Ways of Winners

Time-tested and enduring principles for staying ahead.

In today’s fast-changing and hypercompetitive business environment, organizations that add real value to stakeholders are ones that survive, remain relevant and stay ahead of the pack. These are organizations that deliver, that win. First of all, what does it mean to win?

Measures of winning depend on the organization: superior sales, more loyal customers, superior profits, innovative capability etc. For non-profit, measures may include ability to meet set objectives, generate more funds and attract quality stakeholders — employees, board members, donors, volunteers etc. But what does it really take to win?

Strong-willed Leadership Winning requires a leadership that is ready to do whatever it takes, within legal and moral bounds, to win. A leadership that is absolutely clear about and can passionately communicate the essence of the organization’s existence and the ultimate destination it is headed.

To sustain winning, the leader must, as a matter of importance, model trust, openness and frankness, as these are required to create the appropriate behaviors (disciplines) for achieving set goals. Winning in today’s world requires a leader that creates a culture of meritocracy in investment choices and people management.

Quality of Team Members and Styles of Management Sustaining winning today depends largely on who is onboard and how appropriate is where they sit inside ‘the bus’. Winning requires that people are carefully selected and placed where they can passionately perform their duties.

This should be complemented by an environment where people can feel free to express themselves, contribute their ideas and have their views respected. It is also imperative that honest and immediate feedback is made a way of life so that people are clear about how relevant they are to the organization or how relevant they could be somewhere else.

Don’t Embrace Change, Lead It The changing nature of the business environment means that you have to be at the leading edge in all the critical aspects of the business. Winning organizations lead change, rather than simply react to it. They crave for relevant change that can give them a clear edge in the market.

Crisis and Black Hawk Events should be anticipated and disciplined mechanisms put in place to avert (where possible) or manage their fallouts if they occur.

Delight your Customers, Leapfrog the Competition Customers will always take their money to companies that give them more for less. Because of this, the rules of competition keep changing and are constantly being re-written every second. This in turn frequently raises the bar of corporate performances.

Thus, sustainable success requires that organizations are proactive and constantly take an honest and hard look at their competitive environment and then take both offensive and defensive strategic actions that will ensure their competitiveness and relevance in the market.

Products and processes should constantly be reexamined to determine their relevance. Breakthrough process and products should be innovated to keep customers delighted. Opportunities offered by the blurring industry boundaries should also be explored. This could be through mergers and acquisition and/or unrelated start-ups.

Conclusion For organizations to sustain winning, there is a need to systematically teach their members the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of winning. Formal training is not enough. There should be an institutionalized way of inculcating the skills of creative thinking, superior execution and delivery in the minds, hearts, souls and bodies of members of the organization.

Since organizational success is, to a large extent, a collection of individual members’ successes, sustainable winning requires that organizations institute a culture that supports and helps members to ‘sharpen the saw’.

Dr Adams Adeize is a Business Analyst and Strategy Consultant. He teaches entrepreneurship and venture creation at the University of Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia. He is also a Senior Fellow (on Digital Economy) at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). He tweets on @A1AAdams.