When Amazon announced that it had acquired Whole Foods Market, reactions from the media and thought leaders were immediate and varied. Some applauded the breakthrough deal as a herald to a new era of online/offline synergies, while other responses amounted to variations on “What were they thinking?” and “How can
Visit any business news site and you’ll find at least one article talking about “disruptors.” Uber has disrupted the urban transportation business. Airbnb has disrupted the hotel business. Amazon has disrupted the entire retail industry. Any analyst will be happy to offer you his or her take on “the it
How do the people in your organization approach major decisions? Do they rely on gut instinct? Do they ask superiors, coworkers, or customers? Or do they turn to analytics for insights that can help them make the best choice based on real-world outcomes? Many organizations spend millions of dollars collecting,
Building on our recent post about the costs of a misaligned culture and what to do about it, today I want to go deeper and talk about the vital link between strategy, culture, and actions. Even if a culture fully aligns with an organization’s strategy, individual choices can weaken that
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
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
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
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
When designing and implementing an organizational change, we all want to transform as fast as possible. Why waste time doing business the old way when we have identified a better path forward? Despite our wish for speed, the reality is that transformation can be difficult, it takes time to get