Organizational Success Hallmarks
Organizational Success Hallmarks
Vision directed - This means having a statement of principles that is not just some high-sounding works tacked up on the wall of the company cafeteria, but a rather clear set of values that actually influence a company's operations and give employees a strong sense of pride in their organizations.
Cross functional - Asea Brown Bovari is a giant corporation with tens of thousands of thousands employees doing business in hundreds of local companies located across the globe. ABB cannot afford to be organized along traditional functional lines (e.g., marketing, manufacturing, R&D) because business decisions involve continuous coordination among many functions. Instead, ABB has a matrix organizational structure, with its local companies grouped by products and services, and again by geographical location.
Flatter & empowered - Information technology, intense competition, and the rapid rate of change have made he old, rigid hierarchies obsolete. Decision making simply cannot move up and down the corporate silos fast enough, so organizations must be fattened and individuals at every level must be empowered to make decisions. But, as John Kotter argues in The leadership Factor, this requires more from managers than they were ever asked to do before. "Figuring out the right thing to do in an environment of uncertainty... and then getting others to accept a new way of doing things demand skills and approaches that most managers did not need in the past. It demands more than technical expertise, adminstrativeability, and traditional management. Operating in the new environment also requires leadership." So an effort at developing leaders throughout the organization must accompany efforts at empowerment and flattening the corporate hierarchy.
Global - Companies like Ford have recognized the advantages that globalization can mean, from buying materials and services in low-cost areas of the world to developing new markets that can help cushion the blow when your domestic sales take a downturn.
Networked - Instead of carrying out every function on their own, companies will often find it far more cost-effective to create partnering arrangements with other firms to perform certain functions. Outsourcing, for example, is currently occurring in almost every field of business, where organizations are recently hiring outside vendors for their legal, audit, and cafeteria operations, security, and janitorial.
Information-technology-based - Computers and communications systems will continue to alter the way companies operate internally while improving relationships with suppliers and custormers. At large law firms, for example, computer networks now enable corporate clients to regularly review the work the firm is currently performing on their cases as well as the number of hours being billed to each other.
Stakeholder-focused - As Dr. Jerry Wind of the Wharton School explains, "A company will not be able to operate as a closed entity cut off from society's needs and demands. Management will still give primary attention to its shareholders, ... [but] increasingly, governments, environmental organizations, ... will hold firms accountable for their actions."
Flexible/adaptive - One of the best predictors of a company's long-term performance is its ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace. This requires a culture that encourages experimentation and intelligent risk taking, that incorporates now ideas into the fabric of its operations, and that provides employees with abundant opportunities to develop new skills so that hey can keep pace with change. At Motorolla, for example, the emphasis is on lifelong learning, with employees attending more hours of training annually than at almost any other company in the US. Training programs have enabled the company to achieve an exceptional reputation for product quality and maintain positions of leadership in areas such as computer chips, cellular telephones, and paging equipment.
Customer-driven - While many companies talk about getting close to the customer, some are actually trying to achieve it. Some manufacturing companies, according to Fortune Magazine, recognized that the best way for manufacturing employees to understand customers' needs to regularly travel to their facilities and find out firsthand how they use these companies. The result : significant product improvements.
Total Quality-focused - If any single element can be called the foundation stone of the change process, it is the emphasis on quality. After World War II, W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran taught the Japanese the importance of quality and how to attain it. Eventually, American companies got the quality concept and began singing out its praises with the other world-wide believers. They did that, just in time to win back some of their customers from the Japanese. Some of these companies (e.g. Motorola and Federal Express) have even been recognized for their efforts by receiving the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Time-based - Developing a new product rapidly and bringing it to the marketplace ahead of the competition can spell the difference between a company's success or failure. In his book what America Does Right, Robert Waterman describes Proctor & Gamble's plant in Lima, Ohio, which was given the job of manufacturing the company's improved Downy fabric softener. Lima succeeded in overhauling its production equipment so rapidly that new Downy was rolling off the assembly line and into supermarkets in the unbelievable time of only sixteen weeks. The key, according to Waterman, was the plant's empowered work teams that took ownership for the project and held a large stake in its success.
Innovative - Innovative and entrepreneurial are words most of us associate with small or medium-sized companies. yet some of the large corporations - the elephants - have also learned how to run with the gazelles. Through a variety of methods, companies like General electric, Motorola, Federal express, and P&G have proved that they can compete successfully. Unfortunately, too many other U.S. companies are still struggling to find a change process that will make them more competitive.
These are the twelve hallmarks of success that a congress of The American Management Association ( AMACOM) I had attended in the mid nineties in Las Vegas with more than 4,500 of executives from the five continents had discussed and agreed upon. I can see now that we were right in predicting the future traits of the twenty first century needs and demands.
Organizational Success Hallmarks - To learn more about this author, visit Dr. Fathi El-Nadi's Website.
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From interviews - conducted in late nineties - with more than 1,000 senior executives and academics, experts at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School have developed a set of twelve hallmarks that will characterize the leading corporations of the twenty first century:
Vision directed - This means having a statement of principles that is not just some high-sounding works tacked up on the wall of the company cafeteria, but a rather clear set of values that actually influence a company's operations and give employees a strong sense of pride in their organizations.
Cross functional - Asea Brown Bovari is a giant corporation with tens of thousands of thousands employees doing business in hundreds of local companies located across the globe. ABB cannot afford to be organized along traditional functional lines (e.g., marketing, manufacturing, R&D) because business decisions involve continuous coordination among many functions. Instead, ABB has a matrix organizational structure, with its local companies grouped by products and services, and again by geographical location.
Flatter & empowered - Information technology, intense competition, and the rapid rate of change have made he old, rigid hierarchies obsolete. Decision making simply cannot move up and down the corporate silos fast enough, so organizations must be fattened and individuals at every level must be empowered to make decisions. But, as John Kotter argues in The leadership Factor, this requires more from managers than they were ever asked to do before. "Figuring out the right thing to do in an environment of uncertainty... and then getting others to accept a new way of doing things demand skills and approaches that most managers did not need in the past. It demands more than technical expertise, adminstrativeability, and traditional management. Operating in the new environment also requires leadership." So an effort at developing leaders throughout the organization must accompany efforts at empowerment and flattening the corporate hierarchy.
Global - Companies like Ford have recognized the advantages that globalization can mean, from buying materials and services in low-cost areas of the world to developing new markets that can help cushion the blow when your domestic sales take a downturn.
Networked - Instead of carrying out every function on their own, companies will often find it far more cost-effective to create partnering arrangements with other firms to perform certain functions. Outsourcing, for example, is currently occurring in almost every field of business, where organizations are recently hiring outside vendors for their legal, audit, and cafeteria operations, security, and janitorial.
Information-technology-based - Computers and communications systems will continue to alter the way companies operate internally while improving relationships with suppliers and custormers. At large law firms, for example, computer networks now enable corporate clients to regularly review the work the firm is currently performing on their cases as well as the number of hours being billed to each other.
Stakeholder-focused - As Dr. Jerry Wind of the Wharton School explains, "A company will not be able to operate as a closed entity cut off from society's needs and demands. Management will still give primary attention to its shareholders, ... [but] increasingly, governments, environmental organizations, ... will hold firms accountable for their actions."
Flexible/adaptive - One of the best predictors of a company's long-term performance is its ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace. This requires a culture that encourages experimentation and intelligent risk taking, that incorporates now ideas into the fabric of its operations, and that provides employees with abundant opportunities to develop new skills so that hey can keep pace with change. At Motorolla, for example, the emphasis is on lifelong learning, with employees attending more hours of training annually than at almost any other company in the US. Training programs have enabled the company to achieve an exceptional reputation for product quality and maintain positions of leadership in areas such as computer chips, cellular telephones, and paging equipment.
Customer-driven - While many companies talk about getting close to the customer, some are actually trying to achieve it. Some manufacturing companies, according to Fortune Magazine, recognized that the best way for manufacturing employees to understand customers' needs to regularly travel to their facilities and find out firsthand how they use these companies. The result : significant product improvements.
Total Quality-focused - If any single element can be called the foundation stone of the change process, it is the emphasis on quality. After World War II, W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran taught the Japanese the importance of quality and how to attain it. Eventually, American companies got the quality concept and began singing out its praises with the other world-wide believers. They did that, just in time to win back some of their customers from the Japanese. Some of these companies (e.g. Motorola and Federal Express) have even been recognized for their efforts by receiving the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Time-based - Developing a new product rapidly and bringing it to the marketplace ahead of the competition can spell the difference between a company's success or failure. In his book what America Does Right, Robert Waterman describes Proctor & Gamble's plant in Lima, Ohio, which was given the job of manufacturing the company's improved Downy fabric softener. Lima succeeded in overhauling its production equipment so rapidly that new Downy was rolling off the assembly line and into supermarkets in the unbelievable time of only sixteen weeks. The key, according to Waterman, was the plant's empowered work teams that took ownership for the project and held a large stake in its success.
Innovative - Innovative and entrepreneurial are words most of us associate with small or medium-sized companies. yet some of the large corporations - the elephants - have also learned how to run with the gazelles. Through a variety of methods, companies like General electric, Motorola, Federal express, and P&G have proved that they can compete successfully. Unfortunately, too many other U.S. companies are still struggling to find a change process that will make them more competitive.
These are the twelve hallmarks of success that a congress of The American Management Association ( AMACOM) I had attended in the mid nineties in Las Vegas with more than 4,500 of executives from the five continents had discussed and agreed upon. I can see now that we were right in predicting the future traits of the twenty first century needs and demands.
Organizational Success Hallmarks - To learn more about this author, visit Dr. Fathi El-Nadi's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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