The Launch of Economics Designed
You have only known one version of business environment in your career. Demographics worked with the largest generation ever impacting decades of consumption, capital creation, and productivity. The economics of the big cycle of monetary systems has been solid just as long even with bumps like expensive wars, the great recession, and a pandemic. The established global order made geopolitics relatively stable that enabled trade to take off. That is all changing.
When was the last time you stepped back and really thought about your business to check if it is headed where your leadership team wants it to be? Even when companies take the time for that reflection and planning it is difficult to step out of the day to day immersion to think big. Let’s be clear. I am not an expert on every industry, situation, or nuance of what you are managing through. My special capability is learning enough about the complexities of a business and then work through strategies for implementation.
This is especially important right now as we will be facing a business environment that we have never experienced before. Understanding the drivers of Demographics, Economics, and Geopolitics at a deeper level will help make sense of the cautionary headlines. That is where our conversation begins, to get grounded in the realities that 2030 will force us to deal with. Expectations for an extended recession, inflationary pressures, high interest rates, and a need for talent. That sounds like Chicken Little and “the sky is falling”, but understanding the fundamentals behind the situation through my research will help guide your leadership.
Working together on a state of the strategy is our initial engagement. This is after your leadership team has time to reflect on their understanding of the near future scenarios that I describe. To get at this important first part of strategy planning there are four steps that we work through:
Listening. Spending time with your team to hear more about the current state of the business as well as shared goals for the future. Asking enough questions and taking enough notes for us to frame the big things that will be required.
Describing. Succinctly describing the situation including the people, the market, the capabilities, the structure, and the gaps. The things that we identify here may seem obvious to everyone that is immersed in the day to day, but are viewed differently from an experienced outsider. This is on me to not write a book that you have already read, rather give a one page summary with opportunities described.
Reviewing. We get back together and review to make sure that there generally speaking there is focus on the right set of opportunities. No need to get hung up on specific details here, we need 70% understanding to start heading in the right direction. In implementation there will be a lot of learning that will help adjust the opportunity understanding as well as prioritization.
Planning. Getting to actions is the tough part as always. Really important here is to target 3-4 areas of focus that are truly strategic and not just running the business. Maybe even avoid calling them initiatives which can become unbounded and never ending. The action plans here will have a clear leader and team members identified for implementation. Clarity of scope and desired results with the associated business impact is done up front.
Using an agile for business approach for the implementation is the most effective way to manage the team. Getting to results along the way to learn and adjust the next actions builds momentum along with efficiency. Continued engagement with prioritization will get to a more confident position for your future.
Launching Economics Designed as a business advisory firm is exactly what I want to be doing. Taking over 30 years of my strategic business and leadership experience to help companies plan the future is my passion.
This is the power of strategically designing the economics of your business!