Fit to Compete by Michael Beer

Author:Michael Beer [Michael Beer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2020-01-13T16:00:00+00:00

High-quality direction: a clear strategy and clear values that everyone on the senior team is committed to and that lower levels understand and are also committed to

High-quality implementation: a system of organizing, managing, and leading that is aligned with the strategic direction and values

High-quality learning: the ability to learn the truth about barriers to execution so that the organization can adjust its strategy or its system

As we saw at SRSD, the silent killers prevent the development of all three of these assets (figure 4-2). Silent killers 1, 2, and 3 prevent the development of a high-quality direction. A leader who is averse to constructive discussions about strategy and values will be unable to develop a clear direction and a senior team committed to that direction. The resulting team ineffectiveness leads directly to silent killers 4 and 5: lack of coordination and of leadership development, both needed for implementation of the strategic direction.

SRSD’s coordination problem—the cold war that was recognized by all—was brought about by a system of organizing, managing, and leading that did not fit the division’s strategy. There was a functional structure with an overlay of three business teams, but they were strategy discussion groups, not true business teams. They were not assigned accountability for strategy execution and profitability and were led by engineers who had no experience outside of engineering (they had not developed a general-management perspective) and no authority to run their businesses. Wright and his team did not initially understand why that structure was hobbling implementation of their strategy, having done well at HP up till then in functional structures that did not need cross-functional business teams for success. Mosby hit the nail on the head when he observed, as quoted earlier, that the division carried the burden of HP’s past. He described the problem of structuring SRSD like a box division when it no longer fit that form.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.