5 Keys to Thriving In a Post-COVID Business Environment

5 Keys toThriving in a
Post-COVID Business Environment

22
Today’s Presenter:
Ken Gibson
SeniorVice President
(949) 265-5703
kgibson@vladvisors.com
23201 Lake Center Drive, Suite 207 ⬧ Lake Forest, CA 92630 ⬧ 949-852-2288
www.VLadvisors.com ⬧ www.PhantomStock.com

44
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66
Since1996
VisionLink has been advising business leaders on how to create a
high-performance culture and turn employees into growth partners.
We have seen first-hand the solutions and strategies that work. In
this broadcast, we plan to share what we have learned with you.

77
Post Webinar Intro
5 Minutes:
 Who We Are
 What We Do
 How We Do It

88
Issues
COVID-19 Economy Turned Business
Upside Down
 Lessons Learned
 Disruptions
 New Discoveries
 Uncertain Future
 Fresh Opportunities

99
Consensus
Future business is not going to be the same.

1010
Therefore, What?
Cannot assume what worked
in the past will work in the
new economy.

1111
Why?
 Nature of business has
changed
 The “job to be done” has
evolved
 Customer experience
expectations have grown

1212
COVID-19 Catalyzes Big Changes
“The pandemic is forcing companies to
focus on experiences their clients
expect, while mobilizing them to
accelerate product and service
innovation.
“If you take this time now to reflect on
what’s been working for your clients
and what hasn’t, you can redesign and
elevate each stakeholder touchpoint.”
(Tom Adams & Ryan Hart, Strategy+Business, June
4, 2020, “Redefining B2B experience: COVID-19
catalyzes big changes”)

1313
5 Keys to Thriving in a Post-COVID
Business Environment
1. Retool Your Value Proposition
2. Secure Top Talent
3. Create a Value Creation Mindset
4. Make Leadership a Cultural Value
5. Redefine Performance Management

1414

1515
Core Issue
“What is clear in the COVID-deaccession is
that this change in customer behavior is
pushing firms into a new ‘directional
reality.’ Firms need to adapt to shifting
customer wants by engaging a more
customer-centric philosophy. Rather than
expecting their customers to come to them,
they need to go to their customers.
“…During this COVID-deaccession, it is even
more critical for firms to become more
customer centric by researching and
understanding their customers’ new problems
caused by fear, isolation, physical
distancing, and financial constraints, and
attempt to structure their offerings to meet
these new unmet wants and needs.”
(“Your Customers Have Changed,” Harvard Business School—
Working Knowledge, June 16, 2020, Rohit Deshpande, Ofer
Mintz, Imran S. Currim)

1616
Learning from the Future
Strategic Foresight
“Strategic foresight…offers a way forward.
Its aim is not to predict the future but
rather to make it possible to imagine
multiple futures in creative ways that
heighten our ability to sense, shape, and
adapt to what happens in the years ahead.
Strategic foresight doesn’t help us figure
out what to think about the future. It helps
us figure out how to think about it.”
(“Learning from the Future,” HBR—Emerging from the
Crisis, July-August 2020, J. Peter Scoblic)

1717
Identify the “Job to be Done”
“When we buy a product, we essentially
‘hire’ something to get a job done. If it does
the job well, when we are confronted with
the same job, we hire that same product
again. And if the product does a crummy
job, we ‘fire’ it and look around for
something else we might hire to solve the
problem.”
(Clayton Christensen, Theory of Jobs to be Done, Harvard
Business School, Working Knowledge, Dina Gerdeman, October 3,
2016)

1818
Broader Application
What if we applied this
theory to all of the
processes and systems
customer’s use? Where
can we fit in?

1919
Key Questions
1. What “job” does your
customer need to get done
right now?
2. What product or service can
you provide that is best
suited to that “job? ”

2020
How Do You Identify the “Job to be Done?”
 Talk to or survey your customers
 Speak to your salespeople and customer
service representatives
 Identify universal issues being discussed in
business journals/articles
 Make assumptions based on the “jobs” your
company needs to get done now

2121
Identify Barriers & Friction Points
 Is it easy or difficult to acquire your
product?
 Is your sales process too lengthy or too
complex?
 Are your customers given options?
 What needs to be enhanced?
 What is no longer relevant?
 Can customers visualize the benefit you
offer?

2222
Blue Ocean Four Actions Framework

2323
Innovate the Customer Experience
Too often companies focus on
innovating their product without giving
equal attention to creating a better
customer experience. They assume a
better product automatically makes
the experience better. It doesn’t.

2424
Apply Strategic Foresight Principles
 Create a customer feedback
channel that is easy to access and
will be responsive. (Don’t ask for
feedback you don’t plan to respond
to.)
 Initiate proactive customer service
contact where appropriate
 Provide relevant, helpful
information that adds value
 Develop new tools on your website
that give customers the ability to
chat online, post questions in
forums, etc.
 Create more options for your
customers to use your product or
engage your services

2727
 Digital platform for
building short and
long-term value
sharing plans
 Efficient plan design
process
 Affordable plan design
cost
 Effective plan launch
material
 Superior ongoing plan
management

2929
Make Your Customers Smarter
People Want:
 Information
 Answers
 Solutions
 Data
 Ideas
 Direction

3030
Share Your Learnings
 What could your customers
learn from how you do
business?
 How are you applying
strategic foresight?
 What information would
make your product or service
more valuable?
 What questions do your
customers have that you can
answer?

3131
Forums
 Website
 Blogs
 Email Newsletters
 Zoom Forums
 Webcasts
 Podcasts
 Use Cases
 Social Media

3333
Strategic Partnerships & Co-Branding
In the new economy, perhaps your
offering is not enough. A strategic
partnership can potentially lead to a
synthesized value proposition that adds
more value than the separate offerings
did previously.

3434
Example: GoPro & Red Bull
 Two unrelated products
 Commonality—both consider
themselves to be lifestyle brands.
 Lifestyle each embraces and
promotes is action and adventure.
 From events to ad campaigns,
they were able to leverage the
strengths of both brands.

3535
Example: Taco Bell & Doritos
 Different offerings, same audience
demographic.
 Result: Locos Taco wrapped in a Doritos
shell.
 Taco Bell sold an estimated one billion
units the first year it was introduced.
 Partnership created abundant cost,
exposure and distribution efficiencies

3636
Example: Starbucks & Spotify
 Seemingly disparate offers
 Both extremely cognizant of the
ecosystems they were trying to
create
 Starbucks provided Spotify a unique
“venue” to offer artists
 Spotify gave Starbucks access to an
expansive digital customizable music
library

3838
A Talent Market Flip
From Scarcity to Abundance

3939
Attracting Premier Talent
Three Priorities
1. Define What Talent You Need
2. Recruit to a Role (not a Position)
3. Market a Partnership

4040
1. Know What Talent You Need
Talent & Business Model
Alignment
 Have top performers
working in roles that
maximize their unique
abilities
 Avoid placement in roles
that don’t have a
strategic impact

4141
Talent Assessment
 Define skill “categories” needed to drive
business model
 Identify gaps
 Form recruiting strategy

4242
Hire Catalysts & Strategy Leaders
“…entrepreneurial individuals, or
‘catalysts,’ within big companies are using
those companies’ resources, scale, and
growing agility to develop solutions to global
challenges in ways that few others…”
Harvard Business Review,
September 2012
Jony Ive

4343
2. Recruit to a Role (Not a Position)
 Position: characterized by specific duties you
need someone to carry out.
 Role: defined by outcomes and stewardship.
Positions are filled. Roles are fulfilled.

4444
The Role Principle
Informs Three Things
 Role Expectations
 Recruiting Philosophy
 Pay Philosophy

4545
Key Questions
 What outcomes need to be achieved if the
company’s growth goals are going to be fulfilled?
 What specific skill sets are needed to produce
those outcomes?
 What value proposition will attract and retain
that kind of talent?

4646
3. Market a Partnership
Compelling Future
Positive Work
Environment
Opportunities for
Personal and
Professional Growth
Financial Rewards

4747
Focus on the Future
 Here’s the short-term
picture
 Here’s our vision for the
future.
 Here’s how we plan to
get there.
 Here’s the role we need
you to perform.
 Here are the resources
you will be able to use.
 Here’s our philosophy
about pay and rewards.
 Here are the specific pay
programs you’ll
participate in.
 Here’s how our pay
programs will work for
you if we achieve our
plan.

4848
3. Build a Value Creation Mindset

5050
Core Changes Shift from “Incentives” to “Value
Sharing”
 Took away local measurements
driving management incentive
plans—all paid on same metrics
▪ “We live together and we die
together”
 Aligned everyone behind
company success
▪ “I call it ‘pay the company first.’ ”
50

5151
Pay the Company First
“Basically, up to the company’s
operating profit target, all of
the profits go to the company;
and only after that target is
met, do we start funding the
incentive pool.”
Example: If UL’s target is
$80 million--
 100% of first $80 in
profit goes to company
 The next $20 million
goes to the incentive
pool
 From there on, 50/50
between company &
incentive pool

5252
Pay the Company First
Once value creation is defined,
compensation can follow a formula
for sharing value in a way that aligns
key producers with the company’s
business plan and priorities.
52

5353
Replace Incentives with Value-Sharing
The premise should be to promote value
creation and value-sharing:
▪ “When you help us create value you
participate in that value”
▪ Define value creation around the
shareholders’ most important goals

5454
Shareholder Priority
Sustainable and growing profitability
54

5555
Not Just Profit but Productivity Profit
Productivity profit is that surplus
that can be attributable to the
performance of your people.

5656
Productivity Profit
The Secret to Measuring Value
Creation

5757
Productivity Profit Calculation
Item Amount
Capital Account $20,000,000
Cost of Capital 12%
Capital Charge $2,400,000
Operating Income $10,000,000
Productivity Profit $7,600,000
Total Rewards
Investment
$25,000,000
ROTRI™
Return on Total Rewards Investment
30.4%
(ROTRI™ = Productivity Profit/Total Rewards Investment) 57

5858
Example:
Item Figure
Cost of Capital 12%
*Productivity Profit $7,600,000
Total Rewards
Investment
$25,000,000
ROTRI™ 30.4%
(ROTRI™ = Productivity Profit/Total Rewards Investment)
*Variable Pay
Plans (Value
Sharing) are
financed from
Productivity
Profit
58

5959
Result: Unlimited Earnings Potential
Item Figure
Cost of Capital 12%
*Productivity Profit $7,600,000
Total Rewards
Investment
$25,000,000
ROTRI™ 30.4%
(ROTRI™ = Productivity Profit/Total Rewards Investment)
*Variable Pay
Plans (Value
Sharing) are
financed from
Productivity
Profit
59

6060
Special Offer
The Productivity Profit Workbook
Request your copy on the final survey.

6161

6262
Culture, Engagement & Line of
Sight
Culture
The self-sustaining
patterns of behaving,
thinking, feeling and
believing that determine
how things are done
within a company.
Engagement
A measure of how
committed employees
are to their roles and how
satisfied they are with
their experience within
the company.
Line of Sight
Level of alignment there
is between ownership
and employees regarding
purpose, strategy, roles
and expectations.

6363
Align Company Culture to Business
Priorities
We’ve learned through our work at Katzenbach
that the key to unlocking performance via
organizational culture is to align company culture
to business priorities. This requires the selection of
a “critical few” behaviors that enable the desired
business outcomes. When these behaviors are
coupled with structural and process changes that
support them, the entirety of these changes have
an impact on the employee
experience…Employee engagement should be
regarded as a byproduct of culture evolution
efforts rather than a tangible goal of them.
“Improving Company Culture Is Not About Providing Free Snacks,”
Strategy+Business, July 31, 2017, Alice Zhou
(Ms. Zhou is with Strategy+Business and part of the Katzenbach Center)

6464
Culture, Engagement & Line of
Sight
Culture
The self-sustaining
patterns of behaving,
thinking, feeling and
believing that determine
how things are done
within a company.
Engagement
A measure of how
committed employees
are to their roles and how
satisfied they are with
their experience within
the company.
Byproduct
Line of Sight
Level of alignment there
is between ownership
and employees regarding
purpose, strategy, roles
and expectations.

6565
Stewardship
A willingness to “own” the
outcomes your role exists to
produce.

6666
Signs of Employee Stewardship
 Assume an ownership mindset in decision making
 Take a strategic approach to their roles
 Focus on outcomes and results
 Protect shareholder interests
 Expect to create additional value before receiving
additional compensation
 Make sacrifices to help the company succeed

6767
Build Accountability into Your Pay Design
Accountable Pay

6868
Chartering Teams
Teams Understand:
 Mission
 Context
 Outcomes
 Resources
 Data
 Reporting
 Accountability

6969
Chartering Conversation
“A chartering conversation…is based on the
premise that genuine commitment is a choice.
Sharing information is still important, but the
focus shifts from “nice-to-know” updates to
providing critical context, so leaders and teams
can craft mutual agreements tied to a common
mission. As a concept, the process of negotiating
a charter prompts managers to be clearer about
what they are asking of their teams, and to listen
more actively to what their teams need from them
in order to deliver.”
(“How to Help Your Employees Own Your Strategy,”
Strategy+Business, February 6,2020, Elizabeth Doty)

7070
Commander’s Intent
The Commander’s Intent is a simple, no-
nonsense statement that appears at the top
of every order, specifying the plan’s goal and
the desired outcome of an operation.

7171
What isYour Commander’s Intent forYour
Organization?

7272

7474
Core Message
Adapt or Die

7575
Reimagining Performance Management
Old Systems
▪ Accountability for past behavior at the
expense of improving current
performance.
▪ Excessive time devoted to holding
meetings, completing forms, creating
ratings.
▪ Managers influenced by personal biases.
▪ Impact of appraisal on compensation
influences feedback.

7676
Reimagining Performance Management
New Systems
▪ Emphasis on speed, agility and constant
learning.
▪ Focus on continuous building of the
workforce.
▪ Emphasize mentoring and coaching
instead of assessing and correcting.
▪ Transition from measuring performance
to improving performance.
▪ Focus on Chartering Conversations

7777
3 Business Reasons for Eliminating
Formal Performance Appraisals
1. The Return to People
Development
2. The Centrality of
Teamwork
3. The Need for Agility
Source: The Performance Management Revolution,
HBR, October 2016, Peter Cappelli & Anna Tavis

7878
The Return to People Development
 Competitive pressure to
upgrade talent management
efforts.
 Employees in charge of their
own growth.
 Requires rich and frequent
feedback from supervisors
▪ Need better met by frequent,
informal check-ins than by
annual reviews.

7979
The Return to People Development
Compensation
Implications:
Construct pay
strategies in a Total
Rewards framework

8080
Employees in Charge of their Own
Development
Compelling Future
Positive Work
Environment
Opportunities for
Personal and
Professional Growth
Financial Rewards

8181
The Centrality of Teamwork
 Moving away from forced ranking and from appraisals’ focus
on individual accountability makes it easier to foster
teamwork.
 The application of “promised-based management”
principles.

8282
The Centrality of Teamwork
Compensation
Implications: Focus on
value-creation and value
sharing tied to company
profitability and business
growth.

8383
The Need for Agility
 Rapid innovation is a source of
competitive advantage which
means future needs are
continually changing.
 Projects are short-term and
tend to change along the way,
so employees’ goals and tasks
can’t be plotted out a year in
advance with much accuracy.
“Because organizations won’t necessarily
want employees to keep doing the same
things, it doesn’t make sense to hang on
to a system that’s built mainly to assess
and hold people accountable for past or
current practices.”

8484
The Need for Agility
Compensation
Implications: Create a
rewards strategy that is
flexible but enduring and
build an agile operational
structure to manage it.

8585
Flexible but Enduring
 Look at compensation
strategy as you would an
investment portfolio.
 Individual pay
components are your
“asset classes.”
 As things change, adjust
weighting of each asset
class.

8686
5 Keys to Thriving in a Post-COVID
Business Environment
2. Secure Top Talent
3. Create a Value Creation Mindset

8787
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We value your input.

8888
Special Offer
The Productivity Profit Workbook

8989
Special Offer: Tip Sheet
Hiring Temporary vs.
Permanent Employees

9090
Post Webinar Intro
5 Minutes:
 Who We Are
 What We Do
 How We Do It

9292
Ken Gibson
(949) 265-5703
ThankYou!

9393
Post Webinar Intro
5 Minutes:
 Who We Are
 What We Do
 How We Do It

VisionLink’s Focus: Help Business Leaders Build and
Sustain a High Performance Culture
Accelerate performance through pay strategies that
transform employees into growth partners.

If you do that…
• Quality of talent will improve.
• Employee engagement will expand.
• Performance will be magnified.
• Business growth will be accelerated.
• Shareholder value will increase.

9898
Ken Gibson
(949) 265-5703
ThankYou!

5 Keys to Thriving In a Post-COVID Business Environment

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