With an array of workshops on the future of big data, cognitive computing and many more, the day of IBM Business Connect left us with new knowledge and inspiration for the future of ActionPlanner.

CEO Victor Veloso at the sponsored ActionPlanner Stand at IBM Business Connect 2015 in Copenhagen.

As an up-and-coming company, being a part of IBM Business Connect 2015 proved to be a great opportunity to meet both potential partners in our ambition to create an eco-system of people interested in the Execution Management space, as well as we got to meet potential clients.

Our first introduction to the concept of ecosystems was in Silicon Valley, summer of 2013 with the SCALEit program. Back then it was mind-blowing to experience the build-up of ecosystems through decades in what we believe is an unmatched pool of talent, capital, partners, universities and clients – all within a 50 kilometer radius.

The experience was invaluable, but hoping for and imagining a similar environment in the Nordic countries was thought to be unrealistic for many years to come.

However IBM has and is doing tremendous efforts to establish such an ecosystem, thereby opening up opportunities for start-ups that would otherwise not be possible.

Sponsors of IBM Business Connect 2015 in Copenhagen.

For that reason, we would like to recognize IBM for the effort they are doing and so,

 THANK YOU IBM!

The post Thank you IBM appeared first on ActionPlanner.

Just last week the first group of people from a leading Nordic bank kicked off their ActionPlanner Certified Trainer program. The idea is to build up the necessary execution skills in-house, and use ActionPlanner as a common platform to develop Execution Excellence for a team of 100+ employees.

During the certification process the Execution Excellence coaches provides valuable insights and best practices on how to best support the execution process and maximize Benefits Realization.

Victor Veloso – proudly showing the worlds first “ACT Program”

Veloso’s Execution Excellence Model

The founding father of ActionPlanner, Victor Veloso, has through his 15 years of management consulting experience within the field of Execution Management developed a model. The model comprises the intellectual strategy aspects and emotional people aspects that organizations must go through to achieve Execution Excellence. The model is called the “VEE” model (short for Veloso’s Execution Excellence model) and addresses in particular the leadership, communicative and collaborative aspects of efficient Execution Management.

Veloso’s Execution Excellence model. Focus on the V-shape (able, willing and structure) leads to Victory.
© Victor Veloso

As an ActionPlanner Certified Trainer you learn to understand important Execution Dynamics with the VEE model and get training in how to efficiently address execution obstacles so progress is insured.

“In Execution Management its all about people, because people is what make things happen. The challenge is that there is not always enough execution talent around. With ActionPlanner, teams can leverage on the available execution talent by visualizing how the best at executing work, and then pass it on to others. This both catalyses and scales the organizations Execution Skills”, says Victor Veloso and continues:

“Many companies are struggling with the challenges in Execution Management. We now offer a combined solution with the train-the-trainer program as a complimentary to our unique ActionPlanner cloud-software. This provides a complete solution to the execution problem and makes the on-boarding cost-efficient for even the largest teams.”

The post The world’s first ActionPlanner Certified Trainers appeared first on ActionPlanner.

I have seen it in numerous organizations and I believe it’s very human: It’s easy to state where your company should be in 12 months and to write a strategy to get there.

But when it comes to executing the strategy, the necessary actions are often sparsely planned and thus employees lack time, resources & attention when needed the most. The result: Failure in strategy execution.

There is a better way!

By Victor Veloso, CEO and founder, ActionPlanner.

I used to be a strategy consultant. I was brought in to help companies move from their existing situation to a better place. When the strategy was ready and agreed upon, I did my usual handover of slides and documents and everyone was happy. Three months later the execution was often halting and six months later it was worse still.

I started doing a lot of research on Execution Management and learned through numerous studies* that my clients weren’t the only ones struggling with execution.

Strategies may be well researched in terms of market opportunities and resources in the organization. But to execute well, people need to prioritize and have resources at hand – especially when preconditions and circumstances change. That requires action planning.

Hand things over. Please.

I worked out a strategy with a client several years ago. We made a plan with 15 objectives. For each objective there were numerous initiatives to carry out.

One objective was to open more outlets in a new region. The CEO kept this objective on his table. He opened a few shops, but got buried in administration, so progress stopped.

He felt it was too cumbersome and time-consuming to communicate and hand over the details to all the people who each had a part to play. So the CEO ended up doing everything himself.

Allocate enough resources

Another objective was to increase the amount of solution selling, because the clients were requesting that at the time.

This time I was lucky to get involved in the action planning and when breaking down this objective into milestones and actions, we realized the need for a full time person to drive the project successfully and thousands of euros in marketing costs to build the brand.

The company was surprised at the resources needed to successfully execute the plan, but decided not to hire and instead attempt to run things internally with existing personnel.

Implementation slowed and time to market increased, because of the lack of resources. The financial crisis struck and the demand shifted away from the intended solutions and eventually closed the window of opportunity that had been open for 2 years.

What should we have done instead?

In hindsight:

1. The 15 objectives should have been narrowed down to the 3 most important ones.

2. Then the following questions should have been answered thoroughly:

• What will it take to implement all these milestones and actions in terms of time, resources and money? To be able to answer this questions it would have required “action planning”, the most important step from strategy to successful execution in my opinion.
• Do we still want to do it? If yes, then prioritize. Allocate the budget and get people committed to the plan by involving them. Agree on tangible and realistic KPIs. Execute: Follow up, get things done and follow-through.

Conclusion?

Analyze the market opportunities, identify goals and prioritize a few “must win battles”. Do proper action planning for the implementation: Spend a reasonable amount of time to find out how to align, cascade and communicate the plan. Commit enough resources to reach your goals. Otherwise stop! Inadequate execution is a waste of your company’s time and resources.

Three fundamental steps to better execution

1. Got a deadline? How about a starting date?

When it comes to planning, everybody is focused on the goals – on deadlines. 80% of the action plans I have encountered had no agreed starting date on the initiatives. If people are very busy already and you don’t communicate clearly when you expect them to focus on your new initiative, then failure is almost guaranteed. The solution is to schedule the initiatives in a plan with sufficient time & resources.

2. Plan your actions

Take your planning to the next level: Consider which milestones need to be reached by when.

Simply telling an employee “Your target next year is 10% above this year’s performance” without agreeing how & when is the road to frustration. Why not plan it realistically and get real commitment from the people who will do the day-to-day execution?

You only need to repeatedly ask a simple question: What is the most important thing to succeed with first and what is the next step after that?

3. Follow up

Sounds easy. But to efficiently follow up, managers need to know what is going on and where follow-up is most needed. That requires structured and easy reporting and a well researched plan.

4. This extra fourth step is helping a growing number of organizations execute

Try out ActionPlanner, if you feel you are missing the “how” in your plans – or if following up numerous initiatives is a pain.

Resources

• McKinsey: 70% of change initiatives fail
• Jeroen de Flander: 8 main dimensions to measure strategy execution.
• Intrafocus: 70 % of companies use Office documents to manage execution.
• Harvard Business Review: 40-60% of perfomance is lost from plan to action
• Kotter: 70% of all change initiatives fail.
• Kaplan & Norton: 90% of all strategies fail
• Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan: “Execution – The discipline of getting things done”.

The post Execution: How to escape the 80% failure rate appeared first on ActionPlanner.