How efficient is the high-level meeting?

Many companies are wasting their most precious resource-the time of top managers. In a typical company, executives only have three hours to discuss strategy in a meeting every month, and even these three hours are difficult to make full use of, and the content of the discussion is irrelevant and disorganized, so it is impossible to make effective decisions. Executives paid a high price for abusing their time. The delay of strategic decision-making will lead to blindness to waste and high cost, endless harm due to hasty consideration of reducing cost, missed opportunities in the development of new products and new businesses, and made a mess in long-term investment. But in fact, as long as the top management team makes some changes in the way of drawing up the meeting agenda and arranging the meeting structure, their meeting efficiency and effect will be greatly improved. According to our research, although the challenges faced by successful enterprises are very different, they all use seven common skills to manage the meeting agenda in some form, which has achieved a substantial increase in enterprise value. These seven skills are: separate operational issues from strategic issues. The agendas of many high-level meetings are often "overwhelmed" by daily operational issues, and there is little time to discuss major strategies. This phenomenon can be avoided by holding separate meetings on operational and strategic issues. Focus on decision making, not discussion. To make high-level meetings more focused on decision-making, only some seemingly insignificant changes are needed. For example, the British candy and beverage giant Cadbury Swallow Company only made two minor changes to its high-level meeting, which greatly improved the quality and speed of decision-making: First, all reading materials were required to be distributed to the participants at least five days before the meeting, so that the participants could be familiar with important strategic issues as soon as possible; Second, attach a standard cover to the reading materials, indicating the purpose of the meeting-sharing information, discussion and debate, or action and decision-making, so as to leave more time for the topics marked as "action and decision-making". Evaluate the true value of each topic. Successful companies will determine the priority of each topic according to the "value of interest", that is, the impact of each topic on the company's long-term intrinsic value, and spend more time on high-value topics. Cross off the topic from the agenda as soon as possible, just like putting the correct topic on the agenda, it also needs a strict process. In other words, once the topic is determined, it needs to be solved in a clear way. The process includes a clear timetable, detailing when and how team members should make decisions on each issue, and who must participate in the final strategic approval. Put a completely different choice on the table. Before discussing or approving any strategy, the management must receive at least three different alternatives to try to ensure that some possibly more suitable methods are not omitted or ignored. According to Peter Mann, former chairman of Lloyds TSB Bank, "If you want to determine what you want to accept, you must find out what you want to refuse." Adopt common decision-making processes and standards. Companies with excellent decision-making ability use common language, methods and standards when making decisions. This enables them to deal with many issues at the same time, which are often not on the agenda of high-level meetings. This method can't speed up individual decision-making, but the number of decisions formed by the team is much more every year. Successful enterprises that carry out their decisions to the end will link resource allocation with strategic approval, so that strategic decisions can be put into action. For example, in ABN Amro, Alcan and Cadbury Sways, the results of strategic planning are presented in the form of formal performance contracts, which clearly indicate the resources (time, talents and funds) needed to implement the strategy and the financial targets promised by the management. If more companies realize that senior managers' time is their most valuable resource, then more companies will adopt the above practice. This will ensure that the top management of the company focuses on the most important issues and makes the best choice as soon as possible.