Melissa Valadez-Cummings will be teaching on the topic Good to Great Strategic Business Planning. Melissa Valadez-Cummings joined the City of Cedar Hill staff in 2003 and serves as Assistant City Manager. In her role, Valadez-Cummings has oversight responsibilities for numerous Citywide Sustainability initiatives, the City’s combined $86 million budget development process and the Departments of Utility Services, Tri-City Animal Shelter, Cedar Hill Public Library, Parks & Recreation, Planning & Zoning, Code Enforcement, and Neighborhood Services. Valadez-Cummings earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas. Melissa is an active member of the International City Management Association (ICMA), the Texas City Management Association (TCMA) and serves as the 2018 Vice President of North Texas City Management Association (NTCMA). She is a 2007 graduate of the Senior Executive Institute (SEI) of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia and a 2008 graduate of the Leadership ICMA program. Along with ACM responsibilities, Melissa currently leads the City of Cedar Hill’s various Growing Green Sustainability Melissa Valadez-Cummings will be teaching on the topic Good to Great Strategic Business Planning.

1. GOOD TO GREAT
- STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING
CEDAR HILL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IGNITE CONFERENCE
NOVEMBER 2, 2018

3. STRATEGIC DEFINITION
➢ Carefully designed or planned to
serve a particular purpose or
advantage.
➢ Relating to the gaining of overall or
long-term advantage.

5. J. Collins Notable Quotes:
➢ “First, I believe that it is no harder to build something
great than to build something good (mediocre).”
➢ Good is the Enemy of Great!!!
➢ “Good-to-great comes about by cumulative process- step
by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of
the flywheel – that adds up to sustained and spectacular
results.”
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6. ER 8
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9. 1. DISCIPLINED PEOPLE ~ FIRST, WHO. THEN, WHAT.
◼In a good to great transformation, people are not your most
important asset.
◼The right people are.

10. FIRST, WHO. THEN, WHAT.
◼Marine corps get a lot of credit for
building people’s values – not the way it
really works
◼The Marine Corps recruits people who
share the corps’ values, then provides
them with the training required to
accomplish the organization’s mission
and vision.

11. FIRST WHO .. THEN WHAT
◼ Good 2 Great Management Teams consist of people who debate vigorously
in search of the BEST answers, yet who unify behind decisions, regardless
of individual interests.

12. PROVIDE A RIGOROUS, NOT RUTHLESS ENVIRONMENT
◼Ruthless – hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times or firing
people without thoughtful consideration. A culture of competition
without Values on how we will conduct business.
◼Rigorous – consistently applying exacting standards with Values of
the company at all times and at all levels, especially in
management. Means that the best people need not worry about
their positions and can concentrate fully on their work.

13. CHURN BETTER
◼Good to Great companies show a bipolar pattern at the top
management level:
◼ People either stayed on the bus for a long time OR
◼ People got off the bus in a hurry
◼In other words, the good to great companies did not churn more,
they churned better.

14. KEY TO SUCCESSFUL TEAMS
◼ Take the time to make rigorous A+ selections right up front!
◼ If we get it right, we’ll do everything we can to try to keep them on board for a long
time.
◼ If we get it wrong, then we’ll confront that fact so that that we can get on with our work
and they can get on with their lives.
◼ And Sometimes, you have to move people who are not performing well once or even
two or three times to other positions where they might blossom.

15. QUESTIONS FOR YOUR TEAM
◼If the right people are on the right bus, how do you manage in a
way as not to de-motivate people?
◼ Lead with questions, not answers
◼ Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion
◼ Conduct autopsies, without blame
◼ Build a “red flag” mechanism

17. ER 8
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18. 2. DISCIPLINED THOUGHT
ARE YOU A HEDGEHOG OR A FOX? ISAIAH
BERLIN
◼The Fox knows many tricks
◼The Hedgehog knows One

19. YOUR HEDGEHOG
DEFINES YOUR VISION

20. The turning point in the journey from
Good-to-Great is the Hedgehog Concept
➢But it is a journey to discover it.

21. 21
SYMPTOMS OF A PROBLEM
• Undisciplined search for a single silver bullet solution – be it a new program,
CEO/Leader, technology or event
• No Buildup – Just jump right to action without disciplined thought or the right
people on the bus
• Engage in “hoopla” rather than confronting the brutal facts
• Spend a lot of time trying to align or motivate people or rally them around a
new vision
• Demonstrate Inconsistency Over Time

22. 22
No Buildup or
Accumulation of
Momentum
-
Disappointing results
Reaction without
understanding
New Direction, program,
leader, event, fad
Oftentimes, the result
continues the Problem

24. GREAT COMPANIES/ORGANIZATIONS
◼ Understand that the essence of profound insight is…Simplicity.
◼ And they basically ignore the Rest!
◼ Do you know what your Hedgehog is? Your business hedgehog is?
◼ Or are you a fox chasing many ends?

25. THREE CIRCLES DEFINED
◼What you can be the best in the world at – it’s an understanding of
what you can be the best at. Not just a core competency.
◼What drives your economic engine – determine what is your
denominator. If you were to pick one ratio (e.g. profit per x), what
would have the greatest and most sustainable impact on your
business?
◼What are we deeply passionate about? You cannot “manufacture”
passion, you can only “discover” what ignites your passion and the
passion of your employees.

26. ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR VISION ESTABLISHED
NEXT STEP: BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS
◼Do we have good BHAGs?
◼Are our BHAGs in direct alignment
with the three circles of the
Hedgehog Concept?
◼In order to achieve our 10-25 yr.
BHAGs what should be some of our
base-camp objectives be?

27. Individual – Q’s
◼ What are you deeply passionate about?
◼ What one thing could you be the best at?
◼ What you cannot be the best in the world at?
Organizational – Q’s
◼ We are deeply passionate about _____?
◼ We could be the best at _____?
◼ We cannot be the best at _____?
◼ What drives our economic engine?
(single denominator) or (cash flow/X)
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TO FIND YOUR HEDGEHOG

28. Individual – Q’s
◼ What steps or actions I can take to move towards my personal
Hedgehog Concept?
◼ Do I take a step by step, action by action, day by day, week by
week, year by year—turn by turn of my personal flywheel?
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A QUESTION TO ASK OURSELVES

31. 3. DISCIPLINED ACTION
◼ Most companies build their bureaucratic rules to manage the small percent of wrong people on the bus
◼ Which in turn drives away the right people on the bus
◼ Which then increases the percentage of wrong people on the bus
◼ Which increases the need for more bureaucracy to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline
◼ Which then further drives people away
◼ And so forth.

32. INSTEAD…CULTURE OF DISCIPLINED ACTION
◼Avoid bureaucracy and hierarchy and instead create a culture of
discipline
◼A combination of a culture of discipline and an ethic of entrepreneurship
you get GREAT PERFORMANCE
◼ When there are disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy
◼ Disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy
◼ Disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls

33. GOOD TO GREAT COMPANIES/ORGANIZATIONS
◼Build a consistent system with clear constraints
◼Give people responsibility within the framework of that
system
◼They hire self-disciplined people who don’t need to be
managed, and then managed the system, not the people.

34. ◼When examining our behavior, one word that comes to
mind is consistency—consistency of purpose, consistency
of values, consistency of Hedgehog, consistency of high
standards, consistency of people, and so forth.
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A = We exemplify this trait exceptionally well—there is limited room for improvement.
B = We often exemplify this trait, but we also have room for improvement.
C = We show some evidence of this trait, but our record is spotty.
D = There is little evidence that we exemplify this trait, and we have obvious contradictions.
F = We operate almost entirely contrary to this trait.
A QUESTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION

35. ◼We have immense flexibility and we adapt well to
change—but always within the context of a coherent
Hedgehog Concept.
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A = We exemplify this trait exceptionally well—there is limited room for improvement.
B = We often exemplify this trait, but we also have room for improvement.
C = We show some evidence of this trait, but our record is spotty.
D = There is little evidence that we exemplify this trait, and we have obvious contradictions.
F = We operate almost entirely contrary to this trait.
A QUESTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION

37. QUESTIONS/ANSWER
◼ Melissa Valadez-Cummings
mvaladezcummings@gmail.com
214-564-1934