Encyclopedia of Leadership

3.6

STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS: ANALYZING

YOUR CLIENT BASE

Inspired by a number of sources, including the work of the Novations Group.

Every leader provides products or services to someone—clients or customers, internal or exter-

nal. Yet not all clients or customers are of equal value. Leaders and their workgroups need to

regularly examine their client or customer base—those to whom they provide services—to

ensure they are offering the highest value-added services and products to the right people. A

good generalization is that 20 percent of your clients will require 80 percent of your time and

energy. Which clients or customers are getting your group’s high valued-added work? Which

should be getting this work? These are important questions for workgroup success. This tool

will help you rethink your products and services, and your client or customer base.

This tool starts with the assumption that you and your workgroup have already figured out

how to focus on high value-added work. [If you haven’t, use tool ☛3.4 Business-Unit Strategy

or 3.5 Strategic Resourcing.] Given this assumption, consider these questions:

✔ Currently, who areyour major clients or customers?

✔ Who should beyour major clients or customers?

✔ Is the type of work that your group does for your major clients or customers high value-

added work?

✔ What work shouldyour group be doing that it is not presently doing?

This matrix will help you and your workgroup rethink strategic relationships with current

and desired clients or customers. (In italics is a partialexample for a Finance Department in a

medium-size organization.)

INCREASING VALUE-ADDED WORK

86 SECTION 3 TOOLS FORSTRATEGICTHINKING

All departments:

lease car administration

Budget Process

Management

Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable

All departments: expense

claim auditing

Procurement: Inventory

financial management

Executives: monthly

financial health reports

Executives: Future

activities evaluation

Current Business Unit

managers:

Financial information

and decision tools

New Business Unit

managers and all project

and team leaders:

Financial literacy

Necessary, but Activities Current High value-

nonstrategic that we do, high value- added work

Low value current but should be added that we need to

activities activities done by others activities market actively

Your

current

clients/

customers

Clients/

customers

you should

have