provides more clarity.
(39:39):
Values tells us how we want ourorganization, people in our
organization to treat eachother, right?
Leadership traits are the thingsthat we absolutely insist our
leaders have, and they need tobe actionable.
And one of the things I say inthe book, as are, is that.
(40:04):
Technology and the skill ofusing technology and leveraging
technology is probably one ofthe top five leadership traits
that need to exist inside anorganization because today
everything we do, especiallybusinesses are run and are built
around technology.
And how the businesses operateit..
(40:27):
And I even go as far assuggesting that we should be
organized around techtechnology, but I digress for a
second.
So, mission, vision, values,leadership traits are all part
of that foundation that tells uswhere we want to go, how we want
to get there.
Most important goal gives methe, the specificity around what
(40:50):
that vision is gonna look likeand strategies gives us much
more specifics on the activitiesthat we're gonna undertake to do
it.
You know, in in the book, I sayall of us as individuals and
contributors to the success ofan organization or a team.
Cuz this can be applied tochurch groups, this can be
(41:12):
applied to just about anything,right?
Sure.
It doesn't matter what kind ofbusiness it is.
I happen to be a manufacturingguy.
Technology companies, servicecompanies, all have the same
exact challenge.
All of us as individuals who arepart of a team or an
organization want to be led, butwe want to know from what to
(41:36):
what and by when.
And so by cascading objectivesand giving very specific
measures around what we're goingto do and communicating that
down throughout theorganization, we satisfy that.
Now I was blessed.
I was, well, maybe he was lucky.
I don't know but the Galluporgan, the, the Gallup
(41:56):
organization has CRE created achart for my book.
Oh, all right.
Awesome.
This is not group 50.
This is the Gallup organization.
Yeah.
Let me share some of the numberswith you When you have a fully
engaged workforce.
Engaged by the process thatwe're talking about right now.
I can expect 23% increase inprofitability.
(42:21):
I can expect a 66% increase inwellbeing and corporate
citizenship.
Stop there for a second.
Think about all theorganizations you've been
involved with, where you talk tothe people and they go, I hate
this place.
I can't stand being here.
I can't, you know, 66% increasein wellbeing in, 14% increase in
(42:42):
productivity, 10% increase in,customer engagement But here are
the eye-popping numbers that arereally appropriate to this post
pandemic environment that we'rein.
An 81% decrease in absenteeism.
A 43% decrease in turnover.
(43:06):
Now think about that.
Oh, you know, we've heard aboutthe great resignation.
We've heard about all of thesedifferent things.
By engaging everyone and makingsure they understand how they're
contributed, contributing to alarger good, we can
significantly impact the issuesthat businesses are currently
faced with.
Now, you can't do it overnight.
(43:26):
Obviously, this is a journey.
Right.
But just by starting with themost important goal and
communicating it to theorganization and asking everyone
to jot down on a piece of paperhow they contribute to that goal
is a really
Isar Meitis (43:43):
positive first step.
This is phenomenal.
I think what you just said issuch a great summary and such a
great.
Note for, like you said, it's,it's a different, slightly
different era than had we hadbefore the pandemic.
from, from two differentperspectives.
You know, one, I think there wasa huge acceleration of adoption
(44:05):
of technology just because wedidn't have a choice in some
cases.
And the other side of it isthere was a lot of money
available so companies coulddevelop these technologies
faster.
And the other part of it was wehad to work from home and
reevaluate strategies and so on.
So we, we live in a slightlydifferent era than we did just a
few years ago.
And what you did, I think is, isa beautiful summary of where
(44:28):
we're today.
What are the things to focus on,Jim, if people wanna find more
about you, about the book, aboutyour business, work with you,
follow you, what are the bestways to do that?
Jim GItney (44:39):
So, w Strategy realized.com.
Okay, is the website for thebook, okay.
And it's available in PDF today.
It will be available on Amazonand Kindle on the 11th of this
month, and available is hardcover on the 9th of February.
(44:59):
Okay, so strategy realized theBusiness Hierarchy of Needs is
the official title of the book.
group 50 Consulting is myconsulting.
And that's group fifty.com.
is a, and, and I have over 200blog articles there talking
about all of these, all of thesevarious things.
(45:22):
So that's how you can, listenerscan get to either the book or to
Group 50 consulting.
I want to close.
I, I, I, Just add one more thingto something you just said.
Sure.
With the significantly largeamount of people inside of
organizations working remotely,one of the things that we don't
(45:45):
get is that day-to-day interfacesitting in a meeting, having
lunch with our peers, going outfor drinks at camaraderie that
we had been used to prepandemic.
Right?
Yep.
By, by implementing the businesshierarchy of needs and taking
that into consideration, nowthat person who's sitting some
(46:08):
remote location in Idaho can,has a much more positive view
about how they're Im, they canimpact the organization to
contribute to its success.
And so in today's workforce, andit is so much more important
that companies focus on that setof activities.
Isar Meitis (46:31):
I love it.
I'll add my 2 cents to thatagain from my experience,
because I think it's very, veryimportant, critical for the near
and probably long-term future.
One is going back to, companyculture is something that was
always important and now became.
Maybe more challenging, but waymore critical because you could
(46:52):
before through osmosis, getcompany culture.
And now unless there's a verydisciplined process to create
culture and sustain it and growit involving everybody in the
organization, it's not going tohappen just because a lot of
people see it at home.
So that's aspect number one.
And aspect number two is,Because systems like this like
(47:19):
enable you to manage and trackspecific individuals, and then
teams and individuals,achievements and goals and so
on, existed for a very longtime.
But again, you could get in aroom once a week or once a month
and go over everything and talkto people and see what's going
on.
Now, in many organizations, thatdoesn't happen.
So com, so solutions like Jiraor Monday or Asana, or click up,
(47:43):
or whichever you are using, thatenables you to really take that
process, the O K R process, orcall it whatever you wanna call
it, and break it down intoquarterly, weekly, daily tasks
for specific individuals thatyou can.
And see their completion and seehow they're contributing to the
(48:05):
bigger strategies and the biggergoal exist.
And they're very, very good andthey can help you in today's era
to actually achieve this thingthat, again, before was easier
to do just because everybody wasin a building and you can call a
meeting and have 20
Jim GItney (48:21):
people sitting.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And at the end of the day, ifI've been engaged, I've been
asked my opinion, I feel like myopinion is valued.
I'm much more willing to havethe conversation about being
accountable.
Because for far too long we hadthese formal tracking systems,
(48:42):
right?
And people found all kinds ofways to hide behind why couldn't
get this done.
Yeah.
But by engaging everyone in theworkforce or as many people as
you can, and providing with themwith the skills, the remember
that I want to be led from whatto what by when.
(49:03):
Right.
they're much more acceptance.
They're, they, there's a muchgreater acceptance of the
concept of cascading objectivesand reporting on'em.
As a matter of fact, if I ownsomething, And I achieve it, I
will run to the presentation tolet everyone know Yeah.
(49:24):
What I've accomplished.
Yeah.
That's just human nature.
That's who we are.
Right?
Sure.
And so that's incredibly,important.
One last thing on culture.
Sure.
So inside the book, I actuallytalk about culture being a
figment of people's imagin.
(49:44):
So, more often than not, we talkabout mission, vision, values
and leadership trained traits.
Defining the culture of acompany, I've, I've heard that
more than anything else, right?
It doesn't define the culture ofthe company.
It defines how we want people tobehave.
Right?
(50:05):
Yeah.
If you follow the businesshierarchy of needs and you get
everyone engaged, I'm going tostand out on the edge here and
claim that you will realize aculture of strategic execution.
And what I mean by that is thatyou have a culture where
everyone's pointed in the samedirection.
They all have the same set ofaccounta.
(50:28):
They're all accountable they'reall participating.
And the mission, vision, values,and leadership traits is
defining how we really want youand I to work together how we
want you and I to talk to eachother.
Right?
Sure.
And so at the end of the day,what we're really talking about
(50:49):
is a culture of strategicexecution here, and that's the
culture that we want in order toachieve these kinds of numbers.
Isar Meitis (50:59):
Jim, this was really interesting, really deep
like that.
We touched on a lot of reallyimportant stuff here in a
relatively short amount of time.
I really, really appreciate youspending the time and sharing
from your experience andknowledge with me and the
listeners and thank you verymuch.
Jim GItney (51:16):
So it, so it's been my pleasure.
to be part of this podcast andto talk with, talk about what
you hope came across as mypassion, awesome.
Around the business hierarchy ofneeds and creating a culture of
strategic execution.
Isar Meitis (51:32):
What a great conversation with Jim.
He obviously has a lot ofexperience and depth in his
knowledge in the field ofstrategy implementation.
If you are looking to hear moreepisodes that talk about
business strategies, there aremultiple of them, but there are
three I would like to recommend.
One is very recent, it's episode168 it is called WIN in 2023 and
(51:54):
Beyond, based on interviews withover 150 CEOs and business
experts.
It's a solo episode that I'vedone just before the beginning
of this year in order to givethe best practices and the best
tips I can give you of what youhave to focus on in order to
grow businesses in the nextcoming years.
(52:14):
Another one is episode 98, Aproven business growth
acceleration framework shared bysought after business coach
Jerry McNamara.
Jerry is a brilliant coach andhe helped and is helping
multiple businesses in multipleindustries.
Crystallize their strategy sothey can, like he said, grow the
(52:35):
business while making it homefor dinner.
It's a great episode.
It's fun and it provides a lotof great tips.
And the last one, you'll have toscroll all the way back to
episode 16.
It's called Business GrowthGuru, Dwayne Deville reveals his
process.
Dwayne is the trusted advisor ofCEOs or some very large
(52:56):
companies.
His process is very strategicand yet very easy to follow.
All three are highly recommendedand attack the idea behind
business strategy in differentangles.
If you enjoyed this episode,please listen to more.
If you listen to a few and youlike the content, I would really
appreciate it if you subscribeand rate and review this podcast
on Apple Podcast and tell afriend that could benefit from
(53:19):
this podcast as well.
I would really appreciate all ofthose and until next time, have
an amazing week.
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