I read an excellent article written by Janet Adamy in the Wall Street Journal this week, (http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120709864540082145.html) discussing Burger King and the great turnaround that is being led by their CEO John Chidsey.
The article covers a fair few topics but the one I was most interested in was that of his focus. Instead of declaring that they were going to expand into China, ramp up in Poland or conquer Russia, (just as examples), he simply stated that they were going to focus in the areas that currently drive their business and go deeper into the places they already had a presence.
So what I hear you say. Well, believe it or not, we meet many Executives who actually try and focus the business on many different areas of the business, (that by the way may or may not be the right areas), and use sometimes over 100 metrics to manage the performance in those areas.
But hang on, metrics are good, right? The more metrics you have the better, right? Then you get a really detailed view of the business and how it's performing. I hear that all the time. Fact is, if you cannot find the real drivers of your business and focus on those drivers, you are not performing in an optimal fashion. But simply exploding your business into the hundreds of metric and driver parts that make it up and then throwing them in a report or on a dashboard is not focus. It's madness. In most cases the number of things that truly drive a business is only 3 to 5 things.
It's great to see a CEO who clearly gets the fact that you need to pick the things that truly drive your business and get everyone to focus and execute around those drivers. Here below are his top 5 picks.
1. Focus on two or three major drivers that will make the biggest impact on the business.
2. Create and maintain a sense of urgency and risk taking.
3. Know your customers.
4. Put the right employees in the right places.
5. Know your operators and regain their trust. Great relationships are key in this business.
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