Some business leaders struggle with the decision- making aspect of running a company. They delay decisions that involve change, risk or investment as they wait for perfect conditions that rarely arrive.
my work advising other businesses on their technology implementations, it’s clear these failures are frequently due to poor alignment with business strategies, lack of planning and low digital maturity. Take, for instance, a mid-sized distributor I worked with on an ERP implementation. Many of the company’s team members struggled with the new capabilities the ERP offered, such as report building analytical tools, billing automation, and overall process automation. The root issue quickly became clear: the distributor had always relied on its IT team to understand its systems, build reports, manage data, and recommend process changes. When the company’s IT leader left, so did nearly all of its digital maturity. To avoid repeating this risk, we built a training and upskilling plan for each functional leader, aligned with the technological capabilities relevant to their role.
What you can do: Recognize that technology alone doesn’t create growth; rather, it amplifies momentum. Before making significant investments in technology, clarify your strategies. Then focus on raising digital maturity in the people and areas where it will most accelerate growth.
Growth Constraint Tree:
Lack of Real-Time Visibility Too many businesses still rely on spreadsheets or manually assembled reports that are outdated by the time they’re reviewed. Sometimes companies have a hard time consistently driving growth if they can’t quickly monitor key metrics and answer questions like: Which sales channels are most profitable? Which products and
38 FEDA News & Views
product categories have the highest velocity? What should we promote to each customer based on our sales history?
Results and key metrics evolve and change. Without the ability to monitor performance in real time, businesses are unable to adapt and optimize. Nearly every client I’ve worked with has had some degree of limited visibility. I’ve found the best first step is always to define key metrics and ensure a data management strategy exists. From there, we build those metrics into reports and dashboards — either within the ERP or in a business intelligence tool — to provide real-time visibility across the business. What you can do: Identify the three most important growth metrics for each operational area in your business. Then, determine if your current systems can deliver these metrics in real time. If not, it’s time to consider better analytics tools or new ERP capabilities.
Growth Constraint Four:
Delayed Decision-Making Twenty years ago, I had the opportunity to complete an abbreviated Army Ranger training program. A key factor in the success of training missions depended on the platoon leader’s ability to make decisions. To this day, I can envision ranger trainers shouting “Whatcha gonna do PL?” as they pushed us to make decisions with limited intelligence. The experience taught me the importance of moving forward even if circumstances aren’t ideal or information is incomplete. If growth requires forward motion, then decisions are the spark that sets things in motion.
Some business leaders struggle with the decision-making aspect of running a company. They delay decisions that involve change, risk or investment as they wait for perfect conditions that rarely arrive. This indecision slows innovation and causes teams to lose direction and momentum. Critical initiatives get stuck in limbo, which allows competitors to gain market share or to outpace their business in customer experience, technology or talent acquisition. Operational inefficiencies grow if outdated systems or processes aren’t addressed in a timely manner. Ultimately, growth and financial performance suffer. Additionally, frequent delays of key decisions are often a sign of unclear strategies or a fear of failure. Decision making hesitancy has been a key challenge for one company I’ve worked with over the past three years. The business’ leaders tended to have anxiety over making an imperfect decision, often leading them to postpone action in favor of “thinking about it,” gathering more information or tweaking a process first. By the time they were ready to move forward, someone essential to the process had inevitably left the company or changed roles, causing the entire cycle to start over again. To break this pattern, I helped the executive team to weigh costs, risks and benefits more quickly — and to become more comfortable making a decision with imperfect information. We also reinforced the mindset that learning from action is often more valuable than waiting for certainty. Since then, their confidence
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