Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities

If you feel you have too many priorities and claims on your attention, you are hardly alone. A recent survey of 1,800 global executives (see Booz & Company's Coherence Profiler) that dug into this issue revealed a wide range of related management ailments, including:

• Most executives (64%) report they have too many conflicting priorities.
• The majority of executives (56%) say that allocating resources in a way that really supports the strategy is a significant challenge, especially as companies chase a wide set of growth initiatives.
• 81% admit that their growth initiatives lead to waste, at least some of the time.
• Nearly half (47%) say their company's way of creating value is not well understood by employees or customers.

The survey findings suggest that these symptoms stem from companies' incoherence — their strong tendency to chase growth initiative after unrelated growth initiative, often with very little success.

The Perils of a Long List of Growth Initiatives

When company leaders develop a new strategy, they usually start by looking for places to grow. This may feel like the right thing to do, but it can be a misleading and even dangerous way to begin a strategic exercise. There are an infinite number of ways that a company can try to grow, and simply brainstorming them will immediately lead to a long list of initiatives. That will soon become an endless litany of priorities, and a large number of conflicting claims on your attention.

Our research reveals, however, that as an executive team's priority list grows, the company's revenue growth in fact declines relative to its peers.

The good news is that the reverse is also true: executives with the most focused set of strategic priorities (one to three priorities) were the most likely to say they had achieved above-average revenue growth.

So the real question executives should be asking is: How can I get focused on the right initiatives for my company?

Another related, and hopeful, finding: About a third of the executives we surveyed say their company's differentiating capabilities "fully support" their strategy. This is a hallmark of what we call "coherence"; it means that all growth initiatives are supported by the same focused investment, effort and attention. These respondents were three times as likely to report above-average revenue growth for their companies as the other executives in the survey.

So, how do you follow the example of the top-performing companies? Start by asking some basic questions about your own capabilities. What are you great at doing now? If you wanted to truly differentiate yourself from your competitors, what are the three to six most crucial capabilities that you can muster more effectively than everyone else and that would be truly worthy of your attention and resources? The answers can lead to an overarching framework for your strategy that enables better judgment. Only then can you decisively say "yes" or "no" to the vast number of opportunities around you, with the confidence that you are picking initiatives that are not just appealing, but attainable.

We all know instinctively that we cannot do everything - and our companies cannot either. The most pertinent question you can ask is not: "How can I find more business opportunities?" It is: "How can I focus on the opportunities where my company can excel — and then reap the benefits of that discipline?" The key to success is choosing the opportunities that are best for you, learning to turn down many that seem appealing on the surface — and may even represent huge monetary stakes — but do not offer you a real chance to win.

For more information on developing a capabilities-driven strategy (including several examples and case studies) please refer to our previous posts on: what it is, why it matters, practical steps to achieving it, and how it can enhance your legacy as a leader.

Paul Leinwand is a Partner in Booz & Company's global consumer, media, and retail practice. He serves as chair of the firm's Knowledge and Marketing Advisory Council. Cesare Mainardi is Managing Director of Booz & Company's North American business and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee. They are co-authors of The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy, published by Harvard Business Review Press. For more information, visit theessentialadvantage.com.

Thanks to Paul Leinwand & Cesare Mainardi / Harvard Business Review