Operational Excellence Enables Strategy Every Time

April 27, 2014

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Strategy before operations or operations before strategy? Is it equivalent to the chicken or the egg discussion?
Clearly, you must have a strategy to start executing upon. However, designing and making real every single element in the operations to bring the strategy to clients and consumers is where the true magic and work happens.
Every single tiny detail matters. Additionally, every single operational model, labor model, training plan, hiring decision will make or break your interactions/sales, and therefore build or degrade the brand of your company.
Therefore, if you focus on the high-level strategy and assume the rest will follow, you will be out of business pretty fast. I always marvel at people who spend all their time in the "corporate office" walls and send emails to the operational team to make it happen. Wrong answer and disaster every time. Instead, how about you design the strategy and then you (the CEO and executive team) spend as much time as is possible (yep even weekends) right in the action, listening, watching, participating in the sales, fulfillment, delivery, and customer service of the business. Not only will you completely understand how you can improve every element, the trust and respect you build with your customers as well as your employees is priceless. And, it is where the action is. It is where the challenges lie. It is where your future success or demise will play out. Also, it is here that you will find every single new innovation and strategy. It is right in the harried operational aspects you will visualize the continuous vision for growth. And, you have the partners you need to make it happen.
If you continually build the operational prowess of your business, no matter how large or small your business is, you will find the breathing room and success you need to push the strategy further and further to big success.
Lastly, even with a flawed strategy, if you spend your time right in the tiniest details of the operations across every aspect including being right in front of the customer yourself time and again, you will find all the flaws in the strategy, fix them together with your team, and win every single time.
I would bet on incredible operational thirst before strategy every time. You will find the strategy if you spend all your time enabling the excellence in the operations detail by detail….everytime.