The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

It’s a ‘no brainer’ that all organisations should have clear objectives that are communicated up, down and across to all staff and are updated regularly to keep up with changes in the business, the market and the environment. These should always be backed up by an action plan and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) KPIs. We can see you all nodding your heads in agreement and muttering “why are they stating the obvious?”

 In our 20 odd years of investigations, we have looked at many relationships between partners in the Public and Private sectors across the world. Time and time again we found that despite saying they were collaborating in fact there was turmoil and they were going nowhere. When asked what are you hoping to achieve many were “not sure”. Furthermore, their detailed plans, where they existed, were woolly to say the least and caused more problems than they solved. This was made worse when they were linked to terms and conditions in the contract that were clearly out of sync.

 “We need better sales engagement and more focus, clear objectives, defined performance milestones and metrics, execution on an agreed plan and executive sponsorship and ownership. We are not managing this alliance very well, are we? If we had joint objectives, we could really grow this business.” Sales Director, IT Channels

 In our follow up posts, we intend to take the lid off the problems caused by managers failing to realise that objectives drive the business. We use the words of senior executives to paint the picture.