Get into the value habit: knowing what makes your company valuable is important, but it's not enough. Getting from "knowing" to "doing" requires real change. Here are eight behaviors that have helped organizations bridge the "knowing-doing" gap.

AuthorWortman, Brent
PositionManagement

Value creation resides at the core of every company. What's amazing is that most organizations remain hung up in theorizing about how to do it, rather than rolling up their sleeves and making it happen.

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So, what is it, then, that stands in the way? What are the value-creating behaviors that successful organizations apply? While there is no magic formula, let's presume that most already know what makes them valuable, but they may not have recognized the value-inhibiting behaviors that are all too common and that masquerade as "business as usual."

The solutions proposed here may not apply to every organization, but the problems are real and quite common. The following eight recommendations for behavioral change are intended to help overcome the inertia of good intentions.

Value-creating behavior #1

Connect your vision, your strategy and your business processes with what you need to do to succeed. Make it obvious and easy for your people to do the right thing.

VALUE-INHIBITING BEHAVIOR: Ignore the disconnect between what makes you valuable and what you and your people are doing about it.

CHANGING THE BEHAVIOR: Start by linking your objectives and strategies to specific tactics and then link to what people actually do--the business processes they actually execute.

THE OUTCOME: Mechanisms like these encourage value-creating action across the company. Choose mechanisms that are right for your company and your objectives, but be sure they are in alignment. Make the path clear.

Value-creating behavior #2

Position your organization to deal with a range of possible futures, but then home in on what you need only for the future that actually arrives.

VALUE-INHIBITING BEHAVIOR: You rely on established planning models after changes in the environment have rendered them obsolete.

CHANGING THE BEHAVIOR: Let strategic focus on value drive your plan:

  1. Consider four or five plausible scenarios for your share of the marketplace.

  2. Define how you'd win in the world described in each scenario.

  3. Identify which initiatives show up in the strategies for all scenarios and make them core to your plan--you need them, no matter what.

  4. Make limited investments in the key assets you'll need if each scenario materializes, and build in the ability to ratchet your ownership up or down.

  5. As the future becomes the present, adjust your contingent investments according to what is needed.

The outcome: The flexibility of your initiatives allows you...

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