Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

Keep the main thing the main thing. YES!

But after a major acquisition or other transformation, that is not enough.

Consider a large food company that acquired an iconic snack business for several billion dollars.

The strategy was clear: add strong brands, broaden the offering to retail customers, and drive profitable growth.

That strategy is the main thing.

But the not-so-sexy areas can jeopardize everything.

The sales forces, distribution centers, carriers, product flows, systems, data, and metrics were not designed to work together across the two businesses. They won’t just neatly meld together after the deal closes.

The go-to-market and supply chain engines are key drivers of leverage and EBITDA. The sooner the businesses operate as one, the better. Large retail customers are relentless in their expectations. If the customers aren’t happy, then sales drop and fines grow.

Meanwhile, the front line leaders and sales team are focused on not screwing something up and losing their jobs. The CEO wants increased account profitability. The CFO wants improved working capital and margin growth.

Preventing these issues is not a distraction from the main thing. Dealing with them is critical to delivering the EBITDA promised to the board.

Leadership can’t just feed money, people, and technology to the main thing. It must also address the issues that could make the main thing go sideways.

Successful leaders pull in the right help to get the right things done, in the right order.

This work doesn’t get the headlines, but it can keep the business out of the bad ones.

We Get Stuff Done™.