What do Starbucks, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Dropbox, and Twitter all have in common? Each has a distinct corporate culture that infuses everything it does, from marketing to hiring practices to strategic decision making. If you’re familiar with the system we present in our book Mastering the Cube, you’ll recall that
The times of “stasis” in organization life are nearly gone, and the notion of being “Always on” transformation has gained more traction than ever (BCG). New frameworks, improvement approaches, and ways of working (such as Agile and digital transformation) are helping companies in very specific areas and markets manage constant
Deals are happening all the time – many with lots of hype from investors, analysts and executives. The right acquisition can combine break-through capabilities to deliver distinctive capabilities to the market. However, too often the promises of the deal never pan out. Each week I talk to executives who are
When we invest in an organization transformation, we want to see lasting results. However, nothing can be worse than a perfect design that seems to have a hard time gaining traction in your organization. So, how do you know if your change transformation is starting to take root in your
Learn five ways HR leaders can design their department and adjust their mindset to enable strategy and support business model differentiation.
In a world of fast-paced market changes, increasing automation, and rising digital transformation, it feels like small start-ups have increasing power to disrupt markets and perhaps even compete with much bigger companies because of their focus, nimbleness, and lack of legacy systems and capabilities. But, is that really true? Has
Effective strategy implementation is imperative for long-term success. Think of your company as a river. Executives stand at the mouth of the river, and there the water rushes with great strength and purpose, but as the river rolls cross-country the force and power dissipates – branches and tributaries form. Even
Many businesses look to shared services to optimize their performance and help them meet the bottom line. When properly designed and implemented, shared services can increase efficiency, cut costs, maximize synergies, improve performance, and/or enhance your services and capabilities. With so much to be gained, it is worth making sure
The medical definition of strategy is, roughly, change that contributes to successful evolution. Think about this in terms of your business. Isn’t that the end goal – successful evolution? What’s notable here is that nature evolves through a series of trials and errors, and the organisms that adapt in more successful
It is hard to overstate the benefits of organization alignment. Aligned organizations better implement and realize their strategies, can do more with fewer resources, are faster, and generally perform better in the marketplace. However, it is important to realize that not all alignments are equal in their power to produce