Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Technological progress and new digital products have perennially been relied upon for improving operations. But the truth is, tech can often make bureaucracy worse. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) were hailed as a cure to the inefficiency of paper-based systems.

System 23

System Bureaucracy Proposal Review 23

HR Digest

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

In this article, we look at how a small team operates. Well, here are some reasons why working in a small team is so much more effective: Your teams will be more productive. Team building for small groups can easily be achieved, thereby leading to more productive workers. About Small Teams. Small teams are extremely effective.

Team 52

Team Power Bureaucracy Team Building 52

Leading Blog

JANUARY 14, 2019

In struggling to generate a sufficient number of creative ideas, we typically blame the number of creative individuals in our organization or hierarchy and bureaucracy. Jeff Bezos and the people at Amazon use “time travel” frequently to stimulate innovative thinking about new products and services. Focus and distance.

Creativity 272

Creativity Benchmarking Learning-by-Doing Construction 272

The Horizons Tracker

JUNE 2, 2020

The very act of diversifying trade patterns itself does not come without any risk, as transport costs are likely to grow, and companies are forced to operate in unfamiliar markets with unfamiliar bureaucracy. Add in currency and credit risks, and it’s by no means an easy pivot to make.

Supply Chain 94

Supply Chain Hedge Credit Risk Bureaucracy 94

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 5, 2013

To most people, bureaucracy is a bad word, synonymous with ‘red tape’ and wasted time. Yet, despite the negative connotations, most companies still operate bureaucratically – insisting employees work inside of increasingly complex structures with processes and procedures designed to standardize or control everything.

Productivity 50

Productivity Products Six Sigma Competitive Advantage 50

Tanveer Naseer

OCTOBER 14, 2014

In business, leadership infrastructure is the sum total of all the management systems, processes, leadership teams, skill sets, and disciplines that enable companies to grow from small operations into midsized or large firms. Many midsized company leaders equate it with big-company bureaucracy. That’s wrong. How do you do that?

Leadership 247

Leadership CEO Planning Long-term 247

Harvard Business Review

MAY 22, 2018

Believe it or not, bureaucracy was once a progressive innovation. Its hierarchical authority, specialized division of labor, and standard operating procedures enabled companies to grow far larger than they had ever been. The German sociologist Max Weber famously praised bureaucracy’s rationality and efficiencies.

Bureaucracy 11

Bureaucracy Agility Energy Constraint 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

We argued that a business should be seen as a portfolio of “core competencies” as well as a portfolio of products. 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 9

Bureaucracy Short-term Long-term Intellectual Capital 9

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

We argued that a business should be seen as a portfolio of “core competencies” as well as a portfolio of products. 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 9

Bureaucracy Short-term Long-term Intellectual Capital 9

The Practical Leader

AUGUST 30, 2023

Sounds like he operated by the classic autocrat’s creed; “All those opposed to my plan, respond by saying ‘I resign.'” Spend heavy amounts of time with people on the front serving lines, production lines, or support offices. The king micromanaged and pushed hard for quick delivery.

Energy 52

Energy Power Focus Group Decentralization 52

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

Great Leadership By Dan

MARCH 11, 2014

APQC’s (American Productivity & Quality Center) ElissaTucker recently interviewed me for an article published on their site on March 4 called “The "Secrets" of Leadership Development. Picking that handful of critical competencies is hard … and often gets muddied up with politics and bureaucracy, and the temptation to take shortcuts.

Leadership 230

Leadership Survey Leadership Development CEO 230

Marshall Goldsmith

DECEMBER 16, 2013

In addition to reducing bureaucracy, high-performing, high-tech companies provide freedom in dress codes, scheduled hours, and lifestyle choices. Although employees may work hard, they appreciate the lack of rules, regulations, and strictures that inhibit their freedom without increasing their productivity. Relax the culture. .

Bureaucracy 151

Bureaucracy Intellectual Capital Kotter Telecommunications 151

Lead Change Blog

JANUARY 12, 2015

Then there are the business developers forever in pursuit of new products and new markets. Numerator thinkers operate with an abundance mentality; denominator thinkers use a scarcity mentality. While they are respectful and inclusive, they know bureaucracy is the enemy of excellence and the impediment to efficiency.

Innovation 150

Innovation Budgeting Strategic Planning Tools 150

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 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. There are critical government services that should not fail, such as processing taxes, military operations, or counting votes.

Bureaucracy 10

Bureaucracy Politics Technology Morale 10

Ron Edmondson

MARCH 5, 2020

Just like the people they lead, they become protective of the way things operate. Burdensome bureaucracies. And when they are forced to do so it keeps them from doing more productive things. After something is done a certain way long enough it’s hard to see how they are barriers stalling growth. They are just “normal”. .

Bureaucracy 56

Bureaucracy Brainstorming Guidelines Edmondson 56

Deming Institute

AUGUST 19, 2019

In my experience Trader Joe’s does a very good job of operating based on the words they claim to be guided by. We shun bureaucracy and advocate for decision-making to happen at our stores. I would like to emphasize that words on a website don’t mean much. This offer is not limited to full time employees. ”

Deming 53

Deming Long-term Short-term Bureaucracy 53

The Practical Leader

MARCH 14, 2012

” Since the failure rate of organizational change efforts like health and safety, quality, productivity, innovation, customer service, morale/engagement, teamwork, or public sector renewal is around 70%, this is a critical question.

Teamwork 61

Teamwork Bottom-up Morale Bureaucracy 61

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2017

Business leaders often think of “efficiency” and “productivity” as synonyms, two sides of the same coin. When it comes to strategy, however, efficiency and productivity are very different. At first glance, the definition of productivity appears remarkably similar.

Efficiency 8

Efficiency Productivity Products Company 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 21, 2015

Producing great products isn’t just about creativity and execution. Eli presented her work to executives and product owners in a two hour meeting. As the meeting progressed, the lead product owner got more and more agitated, and eventually exclaimed, “I can’t control any of these issues!”

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Organization Attrition 8

Persuasive Powerhouse

JULY 26, 2010

Moderate bureaucracy: If innovation becomes difficult because of bureaucratic barriers, employees will stop trying. Consider how Apple has been able to capitalize on the first I-Pod with additional, similar products that capitalize on its attractive design and user interface features. Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply.

Creativity 183

Creativity Influence Innovation Brainstorming 183

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 15, 2016

It was a problem regardless of brand, formula, or product — until Atis set her sights on solving it once and for all. More specifically, they employ a diverse combination of capabilities to solve problems that aren’t being addressed by organizations as part of their everyday operations. They don’t go it alone.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Innovation Brand Competitive Advantage 8

Deming Institute

AUGUST 19, 2019

In my experience Trader Joe’s does a very good job of operating based on the words they claim to be guided by. We shun bureaucracy and advocate for decision-making to happen at our stores. I would like to emphasize that words on a website don’t mean much. This offer is not limited to full time employees. ”

Deming 28

Deming Long-term Short-term Bureaucracy 28

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 17, 2015

Now, every company of any scale and in any sector wants to be closer to its customers, to understand them more deeply, and to tailor their products and services to serve them more precisely. Yet wanting to be closer with customers, and knowing what actual, operational pathways to take in order to achieve this are two very different things.

Productivity 8

Productivity Products Customer Intimacy Software 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 27, 2015

His belief, which manifested in both physical design and organizational structures during the decades that followed, was that the human factor should be removed from the production equation to the greatest extent possible. In the Special Operations community, there were three critical steps in accomplishing this: Understand your problem.

Taylorism 8

Taylorism Taylor Bureaucracy Leadership 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2017

Taking steps like standardizing the way interviews are conducted, for example, may be perceived as excessive bureaucracy by some employees even if they are beneficial to the organization as a whole. Organizational politics — but more generally a luck of trust within the organization to adopt new processes.

Management 20

Management Teamwork Core Competence Bureaucracy 20

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

In research for our book, The Founder’s Mentality , my coauthor and I found that 85% of the time, the barriers to sustainable growth are not external, but internal, and include bureaucracy, ability to motivate and retain talent, and slowness to decide, act or redeploy. Finally, boards should be highly attuned to speed.

Company 8

Company Bureaucracy Long-term Competitive Advantage 8

Leading Blog

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

So, in the case of Giro, by creating a great bike helmet that elite athletes want to wear, it naturally inspires weekend warriors to wear it, which in turn attracts mainstream customers, which builds brand power and allows you the resources to invent more great products. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy.

Collins 263

Collins Bureaucracy Sports Ethics 263

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 2, 2014

When the tooth-to-tail ratio gets too low, front-line people find that they have to send every customer request or idea for improvement up through the bureaucracy and wait days or weeks for a response. How can they serve the customer when they’re burdened with so much bureaucracy? A second likely culprit: too many supervisory layers.

Cost 12

Cost Span of Control Management Bureaucracy 12

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2017

Have you ever wanted to blow up the bureaucracy at your organization? Born partly out of frustration with traditional university bureaucracies, SFI has no departments, no formal hierarchies, and no tenure. . ” Anyone operating in a large enterprise feels the truth of Krakauer’s quip. ” asks Krakauer.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Wilde Uncertainty Construction 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2011

But all too often, the budget-planning monster weighs an organization down with endless inputs and bureaucracy and rules. No wonder companies have trouble inventing new products, services, and futures. Strategy is not about streamlining or improving present operations or organizational structures. It does not create energy.

Budgeting 15

Budgeting Process Strategy Strategic Planning 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2015

” Mostly looking at individual workers, he figured out that standardization and optimization of work processes could lead to astonishing improvement in productivity. In the face of the resulting massive improvements in productivity and service, dissenters who pointed out high profile failures and dysfunctional systems had little impact.

Process 8

Process Banking Compliance Bureaucracy 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 25, 2011

Nokia's inability to field a credible response to the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and Google's Android operating system in 2008 has precipitated a freefall in its share price. Although Nokia introduced few radical new products, in the 1990s it was a bold, innovative company in broader business terms — more than most people realise.

Supply Chain 15

Supply Chain Long-term Brand Early Adopters 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2015

The massive productive capacity that the industrial revolution had brought about was spinning out of control. So much so that we see them as “the way things work” and forget that bureaucracies were once innovations too. Before Weber’s bureaucracies became predominant, most enterprises were fairly organic.

Organization 8

Organization Bureaucracy Network Organization Informal Structure 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Insurgent startups, such as Instagram and Snapchat, manage to operate with far fewer resources than legacy companies in the same industry in the “pre-digital” era. Can anyone really argue that a company truly needs nearly 33,000 employees to operate the same basic website idea it had when it was 500 employees?

Company 8

Company Engineering Technology Bureaucracy 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Not so long ago, businesses were merely expected to conform to the laws and regulations of the countries in which they operated. But as business became more global, spreading to emerging and developing markets in pursuit of cheap resources and labor, corporate leaders entered countries with weak institutions, bureaucracy and corruption.

Globalization 13

Globalization Bureaucracy Efficiency Ethics 13