Accountability for Performance

But this independence works against the execution of a market strategy and keeps companies from leveraging their scale. 

After you have developed the strategic objectives and roles column on the role map, the next step is to identify the success metrics.  These are measurements you will use to determine success in fulfilling the roles that support the strategy.

The process for defining these metrics is one of the most powerful exercises you can do.  It forces you to clearly translate your strategy into the real world.  It requires that you confront head to head two factors that drive accountability:

• Clarity of objectives
• Sufficient influence over results

The sharp-eyed reader will pause on the word "sufficient."  Defining what constitutes a "sufficient" degree of control over the delivery of customer service has been a stumbling block in wholesale distribution for years.  Traditionally, wholesaler-distributors have relied on a high degree of local branch and sales force autonomy to ensure accountability.  But this independence works against the execution of a market strategy and keeps companies from leveraging their scale.  For sophisticated wholesaler-distributors with mature management processes, the trade-off between accountability and strategy has proven to be false.  They have been able to achieve both by clearly understanding when and how to specialize.

ACTION POINT:  Understand how to specialize to achieve both accountability and strategy.