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A niggling question from this tremendous tournament has remained with me . How did England manage to get so far when their recent form had been pretty diabolical ? I think it was down to sound game planning and excellent teamwork . There are useful lessons in this for businesses trying to deliver on their strategies .
At Bath Building Society ( BBS ) we have just completed the annual review of our business strategy . I am a great believer that a business with a clear strategy will always do better than one that has no plan as to where it ’ s going or what it ’ s trying to do .
As CEO I always like to ask ourselves three key strategic questions , these being ‘ why are we in business ?’, ‘ what do we want to achieve ?’ and ‘ how are we going to achieve
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it ?’. For BBS , the answer to the ‘ why ?’ question is answered by a consideration of our social purpose as a business . As a mutual organisation , we have a bigger calling than solely the maximisation of profits for shareholders . We are in business to improve the lives of our customers by providing savings and mortgage products to help them grow their financial resilience and achieve their property-owning aspirations . For England Rugby , I suspect that their purpose is to provide sporting success and prestige to the English rugby community and to the wider nation as a whole .
With regards to the ‘ what ?’ strategic question , BBS has established five key visions of the future business that it wishes to be . These focus on achieving priorities such as
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financial success , improving productivity , improving the service and value to its Members , improving sustainability and support for its local Bath community , and investing in its colleagues . I am not Steve Borthwick , but I would hazard a guess that England Rugby ’ s vision included something relating to the lifting of the Webb Ellis Cup , or more realistically , getting as close to the final as was possible .
Having a plan for delivering a business vision is as important as knowing what the business wishes to achieve . For BBS , the ‘ how ?’ strategic question is answered through the creation of a detailed Operations Plan that influences the personal objectives of all 78 BBS colleagues who work in the business . This Operations Plan details the projects
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and work that will have to be delivered over the next five years in order for the Society to achieve its future aspirations . England Rugby successfully pushed their team forward in the World Cup by excellent execution of individual game plans .
The big lesson from England ’ s surprising ( but welcomed ) advancement in the World Cup was the superb manner in which they played as a team just when this was required . The English squad worked together , all trusted each other , all supported each other , and all did their bit to push their team to achieve more than was expected . To deliver the most from our strategies , businesses need to work like England played i . e . as one team with one common focus .
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