|
9 Signs of a Losing Organization
-
High Bureaucracy:
bureaucratic organizational structures with too many layers; high
boundaries between management layers; slow decision making;
too close monitoring of things and
subordinates; too many tools and documents discouraging creative
thinking...
More
Why Quick Decisions?
"Nothing slows down an organization more than
paralysis by analysis – the inability to make even smallest decisions
quickly."1
"The Art of War"
by Sun Tzu
Though I have heard of successful military operations that were clumsy
but swift, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays...
More
Fast Decision-making
Tactics
If you wish to build a fastest-thinking firm,
you must also get rid of
bureaucratic structures and layers. Further, a simple set of
guiding principles – shared by
everyone in your organization – for proposing a new course of action would
help you make correct decisions faster!
One key to successful
business
evolution and growth in
today's rapidly changing economy
driven by
knowledge
and
innovation
is to let go of centralized control. People who stay closer to customers know
better the market needs and can respond faster to rapidly changing customer
requirements. In flat organizations,
decisions are made
faster,
entrepreneurial creativity
of employees is released, and
ideas are managed
better...
More
Case in Point
Lessons from
Jack Welch
Don't "sit" on decisions, urged
Jack Welch,
the legendary former CEO of
GE. Don't set
something aside instead of making a decision on the spot. In order to
get speed,
real speed,
decisions at virtually every level have to be made in minutes, not days
or weeks.
Get rid of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is the enemy. "Bureaucracy fears
change,
is terrified by
speed and hates simplicity... Big
corporations are filled with people in bureaucracy who want to cover
things – cover the bases, say they did everything a little bit. Well,
now have people out there all by themselves, there they are, accountable
for their successes and their failures... Some who looked good in the
big bureaucracy looked silly when you left them alone."...
More
25 Lessons from Jack Welch
Lessons
from Jack Welch
3Ss of Winning
Speed:
Elimination of clutter allows faster decision making...
More
The Value of Strategic Planning
A key starting point of
strategic planning is the acceptance
of the counterintuitive notion that this planning process should not be
designed to make strategy. A successful strategy process would help your
company to react quicker to emerging opportunities and make faster decisions
than your competitors do.
Corporate Strategy: 2 Logics
It would ensure that your executives have a
strong grasp of the strategic context they operate in before the
unpredictable but inevitable twists and turns of your business push them to
make critical decisions in real time.4...
More
Use 80/20 Principle
The key theme of the
80/20 Principle applied to business is
how to create the greatest stakeholder value and generate most money with
the least expenditure of assets and efforts. The game is to spot the few
places where you are making great surpluses – be that a product, a market, a
customer type, a technology, a distribution channel, a department, a
country, a type of transaction, an employee, or a team – and to maximize
them; and to identify the places where you are loosing and get out...
More
Analyzing Proposals:
Six Thinking Hats
The Six Thinking
Hats proposal analysis tool invented by Edward de Bono5
is particularly useful for evaluating innovative and provocative ideas.
While most of our thinking is adversarial, the six thinking hats technique
overcomes these difficulties by forcing everyone to think in parallel. As
participants wear each hat – white, red, yellow, black, green, or blue – they
all must think a certain way at the same time...
More
Use SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is the Key Component of Strategic Development. It can
prompt actions and responses. Successful businesses build on their
strengths, correct their weaknesses and protect against internal
vulnerabilities and external threats. They also keep an eye on their
overall business environment and spot and
exploit new opportunities
faster than competitors...
More
Fast Company...
Setting Guiding
Principles...
Strategic Alignment...
The Power of Simplicity...
Getting Rid of
Bureaucracy...
Flat Organizational
Structure...
Decision Making...
Follow Your Intuition...
Reframing...
Pretending Ignorance: Smart Is
Dumb...
Values-based Leadership...
Strategic Thinking...
Lateral Thinking...
Systems Thinking...
Systemic Thinking...
80/20 Principle of the
Firm...
Six Thinking Hats:
Analyzing Proposals...
Creative Problem Solving
(CPS)...
Use Fuzzy Logic in
Innovation Projects...
Brainstorming...
Constantly Reassessing Past
Decisions...
Case in Point
Silicon Valley...
Case in Point
Dell...
Case in Point
Warren Buffet...
|
