Welcome to our latest monthly newswire. We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and find it useful. Please contact us if you wish to discuss any issues further.
The 9-box grid
The 9-box grid is a tool for talent management and succession planning.
The 9 box grid segments employees into 9 groups based on two dimensions – performance and potential. The purpose of the matrix is to align talent management and development initiatives to where they add the most value. When making talent management decisions, it is important to consider how well particular employees perform today and how well they are likely to perform in the future.
The 9-box grid helps firms to understand the growth potential of particular employees, in line with the firm’s strategic goals.
In talent and succession planning, the 9 Box Grid serves as a valuable framework for identifying high-potential employees, assessing leadership readiness, and making strategic decisions about talent development and succession. By evaluating both performance and potential, organisations can effectively nurture and retain top talent while identifying areas for improvement or development.
The grid's horizontal axis typically represents performance, categorising employees into three levels: high performers, average performers, and low performers. The vertical axis assesses potential, distinguishing between employees with high potential for future leadership roles, those with moderate potential, and those with limited potential.
High-potential employees identified in the upper-right quadrant of the grid are prime candidates for leadership development programs, stretch assignments, and succession planning initiatives. By investing in their growth and development, firms can cultivate a pipeline of future leaders and ensure continuity in key roles. Conversely, employees in the lower-left quadrant may require additional support or performance management to address issues or develop their potential. The 9 Box Grid facilitates targeted interventions and resource allocation, enabling firms to maximise the potential of their workforce and mitigate succession risks.
Re-energise your sales strategy
In a tough market it takes an innovative sales strategy to succeed.
In today’s challenging economic environment with its shifting consumer preferences, intense competition and high costs of doing business, your firm will need an innovative and effective sales strategy in order to succeed.
Start by doing some research in order to gain insights into customer pain points, aspirations, and buying behaviours. Tailor your sales approach to address these points, focusing on delivering value and building long-term relationships rather than solely pursuing transactions.
A successful sales organisation needs to embrace innovation and agility. In a rapidly changing market, businesses must be adaptive and forward-thinking. Explore innovative sales channels, such as e-commerce platforms or virtual selling tools, to expand your reach and accessibility. Additionally, leverage data analytics and AI-driven technologies to gain actionable insights, enhance sales forecasting, and personalise customer interactions.
In a crowded market, differentiation is key to standing out and winning market share. Articulate a compelling value proposition that highlights the unique benefits and solutions your products or services offer. Communicate this value proposition effectively through targeted marketing campaigns, sales messaging, and customer interactions.
A good sales strategy is one thing, but you need to empower your sales team to deliver it. Your sales force is the frontline of your business, driving revenue generation and customer engagement. Invest in training and development initiatives to equip your sales team with the skills, knowledge, and tools needed to thrive in a challenging environment.
Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement to maximise team performance and motivation. You can also explore different remuneration packages including bouses, commissions and profit shares, which can encourage the right behaviours within the sales team. Re-energising your sales strategy takes time and effort but by being proactive and embracing innovation, you can set your sales team up for success.
The data economy
The creation, processing and utilisation of data for commercial or societal purposes.
Data is a valuable business asset. The data economy represents a fundamental shift in how businesses and societies operate, with data emerging as a critical asset driving economic growth, innovation, and transformation across various sectors and industries.
As ever larger volumes of data are created, businesses can develop new insights into consumer behaviour and emerging market trends. The challenge for businesses is to make sense of the vast data sets available to them and find innovative ways to derive value from it.
The data economy is the global digital ecosystem in which the producers and consumers of data, including businesses, individuals and governments, can share their accumulated data from a wide range of sources. By connecting and sharing data from across different industry sectors, businesses can glean richer business insights, identify new markets and create new products and services for customers.
A good example of the data economy in action is John Deere, the farm equipment manufacturer that is known for its tractors. John Deere has adopted a model of selling data captured from sensors in its farming equipment, back to farmers as insights to help them to improve productivity of their farms. The data economy is not just for large enterprises. After all, small and medium sized firms are the foundation of the global economy – representing the majority of the business community in any given country. However, there are challenges for smaller businesses including IT infrastructure, data regulation, cross border data flows and extracting value from data.
By gathering and analysing customer data from diverse sources such as website analytics and social media interactions, small and medium sized businesses can gain insights into customer preferences and behaviours. This understanding allows for targeted product development, service enhancements, and more effective marketing campaigns, ultimately enhancing the customer experience.
Operational efficiency can also be significantly improved through data analysis. By identifying inefficiencies and streamlining processes, firms can optimise resource allocation and reduce costs. Small and medium sized firms can also explore new revenue streams through data monetization, whether that’s selling insights back to customers or developing data driven products or services.
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias where individuals tend to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information that confirms their existing beliefs or hypotheses. Essentially, it's the tendency to selectively perceive information in a way that reinforces one's preconceptions or hypotheses, while disregarding or downplaying contradictory evidence.
This bias can influence various aspects of decision-making, problem-solving, and reasoning. It can lead individuals to seek out sources of information that align with their existing views, ignore or dismiss opposing viewpoints, and interpret ambiguous evidence in a way that supports their beliefs.
Confirmation bias presents a risk to business leaders. However, it can be overcome by removing default options. When we are short on time and under pressure, it can be tempting to go with “the usual option”. However, this reinforces groupthink and encourages the management team to go with the default option. Managers can overcome this by asking, “if we hadn’t already taken this decision, what would we decide to do if we started again from scratch.”
Good managers overcome confirmation bias by encouraging dissent. Encourage your colleagues to come up with objections. Invite them to raise their concerns and thank them for doing so. If you and your colleagues develop some healthy disagreement, better decisions will be made as a result.
However, dissent is difficult to encourage if it involves challenging senior colleagues. In order to get around this, hierarchies need to be flattened. Senior managers can help to do this by encouraging junior colleagues to speak first in meetings, so they don’t simply anchor their views to those of their boss. By holding back, the more senior leaders can allow new ideas to be shared and this can result in new, innovative approaches.
Confirmation bias can be engrained in a management team but taking the time to recognise our biases and then making small changes like those outlined above can help to overcome them.
