Turnaround

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On our first day on Saipan over 13 years ago, we took our young family on a trip and started driving around without a map or any direction. Our journey took us on a lot of roads and we knew if we got lost we would only need to turn around and travel until we found a familiar landmark. Many organizations are traveling on an economic path that is bumpy at best, and washed out at worst. The current situation requires many businesses and also non-profit and government organizations to stop and do a turnaround.
There are obvious steps that should be taken, such as take control of your expenses, cut unnecessary costs, renegotiate financing and vendor terms, and generate more sales. I’d like to share ten ideas that practically any organization can use to help get their organization unstuck and moving in the right direction.
1. Stop and assess your present situation. The first step is to gather objective data you can review to determine what got you into your current situation. You should assess the internal and external factors impacting your organization and their immediate and long-term effects. Did your competition implement a marketing campaign? Have socio-cultural factors changed buying habits? How have political, economic, or technological changes impacted your organization?
2. Examine your business model. Your business model has three elements: your customers, the goods and services they buy, and how you operate your business to serve your customers. This can be broken down into the who, what, and how of your business, and changing any of these three areas will change your business model and the results you’re getting.
3. Focus on your customers. The most successful organizations focus on their customers and don’t take them for granted. Your customers will ultimately determine your success, and better serving their needs will encourage them to buy more, return, and tell others about your business. Even government and non-profit organizations rely on “customers” to justify their existence. What can you do to better serve them?
4. Meet with key leaders, your board of directors or advisors. Before you implement a turnaround program, you need to meet with your key leaders, directors or advisors to gain their approval and support. Share your findings and get their input and support.
5. Involve your key employees in the turnaround process. Now that you have approval from your key leaders, it’s time to meet with your managers and key employees to explain the current situation and the consequences if no action is taken. Share an outline of the proposed actions and listen for comments. Support from this group is critical because they will be charged with implementing a plan and delivering results.
6. Create a shared vision and core values. Often, vulnerable organizations go through a period when they lose sight of their vision and values. Without a commonly understood vision or values, an organization tends to make arbitrary decisions that go unchallenged. A credible, attractive future should be founded on the organization’s core values, and used to unify everyone’s efforts to achieve organizational goals.
7. Develop or update a strategic plan. Plans chronicle both the good and poor performance of the past, and they document the vision for the future. Your plan should identify your highest priorities and the steps needed to achieve your goals. Organizations that write and implement plans on an annual basis rarely get into trouble.
8. Implement new or updated systems and procedures. Continuing your old practices will lead to similar results you realized in the past. In order to meet the goals of the strategic turnaround plan, new or updated systems and procedures should be implemented. Develop checklists, rules, policies, and procedures to improve your operations and ensure consistent results.
9. Develop a strong organizational communication system. It’s critical to communicate the plan, vision and values to ensure everyone is on-board. Strategic execution will succeed or fail on the quality of your communication system because if your plan is not on top of the mind of key people, it will most likely collect dust on your shelves.
10. Monitor, measure and take corrective action. If you implement all of the things I’ve suggested so far, but neglect to monitor and measure your progress, your organization will eventually go off-track and get lost again. It takes constant vigilance and corrective action to ensure that your plan is being implemented.
Don’t lose hope for your organization during these difficult times. The community and employees need your products and services for a better way of living. Implement some or all of these ideas to survive the rough ride that everyone is facing in the CNMI. Difficult times can often be “Storms of Perfection” to create a better organization and provide a greater quality of life for everyone involved. If you do not like the direction your organization is headed, use these ten ideas to turn around and take a different course for a brighter future.