John Kotter’s July 19, 2013 article in Forbes, “When CEOs Talk Strategy, 70% Of The Company Doesn’t Get It” and Harvard Business Review’s June, 2013 article, “When CEOs Talk Strategy, Is Anyone Listening?” are two credible sources citing research and experience proving that, even in companies who take the time to communicate about the strategy, only a small percentage of employees actually take…
H.R. is generally a participant with the executive team in establishing the business strategy. But H.R.’s strategic role goes well beyond a team role in deciding the strategy. Execution is where most organizations struggle or fail, and H.R. can significantly impact execution. There are six Keys to Strategy Execution (KSEs) that are essential to optimize…
Never before have business conditions been so ripe for H.R. to make its difference. Not only are companies struggling for profitable growth with some downsizing and some adding people, but now the recipe for business success requires H.R.’s secret ingredients! We all learned about the Stone Age and the Industrial Age, and we could probably…
“New CEOs face a critical strategic choice. Should they settle into the job, spend a year or more getting to know their businesses, and then start shifting the portfolio? Or is it better to act quickly and boldly early on to divert resources from mature activities to a new generation of corporate opportunities?” This key…
There’s an article in the September issue of CNNMoney that fires up the imagination. It’s about a competitive challenge, which points our thinking straight to Strategy. Click the link below to read this article, “Local Shops Fear Amazon’s Expansion,” by By Jose Pagliery: http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/04/smallbusiness/amazon-expansion/index.html?iid=SF_SB_Lead This information-packed article describes Amazon’s aggressive growth plans and its capacity…
“You cannot please everyone.” How often have you heard this in your life? Do you believe it? Do you try to please everyone anyway? If so, how is that working for you? In business, we need to make a decision very early on a key question: Who is our customer? To answer that question, we…
Aligning all of the elements of your value chain with your business strategy heightens profitability and strategic performance. This, the 3rd article in our 5-part series — The 5 Keys to Strategy Execution – is the focus of this article. Most of us are familiar with the Lean term, Value Stream. Per Wikipedia, “Value stream…