Moe, Jeremy Eden and Terri Long discuss how to improve productivity and profits.
Improve Productivity and Profits in 90 day
Harvard Business School professor, Clay Christensen pioneered the concept ‘the job to be done’ as a tool for marketers to evaluate, with greater certainty the problem their product or service is solving for their customer. I was reminded of this simple, yet profound concept in a meeting yesterday with a good friend who wanted to know how advisors at my former financial firm approached their first meeting with a potential new client. It was a deja vu moment for me, because we took great pride in designing a framework that not only put that new client at ease, but more importantly, made them feel in complete control of the process. At the heart of our approach was this straightforward question that set the stage for everything we did – If we could work together to solve one nagging problem that’s been weighing on your mind, what would it be?
The great irony, however, is that nine times out of ten, the problem identified was outside the scope of our work. And, while that was puzzling at times, it became our singular focus if we were to earn that client’s trust. Jeremey Eden and Terri Long have been advising senior executives for the better part of two decades, and what I admire so much about their approach is the speed of execution. In their book, Low-Hanging Fruit: 77 Eye-Opening Ways to Improve Productivity and Profits, they remind us that the best way to build momentum is to take the easy road. Start by identifying the easiest problem to solve and solve it. Here’s where you’re likely to find it: