Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 3, 2018

. “Bureaucracy” has become a catchall term for the many ways in which organizations squander workers’ potential. Employees perceive bureaucracy to be an immovable beast, blocking their path toward efficient, satisfying work lives. In both situations we found plentiful evidence of bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Film Document Budgeting 8

Lead Change Blog

JANUARY 12, 2015

What happens to most staff and support units when budget time rolls around? Less impacted by budget pinches are revenue generators—or, the numerators. While they are respectful and inclusive, they know bureaucracy is the enemy of excellence and the impediment to efficiency. Numerator Tool #3: Be a Service Line Extender.

Innovation 150

Innovation Budgeting Strategic Planning Tools 150

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 10, 2017

We recently asked members of the HBR community to gauge the extent of “bureaucratic sclerosis” within their organization using our Bureaucracy Mass Index (BMI) tool. Here are our initial takeaways: The blight of bureaucracy seems inescapable. Bureaucracy is growing not shrinking. Bureaucracy is a time trap.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Survey Politics Consensus 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

This is the recipe for “bureaucracy,” the 150-year old mashup of military command structures and industrial engineering that constitutes the operating system for virtually every large-scale organization on the planet. Bureaucracy is the technology of control. There’s no other way to put it: bureaucracy must die. He was right.

Bureaucracy 9

Bureaucracy Short-term Long-term Intellectual Capital 9

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

This is the recipe for “bureaucracy,” the 150-year old mashup of military command structures and industrial engineering that constitutes the operating system for virtually every large-scale organization on the planet. Bureaucracy is the technology of control. There’s no other way to put it: bureaucracy must die. He was right.

Bureaucracy 9

Bureaucracy Short-term Long-term Intellectual Capital 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 13, 2017

In a recent article , Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini detail the toll that growing bureaucracy is taking across industries. Many of those working in the consolidating health care industry will immediately validate several of the authors’ key findings, including: Bureaucracy is growing, not shrinking. ” I beg to differ.

Health Care 8

Health Care Bureaucracy Hamel System 8

Tanveer Naseer

OCTOBER 14, 2014

Many midsized company leaders equate it with big-company bureaucracy. This includes forecasting, budgeting, and performance management systems. Survival is the prime directive for a start-up; there’s no budget for overhead or time to think of the long term. That’s wrong. How do you do that?

Leadership 247

Leadership CEO Planning Long-term 247

Nathan Magnuson

MARCH 2, 2015

Whether it’s helping to complete an Individual Development Plan , evaluating a past project or designating development dollars in the department budget, every little bit counts. Protect Us from Management. There are many bosses I served in the military with who I’ll never forget (for better or worse).

Collins 120

Collins Bureaucracy eBook Consultative 120

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 17, 2012

Everybody hates it, but so much of life is ruled by it: bureaucracy. That's why we launched the Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge. What happens when you abolish traditional budgets and planning calendars. Here is the complete list of Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge finalists (in alphabetical order): WeOrg: The Freedom to Choose.

Bureaucracy 14

Bureaucracy McKinsey Compliance Innovation 14

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

Manage a Tight Budget. The point is that the bureaucracy and red tape can put an end to your business faster than any other issue you might run into. Here are a few business lessons every founder should be familiar with. This is true, by making the right choices, a return on investment can become a good source of profit and income.

Licensing 66

Licensing Insurance Bureaucracy Learning-by-Doing 66

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2017

Department of State is a seriously big bureaucracy. My experience as a digital leader in the Obama administration confirmed my optimism that change can come to large bureaucracies. Sadly, the government is known for stovepiped, outdated, and over-budget technology projects.

Bureaucracy 10

Bureaucracy Politics Technology Morale 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge , the second leg of the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation. We asked some big questions in our quest to bust bureaucracy: What does it mean to build an organization in which everyone is aligned and inspired by a deeply-felt sense of purpose?

Bureaucracy 12

Bureaucracy Company Agility CIO 12

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2011

It was as if "strategy" was synonymous with a long-drawn-out, badly managed budgeting process. But all too often, the budget-planning monster weighs an organization down with endless inputs and bureaucracy and rules. So how can strategy free itself from the budget-planning monster? The monster does not create coherence.

Budgeting 15

Budgeting Process Strategy Strategic Planning 15

Coaching Tip

APRIL 29, 2011

Corporate leaders often fail because the organization’s structure is wrong: key players don’t have budgets or authority, the company moves too slowly and the structure promotes destructive conflict. Size doesn’t have to mean bureaucracy, but it takes fresh organizational thinking.

Development 112

Development Bureaucracy Globalization Middle Management 112

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 5, 2013

To most people, bureaucracy is a bad word, synonymous with ‘red tape’ and wasted time. Companies generate value when these commitments are clear and crisp and are fulfilled on time, on budget, and as scoped. Silent Killer #3: Bureaucratic Styles.

Productivity 50

Productivity Products Six Sigma Competitive Advantage 50

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 15, 2016

Windham and her colleagues proceeded on their own time and with a very limited budget. In the end, Atis was able to reuse existing resources, repurposing an underutilized color as opposed to creating a new one. They are driven by passion.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Innovation Brand Competitive Advantage 8

Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

The term Budgeting gets tossed around in many ways. Budgets get blamed for gridlock. Budgets get politicized. Budgets get more attention than the umbrellas under which they rightfully belong: Strategic Planning and Visioning. Budgeting by itself is a minor piece of business strategy. Running a bureaucracy.

Strategic Planning 69

Strategic Planning Budgeting Planning Competitive Advantage 69

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 5, 2012

Here's a cautionary tale of cultural disempowerment: A number of years ago, one of my colleagues was asked to help reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making in GE's former nuclear business — but was told that nothing could be done because every procedure was based on government regulations. And the list goes on.

Organization 15

Organization Constraint Self-aware Bureaucracy 15

The Horizons Tracker

FEBRUARY 28, 2021

The authors argue that the UK authorities that are designed to replace their EU counterparts are largely ill-equipped to do so, not least due to a lack of staffing and insufficient budget. They also lack the powers to effectively inspect and enforce, while also suffering from a loss of data in areas such as policing and border control.

Report 141

Report Bureaucracy Short-term Long-term 141

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2015

Once-a-year rituals like budgeting and strategic planning, which were important tasks for the senior-most leaders in the company, are a thing of the past. In a hyper-speed world with multiple divergences, a vertical chain of command with annual rituals creates isolation, sluggishness, and bureaucracy.

Agility 8

Agility Bureaucracy Competitive Advantage Software 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 27, 2011

We are also progressively increasing the IT share on our municipal budget because we know the value technology can bring to raise efficiency and improve the quality of services to citizens. It´s the barrier of subverting the culture of thinking "within the box", very common in public bureaucracy.

Software 14

Software Early Adopters Technology Crisis 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 21, 2017

These teams value creative working environments more than hierarchical bureaucracies, working prototypes over excessive documentation, customer collaboration over fixed specifications, and responding to change over adherence to plans. The answer: Budgets are growing by 4.7% More From This Author.

Retail 8

Retail Planning Agility Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2016

Convinced that they have a sustainable competitive advantage (always a risky way to think about your business), executives allow bureaucracy to take over and decision-making to become sclerotic. Eliminate bureaucracy. The difficulty here is that this doesn’t happen overnight. Rediscover the mission.

Company 8

Company Competitive Advantage Bureaucracy Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Adding new items without subtracting old ones is how closets get cluttered, bureaucracies expand, workloads grow out of control, national budgets go into deficit, and people get fat. Adding without subtracting. A related form of self-defeat is to allow bloat. It takes discipline to cut or consolidate some things for every one added.

Career 13

Career Company Bureaucracy Long-term 13

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

This results in “title bloat” (e.g., “CFOs” that don’t manage investments and negotiate payer or supply contracts but merely supervise revenue cycle activities, do budgeting, etc.).

Cost 10

Cost System Management Franchising 10

First Friday Book Synopsis

APRIL 13, 2012

In the winning entries in a contest co-sponsored McKinsey & Company with Gary Hamel’s Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) and Harvard Business Review, the authors of seven articles reveal executive thinking on the importance of engaging employees in an open and realistic way.

McKinsey 80

McKinsey Review Innovation Article 80

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

Without critical self-reflection, organizations build silos, bureaucracies, and cultures that impede rather than enable performance. It includes the planning and building of P&Ls and budgets, managing the portfolios of products, clients, and talent, and the long-term financial and strategy processes that plan for results.

Competitive Advantage 8

Competitive Advantage Supply Chain Bureaucracy McKinsey 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 17, 2016

Saudi Arabia’s vast global role on oil markets as a major producer, exporter, and decision-maker within OPEC is reciprocal; the country relies on oil exports for over 90% of its government revenue, making the Saudi budget, and hence the state itself, exceptionally dependent on this one source of revenue.

Politics 8

Politics Human Capital Price Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2012

President Obama has established an Interagency Trade Enforcement Committee with a $27 million budget to hit back at unfair trade. Because China's bureaucracy has great discretionary authority, it can intimidate U.S. Getting tough on China is becoming a popular idea. It's easy to understand why this sentiment has become so strong.

Bureaucracy 12

Bureaucracy Globalization Committee Fashion 12

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 12, 2011

It's their job to ensure that procedures are followed, budgets are met, and slackers are punished. Hence The Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge , the second leg of the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation. What's needed now are ways of integrating complex activities with little or no management overhead. And then there's control.

Organization 9

Organization Supply Chain Decentralization Bureaucracy 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 1, 2014

We have been renovating our small apartment, and it’s painfully over budget and six months overdue. I also felt my deep loathing for bureaucracy. Several of his workers were at my apartment ready to finish some work, but the building management company refused to let them in. This news made me furious.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Follow-up Skills Project 8

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Miscalculations, manmade disasters, natural disasters, shifting resources, changing marketplaces, regulations, bureaucracies. The Big Picture of Business: Putting Budgeting Into Perspective, The Bigger Picture of Strategic Planning. Won’t listen to advice. Circumstances Beyond Our Control. Bad Work, Poor Planning.

Crisis 58

Crisis Crisis Management Retail Budgeting 58

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

They feel unappreciated by management and powerless in dealing with the administrative bureaucracy of partner organizations. Are timing, budget, and resourcing consistent with what is required for a successful outcome? Too often, they feel, instead, merely tolerated or treated as suspect by organization employees with whom they work.

Agility 8

Agility Organization Resources Fixed Costs 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 23, 2017

And we planned and budgeted to launch a new advertising and marketing campaign, which still awaits congressional approval, to employ predictive analytics and microtargeting, similar to those used in consumer marketing, to reach Americans who may not have previously considered military service.

Talent Management 9

Talent Management Learning-by-Doing Advertising Training 9

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 10, 2013

Petersburg, Russia, last November, a confident entrepreneur publicly challenged a famous priest: "With such a large purchasing budget, what is the church doing to buy from entrepreneurs?" A great idea, and the Simples Nacional taxation system has indeed turbocharged formalization of Brazil''s informal economy.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur IPO Incentives Venture Capitalist 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

Yet there’s compelling evidence that bureaucracy creates a significant drag on productivity and organizational resilience and innovation. By our reckoning, the cost of excess bureaucracy in the U.S. A myriad of studies have documented the time lost to low-value management processes, from budgeting to the performance review.

Cost 8

Cost Bureaucracy GDP Management 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2017

Unproductive routines, corporate bureaucracy, and “administrivia” kill ambition and sap energy for far too many employees. reset the budgets. Reset the Budgets. We recommend zero-based budgeting and planning to make the choices clearer. How many still believe they can make a difference?

Zero Based Budgeting 13

Zero Based Budgeting Organization Budgeting How To 13