A recent interviewee gave me this statement. It matches so well with what I have been writing on lately (outside of here) that I can only believe that I heard it and subconsciously started chewing on it. It’s a great statement from someone who took a company from 1-2% annual growth for seven years to double digit growth in one. …
Structure Follows Strategy
I’ve often heard Louis Sullivan’s dictum “Form Follows Function”. At the recent GO Society conference in Toronto, I had the pleasure of interviewing several people for case studies of using requisite organizational structure principles in successful business turn-arounds. All of them said the same thing. “We got the strategy right first.” Structure follows strategy, it seems, if I may riff …
The mobile worker: Curse or blessing? (guest post)
The following article is reproduced with permission from Paul Tremlett, President of COREinternational and was published in the Canadian HR Reporter. Publish Date: February 28, 2005 You might not like career development costs for employees whose allegiance is fleeting — but that’s the labour market if you expect to attract top performers By Paul Tremlett and Ginty Burns There was …
The Significance of Organizational & Leaderhip Myths
Great people create great companies and great organizations. What makes them great? Why do people work?
“The Pitfalls of Strategic Planning” by Mintzberg
Mintzberg, Henry (1993). “The Pitfalls of Strategic Planning”. California Management Review, Fall 1993:32-47. In this ten-year old article, Mintzberg summarizes the points he makes at length within The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. Much of the material that you get out of the longer book can be gained by simply reading this article closely. The book’s still worth reading. …
Another Duh! From McKinsey
An interesting article from McKinsey Quarterly that proves that no one has a clue about how to manage any longer: New from The McKinsey Quarterly:Strategy“Balancing short- and long-term performance”The benefits are many for corporations that can walk this tightrope.(Premium Membership required)http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/links/15927
The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning… and project planning, too
Mintzberg makes some scathing remarks about the Strategic Planning industry. A lot of it seems to come down that the planners are (A) taking the power away from managers and (B) it doesn’t work in practice. I’m wondering if a similar argument can’t be made about software project management.
More Evidence of the High Failure Rate of Performance Improvement Efforts
Top Consultant, a UK-based operation dealing with consultancies, has an interesting article describing a recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Celerant Consulting, an affiliate of Novell. Top-Consultant reports that More than 4 in 10 senior executives surveyed in a major new cross-industry study said that performance improvement initiatives undertaken at their companies over the past three …
Mark Van Clieaf asks, “What work are we paying CEOs to do?”
Mark Van Clieaf is all for paying someone for what they are doing but he believes that CEOs are delivering only short-term value, at the expense of the company’s long term viability. And, if his numbers are correct, most US CEOs aren’t even delivering short term value: their companies are not making more than they are spending.
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