The Kevlar Test

FC Member Blog

BY Paul WilliamsWed Dec 10, 2003 at 11:10 AM

This blog is written by a member of our blogging community and expresses that member's views alone.

It can be frustrating to put a business, marketing or promotional plan together that seems like such a great idea and then, post-promotion, scratching your head wishing you had thought out "that glitch" beforehand.

One of the disciplines I've appreciated most is sharing my draft plan with the team before we syndicate it through the organization -- a key step. Here we make sure we've solved each of the business, communication and logistical needs from each and every angle.

Jab. Poke. Rip. Tear. Hang it in the firing range. It has to be bullet proof before it leaves your hard-drive.

While not the exhaustive list, these are some things I think about when creating a plan or promotion...

Brand

Does this strengthen the brand?
Does it fit with us?

Customer

Does this promotion make sense to our customers?
Will they care? Is it engaging and relevant?
Are we talking to ourselves?

Business Needs

Will this help us achieve our stated sales goals?
Is this something that offers us long-term benefits, or just a short-term blip?
Is the investment worth the potential risks of this idea? What's the ROI?

Operations/Logistics

How do the special promotional tasks we are asking to have implemented affect everyday workflow?
Are we asking too much of the store employee, the person working the sales floor? Are we being realistic?
Will store employees find the promotion exciting and engaging?

It's tempting to ignore one of these questions when your idea seems to answer the majority "oh so well." Yes, you could let operations solve for the labor challenge or you could ignore that it is complicated for the customer. Don't give in!

Your idea should only be acceptable if it's bullet proof. It's what make the job very challenging at times. It's what makes the job really fun.

So, what questions or processes do you use at your company to ensure your programs are Kevlar strong before they move to implementation stage?

Fire away.

Topics:

Management, guest hosts: williams + moore, 5, P, K

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Recent Comments | 10 Total

December 10, 2003 at 1:42pm by Bob Flores

As I've "preached" for years with my clients, and now, in my book, the only way to ensure success is to go about such undertakings in a systematic and logical manner.

The $.50 tour of the methodology is as follows:

1) Businesses have goals and missions that they want to achieve and/or surpass.

2) The Organization is the mechanism used to achieve these goals/missions

3) The resources of the Organization that can be brought to bear on ANY project fall into one of the following categories: People, Processes, Systems, Data, Infrastructure, Measurements and Knowledge

4) A systematic development of ALL of these resources is required to ensure that they are all contributing to the success of the goal/mission.

5) "Aligning" all of these resources requires a comprehensive methodology that accounts NOT ONLY for each resource as it contributes towards reaching the goal, but ALSO for interactions amongst other resources, producing cost effective solutions, and happy customers.

This methodology is described in much greater detail in my book, of course, but these are the basics. We have taken Malcolm Gladwell's concept of a "Tipping Point" (the point at which small, but significant changes make very large impacts), and developed it into a repeatable operational strategy to create successful organizations.

The concepts are simple to understand. The only real challenge is in developing enough intellectual capital to "tip" the organization. It requires a lot of development work and strong executive support to implement the needed changes.

Bob Flores
COO BTT Solutions Inc.
Author: "My Budget is Gone, My consultant is Gone, What the HELL Happened?!?!" (available on Amazon.com)

For more information on creating Tipping Points in your organization, go to www.bttsolutions.com or call our Denver office at 303-859-7186

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