Rumelt describes strategizing as identifying pivotal issues within your market and your industry and making a plan focused on forceful, results-oriented action. He reminds readers that strategy has little to do with ambitious goals, vision, leadership, innovation or determination. For many business leaders, strategy means promulgating meaningless slogans that tout impressive but unrealistic goals. A sound business strategy presents a specific action plan to overcome a defined challenge. Rumelt says good strategy involves multiple analyses and the painstaking development of thoughtful, expertly implemented policies that surmount obstacles and move the firm profitably ahead.
Slide deck from a two day workshop on Strategic Thinking, utilizing HBR Case Studies on Huawei and Apple to illustrate the strategic challenges in the global high tech industry. We were intending a mind shift from static conceptions of strategy toward "sense and response", biological systems thus strategy as a dynamic conception.
This is a great toolbox of slides for putting together a strategic planning or business planning presentation - either in businesses or as a consultant. It took ages to collect this all and put in one place.
Strategic Thinking is critical to all aspects of planning, budgeting, and policy development and analysis in private, nonprofit, and government organizations of all sizes. This brief overview contains the 12 critical components of Strategic Thinking and comparisons with conventional ideas.
Slide deck from a two day workshop on Strategic Thinking, utilizing HBR Case Studies on Huawei and Apple to illustrate the strategic challenges in the global high tech industry. We were intending a mind shift from static conceptions of strategy toward "sense and response", biological systems thus strategy as a dynamic conception.
This is a great toolbox of slides for putting together a strategic planning or business planning presentation - either in businesses or as a consultant. It took ages to collect this all and put in one place.
Strategic Thinking is critical to all aspects of planning, budgeting, and policy development and analysis in private, nonprofit, and government organizations of all sizes. This brief overview contains the 12 critical components of Strategic Thinking and comparisons with conventional ideas.
Strategic leadership refers to a manager's potential to express a strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision. Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management of employees.
What is strategy-execution?
Understanding the distinction between strategy-execution and strategy.
Understanding the distinction between strategy-execution failure and strategy failure.
Why strategy execution is a critical activity of organisational success?
What are the causes of strategy-execution failures?
How can the quality of strategy-executions be improved?
What is strategic planning?
Identify and explain different levels of planning in organisations.
Understand the relationship between corporate & functional plans.
What should be included in the strategic plan?
Evaluate the role of strategic planning.
What are the benefits of strategic planning to the firm?
What challenges are associated with strategic planning?
Delivered infront of Tri-People (Moros, Christians, & Lumads) in MSU, Marawi City, Balabagan, Malabang, and Kapatagan for the program "Empowering Youth through Enhancing Organizational Skills and Leadership Potential towards Effective Peace Agent
in the Community Project
"
This article presents the Strategy Execution Model– a comprehensive management model that allows managers to master one of the greatest management challenges – successfully implementing strategies. The powerful framework incorporates 18 success factors that are related to the strategy, its execution, mobilizing the people, aligning the organization and building systems to monitor and control the execution. Collectively, these tools help organizations plan and execute their strategies but also monitor, learn and adapt their strategy and its execution to achieve sustainable organizational success.
Strategic Thinking is critical to the long term success of organizations. But how can you develop these skills in your managers and leaders? Here, we introduce how focusing on strategic management skills can provide a framework. And we provide 5 tips for ensuring the you implement a successful approach to strategic management training.
“Strategic Thinking is a way of understanding the fundamental drivers of a Business and rigorously (and playfully) challenging conventional thinking about them.”
--> Focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value for the organization
--> Takes into account: Products & offerings, Markets, Clients/Customers, Competitors, and Suppliers.
--> Input to strategic planning
--------------------------
The process of Strategic Thinking must ensure that business strategies are:
+ Aligned: fit with business’s Mission, Vision, Competitive Situation, and Operating Strategies
+ Goal-orientated: strategies’ outcomes must linked with business’s goals
+ Focused: points out exactly what should be prioritized
+ Implementable
Looking for a great presentation and workshop on strategic thinking and leadership and their role in creating an inspiring and awesome strategic vision and plan? Look no further. Please feel free to call me if you would like me to put on a 2 hour overview of this workshop for your organization or you would like to discuss any points further. My number is 612-310-3803.
Strategy Execution
Success = Strategy + Execution
Do You Want to Crush your Sales Numbers? Strategy execution is the key to competitive advantage.
Then why are you spending so much time on building marketing plans compared to the time you spend on planning sales execution? The magic is in the execution!
Learn my 5 Step process to turning strategy into sales.
I can be reached at steven@starrseults.com or https://www.starresults.com/strategy-execution/
Regards,
Steven Rosen
This Strategy Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Strategy Consultants, after more than 3,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Strategy Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Analysis Tools & Document Templates required to excel in a Strategy position and define & implement a winning Strategy for your organization. This Slideshare presentation is only a small sample of our Toolkit. You can download the entire Toolkit at www.slidebooks.com
Strategic leadership refers to a manager's potential to express a strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision. Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management of employees.
What is strategy-execution?
Understanding the distinction between strategy-execution and strategy.
Understanding the distinction between strategy-execution failure and strategy failure.
Why strategy execution is a critical activity of organisational success?
What are the causes of strategy-execution failures?
How can the quality of strategy-executions be improved?
What is strategic planning?
Identify and explain different levels of planning in organisations.
Understand the relationship between corporate & functional plans.
What should be included in the strategic plan?
Evaluate the role of strategic planning.
What are the benefits of strategic planning to the firm?
What challenges are associated with strategic planning?
Delivered infront of Tri-People (Moros, Christians, & Lumads) in MSU, Marawi City, Balabagan, Malabang, and Kapatagan for the program "Empowering Youth through Enhancing Organizational Skills and Leadership Potential towards Effective Peace Agent
in the Community Project
"
This article presents the Strategy Execution Model– a comprehensive management model that allows managers to master one of the greatest management challenges – successfully implementing strategies. The powerful framework incorporates 18 success factors that are related to the strategy, its execution, mobilizing the people, aligning the organization and building systems to monitor and control the execution. Collectively, these tools help organizations plan and execute their strategies but also monitor, learn and adapt their strategy and its execution to achieve sustainable organizational success.
Strategic Thinking is critical to the long term success of organizations. But how can you develop these skills in your managers and leaders? Here, we introduce how focusing on strategic management skills can provide a framework. And we provide 5 tips for ensuring the you implement a successful approach to strategic management training.
“Strategic Thinking is a way of understanding the fundamental drivers of a Business and rigorously (and playfully) challenging conventional thinking about them.”
--> Focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value for the organization
--> Takes into account: Products & offerings, Markets, Clients/Customers, Competitors, and Suppliers.
--> Input to strategic planning
--------------------------
The process of Strategic Thinking must ensure that business strategies are:
+ Aligned: fit with business’s Mission, Vision, Competitive Situation, and Operating Strategies
+ Goal-orientated: strategies’ outcomes must linked with business’s goals
+ Focused: points out exactly what should be prioritized
+ Implementable
Looking for a great presentation and workshop on strategic thinking and leadership and their role in creating an inspiring and awesome strategic vision and plan? Look no further. Please feel free to call me if you would like me to put on a 2 hour overview of this workshop for your organization or you would like to discuss any points further. My number is 612-310-3803.
Strategy Execution
Success = Strategy + Execution
Do You Want to Crush your Sales Numbers? Strategy execution is the key to competitive advantage.
Then why are you spending so much time on building marketing plans compared to the time you spend on planning sales execution? The magic is in the execution!
Learn my 5 Step process to turning strategy into sales.
I can be reached at steven@starrseults.com or https://www.starresults.com/strategy-execution/
Regards,
Steven Rosen
This Strategy Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Strategy Consultants, after more than 3,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Strategy Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Analysis Tools & Document Templates required to excel in a Strategy position and define & implement a winning Strategy for your organization. This Slideshare presentation is only a small sample of our Toolkit. You can download the entire Toolkit at www.slidebooks.com
Strategic Planning is a key business activity for many organizations, and yet, many of these plans remain on the shelf while day-to-day demands take over. This presentation outlines how psychological type (popularized in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - MBTI) can be leveraged as a great tool for a strategic planning effort. Originally presented at the August 2009 APTi Conference by Jennifer Tucker and Hile Rutledge:
Is Strategic Planning really worth the effort? And is it needed in all types and sizes of organizations? We demonstrate 3 ways that Strategic Planning improves business performance and provide tips on how to use effectively.
Business strategy are business schools doing more harm through appealing pi...Subramanian Kooveli Madom
The article examines the pigeon holed approach to teaching business strategy adopted in business schools. The writer believes strategies are unique to individuals (leaders) and cannot be reduced to a mechanical output from a technique oriented view. Real strategies are best kept under wraps and what is revealed is the essentials needed for its operationalisation. A technique oriented approach tends to send out misplaced signals to the budding managers
7th Cairo Marketing Club (Good & Bad strategy) by Dr. Haytham MohamedMahmoud Bahgat
#Mahmoud_Bahgat
#Marketing_Club
Join us by WhatsApp to me 00966568654916
*اشترك في صفحة ال Marketing Club* عالفيسبوك
https://www.facebook.com/MarketingTipsPAGE/
*اشترك في جروب ال Marketing Club* عالفيسبوك
https://www.facebook.com/groups/837318003074869/
*Marketing Club Middle East*
25 Meetings in 6 Cities in 1 year & 2 months
Since October 2015
*We have 6 groups whatsapp*
*for almost 600 marketers*
From all middle east
*since 5 years*
& now 10 more groups
For Marketing Club Lovers as future Marketers
أهم حاجة الشروط
*Only marketers*
From all Industries
No students
*No sales*
*No hotels Reps*
*No restaurants Reps*
*No Travel Agents*
*No Advertising Agencies*
*Many have asked to Attend the Club*
((We Wish All can Attend,But Cant..))
*Criteria of Marketing Club Members*
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
For Better Harmony & Mind set.
*Must be only Marketer*
*Also Previous Marketing experience*
●Business Managers
●Country Manager,GM
●Directors, CEO
Are most welcomed to add Value to us.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
《 *Unmatched Criteria*》
Not Med Rep,
Not Key Account,
Not Product Specialist,
Not Sales Supervisor,
Not Sales Manager,
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
But till you become a marketer
you can join other What'sApp group
*Marketing Lover Future Club Group*
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
《 *Unmatched Criteria*》
For Conflict of Intrest
*Also Can't attend*
If Working in
*Marketing Services Provider*
=not *Hotel* Marketers
=not *Restaurant* Marketers
=not *Advertising* Marketer
=not *Event Manager*
=not *Market Researcher*.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
*this Club for Only Marketers*
Very Soon we will have
*Business Leaders Club*
For Sales Managers & Directors
Will be Not for Markters
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
■ *Only Marketers* ■
*& EPS Marketing Diploma*
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
Confirm coming by Pvt WhatsApp
*To know the new Location*
*#Mahmoud_Bahgat*
00966568654916
*#Marketing_Club*
http://goo.gl/forms/RfskGzDslP
*اشترك بصفحة جمعية الصيادلة المصريين* عالفيسبوك
https://lnkd.in/fucnv_5
■ *Bahgat Facbook Page*
https://lnkd.in/fVAdubA
■ *Bahgat Linkedin*
https://lnkd.in/fvDQXuG
■ *Bahgat Twitter*
https://lnkd.in/fmNC72T
■ *Bahgat YouTube Channel*
https://www.Youtube.com /mahmoud bahgat
■ *Bahgat Instagram*
https://lnkd.in/fmWPXrY
■ *Bahgat SnapChat*
https://lnkd.in/f6GR-mR
*#Mahmoud_Bahgat*
*#Legendary_ADLAND*
www.TheLegendary.info
12 March 2015 Employee Benefit Plan Review■ Focus On … Pla.docxdrennanmicah
12 March 2015 Employee Benefit Plan Review
■ Focus On … Planning
T
imes are changing. Affordable Care
Act (ACA) compliance, an aging and
shrinking workforce, technology, and
medical and pharmaceutical advance-
ments are on a collision course that is chang-
ing the face of compensation and benefits. As
a result, senior leadership is relying on their
employee benefits professionals more than
ever to help them navigate and mitigate risk.
The secret weapon is deceptively simple: an
Employee Benefits Strategic Plan.
Employee Benefits
Strategic Plan
For some, “strategic planning” is a series
of formulaic meetings that result in a report
that ends up on a shelf, rarely referred to or
used until the next cycle. For a select few,
however, it is a crucial part of the organiza-
tion’s sustainability—a road map used to guide
decisions.
Organizational strategic planning sets pri-
orities and goals for the future. An Employee
Benefit Strategic Plan employs the same
approach but is specific to the total compensa-
tion approach of the organization. Simply put,
in an environment of consistently rising health-
care costs and shifting healthcare regulations,
it is essential for organizations to create long-
term strategies with short-term objectives and
have a quick-response review process in place.
The fiscal realities of increasing healthcare
costs mixed with ACA unknowns can impact
your organization’s financial performance in
several ways. It may drag down shareholder
value, become a drain on company perfor-
mance, or negatively impact the culture and
human capital within a business. Yet, with all
these negative impacts, most organizations still
do only a superficial short-term employee ben-
efits plan for themselves.
What constitutes a strategy and how do
we actually build a plan? A good definition of
strategy is “… choosing to perform different
activities that will provide a sustainable compet-
itive advantage.” It is a way of thinking about
the world and approaching business. Strategic
planning is a process to produce innovative and
creative ideas that serve as the core framework
for the organization and design its future.
By adopting a strategic employee benefit
planning process, organizations can make deci-
sions regarding their benefits with significantly
less stress for all involved.
How to Create a Strategic Plan
Most strategic planning models share a com-
mon discover/analyze/design/build/review struc-
ture. This process appears to be simple, but it
does have complex and powerful components
within each category.
First, confirm that the organization is ready.
Building a comprehensive plan requires com-
mitment from the top down.
Next, make sure all stakeholders are repre-
sented. In addition to the C-Suite and human
resources (HR), the committee should include
representatives of all major employee groups
and functions. It is not uncommon for a stra-
tegic planning committee to have 12 or.
Is your company’s human resources operation a true “business partner” that makes a major contribution to your bottom line? Or does it merely fulfil the daily tasks of hiring, firing and paying your employees? If the latter, don’t worry – that can change. So say the human resources experts who founded the RBL Group and the RBL Institute, a consultancy and an educational organization dedicated to helping HR leaders attain new levels of professionalism. Using the institute’s tools and tactics, you can “transform” your human resources department into a valued, knowledgeable and contributing member of your corporate team. While you don’t have to be a human resources professional to benefit from this book, its HR-speak presents a pretty dense thicket that might daunt a novice.
Why is a great company culture so rare? How can you make sure your organization has one? The good news is that creating an inspiring and sustainable culture is not as hard as you might think. Dr. David “Doc” Vik reveals the keys to success in The Culture Secret.
A remarkable culture begins with visionary leaders who help their teams take a holistic approach to creating engagement inside their companies and sharing it with customers. Discover how to take culture beyond casual Friday and into more meaningful conversations like:
•Driving Vision
•Defining Purpose
•Clear business model
•Unique/WOW factors
•Meaningful Values
•Inspired Leadership
•Great customers and customer service
•Brand enhancement
•Experience and the emotional connection
If you don’t think you have to focus on attracting—and retaining—the best employees in today’s hypercompetitive war for talent, you are living in the past. The employees and customers of today have a choice and a voice. The secret to culture is simple: take care of your people, never stop innovating, and leave customers wowed. Build a better culture to secure the future for any organization
Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day -- as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: "What makes the truly exceptional companies different from the comparison companies and what were the common practices these enduringly great companies followed throughout their history?"
Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the 21st century and beyond.
How Stella Saved the Farm is a simple and logical book based on a story which narrates the learning process about making innovation happen. The book is divided in two parts and consists of total nineteen chapters. First part carries nine chapters and remaining are under the second part, which explains the conversion of idea into innovation and then great success. The story is about the competition of two farms one run and managed by animals (Windsor farm) and another by human beings (McGillicuddys farm). Windsor farm is working through change and innovation where the status quo is no longer good enough. Interestingly, in view of poor performance of Windsor farm McGillicuddy is hoping to take over the Windsor farm, but due to the innovations, Windsor farm crosses all hurdles and gets a remarkable status in the business.
Can passion be taught? Can it be fostered? The answer is yes. But perhaps more accurately, a team leader must create the right conditions for passion to emerge. Those conditions must be nurtured, not unlike a gardener creating the right conditions for his plants to flourish. Make your job easier. Get the inside scoop on the secrets of success that motivate teams to top performance. In the matrix of workplace roles and responsibilities, managers are pivotal to corporate success. Yet a manager is often the unsung hero who must adapt to demands from all sides—and do so with little or no training, and without mentorship for the role. Learn from Dan Bobinski, who draws from 20 years of consulting experience, extensive studies of best practices, and the latest in neuroscience research. You'll learn the principles and methods top managers use to develop passionate, engaged employees who are dedicated to success. You'll be able to:
— Motivate without manipulating
— Turn mistakes into a fervent drive for quality
— Equip teams to enthusiastically adapt to change
— Create environments in which people strive for excellence—and more
Today's workforce requires managers to be more than just a person in charge. Creating Passion-Driven Teams show you how to tap your team's natural motivations and achieve consistent, sustained top performance.
Whether corporate governance is a burden meant to report compliance on companies’ performance, or can it be used as a competitive advantage in view of the changing laws, awareness and scenario is the important question which is present in the minds of those at the top of the company affairs including the CEO, Directors and Boards.
The book under reference, “Boards that Deliver”, by Ram Charan attempts to answer this question in a certain and prudent manner. The author believes that with the right set of practices, any group of directors can become a board that delivers value to the management and to the investors and goes ahead to demonstrate his points giving directions on various steps to be taken to make this happen.
"I'm the boss!"
It's a common mistake to think management is defined by formal authority—the ability that comes with a title to impose your will on others. In fact, formal authority is a useful but limited tool.
People Want More Than a Formal, Authority-Based Relationship with the Boss
Many managers—especially those who were achievement-driven stars as individual performers—don't even think about relationships. They're so task oriented that they put the work to be done and their authority as boss at the heart of what they do and assume they can ignore the human aspects of working with others.
The problem is that most people don't want your authority to be the be-all and end-all of the relationship. They want a personal, human connection, an emotional link. They want you to care about them as individuals. They want you to encourage their growth and development. Research tells us this kind of human relationship with the boss is a key factor determining an employee's level of engagement with the work.
We know of a small-company owner, a warm, decent woman, so pressed for time she consciously decided to avoid small talk at the office. She never opened up to people about herself or asked about their lives and interests. She didn't, that is, until her people rose up and expressed, through an intermediary, that they hated how she treated them. They wanted a real human connection with her, even if she was "the boss."
In his previous bestseller, Built to Last, Jim Collins explored what made great companies great and how they sustained that greatness over time.
One point kept nagging him, though — great companies have, for the most part, always been great, while a vast majority of good companies remain just that: good, but not great. What could merely good companies do to become great, to turn long-term weakness into long-term supremacy?
Collins and his team of researchers used strict benchmarks to identify a group of eleven elite companies that made the leap from good to great and sustained that greatness for at least fifteen years. The companies that made the list might surprise you as much as those left off (the likes of Intel, GE
and Coca Cola are nowhere to be found).
The real surprise of Good to Great isn’t so much what good companies do to propel themselves to greatness — it’s why more companies haven’t done the same things more often.
Value for the Reader :
The reader will walk away with a set of highly referred tools for increasing the personal & professional Mojo, which the author defines as “ That Positive Spirit towards what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside”
He defines his purpose as “ helping successful people achieve positive, lasting change in behavior “ . It is a real world advice embodied in simple processes for the reader to consider using that can improve his or her thinking , behavior and results.
Very thought provoking book and helps the reader to lead a happier, more purposeful and more productive life.
Strong Leaders at all levels within an organization are a requisite for business success. Yet the leadership pipeline –internal architecture for growing leaders is often broken or
nonexistent. This updated edition of the bestselling book has been revised to help address the challenges of today’s business environment. Anchored in experience based case studies, this
remarkable book synchronizes a proven model for planning leadership succession and development for corporate organizations. The Second edition is an improvement based on
learning and review of the authors who have drawn their work at more than one hundred international companies over a period of ten years since the first edition of the book with the same title was published. The book under review is addressed to the leading corporate organizations, where the succession path of leaders/ chief executives is being formulated & executed on a continuous basis to perpetuate the organization and make it strong and robust while facing trials and tribulations of corporate growth and success.
We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. you’ll learn how to:
· Decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation
· Start a conversation without defensiveness
· Listen for the meaning of what is not said
· Stay balanced in the face of attacks and accusations
· Move from emotion to productive problem solving
In the continual quest for sustainable growth, companies
have traditionally focused on the competition.
They have fought over the same customers, tried to
improve on the same benefits, and hoped to wring
profits from a shrinking revenue stream. In Blue
Ocean Strategy, professors W. Chan Kim and Renée
Mauborgne argue that the key to success is to make the
competition irrelevant. They offer a practical, tested
analytical framework that innovators in any sector
can use to create new, uncontested market space. In
this “blue ocean,” organizations can take advantage
of untapped demand and deliver powerful leaps in
value—both for their customers and for themselves.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 , a self-help book by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, provides a toolkit and guide for readers to increase their emotional intelligence (EQ), which the writers say can be a benefit in business and personal relationships.
You can no longer count on a return to “ Normal” competitive conditions. The business world is flat, with capital & knowledge able to move anywhere instantly. Brands are losing value, regulations are increasing and competitors can come out anywhere. Filtered information, Selective hearing, Wishful thinking, Fear and Emotional over investment can all act to prevent an organization from Confronting and dealing with reality.
As a way to understand reality, the authors put a high premium on business savvy- the ability to understand the fundamentals of a business, and the connections between them. The book presents a model and process to help leaders learn business savvy to recognize the position of their business in wider external realities and to take action based on that understanding.
The triple bottom line consists of financial profit (or success), social justice, and environmental protection. It is sometimes summarized as “Profits, People, and Planet.” An intimately related concept is “sustainability”---corporations that are built to last, societies that are stable and just, and a global natural environment that is in a healthy equilibrium. The basic argument is that we live in a time when a narrow, short-term focus on the financial bottom line alone will generate dysfunctions among people and in the environment that will come back to bite the corporation.
Sustainability and the “3BL” are, instead, about mutual benefits flowing in all three directions. The challenge is to find the sustainability “sweet spot” (think golf) where all three interests coincide. Example: Toyota’s Prius low-fuel hybrid benefits the environment, the people who build or buy them, and the owners of the company. Certainly there will be trade-offs; 3BL choices and strategies will require negotiation and compromise. But this is now an economic reality, not just an altruistic dream
It could be argued that what’s new here is just a strong case that financially successful companies must think more broadly and holistically and be sure to take into account all their stakeholder interests, including the environment and society. But it is still the financial bottom line driving the business.
Business ethics is a huge canvas, bigger than sustainability, CSR, corporate governance, or the 3BL. Business ethics is about doing the right thing and building good organizations. Business ethics and values grow out of purposes, missions, and visions and are organically intertwined with corporate cultures. There are more than three bottom lines---there are bottom lines related to every stakeholder. Business ethics doesn’t just ask how to keep three of those stakeholders (owners, environment, society) going and make them last (sustain them) but about what is right and fair and just, about what would constitute excellence and success.
THE Bhagavad Gita is an Indian spiritual text of about 700 verses. The classic takes the form of a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna. The book by Debashis Chatterjee weaves their beautiful battlefield conversation into a narrative on the problems faced by leaders such as Arjuna and the solution provided by Krishna from a perspective that is both compelling and contemporary.
In this book, Krishna guides Arjuna through the ABCs of leadership. A for authenticity or truth; B stands for Being, which is the fundamental raw material for becoming a leader; and C stands for Convergence, which a leader achieves between his or her current reality and his & her goal, or between a problem/ challenges and its solution.
In the chapter “Leaders are Masters of their Minds”, the book poses the question: How does one begin the conquest of the turbulent mind? Krishna’s prescription is to return to the calm and stillness of the real self. Self-image is characterised by change and anxiety while the real self stands still in intense observation.
Stillness is the power behind intense action. Timeless leaders have taught us the art and science of always being still. Timeless leaders succeed only by the application of stillness. A mind that is restless, anxious, and nervous always misses the mark. Only a steady, controlled, almost machinelike hand can shoot the arrow that hits the bull’s eye. Krishna speaks of being indivisibly one with one’s goal, even like the arrowhead that has struck into the target.
An undivided concentration naturally brings about an absolutely unshakable stillness. The journey towards self-realisation involves the disciplines of silence and solitude. The Bhagavad Gita tells us: “The unreal has no being: the real never ceases to be. The final truth about them both has thus been perceived by the seers of ultimate reality”.
In the concluding chapter, the book relates the plight of the modern leader stuck on the information superhighway. Krishna argues that the busy mind is a mob of unprocessed thoughts and emotions. The only way to deal effectively with this mob is to create distance between the mob and the observer, who can now see the mob without being part of it. This observer within the leader is like the screen on which a filmed drama is projected.
By reading this book or the summary you learn about
· Why Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside –Being of the person.
· How to go the highest level of leadership by developing character qualities from the inside out.
· How true commitment inspires and attracts people.
· How to start and sustain the process of continuous personal growth.
The commonly held belief that life gets easier at the top is partly true. The loftier your role in a large enterprise, the more control you have over your day-to-day activities and more you are compensated for them. But the challenges also get tougher. For one thing, you are more visible. Your mistakes, and your ability to recover from them will be noticed. Also, fewer positions exist at that rarefied level. To advance, you have to either displace someone above you or create an entirely new business. Failure is not an option, unless you can make it seem like success. To manage all this with Integrity- that is a challenge indeed.
There are two ways to proceed. You can practice relentless discipline: curbing every impulse, making every moment count , and preparing diligently for each potential challenge. Or you can approach the world with insouciant savoir-faire, trusting that your charm and resourcefulness will get you through while making it all look easy.
At the heart of this book is a question about the proper way to live. To what extent must we lead disciplined lives to be powerful people? Is that discipline a matter of duty, compensation for the original sin of being imperfect, or is it a matter of joy, of calling forth the inner golden virtue that lies deep within all of us ? In Goldsmith’s eye, it is both- and it is both- an if you dare to take on the practices he recommends, you may come to agree with him.
John Maxwell’s “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” is a book that I have found quite helpful in measuring my own personal growth in leadership abilities, as well as in finding the areas where I struggle or need to grow. The premise of this book is not to say there are only 21 principles concerning leadership. That idea is clearly false, proven by the number of leadership books, articles, blogs, and podcasts available today. Rather, accord to Maxwell, there are 21 “laws” to leadership that are universally true no matter where one may lead in any culture or area of society. (Note: Sociologists generally agree that there are 7 “areas of society” which are business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family, and entertainment.)
Since each chapter of this book discusses one of the leadership laws, it will be most beneficial for this book review, to walk through theses laws one at a time.
RMD24 | Retail media: hoe zet je dit in als je geen AH of Unilever bent? Heid...BBPMedia1
Grote partijen zijn al een tijdje onderweg met retail media. Ondertussen worden in dit domein ook de kansen zichtbaar voor andere spelers in de markt. Maar met die kansen ontstaan ook vragen: Zelf retail media worden of erop adverteren? In welke fase van de funnel past het en hoe integreer je het in een mediaplan? Wat is nu precies het verschil met marketplaces en Programmatic ads? In dit half uur beslechten we de dilemma's en krijg je antwoorden op wanneer het voor jou tijd is om de volgende stap te zetten.
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It is a sample of an interview for a business english class for pre-intermediate and intermediate english students with emphasis on the speking ability.
RMD24 | Debunking the non-endemic revenue myth Marvin Vacquier Droop | First ...BBPMedia1
Marvin neemt je in deze presentatie mee in de voordelen van non-endemic advertising op retail media netwerken. Hij brengt ook de uitdagingen in beeld die de markt op dit moment heeft op het gebied van retail media voor niet-leveranciers.
Retail media wordt gezien als het nieuwe advertising-medium en ook mediabureaus richten massaal retail media-afdelingen op. Merken die niet in de betreffende winkel liggen staan ook nog niet in de rij om op de retail media netwerken te adverteren. Marvin belicht de uitdagingen die er zijn om echt aansluiting te vinden op die markt van non-endemic advertising.
Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit and TemplatesAurelien Domont, MBA
This Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Management Consultants, after more than 5,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Best Practices & Templates required to successfully undertake the Digital Transformation of your organization and define a robust IT Strategy.
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Enterprise Excellence is Inclusive Excellence.pdfKaiNexus
Enterprise excellence and inclusive excellence are closely linked, and real-world challenges have shown that both are essential to the success of any organization. To achieve enterprise excellence, organizations must focus on improving their operations and processes while creating an inclusive environment that engages everyone. In this interactive session, the facilitator will highlight commonly established business practices and how they limit our ability to engage everyone every day. More importantly, though, participants will likely gain increased awareness of what we can do differently to maximize enterprise excellence through deliberate inclusion.
What is Enterprise Excellence?
Enterprise Excellence is a holistic approach that's aimed at achieving world-class performance across all aspects of the organization.
What might I learn?
A way to engage all in creating Inclusive Excellence. Lessons from the US military and their parallels to the story of Harry Potter. How belt systems and CI teams can destroy inclusive practices. How leadership language invites people to the party. There are three things leaders can do to engage everyone every day: maximizing psychological safety to create environments where folks learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.
Who might benefit? Anyone and everyone leading folks from the shop floor to top floor.
Dr. William Harvey is a seasoned Operations Leader with extensive experience in chemical processing, manufacturing, and operations management. At Michelman, he currently oversees multiple sites, leading teams in strategic planning and coaching/practicing continuous improvement. William is set to start his eighth year of teaching at the University of Cincinnati where he teaches marketing, finance, and management. William holds various certifications in change management, quality, leadership, operational excellence, team building, and DiSC, among others.
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Cracking the Workplace Discipline Code Main.pptxWorkforce Group
Cultivating and maintaining discipline within teams is a critical differentiator for successful organisations.
Forward-thinking leaders and business managers understand the impact that discipline has on organisational success. A disciplined workforce operates with clarity, focus, and a shared understanding of expectations, ultimately driving better results, optimising productivity, and facilitating seamless collaboration.
Although discipline is not a one-size-fits-all approach, it can help create a work environment that encourages personal growth and accountability rather than solely relying on punitive measures.
In this deck, you will learn the significance of workplace discipline for organisational success. You’ll also learn
• Four (4) workplace discipline methods you should consider
• The best and most practical approach to implementing workplace discipline.
• Three (3) key tips to maintain a disciplined workplace.
Improving profitability for small businessBen Wann
In this comprehensive presentation, we will explore strategies and practical tips for enhancing profitability in small businesses. Tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by small enterprises, this session covers various aspects that directly impact the bottom line. Attendees will learn how to optimize operational efficiency, manage expenses, and increase revenue through innovative marketing and customer engagement techniques.
[Note: This is a partial preview. To download this presentation, visit:
https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations]
Sustainability has become an increasingly critical topic as the world recognizes the need to protect our planet and its resources for future generations. Sustainability means meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It involves long-term planning and consideration of the consequences of our actions. The goal is to create strategies that ensure the long-term viability of People, Planet, and Profit.
Leading companies such as Nike, Toyota, and Siemens are prioritizing sustainable innovation in their business models, setting an example for others to follow. In this Sustainability training presentation, you will learn key concepts, principles, and practices of sustainability applicable across industries. This training aims to create awareness and educate employees, senior executives, consultants, and other key stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and supply chain partners, on the importance and implementation of sustainability.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that form the foundation of sustainability within corporate environments.
2. Explore the sustainability implementation model, focusing on effective measures and reporting strategies to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
3. Identify and define best practices and critical success factors essential for achieving sustainability goals within organizations.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Key Concepts of Sustainability
2. Principles and Practices of Sustainability
3. Measures and Reporting in Sustainability
4. Sustainability Implementation & Best Practices
To download the complete presentation, visit: https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations
Personal Brand Statement:
As an Army veteran dedicated to lifelong learning, I bring a disciplined, strategic mindset to my pursuits. I am constantly expanding my knowledge to innovate and lead effectively. My journey is driven by a commitment to excellence, and to make a meaningful impact in the world.
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1. Some Impressionistic takes from the book of
Richard Rumelt
“Good Strategy Bad Strategy”
The Difference –Why it matters?
by Ramki
ramaddster@gmail.com
2. About the Author
Richard P. Rumelt (born 1942) is the Harry
and Elsa Kunin Professor of Business &
Society at UCLA Anderson, a graduate
school of business and management. He
earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s of
Science degrees in Electrical Engineering
from UC Berkeley, and received his
doctorate from the Harvard Business School
(HBS). Prior to UCLA, he worked as a
systems design engineer, and taught at the
HBS and Iran Center for Management
Studies.
3. Prelude
Most leaders will agree that Strategy is crucial for an
organization’s success. Yet most organizations don’t have a
good strategy; they confuse strategy with ambition, innovation,
inspirational leadership, goal-setting, high-level decisions,
determination or successful outcomes.
A Strategy should be a cohesive blend of ideas, analyses,
policies and actions in response to an important, high-stakes
challenge.
It’s about uncovering the critical factors in a situation, then
directing your energy and resources to addressing those factors
through focused, coordinated action.
In this book, Rumelt explains the difference between good
strategy and bad strategy, with specific tips and guidelines for
crafting good strategies.
4. “The Objective of this book is to wake you up to
the dramatic differences between good strategy
and bad strategy and to give you a leg up toward
crafting good strategies.”
5. Strategy is designing a way to deal with a challenge. A
good strategy, therefore, must identify the challenge to
be overcome, and design a way to overcome it. To do
that, the kernel of a good strategy contains three
elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent
action.
The Kernel of Strategy
6. The Kernel of Strategy
A diagnosis defines the challenge. What's holding you back from
reaching your goals? A good diagnosis simplifies the often
overwhelming complexity of reality down to a simpler story by
identifying certain aspects of the situation as critical. A good diagnosis
often uses a metaphor, analogy, or an existing accepted framework to
make it simple and understandable, which then suggests a domain of
action.
A guiding policy is an overall approach chosen to cope with or
overcome the obstacles identified in the diagnosis. Like the guardrails
on a highway, the guiding policy directs and constrains action in
certain directions without defining exactly what shall be done.
A set of coherent actions dictate how the guiding policy will be carried
out. The actions should be coherent, meaning the use of resources,
policies, and maneuvers that are undertaken should be coordinated
and support each other (not fight each other, or be independent from
one another).
7.
8.
9. Good Strategy Vs. Bad Strategy
Good strategy is simple and obvious. Good strategy identifies the key
challenge to overcome.
Bad strategy fails to identify the nature of the challenge. If you don't
know what the problem is, you can't evaluate alternative guiding
policies or actions to take, and you can't adjust your strategy as you
learn more over time.
Good strategy includes actions to take to overcome the challenge.
Actions are not "implementation" details; they are the punch in the
strategy.
Strategy is about how an organization will move forward. Bad
strategy lacks actions to take. Bad strategy mistakes goals, ambition,
vision, values, and effort for strategy (these things are important, but
on their own are not strategy).
Good strategy is designed to be coherent - all the actions an
organization takes should reinforce and support each other. Leaders
must do this deliberately and coordinate action across departments.
10. Good Strategy Vs. Bad Strategy
Bad strategy is just a list of "priorities" that don't support each other,
at best, or actively conflict with each other, undermine each other,
and fight for resources, at worst. The rich and powerful can get away
with this, but it makes for bad strategy.
This was the biggest "ah-ha!" moment for me. All strategy I've
seen has just been a list of unconnected objectives. Designing a
strategy that's coherent and mutually reinforces itself is a huge
step forward in crafting good strategies.
Good strategy is about focusing and coordinating efforts to achieve
an outcome, which necessarily means saying "No" to some goals,
initiatives, and people. Bad strategy is the result of a leader who's
unwilling or unable to say "No." The reason good strategy looks so
simple is because it takes a lot of effort to maintain the coherence of
its design by saying "No" to people.
Good strategy leverages sources of power to overcome an obstacle.
It brings relative strength to bear against relative weakness
11. “A good strategy has an essential logical
structure that I call the kernel.”
“A good strategy honestly acknowledges the
challenges being faced and provides an
approach to overcoming them.”
12. Bad strategy is not just the absence of good strategy. It
comes from misconceptions that hinder sound strategy.
Beware of Bad Strategy
13. How to identify Bad Strategy
There are 4 hallmarks of bad strategies:
Fluff, i.e. gibberish masquerading as strategic concepts. They
use abstract buzzwords like “customer-centric” or “cutting-
edge” to portray high-level thinking and hide the lack of
substance.
Failure to face the challenge. If you don’t define the obstacles
or problems, you can’t respond to them effectively.
Mistaking goals for strategy. A bad strategy is often a statement
of desire (e.g. reduce processing time by 50%) instead of a
plan for overcoming obstacles (e.g. fixing a vital bottleneck).
A strategic objective is a means of overcoming an obstacle. For
example, to achieve broad “goals” like freedom, security and
justice, the United States breaks them down into actionable
objectives, e.g. to defeat the Taliban and to rebuild deteriorating
infrastructure. Bad strategic objectives fail to address the critical
issues or are simply unfeasible.
14. Forms of Bad Strategy
Dog's Dinner Objectives:
A long list of "things to do," often mislabeled as "strategies" or
"objectives."
These lists usually grow out of planning meetings in which
stakeholders state what they would like to accomplish, then they
throw these initiatives onto a long list called the "strategic plan" so that
no one's feelings get hurt, and they apply the label "long-term" so that
none of them need be done today.
In tech-land, I see a lot of companies conflate OKRs (Objectives
and Key Results) with strategy.
OKRs are an exercise in goal setting and measuring progress
towards those goals (which is important), but it doesn't replace
strategy work.
The process typically looks like this: once a year, each department
head is asked to come up with their own departmental OKRs,
which are supposed to be connected to company goals (increase
revenue, decrease costs, etc.).
15. Forms of Bad Strategy
Dog's Dinner Objectives:
Then each department breaks down their OKRs into sub-OKRs for
their teams to carry out, which are then broken down into sub-sub-
OKRs for sub-teams and/or specific people, so on down the chain.
This process just perpetuates departmental silos and are rarely
cohesive or mutually supportive of each other (if this does happen,
its usually a happy accident).
Department and team leaders often throw dependencies on other
departments and teams, which causes extra work for teams that
they often haven 't planned for and aren't connected to their own
OKRs, which drags down the efficiency and effectiveness of the
entire organization. Its easy for leaders to underestimate this drag
since its hard to measure, and what isn't measured isn't managed.
16. Forms of Bad Strategy
Setting objectives is not the same as creating a strategy to reach
those goals.
You still need to do the hard strategy work of making a diagnosis of
what obstacle is holding you back, creating a guiding policy for
overcoming the obstacle, and breaking that down into coherent
actions for the company to take (which shouldn't 't be based on what
departments or people or expertise you already have, but instead you
should look at what competencies you need to carry out your strategy
and then apply existing teams and people to carrying them out, if they
exist, and hire where you 're missing expertise, and get rid of
competencies that are no longer needed in the strategy).
OKRs can be applied at the top layer as company goals to reach,
then applied again to the coherent actions (i.e. what's the objective of
each action, and how will you know if you reached it?), and further
broken down for teams and people as needed. You still need an
actual strategy before you can set OKRs, but most companies
conflate OKRs with strategy.
17. Forms of Bad Strategy
Blue Sky Objectives:
A blue-sky objective is a simple restatement of the desired state of affairs or of the
challenge. It skips over the annoying fact that no one has a clue as to how to get
there.
For example, "underperformance" isn't a challenge, it's a result. It's a
restatement of a goal. The true challenge are the reasons for the
underperformance. Unless leadership offers a theory of why things haven't
worked in the past (a.k.a. a diagnosis), or why the challenge is difficult, it is hard
to generate good strategy.
The Unwillingness or Inability to Choose:
Any strategy that has universal buy-in signals the absence of choice. Because
strategy focuses resources, energy, and attention on some objectives rather than
others, a change in strategy will make some people worse off and there will be
powerful forces opposed to almost any change in strategy (e.g. a department head
who faces losing people, funding, headcount, support, etc., as a result of a change in
strategy will most likely be opposed to the change). Therefore, strategy that has
universal buy-in often indicates a leader who was unwilling to make a difficult choice
as to the guiding policy and actions to take to overcome the obstacles.
This is true, but there are ways of mitigating this that he doesn't 't discuss, which
I talk about in the "Closing Thoughts" section below.
18. Forms of Bad Strategy
Template-style “Strategic planning:"
Many strategies are developed by following a template of what a "strategy"
should look like. Since strategy is somewhat nebulous, leaders are quick to
adopt a template they can fill in since they have no other frame of reference for
what goes into a strategy.
These templates usually take this form:
The Vision: Your unique vision of what the org will be like in the future.
Often starts with "the best" or "the leading."
The Mission: High-sounding politically correct statement of the purpose
of the org.
The Values: The company's values. Make sure they are non-
controversial.
The Strategies: Fill in some aspirations/goals but call them strategies.
This template-style strategy skips over the hard work of identifying the key
challenge to overcome, and setting out a guiding policy and actions to
overcome the obstacle. It mistakes pious statements of the obvious as if
they were decisive insights. The vision, mission, and goals are usually
statements that no one would argue against, but that no one is inspired by,
either.
20. Key Reasons why Bad Strategy is prevalent
It’s hard to focus on one area because you must give up something
else. Leaders who’re unwilling/unable to choose between different
values or stakeholder priorities end up with a vague compromise
with no strategic focus.
Many leaders use a template-style approach which involves filling in
their vision, mission, values and “strategies” into a fixed template.
The result is actually an expression of their goals and aspirations,
which can still be useful for articulating an inspiring vision, but lacks
the analysis and coherent actions of a real strategy.
New thought teaches the use of positive thinking to attract your
desired outcomes. The idea is to only envision your success and
avoid all thoughts of failure.
Such beliefs discourage people from facing and tackling their
problems, which is the crux of strategy.
21. “In business, most deep strategic changes are
brought about by a change in diagnosis—a
change in the definition of the company’s
situation.”
“Good strategy is not just ‘what’ you are trying to
do. It is also ‘why’ and ‘how’ you are doing it.”
“Strategy is at least as much about what an
organization does not do as it is about what it
does.”
22. At the root, strategy is about applying your
biggest strengths to your biggest opportunity .
Good Strategies Amplify the Impact of Your Strength
23. Coherent Strategy
Having a coherent strategy already gives you 2 natural sources
of strength:
A good strategy gives you a natural advantage since most
organizations don’t have one and won’t expect you to have one.
In any situation, you can uncover hidden insights just by looking
at things from a fresh perspective—to identify new sources of
strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.
For example, conventional wisdom said that a full-line discount
store required a population base of at least 100,000.
Walmart defined its “store” differently—instead of having huge
stores in big cities, it created an integrated network of stores in
less-populated suburbs and fused them using data and systems.
Walmart’s success came from
Adopting a different perspective on discount retailing and
Counting on big chains (like Kmart) not responding until it was
too late.
24. Harnessing Source of Power
There are many ways to leverage power to overcome obstacles.
Harness sources of power and use them where they’ll have the
biggest impact. In this section, we’ll share several important
sources of power.
25. Strategic Leverage
Strategic leverage is about (i) exploiting an imbalance to create a
disproportionate payoff, and/or (ii) directing limited resources toward 1
pivotal objective. It comes from a mix of anticipation, pivot points and
concentrated effort.
You can gain an advantage from insightful predictions or anticipation of
others’ behavior (e.g. customers’ or rivals’ responses to current
events/trends). For example, during the SUV boom in the USA, Toyota
already invested >$1bil in hybrid gasoline-electric technologies. This was
in anticipation that (a) fuel-supply pressures would increase the demand
for hybrid vehicles, and (b) other automakers would respond by licensing
Toyota’s technology instead of developing their own.
Look for pivot points that can magnify the effects of focused effort. 7-
Eleven focused its organizational energy on the decisive aspects of each
market. In Japan, they catered to local tastes and the love for novelty by
using store data to rapidly develop new product offerings.
In China, they stood out from competitors with spotless interiors, tasty
lunches and white-gloved personnel who smiled and bowed to
customers.
26. Apply concentrated effort on the few most crucial objectives. This creates
disproportionate gains because
You’re maximizing the returns from limited resources (e.g. cash or
leaders’ time/cognition), and
You’re more likely to achieve threshold effects (i.e. payoffs that can only
be attained with a minimum level of effort). That’s why successful
businesses prefer to dominate a small market segment (vs having a tiny
slice of many big markets), and politicians tend to tailor their plans to
specific groups (instead of catering to the whole population).
Instead of having an unreachable goal that no one knows how to achieve,
choose a proximate objective that’s close enough to be feasible, i.e. a
target that you can reasonably achieve or even exceed. This makes the
goal concrete enough so people can
Work out how to get there, and
Focus their energy and resources accordingly. Kennedy’s ambitious
goal to put a man on the moon by 1969 was actually a proximate
objective: he knew the required technology was within reach and it was
just a matter of directing and coordinating resources accordingly
Strategic Leverage
27. When an organization faces crippling complexity and uncertainty, it’s
the leaders’ responsibility to resolve ambiguity, simplify the problem
so it becomes solvable, and risk being blamed if they’re wrong. When
NASA engineers tried to design a machine that could land on the
moon, they got stuck since no one knew what the moon surface was
like. Phyllis Buwalda fixed the problem by coming up with a model of
the moon’s surface—this was only a best-guess, but it provided a
proximate objective to help the engineers move ahead.
It’s a misconception that the more uncertain the situation, the further
you must plan. The reverse is true: the more dynamic a situation, the
worse your forecasts will be and the more you must take a position
and create options by setting a proximate strategic objective. It’s like
playing chess—you can’t checkmate your opponent from the onset,
but you can keep making moves to improve your position relative to
your opponent’s. Ask yourself: What’s the 1 objective that’s feasible
and can make the biggest difference if achieved?
Strategic Leverage
28. In any organization, you’ll probably have a hierarchy of objectives,
where high-level proximate objectives cascade into lower-level
proximate objectives. Your long-term goals will also guide your short-
term goals.
You can only focus on a new strategic objective if your basics are in
place. You must master how to take off and land a plane before you
attempt complex maneuvers. Likewise, a startup’s local operations must
be running like clockwork before it’s ready to expand into complex
international operations.
A Chain-link system is one where the overall performance is limited by
its weakest link. You can’t enhance the system until the weak link(s) are
fixed.
In a chain-link system with poor quality, you can get stuck since you’ll
only waste resources and reduce overall profitability if you increase the
quality in 1 part of the chain without addressing others. For example,
there’s no point adding sophisticated machines without skilled workers,
or to educate people in a domain with no jobs.
Strategic Leverage & Chain Link System
29. Harnessing Source of Power
The only way to get unstuck is to tackle the bottlenecks one at a time until
the entire system is upgraded. For example, you may have to improve your
product quality first, then upgrade your sales capabilities, then reduce
costs, before you see higher profits.
This requires
Insight into the key bottlenecks and
Leaders’ willingness to absorb short-term losses for future gains.
Chain-link systems can work for or against you. If you’re stuck in a low-
quality system, it can be hard to improve the entire chain. But in a well-
designed, well-managed chain-link system, you can achieve a level of
excellence that’s hard for rivals to replicate.
For example, IKEA’s success formula is no secret, yet no one has
successfully duplicated its strategy so far.
That’s because IKEA has
Built excellence into all its core activities,
Chain-linked these activities tightly and
Mastered the diverse expertise required for these activities. This makes
it hard for competitors to copy their strategy without replicating the
entire system.
30. Design
A good strategy uses design to fit different pieces together into
a coherent whole.
Most systems have many moving parts with complex
relationships. For instance, to create a luxury car, you must
address all aspects of the driving experience, buying
experience, pricing, advertising etc. All parts of the system must
be carefully designed to meet the overall system’s needs and to
avoid wasteful duplication.
There’s a trade-off to be balanced. A tightly-integrated strategy
allows you to achieve a lot with limited resources, but its
narrower focus also makes you more vulnerable and inflexible.
If you’re facing resource constraints and massive challenges
(e.g. a startup in a competitive market), a tightly-designed
strategy can help you to succeed. But if you’re a huge company
with ample resources, you can afford to have slightly less
specialization and integration.
31. Design & Focus
Strategic resources are assets which offer fairly long- lasting
advantages and can’t be easily duplicated by others. With such
resources, it’s possible to earn more profits without a well-designed
strategy. However, don’t rely on those resources and get lulled into
complacency.
Xerox’s patents on plain paper copying gave it a strong advantage in
the 1950s. It could’ve used this lead time to develop other strategic
resources (e.g. superior paper-handling abilities) to strengthen its
position. Unfortunately, Xerox didn’t do so and eventually lost its edge
to other companies like Canon and IBM.
Focus is about serving a particular market segment much better than
other players can.
It involves
Coordinating policies in a synergistic way to deliver extra power,
then
Directing that power to the right market segment. In short, focus on
your core segment instead of spreading your resources too thinly.
32. Growth
Growth in itself is not a strategy. Healthy growth—reflected in a
market share gain and superior profits—comes from offering
superior value & developing the demand for your capabilities. It’s
the reward for successful innovation and efficiency.
Leaders often make the mistake of pursuing mergers and
acquisitions for economies of scale and better cash flows. Such
engineered growth won’t add value unless (i) you’re buying the
company for less than it’s worth, or (ii) you’re in a special position
to add more value to the business than others. Otherwise, it’s
enough to contract the service instead of buying the company.
Metal container-maker Crown Cork & Seal made its success by
focusing on short runs for small businesses with rush orders.
However, its new CEO pursued an aggressive growth program
with 20 acquisitions from 1989-1997. Crown became the world’s
biggest container manufacturer but lost focus and its stock price
fell from $55 to $5 between 1998 and 2001.
33. Growth
Asymmetries between rivals can be turned into an advantage. Know
the relative strengths/weaknesses between you and your rivals, and
exploit the advantage.
Strengths and weaknesses are relative because a strength in 1
context may be a weakness in another. You must press where you
have advantages and avoid situations where you don’t. Exploit your
rivals’ weaknesses without exposing your own.
In business, competitive advantage is the ability to
Produce at a lower cost than rivals,
Deliver more perceived value than rivals, or
A combination of both.
No advantage is universal, i.e. it’ll be limited to certain products,
buyer groups, locations etc.
To sustain an advantage, you need “isolating mechanisms” that
prevent rivals from duplicating it. These include patents, reputations,
commercial/social relationships, network effects, knowledge and
skills gained from experience, etc.
34. Growth
Competitive advantages don’t always translate into wealth or profits. Once
you have an advantage, use ≥1 of these 4 value-creating changes to
harness the advantage fully:
Deepen an advantage by widening the gap between buyer value and
cost, i.e. increase buyer value, reduce costs, or both. Re-examine
every aspect of the product/process and challenge prevailing norms
and assumptions. In the 1900s, Frank Gilbreth doubled the productivity
of bricklaying just by observing and improving the thousand-year-old
process.
Extend the existing advantage into new areas, such as how Walt
Disney successfully extended its family-friendly brand and reputation
into films/movies
Create higher demand for the advantaged products/ services. However,
make sure you have the resources to serve/capture the new demand
generated.
Create/strengthen isolating mechanisms to prevent rivals from
duplicating you. You can work on stronger patents, copyrights and
brand-name protections, or keep refining your methods/products so
they’re harder to imitate.
35. Dynamics
Dynamics are the waves of change that roll over an industry, including a
mix of shifts in technology, competition, politics, and buyer preferences.
Such changes are beyond an organization’s control, but you can see
them coming and exploit the new sources of advantage that they leave
behind.
As a strategist, you must do your own analysis instead of relying on
analysts or pundits. Combine your proprietary knowledge with industry
trends and consider second order effects. For example, the deregulation
and digitization of the telco industry were long-anticipated, but no one
expected (a) the rise of software as a new source of advantage and (b)
the deconstruction of the computer industry.
In the past, systems were integrated by CPUs. With the birth of cheap
microprocessors, individual component parts (e.g. keyboards, modems)
became “smarter”, removing the need for complex systems integration by
companies like IBM and DEC. Customers could also use software with
general-purpose microprocessors to create any desired behavior (which
was also much faster and cheaper than creating new hardware). Small
software teams were now thriving while big incumbents struggled.
36. Harnessing Source of Power
This was how Cisco Systems—started by 2 university staff
members—became a major telco equipment player.
In the early 1980s, Stanford University created a solution to
connect its separate networks.
Later, 2 other Stanford staff refined the solution, started Cisco
Systems and bought the legal rights to the software.
Thereafter, Cisco rode 3 simultaneous waves between 1988-
1993:
The microprocessor and rise of software,
The rise of corporate networking, and
The rise of Internet Protocol (IP) networking.
Then in 1993, Internet usage reached the general public,
resulting in an explosion of demand for Cisco routers.
The combination of skill and luck allowed them to ride the
powerful waves of change to achieve phenomenal success
37. 5-Guide Posts
You can’t forecast the future, but you can detect waves with 5
guideposts.
Rising fixed costs which may force industry consolidation.
Changes in government policy (especially deregulation) which
changes the competitive landscape.
Predictable biases in forecasting: people tend to wrongly assume
that
Growth trend will continue indefinitely,
Big firms will triumph over small/mid- sized ones, and
Competitors will follow existing leaders’ strategies.
Incumbents’ response to change (as elaborated in the sections on
inertia and entropy).
The attractor state which describes how an industry “should” end
up if it meets buyer needs as efficiently as possible. During the
telco industry turmoil of 1995–2000, Cisco Systems already
described the industry’s attractor state with its strategic vision of
“IP everywhere”.
38. Inertia
Inertia is the inability or unwillingness to adapt to change.
You can exploit larger rivals’ inertia as they’re often slow to respond.
For example, Netflix triumphed now-bankrupt Blockbuster because the
latter refused to give up its focus on retail stores.
There are 3 categories of organizational inertia:
Inertia of routine: An organization’s operational rhythm shapes its
people’s activities and perceptions. The
1978 airline deregulation in the USA changed the rules of the game,
yet many airlines continued use the same pricing models and
planning tools. In 1981, the 3 major airlines (United, American, and
Eastern) lost $240mil in total, while the shorter-haul airlines (Delta,
Frontier, USAir etc.) made a profit.
Cultural inertia refers to entrenched social behavior or meaning (e.g.
work norms, values, political coalitions) that are change-resistant. To
break the inertia, start with simplification: remove complex process,
administrative layers and so on. You can also inject a leader who
represents new norms/values, or set a challenging goal that’d push
people to build new work habits and routines.
39. Inertia
Inertia by proxy comes from a conscious decision not respond
to a change/attack to avoid disrupting existing profit streams.
Businesses may “allow” rivals to poach their fringe customers
until they decide that it’s more important to start changing than
hang on to old sources of profits.
In science, entropy refers to a system’s level of disorder.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics says that entropy will always
increase in a physical system.
So, organizations will naturally become less
focused/organized with time, just like how an untended garden
gets overgrown with weeds.
It takes ongoing effort to maintain an organization’s purpose
and processes. Watch for common signs of entropy, e.g. loss
of focus in product lines, delayed shipping, and so on.
40. Sources of Power in a Good Strategy
Although external ideas and feedback are useful, the
most vital tool to a strategist could simply be to change
your own way of thinking.
41. The Science of Strategy
A Strategy is like a scientific hypothesis. Both operate at the edge of
knowledge (between the known and unknown), with a conjecture that must
be validated by logical & empirical tests. In short, a good strategy is a well-
formed hypothesis of what’ll work.
Treat your strategy as a hypothesis. Test your insight against
established principles and accumulated business knowledge. If it passes,
then test it in the market. Don’t confuse subjective opinion with fact—
always test your beliefs and assumptions with observable data in the real-
world.
Capture proprietary information about various business elements and
how they interact, so you can effectively test and refine your strategy.
Treat anomalies as an opportunity to discover valuable insights. Howard
Schultz noticed how Italian espresso bars had surprisingly high turnover at
relatively high prices, and hypothesized that he could bring this concept to
America. Schultz started his own shop, Il Giornale, and rapidly
experimented with various models.
He started with opera music, baristas dressed in vests and bow ties, and
kept evolving until he found a viable model that led to the now-familiar
Starbucks experience.
42. Use and Keep your Head
Apart from knowledge, a good strategist needs 3 essential
Skills/habits:
Overcome your myopia,
Question your own judgment, and
Record your judgments so you can evaluate/improve them.
Use these techniques to strengthen your strategic thinking:
Make a list of the 10 most important things you can do and
start doing item #1. Once you see what’s important and
actionable, you’ll feel more urgency to act on the vital issues.
Don’t latch on to the first insight or solution that comes to
mind.
Test if it meets the kernel of a good strategy: diagnosis,
guiding policy, and coherent actions. If not, review your
analysis/options. Shift your focus away from what’s being
done to why it’s being done. Consider the problems that
you’re trying to address.
43. Use and Keep your Head
It’s hard to critique your own idea. So, imagine a virtual panel of
experts (people with relevant expertise whom you respect) and have
a mental debate with them.
Rumelt’s panel includes people like Steve Jobs, Jack McDonough,
Bruce Scott, David Teece, and other domain-specific experts. Once
you’ve refined your idea, you can discuss them with your
colleagues.
Improve your judgment through practice. Consider an issue at an
upcoming meeting and commit your judgments to writing. During the
meeting, voice/debate those judgments to learn faster.
Keep your head instead of blindly following the crowd. Even
analysts, strategists and investors can be swept up by herd instincts
and miss the mark altogether. Form your independent judgments
about important issues.
45. Learning’s for Application
One of the things as I read the book is how much overlap there
is between doing strategy work and design work - diagnosing
the problem, creating multiple potential solutions (i.e. the double
diamond ), looking at situations from multiple perspectives,
weighing tradeoffs in potential solutions, and more. The core of
strategy, as he defines it, is identifying and solving problems.
Sound familiar? That's the core of design! He even states, "A
master strategist is a designer."
Rumelt goes on to hold up many examples of winning
strategies and advantages from understanding customer needs,
behaviors, pain points, and building for a specific customer
segment. In other words, doing user-centered design. He
doesn't specifically reference any UX methods, but it was clear
to me that the tools of UX work apply to strategy work as well.
46. Learning’s for Application
The overlap with design doesn't end there. He has a section
about how strategy work is rooted in intuition and subjectivity.
There's no way to prove a strategy is the "best" or "right" one. A
strategy is a judgement of a situation and the best path
forward. You can say the exact same thing about design as
well.
Since a strategy can't be proven to be right, Rumelt
recommends considering a strategy a "hypothesis" that can be
tested and refined over time. Leaders should listen for signals
that their strategy is or is not working, and make adjustments
accordingly. In other words, strategists should iterate on their
solutions, same as designers.
47. Learning’s for Application
Furthermore, this subjectivity causes all kinds of challenges for
leaders, such as saying "no" to people, selling people on their
version of reality, and so on. He doesn't talk about how to
overcome these challenges, but as I read the book I realized these
are issues that designers have to learn how to deal with.
Effective designers have to sell their work to people to get it built.
Then they have to be prepared for criticism, feedback, questions,
and alternate ideas. Since their work can't be "proven" to be
correct, it's open to attack from anyone and everyone. If their work
gets built and shipped to customers, they still need to be open to it
being "wrong" (or at least not perfect), listen to feedback from
customers, and iterate further as needed. All of these soft skills are
ways of dealing with the problems leaders face when implementing
a strategy.
48.
49. In other words, design work is strategy work. As Rumelt
says, "Good strategy is design, and design is about
fitting various pieces together so they work as a
coherent whole."