Steve Huey's Blog » Focus

The 1% challenge

Steve Huey — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:23:59 +0000

Tom Peters frequently issues the advice of the 1% rule. What he says is to go to the company / department budget and look for 1% to cut that is money not spent well. I have always liked the idea but feel that in these times cutting the budget by another 1% just adds to the company anxiety. My idea is more fun…

Go through the revenue being generated and find the opportunities to increase sales by just 1% – heck find more if you can but look for 1%. Don’t do what the airlines did and impose a baggage fee or look for ways to gouge your clients for more. No way!

Look for a way to sell 1% more or increase value for your client or find just one more client or increase traffic to your site by just 1% more.

Its challenging but I bet that if you turn the subject to finding 1% more in revenue to your leadership team the mentality will begin to shift from cost cutting to growth. Growth is what we all need now.

Now that you have your metric – FOCUS!

Steve Huey — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:54:13 +0000

Now that you have your key business driver whether it is subscribers, page views, boxes stored, clients served or product listings, focus on driving that metric. How do you focus well may I suggest the following five ways:

Communicate the key driver and the goal to each and every person in your company. Every person should know what the key metric is what your goal is and what you attained in the past.
Post the goal around your shop – write it out so each team member is constantly reminded of the goal.
Repeat the goal and the current status at every function, meeting, or gathering.
Ask for the teams help in reaching the goal – they have great ideas ask them to think.
Become the walking embodiment of the goal by discussing the goal each day with someone on your team.
Reflect on the goal and your plans to achieve it everyday (do this alone in a quiet place and do so by thinking about what you are doing and what could be done). (Bonus method – 6 not 5 as previously indicated)

You will find that soon the goal will be achieved and you will be setting a new higher goal. Look you have heard this before so why am I telling you this again? You are busy – being pushed to your limit with the needs of your company. You are being pulled in the direction others want to take you. Stop! Dig in your heals and pay attention to what drives your company. Focus and you will reap the rewards of that focus.

Focus – Do you know the one stat that moves your business?

Steve Huey — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:18:04 +0000

What one key metric drives your business? Every business has one. A few of mine have been; listings, enrollments, downloads, subscribers. Notice I did not say; sales, revenue, profits, EBITDA. Yes I track these too but the underlying metrics move the business forward.

Identify these key metrics and focus on them – set a goal for them make them come alive in the minds of your team. Make sure that the key driver creates the value for your clients and your business.

One of my mentors tells me that his key metric is subscribers. No care for revenue as he is building a “Tribe” (if you do not know what I am talking about run out and buy Seth Godin’s book Tribe). You see he has identified what creates enterprise value for his shareholders (I think he is the only shareholder).

Once you have identified the key value driver focus on it relentlessly no matter what it is. Yes you have to watch your cash and your sales and etc etc. Many people only watch those things and then end up focusing on the wrong value drivers or too many “Key Metrics” and end up creating nothing remarkable. Google originally wanted to be the best search engine period. Amazon in the begining wanted to focus on expanding the books it had the ability to sell you. Jack Daniels focused on distilling whiskey.

Find your value driver and focus on it!