Burns Strategic Consulting

Most of my clients are business owners who want to grow their companies. Business owners know that if they want different results, change is required. Yet, often the biggest change needed is the hardest change to achieve. I’m talking about an adjustment to the duties of the business owner or CEO. 

This month’s issue of Harvard Business Review has an interview with the CEO of Proctor & Gamble. He believes that, “the CEO has a unique external perspective to bring to his or her real work which is to link the outside to the inside.” This involves four tasks:

1. Defining the Meaningful Outside - Which stakeholders (likely customers/clients) matter the most? What are the key moments of truth for that stakeholder? Without the outside there is no inside.
2. Deciding What Business You Are In - Have you clearly identified the competitive spaces where you can win? What business should you NOT be in?
3. Balancing Present and Future - Are you striking a balance between short and long term goals, between returns from present activities and investments in future activities? Are you developing leaders to ensure your company’s future?
4. Shaping Values and Standards - Are you winning with those who matter the most? Are you winning against the very best? Is your company purpose driven and values led?

The P&G CEO admits to giving more attention to internal demands than he should. Yet he recognizes that it’s uniquely his job to link the outside world to the inside of his company by fulfilling the four tasks outlined above. How does this connect back to growth? Since he became CEO in 2000, P&G has increased the number of consumers it serves from 2 billion to 3.5 billion. Sounds like pretty good growth. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Biz Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.