RSS - PostsThe Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage
The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage
Robert Steven Kaplan, David P. Norton
In a world of stiffening competition, business strategy is more crucial than ever. Yet most organizations struggle in this area–not with formulating strategy but with executing it, or putting their strategy into action. Owing to execution failures, companies realize just a fraction of the financial performance promised in their strategic plans.
It doesn’t have to be that way, maintain Robert Kaplan and David Norton in The Execution Premium. Building on their breakthrough works on strategy-focused organizations, the authors describe a multistage system that enables you to gain measurable benefits from your carefully formulated business strategy. This book shows you how to:
- Develop an effective strategy–with tools such as SWOT analysis, vision formulation, and strategic change agendas
- Plan execution of the strategy–through portfolios of strategic initiatives linked to strategy maps and Balanced Scorecards
- Put your strategy into action–by integrating operational tools such as process dashboards, rolling forecasts, and activity-based costing
- Test and update your strategy–using carefully designed management meetings to review operational and strategic data
Drawing on extensive research and detailed case studies from a broad array of industries, The Execution Premium presents a systematic and proven framework for achieving the financial results promised by your strategy.
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Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate
Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate
by Michael Hammer
Business Process Reengineering
Despite many years of restructuring and downsizing through process rationalization and automation, US companies have not obtained the 
improvements that she needed. This can be attributed to companies leaving the existing processes intact and using computers simply to speed them up! But speeding up those processes cannot address their fundamental performance deficiencies. Many of the job designs, work flows, control mechanisms, and organizational structures came of age in a different competitive environment and before the advent of the computer. Instead of computerizing outdated processes, we should “reengineer” the business processes, that is, to use the power of the computer to radically redesign the business the processes. Only through such a radical approach can companies achieve great improvement in their performances.
The process of “reengineering” involves the breaking of old, traditional ways of doing business and finding new and innovative ways. And from the redesigned processes, new rules will emerge that will determine how the processes will operate. The reengineering process is an all-or-nothing proposition, the results of which are often unknown until the completion of its course. Continue reading
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Teaching Smart People How to Learn
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
by Chris Argyris 
Competitive success depends on learning, but most people, including professionals in leadership positions, are not very good at it. Learning is a function of how people reason about their own behavior. Yet most people engage in defensive reasoning when confronted with problems. They blame others and avoid examining critically the way they have contributed to problems. Companies need to make managers’ and employees’ reasoning patterns a focus of continuous improvement efforts.
This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading.
