Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Joe Calloway, Chuck Feltz, and Kris Young are the founding partners of Engage Consulting Group, working with clients to accelerate the speed and effective-ness of their business strategy. For more information, please visit www.engageconsultinggroup.com.

Joe Calloway has worked with hundreds of companies to help them create and sustain success. A member of the Speaker's Hall of Fame, Joe has been a business consultant for twenty-eight years. His books include Becoming a Category of One, Indispensable, and Work Like You're Showing Off!, all from Wiley.

Chuck Feltz has served as CEO or president of companies in multiple industries ranging in size from an international startup to over $1 billion in revenue. He has been widely recognized for increasing shareholder value with his innovative strategies and visionary leadership.

Kris Young has worked with production company Martin Bastian for twelve years helping companies create strategic communications programs and events. An NSA Meeting Partner of the Year, she has worked with a range of organizations including Deluxe Financial Services, Wells Fargo, Cargill, ING, and many others.

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Praise for Never By Chance

"Joe Calloway, Chuck Feltz, and Kris Young have joined forces to write the book that senior management at companies large and small have been waiting for. Highly readable, loaded with innovative ideas and filled with seminal insights from both a consulting and CEO perspective, Never by Chance lays out a plan for aligning people and strategy to dramatically improve market share and ROI. If you're going to read one business book this year, this is it!"
―Kevin J. Clancy, PhD, Chairman, Copernicus Marketing Consulting

"Never by Chance is a real-world, pragmatic guide to authentic alignment, vision, and strategy. If you want to create enduring value for your customers that drives shareholder value, then read this book. A great read that lays out a foundational approach to aligning people, resources, and strategy."
―Kevin Cashman, Senior Partner, Korn/Ferry Leadership & Talent Consulting; bestselling author of Leadership from the Inside Out

"Calloway, Feltz, and Young offer a fresh perspective on what it takes to drive business strategy to its successful conclusion. This is a compelling contribution to the literature on the application of strategy and the importance of those things that really matter. It's a must-read for all those who labor in the vineyards of corporate America and those who aspire to it."
―Benjamin Ola. Akande, PhD, Dean, School of Business and Technology, Webster University

"Everyone ends up somewhere, but few end up somewhere on purpose. Doing things on purpose and for a purpose are critical to business success. Never by Chance makes a compelling case for intentional leadership in bringing all of a company's resources to bear on delivering the stakeholder value your organization exists to provide."
―Steve Tourek, SVP and General Counsel, Marvin Windows and Doors

Aus dem Klappentext

Great business performance doesn't happen by chance. You can have all the cost-cutting initiatives, employee engagement programs, and technology upgrades that you want, but unless every resource and employee are intentionally aligned with a compelling vision, you'll leave too much on the table and lose out to competitors. So what is the key to getting breakthrough results in this age of "doing more with less"?

Never by Chance gives you a top-to-bottom guide on how great businesses accelerate their strategies in spite of today's resource-constrained environment. Forgoing the usual miracle cures, this realistic approach will help leaders catalyze their organizations by adopting the leadership mindset that "every resource that can be valuable, will be valuable."

In Never by Chance, you'll find:

• The direct link between vision and stakeholder success

• Why a purposeful customer experience is absolutely necessary

• Why you may no longer be relevant to your customers

• How to use your culture as a competitive advantage

• Why intentional leadership matters

A strong quarter, hot product, or sudden sales bump can always be a fluke, but sustained excellence is never an accident. Written by three seasoned experts on aligning people and strategy to drive measurable results, Never by Chance gives you and your team an engaging and empowering road map to create clear competitive advantage and distinguish your company in today's ultra-competitive market.

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Never by Chance

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

Begin With the End in Mind

There is nothing more powerful than an organization whose resources are laser-focused on a vision that every employee clearly understands-so much so that they wake up each morning knowing their role in making that vision a reality.

A COMPELLING VIEW OF THE FUTURE

Chuck: Pick up any annual report; find the chairman's message to shareholders and read the vision statement-the description of what the company aspires to be, what they will achieve, and how they will accomplish this.

Now go to any employee in the company (maybe your company) and ask him or her to tell you the company's vision. Compare that response to the annual report message. Now ask another employee and maybe even a couple more. How consistent are the replies? In much of our work, we find the responses to be surprisingly consistent. They sound something like this, "Our vision? Well, we make (fill in the blank with the product)." Then read the vision statement to these employees and ask them how it affects what they do every day; in other words, how do they act differently knowing what the vision is? The difference between what we make and what we strive to become are worlds apart.

Is it the lack of a vision that is the issue? Not really. Most companies have a vision somewhere that they put together for an annual report, a shareholder meeting, or as the result of an offsite planning retreat.

But the mere existence of a vision statement is not the goal. There are more than enough visions out there, full of jargon and "corporate speak" that only those who created them could really begin to understand.

What we are talking about is something far beyond the obligatory sanitized versions of "vision statements" that appear in many annual reports or corporate brochures. Rather, we mean a view of the future so compelling that it causes employees to get up every morning aspiring to achieve it-not only because they believe in it, but because they clearly understand their personal roles in accomplishing it. Likewise, your vision can distinguish your value proposition in the eyes of your customers and enhance their desire to align with your company. A vision at this level becomes the cornerstone and the context that steers all organizational choices and actions. It answers the most important question your employees will ever ask you: "Why are we doing what we are doing?"

WHAT'S THE DEAL?

Joe: I often like to surpass the specific concept of vision and instead ask more general questions of people in an organization. If I were to ask your employees, "What's the deal with you guys? What are you all about? What's the point of all this that you're doing?" What would their answers be? Think about all of your employees-certainly not just management or the leadership team. How would the receptionist, somebody from the IT department, or one of the guys or gals in the warehouse answer the question, "What's the deal with you guys?" Sadly, members of most organizations wouldn't quite understand the question. The response would most likely be some form of, "I don't get it. What do you mean 'what's the deal with us?'" As Chuck said, if they had any answer at all, they'd probably respond with "we make computers" or "we do industrial cleaning" or "we are accountants." All of these are fine things to make, do, and be; but it's not the point. And it's not smart business.

What answer do I frequently get from members of companies that have people and strategy aligned? What do employees in companies with intentional leadership that has embraced the responsibility of driving a clear vision throughout the organization say about purpose? If I ask, "What's the deal with you guys?" there will be no hesitation. They'll tell me exactly what the deal is with them; and they'll go on to articulate the firm's vision, not as a memorized slogan, but in their own words and with their own grasp of what they aspire to be, what they want to achieve, and exactly how they will accomplish it. And most important-they will tell you exactly what role they play in all of this.

ALIGNING EVERY RESOURCE

Chuck: It would be easy to characterize this work simply as "just doing the right thing" and making certain people "feel good" about what they do (which, by the way, isn't a bad thing). But it goes well beyond that. Leaders of organizations want to create a compelling vision for one reason: to deliver the greatest value for customers and, as a result, employees an shareholders. And our best opportunity to do that is by putting every resource we have toward that end. No wasted effort, no isolated projects that don't support the vision, no meaningless (and endless) meetings, and certainly no disengaged or apathetic employees uncertain of how what they do matters in the greater scheme of things.

An intentionally crafted vision will engage, enlighten, and give greater purpose to our employees' work, which is a noble outcome in and of itself. In the end, however, leaders are obligated to develop value on behalf of all of our stakeholders. By failing to leverage the power of a strong and purposeful vision, we never realize the return of one of our most powerful assets and we default on one of our key responsibilities as leaders. Strength and clarity of vision are the key catalysts of employee empowerment and engagement and the foundation for aligning an organization's strategy and resources.

A LIFE LESSON IN THE VALUE OF VISION

Chuck: Prior to starting my business career, I worked in a private hospital on a Physical Rehabilitation team counseling patients who had suffered significant trauma and their families. I remember one patient in particular who taught me one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned about the power of a compelling vision (sometimes we learn our best lessons outside of our business environments).

Janet was a young mother admitted to the hospital after a horrendous car accident that left her paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Her rehabilitation was going to be measured in years, not months; and her days were made up of three excruciating therapy rituals where a good day meant walking down the parallel bars 10 feet unassisted. A bad day-and they were countless-would end in frustration, tears, and anger, only to get up the next day to do it all over again. On top of all this, Janet was facing a prognosis that would have depressed even the most optimistic of us. Yet we marveled at her tenacity and conviction in the face of this unthinkable tragedy.

Janet and I spoke often about her challenges and her preparation to go home. I still remember one of those conversations like it was yesterday. It had been a grueling morning for her that ended with her collapsing face down on the floor, bloodying her nose and spraining her arm. While we waited for her physician, we discussed her frustration with the temporary setback. I mentioned to her that she had become quite an inspiration to her rehab team because of the relentless dedication she showed in her therapy. I told her that we were in awe of her ability to maintain this level of incredible effort day in and day out.

With blood...