Virtually every start-up, small or medium-sized company is driven by a tenacious CEO or owner that is the visionary, focusing on the future and guiding the company’s direction and success. As their businesses grow, it’s not unusual for these firms to have sophisticated strategy challenges like large companies. While they’re ultimately responsible for revenue capture strategy and the related operations, today’s CEOs have less and less time to devote to it.
As a result, CEOs are appointing “chief operating officers” (COOs) or “chief strategy officers” (CSOs) –executives specifically tasked with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining a company’s strategic revenue capture operations and initiatives.
If your landscape business is growing, there’s a good chance you can improve revenue capture strategies and improve operations, business process inefficiencies and create competitive advantages over your competitors.
A recent report by the Harvard Business Review and CBS News sums it up best as to why you need a Chief Operating Officer or Chief Strategy Officer; “Ensure corporate strategy gets translated into action, communicate strategy to people throughout the organization and help them see how their work supports it, ride herd on change initiatives needed to carry out the strategy and make sure decisions at all levels align with strategic objectives. Hire a CSO, and you help your senior team deliver faster, better decisions while building world-class execution capabilities throughout your company.” Learn what characteristics to look for to find a qualified CSO: “Star player, Multitasking master, Influencer with deep industry knowledge.”
For many landscape businesses, hiring a full-time COO or CSO is not financially feasible. So there are many start-ups, small and medium-sized business owners that don’t have a trusted adviser to help them formulate and ride herd on their business growth strategies.
REAL FACTS:
The Balanced Scorecard Report finds “90% of companies fail to execute their strategies.” The Association for Strategic Planning Conference finds “Only 25% of managers have their initiatives linked to company strategy.” It goes without saying that companies without a Chief Operating Officer or Chief Strategy Officer are at a competitive disadvantage. This often means that the CEO or the business owner needs the expertise of a senior strategy executive.
Interim Chief Operating Officers or Interim Chief Strategy Officers provide an affordable alternative for businesses that need an expert to drive strategy and execution without the significant cost and commitment associated with hiring full-time employees. A separate set of eyes means you can focus on your core business as Interim Managers provide a fresh perspective and are free to concentrate on what is best for the business. As they develop company strategies to grow more profitable and remain competitive, the Interim Manager is not financially or emotionally attached to the business. This allows them to identify problems and implement new solutions that may not be visible to company insiders because they are too close to the issues. The Interim Manager will helm your companies’ strategic initiatives and turn strategy into action and visions into reality.
It’s an affordable solution for start-up, small and mid-sized landscape-snow firms. Every company, regardless of size, can benefit greatly from the services of an Interim Manager. However, many start-ups, small and mid-size businesses lack the necessary budget to add a full-time executive to staff. That places the burden of business growth strategies and revenue capture directly on the owners. The problem is that most business owners lack the expertise and time to handle such responsibilities. This is why this is a truly effective way to help navigate your business improvement or growth plans.
Steven Cohen, Principal of GreenMark Consulting Group, is a business management and operations consultant with more than 25 years of landscape/snow industry experience. Steven has an extensive background in managing cross-functional business operations, business strategy, and market growth projects. He prides himself on being analytical and a conceptual thinker who effectively partners with business owners to assess opportunities, facilitate strategic decisions, and drive successful implementations. GreenMark Consulting Group specializes in helping growth-oriented companies see through challenges and map out operational and growth strategies.
Questions? Please email me at scohen@greenmarkgroup.com to learn about our affordable fractional COO and CSO services. Also, visit our website www.greenmarkgroup.com to learn more about our consulting and mentoring services or greenmarkgroupcoaching.com for our coaching programs.
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