After an exhausting 2 year campaign, the US Presidential Election is coming to an end. Most pundits remark that this campaign has produced some of the most memorable moments in recent US political history.
From a strategy execution point of view, companies can learn a great deal from both campaigns. For starters, just like many organizations, both candidates have a big single goal =Get elected for President of the United States!
An election campaign’s goal, just like any organizational goal, needs a strategy and a plan.
So, what can you learn from the campaigns?
Choose your strategy; manage the execution often
Once your Strategic Plan is in place, make sure to keep your plans on track through the ever-changing business landscape. It is more than likely that your day-to-day reality will drive actual performance off its designated path. So just like the candidates’ campaigns, you have to be continuously monitoring performance towards the goal and build multiple backup plans to respond to the market and be ready to adapt your strategy in order achieve your goal. Each campaign has daily monitoring sessions or scrums to keep them on track.
Build a strong team
Having a dedicated team can make the difference between failure and success. A great example is how Hillary Clinton has a circle of advisors known as “Hillaryland”. She has dedicated paid and volunteer campaigners who, along with her campaign manager Robby Mook, are fiercely fighting and defending her and her position. Much like an enterprise organization, a strong leadership team and clear communication can go a long way to driving daily execution towards the goal.
Use data to drive your decisions
Each campaign is using a variety of digital or traditional media to gather information about their customers’ needs and are then delivering messages to meet these needs. As a business leader, you should let the data determine what plans are working (and not) as you move closer to your goal.
Use collaboration and communication tools to your advantage
The inside of a campaign is not all that different from any company organization. Each candidate needs an efficient way to deliver messages and tasks to their team in order to get things done. Donald Trump uses the power of Twitter to directly connect to voters and indirectly through the mainstream media. Michael Barbaro, of the New York Times, says: “Mr. Trump has mastered Twitter in a way no candidate for president ever has, unleashing and redefining its power as a tool of political promotion, distraction, score-settling…”. And, of course, we know that Mrs. Clinton is a power “email” user for communication within and outside of her team.
Fortunately, you can reach beyond Twitter and Email as communication and collaboration tools and you don’t need and entire communications team.
MySP Execution Suites gives you the tools you need to ensure that your team’s actions and goals align so that you hit your plan. It’s built for Enterprise leaders, is easy to use and simple to understand. And you don’t need to be running for President of the United States to really need it.
By Blair Carey
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