BUSINESS STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
Eight Business Strategies for Success
Stacy Harvey
MSA – 505: Security Administration Business Strategies
May 12, 2013
Dr. Paul Baker
Southwestern College Professional Studies
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Abstract
Business strategies are vital for success. This paper will explain eight different strategies that
business can use to help them be more successful. The strategies discussed in this paper are
benchmarking, ELVIS, TQM, internal marketing, avoiding traps, following the axioms for
success, the pillars of the new protection model, and avoiding analysis paralysis These strategies
and their importance are listed and discussed.
Eight Business Strategies for Success
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Introduction
In order for a business to be successful it needs to set certain goals and strategies. Having
business strategies helps a business to improve their customer service and their business plans. A
lot of businesses may not realize how easy a few simple strategies are that can improve their
businesses. Upper management needs to get together at least once a quarter to go over strategies.
They can’t let them fall away to the wayside.
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Benchmarking. Today one of the fastest growing management activities is
benchmarking (Dalton, 1995). Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business
processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries.
Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. In the process of benchmarking,
management identifies the best firms in their industry, or in another industry where similar
processes exist, and compare the results and processes of those studied (the "targets") to one's
own results and processes. In this way, they learn how well the targets perform and, more
importantly, the business processes that explain why these firms are successful.
If we were to benchmark "world conquest", what objective measure would we use to
compare Julius Caesar to Adolph Hitler; Gengis Khan to Napoleon? Which of them was the
epitome, and why? We do the same thing in business. Who is the best sales organization? The
most responsive customer service department? The leanest manufacturing operation? And how
do we quantify that standard? If you don't know what the standard is you cannot compare
yourself against it. If a customer asks "What is the MTBF on your widget?" it is not enough to
know that your Mean Time Between Failures is 120 hours on your standard widget and 150 for
your deluxe widget. You also have to know where your competitors stand. If the companies
against whom you are competing for this order has a MTBF of 100 hours you are probably okay.
However, if their MTBF is 10,000 hours who do you think will get the order? (Bogaan, 1994).
Most of the early work in the area of benchmarking was done in manufacturing, like the
example above. Now benchmarking is a management tool that is being applied almost anywhere.
The Fortune Magazine article "Beat the Budget and Astound your CFO" outlines how Rank
Xerox even applied benchmarking to their sales effort. Once we decide what to benchmark, and
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how to measure it, the object is to figure out how the winner got to be the best and determine
what we have to do to get there. Benchmarking is usually part of a larger effort, usually a Process
Re-engineering or Quality Improvement initiative.
You know you need to benchmark, but you are just too busy. Well if you don't
benchmark, and then implement improvements based on it, you will find yourself out of
business. Then you'll have plenty of time to benchmark, but it won't matter. It is important to
benchmark and is a great strategy to use to help a business become more successful. Although it
isn’t necessarily a requirement it is important to use benchmarking to gain financial and business
success.
ELVIS. EXECUTIVE LEVEL VICIOUS INFIGHTING SYNDROME could be
sabotaging your business. Infighting is, if nothing else, a reflection of human nature. It's the
continuing struggle for ascendancy and power that emerges any time two or more people get
together, whether to build a house, an industrial empire or a nation. On the playground, in the
trenches and in the executive suite there is infighting; it can be tacit or overt, orchestrated or
freestyle, hostile or benign. In any case, infighting is a process, not an event. It is a natural
phenomenon, and like other acts of God it can destroy empires as easily as trailer parks.
Moreover, your insurance doesn't cover it. The best you can do is understand and prepare for it.
Make no mistake, ELVIS is a serious problem. Infighting impairs productivity, destroys
morale and inhibits growth. Yet many managers refuse to address it as a business problem, or
even to recognize it as a factor in business decisions. Why? First, many managers are
uncomfortable with issues that defy quantification. Both the causes and effects of internal strife
are difficult to nail down in objective or numerical terms. Second, ELVIS by definition is an
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executive-level problem, which means that the people in the best position to stop it are the worst
offenders.
ELVIS is the business macrocosm of what most people first experience in kindergarten.
It's the dark side of company politics and standard water-cooler gossip, acted out at a high level.
What distinguishes it, among other things, is the magnitude of its consequences, its implications
for countless livelihoods and national productivity, and the fact that these concerns take a back
seat to the thrill of victory, once the principal players are engaged. Once this happens, ELVIS
becomes a menace as well as a spectacle. Sure, a corporation thrashing about in the grip of
ELVIS provides uniquely captivating entertainment for onlookers-rather like watching a train
wreck up close, in slow motion. This vision is, of course, far less amusing for the passengers.
Combating ELVIS begins with recognition. Infighting takes many forms; there are
however, two broad categories: Opportunistic ELVIS. The monster is not dead, it merely sleeps.
Executive Level Vicious Infighting flourishes on flux, and more so on catastrophe. Secondly is
Institutional ELVIS. It glows in the dark. In some organizations, the company uniform is
sharkskin, and the corporate motto is "Watch your back." Infighting is pervasive, and
participation implicitly--but often forcefully--encouraged. To companies like these, "healthy
competition" is for losers; internal battles are won by stealth or by force, and individual success
or failure is ELVIS-driven (Woodell, 1995).
Of these two types, the latter is easier to predict but far more difficult to change. A
tradition of infighting dies very hard, and once mainstreamed into corporate culture, ELVIS sets
down tenacious roots. The good news is that it's relatively stable; the infighting level is high but
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constant, and the static it creates might as well be white noise. That being the case, management
has little incentive to change, at least in the short term (Woodell, 1995).
Infighting is probably a fact of life, which means it is a factor in business. Does this mean
that the ELVIS juggernaut cannot be stopped? Not necessarily. Smart executives know that a
little ELVIS goes a long way and indulge themselves only sparingly, because while high-level
infighting may be exhilarating, its potential destructiveness outweighs the fun. As a result, their
companies are far better equipped to withstand crises--or to avert them altogether. What do they
know--and do--that others don't? Unfortunately, there is no single, foolproof method for
neutralizing ELVIS, but usually common sense can help.
Total Quality Management (TQM): Total Quality Management (TQM) is a
management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since
the early 1980s. Total quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a
company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs.
The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations, with processes being
done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations.
To be successful implementing TQM, an organization must concentrate on the eight key
elements: Ethics, integrity, trust, training, teamwork, leadership, recognition, and communication
(Padhi, 2010).
TQM has been coined to describe a philosophy that makes quality the driving force
behind leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives. For this, TQM requires the key
elements. Some key elements of TQM are: Foundation, Building, Binding Mortar, Roof and
Recognition (Padhi, 2010).
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TQM is built on a foundation of ethics, integrity and trust. It fosters openness, fairness
and sincerity and allows involvement by everyone. This is the key to unlocking the ultimate
potential of TQM. These three elements move together, however, each element offers something
different to the TQM concept (Padhi, 2010).
Ethics is the discipline concerned with good and bad in any situation. It is a two-faceted
subject represented by organizational and individual ethics. Organizational ethics establish a
business code of ethics that outlines guidelines that all employees are to adhere to in the
performance of their work. Individual ethics include personal rights or wrongs. 2. Integrity –
Integrity implies honesty, morals, values, fairness, and adherence to the facts and sincerity. The
characteristic is what customers (internal or external) expect and deserve to receive. People see
the opposite of integrity as duplicity. TQM will not work in an atmosphere of duplicity (Padhi,
2010).
Trust is a by-product of integrity and ethical conduct. Without trust, the framework of
TQM cannot be built. Trust fosters full participation of all members. It allows empowerment that
encourages pride ownership and it encourages commitment. It allows decision making at
appropriate levels in the organization, fosters individual risk-taking for continuous improvement
and helps to ensure that measurements focus on improvement of process and are not used to
contend people. Trust is essential to ensure customer satisfaction. So, trust builds the cooperative
environment essential for TQM (Padhi, 2010).
Basing on the strong foundation of trust, ethics and integrity, bricks are placed to reach
the roof of recognition. It includes: 4. Training – Training is very important for employees to be
highly productive. Supervisors are solely responsible for implementing TQM within their
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departments, and teaching their employees the philosophies of TQM. Training that employees
require are interpersonal skills, the ability to function within teams, problem solving, decision
making, job management performance analysis and improvement, business economics and
technical skills. During the creation and formation of TQM, employees are trained so that they
can become effective employees for the company (Padhi, 2010).To become successful in
business, teamwork is also a key element of TQM. With the use of teams, the business will
receive quicker and better solutions to problems.
Internal marketing is the fourth strategy. Internal marketing (IM) is a process that
occurs within a company or organization whereby the functional process aligns, motivates and
empowers employees at all management levels to deliver a satisfying customer experience. Over
recent years internal marketing has increasingly been integrated with employer branding, and
employer brand management, which strives to build stronger links between the employee brand
experience and customer brand experience. The challenge for internal marketing is not only to
get the right messages across, but to embed them in such a way that they both change and
reinforce employee behavior (Pervaiz, 2005).
According to Dalton there have been several proven internal marketing techniques. One
technique is to solicit customer feedback. Companies use marketing research surveys to garner
many types of information from consumers and business customers. Businesses gather some of
this information prior to introducing products, but they acquire the majority of customer data
after they have introduced products. Whatever the case, customer feedback is important for a
number of reasons.
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Customer feedback is paramount when determining a customer's needs and tastes,
particularly when a business introduces new products. Companies conduct focus groups, inperson research or customer phone surveys to determine the product features, flavors or styles
that consumers want. Customer feedback helps companies determine what's important to their
customers, according to The Calgary Beacon article "9 Great Reasons to Conduct Customer
Surveys." Without customer feedback, a company could not possibly meet the product needs of
the consumer. Consequently, its products would likely fail in the marketplace (Suttle, 2012).
Customer feedback can manifest itself in evaluating how company employees treat
customers. Customer service satisfaction surveys are a common type of marketing research.
Companies can determine through surveys whether customers are getting their questions
answered and problems resolved. Additionally, a company can determine if some customer
service reps are being rude to customers, especially if the topic of rudeness comes up frequently
during the surveys (Suttle, 2012).
Customer feedback is especially important when a company surveys lost customers to
determine why customers no longer are buying its products. The goal of the survey becomes
finding out if there is anything the company can do to win a customer's business back. For
example, a company that sells bill-paying software may call thousands of lost customers to
determine why they stopped using the product. The company may discover that customers do not
like paying $19.95 per month for 10 features, when most use only two or three features; they
may prefer a multi-tiered pricing structure. Customer feedback also is important in detecting
certain technological trends among consumers. For example, a new competitor in the market
may introduce new and improved technology that potentially threatens the older technology a
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company sells. If customers indicate they would prefer and buy this technology, the company
will need to consider switching to the new technology (Suttle, 2012).
Another internal marketing strategy is to test, test, test. You want to test ideas and ways
to present them with whomever the greatest interest or need lies. They illustrate that marketing is
a constant activity playing to a moving parade, an excellent analogy for corporate managers to
understand (Dalton, 1995). It is very important to test a product or a theory before it gets
implemented. Testing is important before a product gets pushed through because it helps to
ensure that it is correct and accurate.
Avoid traps that we can stumble into as managers. The embarrassment trap is the one
that I hear and see the most. No one likes to look like a fool or be called out on something in
front of their buddies. Sometimes people are afraid to step up and make a change or correct
someone because they are afraid of what others may think. Why are we so concerned with what
other people think of us? I have a fellow co-worker who literally goes into an anxiety attack if he
feels someone thinks poorly of him. I always tell everyone I come to work to do my job, not
make friends. Now don’t get me wrong friends are important but we all have a job to do. Don’t
be afraid to step up and do the right thing. People are going to be unhappy sometimes but that
doesn’t mean we are wacky. I personally think we need to care less about what others mat think
about us and just do our job.
The inspiration trap is another trap that I have dealt with before. In today’s economy it is
much easier to motivate individuals then it is when we aren’t in a recession. Hard times generate
opportunities for creative thinking (Dalton, 2003, p 277). This is so true. What better way for
people to get their ideas heard then when there aren’t many to go around? The people that do the
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job everyday are going to have input and maybe even a different way to do things. You (as the
manager) could have incentive programs for ideas that get pushed through supervision and get
approved. When times are perfect and everyone is happy in their jobs it is a lot harder to
motivate individuals.
The unrealistic trap is one that I see my supervision do often. Being in the military we are
supposed to do what we are told without question. However, sometimes the task given and the
amount of time given to do it are impossible. Like I mentioned before the ones that do the job
everyday are going to know how long stuff takes and how long it should take to complete a
simple task. When the supervisor tells you to get something done in an hour and you know that
by regulations and the technical orders it takes 2 hours then you have already failed. Supervisors
need to take the time to ensure that they are asking for things in a reasonable time frame. As
employees if we are not meeting the deadlines then we feel like we have failed and then our
morale is lowered.
They are things that we don’t think about or realize but we should. As supervisors we
need to make sure we are doing what we can to make our employees feel welcomed and that
their jobs mater. It really hurts morale and effectiveness when supervisors crap (for lack of a
better term) on their employees. Hearing constantly “Oh you can’t do that because you’re just a
TSgt, let an MSgt do the job” can really hurt and over time make the employee feel unwelcomed.
Supervisors need to be aware of what they are saying and what they are asking of their
employees. Unrealistic expectations will bring down morale and could lead to hostile employees.
Having realistic expectations could also help reduce embarrassment by insuring the employee
has ample time to complete a project.
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Avoiding traps is a great strategy that should be employed as an asset protection decisionmaker to ensure departmental and/or organizational success. Whether it is for security reasons or
people that work in the back shops we all need to work on avoiding traps. Traps are ugly and can
cause hate and discontent in the workplace. Most supervisors didn’t always start out as
supervisors. They started at the bottom of the barrel like everyone else. If supervisors can
remember where they came from and remember that they too were the little guy once it will
make them better supervisors. Employees need to feel like there supervision has their backs no
matter what. Staying out of the trap realm and focusing more on the role of listening to your
people and not expecting unrealistic things, will gain you more respect as a supervisor. Avoiding
this strategy is great for all parties involved.
Following the axioms for success is another great tool that an asset protection
decision maker should use. Axiom number 2 is something that I deal with every day. Don’t tell
me what I know, show me what I don’t, should be a military motto. Supervisors like swift
thinkers and problem solvers. We have all seen and heard those employees who will say what
they think the supervisor wants to hear, instead of giving their honest opinion. They are usually
referred to as suck ups. The supervision in my squadron has always told us don’t come to me
with a problem unless you have a solution. Not only does this help us come up with ideas but it
also shows our supervision that we know how to lead. More often than not supervisors already
know what is going on and what is wrong so they don’t need to hear it from us. Come up with a
solution and then go to supervision.
Axiom 28: Success means failing down, a lot. It is not so much that we fall down,
because we will, but it is how we pick ourselves back up and press on. According to the
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Macmillan dictionary success means the achievement of something that you planned to do or
attempted to do. We will have little successes every day. For some just getting out of bed and
making it to work is a success. (Especially when you feel like you’re packing for a TDY by
putting all the baby stuff in the car). But no one is perfect 100 percent of the time. When we do
fall, we pick ourselves back up, learn from what happen, and then move on. We are not judged
on our mistakes we are judged on how well we can learn from them to ensure it doesn’t happen
again.
Axiom 30 is another I have used recently. Like I said in the last axiom we all make
mistakes but it is how we recover from them that matters. This is even true when it comes to
supervision. Supervisors are going to make mistakes (even they aren’t perfect). But we can’t just
go to the supervisor and said you made a mistake. Even though you may have good intentions it
will come off as rude and disrespectful if you try to correct them. When it comes to dealing with
your superior you have to work it in a way that makes it look like they noticed the mistake and
then they will fix it. Giving the wrong impression to a supervisor could potentially cost you your
job if they perceive it wrong.
Last week, I was proofing something for my commander and noticed that there a lot of
errors in his letter. My commander is the type that thinks he is perfect and that there will never
be any mistakes in his work. So I knew that if I went in his office with red marks all over his
letter that he could take it personal and then I would get in trouble for calling him out on his
mistakes. So I made a different copy that didn’t have my marks all over it and took it back into
my commander’s office. This is what I told him “Sir, I looked over your letter but I really feel
that you may want to proof read it first before I make any suggestions on it.” He looked at me a
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little confused, then glanced at the letter, smiled and said “Is this the copy I gave you? Wow, I
meant to give you this one.” And he hands me a different letter. This new letter was perfect with
zero mistakes. I was so glad I didn’t go in there with his paper all marked up. By telling him I
think he should proof it before I looked at it was enough for him to remember he had a different
one for me. It all worked out and he was happy, and I didn’t get fired!!
Learning how the axioms for success is a get strategy because it lets you look at things
from both sides of the fence, that being of leader and follower. Being in management is tough
and most individuals do not enjoy being the bad guy. Knowing what can make management tick
and knowing what we should and shouldn’t be doing is only going to help instead of making
things worse. All supervisors regardless of position will always have someone to answer to.
Lower employees will defiantly have others to report to. Following the axioms and learning how
to use them will aid in the success of any company.
There are 24 areas of accountability contained within the author’s three pillars of
the new asset protection model. As a result new skill sets will be required. Managers need to
embrace their actions in order to fulfill these areas. They need to step up to the plate to see these
actions through. The three pillars are business risk analysis, human resource security, and global
operations support. For the business risks analysis category I would say yes; security managers
and professionals would and are capable of stepping up to the plate. I’m going to use the military
for my examples (mostly because that is all I know). I am a security manager for my squadron
and it is our job to stay current on all business risks. We also help with fraud and security
investigations. We have great intelligence protection (being an Intel wing and all) which includes
buildings and other assets. We partner with the communication flight to stay current on
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electronic threats. So since we are already going above and beyond the call of duty for this pillar
what really is a few more tasks.
For the second pillar, human resource security, I believe companies could do that as well.
Although we don’t do many of the tasks in this area we could. All it would take is time and
training. We are taught in the military to adapt and overcome. Some of the things that we are
currently doing in this pillar are workplace violence prevention and executive protection. The
military has a zero tolerance policy for workplace violence. So just by being in the military we
are practicing this. We have classes and have to do computer based trainings early about
workplace violence. We do executive protection very frequently. We help by making sure
people have the proper clearances for escorting and we work with security forces to have on
hand. Although most people of higher up that need protection travel with their own security
people so all we do is assist them. For a non-military related company I think it would be very
easy for them to do what they needed in order to be successful in this tier.
The last pillar global operations support we do a lot of these functions also. We help with
special events management and even special project management. We have to adhere to all
security standards and guidelines and we also do uniform security if we have to. We (as security
managers) report to the commander and the SSO (Special Security Officer). Since we are
constantly training and constantly learning new things I would defiantly say that we could handle
the three pillars of the new asset protection model.
The world is ever changing and the procedures that worked last year may not be the best
ones that work for this year. As security professionals we need to ensure that we are following
the latest and greatest guidelines to complete our missions in the best time possible. Being able
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to adapt and follow the 24 areas of accountability is a strategy that should be employed as an
asset protection decision-maker to ensure departmental and/or organizational success. Being
flexible is key. Life is too short to worry about things that have always been done a certain way.
Having a strategy that incorporates the pillars will not only help any organization, but it
will enhance it. Enhancement is like a beautification process. If the grass is ugly then we need to
take steps to make it soft and green. Being able to adapt to the pillars and changing ones mindset
is the way to win the battle of doing more with less. In today’s economy we are all struggling
with cut backs and how to do more with less. Getting to a state where your employees can
embrace change and take on new tasks is vital to the success of change. Employers are now
expecting more of their people. Everyone wants to achieve more with less. This is doable but the
employees need to maintain an open mindset. Self-starters are great. But you don’t want to
appear overly conceded. Once employer and employee can find the right balance and mix; this
strategy will be very rewarding.
Avoid being a procrastinator is the final strategy that that you would employ as an
asset protection decision-maker to ensure departmental and/or organizational success.
Many managers engage in what might be termed analysis paralysis, or the inability to arrive at a
decision and act on it (Dalton, 2003 pg.161). This is basically where you end up doing nothing
because you are afraid of the risk or failure. This type of person basically overanalyzes
everything. They obsess sometimes over nothing. They need to have a backup plan to backup
plan. In the intelligence world this type of person is a nightmare. This is a situation in which
sometimes ones ego gets in the way. They are to prideful to change or unwilling to.
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One of the ways to avoid analysis paralysis is to set a timer. There will always be
deadlines; there is no way to avoid it. Set a specific amount of time for yourself to complete
certain tasks. If you know you have 2 weeks to get a report done then give yourself 3 days to do
all the research to get the information you need to do the report. Then give yourself a certain
amount of time to write the rough draft and so on and so forth. By having defined deadlines that
you set for yourself it will help you to stay on track and it allows less time for your mind to
wonder.
Another way to help with analysis paralysis is to get a second opinion. There is nothing
wrong with having someone else look over your report. Your colleagues can give you honest
feedback and it may help ease some of the tension or fear of rejection. You could even practice
presenting the report to them in the same manner that you would to your supervisor. Then take
the feedback that you are given and go with it. Use it as a learning tool so you know what you
have to improve on.
Listening to your gut has always helped me and it could also help in this situation. If
something makes the hair on your arms standup then usually you turn and go the other way. The
same principle can be applied to report writing or even presenting the report. If something
doesn’t feel right then it probably isn’t. On the battle field you have to make quick and swift
decisions. Sometimes you don’t get a lot of time to analyze what is going on. But whatever
decision is made is sometimes made off gut instinct. Your gut may be all that is needed to get
through a stressful or tough situation. Listen to your gut, it knows best.
The last piece that I think may help a person with analysis paralysis is doing a mental dry
run. Play the events over in your head. Think of every scenario or go over it step by step.
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Sometimes being mentally prepared is all one needs to get through the event. You can also
practice in the car (while stopped of course). Sometimes looking in a mirror is a great way to see
what your facial expressions will look like when you do it for real.
Being mentally and physically prepared can help keep your mind on track. We will all be
faced with deadlines. It is a fact of life. But there are ways to help one prepare one selves. By
trying to prevent or lessen analysis paralysis it will make for a more efficient work place. These
ideas suggested may help keep you on the path you need to be on and keep your mind focused on
other things.
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Conclusion
Business strategies are vital for success. This paper explained eight different strategies that
business can use to help them be more successful. The strategies discussed in this paper were
benchmarking, ELVIS, TQM, internal marketing, avoiding traps, following the axioms for
success, the pillars of the new protection model, and avoiding analysis paralysis These strategies
and their importance were listed and discussed.
.
BUSINESS STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
References
Bogan, Christopher E., and Michael J. English. Benchmarking for Best Practices: Winning
through Innovative Adaptation. McGraw-Hill, 1994
Dalton, D. R. (1995). Security management: Business strategies for success. Philadelphia, PA:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Dalton, D.R. (2003).Rethinking Corporate Security in the Post 9/11 era. Philadelphia, PA:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Padhi, N., (2010). The Eight Elements of TQM
Pervaiz, P., (2005). Internal Marketing. Butterworth-Heineman
Suttle, R., (2012). The importance of customer feedback
Woodell, M., (1995). ELVIS stalks the corridors of power!
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