Gaurav Sabharwal
Ultimate Guide to Objective and Key results – OKR Meaning and Examples
Do you dread setting goals for your organization as you don’t see useful results? […]
Startups cannot afford to burn money for long. They need to grow fast and get profitable as soon as possible. That is where most new businesses fail, i.e., in the early growth phase. Even if their idea is excellent, their team cannot grab the market opportunity, or they just run out of funds.
Around 35% of the reasons for startup failure are related to a lack of product-market fit. Clearly understand your product-market fit and know that your team is responsible for delivering the product while saving as many expenses as possible.
Source: Unsplash
Customer retention and faster revenue generation are critical for startups. Team alignment is all about the collective efforts of your organization toward achieving essential business goals. It is much more impactful and faster to grow when the team works in the same direction.
How can an aligned team get you more revenue?
1. Customer Experience and Retention
It is a simple calculation here: more happy customers equal increasing revenue (and a strong brand). Profitability is possible if your team is focused on delivering the best quality product or service and a strong alignment between different job roles.
An effective and proven way to align people in an organization is the OKR framework. The teams at large companies like LinkedIn and Intel have successfully used it. OKRs align everyone in the team by assigning OKRs oriented to the central business goals.
People in an aligned team tend to engage in efficient collaboration actively. It’s like everyone on the ship knows the direction of their destination and collectively pulls sails and steers the ship in that direction. The timing and communication must be effective if they need to achieve the desired outcomes.
The aligned employees feel they are responsible for delivering the best value to their customers. From the onboarding of the buyers to post-sale service, the team makes sincere efforts to go past the obstacles and achieve excellent customer service. If that happens, it is hard for any customer not to come back and buy again from you.
2. Focus on Priorities
Business operations eat money fast, especially new and growing ones. Doing unnecessary things is not going to take your business anywhere. The problem with a new venture is that you don’t know your priorities.
Some preferences are common sense, such as improving the product and enhancing customer experience.
Still, when it comes to delegating and distributing responsibilities among the team, it becomes complicated.
That is where OKRs come into play. You can assign them to everyone on the team with the help of an OKR specialist, leaders, and discussions with everyone. Individual OKRs are based on top priorities and align team members toward these priorities.
For example, this quarterly revenue OKR for the company:
| Objective | Key results |
| To close the seed round next quarter |
|
3. Stronger and Independent Teams
“The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” – James Cash Penney (American Businessman and Founder JCPenney)
Today’s businesses cannot grow by micromanagement where leaders sit with the employees. The team cannot grow like that; nor can they align themselves with other teammates.
Teams who are ambitious and aligned with the organizational goals are stronger and take responsibility for their efforts. They can make quicker decisions, collaborate more actively, and be accountable.
These focused individuals are more confident in their roles and more involved with the team when it comes to achieving desired outcomes on time. These people are a dream team for early and growing startups because they know where they want to go and figure out how they will go.
4. More Economic Resources Management and Good ROI
Do more with less. Fundraising will not solve problems in your team, but leadership and the team will. Your startup doesn’t have to burn a lot of money in order to get customers. Doing the right things at the right time is crucial for a growing organization.
Properly aligned teams just don’t get along well and achieve the right objectives, but they also know how to be more independent. They decrease their dependency on resources by decreasing their expenses.
Good resources management can take your organization way further than funding will. An aligned team knows what is right for the organization and what’s unnecessary. It’s not about spending less, it’s about spending on the right things at the right time.
5. Help Beat the Competition
You may go and get funds, build a team, bring your product/service to the market, and even gain some traction, but it’s not the recipe for success; every startup is doing it or trying its best. Unless you are profitable, you can’t survive.
A well-aligned team is rare, not every employee can’t see what the founder or CEO sees. If your team is aligned, you become more independent and profitable. And even investors love to put their money into these businesses.
Moreover, employees who feel responsible for the team are likelier to stay with the group. And you know how hard it is to find people who are aligned with the company’s vision.
A great team with a greater vision is more likely to survive the competition.
Look at any successful team in any event or business; one thing you see right away is their unique movement. They put all their efforts in one direction with careful synchronization. Wonder what makes them do this?
These winning teams feel responsible for achieving outcomes of a shared vision. They are motivated to contribute towards the big goals. When these goals become business goals, the teams bring in revenue.
Need more assistance with team alignment and growing your business? Reach out to us here!
