Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

For every company wrestling with evolutions in its strategy, success depends as much on matching the operating model to those evolutions as it does on the soundness of the strategy itself. But exactly how do today’s companies create or update an operating model to match adaptations or wholesale changes in strategy?

Strategy 8

Strategy Company Banking Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Before the iPhone was introduced, in 2007, Nokia was the dominant mobile phone maker with a clearly stated purpose — “Connecting people” — and an aggressive strategy for sustaining market dominance. Nokia was so immersed in executing its strategy that it lost sight of its purpose. Insight Center.

Strategy 13

Strategy Company How To Supply Chain 13

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

. “We found the perfect strategy” ranks with “And they lived happily ever after” as a perpetual myth. A strategy is never excellent in and of itself; it is shaped, enhanced, or limited by implementation. When a strategy looks brilliant, it’s because of the quality of execution. Insight Center.

Execution 8

Execution Strategy COO CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

In the January issue of HBR, Roger Martin sets out some rules for avoiding common mistakes in strategy making. As he writes in “ The Big Lie of Strategic Planning ”, the first rule is “keep the strategy statement simple.” The result: one planning document, many different strategies. I couldn’t agree more.

Strategy 13

Strategy Document Comparison Retail 13

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2014

As Quartz reported last year: Members of the Glass operations team have been on the road showing it off to companies and organizations, and they told Quartz that some of the most enthusiastic responses have come from manufacturers, teachers, medical companies, and hospitals. Glass may yet turn out to be a great consumer success.

Strategy 10

Strategy Early Adopters Innovation Proposal 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 23, 2016

That leaves most organizations lacking a clear total workforce perspective and no integrated strategy to engage workers at the right time, cost, and contractual arrangement. The disconnect between HR and Procurement often means either choice is suboptimal on its own, so operating managers circumvent both HR and Procurement.

Strategy 8

Strategy Span of Control Finance How To 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 22, 2015

In an ongoing global survey of senior executives , more than half of the respondents said they didn’t think their company had a winning strategy, and two-thirds said they didn’t think their organization had the right capabilities to execute its strategy. Operating as these companies do takes a lot of confidence.

Execution 8

Execution Strategy Fashion Apparel 8

Change Starts Here

APRIL 24, 2012

When I started putting the methods and tools together that helped my clients overcome challenges and brought them success, a common framework emerged for how to be an effective change agent. No, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to implementing change. Organizations, initiatives, and even change agents are too diverse for that.

Webinar 78

Webinar Price Resistance Workshop 78

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2016

Strategic alignment, for us, means that all elements of a business — including the market strategy and the way the company itself is organized — are arranged in such a way as to best support the fulfillment of its long-term purpose. How well does your business strategy support the fulfillment of your company’s purpose?

Banking 14

Banking Strategy Film Operations 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2018

a cataract operation can cost $200 or less, compared with $3,500 in the U.S. In a 2010 review of its purchasing strategy, Ascension concluded that it didn’t really have an effective purchasing strategy at all. Ascension has another solid reason for pursuing its strategy.

Health Care 8

Health Care Insurance Cost Price 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 9, 2012

When success depends on others — suppliers, complementors, distributors, retailers — satisfying end consumers is not enough. Through the first half of the last decade, a foundation of Nokia's competitive advantage was its unmatched ability to customize a wide variety of phones for operators.

Innovation 13

Innovation Supply Chain Telecommunications Core Competence 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2017

But there are two types that are important for success. Tactical performance is how effectively your organization sticks to its strategy. In Precision’s case, good tactical performance required developing rules, checklists, and standard operating procedures and then following them closely. Every high performer needs both.

Organization 12

Organization Tactics Call Center Metrics 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2014

Like a startup, you have to get the market fit right, but you also have to fight the corporate systems at the same time, dealing with the rules, procedures, and approval processes that every big company has in place to support its strategy. By and large, corporate strategies and the internal rules they engender are good and useful.

Innovation 11

Innovation Conflict of Interest Strategy System 11

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

Business-critical roles — that is, the jobs that are central to differentiating a company from its competitors and successfully executing its strategy — will also change. This should lead to new strategies and, with them, new business-critical roles. Take insurance, for example. John Deere is a case in point.

Company 12

Company Insurance Engineering Software 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 12, 2014

The company’s twenty years of entrepreneurial success had positioned the company to reap greater financial rewards using a more disciplined operational focus. However, by the middle of the decade, Google was growing, YouTube was forming, and “operational excellence” wasn’t a differentiating strategy in technology.

Strategic Fit 8

Strategic Fit Rogers CEO Strategy 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2012

When Palmisano retired this month, the media chronicled his success by focusing on IBM's 21% annual growth in earnings per share and its increase in market capitalization to $218 billion. The real story behind IBM's success is the course Palmisano set for 21st century global enterprises. They listen as well as they speak.

Globalization 15

Globalization Golden Parachute Short-term Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

The continent’s long-term potential remains attractive, but a company’s success in the current environment will depend on its strategy. Companies operating in SSA cannot ignore the country, even though it will suffer substantially from the impact of low oil prices on the currency and business activity.

GDP 8

GDP Politics Marketing Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 30, 2014

Southwest Airlines’ decades-long strategy of “short-haul, high-frequency, point-to-point, low-fare service” produced what was not only one of the best-performing airlines in the U.S. For over 50 years, Wal-Mart has pursued essentially the same strategy of “offering the lowest price so its customer can live better.” Or consider U.S.

Company 8

Company Supply Chain Airlines Health Care 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

A company that creates a sustainable competitive advantage, executes well and reinvests to solidify its strategy will find that its share price accurately reflects its value. Our research also found that most major reversals of highly successful companies began because the company lost the very culture responsible for its original success.

Company 8

Company Bureaucracy Long-term Competitive Advantage 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 26, 2015

How do they match a shift in strategy (which is called for in times of change) with a shift in culture? I suspect that many organizations get into trouble not because of a failed strategy but because of a frozen culture. GE now operates in 175 countries across the globe.) The context demanded operational excellence.

Welch 8

Welch Six Sigma Agility Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

Knowing the market and possessing networks are important, but that's not all your company needs for success today. Sealed Air China has been successful not only because its senior managers understand the local market, but also because they are knowledgeable about the parent company's value proposition and technical strengths.

Globalization 8

Globalization CEO Long-term Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 8, 2015

In my research on how experienced managers and professionals step up to bigger leadership roles, I have observed both the value and the difficulty of returning to our youthful, fake-it-till-you-learn-it strategies. “I went home exhausted each day from playing the role of ‘Director of Operations,’” she said.

Learning-by-Doing 8

Learning-by-Doing Finance Definition Politics 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Many organizations, she argues, struggle with a "paradox of expertise" in which deep knowledge of what exists in a marketplace or a product category makes it harder to consider what-if strategies that challenge long-held assumptions. Ferrari pit crews operate largely in silence, despite (or because of) the roar of engines around them.

Banking 18

Banking Retail Open-book Creativity 18

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 21, 2013

In order to see the future more clearly, it''s almost always helpful to look back — and this certainly goes for IT and its ever-increasing impact on operations, and ultimately on competitive advantage. Yet with each wave, the criticality of IT to basic operations and delivery of service to customers continues to escalate.

Competitive Advantage 8

Competitive Advantage Management Information Technology Airlines 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2013

However, time and time again, statistics show that CIO and C-suite alignment drives financial success. Economic performance for organizations whose CIOs were part of the overall development of strategy outpaced that of other organizations by a scale of two to one as discovered in our Economist and HBR studies. Define Your Strategy.

CIO 8

CIO Hamel Technology Tactics 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2013

Be strategic and operational. In working with these successful CIOs over the years, I have found that they all share a common set of practices, philosophies and approaches. A far better strategy is to take the people that they have and develop them into blended executives. Stay secure and boost innovation. Reach beyond IT.

CIO 8

CIO Technology Storytelling Strategic Planning 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Everyone thinks they have a digital strategy these days. But while your company may have a business or IT strategy that incorporates digital technology, an IT strategy does not equal a digital strategy. Because most IT strategies treat technology in isolation. Does your strategy capitalize on that?

IT Strategy 9

IT Strategy Strategy Class Offshoring 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 17, 2013

We don''t often think about the way we usually operate at work, whether we''re performing an informal five-step process for evaluating a new proposal, or setting priorities for managing our time. So the organization started documenting standard operating procedures to capture employee know-how and wisdom. Should Do" Practices.

Efficiency 8

Efficiency Organization Bureaucracy Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

For decades, we’ve often thought of leadership profiles in unique buckets—two popular varieties were the “visionaries”, who embrace strategy and think about amazing things to do, and the “operators”, who get stuff done. The Gap Between Strategy and Execution. Insight center.

Execution 15

Execution Strategy How To Budgeting 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 27, 2014

Today’s corporations are directing more and more of their budgets toward a complex web of global specialist providers and suppliers to help deliver on their businesses’ core strategies. Or does it focus on customer service and helping the business achieve its strategy? Is it a process-oriented, savings-obsessed function?

Budgeting 8

Budgeting Objective Cost Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2017

So is John Rice, the head of global operations, along with CFO Jeffrey Bornstein. Increase operating margins to 18% (by cutting expenses). But first they need to get management of a company to change the existing strategy. At a minimum, as is happening to GE now, it forces a company to go through a review of its strategy. (At

Ries 8

Ries Long-term Short-term Price 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 27, 2015

If policymakers hope to be successful in their efforts to promote entrepreneurs and small businesses, they need to know what works – in short, they need a “Playbook” for small business job creation. An effective policy strategy for small businesses needs to focus on the unique needs these companies have.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Policies Banking Innovation 8

Strategy Driven

JANUARY 24, 2011

Closing the Execution Gap : How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results by Richard Lepsinger If an organization can’t execute its plans and initiatives, nothing else matters: not the most solid, well thought-out strategy, not the most innovative business model, not even technological breakthroughs that could transform an industry.

Execution 67

Execution Company 360-Degree Feedback Cooper 67

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 8, 2017

It’s natural to feel slightly paranoid, says John Lees, UK-based career strategist and author of The Success Code. Here are some strategies to employ. “You have a golden moment in your job search where you’re operating at peak confidence and energy. Understand what happened. ” Keep it short and upbeat.

How To 8

How To Letter Learning-by-Doing PR 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2016

Capacity, not strategy, was determining which projects launched and when. Prioritization at a strategic and operational level is often the difference between success and failure. Contrast this with other successful companies. If people were available, the project was launched. If not, it stalled or was killed.

Project 8

Project How To Objective Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2017

More important, do we look back on those initiatives as transformative in helping us build success and leading us to growth? The best-run companies, in contrast, think of cost management as a way to support their strategy, and of cost as precious investment that will fuel their growth. First, connect costs and strategy.

Cost 10

Cost How To Budgeting Strategic Planning 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2014

An innovation strategy has to include both. Yet, its strategy for almost three decades has largely been that of a sustainer, not a disruptor. Yet, its strategy for almost three decades has largely been that of a sustainer, not a disruptor. How has this strategy worked? Let’s examine a few examples. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Innovation 8

Innovation Disruptive Innovation Venture Capitalist Depreciation 8