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Case 1
Motorola Analog
Division: Development
of a Shared Global Vision
Ralph Krueger and Corinne Pfund
Motorola Analog Division
In the beginning of May 1993 Alison Palmer, consultant for organizational effectiveness in the human resources department of Motorola’s
semiconductors sector, was looking out of the window of the airplane
that just left Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. She was on her way to
Manila, where the fourth phase of the visioning process would
occur.
As the plane was penetrating the clouds, Alison reflected on the
process the Analog division, part of Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector, had done to design and create a new global vision for the
division. She was partly responsible for initiating this change and she
thought of the process as a success. In the third meeting that had
occurred in Toulouse, France in October 1992 the shared vision had
been finalized. The development process of this shared vision had been
unusual because it had directly or indirectly involved all managers and
employees of the Analog division around the world. She was thinking
back to how the idea of developing a global vision had begun almost
one and a half years earlier.
This case was written under the supervision of Dr. David O. Braaten, associate Professor, and Dr. Robert T. Moran, Professor of International Studies at the American
Graduate School of International Management. This case has been prepared as a basis
for discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of
an administrative situation. Names of the people have been disguised to preserve
confidentiality. The authors would like to thank the Motorola Analog division for its
cooperation.
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Copyright © 2007 Elsevier, Inc.
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The History of Motorola
The company was founded by Paul V. Galvin in 1928 as the Galvin
Manufacturing Corp. in Chicago. Its first product was a “battery eliminator” that allowed consumers to operate radios directly from household current instead of the batteries supplied with early models. In the
1930s, the company successfully commercialized car radios under the
brand name “Motorola.” The company developed a broad customer
base consisting of consumers and state authorities such as police
departments. The name of the company was changed from Galvin
Manufacturing Corp. to Motorola, Inc. in 1947. In the 1940s Motorola
also entered into contracts with the U.S. government to explore solidstate electronics.
At the time of Paul Galvin’s death in 1959, Motorola was a leader
in military, space, and commercial communications, it had built its first
semiconductor production facility, and was a growing force in consumer electronics. Under the leadership of Robert W. Galvin, the son
of Paul Galvin, Motorola expanded into international markets in the
1960s, and began shifting its focus away from consumer electronics.
Motorola continued to concentrate its energies on high-technology
markets in commercial, industrial and government fields. As a result of
the expansion into international markets Motorola’s customer base
became more and more global. International sales represented 52% of
total sales in 1992. Motorola had always placed particular emphasis
on product quality, total customer satisfaction, short cycle manufacturing, and training and education of employees at all levels to improve
manufacturing, marketing and technical skills.
Motorola in 1993
In 1993, Motorola employed approximately 107,000 people worldwide and was among the United States’ forty largest industrial companies ranked by total sales ($13.3 billion in 1992). It was one of the
world’s leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductor
technology and advanced electronics equipment & services for global
markets. The company’s operations can be described as highly decentralized, with business operations structured into sectors, groups or
divisions, depending on size. Motorola’s three main activity sectors
were: the Semiconductor Products Sector, the Land Mobile Products
Sector, and the General Systems Sector.
The Semiconductor Products Sector designed and produced a broad
line of discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits (IC), including
microprocessors, microcomputers, and memories, to serve the advanced systems needs of the computer, consumer, automotive, industrial, and federal government telecommunications markets. This sector
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was headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The Semiconductor Products
Sector accounted for $4,475 million in sales in 1992 equalling 33.64%
of Motorola’s total sales. The Analog division was part of the Semiconductors Products sector and accounted for 10% of the sector’s sales
in 1992.
Corporate Culture
Motorola had a strong and homogeneous corporate culture despite the
relative independence of the various sectors, groups, and divisions
of the organization. All employees act according to certain corporate
values best captured in the Motorola global mission statement:
In each of our chosen arenas of the electronics industry, we will grow
rapidly by providing our worldwide customers what they want, when
they want it, with Six Sigma quality and best-in-class cycle time, as we
strive to achieve our fundamental corporate objective of Total Customer
Satisfaction and to achieve our stated goals of best-in-class people, marketing, products, software, hardware and systems, manufacturing and
service; increased global market share; and superior financial results.
People at Motorola were empowered as long as they could show adequate performance and aim at total customer satisfaction. Motorola
stressed empowered team culture that resulted in complex organizational structures that lead to team decision making. The company recognized the value of its employees. Motorola set priorities in developing
the capabilities of its people. For this reason, emphasis was placed on
training. Once an employee had worked for ten years in the company,
there was an unwritten rule stating that he/she cannot be laid off
without the permission of the CEO.
The Analog Division within Motorola
The Motorola Analog division was originally one of several divisions
that evolved from the Integrated Circuits division that was formed in
1960 in Phoenix. In 1993, the Analog division was a major manufacturer of analog products in the world, manufacturing linear circuits of
all different types and complexities for a broad spectrum of products
around the world including AM stereo radio chip, fuel injection in cars,
circuits in state-of-the-art cellular phones. The Analog division operated in a $7.5 billion worldwide market and employed more than 2,200
people worldwide. Its sales were expected to reach $500 million in
1993.
In 1993, two thirds of Analog’s sales originated from outside the
U.S. and consequently, the division had a global presence. It had major
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business interests in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Toulouse, France. Design
centers were located in these three locations, and in Geneva, Switzerland and Tempe, Arizona, site of the division’s worldwide headquarters. Production facilities for silicon wafers were located in France and
Japan, while product packaging and final testing was done in Mexico,
Malaysia, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The worldwide Analog division was organized along the lines of a
three-dimensional matrix, in which decision making was shared among
product managers, functional managers, and regional managers. The
complexity of the Analog matrix organization reflects Motorola’s belief
in empowerment, shared responsibility, and effective team management.
The Decision to Develop a Shared Vision
Marco Michelotti, vice-president and general manager of Analog, took
charge of the division in 1991. He was concerned that the worldwide
division lacked cohesiveness. Each of the regions and countries worked
almost independently from the others. Marco felt that the idea of a
global vision, communicated throughout the whole division, would
improve the way Analog was doing business globally.
Keeping in mind Motorola’s global mission, he hoped to develop a
common goal for the Analog division. When he arrived, the communication among the country managers and the product managers was
poor and prevented the division from operating efficiently on a global
scale. More specifically, close collaboration between headquarters, the
design centers and the manufacturing centers of the division was
becoming more and more vital to the division’s ability to react to
changes in the environment. This created difficulties, because each
Analog country manager had different priorities. Marco was looking
for a way to bring the worldwide Analog team closer together by giving
them a common cause embodied in a vision. An overarching goal
would, he hoped, make people communicate and collaborate better.
To achieve his objective Marco asked the corporate effectiveness consultant, Alison Palmer, and the training and human resources manager,
John Sherwin, to help him create and communicate a common goal to
all the division’s employees. For Alison, this was the first time that she
would work on an assignment with international scope.
Alison and John discussed the task and identified three ways to convince people to change their behavior and adopt a global vision. The
first alternative, which was the traditional way at Motorola, would
have been to “train the change.” Motorola already had many training
programs. Alison knew that the advantage of a training program lay
in the fact that it required limited time and effort. But she and John
saw a major disadvantage in that the employees would not be involved
in the change, rather, the change would be imposed on them. They both
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knew that change was only truly accepted when it was initiated by the
people themselves.
John identified a second alternative: to hire a public relations
company to create a convincing advertising campaign around the new
global vision and promote it within the worldwide Analog division.
Alison agreed that this would be a better way to convince people than
the training approach. However, it entailed the hiring of an external
organization to facilitate an internal change. This went against
Motorola’s principles. Moreover, here again, the employees would not
be intimately involved.
The third option was to involve all Analog employees around the
world in the conception and implementation of a “shared vision.” This
ambitious alternative was clearly favored by Alison and John. Creating a shared vision was a totally new concept. It did not mean having
Marco’s ideas communicated to all employees; it meant asking all
employees for their vision for Analog and integrating those values into
a common statement. The idea was to facilitate a “visioning process,”
which would require that managers and employees from ten different
countries develop a consensus on the future of the division. Alison realized that creating a shared vision would constitute a long process. The
potential benefits, however, were tremendous. If the visioning process
succeeded, the whole division would be focused toward one commonly
created vision. The division would work more efficiently and faster as
a global team. Alison and John prepared a proposal on developing a
shared common vision. The task was not easy. The problem was to
come up with a process that could involve all 2,200 employees.
When they explained their idea to Marco at their next meeting, he
was enthusiastic about the idea of a visioning process. He immediately
backed the proposal. In several brainstorming sessions after that
meeting, Marco, Alison, and John tried to determine how they could
get the Analog people excited about the idea and how the process could
be designed. It was anticipated that the visioning process would probably have to last between one and two years to involve as many employees as possible. The three had agreed that this process should build on
rather than replace the existing mission and objectives that at that point
existed within Motorola, i.e., the objective stated by CEO George
Fisher that Motorola be the finest company in the world. Marco and
his team, though, knew that “finest” might have various interpretations
in various cultures. They intended to explore these differences when
developing their own Analog vision.
Designing the Visioning Process
Alison and John began to design the initial process for the development
of the vision. An external consultant helped on the macro design. At
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first it was agreed that all employees would be involved either
directly and/or indirectly in the visioning process. After reviewing the
task it was decided that it was logistically and economically not feasible to bring together 2,200 people. Instead, the Analog country managers (in charge of Analog in each country), along with the Motorola
Country general managers (in charge of all the divisions of Motorola
in each country) would be directly involved. This was seen as a practical goal, because these managers already had two strategy meetings
a year.
Initially, three “visioning phases” were planned. Each phase would
last six months and would be started with a special visioning meeting,
piggybacking the strategic meeting that involved the worldwide Analog
top management twice a year. The managers would then have the task
of communicating the results of the process to their employees at home.
The employees were to give their opinions, comments, and suggestions
for improvements. Each phase would end when the managers met again
six months later and shared the insights they had gained from their
employees. Alison and John hoped that by the end of the third phase
the division would have developed a finalized shared vision statement.
This arrangement of piggybacking the strategic meeting was preferred
because it allowed the company to limit the costs of the visioning
process.
Alison, John, and Marco assumed that, over time, the managers
would understand and support this well-designed visioning process.
They did not see the ten different cultures represented as an obstacle.
Alison hoped that there would be an understanding of the need of leadership and vision. She was, at the time, not overly concerned with the
way the managers would communicate the visioning process to their
employees in the different countries. The vision idea was, at least in the
beginning, a U.S. initiative. She hoped that none of the participants felt
this process was imposed on them. For all these reasons it was of
utmost importance not to rush the process.
Developing and Implementing the Global Vision
Phase One: Phoenix, October 1991
In late October 1991, thirty-two managers from the ten Analog plants
gathered in Phoenix, Arizona for a two-day visioning meeting. Alison
and John developed two objectives for that first visioning meeting.
First, they wanted to begin to form the various managers into a global
team. They knew that it was absolutely necessary to convince the
general managers that this process was important to the future of the
division. Second, Alison and John wanted them to work on the identification of so-called “essence words” that would be the backbones of
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the future global vision. Prior to the meeting, the participants were
asked to read Kenichi Ohmae’s book The Borderless World.
To achieve these objectives Alison and John developed a procedure in which participants would work in multicultural teams. These
team ventures were reconstituted frequently to encourage a constant
exchange of ideas between all managers. This had another advantage
in that the managers for the first time really got to know each other.
At the end of the first phase the team effort had developed several
essence words in English that would be shared by each country
manager with his or her local employees. The essence words were:
Global Teamwork
Unity
Helping Others
Global Family
Innovation
Leadership
Personal Growth
Trust
Respect
Mutual Understanding
Esprit d’ Equipe
Helping Each Other
Premier/Finest
Alison and John knew that the greatest problems during phase one
would center around management expectations. All of the thirty-two
participants wanted to finish the discussion as quickly as possible. At
first, the managers regarded the visioning process as a task to be completed in the same way they completed their daily tasks. Alison remembered one manager saying: “All right, so let’s get started. We should be
able to come up with a sentence by the end of the day.” Also, most of
the people believed that a vision was imposed, and, therefore, expected
the activities in this first meeting to be “a lot of fluff.” The meeting was
perceived by most participants as being part of a Motorola training
program. One other comment that John heard was: “The company
wants top management to get more training.” Here again the meeting
was seen more as an exercise. Most of it would be soon forgotten.
However, once the activities started, the managers discovered they
enjoyed the process of talking to and learning about each other. This
allowed Alison and John to view this meeting as a success.
Furthermore, Alison and John also had to consider the varying levels
of written and spoken English. To accommodate everybody the
processes had to be slowed down to avoid losing lose port of the group
that typically consisted half of Americas and half of people from other
countries. Non-Americans had difficulty with the constant use of
English and dialogue was necessary to clarify the meaning of each
essence word. For example, the word “family” had very different meanings from culture to culture. For Japanese and Korean managers to be
a family meant that each of them would be willing to give up his or
her life for the company. On the other hand, for Americans or French
it had connotations such as unity, bonds, or nucleus. Asians were more
reluctant to use this word. Long discussions were necessary to reach a
common understanding of all the essence words’ meanings.
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Immediately following the phase one meeting, Alison and John discussed the results of the first meeting. John at one point said, “I am
convinced that with all these discussions and exchanges, all the managers have a common understanding on what each of the essence words
means to the division.” In a communique sent to the participants of
the phase one meeting. Alison tried to summarize the main findings and
to provide guiding questions for the managers to use when sharing the
results of this meeting with their respective organizations. Most importantly, Alison stressed that the words selected were less important than
the spirit and the shared experiences that generated the words.
Between Phase One and Phase Two
Alison and John knew that the most critical part of the first phase was
in the communication of the essence words to all employees in each of
the Analog plants. Theoretically, the two effectiveness consultants’ role
was to ensure that the feedback process was carried out in each country.
However, Marco, John, and Alison decided that it should not become
a performance issue when a manager failed to involve his or her
employees in the process. Marco pointed out: “We will not control our
people’s actions, we have to build trust and convince them of the necessity of this process.” Only a voluntary compliance based on the understanding of the importance of this process would lead to the desired
results.
Consequently, the involvement of employees differed from country
to country. It was a challenge for most managers to transmit the experience of this first meeting to their people. How could they explain and
communicate the discussions shared by managers from ten countries?
Whereas the meeting in Phoenix had been planned for them by Alison
and John, the country managers were responsible for creating an appropriate feedback process at home. Because Alison and John could not
in person facilitate the visioning processes in the different countries,
this created a psychological barrier for many managers of non-U.S.
operations. Alison and John tried to help the managers as much
as possible by putting together an English video and information
material including presentation transparencies and a summary of the
meeting.
For the U.S. Analog managers who participated in the first meeting,
Alison and John were able to take part in the feedback process. Outside
the U.S. the various countries took different approaches. The Japanese
organization, for example, brought in an external human resources
consultant, while the French felt they knew how to handle the task on
their own. Neither Alison nor John knew how the essence words were
communicated to and evaluated by the employees in the different
countries.
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Another important issue was the question of continuity. Because
Marco had just been promoted to vice-president and general manager
of the Analog division, all country managers were eager to attend the
first visioning meeting and meet Marco. Therefore, they all participated
in the activities. Nevertheless, Alison and John felt that, although most
of the participants liked the activities, many of them did not believe
that this visioning process represented a significant, long-term change.
This attitude also constrained the feedback process. John estimated that
only 30% of the participants really did a good job of duplicating the
visioning process in their home country following phase one.
Phase Two: Tokyo, March 1992
The managers from the various country facilities met again for two
days in Tokyo in March 1992 to bring to the group the feedback from
their respective Analog employees. The Japanese Analog division was
very honored to host the strategic and visioning meetings because the
costs of holding a meeting in Tokyo under normal circumstances would
have been prohibitive. The decision to hold the meeting in Tokyo was
of symbolic importance and meant to stress the idea of global family.
At this meeting, Alison and John had planned first to develop a rough
vision statement using the input from the worldwide Analog organizations, and, second, to start aligning the regional and local mission statements with the vision. To develop a draft of the vision, the participants
were divided into six cross-cultural groups. Each of the groups had to
review the feedback packages and combine the suggestions into one
draft global vision statement. These six vision statements were then
shared with the group as a whole. Then, the group discussed how each
statement would strengthen the Analog division globally and how far
it would build opportunities for the division. In the following session,
six new groups were formed. Their task was to integrate these six statements developed by the first teams into one statement. The new set of
six statements was then, in a final step, integrated into one rough global
vision statement by the group as a whole. The Analog division wanted
to be:
An innovative, responsive and trustworthy global family achieving leadership and mutual prosperity by benefiting our customers, employees and
communities.
Based on the shared understanding of the essence concepts, this draft
of the vision was developed in five languages including English. Alison
and John had told the participants: “We do not want the different countries to have a translated version of the English vision. We want you
to develop the Analog vision in your language based on the common
understanding of the essence words.” Each of the participants was
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responsible for verifying that the feedback on the essence words
received after the first meeting from her/his organization at home was
well represented in the statement.
The following day, participants identified how their work and their
organizations would have to change to implement the global vision
statement. Furthermore, it was their task to review the compatibility
between the first vision draft and their regional and functional missions. For this task they used the following set of questions that Alison
and John had prepared.
Task One (Friday Evening):
1. Review the Phase One Feedback Packet suggestions from Analog
organizations and the ideas from the story board.
2. Are the suggestions clear? Listen for understanding.
3. Based on all suggestions, decide, identify, or recommend what
the critical elements of the vision statement should be.
4. Write the suggestions into one global vision statement.
Large Group Process Guide—Review the suggested statements and
test against the following questions:
How will this statement strengthen us globally?
How will this statement build opportunities for us all?
Task Two (Friday Evening):
Using the suggested statements and outcomes from the previous discussion, write a recommended global vision statement.
Process guideline—As a large group, integrate final six statements
into one statement.
Task Three (Homework—Friday Evening):
1. As a representative your organization, you are responsible for
reviewing the suggested Global Vision Statement from the suggestions your organizations and the knowledge you have of your
organizations’ ideas about the global vision. Are the ideas and
suggestions from your organization well represented?
2. Prepare for tomorrow’s discussion by having examples of the
following:
If this were your global statement . . . If successfully carried out,
what might be some results for
• My organization
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My culture
My country
My employees
Motorola
Myself as a leader
Task Four (Saturday Morning):
Working in a group which represents your function or region,
prepare and agree upon a process plan that will ensure that the
global vision is shared with your organization in such a way that
employees begin to carry out the vision and have the opportunity to
react to this recommended statement. Use the following suggested
questions:
• How will the global vision help me in my work?
• Will I work differently than I have up until now?
• How will we be different than we were before within Bipolar
Analog?
Identify critical steps and set dates
Task Five (Saturday Afternoon):
1. Discuss your mission with others to ensure clarity
2. Review your regional/functional mission with respect to the
global vision. Are there any missing elements with respect to
aligning the global vision?
3. Identify and record any adjustments which must be made by you
and your organization to ensure alignment.
4. Briefly share your thoughts, ideas or suggestions with the whole
group.
Task Six (Saturday Afternoon):
Individual Reflection
Your next task will be to develop a plan for your organization to
address alignment of your mission with the global vision. In preparation for that discussion take some time to think about the many discussion points you have shared and heard today.
• What have been the most important or valuable things you have
experienced as a participant in a shared visioning process?
• How can you ensure that people in your organization learn the same
things?
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• What challenges do your organization and Analog face in successfully implementing the global vision?
• How should the mission alignment process be coordinated with the
plan you developed to share the global vision?
• What has to be decided upon before you can involve your organization in the alignment process?
• What have you discovered to be familiar or in common across the
Analog organization with respect to your mission?
Task Seven (Saturday Afternoon):
1. Working in a group that represents your region or function,
using what you have learned from your individual reflection,
develop a process plan that will align the various missions of
your group with the global vision.
2. Identify critical steps and set dates
3. Be prepared to share your entire plan with the whole group.
(The entire plan includes the work of this morning on the process plan
to share the global vision as well as the plan to ensure mission alignment with the vision.)
Whereas almost all of the tasks were tackled in teams, the participants individually had to develop a procedure for their organizations
to address the alignment of their local mission with the global vision.
In all these activities, which can be considered the first steps of the
implementation process, Alison emphasized setting deadlines by which
the changes in structure, systems and behaviors within the organizations should be implemented.
Although, in retrospect, she considered this meeting in Tokyo a
success, Alison remembered all the problems she and John encountered.
First, the decision to let some Japanese Analog employees who had not
attended the first meeting in Phoenix participate created some confusion and delay, because the newcomers did not understand why all this
was happening. As a result, a few confused participants left the room
or did not come back the second day. Alison and John did not consider
this to be detrimental to the process.
Furthermore, a polarization in some of the smaller groups was
noticed. The groups stuck to their interpretations and ideas and refused
to further discuss other groups’ statements. Alison was somewhat discouraged when one of the American participants said, “Our statement
is the best, why should we discuss it?” In these cases Alison had to lead
the participants back to the common ground, namely the essence
words, they started from.
These problems made it difficult to keep the groups focused at times.
Nevertheless, this meeting must be considered a milestone on the way
to a global vision because Marco, Alison, and John recognized that
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visioning was a process that would not end on a certain date as they
had first anticipated. Instead, the phases would continue indefinitely.
Marco institutionalized the visioning meetings. They would occur after
each strategic meeting, twice a year. Visioning was considered from
then on as an ongoing process of positive change. This decision led to
a change in the managers’ attitude as they realized they were in for the
long haul. Their commitment to the process and the implementation of
the vision increased noticeably.
Between Phase Two and Phase Three
Having developed the vision statement in five languages, the returning
managers did not have to concern themselves with translating the
English version of the vision statement. During the second meeting they
had individually developed a plan on how to share the experience they
had had (see Task Six) and how to involve the employees in the alignment of their local mission statement with the global vision.
In line with these changes, the country managers also had to make
sure that their employees started to adapt their systems and structures
to the new vision. To facilitate these adjustments as much as possible
Alison and John put together a package similar to the one distributed
after the first phase. But this time the video was translated into French
and Japanese. Furthermore, in preparation for the Phase Three meeting
in Toulouse, Alison and John also asked each organization to come up
with the symbol that best represents the work done thus far on the
visioning process or the vision itself.
Phase Three: Toulouse, October 1992
When the managers met again in Toulouse in October 1992, it became
clear that they had been rather successful in creating the vision statement at their last meeting in Tokyo. Almost all organizations in the
various countries were satisfied with the rough version that had been
developed in Tokyo. Only two minor adjustments were necessary. The
finalized English vision statement expresses what the Analog division
wants to be:
“A spirited, innovative, responsive and trustworthy global family achieving leadership and mutual prosperity by benefiting our customers, ourselves, and communities.”
Looking back at the final wording of the vision, Alison had to smile
when she read the words “mutual prosperity.” “Prosperity” was a word
the Japanese and Korean had fought for. The Americans had preferred
the word “success.” The Asians disliked the word success because it
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had a very strong monetary connotation. Prosperity was more longterm oriented and broader in meaning. When she looked at the French
draft of the vision, she remembered the comment of the country
manager: “In France, we have leaders, but the word leadership does
not exist. I have to change the sentence a little so that it fits.” She realized once more that the words by themselves were meaningless. The
meaning of the vision was the key to the whole process. She was almost
sure that by the third meeting everybody understood the vision.
The development of the final statement in all languages was postponed until after the Phase Three meeting. Based on this achievement,
Alison and John wanted the group to get a good grasp of what the
vision meant in the various cultures. This was particularly aimed at
developing the division into a global family that would understand that
each culture had unique differences and strengths. For the third
meeting, all the managers were asked to bring a symbol that would best
represent the shared vision they had developed with their peers. To
instill this mutual understanding, Alison once again split up the large
group into six smaller groups.
Within these teams, each of the participants had to share what
symbol he or she had brought and in what way it represented the vision.
For example, one manager from India showed a picture of a salad bowl
and explained, “We selected this symbol because we are not a melting
pot, but individuals with our own rights. Therefore, this compares well
with a good salad that consists of many different ingredients each of
them contributing to the whole. So, we are all ingredients of a big salad
to which the seasoning is added in the form of a global shared vision
and a global strategy.” A French participant brought a drawing that
showed two hands reaching out for each other. He stated, “These two
hands reaching out for each other symbolize relationships between two
partners like wife and husband or supplier and customer. What we are
trying to achieve with our vision is to close this gap between the
hands.” Expressing the vision in the form of a symbol allowed the participants to get a feel for what the vision really meant to the other
culture. This procedure also exposed the participants to the cultural
differences and strengths that would have otherwise been difficult to
detect.
Having developed a global-shared vision and the necessary mutual
understanding, the other main objective that was set for this meeting
was to continue the implementation of the vision statement. The global
team had already started this process during and after the Tokyo
meeting. Local mission statements of each country organization were
aligned with the global vision. This process was now pushed further
by carrying out a global whole system assessment. This assessment was
aimed at designing a strategy meeting that would be more efficient due
to the implications and changes occasioned by the global vision. For
this reason, this was the first of the semi-annual meetings in which the
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visioning meeting preceded the strategy meeting. Alison chose a set of
questions regarding the task, the culture, and the structure and systems
technology that guided the group to make the strategy meeting more
effective.
The same set of questions was used after the strategy meeting to find
out how the process and the content of the strategy meeting could be
enhanced. This was especially important because it was so easy to fall
back into the old way of doing things. Therefore, this whole system
assessment was vital in translating the vision into real behavioral
changes.
Beyond Phase Three
At the end of December 1992, Marco, Alison, and John followed up
Phase Three with an implementation package to facilitate the discussions within the country organizations. In a letter to the global leadership team of the Analog division Marco wrote:
It is critically important, as a leader of this change process, that you consistently present, participate in, and model to your organizations the
spirit of the vision we have developed together. This next year will challenge us to be very creative in helping the organization to change the
way it works.
Throughout the last year and a half, Alison had spent a lot of time
thinking about whether or not the process was perceived to be successful in the various countries. She feared to some extent that the
Americans were more positive than the Asians about the whole process.
Did all the different countries feel the change in their organization?
More importantly, does every Analog employee know and understand
the shared vision? Have the managers been able to communicate to
their people what was involved?
She now realized that the meeting in Manila would be another challenge. The division was now in the process of implementing the shared
vision. Each of the plants had to change its systems and structures to
be in line with the shared vision. She knew that the success of the implementation would primarily depend on how well the global vision
was accepted and understood by each and every person in the global
division.
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DEVELOPMENT OF A SHARED GLOBAL VISION
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