Simple Courage…
How to think 'properly’…)
By Brian Moore, Global retail consultant and CEO EMR-NAMNEWS & Kamcity.com

The quality and value of business analysis, i.e. choosing between alternative business options, can be compromised by inadequate generation of alternatives (creativity) in the search for a profitable solution. The root cause can be a combination of skill inadequacy, and the perception that ‘proper’ creativity and analysis takes more time than is available.  In other words, because businesses tend to seek out and reward the ability to ‘fix‘ business problems, so their KAMs, when faced with a business issue, are tempted to generate a couple of alternative options, make a quick choice and implement a solution, fast…

There never seems to be sufficient time to suspend treatment of the smoke, systematically generate and evaluate an adequate set of alternative options in the rush to engage in some high profile fire-fighting. In fact, companies can forget that creativity is simply another business tool, where practice (and courage) allow the practitioner to step back without any real loss of momentum.

Inhouse creativity

However, whilst much business creativity can be found and nurtured in-house, companies tend to feel that ‘real’ creativity is best outsourced to ‘well-paid, long-haired non-conformists’ who appear to have been born with the gift of being able to work without data and intuitively find solutions in a chaotic marketplace… 

Given that a key skill of a KAM is to co-ordinate internal and external resources to the good of the supplier-customer business relationship, it is essential that they not only have direct access to such resources, but that they are skilled in giving a comprehensive brief, and have the ability and courage to objectively judge and implement the output.

Prejudice, literally pre-judgement of a situation, limits the KAM’s ability to identify the real issue, generate and lay out the alternatives for systematic analysis in order to provide a succinct and simple brief for the support function…

When going to the expense of using an outside agency, it is also important to acknowledge that bought-in creativity, from the right agency, can surpass the brief…. Good creative people have the ability to see through the brief, sense real need in the marketplace and can then express a connecting bridge which not only links problem and solution, elegantly, but also possesses the benefit of looking good in retrospect…

Incidentally, this is not the same as a conclusion made with the ‘benefit of hindsight’, which can be a mere ‘after-the-event’ insight and a put-down. Instead, it is the execution of a fundamental process in creativity, the act of making an assumption that a solution has been reached in order to look back at the problem and discover the pathway forward…

Optimising outsourced creativity

In giving a ‘best shot’ brief, it takes courage on the part of the KAM to acknowledge that the instinctively creative leap by the agency, in identifying real need in the market, and presenting an idea which is way off brief, but is in retrospect obviously better than the brief. In fact, in a high profile peer-group meeting, it takes real courage to slow down the strategic momentum, abandon the brief, and ‘publicly’ acknowledge that the ‘pitched idea’ is better than the brief and shift the strategy.

The test of simplicity….

As part of the same process, a KAM has to be able to distil a business proposition down to its essential elements and then express it succinctly and courageously to those who need to know…and a lesson can be learned from the successful entrepreneur’s approach to securing funding..

The need and ability to express an investment opportunity to a financier between two floors during an elevator ride, distinguishes the successful entrepreneur from the dedicated but unfocused enthusiast. However, it should also be borne in mind that superficially derived, over-simplistic business solutions, however well expressed, can alienate … In other words, it is not difficult to gain access to a potential audience, once, but such attention demands a proposition which meets the key objective of expressing the idea and the need it fulfils, simply and concisely, is thought through from the ‘buyer’s perspective, ignores ego (the humility of success) and welcomes examination, secure in the knowledge that real ‘genius’ can stand the analysis…but needs a little humble courage….

Developing a FundaMental Tool-kit for KAMs….

Essentially, because of time limitations in the role, a KAM needs a mental tool-kit of  techniques that are high-output, comprehensive, thorough, flexible and fast. However, in preparing a workable and profitable trade proposition, a KAM not only needs creative and analytical tools that are highly productive and ‘suspiciously’ fast, but are also fully robust and defensible…in relying upon such a tool-kit, it then takes courage to conclude that is safe to implement a defensible decision, fast.

Such techniques include lateral thinking tools like OPV (Other Peoples’ Views). Essentially when faced with a new trade issue or problem, it is important to generate a list of all the people or groups affected by the issue. The next step is to narrow the list down to the three most important groups  (say Consumer, Supplier and Customer) exploring the issue from each of their points of view in terms of Positive, Minus and Interesting, with one minute devoted to each step to ensure focus, high output and thinking without prejudice. In the process the KAM will effectively open up the issue and provide the basis for Analysis.

Forecasting in pieces…

The Time Dimension can then be explored by breaking the future into separate Time Frames in terms of immediate Consequence of the Issue, and the rollout or probable Sequel of events. This means assuming that the Issue already impacts the market, and exploring the immediate effect, and then the Short term (1 month), the Medium term (6 months) and Long term (1 year) limiting oneself to one minute per term, effectively generating a comprehensive set of time-based options for analysis.  

Thus, in less than 30 minutes the issue has been comprehensively opened up into the big picture, and the long term, thus overcoming two of the main criticisms of KAM-level thinking…

How Ansoff helps in OTSW analysis

With the resulting raw material it is then possible to identify Opportunities arising by exploring ways of selling more of the Current Products to Current Consumers, New Products to Current Consumers, Current Products to New Consumers who exhibit the same characteristics as the Current Consumers, and selling New Products to New Consumers (Ansoff Matrix).

It is then possible to systematically identify and evaluate Threats in terms of Legal, Political, Cultural, Competitor and Structural change in the marketplace, factoring in their probable impact upon the company’s ability to capitalise upon the Opportunity. 

On the basis of this high-speed exploration of the outside environment, the company’s attributes in terms of People, Brands, Marketing, Supplychain, Logistics, Production, Financial resources and speed-to-market capabilities, using the defined Opportunity as a reference point.  These become the basis of company Strengths or Weaknesses, defined by their ability to meet market need. It only remains to point out that time does not allow elimination of weakness. Instead, pragmatism forces a company to settle for a temporary restraint of the diluting effect of that weakness, in order to ensure that sufficient time is left for exploiting of the Opportunity, in advance of the competition…  Again, high speed and this pragmatic application of a SWOT analysis will ensure a focused result.

Deriving a workable Objective, in terms of timeliness, quantification, scale, achievability  and fit with company policy should then present little difficulty.

Challenging this objective via a How-Why analysis will both firm up the objective and develop an outline strategy.  Integrating the resulting strategy with the company’s ROCE objectives will effectively join up the dots and validate the approach, again

The importance of Risk

The final step involves the application of a Risk Analysis to complete the process. This means identifying 10 things that could go wrong in execution of the Plan, and then exploring each of these possibilities in terms of Impact upon the business and Chance of occurrence (High, Medium, or Low in each case)  Then developing a Contingency Plan for High-Impact, High-Chance risks ensures that the strategy can withstand examination, however penetrating, and all at high speed.

It finally remains to have the courage of one’s convictions in distilling the proposition down to its very essence, head for the elevator and be capable of making the pitch on the way to the top floor…