The Lulalend team has no lack of aspirations and set high targets for themselves. Their main aim? To ensure consistent progress on their strategy across their growing team. To enable their aspirations and ambitions, they’ve asked for help in the consistent implementation of OKRs. We assisted them with OKR training to ensure everyone speaks the same language, followed by rigorous implementation of a weekly and quarterly cadence to enable regular strategic conversations and debates. We walked the road with the leadership team for 6 months, after which OKRs were rolled out to the rest of the organisation.
“The team helped us create focus and alignment, putting a constant spotlight on the most important elements to move us towards our ambition.”
TREVOR GOSLING, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO at LULALEND
CLIENT
DATE
2022
DURATION
Six months
INDUSTRY
Financial Services
Lulalend has an incredible story. The company was launched in 2014 to provide credit facilities to small and medium enterprises, addressing a fundamental need to enable successful growth of these companies. As they scaled since launch, there was the need to align the growing Lula team behind the same set of goals. Additionally, as they attracted international funding, they needed to ensure continuous progress against the strategy.
We often say: “If team alignment is a problem, then communication is your problem”. In effect, alignment should be addressed with communication. The Lula team spotted this well in advance of alignment becoming a problem and set the right structures in place to increase communication.
A significant part of the benefit of the OKR process is in the discussion it unlocks. As we engaged with the Lula team, in-depth discussion and debate was facilitated through on-site workshops and OKR setting sessions. These debates aren’t possible without a level of trust and vulnerability, which we could see in this team from the start, leading to a much more robust set of strategic priorities.
Because of the need for showcasing continuous progress against the strategy, we implemented an OKR check-in as a standing agenda item into the weekly leadership meeting. This check-in was short and to the point, often wrapping up in 20 minutes or less. Through this ongoing discipline, there was a continuous focus on the most important goals and clear accountability, enabling more of the right conversations.
Lulalend is on the forefront of a material opportunity and have stakeholders who expect them to perform – not only shareholders but also clients and communities. The OKR process, specifically through the debates and critical thinking it enables and the ongoing discipline it establishes, have lead to closer alignment of the team, increased focus on the most important metrics and more progress on their strategy. They have recently closed a meaningful series B capital raise, readying for a new range of products and offerings. We believe this is the start of a formidable growth curve for the Lula team and hope to see them go from strength to strength.
