Execution

What do we mean by execution?  We might quibble about a precise definition, but Larry The Cable Guy’s exhortation to “git ‘er done” will do for working purposes. Do “regular” companies accept and deal with the concept of execution in organized and effective ways?  Read on.

Execution is one of the least addressed issues in the literature of management and leadership. It involves every aspect of supply chain operations and planning, and is driven – or not – by management behavior, from line supervisors to the chief executive. As with most leadership issues, the example for execution is set at the top. When the chief executive fails to execute, the template is likely to be followed all down the line. An executor in the company of non-executors stands out, and usually not in a good way.  A non-executor surrounded by executors also stands out, also not in a good way.
 
Communication is closely interwoven with, and is a critical component of either success or failure in execution. Failure to execute often results from poorly expressed intentions or instructions. Or from poorly expressed consequences of non-execution.

Execution is a too-often neglected element of management leadership. Traditional definitions of management emphasize planning, measuring and controlling. Almost everything under the sun, except execution, is included in the official definition of supply chain management published by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Is this because the 21st-century senior executive, in this age of specialization and alternative job structures, expects to hire a professional executioner? Surely the job of the successful chief executive officer must include more than planning and communicating. The successful, if diminutive football coach Lou Holtz said it best: “When everything is said and done, a lot more is said than done.” Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, taller and not involved with football, understood a related deeper truth: “The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Leading for successful execution is not the same as micro-management. Leaders who can consistently get organizations to execute tend to share these traits:

•     They know themselves, and are honest about their own strengths and weaknesses.
•     They know their people, and have assessed their strengths and weaknesses.
•     They are realistic in setting goals that are both ambitious and attainable.
•     They believe in expanding the capabilities, horizons, and results of people at all levels in the organization.
•     They recognize and reward good managers – and good workers.
•     They set the example for goal setting, prioritization, follow-up, follow-through, and critical evaluation.

 
At any level in the organization, self-assessment is a critical first step for team building. If financial analysis is not a personal strong point, it is essential that you identify and put a capable “numbers guy” on the team.  (NB: “Guy” is a gender-neutral term.) If your writing skills are weak, add a writer. Knowing your weaknesses is important, but it is critical to also recognize your strengths in order to balance the contributions that all team members can make to the outcome, to successful execution.

You also need to assess strengths and weaknesses of the people who report to you. Building an organization (or a team) is an inexact science, and the biggest – and most common - management mistakes involve the selection of subordinates and team members who don’t pan out. While such mistakes are inevitable, the willingness to quickly correct them is essential for effective leadership and execution.

Neither Irish nor a playwright, the late Vince Lombardi stressed the concept of “second effort,” the ability of an athlete to accomplish that which appears, at first, to be impossible. In business, “stretch goals” require second effort for attainment.  If not, they’re not really stretch goals. But, real stretch goals do demand the ability to move beyond a comfort zone to reach the used-to-be unattainable.

 There is a mission-critical difference between establishing stretch goals and setting unrealistic objectives for the sake of appearing to continually and continuously improve. When people tumble to the fact that they are being asked to accomplish the impossible, for no good reason except the boss’s career, they often quit trying. In a distribution center, for example, it is unlikely that a goal of increasing shipping volume by orders of magnitude while maintaining zero errors and reducing headcount by a double-digit percentage will be reached. The frustration of failing to meet false stretch goals will drain energy from the management organization, or from a project team.

Follow-through is achieved through leadership by example. By setting an example as a person who gets things done, those around you will recognize that modeling your behavior can enhance their opportunities for success.

You can start the process of effective execution by identifying and challenging old, destructive beliefs, such as :

•     We are in a commodity business.
•     Profits always follow revenues.                      
•     Our ability to grow is limited.
•     Control is key.
•     My peer is my competitor.
•     We know more than our clients.

Commodities have one significant thing in common - customers believe that price is the only differentiator between competitors. Many managers in the logistics service industries overemphasize pricing, based on a belief that they are selling a commodity. The best companies in most industries are those that develop and deliver “special magic,” a unique service or product that cannot be duplicated by the competition. Special magic is as much a mind-set as it is a reality. When you believe that your organization can create magical results for your customers, it is possible for the magic to become reality. More important, the customer will believe in the magic. Even when we know that the magician is playing a trick, we admire the act.

Raising revenue never guarantees that profits will be enhanced; often the opposite is true. Bigger is not always better. Fortunately, the lean movement in both manufacturing and logistics exposes opportunities to raise profit by cutting fat, rather than by growing larger.  Better yet, a lean approach can help make top line growth translate into bottom line growth.

Many years ago, nearly every company in the warehouse service business operated in a single metropolitan area. Conventional wisdom was that quality would be compromised if branch operations were established at some distance from headquarters, the seat of all knowledge and power. Today, national service providers are common, and international service firms operate – successfully - on nearly every continent.  The best of the best can provide quality services of many varieties from point of manufacture in distant lands to delivery to customers’ locations across North America.
 
Every healthy business is also a growth business. The ambition and imagination of leadership are the only limiting factors in a company’s ability to grow. Growth involves quality, as well as quantity. If your organization cannot be the largest in its field, is there any reason why it cannot be the best? Growth should involve stretch goals, and the sky should be the limit.  To repeat, growth doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing profitability.

Control is vital, but overemphasizing it can be destructive. Results are what count, and creative people frequently break the rules to get results. Discipline may be important, but the promotion of creativity on your team is even more important.  Finding the balance between order and discipline and loosening the reins on mavericks is a critical management skill.

Effective leaders tolerate, and even promote, competition among their direct reports, while understanding that uncontrolled conflict eventually will destroy teamwork.  Strong creative leaders (e.g., Franklin Roosevelt) can get away with this dangerous ploy.  Weak leaders will inevitably be taken out to sea by the undertow of conflict. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin noted in her book, A Team of Rivals, that Abraham Lincoln recruited a cabinet of individuals who frequently were in disagreement with him and with one another. Because the rivalry was controlled, the results were effective. During the crisis of a civil war, the rivals came together when necessary.

Arrogance can impede execution, and eventually stop it in its tracks. Good listeners are more valuable than good talkers, and the ability to understand and react to client needs will result in improved execution. Likewise, the ability to understand and react to internal team and organizational needs is vital to keeping the team energized and engaged. Many supply chain functions are full of routine, making it easy for the service provider to tune out the old customer who has a well-established procedure. As a result, when slippage occurs, the customer notices, but not the provider. The unhappy result is that, when the provider doesn’t listen, the old customer becomes an ex-customer.

The most common reasons for failure in execution include:

•     Necessary resources were not available.
•     The situation changed, and the change was not fully recognized – or communicated.
•     The requirements were not well-defined, or well-understood.
•     The timeline was unrealistic, or based on faulty input or analysis.
•     The outcome dependencies, risks, and mitigations were not fully understood or prepared for.

A certain amount of failure is experienced by every decisive leader, but the best leaders learn from each failure and then perform better as a result. This certainly is true with execution. An execution system should include the following elements: mechanization of the method, time management, activity alignment, a regular review and refinement cycle, an organized communications program, and measurement of results.

The methodology should be recorded. If you have twelve facilities in your network, and the shipping accuracy rates of three are consistently higher than those of the other nine, it is critical to identify and describe or detail precisely how processes are performed at the successful facilities. Careful documentation of successful practices will help raise the quality of all performance.

Time management starts at the top. Unless time is managed, nothing else can be. Management icon Peter Drucker observed that “effective executives know where the time goes.” If time management is not built into your organization, execution is unlikely to be improved. Business guru Stephen Covey said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
 
How is the time of each management or team member best used? Are some people doing things right, but not doing the right things? Effective execution is enhanced by drawing back periodically to review whether or not everybody involved has the right priorities. Re-examining priorities should be part of every performance review.

In brief, we have outlined the behaviors essential for solid execution; then we described a framework for execution. To be successful at execution, we must understand the elements of a successful execution system, as well as the reasons for failure. There are nuances in definition that might be debated; yet, most of us, like US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart on pornography, recognize effective execution when we see it.

Bruce Strahan is a Partners in The Progress Group, Inc., an international supply chain and logistics consulting firm headquartered in Atlanta. He lead the Supply Chain and Manufacturing practice groups for TPG. Bruce did his graduate work at Georgia Tech, and was previously a Manager in Coopers & Lybrand’s SysteCon division. He may be reached at 770-804-9920 or bstrahan@theprogressgroup.com