Business I executive tips Get It Done In Six Weeks S WEALTH PLANNING As a client of the Fifth Third Private Bank, you'll have access to a wide range of financial solutions to help you reach your goals and maximize your assets. From wealth planning and trust services to investment advice and consulting. But that's not all we offer. We know that the complexities of the financial world can sometimes be a little overwhelming. That's why we provide you with a team of dedicated investment professionals who will help you develop a simplified financial plan that's both easy to manage and easy to understand. To arrange a consultation with a Fifth Third Private Bank Advisor, call 1-800-246-5372. FIFTH THIRD PRIVATE BANK The things we do for dreams . : Fifth Third Private Bank is a division of Fifth Third Bank offering banking, investment, and insurance products and services. Fifth Third Bancorp provides access to investments and investment services through various subsidiaries. Investments and Investment Services: Are Not FDIC Insured Offer No Bank Guarantee Are Not Insured By Any Federal Government Agency May Lose Value Are Not A Deposit Insurance products made available through Fifth Third Insurance Agency, Inc. 1395610 A36 June 12 • 2008 ix weeks and counting! Over the past year, I have shared a number of methods to use for analyzing the business cycle. This has included the process to carefully look at where your company or your depart- ment may stand: Infancy, Adolescence, Go-Go, Prime, Premature Aging, etc. (Oct. 11, 2007, page 36). Then we discussed F. Kevin Browett how to look Columnist at the skill set you and others have, with the knowledge that a leader needs to have all four skills, including: Producer, Administrator, Integrator and Entrepreneur (Dec. 13, 2007, A41). We also had a discussion on the key to holding an effective meeting and this led to the thinking that one needs CAPI (Sept. 13, 2007, page 63), meaning the Coalescence of Authority, Power and Influence. Now in the real world, what does it mean to actually get things done? This is the six-week rule. No action or follow-up to action should be allowed to go more then six weeks. This means you must establish a set goal, to get a final decision and action plan in six weeks. You set that goal; you assign the right team (CAPI), then you empower them to take action in teams with ownership to deliver a final decision and action plan with deadlines within six weeks. This forces people to act and know that by the end of a set peri- od of time, they not only must have a recommendation, they also must have a detailed timeline and action plan to execute and implement the plan. The six-week plan forces a focus, but also requires a trust factor and a Hillel Extends Bittker Honor Hillel of Metro Detroit (HMD), the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, has named Stephanie Adas to receive the 2008 David Bittker Student Leadership Award. Stephanie Adas Adas, who recently discipline; you must have those you trust take a project and focus in and force the meetings and follow up. You also must have the personal discipline to set a date and then drive toward that deadline making it clear that you will expect a final plan and all details on that date and you will be there to hear it and see it. It is not the issue, but rather the ownership and deadlines that count in the end. Ideas, meetings and open discussions are all part of any good planning. In the end what matters is execution and implementing the plan to get the results. The real point is that you could meet for 12 months and try to get every detail; but if you force a focus and a discipline in six weeks with the right people, CAPI, most of the time, you get 90 percent right and you are doing it. Once doing it, the tweaks, changes and enhancements fall out in a natural way that makes the execution close to 98 percent fast versus meeting over and over trying to get the details down right without getting it out and in the real world for implementing. Having great meetings to discuss why you need to have great service versus implementing the plan to give great service and having the customer then tell you how to make it better is the right action; the customer will most likely never attend your meet- ing. Today, you have six weeks. Make a change! The clock is ticking. Source: "Corporate Lifecycles: How And Why Corporations Grow And Die And What to Do About it," by Chaka Adizes (Prentice Hall, 1988). F Kevin Browett is COO of Jewish Renaissance Media, parent company of the Detroit Jewish News. He is a former vice president of Kmart Corp. and a past small- business founder and officer. graduated from the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, was president of WSU's Jewish Law Students Association and actively spearheaded an HMD initiative that will help Jewish law school graduates find local jobs. Adas is a member of the HMD Board of Governors. She was selected for the honor based on leadership, dedication and sense of responsibil- ity.