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Bahrain, a small isle in the Persian Gulf has been fully engaged in their government-based economic plan, Vision 2030. Through Vision 2030, Bahrain hopes to transform itself from an oil rich nation to a fierce global competitor, shaped by the private sector and government infrastructure. The vision also encompasses plans to double the household disposable income and improve the quality of life by 2030.
With this transformation, government organizations such as the Ministry of Works (MOW) and the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) had to change their strategy to fit Vision 2030. Due to Bahrain’s rapid growth, MOW, had difficulty in retaining high quality staff and cost reductions, while EWA struggled with their operating budget and increasing electricity consumption. Faced with these challenges, MOW and EWA adopted the BSC and ESM to align their strategic goals to the plan.
By employing the BSC via the ESM, MOW was able to better align their strategy to the 2030 vision. Through the integration of risk management and strategic management, MOW improved risk mitigation. To implement the integration, they established theme teams to analyze the risks in each theme. Furthermore, the BSC helped MOW in the modification of objectives. With SWOT analysis, it was found that they needed to find financing alternatives to manage their costs. Also, the refinement of objectives allowed for an improved representation of key areas of focus.
EWA implemented the BSC by defining new initiatives. The redefinition of initiatives enhanced the capacity for consumption, thus better managing costs. IT played an integral part of cost management. Through IT billing and planning software and the ESM, allowed EWA to better anticipate future expenditures. To improve the overall employee satisfaction and performance management, EWA established My HR. My HR upgraded job roles and associated descriptions and helped EWA to find and retain qualified employees.
Bahrain’s Vision 2030 encompassed all areas of the economy in both the private and public sector. By employing the BSC, MOW and EWA aligned their organizational goals to the global vision, paving the way for success.
For the full text article, go to My ESM > Resources > Libraries > May/June 2010 BSR (v12#3).
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As indicated in previous BSR articles, theme teams are crucial to strategy execution. Theme teams are designed to link strategy to operations. In the May-June Balanced Scorecard Report, contributor Mario Bognanno outlined the steps that organizations should keep in mind while establishing theme teams.
1. Define the Theme Team: Organizations should create their theme teams based on their own definition. This definition will set the foundation for employing the theme team, thus it must be feasible.
2. Define Roles: After determining a workable definition, organizations must create roles within the theme team. Roles include theme team leaders and theme team members. The leaders reflect executive management, while the team members are typically experts in specific areas and practices.
3. Defining Core Activities: The team’s core activities are comprised of monitoring objectives and measures, identification of needed strategic initiatives, suggesting budgets, and monitoring the chief processes that support the theme objectives. Furthermore, they must provide support for strategy review meetings.
4. Providing Necessary Tools: By implementing KPI dashboards, such as the ESM, companies can better manage their strategic performance. The development of dashboards and linking the IT infrastructure to operations allow the theme team to have access to timely reports and greater monitoring ability.
For more information on how your organization can use theme teams, please refer to the May-June issue of the Balanced Scorecard Report, found in My ESM under Resources.
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In the March-April issue of the Balanced Scorecard Report, contributor Duane Punnerwaert identifies the differences between Strategy and Finance. Strategy and Finance operate quite differently in an organization. The strategy function encompasses of long-term strategy formation, in which revolves around all areas of the business. Finance on the other hand, is focuses on the execution of strategic roles in which are reflected in annual revenue. Also, the finance function follows a strict one year timeline. These differences can generate a divergence between the two functions.
With Strategy having a three to five year timeline and Finance adhering to a one year timeline, strategy execution can be difficult to keep track of. The strategy function is not always skilled in communicating that the goals are not being reached, while the finance function views strategy fulfillment in the proficient management of the budget. Although the functions are interrelated, the execution of strategic goals can generate a disparity between Strategy and Finance.
Rather than merely managing the variations between the two functions as they emerge, organizations have the potential to integrate Strategy and Finance. With tactical planning and coordination, organizations have the opportunity to link the strategy and finance functions. By adapting to the short-term without forsaking the long-term outlook, companies can better link their strategy to finance. Companies who do not adjust their strategic outlook to coincide with financial operations run the risk of weakening their value proposition to customers. The integration of the two business functions via a new timeline can help organizations advance their performance.
For access to the full article, navigate to the Resources tab in My ESM>>BSC Library.
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As indicated in Mark Lorence’s article in the March-April issue of the Balanced Scorecard Report, Dashboards have become an increasingly popular method of performance management in recent years. The technological capabilities in which coincide with the dashboards allow for companies to create transparency when managing their key performance indicators. When choosing and implementing a dashboard, organizations must keep in mind the application’s accessibility, maintenance, usability, reliability, and the ability to add new measures. All of these facets depend on the software tools. In general, organizations must keep in mind three general considerations when implementing their dashboards:
1. Ensure Data Accuracy
Ensuring data accuracy is critical in an organization’s ability to correctly analyze and make decisions on their key performance indicators, displayed by the dashboard. The precision of underlying data to populate dashboard measures is vital in decision making, thus driving the final results. To ensure data accuracy, it is recommended that organizations focus on accessibility, clarity on dashboard terminology, and the management of different data sources:
Accessibility: Accessibility refers to the ability to obtain financial measures. Although financial data may be available electronically on a ledger system or database, some information may be maintained solely on hard copy. Companies must keep this in mind when uploading data onto the dashboard. To allow for easier accessibility to financial measures, companies that still rely on hard copy documents may need to upload their information system.
Dashboard Terminology: Dashboard terminology should be clear across the organization. This can be managed by creating common definitions.
Data Sources: When employing the dashboard, organizations must properly manage their data, specifically their external and internal sources. An evaluation of the current data management process is helpful in ensuring data accuracy.
2. Allow for Iterations
Organizations who are employing their dashboards must keep in mind that it takes several iterations before the dashboard is usable. Several iterations should be conducted to ensure that the dashboard includes all of the key performance indicators needed. During these iterations, organizations may edit their measures or change the application’s preferences in the way data is displayed. A prototype of the dashboard can be helpful in this process. It allows the user to test various displays, measures, and its user friendliness.
3. Testing Sufficiently
The dashboard should be tested repeatedly through both automated and manual processes. This will ensure that the dashboard displays the right information. Organizations employing their dashboards may further want to analyze how the data loads into the dashboard during the testing procedure.
The considerations detailed above can ultimately help organizations manage performance through their dashboards. For access to the full article, navigate to the Resources tab in the ESM, found under the BSC Library.
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On my bike ride into work today I reflected back on a very interesting decade that I've spent in the Balanced Scorecard Software space. It feels like just yesterday I was part of a newly formed team and sitting down with Drs. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton to scope out our vision of a strategy management solution.
We began our mission looking to satisfy an unmet market need around a technology platform to rapidly build Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps. Since many of us were consultants we over engineered the application into a 30 step scorecard creation wizard. After some market testing, we condensed the steps into less than 10 critical activities. Organizations were off and running. Hundreds of scorecards were being developed in the matter of months. This acceleration led to an increased global awareness of scorecarding and proliferated its adoption. But a simple design tool wasn't enough.
Back to the drawing board we went with Drs. Kaplan and Norton. This time, our focus was getting organizations to reap long term benefits from the scorecards they worked so hard to create. This visioning session with the gurus led to the creation of the Executive Strategy Manager application for rapid scorecard creation, alignment, and meeting management capabilities to facilitate ongoing reporting and execution.
We now continue this journey with the scoping of ESM 6. As we scope out this latest release of the application, we are looking to make strategy management even easier. Our vision is to simplify the update process, more closely integrate the ESM into your organization's suite of network applications(local or cloud), and increase the versatility with how we mash up data for your unique reporting environment. Here's to the next decade!
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Confusion; That's what it is. We are all looking for the answer to the vernacular used within scorecards, dashboards, and other performance managmement framreworks that include the use of measures and KPIs. Here's how I understand this space:
In the Kaplan/Norton management system framework I tend to see strategic objectives being evaluated by strategic measures, not KPIs. Strategic measures are sometimes labeled under additional criteria to define their subtype: "outcome measures", "input measures", "lead measures", or "lag measures". I then see strategic measures decomposed into it's subcomponent measures, which tend to be more operational in nature and are often called KPIs. KPI's can then be "sliced" in various ways to make up KPI dashboards and driver trees. When I work with organizations who are building Kaplan/Norton Balanced Scorecards, they often begin with hundreds, if not thousands of KPIs and measures, mixed in with some objectives and initiatives. Essentially, there's little delineation between the different scorecard components. Through the strategy formulation phase, strategic objectives are created. This is followed by identifying measures to tell us how we are doing against achieving our strategic objectives. Some measures might not exist within the database of existing KPIs and measures and need to be created. Once the components of the scorecard are organized, the organization's strategic direction has been set and KPIs can be organized and linked to strategic measures if appropriate or managed as separate operational dashboards.
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In the 10th anniversary issue of The Balanced Scorecard Report: The Strategy Execution SourceNorton and Russell indicate how organizations can tie their advanced tactical objectives to a cycle of design and execution on the operational level. This design for execution at the operational level includes four components--a process model, innovation techniques, theme teams, and IT infrastructure. Together, the four elements support all of the stages of strategy execution. Theme teams have evolved into a growingly popular method of overseeing strategic goals and implementation. The main purpose of theme teams is to have direct oversight of the strategy execution throughout three main stages: design, installation, and operations. Strategy should be divided into harmonizing theme teams, in which focus around operations management, customer relations management, and product management.
During the design process, the theme teams search for the performance gaps that need to be filled. The theme teams' sponsor or coordinator has direct linkages to the executive management. Together, the team engages in analyzing, designing, and making innovations to the new strategy. Various unplanned groups may be added throughout the design process, to examine and construct the solutions. In stage two, installation, theme teams follow a standard methodology of testing, training and adherence to the new strategy. Testing and training is critical in ascertaining how the rest of the organization is ready for the change in approach. The initiatives implemented stand as the agent of change. For some firms, it is an element of the organizational core competency that is in direct association to its Balanced Scorecard based programs. As indicated in the article, firms that utilize Balanced Scorecards with initiatives have successful results. Phase three of operations seeks to create structural procedures within organizations to further drive the implementation of a strategic theme. With operations, businesses can avoid and resolve any contradictions to the new approach. In actuality, the strategic themes around the executive strategy are built upon are imperative to achievement and must be permanent. Theme teams should be permanent due to the nature of businesses--instabilities from the broad and internal environment can cause feasible tactics to become superseded. Current events in the world's monetary situation are supplementary to the idea of permanent theme teams, as organizations have struggled to establish a functional strategy in a declining economy. IT can provide backing for strategy and operations.
By using collaborative technologies, operational dashboards, and decision analytics, firms can gather, report, and utilize data in operations and performance strategy performance. Organizations improve upon their initiatives and capabilities by making use of their IT infrastructure to drive customer relations and overall performance. In Palladium Group's 2009 survey, 350 organizations were examined to determine the relationship between Balanced Scorecards, operations, and decision analytics. Organizations that did not use a Balanced Scorecard also lacked competence in decision analytics. Furthermore, organizations that did employ a Balanced Scorecard methodology in executing their strategy had high analytics capability, with more occurrences of breakthrough performances. The longer organizations had a Balanced Scorecard system along with high decision analytics competencies, the higher occurrence of breakthrough results. Firms who employ a Balanced Scorecard in translating their strategy displayed better results than those who did not. The implications of the study reveal that strategy execution can advance organizational achievement, with the utilization of IT infrastructure, theme teams, and an ongoing perspective of strategy.
For more details and access to the article, navigate to the BSC Library>>Resources via ESM
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December's Balanced Scorecard Report highlights how risk management can be integrated into strategy execution. In this issue, Dr. Robert Kaplan urges organization to reconsider their risk management process and its efficiency. Looking back, the financial crisis in 2007 revealed a major gap in the management system of companies. Decision makers were forced to ask themselves, "Could this catastrophe been avoided?" In response Dr. Kaplan purposes the guidance of a Risk Scorecard which works in tandem with a Corporate Scorecard.The Risk Scorecard is designed to identify objectives that the primary risk events would prevent. Each objective is measured by metrics that will monitor the leading indicators of when a risk event may occur.
The goal of Risk Management is to be anticipatory and preventative, rather than reactive. With the help of the ESM and the Balanced Scorecard, organizations can visualize the performance of their risk management on a day- to- day basis. The ESM provides a process by which to build, monitor, and report on your organization's Risk Scorecard. It is designed to force users to think about what the metrics are saying. It is not enough to merely look at the measure, but one must understand what it is indicating. With proper analysis of the metrics, Performance Analysis and Recommendations are entered and ready for discussion. The goal of risk management is prevention and with the guidance of the ESM your organization can mitigate any signs of impending doom.
For more information on "Risk Management and the Strategy Execution System," check out December's Balanced Scorecard Report, found in the BSC Library under Resources.
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The article written by Andra Gumbus and Robert Lussier, "Entrepeneurs Use a Balanced Scorecard to Translate Strategy into Performance Measures" highlights the benefits of using a balanced scorecard (BSC) in small to medium sized firms (SMEs). As identified by Kaplan and Norton with their introduction of the balanced scorecard in 1990, all forms of organizational structures can benefit from the use of BSCs. Today, the BSC methodology is one of the most highly implemented management tools in executing strategy.
The majority of users are large-sized firms, with 50% of Fortune 1000 companies and a rapidly growing number of Fortune 500 companies. SMEs have yet to adapt BSCs in translating strategy into objectives and results, despite its advantages. In the case studies of Hyde Park Electronics, Futura Industries, and Southern Gardens Citrus, the application of BSC is analyzed in SMEs. Advantages of the BSC methodology were seen in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, overall success throughout all of the case studies.
The BSC was also observed as a successful turnaround mechanism in the case of Southern Gardens Citrus. Southern Gardens Citrus employed the BSC and were able to recover from their losses by achieving impressive results in each of the four dimensions. The results in each of the cases confirm previous studies in large organizations. The implication for business leaders in SMEs is that they can also gain from creating and utilizing BSCs.
Citation: Gumbus, Andra, and Lussier Robert. "Entrepreneurs Use a Balanced Scorecard to Translate Strategy into Performance Measures." Journal of Small Business Management 44.3 (2006): 407-425. PDF file.
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In the recent Harvard Business Review article, "Managing Alliances with the Balanced Scorecard" Authors Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton and Bjarne Rugelsjoen use the Solvay/Quintiles case to demonstrate how the Balanced Scorecard management system help companies create better alliances with their partners. Read about their story, process, and success in the full text article, compliments of Quintiles Transnational Corp.:
Download here or go to: http://www.quintiles.com/information-library/case-studies/managing-alliances-balanced-scorecard/
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How can your organization make better decisions during tough economic times? In an article entitled, "Smarter Execs Focus on Goals, Not Just Metrics," Doug Henschen describes the growing importance of decision based analytics. How are the most decision-support savvy execs doing it?
The answer comes in a four step process:
1) Start with organizational goals. 2) Create metrics that monitor those goals. 3) Provide analysis of the metrics. 4) Make better decisions!
A decision support interface can be helpful to track the performance trends of your organizations predefined goal. The data is not enough; rather the value comes from the Performance Analysis and Recommendations. Often times, organizations become victims to dashboard style interfaces that reflect data without analysis. The mistake comes in monitoring the data as a day to day indicator of the health of the business rather than the performance of it. Without strategy or goal orientation an organization is subject to share incorrect measures and ultimately fails to identify those areas that are under performing.
Here's a tip on how the ESM can help your organization focus on the goals, not just the metrics. My ESM was designed to provide easy access to strategic measures along with their performance analysis and recommendations, in an individually configurable view. Executives can log into the system and immediately see metrics of interest and their performance against the goals. With our roll-over functionality each measure is complete with a performance analysis and recommendation for each reporting period. Management teams that make use of the data through analysis and recommendations, have proven to make decisions that improve efficiency, develop innovative products, get closer to customers and outsell competitors.
To read more about the success of organizations like Fortune 10's Valero, Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame winners, and Johnson & Johnson, in their decision making: Click here to read the full article.
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We finished up our client upgrade and training of ESM in Jakarta and were blown away by the internal passion around the BSC process and ESM to facilitate their strategy design and meeting management. Hundreds of internal users turned up for the ESM 5 training. In these standing room only sessions, there was a passion and energy around the new version of the ESM.
The client has broken their users up into client administrators, with a client administrator sitting within each key business area and end users, which exist throughout the organization. Although the ESM is user friendly for those of us who are not computer wizards, selecting "power" client administrator users within each scorecard is a best practice approach, especially when support and guidance is required by end users. I appreciated the visual communication elements around the client's offices. Scorecard and strategy map posters were located in entry ways, elevators, even bathrooms! This is how organizations need to communicate their strategy. While the ESM application is their main communication vehicle, supporting visual materials only reinforces the process. After a quick overnight flight to Sydney, we are speaking with delegates today around their scorecarding program. I've found that many of the delegates are just getting started with developing their scorecards and maps. I appreciate the enthusiasm that's generated at these summits. Delegates walk away with a "let's do it" attitude. Welcome to the scorecarding world!
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After a fairly significant amount of flying to get to Jakarta I set up the ESM booth, jumped online and logged into the ESM without issue. I was "blown away" by the speed. In fact, I think it was faster than many days I navigate within the application at our headquarters in Lincoln, MA. The ESM is truly globally deployed and accessible from all corners of the world.
There's great energy at the opening day of the Jakarta Summit and organizations from throughout this region are eager to apply their learning from this event. When speaking with delegates a common area of challenge with the Balanced Scorecard methodology revolved around making the strategy actionable for everyday employees in their organization, not just those who are involved in the design and reporting meetings. ESM 5 supports driving actions down to individuals through our increased action item functionality, ownership setting at the initiative and milestone level, new custom My ESM dashboard views, and primary/secondary ownership setting. I've found that these features have resonated well with the audience here.
It's fun to see how organizations are implementing the BSC framework from this region and watch the ESM community expand before my eyes. Now I just need to get over this jet lag!
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Aligning leadership incentives and one's organization are fundamental components of successful and efficient business management. Few understand this axiom as well as SMDC Health Systems. St. Mary's Hospital encountered intense financial pressure in 1997 when Clinton's Balanced Budget Act called for the largest decrease in funding for Medicare in the program's history, some $116.4 billion. As a result, funding for both graduate medical education and for entire urban hospitals treating low income patients would be drastically slashed. St. Mary's, in an effort to beef up their economic strength in face of the deteriorating federal support, underwent a period of M & A which culminated in the creation of SMDC Health Systems as we know it.
This new organization needed to rapidly implement a new strategy and management system, and after struggling to formulate a successful strategic plan, they found their answer: the Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard enabled then-CEO Dr. Peter Person to translate the company's idyllic mission, "To Bring the Soul and Science of Healing to the People We Serve," into a working strategy. Working with the best the organizational management industry has to offer, Palladium Group, SMDC finalized its first-ever strategy map and scorecard. The system facilitated SMDC's transformational change, enabling them to monitor progress with key performance indicators and measures tailored to their strategic initiatives. BSC took a disjointed, multi-silo company and converted it into a streamlined and well-integrated business. By July 2004, the corporate team had cascaded the HQ strategy map and scorecard down to 10 scorecards for SMDC's various entities, clinical service lines, and departments. The Balance Scorecard aligned the organization under the overarching strategy, and its successful execution translated to a $20 million improvement in SMDC's operating performance and stronger cash flow. Dr. Person notes the power of the system, "everyone was aligned along the same thought by way of understanding and collectively working towards an overall, common strategy." When we bring on new executives, says Person, we acculturate them to the BSC by explaining that "this is the way we manage and execute strategy."
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In 2005, the pharmaceutical industry was experiencing unprecedented changes which threatened the very sustainability of both the global industry and all those within it. Patents protecting an entire generation of products were set to expire, innovation--the lifeblood of the industry--was becoming more expensive and riskier due to increased regulatory scrutiny, and governments and managed-care companies were making drug reimbursement more difficult, shifting costs to price-sensitive consumers. These unfavorable factors culminated in a perfect storm for pharmaceutical companies as they faced both increasing costs and risks, amid declining revenues and net profit. Among these companies was New Jersey-based Merck, a world-class pharmaceutical firm boasting 60,000 employees and a host of innovative medicines and vaccines sold in over 150 countries. Their grim outlook indicated a loss of $10 billion by 2010 due to expiring patents and unfavorable industry trends; analysts ranked them near the bottom of the entire industry for earnings-per-share growth.
Enter CEO Richard T. Clark who, upon entering in 2005, boasted a new strategy plan as priority number one. It's name? "Plan to Win." It's nature? Strategy Execution. Clark clarified his organization's vision through its long standing values: "never forget that medicine is for the people." A global human health organization was created effectively aligning the independent region which previously acted as silos, into one efficient management system executing on a common vision.
Next, a Strategy Realization Office (SRO) was born whose goal was to translate strategy into specific objectives, measures, and initiatives. They implemented a strategy execution process which cascaded the strategy down through the companies divisions and managed risk throughout. Next, the executive team commenced two-day workshops to instill an intangible, but vitally important recipe for success: a greater understanding of, and commitment to, the strategy. With strategy management and execution as Merck's new core competency, it doubled it stock price within a year and fortified its position as a global leader in its industry. Clark knew a transformation of this scale is an immensely difficult task, and that many good strategies are poorly executed or never executed at all. Clark knew that amid turmoil, giving clarity to your strategy, aligning your organization, and making strategy management and strategy execution a core competency is the key to success.
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The city of San Fernando in the Philippines has harnessed the innovation of the Balanced Scorecard in their aspiration to become a "Dream City." San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez plans to solidify his ambitions for his city with the Performance Governance System (PGS) which is a project he began in 2004. This system operates according to the Balanced Scorecard and boasts 10 objectives ranging from making LGU's (local government units) basic services accessible to the people in need.
Progress is measured by citizen, or "client," satisfaction. Since the program began, an annual survey has shown a steady increase in citizen satisfaction with the government's ability to meet their needs. Another success in the program's strategic execution is that the LGU's have dramatically reduced the time required to obtain a business permit, from six weeks to two hours. This has resulted in a order of magnitude more businesses operating and generating tax revenues in the city and fulfilling a key objective, to "Develop a dynamic, competitive and sustainable local economy." The Balanced Scorecard has brought focus, efficiency, and notoriety to San Fernando and has created concrete growth in this promising city.
ESM 5.0 is revamped to deliver the world's largest repository of Kaplan/Norton Strategy Execution assets in an even easier, more reliable interface. You can now browse the extensive compilation of best practice assets, including but not excluded to: interviews, Balanced Scorecard Report articles, conference presentations, profiles, and templates, directly from the Resource Center.
ESM 5.0 now also boasts a refreshed objective and measure library. We've surveyed our consultants in the field for the best practice objectives and measures used in their industries and compiled an easy-to-search database. The ESM objective and measure library provides best practice guidance whether you're creating your first scorecard or refreshing your scorecard midyear. You can search elements by industry, function, and perspective. ESM 5.0 grants you access to the methodology of the world's leading experts and enables you to perfect your management system, maximize your performance, and secure competitive advantage. With ESM 5.0 give clarity to your strategy, align your organization, and make strategy management a core competency to reposition your organization for sustained success in this new economic environment.
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Traditionally the instruments used to formulate strategy have been developed through two basic methods: the industry based view and/or the resource based view. As we move into a new era of business development a third method is evolving, the institution-based view. In this month's Academy of Management Perspectives an article entitled, The Institution-Based View as a Third Leg for a Strategy Tripod highlights the success of the dynamic trio. First coined by Professor Michael Pend of the University of Texas-Dallas, the institution-based view forces managers ask the question "Why do firms succeed and fail?" It urges managers to analyze the external influence on an organization's internal factors including laws and regulations, company culture and ethics; forces which emulate an organizations performance. The Executive Strategy Manager helps organizations bring together these complex variables and create a digestible review process for the organization's strategy.
Such a view enables practicing managers to formulate a strategy which seeks to analyze and consider firm specific and industry specific elements. How then can an organization monitor such a broad strategy? The answer: Executive Strategy Manager. Through careful construction of the Executive Strategy Manager using Balanced Scorecard methodology upper management become face to face with such factors. Strategy Maps illustrate the direct connection between external and internal factors to strategy. The ESM turns a broad strategy into a focused and accessible one.
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A recent Financial Times article by Stefan Stern begins with a straight-forward yet vital admission, "We need to talk about strategy." This strenuous economic climate has not only transformed the markets, it argues, but the very nature of our organizations. Comprehensive cut-backs and uncertainty about the future have inherently changed the workplace, and it is in these tumultuous times in which strategy management is most vital. Stern references a study done by U.K. consultancy Stanton Marris in which 45 executives were interviewed on their repositioning strategies. The research suggests four areas which are most needed of executives to address: 1. uncovering hidden risks that undermine strategy; 2. using the power of organizational identity; 3. reviving the strategy process; 4. adapting leadership styles.
Executive Strategy Manager (ESM) does just that; ESM enables for the effective communication of your corporate strategy and the identification of key performance drivers at all levels of your organization. It utilizes the world-renowned Balanced Scorecard system and drives integrated meeting management, enterprise alignment, performance management, and initiative management. ESM is designed specifically for the efficacy of strategy management and inherently helps clarify and communicate strategy, thus avoiding hidden risks (1). It also aligns leadership incentives, the organization, and the people to strategy (2), translates strategy into action plans (3), and makes strategy management an organizational core competency (4).
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St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers is the only one of 8 Catholic acute care hospitals in New York City to survive from 2007 to 2008. St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers calls their Balanced Scorecard program the Strategic Alignment Roadmap or "STAR". STAR is powered by the Executive Strategy Manager application.
According to the article, Paul Goebel, senior vice president and chief administrative officer of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center says "Some 400 hospital directors have been educated and trained in STAR. Each director is then responsible for implementing STAR in his or her department according to an individualized objective template." Goebel says that STAR is a key driver of a cultural renewal called "Transition to a Culture of Performance." The ESM team is proud to support this transition at such a critical institution.
Click here to read the full article.
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