The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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20 AUGUST 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com For more information visit www.GlobalTankTruckConference. com or call Sierra Littrell at (434) 709 – 7364 or email her at sier- ral@amthorinternational.com. SURVEY SHOWS SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS DON'T VOTE ALONG PARTY LINES The National Small Business Association released the 2016 Politics of Small Business Survey, which provides detailed insight on the political opinions and activity of America's small-business owners. Among the key findings: no party "owns" the small-business vote, and the overwhelming majority of small-business owners do not vote a straight party ticket. "In addition to being pragmatic voters, small-business owners are extremely engaged," stated NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken. "Our data shows that two-thirds of small-business owners have contacted their lawmakers, and 65% have contributed money to a candidate's campaign." Small-business owners expressed a growing level of frustration with politicians. When asked which party best represents them as an individual, more small-business owners responded with "neither party," than with Republican or Democratic. Additionally, when asked to rate which party was more supportive on a particu- lar issue, "Neither party" was the highest rated response on more issues than not. "Small-business owners overwhelmingly rank economic and fiscal issues as the top factor in determining how they vote," stated NSBA Chair Cookie Driscoll, owner of C. Cookie Driscoll Inc. of Fairfield, Pennsylvania. "Unfortunately, small-business owners broadly agree that members of Congress and their staff don't really understand small business." Discontent among small-business owners with the U.S. politi- cal machine remains high: 82% believe that politics have become more partisan in the last 10 years, and 65% believe that the current political system does not serve their business well. NSBA is releasing the Politics Survey in conjunction with the 70 Million Strong campaign focused on get-out-the vote initiatives, featuring resources for employers including how to talk about elections with their employees. SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Executives often ask: what are the critical components of successful strategy implementation? R. Michael Donovan & Co., Inc., (www. rmdonovan.com) an executive advisory firm, offers a 10-point list with a brief explanation of each: 1. Communication: A clear, concise and persuasive case for change for all levels to understand what the strategy is and why. People need to know what the top priorities are and how they fit in. It is important to have an ongoing comprehensive communications program to keep people informed and ask for feedback. Acceptance of change throughout the organization is a gradual process. 2. Alignment of thinking, work efforts and acceptance down and across the organization's silos is not a one-time event. Alignment needs to be established and maintained. Remove con- flicting functional objectives, priorities and performance metrics to coordinate cross-functional efforts on the right work. Be ever aware that disconnects might go undetected if you are not vigilant. 3. Accountability for performance needs to be real. People need to know expectations. The right KPIs allow for fact-based discus- sions and actions. People should have defined decision-making authority and know what needs to be escalated. 4. Resource Waste on initiatives and projects that do not sup- port strategy need to be stopped. Reallocate resources to work on strategic objectives. Communicate that the company cannot chase every opportunity and focus on strategic priorities is essential. 5. Management Leadership means initiation of actions, active participation and establishing a "results are required" mindset. It's essential to clearly define initiatives and action plans, charters, sponsorship, roles, responsibilities, KPIs and problem solving methods for more effective teamwork to minimize delays. 6. Culture is unique to an organization with their strengths and weaknesses. Culture is a collection of individual values and beliefs which drive behavior. Transforming an organization to adopt an intentional culture takes time however; the individual behaviors needed for success can be defined. Employees need to know what defined traits and behaviors are the evaluation standard whereby individuals and supervisors can continuously work together to improve performance. 7. Strategy Execution Management eliminates many of the disconnects that are very common without a well-functioning closed-loop strategy execution process which creates process align- ment and promotes organizational alignment. Keeping initiatives and action plans on schedule is essential to strategy implementa- tion. Visibility into relevant and accurate information is essential for effective progress reviews. 8. Progress Reviews by executives and mid-level managers are fre- quently performed to know what is going well or poorly. Information flow from a myriad of spreadsheets to report progress is not likely anywhere near as accurate and effective as the information needs to be to identify corrective actions. A structured progress review process does a lot to minimize excuses, work slippages and lower risks that delay deliverables. Executive involvement sends a clear message to everyone in the organization. This is one of the best forms of accountability to keep strategy execution on time and on target. 9. Time Balance between the day-to-day running of the busi- ness and improving the business (strategy execution) is essential. Allocating time to running the business and improving it is part of the planning and scheduling of people's time for initiatives and action plans. Overloading and schedule misses can put the entire strategy execution process in disarray. Strategy Execution Management should highlight overloads and report schedule misses. 10. Simultaneously doing numbers 1 through 9 very well is necessary for successful strategy execution. Miss a step and/or doing them poorly will directly impact strategy implementation success. l F O N