The Game Is On: Maximizing Business Value - Strategic Insights for Visionary Leaders

By Cheryl Powers

I have never met a CEO or business owner who didn't want to know the fastest and most effective way to grow profits, free up cash flow, and create a winning culture. The best owners know that culture eats strategy for breakfast and without the right strategy, people and processes, the culture will deteriorate and profits will plummet.

Over the years, the owners who were having the most fun while they grew their companies were the ones who were able to view their business growth journey as a game. I call our process "Creating A Game You Can Win."  It starts with a deep dive into the reality of your situation. In other words, what is the reality of every critical factor affecting your game?

Once you know where you stand, you can decide where you're going and begin to build your strategy maps. 

Aligning your strategy to your people, processes, and systems creates the engine for a winning culture in a profitable enterprise.

Your people need to know exactly what to do and why they are doing it. In other words, how does what they do in their role relate to the big-picture strategy?

You and your managers must execute from a roadmap based on that strategy's goals. 

Your sales and marketing people need to be able to bring the value of that strategy to market with a rallying cry that brings the team together to win more and better customers.

And your operational and customer success teams must satisfy the needs of your ideal customers and overdeliver on your marketing promise.

It sounds easier than it is. And it’s nearly impossible without the right roadmap.

 "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ~ Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

But to build the roadmap accurately, effectively, and with unambiguous and actionable data, you, the business owner, must answer the most important questions that impact your growth and cultural effectiveness.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, would likely refer to the answers to these crucial questions as "the truth."

Questions like:

What's the growth opportunity for this business, division, group, or territory?

How do our leadership and management teams impact our results?

What are our current sales and operational capabilities?

Are we capable of generating more new business?

What’s working with our customers and what’s broken?

What’s the current value of the company?

What specific factors need to improve to increase the company value?

These questions must also be answered:

• How can the owner(s) become operationally irrelevant while supporting company growth?
• Which managers have the most positive impact on culture and why?
• How well are our leadership and management strategies aligned?
• Who on the sales team can be better at reaching prospects?
• Who on the sales team can close more sales?
• Who on the sales team can improve their sales cycle?
• How can we shorten our sales cycle without lowering deal size or margins?
• How can we improve cash flow?
• How can we more effectively differentiate from our competition?
• Is our value proposition clear?
• Do our current systems and processes support a high-performance company?
• How should we optimize our recruitment strategy to attract, select, hire, onboard and retain better team members?
• Who on the team can become more effective in their roles?

And finally:

* What can we improve, fix or implement now that will have the biggest impact in the next 18-24 months, despite the economy?

The right Growth Roadmap provides all of the answers to these questions and gives you the steps you must take to reach the level of growth you know you are capable of reaching.

You may already know what that number is but you might not feel comfortable saying it out loud. You may hold it deep inside and not share it with your team, your shareholders, or your golf buddies. 

It's the number you silently say to yourself but refrain from saying out loud.

You can say it now. 

It's safe to grow. 

We have the answers to get you there.

 The game is on!