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
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
How do you differentiate your products from your competitor’s offerings? How can you continue to grow in a more crowded market? How can you get your products/services to the right customer base? These are the kinds of questions that keep executives up at night trying to find new sources of
How often do organizations implement changes developed during strategic planning sessions? While reports vary on the subject, the working reality is that many organizations feel completely overwhelmed with the amount of work they must do to achieve true transformation. How can we refocus our efforts to improve execution success? Unfortunately,
Strategic thinking is essential for an organization to differentiate and ultimately win in the marketplace. However, strategic thinking is much more than the ability to apply data, trends, and themes or envision big ideas. While these skills are certainly important for leaders of an organization, they don’t ensure that these