A clear focus leads to better decision-making and firm goals
Herna was keen to involve her senior management team and decided to pick the Customer Driver for her first session with EY Partner, Susanne Dangir. They began the session by refining their view of the company. “Our focus changed from a very technical view to a market-oriented and customer-oriented vision,” Herna explains.
She found this new focus particularly helpful. “In an innovative company there are many ideas, and if you follow all those ideas then your energy is gone. So, to get this focus makes it much easier. That helped us a lot over these last six months in making decisions.”
By the end of the session, Herna says the leadership team had aligned their goals. They had more structure, a clear action plan and, she adds, “One of the most important points was making a business plan for five years.”
It also became clear that to encourage more awareness of their product they would need a marketing function. Herna now has a marketing team of four, with two students supporting them and together they have created the materials and profile to confidently approach customers with confidence
The results have been immediate: “This focus we achieved at the meetings with EY helped us to achieve two lighthouse projects - one with a big university hospital in Germany, and the other one with a big network of doctors who are using it every day and it is wonderful. And we achieved that just in six months.”
The company’s profile is also rising, “We have received some prizes. Recently, I received the Founder prize 2019 for the whole region of North Bavaria from of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.”
You need to delegate to grow
It became clear through their initial discussions that a further session on the People Driver would be beneficial. They were able to break down the role of the CEO and saw that Herna was spreading herself too thinly and taking on too many tasks, such as managing the HR function on her own.