As we continue our series on Patrick Lencioni’s 6 Critical Questions for Clarity, today we look at What exactly do we do?
Typically this is a straight forward question of clarifying what business you are in. Lencioni’s website at www.tablegroup.com defines the answer as “A non-sexy description, mostly verbs about what we do”. Sometimes the real answer is not so simple, requires a fresh perspective to get it right.
To properly define what you do, take a step back and see how you add value to your customers, and if you are a business, how do you actually make money. In what ways do you invest more money or resources than your competitors? Are there ways you make more money than your competitors; what do you do to make that happen?
For example, The movie The Founder highlighted that McDonalds is very much a real estate company as well as a restaurant chain. Real estate may not be their sole focus, but being aware of its criticality has served the company well.
A broader view or what you do may give you more opportunities to build business with existing clients, and to differentiate your organization from its competitors. CP now considers themselves in the transportation business not the rail business. CP Rail was the common brand of the past, now it is just CP. This broader perspective helped clarify what changes needed to happen, and why, as the company embarked on its remarkable turnaround in 2012.
Clarity around what your organization does will help your team make decisions that align and support its vision, mission and strategy.
