CHAPTER 11
Actions That Promote Good Strategic Execution
Copyright ®2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

1.
Learn why resource allocation should always be based on strategic priorities.
2.
Understand how well-designed policies and procedures can facilitate good strategy execution.
3.
Learn how process management tools that drive continuous improvement in the performance of value chain activities can help an organization achieve superior strategy execution.
4.
Recognize the role of information and operating systems in enabling company personnel to carry out their strategic roles proficiently.
5.
Appreciate how and why the use of well-designed incentives and rewards can be management’s single most powerful tool for promoting adept strategy execution and operating excellence.
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PROMOTING GOOD STRATEGY
EXECUTION
♦ Allocating resources to the drive for good strategy execution.
♦ Instituting policies and procedures that facilitate strategy execution.
♦ Using process management tools to drive continuous improvement in how value chain activities are performed.
♦ Installing information and operating systems that enable personnel to carry out their strategic roles proficiently.
♦ Using rewards and incentives to promote better strategy execution and the achievement of strategic and financial targets.
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ALLOCATING RESOURCES TO THE
STRATEGY EXECUTION EFFORT
♦ Possible Resource Allocation Outcomes:
● Too little funding that slows progress and impedes the efforts of organizational units to execute their pieces of the strategic plan proficiently.
● Too much funding that wastes organizational resources and reduces financial performance.
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Strategy-Driven Budgeting:
Allocating Resources
♦ Screen resource requests carefully.
♦ Approve only those that contribute to strategy execution.
♦ Provide the level of resources necessary for the success of strategic initiatives.
♦ Shift resources to higher-priority activities where new execution initiatives are needed.
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INSTITUTING POLICIES AND
PROCEDURES THAT FACILITATE
STRATEGY EXECUTION
♦ Policies and operating procedures facilitate strategy execution by:
● Providing top-down guidance regarding how things need to be done.
● Helping ensure consistency in how execution-critical activities are performed.
● Promoting the creation of a work climate that facilitates good strategy execution.
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11.1
How Policies and
Procedures Facilitate
Good Strategy Execution
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USING PROCESS MANAGEMENT
TOOLS TO STRIVE FOR CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
Benchmarking
Best
Practices
Total Quality
Management
(TQM)
Managing for
Continuous
Improvement
Process
Reengineering
Six Sigma
Quality
Programs
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11.2
From Benchmarking and Best-Practice Implementation to Operating Excellence
The more that organizational units use best practices in performing their work, the closer a company moves toward performing its value chain activities as effectively and efficiently as possible.
This is what excellent strategy execution is all about.
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Reengineering the Organization
♦ Business Process Reengineering
● Involves radically redesigning and streamlining work effort, flows and processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance.
● Uses cross-functional teams, cutting-edge technology and information systems to reset and refocus the organization’s strategy.
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Achieving Continuous Improvement
♦ Total Quality Management (TQM )
● Creating a total quality culture bent on continuously improving the performance of every task and value chain activity.
● Is a long-term race without a finish in which success comes slowly in small steps forward ( kaizen ).
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A Statistical Approach to Achieving
Continuous Improvement
♦ Six Sigma Programs
● Utilize statistical methods to improve quality by reducing defects and variability in business processes.
♦ Six Sigma Principles
● All work is a process.
● All processes have variability.
● All processes create data that explain variability.
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Six Sigma and New Projects: DMADV
Define
Measure
Analyze
Design
Verify
What are our project goals and customer requirements?
How do we measure and determine both our goals and the needs of our customers?
What existing process options do we have for meeting customer needs?
Should we use an old or new process to meet customer needs and specifications?
How will we verify design performance and our ability to meet customer needs?
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Existing Processes and Six Sigma: DMAIC
Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control
Define what constitutes a defect or variation
Collect data to find out why, how, and how often this defect occurs
Determine when, why and where the defect is occurring
Implement best practice to eliminate defect or variation
Implement training, monitoring and controls to sustain the improvement
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The Difference between Business Process
Reengineering and Continuous Improvement
Business
Process
Reengineering
Aims at one-time quantum improvement
Top-notch
Strategy
Execution and
Operating
Excellence
Continuous
Improvement
(TQM, Six Sigma)
Aims at ongoing incremental improvements
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Capturing the Benefits of Initiatives to Improve Operations
Action Steps to Realize the Value of
TQM and Six Sigma Initiatives
Committing to total quality and continuous improvement
Emphasizing the necessity for improved performance
Empowering all employees to improve quality
Fostering qualitysupportive behaviors
Using online systems to speed the adoption of best practices
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INSTALLING INFORMATION AND
OPERATING SYSTEMS
♦ Benefits of Information Technologies
● Enable better strategy execution through data-based decisions
● Strengthen organizational capabilities
● Allow for real-time tracking of implementation initiatives and daily operations
● Provide monitoring of empowered employee performance (electronic scorecards)
● Build closer relationships with customers
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Instituting Adequate Information Systems,
Performance Tracking, and Controls
Key Strategic Performance Indicators
Tracked by Information Systems
Customer data
Operations data
Financial performance data
Employee data
Supplier/partner/ collaborative ally data
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TYING REWARDS AND INCENTIVES
TO STRATEGY EXECUTION
Techniques for winning sustained, energetic commitment of employees to the strategy execution process
Providing incentives and an engaging in motivational practices that facilitate good strategy execution.
Striking the right balance between rewards and punishment for individual performance.
Linking employee rewards to strategically relevant organizational performance outcomes.
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Nonmonetary Approaches to Enhancing Motivation
♦ Provide attractive perks and fringe benefits.
♦ Give awards and other forms of public recognition.
♦ Rely on promotion from within whenever possible.
♦ Invite and act on ideas and suggestions.
♦ Create a work atmosphere of caring and mutual respect.
♦ State the strategic vision in inspirational terms.
♦ Share the firm’s critical information with employees.
♦ Maintain attractive office space and facilities.
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Striking the Right Balance between
Rewards and Punishment
Performance
Rewards
Commitment-generating incentives and rewards
The firm’s motivational approaches and reward structure
Punishment
Adverse employment consequences
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Linking Rewards to Strategically Relevant
Performance Outcomes
♦ Focus on and reward results, not effort.
♦ Create a results-oriented work environment that focuses on what to achieve , not what to do .
♦ Set strategically-relevant, specific, and measurable stretch performance goals that are difficult but achievable.
♦ Link the performance goals of each individual in an organizational unit to the unit’s goals.
♦ Reward and recognize as success superior performance in accomplishing the goals.
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Guidelines for Designing Effective Incentive
Compensation Systems
♦ Make financial incentives a major, not minor, piece of the total compensation package.
♦ Have incentives that extend to all managers and all workers, not just top management.
♦ Administer the reward system with scrupulous objectivity and fairness.
♦ Keep the time between achieving targeted performance outcome and payment of the reward as short as possible.
♦ Avoid rewarding effort rather than results.
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