Why Did I Fire The Best Director Of Sales In The Industry?
A C-suite level executive must think strategically
Strategy — map it out yourself
A C-suite level executive must think strategically
2010 was a prosperous year for the sector in which my company operated. Our company had a strategy, and all the strategic priorities were clean and well-known to all leaders.
But our sales were long way from perfect, even though a couple of month before that we had hired a man who had had a reputation as the best sales director in the industry.
One morning he visited my office and expressed his concern about sales — the chances were we couldn’t meet the quarter targets. We discussed the situation and the possible solutions, and he left. I watched him work for a couple of weeks and then invited him to my office to say his appointment was my mistake.
“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.” — Albert Einstein
When a tactical problem occurs (and quarter sales decline is a one of that kind) many managers tempt to solve it at a tactical level. For instance, this particular DoS tried to narrow the gap between target and actual sales results. He called several meetings, he traced the numbers several times a day, and even made a couple of calls to some major clients.
He was waisting his time. And mine. The time paid by the company.
Problem:
The decrease in sales was only a consequence of some deeper, strategic issues, such as the following:
– Our marketing and planning systems didn’t work properly. That’s why I doubted our targets were realistic.
– Our sales team was not trained properly
– Our procurement system and logistics needed improvement
– We were quite passive in our relationship with customers
So, the decline in sales was only a tip of an iceberg. Trying to fix the issue “in manual mode” could save the quarter but couldn’t save the year, let alone long-term development. It was waisting precious time, the time that we could devote to discussing and fixing strategic problems.
As a Director of Sales, he was not responsible for marketing or logistics. Nor could he give them orders. But as a top executive he had team up with other executives, find the true reasons that led to the situation, and come up with an idea or several ideas. Or, at least, he cold try.
Solution
In any difficult situation think strategically.
That man didn’t. He behaved like a middle manager worrying about his KPIs.
Thinking strategically means one shouldn’t sacrifice long-term development for the sake of the quarter sales. It was certainly not the last quarter in the company’s life.
The more appropriate course of action could be:
– Finding the core problem (using Root Cause Analysis, Current Reality Tree. Or some other techniques)
– Discussing it with broad range of stakeholders
– Coming up with a solution
– Implementing the solution
Conclusion
There is only one small group in any organization responsible for strategic development — top executives. This task cannot be delegated to subordinates or outsourced.
To accomplish this task, all the team members must think strategically. It works for any company of any size in any domain.
Strategic thinking implies system thinking. When a C-suite executive sees a problem, they don’t rush to fix it immediately. They understand that any issue is nothing more than a signal indicating the system works wrong. They don’t waste precious time trying to put a patch where a complete replacement or repair is needed.
Hire strategic thinkers
Persuade them to think strategically
Don’t waste your time to those who can’t
Strategic thinking is not a gift, it is a managerial skill
Think strategically