Insights – Getting Things Done: Sustainability (11-18-2022)

Emmanuel Bautista III

Chief Executive Officer, Koumizen, Inc.

Getting Started:

Question for all: What stage of your business do you think you're in?

Principles and Practices:

"Business Review is your Swiss Knife in navigating each stage that you are in." - Florentino A.
Hernando

The Principles of Organizational Life-Cycle:

Principle 1: All startups go through different stages.

Principle 2: All stages require different focus.

Principle 3: All stages require matching competency to navigate it successfully.

What are the 4 Stages in Business?

1. SETUP STAGE
○ The Context: Focus on your customers. What their pain points are and the solution
to their problem.
○ The Challenge: Finding customers who are willing to pay for your product or service.
○ The Core Competency: Profiling the Perfect Customer and Pricing.
2. SURVIVAL STAGE
○ The Context: Focus on finding a repeatable way to make money.
○ The Challenge: Designing a business model with a Monthly Recurring Revenue
(MRR).
○ The Core Competency: Blueprinting a viable Financial Model.
3. STABILIZE STAGE
○ The Context: Focus on finding the right people to run the business with you.
○ The Challenge: Attracting the Right People who match the operational
requirements.
○ The Core Competency: Designing your Organizational DNA. Purpose, Progress
Metrics, Processes, People and Positions.
4. SCALING STAGE
○ The Context: Focus on growing your customer base.
○ The Challenge: Growing your operations profitably.
○ The Core Competency: Applying profit-ability rooted from sharpened business
acumen.
What is a Business Review?

A business review is a regular meeting designed to analyze and outline action items that improve
the overall performance of the enterprise as measured with the financial targets of the company.

Business Review is a practice that enables you to transition on each stage. It is the Swiss
Army Knife of CEOs.

"The Swiss Army Knife is a metaphor depicting the qualities of usefulness and versatility."
Why Does Business Review Matters?

1. One Second Clarity - Clarity in a chaotic world is very powerful. Imagine playing basketball
while computing every point of your teammates. Very chaotic right? The only thing you need
to know at first sight is whether you're winning or losing. So that you can create action
steps to improve the situation. First to know, First to Act.
2. Assess Performance - Ask yourself this question, "Do I know if I'm winning or losing in just
one second?".
3. Analyze Performance - Ask yourself this question, "Do I know who does what by when?".
Just like in our Executive Advisory with sir FAH. All our activities should be in VNT format
(Verb + Number + Timeline) and who is accountable for it.
4. Accelerate Performance - Now that we have One Second Clarity, Assess the Performance
and Analyze the Performance. We now need to Accelerate it. Acceleration requires 2 things:
Repeatability & Accountability. In Accountability, ask this question, "Did execution
happen?". If not, who is accountable for this?

Getting Practical: How do you perform a Business Review?

Step 1: MEASURE PERFORMANCE - Business Review regularly measures performance on a

weekly level. Ask yourself or your leaders this question: "What was your score last week?"

Step 2: MINE INSIGHTS - Ask yourself or your leaders these questions:

● "What worked?" - Keep doing it.

● "What didn't work?" - Stop doing it.
● "What might work?" - Start doing it.

Step 3: MODEL THE PRACTICE - We leaders start the practice and we expect others to follow. The
team is who the leader is.

"The quality of teamwork depends on the quality of communication." - Bill Walsh

Is Your Team Too Big To Perform A Business Review?

Here’s The 4 Roles of Organization:

1. The Executives will hold the Managers accountable for the results through business review.

2. The Managers will hold the Supervisors accountable for their results during their business
review.

3. The Supervisors will hold the Performers accountable for their expected results through their
business review.
In closing, Execution demands clarity, repeatability and ultimately accountability. It is drilling down to
the specificities and only moving on until you are satisfied with the answer.

No matter what stage you are in business right now, do you or your leaders know how to use your
Swiss Army Knife? If not, sir FAH’s Executive Advisory will make that happen.

Taking it Home:

1. What key insight did you gain from the write-up?

2. How do you apply the insight you gained in your company?
3. What can your fellow CEOs do this week to grow your business?