Tuesday 21st August 2007, 10:30The answer’s yes, what’s the question? One of the things I often get asked about is growing a business. Particularly, growing a business organically and particularly, growing a business organically in public sector markets. I have been in a few different environments where people comment on the business strategy at A4e – from customers, banks, judges at awards or competitions. I’ve had it put to me that it’s just ‘luck’, or ’riding an outsourcing strategy by government’ or – and I always liked this one – ‘it doesn’t matter as you’ll not last long’. So what is a business strategy for us?
I was 21 when I started doing this and so, sixteen years later, you benefit from hindsight. More importantly, you can rationalise what you did and why you did it. Of course, it’s important not to simply reinvent history or what happened and that’s always going to be a bit subjective. And I’m a great believer in ‘emergent strategy’. Cynics might say (and they do) that’s a great way to hedge your bets and make it up as you go along. Guess that’s why I like it!
Being a little longer in the tooth these days – albeit with plenty to learn yet – this idea of dynamic strategy is one I have always endorsed. I have always used the phrase ‘iterate to success’. Again, cynics might say that’s because I get it wrong first time (good excuse eh!). But actually this is where ‘the answer is yes, what’s the question?’ came from. My business experience and strategy has always been based on tackling problems. In service delivery, business methodology flows from addressing customer needs. Whereas in manufacturing R&D comes before product launch (I don’t like the idea of an engineer sitting on a plane iterating the engine to success whilst I’m flying on it), in services this R&D often comes on the back of customer feedback and seeing the service ‘in action’.
This is doubly so in the areas where I ply my trade. Public service markets tend to offer opportunity to organisations that can tackle gaps, new pilots or rework things that are not operating correctly. This is why lots of private and voluntary organisations work in this space alongside public bodies. Not much point in asking the private or voluntary sector to do something the public sector already does well is there?
So my business life has been about finding solutions and making things work. Growing a business that does that for its business gives you a helping hand in – well – growing a business. If you focus on solution generation then the questions about opening your first satellite office, introducing IT systems, doubling your turnover, opening 35 offices and employing 350 staff in 6 weeks, launching overseas – all the stuff entrepreneurs and people growing business face, tend to be approached in a solution orientated, ‘can do’ way.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you are ‘gung ho’. The reason I use ‘the answer is yes, what’s the question?’ is to exemplify the openness of the conceptual approach. Not to undermine good planning, risk management or to imply that you can do anything. In our case, this applies to public services. Making our strategy transparent and accessible sits behind the use of an obviously ‘pithy phrase’. But the psychology is important.
I listen to – and have listened to – many fantastic business people over the years. Not in lectures or seminars, but people doing their stuff in different organisations at different levels. I always respect their view. They have told me the strategy for A4e over the years is daft, non-achievable, great, too ambitious, not clear enough etc. etc. I respect every input, listen, learn and then take decisions based on the best available data – even if it’s only 5%. Always keen to learn and listen to other’s views and experience, I have never been afraid to try and find a new way to do things. In the same way as I’m never afraid to utilise an idea from someone else if it is the best way to tackle things.
What does any of this matter? We work in a market where our consumers and customers will always have new and emergent needs. We work in markets where the funders of our services – governments – will always look to tackle the next problem. We work in an environment where if you set out to deliver a public service well, if you do it effectively, you’ll ultimately have to move onto something else as that’s the nature of supply and demand in the areas where we work. The luxury of standing still isn’t one we have and so, the answer has to be yes and we need to look for the next question.
This doesn’t mean we have all the answers. Not at all and not what I’m suggesting through this business model. We approach our markets and customers, the areas where we work, with a positive, conceptual model to delivering our services. That’s the business we are in and there are plenty of problems where we can’t find the ‘answer’ and inevitably, we are always iterating, moving our expertise to those areas where our business model, strategy and culture can add value.
A business strategy is a dynamic concept. I always use ‘organic’ metaphors because the businesses I am involved in benefit from ‘evolutionary’ approaches and assuming they are ‘living creatures’ is often the best way to characterise them. As with evolution, great leaps come from having to respond to ‘big issues’. Being ready and prepared to respond to big issues, scanning the environment to predict such events, that is the essence of organisational strategy. Sometimes hard to fit on a sheet of paper or embed in a P&L but that doesn’t stop you trying. The hardest things in entrepreneurial terms is to retain dynamic capability as organisationally you get bigger. But of course, the answer to that question is yes so it just forces the pace on creative thinking and approaches……
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