Getting Quick Wins

"Quick Wins" are fast actions that deliver core value to the organization: sales increases (and subsequent increased cash flow); increased market share; and immediate cost savings.

But to be a "quick win", the action must be real, must be immediate, and must be demonstratable. This means you need the tools to both examine as well as measure.

Let's take a simple example:
Your web statistics show customers that are looking at back pain ointment also look at heating pads. But your sales statistics show only the low cost, low margin back pain ointment is selling, with little sales in heating pads. So you run a promotion with signage around the ointment display that if customers buy $5 or more of back ointment, they get 50% off a heating pad. You immediately see sales and margins go up => quick win.

As CIO, what's your role in this ? Isn't this a "marketing thing"? Actually it's a "data systems thing" and you're master of data systems. It's your data systems that sifted thru millions of product sales and web activity to identify some likely candidates for marketing to focus on. It's your data systems that evaluated the likely outcomes for different marketing initiatives. It's your
data systems that closely predict inventory levels during sales promotions to ensure they are ready for increased sales. And finally it's your data systems that measured the success of the promotion.

So don't get caught spending all your time focusing on the big, major IT investment projects and spend some time generating a few "quick wins". You need and deserve some recognition at the Board meeting.