Considerations to be successful in IUPM endeavors

When we seek to position ourselves in the market for integrated urban pest management (IUPM) services, we generally think about having a human team with high skills, innovative products, cutting-edge technology, among others and that is fine, but we often neglect the business competitive strategy, a fundamental element to grow and dominate the market, especially in a turbulent, demanding, changing and increasingly competitive environment. The implementation of the strategy, particularly those that require a change in behavior in the company, represent one of the greatest challenges for

who leads the organization, however, those strategies are what help develop competitive advantages that are really useful to face the market successfully. In this context, leadership is fundamental and within it, self-evaluation must be the way to assess what we are doing, why we are doing it and what we should do to obtain better results. Self-assessment should lead us to action and is meaningless without it. Peter Drucker, the father of Modern Management, in his book The 5 Keys of Peter Drucker – Leadership that Makes a Difference, offers a simple management method, which includes 5 fundamental questions to define and implement strategy. What is our mission? Who is our client? What does the client value? What are our results? And what is our plan? It is essential to have clarity about our target client, orient ourselves to them, with empathy, sense of smell and search for achieving goals, trying to satisfy needs, desires and aspirations, which will change over time. It is relevant to determine the way to face the market, a good way to do so is to consider the generic strategies on competition and value generation by Michael Porter, from the Harvard Business School, who points out that a competitive strategy is a set of offensive and/or defensive actions that are implemented to achieve an advantageous position over the rest of the competitors, differentiating themselves based on the competitive advantage they generate and the area in which they compete. That is, we can face the market based on cost leadership and/or leadership in differentiation and/or segmentation. The effort we develop to implement the strategy is no less important. Sales Guru Grant Cardone mentions in his book The 10 X Rule or The Golden Rule of Business (title of the

Spanish translation) that extraordinary results are the consequence of extraordinary efforts. This can be achieved with an adequate focus on the implementation of the strategy, defining convenient goals, changing our way of thinking, leaving aside conformity and moving to massive action, based on better management of our time. But for the strategy to be properly implemented in addition to the effort, we must try to keep our collaborators focused, this includes knowing the goals and making them their own with enthusiasm and being sure that they are achievable. Sean Covey in his book 4 Disciplines of Execution indicates that we must first focus on what is crucially important, not getting carried away by the whirlwind of everyday life, having well-defined goals (one or two), to which all collaborators are oriented, that is, the discipline of focus that involves allocating more energy on fewer goals. Secondly, we must act on predictive measures, which are the path to better performance by positively impacting the goal with

our actions, considering that a good prediction measure has two basic characteristics: on the one hand, it can predict whether the goal will be achieved and, on the other, whether the team members can influence it. That is, it consists of investing more energy in the activities that drive the predictive measures. Next, third, we must create a compelling results dashboard, which should be simple, so that team members can quickly determine whether they are on the right track or not. It is the discipline of commitment and evaluation of achievement. And finally, the fourth discipline involves establishing a cadence of accountability, through meetings, that make it possible to identify progress and obtain specific results, that is, it consists of establishing an accountability rhythm or a recurring cycle of performance supervision. In summary, the proposal on how to achieve efficient execution works based on a set of central principles, clarity, focus, commitment, translation into action, synergy and accountability. Finally, strategies must allow the creation of value, including brand value, which makes the company solidly sustainable in the long term.

The search for profitability is essential for this, since the profit and loss statements of each service must be permanently evaluated, eliminate excess costs and minimize hidden costs, identify and implement changes to seek efficiency in the processes and pursue the business to become increasingly more profitable. In short, don't let your IUPM organization be a piece of debris blown away by the wind, take control of its direction, define a business competitive strategy, remember that competitive strategy consists of being different, it means purposely choosing a set of different activities to deliver a unique mix of value. Implement the strategy with effort and active participation of all your collaborators and evaluate the results. If the plan doesn't work, change the plan, but don't change the goal, build your success.

LEADERSHIP IS FUNDAMENTAL AND WITHIN IT, SELF-EVALUATION SHOULD BE THE WAY TO ASSESS WHAT WE ARE DOING, WHY WE ARE DOING IT AND WHAT WE SHOULD DO TO OBTAIN BETTER RESULTS.