by Dom Price
In a career that had been inundated with key performance indicators, output metrics and reporting protocols, Dave was glad to have agreed three simple targets with Nick. The path to partnership had been extremely competitive and Dave had seen many a peer fall at the early hurdles, like a nag in a horse race. The three targets had been in line with Dave’s desire to keep things in three’s, and they all seemed superbly achievable.
“So Dave”, issued Nick, with his usual calm and emotionless demeanour, “how about we agree on the following things. I want annualised sales of 1.4m, which shouldn’t be a problem. We need to see profitability and growth at the 21% mark, which is within your capability. It is also important that your 360 feedback comes back positive, which is currently tracking completely on target.”
“OK. So assuming I achieve all those three things, then I will be promoted?” Dave pushed, looking for some commitment from a man who looked permanently startled as he sported a snail like moustache on his top lip and eye brows that wouldn’t look out of place on a squirrel.
“Well you know Dave, it’s hard to say before the event. There are obviously a whole host of behaviours, attributes and inter dependencies that will have to be considered to ensure we make a holistic decision that is in the best interests of all stakeholders. We need to cement your learnings and to solidify the development points to give us an appropriate way forward. Standing still is going backwards in this game…you understand don’t you?”
Nick made no sense and his pompousness was riling Dave who wasn’t sure whether to be nervous by this fourth possible measurement which didn’t fit into the Rule of 3, or to occupy his time trying to work out what on earth Nick was talking about. He settled for the compromise that such responses were the safety net of someone who’d been in business for many decades, and who had a cash sapping child for each decade. Luckily, Dave was well equipped to compete on the business bullshit front, but decided that this wasn’t the time to take Nick on.
“You know Dave, I’ve been doing this job for longer than you’ve even been in business, so I’ll share something with you.” Nick’s penchant for patronising was frequent, so Dave bit his tongue and took a deep breath. “There is a certain magic and dynamic that we look for in people, and it isn’t always either to quantify for measure. You need to show us that you have that.”
Just what Dave had been dreading. Not only a fourth measure out of the blue, which didn’t neatly fit into the rule of 3, but also one which couldn’t be articulated or measured.
“I know exactly what you mean Nick. I’ve got to head off for a meeting now, but it would be good to check on progress soon. Thanks again for your time.”
Dave’s confidence wasn’t dented by Nick’s comments on his return home, as he considered himself one step ahead. After all, you don’t qualify top of your class in all exams at high school (excluding Physical Education and Religious Education, which really don’t count), complete a 3 year Business Management degree from the prestigious University of Manchester with Distinction and then nail 3 promotions in your first 2 years in a new job, without being confident about your ability. Dave’s accelerated momentum through all things academic had been complimented by his achievement of completing 2 Masters in Business Management by the tender age of 22 and 24 respectively. Hard work and dedication had got Dave a long way, rather than being fed with a silver spoon from birth. More recently though, his Rule of 3 process, had given him a new edge. Dave had his all encompassing Rule of 3, from which all other rules were derived. It was also his most simple and his most effective.
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Chapter Personal Success Strategy
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Plan, Execute, Measure.
It was written in big bold letters across the top of Dave’s glass wardrobe doors.
In true Dave fashion, each of the three words broke down into another three words in a pleasant tree formation. His attention was currently focused on the PLAN branch. It was time to retrieve his plans from their storage.
For a man of Dave’s calibre and focus, having a fireproof safe in his wardrobe was normal, but there was no jewellery in his. It contained his holy grail. Dave’s version of the colonel’s secret recipe. The equivalent of proof of who shot JFK. Contained in that safe were the printed documents and electronic back-ups that represented the keys to Dave success now and in the future.
The plastic file was marked ‘MASTER’ and contained three documents. Dave sat with his glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, and flicked quickly through the three documents from his safe, with a grin of satisfaction on his driven yet relaxed face. The file contained a “Plan”, “Execution” and “Measurement”.
Dave started chronologically with the “Plan” document which featured his 12 month rolling plan. Dave updated this document every 3 months to take account of changes, developments and most importantly his achievements. This rolling plan was an annual account of the targets and successes required to achieve the longer term Dave Marsdon Strategy which was documented in the appendix of his plan.
Dave chuckled to himself as he re-examined and agreed with his Mission Statement on the Plan; “To be the best and constantly achieve beyond my ability and deliver above my potential”. Dave liked this statement the most, as he knew that with every day that passed, he acquired more knowledge and power to boost his potential incrementally, so that this mission would be the ultimate in stretch targets.
The second document required a top up of his red wine. “Execution” took Dave’s 12 month rolling plan and listed his strategy and tactics for achieving the plan, as well as the methods he was going to use to deliver on the plan. For every target statement in the Rolling Plan, there was an action statement in the Execution document which would pave the way for his continued success. Dave skim read through to refresh his mind, but this document was the most pleasing. He’d evolved into a naturally better version of himself, and the execution of his plan had become second nature to him.
The final document was the Mecca, winning lottery ticket and missing treasure, all in one. It was Dave’s measurement of success and was subtitled “Long term plan for self actualisation”. Ironically, for the most important and most consequential, it was the briefest document. For humour value, Dave had put a large X on the front cover to signify that this document was the solution and the home to the ultimate treasure trove. He cautiously turned the page and looked once more at the page. The page contained a large hand written cloud in the middle, with the word “SUCCESS” written in bold. Spawning from the cloud were a whole selection of tree like branches and a host of words, which Dave scanned. He gained great comfort from the fact that his long term plan for his life was a one page mind map. It was sufficiently subtle, had the ability to evolve, and most importantly suited his style of management. For every problem there is a diagram that can solve it. He’d proven that in many a client presentation, and what worked for his clients could work for him.
Having refreshed himself with his roadmap to success, Dave locked the safe and took the 12 month rolling plan with him. It was this document that he used once a week to calculate and monitor his immediate progress and to do what he knew was an essential element to success.
It was a chance to assess the interactions within meetings, the boardrooms, the conferences and the endless presentations where he’d talk about “realigning corporate DNA to provide a more cohesive workforce in a time of constant innovation and paradigm shifts that change the rules of business”. Dave was his own back catalogue of business acumen, and he enjoyed these moments where he could spare himself time to reflect on recent successes and how they’d projected him to a new, higher standard of performance. To continually improve, Dave knew that he needed to critically assess every interaction that his days provided, and score himself on a variety of criteria to really work out the path to true success.
Loading up his home computer and flicking the switch on the projector, it was time for Dave to sense check his progress using mathematical
proof rather than opinion. One thing he’d learnt from his years of study was the intrinsic risk of seeing what you want to see, so he chose to statistically prove his success using his own techniques. With the living room lights slightly dimmed, and part way through his third glass of red, Dave was ready for measurement time. There was no time to be nervous. Where his execution and delivery was art in real life, measurement was about science. It was about taking an expectation and assessing whether it was met, exceeded or not met. Not met wasn’t an option.
Curiously inputting his scores on the keyboard and hitting the magic button, the graphic which appeared on screen was as relieving as it was pleasing. You average 27 year old would be doing something very different than Dave, if armed with a computer, projector screen and strong internet connection. Dave was hard wired differently than the average man.
Dave considered this exercise in the realms of an elite athlete who tracks his split times around the track, and who would measure many different facets of their performance in training, which was all geared at one end goal. A 100 metre sprinter who wants gold in the Olympics doesn’t just repetitively run 100 metres over and over again for 4 years in preparation. Dave was assessing his interim performance and he was keen to see how he was tracking, as his big race was only a few weeks ago.
Dave made the brief stroll across his polished wooden floors to the kitchen, and poured himself a top up of what was some beautiful Cab Sauv, a fine addition to his wine collection, and not to be confused with the Clean Skins that he kept in the cupboard for parties. He was a firm believer that you don’t share your nearest and dearest with strangers.
Making his way back into the living room, he stood proud, and raised his glass gently to his lips and he took in and absorbed all the information that was being displayed in front of him. The program had been created for him by a Summer Vacationer that Dave had taken into his fold the previous year. Brendon had turned out to be a whizz with spreadsheets, and had produced some excellent results for Dave working on some of his prestige clients performing some impressive data analysis. Sharing a beer one night as a treat for his good work, Brendon had explained to Dave that his dream was to create spreadsheets and programmes that studied the stock markets and selected stock to purchase that was virtually guaranteed to make money. Instead of preaching his superior knowledge around the fluctuations of stock markets and their volatility, learnt from his MBA days, Dave actually elected to listen and let Brendon talk some more. Listening proved rewarding and a light bulb went off in Dave’s head. The following day, armed with intrigue but without the tools to compete, Dave set Brendon a little challenge to create a dummy version of this programme but with a slightly different market in mind. Several iterations later, Dave had probably his favourite boy toy from the entire house, and definitely the cheapest. A crate of beers had bought Brendon’s silence, and now the fruits of Dave’s innovative mind and expert guidance combined with Brendon’s technical nous, stood glaringly in front of Dave.
Having input a score for each of the criteria on the opening screen of the program, all Dave had to do was sit back, wait for the program to churn through its scripts, previous scores and other parameters, and then hey presto. The output provided Dave with three things to consider, which was just how he liked it. First off, there was his current Share Price, which was very important. Did people want to buy the Dave Marsdon stock because it was performing well? Secondly, was how his Share Price was tracking, and whether performance was consistent against the average stock in the market. Nobody wants to buy stock that is volatile, so Dave was glad to see that his share price was showing a nice upwards trend and was performing steadily, not erratically. The final indicator from the programme hadn’t always proved reliable, but this time, the words resonated nicely as Dave swilled his wine around his glass and took another swig, almost in celebration. At the special request of Brendon, he’d made a last minute adjustment to the program, which took the trending of the share price, the expected volatility and externalities, and gave you a decision. For this version of the software, the decision wasn’t buy, sell or hold, but had been adjusted to fit the circumstances. In the past, some of the recommendations had been really useful for Dave, with examples including:
Put in more effort and more hours this week
Increase your sales figures
Maximize your exposure around the office
Show your peers that you care
Demonstrate an ability to lead your team
Make sure your clients love you
Attend more meetings
But this week’s result was one of Dave’s favourite suggestions and recommendations from the program, and one that showed that through hard work and delivery of the 3 stage process, all his ducks were nearly in a row. Grabbing the mouse, Dave highlighted the words and read them out loud as he charged his wine glass to the empty room. Thanks to his simple but effective plan, everything was falling into place.
“Continue what you are doing. Change nothing.”
Plan, Execute, Measure.
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Chapter After The Last One
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“So how are we doing Laura?”
Leaving nothing to chance, Dave had taken the words of wisdom from his computer program and applied them 2 fold. Whilst continuing to do what he knew he did best, he upped his efforts and worked up a storm around the office. After a safe lapse of time and a few nervous moments, the 6.30am meetings with Laura were back on, and each morning Dave was exhilarated to hear that his progress and trajectory to partnership was well on track. Obviously, this was never overtly discussed, but instead Laura was required to debrief him over their morning coffee on the three measurements Dave had agreed with Nick. Hearing about the momentum he was building up with each passing day, like the avalanche gathering snow, provided Dave with the energy, drive and determination to push even harder.
Tuesday saw a presentation with Image Technologies, where Dave had wowed the C-suite Executives with a display of his now customary panache and bamboozling theatrics. Whilst The Board of Image Technologies had debated the need to spend so much money on something they weren’t collectively sure was necessary, Dave had other ideas.
“The companies of yesteryear had deep arms and short pockets. In the modern economy, and with competition as it is, standing still is going backwards.” Dave had borrowed a phrase from Big Nick, but claimed it as his own. He was in his element as the ring master in the board room.
“If you want to aspire for mediocrity, then the current plan is more than suitable. But you need to remember that if you invest in CEC Services, then you will experience an organisational change that will demonstrate the trade-off between the tactical approach to management and strategic long term growth. With proper alignment, and an understanding of the opportunity cost of current unprofitable ventures, Image Technologies can easily become a company of the future, rather than a memory of the past. However, we must hit the ground running.”
The words were flowing from Dave as naturally as water from a fountain. His slick suit felt good today on his broad shoulders and his confidence was brimming. The fact that his presentation made little literary sense and was mainly full of business clichés didn’t matter. It was impact he was after, and that was in the performance, not in the words.
The crowd was not stirring as the street performer style display neared its crescendo. Dave new that the real hurdle was The Chairman, a man who expertly groomed the longest nasal hairs that Dave had ever seen. His suit looked like it had been picked up from a museum rather than the dry cleaners, and Dave secretly wondered if his hair was glued on. In the four times he’d met him, not one solitary thread of hair had ever moved. Charm and charisma, combined with a healthy dose of corporate ego massaging fooled most people at this level. Dave knew the questions would come at the end of his presentation, but he was ready for that. His ethos on those questions was a simple one; answer quickly and confidently. It is more important th
an being right.
Alan, The Chairman of Image Technologies, was a tough guy. He was old school, and sneered subtly at the young hot shots like Dave that seemed to fester around organizations like his. He’d often sit in his gentlemans club with the other old timers and talk about the good old days, whilst sipping a whisky which had aged longer than most people in his organization had been on the face of this earth. He once quipped to an associate at the club, “How in the name of whoever you believe in, can I put my trust and investment in a chap who looks like he is as fresh out of nappies as he is new to shaving?”
Dave’s secret lay in Laura. Not only was she becoming one of the best PA’s in CEC, she also had more contacts than your average optometrist. Her research had resulted in a large leather bound compendium being delivered to Dave at one of their morning coffee sessions, the contents being a complete bio and background on all The Board of Image Technologies. Her notes on Alan had given Dave some potential, and Dave knew that if he used this correctly, that he could turn Alan from a hurdle to an advocate. Laura’s note was succinct and Dave instinctively knew what to do. It simply read “very charitable family man who thinks he knows best and hates know-it-all consultants”.
Dave had a series of beliefs, techniques and tactics, that he’d not yet managed to put into a Rule of 3, simply because he was scared that there might be more or less than three. Today, selecting the weapon from the ammunitions stockpile that was his brain, Dave knew he was going into battle well equipped. Internally, he nodded to himself as an acknowledgement and permission that on this occasion, the chosen course of action was appropriate.
