Revisiting the old adage: “Work smart not hard”

Satish Kumar is an analytical, results-driven marketing professional with 15 years experience in management consulting, product management and business intelligence experience. Satish is the Senior Product Marketing Manger at Daptiv.

Claiming that 2009 has been a tough year for individuals and firms would be a gross understatement. On a positive note, it has forced these parties to get smarter about what they do. “Do more with less” has become the mantra for survival in this period of economic uncertainty. We would all like to put 2009 behind us as we welcome the new year. However, the economy is not out of the woods yet and the 2009 mantra will still hold true for 2010 and beyond.

How can/should firms and individuals “do more with less?” This is a question that I believe is in the minds of many firms. Some have figured it out and are thriving, while others are still trying to figure it out. I firmly believe that the solution lies in being smart about the work we do. But, what does “working smart” truly mean? Is it the same for individuals, groups and firms?  Let us examine this in some detail.

In the bestselling book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey talks about beginning with the end in mind. Although Covey talks about it in the context of having a ‘personal mission statement,’ I think it is also pertinent to working smart. When you begin with the end in mind, you essentially have a clear understanding of the end goal/objective. However, this in itself is not sufficient. Individuals need to put together a plan of action to achieve the goal. This plan of action will often involve communicating and collaborating with other individuals.

There are two more items that I believe are important to working smart. First, monitoring the plan on a regular basis and, second, reporting back to management on the work that is being done. These help an individual take corrective action if the plan is off-track, or provide guidance if the end goal changes (which is sometimes the case). To summarize, an individual that works smart would do the following:

1. Strive to clearly understand the end objective
2. Develop a plan of action (don’t forget to communicate and collaborate)
3. Monitor progress on a regular basis
4. Report to and get feedback from department head

Are we done? No, we almost forgot the most important ingredient that makes all this happen in an easy and efficient way and that is (you guessed it):

Technology

While there is no substitute for the cognitive abilities of the human mind, it would be foolish to ignore the information technology tools at our disposal. The confluence of Web, multimedia and various electronic devices (mobile phones, netbooks, computers, etc.) has provided us with a rich set of capabilities that could prove to be an able partner in our goal to work smart. The key is to pick the right technology solution that weeds out the complexity and allows us to work the way we want, only smarter!

Let us now kick it up a notch and try to understand what it takes to build departments that “work smart.” Experience tells us that departmental work is a synergistic view of work done by individuals. We could summarize that a smart working department would do the following:

1. Strive to clearly understand the departmental objectives
2. Develop a plan of action at the departmental level
3. Communicate and collaborate within the department and with other departments
4. Monitor progress on a regular basis
5. Report to and get feedback from executive management

Communication and collaboration increase in importance, and reports become more complex due to aggregation and the demands placed by executive management. The importance of picking the right technology solution becomes even more apparent in this scenario.

“Work Smart”

We have finally arrived at the last section of this article, which deals with firms that “work smart.” Before we discuss firms that “work smart,” it is important to understand successful firms. If firms aren’t successful, nothing else matters. I define successful firms as those that generate long-term sustained profits. In order for firms to be successful, they need to have a successful strategy. Successful strategy hinges on two basic questions:

1. Where to compete?
2. How to compete?

Myriad books have been written on strategy, which is a separate topic in itself. For now, I will assume that the firm under consideration has a successful strategy in place, and the organization is in alignment with the strategy. All that is left is “execution” and the ability to successfully execute or lack thereof can make or break a firm. Therefore, at the firm level, it is all about making sure that execution is on track and is aligned with the strategy. How does a firm go about doing this?  The answer to this question lies in business performance management (or corporate performance management). Without delving on the topic of BPM, the executive management would focus on the following:

1. Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
2. Link KPIs to departmental objectives
3. Monitor KPIs using scorecards and dashboards and take corrective action as needed

Business intelligence software has proved to be invaluable in building scorecards and dashboards, while providing real-time insight into business performance management.

In summary, working smart could be distilled down to a few key points:

1. Having a clear understanding of the work that needs to be done at all levels of the firm
2. Using a ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ type of a process to assess work at all levels
3. Utilizing information technology effectively to support work