Thomas Edison once said: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”. Isn’t this true for business success too? The best ideas, plans, and strategies in the world are meaningless unless they are thoughtfully executed and produce the desirable outcomes. Otherwise, they are just binders on bookshelves or files in dumpsters.
Schools, academics, and even many business executives are enthralled by strategy and planning. Why? Because they are beautiful, simple, unencumbered by the messiness of getting hands dirty. Yet, without the ability to transform these ideas into reality, does strategy really matter.?
This special seminar presents two frameworks:
(i) A simple framework that divides organization activities into three major aspects: planning, operating, and changing. The emphasis is not to minimize the importance of planning and strategy as they are critical to success. But to achieve operational excellence and to manage change effectively, the ability to execute becomes paramount.
(ii) A comprehensive framework on Strategic Business Execution that includes four components:
- Value, Behavior, and Attitude – the intrinsic “software” of individuals, teams, and companies
- Important Competencies – the essential abilities (e.g. skills and expertise)
- Core Disciplines – the basic methods, systems, and control
- Integrating Processes – the unifying force that ties all these components together
On the Core Disciplines, we discussed nine disciplines that include strategic planning, portfolio/program/project management, PMO, process improvement, organization change, data visualization and decision support, operational management. We will conclude the presentation with five “universal” rules of business execution.