Facilities closed. Talent left. Products and services delayed.
You would assume we were talking about a business on the brink of calamity – but that’s not always the case. In fact, I received feedback after my recent post on the role of Sponsor for the Growth Leader triad that all of these had occurred in the businesses of several of my readers. Note that these were not “zombie projects,” either. They were good, well-aligned efforts in businesses that were doing well by most standards.
The common thread among all of these readers was this: there were internal disruptions caused by changes in the organization that resulted in key growth projects losing the “air cover” of its Champion. This typically happens during a succession change, or sometimes in a business alignment reorganization. The background on the critical role of the Sponsor capacity (one of the four key capacities of Growth Leadership) is outlined in this post here.
So what causes good firms to miss the opportunity to get the payback for their investments in these strategic programs?
The typical timeline looks like this:
- An internal business unit leader who has been the champion moves into a new role
- A budget reduction follows soon after
- The need to do some budget reduction is passed down
When this occurs, the (seemingly) easiest cut to make is embryonic growth programs. These programs aren’t yet on the income statement, and so their disappearance causes very little external disruption. The longer-term negative effects such as developing a new capability, having the trust of subject matter experts to take a risk and the shock to momentum is hard to quantify.
There are at least three culprits that leave these programs vulnerable:
#1: The projects had not been able to make the jump from narrow to broad sponsorship
How it happens: All great internal projects start with narrow sponsorship because it’s important to have an initial team that’s “all in” to create the exciting new product or service and that always means a dozen or fewer participants. What is less well understood is that once you start, it’s a foot race to create enough validated results so that you can approach internal sponsors outside of the “founding” sponsor and gain a favorable hearing.
How to Fix It: In coaching internal efforts, we configure two teams: the “working group” and an internal “board of directors” to clearly establish senior leader sponsorship (more in this blog post). Until you have an “internal board of directors,” your fledgling internal startup is at risk.
#2: The early business cases were not emotive enough
How it happens: The typical business case is strong on technical and financial detail, leaving two key constituencies uncovered: the Management Board and the Operations/Distribution team. A great business case needs to have a plain English logic that speaks to the senior leadership team on why it’s firmly embedded in the strategic fabric of the firm.
How to Fix It: This executive narrative needs to be very strong, and use clarity and simplicity as its end goals. Secondly, there must be an unimpeachable case for the ops/distribution team. This includes how the product or service would be produced, and who would “own” the P&L. It also needs to have the distribution story sorted, making sure that it fits in the product market fabric of the firm and does not confuse the sales force or customer.
#3: The connection to an emergent external client was not fully in place
How it happens: When it comes to making hard decisions about what stays in the portfolio, nothing speaks as loudly as positive feedback from an actual client or customer. Many times tunnel vision keeps the team “heads down” on the work of developing the solution internally, without a clear line of sight to a “live” client use case.
How to Fix It: This is best done in plain daylight with a “friendly” account manager and client, under a clear JDA (joint development agreement). In cooperation with the broadening of the sponsorship (point 1 above), a Growth Leader needs to find an outside source to validate the value of what they are working on (and that it’s not just a one-off, but a real market).
There are no absolute guarantees when it comes to keeping your program in the mix. As they say, stuff happens. But if you want to drastically improve your chances, it’s very important to take control of that which you have control over and keep moving forward until you are out of time and budget.
One hopefully encouraging note: the skills developed in well-run programs do not disappear entirely. Good people are placed in new roles and the talents they have gained through the growth program work are typically transferable. What is lost is the momentum and the availability of processes, products, and services that may well have contributed materially to the bottom line.
If you have a program that feels “tippy” and you’d like to root the sponsorship more deeply, I would like to share the Complete Growth Leader model with you. This proven framework will help you strategically create programs that have staying power. You can reach out to me at 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a short call.
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