8/8/2019 Leadership in Hard Times

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Sales and Service Excellence is a phenomenalresource for sales professionals who want to grow andachieve more in their careers.

TOM HOPKINS, AMERICAS#1 SALESTRAINER

John GoldenCEO Huthwaite Leadership

in Hard TimesLeadership

in Hard Time

StrategicPlanningStrategicPlanning

IncentivesPurposeful Choice

IncentivesPurposeful Choice

SalesConfidenceSalesConfidence

8/8/2019 Leadership in Hard Times

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Would you tell me, please, whichway I ought to go from here?

That depends a good deal on whereyou want to get to, said the Cat.

I dont much care where, saidAlice.

Then it doesnt matter which wayyou go, said the Cat.

So long as I get SOMEWHERE,Alice added as an explanation.

Oh, youre sure to do that, saidthe Cat.

If you dont know where youregoing, any road will get you there.

The same holds true for identity: Ifyou dont know who you are, its a

good bet no one else will either.2. Fundamentals. Ralph Waldo Emer-

son once said, The beautiful rests onthe foundations of the necessary. It is

never bad policy to focus on basics, butin hard times it is indispensable.

In his well-regarded bookGood toGreat: Why Some Companies Make theLeapand Others Dont, Jim Collinsargues that one of the keys to makingthe leap from good to great in busi-ness is to find and exploit your ownHedgehog Concept. In Collins view,this is not only a strategy for hardtimes, but in fact a guiding principlefor any time. The idea of the hedge-

hog refers to a fragment attributed tothe ancient Greek poet Archilochus:The fox knows many things, but thehedgehog knows one big thing.

The idea is, in short, discover thesimple, crystalline concept that liesat the intersection of three things: 1)What you can be the best in the worldat; 2) What you are deeply passionateabout; and 3) What drives your eco-nomic engine (profit per x).

At Huthwaite we place greatemphasis on fundamentals. We knowwe are the best in the world at

improving sales performance; we aredeeply passionate about the legacy of

behavioral research that underpinsSPIN Selling and our other modelsand it drives our economic engine.

It is very simple, but very effective.3. Adaptability is the third element

that matters in tough times. An organi-zation that is flexible has the ability toadapt to changes, large and small, in

the market landscape.Leadership in hard times is not

always easy, but theres a very realsense in which it is simple. It is about

becoming trim and nimble, able to rollwith the proverbial punches. It maywell mean cutting dead wood andtrimming under-producing brancheswhich is by no means easybut willreap great benefits. Every branch thatdoes bear fruit must be pruned, that itmay bear more fruit. It may meanredeploying existing resources, chang-ing job roles or areas of emphasis.

This means you have to create anadaptable workforce too. That leannessIm describing is far more than justheadcount; it covers every aspect ofthe right side of the ledger. These arethe difficult and yet necessary tasks ofthe leader in hard times.

The days of large, bureaucraticorganizations are gone. The future isasymmetric market threats andexploitation of speed and agility tomeet those threats.

How to React?

Once having dealt honestly with thestrategic questions of identity, funda-mentals, and adaptability, you can turnto the operational question:How canwe best react to the shifting sands ofthe market?

I have found that to succeed in hardtimes, a companys leadership has twochoices: Either take the company into anew marketplace, or expand walletshare in the current marketplace.

Both options are legitimate growthstrategies, but the latter is much easierthan the former.

Kevin Mansell, CEO of KohlsCorp., put it most succinctly recentlywhen describing his aggressive strate-gy to capture market share: For theforeseeable future, we see a tougheconomy, a tough environment. Wehave to be focused on outperformingthe competition and gaining share attheir expense.

Such is leadership in hard times. SSE

John Golden is President and CEO of Huthwaite, Inc.Visit www.Huthwaite.com or call 703-467-3800.

ACTION: Focus on these three things.

by John Golden

IN THE PAST DECADE, WE HAVEexperienced two great

bubble markets: first, thedot com bubble and lately, the finan-cial services/housing bubble. Bothhave a lot in common in terms ofcompanies repositioning themselves,changing their models and their go-to-market strategiesor upstartsspringing up, rejecting the traditionalways of doing business, and introduc-ing new and innovative approaches.

Innovation and reinvention are inthemselves good and necessary parts

of the engine of entrepreneurialismand market growth. Unfettered, how-ever, or badly thought through, theycan ultimately lead to the types of

business disintegrations we have seenall too often of late.

A large part of the reason is thatsome of the fundamentals that are castaside actually have much more meritthan those too quick to change appre-ciateand so the baby goes out withthe bathwater. Instead of a solid mar-riage of the proven and the innovative,we are left sometimes with change for

changes sake, or worse a strategy thatturns out to be too confused and isultimately rejected by the market.

Three Areas of FocusHaving recently taken over as CEO

of Huthwaite, a global sales perfor-mance improvement company, Ivehad the opportunity to reflect on themeaning of leadership in a troubledeconomy, and on the difficulty of bal-ancing the old with the new.

If you find yourself beset by a crisisof this kind, there are three things you

can focus on to help you turn the situ-ation around: 1) identity, 2) fundamen-tals, and 3) adaptability.

Lets look at these areas of focus:1. Identity. Leadership in hard

times requires the ability to articulateand demonstrate a clear vision of yourorganizations identity: What is your

business core strength? What is yourbusiness best known for? How do youwant your business to be perceived inthe marketplace?

Perhaps youll recall that wonderfullittle exchange in Alice in Wonderland:

Leadership in Hard TimesK n o w w h o y o u a r e a n d w h e r e y o u a r e g o i n g .

S A L E S A N D S E R V I C E E X C E L L E N C E J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9

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