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ON THE MOVE COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY: BURNS & MCDONNELL KCI HOMETOWN TEAM RELEASES FULL PROPOSAL TO PUBLIC FOLLOWING PRESENTATION TO AIRPORT SELECTION COMMITTEE The Burns & McDonnell KCI HOMETOWN Team made its final pitch to the Kansas City Airport Selection Committee today and afterward released the complete proposal package to the public. “This process of renewing our hometown airport is immensely important to the people of Kansas City and we believe they have every right to review all the details of our proposal to the City,” said Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO, Burns & McDonnell. “If we are fortunate enough to be selected, we will work with the City every step of the way

to make sure Kansas Citians understand how the new KCI will be designed, built and financed.” The KCI HOMETOWN Team proposal includes the following key elements: ❚ ❚ Preferred alternative ❚ ❚ Aggressive schedule ❚ ❚ Competitive pricing ❚ ❚ Private financing ❚ ❚ Added convenience ❚ ❚ More Amenities ❚ ❚ Modernized gates ❚ ❚ Minority and women-owned business opportunities

Kowalik led the presentation team in the final stage of a competitive bid process for a new single-terminal at Kansas City International Airport. “Our number one export in Kansas City is architecture, engineering and construction. The KCI HOMETOWN Team represents the best of the best in the industry,” Kowalik said. “We are incredibly proud of what our KCI HOMETOWN Team presented today. It’s a plan to makes sure KCI is done right – by Kansas Citians who know what special characteristics it needs to reflect our City’s personality and continued Renaissance. This is about KC pride.”

JULIE BENEZET, from page 11

Identifying the relevant stakeholders provides a target on which to focus your quest. Once you have identified your stakeholders, you can then burrow into their concerns. A roadmap appears, offering a route to follow towards making something better. HERE ARE SIX ESSENTIAL MILEPOSTS ALONG THIS ROAD: 1)Identify the problem. Choose an issue that needs a long- term solution. 2)Identify the relevant stakeholders. Identify the group of persons affected by the issue – customers, management teams, shareholders, etc. 3)Collect the (real) facts. Too often we assume we know how our stakeholders think and feel. It’s easier than getting clut- tered by facts. The point of strategic thinking is to unearth the clutter. Go ask open-ended questions and be prepared to hear what you did not expect. Ask lots of follow-on questions. Assume you don’t know the answer, because chances are you don’t. That’s why there is a problem. Strategic ideas often arise from answers we did not anticipate. 4)Accept discomfort. Learning unexpected new things can be uncomfortable. That’s good. It means you are asking the right questions. 5)Find core patterns. Review the information you collected for themes and suggestions. What patterns unite them? Do they hate your product instructions because they are too compli- cated or is your company’s communication style condescend- ing and user unfriendly? 6)Create and test ideas. Armed with your stakeholders’ feed- back, generate ideas you believe will address their concerns long term. Test them by going back to your stakeholders for more feedback. By flexing and learning from your stakehold- ers, you will discover the ideas that succeed. These steps underlie strategic thinking and will start you on your way. JULIE BENEZET spent 25 years in law and business, and for the past 15 years coached and consulted with executives from virtually every industry. She earned her stripes for leading in the new and unknown as Amazon’s first global real estate executive. She is an award-winning author of The Journey of Not Knowing: How 21st Century Leaders Can Chart a Course Where There Is None . She can be reached at julie@juliebenezet.com.

What is strategic thinking? Strangely, it lacks a concise definition. In a blog post for Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, Peter Walsh describes it as “thinking [that] goes beyond looking at what is – it imagines what could be.” He offers a test with several traits including, “future-based, curious, long-term focus, and willing to take risks.” While I do not quibble with his characterization, for the many people who struggle with the meaning of strategy, these traits add more words in a foreign language. In my work with leaders and strategy over many years, I have observed that if you cannot crack open the door by demystifying the concept of strategy, any attempt to swing the door wider fails. “The goal of strategy is to find new ideas that deliver long-term competitive value. Developing a strategy begins with two fundamental questions: what problem are you trying to solve and who are the stakeholders who will benefit from it being solved?” A leader’s job is to make life better for a diversity of stakeholders, including customers, employees, and management teams. Making things better requires new ideas to address the needs of your stakeholder groups. The goal of strategy is to find new ideas that deliver long- term competitive value. Developing a strategy begins with two fundamental questions: what problem are you trying to solve and who are the stakeholders who will benefit from it being solved? Once you answer the who and what questions, you have opened the way to convert the needs of the “who” into ideas to make their lives better. You also create competitive advantage for your organization, which, simply put, is strategy.

THE ZWEIG LETTER October 2, 2017, ISSUE 1218

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