The explosion of growth from Series A to B requires fuelling your top line through new revenue streams, new markets and experimentation with new commercial models. But it is natural to get distracted by endless strategic opportunities as you scale.
40% of CEOs claim their strategy has failed due to a breakdown in execution.
There are two usual suspects:
- You are focused on your annual target, closing the round or converting the pipeline. There is no time to reflect on what will get you to your three-year target.
- You are fascinated by the routes to exponential growth; the ultimate distraction from the day-to-day. The basics are compromised in favour of exploration and high-level strategy. Your bottom line erodes as you spin off at endless experimental meetings.
How can you deliver whilst focusing on the long-term?
Stop thinking strategy is the silver-bullet.
- Nail down your strategy and use it to execute. Strategy is plotting the course, execution is steering the ship.
- Netscape became a $1.6bn business by shifting away from belief in a silver-bullet strategy fuelled by acquisitions and partnerships. It solved its battle against Microsoft by using ‘lead bullets’ to transform the engineering team.
Overcome the void.
- Erosion in interpretation disconnects the ‘why’ from the ‘how’. Yammer failed when the team interpreted strategy in isolation. Putting front-line execution at the core of the strategy overcame this break-down.
- Your strategy might be unlocking a new market to double revenue. Without clarity on executional elements like the team, pricing and sales channels this is meaningless. If you disseminate your strategy through e-mails, town halls and management meetings, treat the execution plan with the same rigour.
So what has to change? Are you executing without a strategy? Or worse – are the two completely disconnected?
At Cruxy, we believe in crossing the chasm between strategy and execution:
- One of our clients shifted strategy to engage with larger prospects. Execution in sales and pricing led to inconsistent revenue, and failure to convert this new segment.
- The new pricing structure we developed for every member of the sales team to follow aligned to the drivers of value within the market – they increased their license fee by 50% while maintaining existing conversion rates.