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Leading by Cause

Lead Change Blog

A recent conversation with a community bank CEO focused on his vision for the company. What is getting in the way of our new business development activities?” . But every numeric result – product development, marketing, sales, manufacturing, and distribution – reflects human behavior. Which customers did we focus on?

P&L 220
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A Simple Way to Test Your Company’s Strategic Alignment

Harvard Business Review

For example, as it grew, Facebook found that its early “move fast and break things” culture had to be funneled into focused technical teams and product groups to make its product development process faster and less erratic, and for it to have a chance of meeting the demands of its new public shareholders following its IPO.

Banking 14
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Don't Let What You Know Limit What You Imagine

Harvard Business Review

Whether it's the stubborn inefficiencies of the health-care system , the ever-rising costs of the higher-education system , even the slow-motion collapse of the US postal system , leaders with unrivaled expertise and decades of experience can't seem to develop creative solutions to dire problems. billion — not a bad decade.

Banking 18
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Is Your Company Actually Set Up to Support Your Strategy?

Harvard Business Review

How do banks switch customer relationships from branch offices to mobile phone screens? 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. sweetvenom/Getty Images. ” he asked.

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How to Prioritize Your Company’s Projects

Harvard Business Review

When I first joined BNP Paribas Fortis, for example, two younger and more dynamic banks had just overtaken us. The bank was using a project management tool, but the lack of discipline in keeping it up to date made it largely fruitless. Capacity, not strategy, was determining which projects launched and when.

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Smart Leaders Focus on Execution First and Strategy Second

Harvard Business Review

Verizon would not have been able to so quickly and successfully change its strategy without being willing to question and overhaul traditional organizational structures. The Gap Between Strategy and Execution. Big strategies need local options. Insight Center. Sponsored by the Brightline Initiative.

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A Playbook for Making America More Entrepreneurial

Harvard Business Review

In the past, economic development has prioritized big businesses. But these economic development strategies focused on big businesses, sometimes known as “elephant hunting,” may overstate the importance of large firms. A Main Street small business might require a term loan from a bank to buy a piece of equipment.