Have a plan
As you start thinking about making multiyear plans, you need to have a different team thinking about the long-term execution versus the near-term execution.
In Olsen’s case, he looks at his business in two regards. He has his executive team, which he refers to as the “invest in the business (ITB) team” and his “run the business (RTB) team,” who are the people that report to his direct reports.
“I’m not looking for people to do each other’s jobs,” he says. “I’m looking for them to compliment one another for the execution. As the RTB is running the business, the ITB team is looking out more than one year.”
Olsen stays in touch with his teams through various meetings. They have weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews that allow Olsen to get a feel for what is going on at the company. Inside those meetings, there are many strong opinions, and Olsen describes the room like an ice rink.
“We move the puck around a lot,” he says. “Then we decide, once we’ve banged it around quite a bit, what’s the best return for the shareholder based upon what resource we are applying against what projects in what type of timing, so that we get the appropriate return.”
While discussions and opinions are important, Olsen still wants data as part of his structure. The company has playbooks, which are the company’s go-to-market plans for a specific customer segment, and are built based on customer and analyst research. Olsen describes them like a sheet of music where, if executed properly, you have perfect symmetry.
“When there is no sheet of music and people are tuning up a symphony, it’s just a cacophony of noise,” he says. “But the sheet music provides the guideline and the tempo so all of the different instruments are going in concert to actually build that beautiful sound that was expected because of the execution. Through practice and through competency building, you fine-tune that execution.”
The use of playbooks removes someone’s strong opinion from being the guiding word on an issue.
“We’re trying to diffuse from ego being involved,” he says. “We are using business metrics to be able to utilize that as building strength in the business.”
Data is important for any business because it not only gives you concrete evidence of how you are doing, but it also backs up the art of leadership.
“You use the science to confirm your gut,” he says. “Your gut is all the years of experience that you and your leadership team can accumulate.”
Olsen says the science will be able to show you that, if you want to go north and you aren’t heading somewhere between northeast and northwest, then it allows you to step back and adjust.
“You use the numbers to calibrate,” he says. “Then you kind of perpendicular check and say, ‘Now let me go out into the market and talk to them.’ Or, if it happens to be an operations group, go and see that. That’s where the art form comes in. But most of business is science.”
To avoid drowning in data, you need to make sure you are getting out and talking to employees and customers, which has helped Olsen get information outside of just what is on paper.
“We have built rapports over the years to get kind of the perpendicular views besides what I am just reading through reporting mechanisms,” he says.