Who is Your Chief Strategy Officer?
Even the most compelling strategy is useless if it isn’t implemented. But in many companies, no one’s driving execution.
Even the most compelling strategy is useless if it isn’t implemented. But in many companies, no one’s driving execution.
Let’s get one thing straight right from the start. Corporate Performance Management (CPM) is not a software solution. Instead it describes a management approach that should help organizations to better execute corporate strategy. Gartner initially defined the term as “the methodologies, metrics, processes and systems used to monitor and manage an enterprise’s business performance.’
What are the key questions that an executive team should consider if they want to assess how they might manage the business strategy and their organization’s execution capability gaps.
Mobile has become a key ingredient in the integration of business and technology. If designed and delivered effectively, it provides unparalleled convenience, speed, and ease of use. However, having the right mobile mindset is a prerequisite if you’re going to drive growth and profitability through the use of mobile solutions.
In its simplest and purest form, I define it this way:
What is the one consistent element of every successful significant project or initiative?
Many organizations over-rate the quality of their enterprise and corporate performance management (EPM / CPM) methods and supporting software systems as well as exaggerate how comprehensive and integrated they are. For example, when you ask executives how well they measure and report their costs and non-financial performance measures, most proudly boast that they are very good. However, this is inconsistent and conflicts with surveys where anonymous replies from mid-level managers candidly score their scaled answers as “needs much improvement.”
Every organization cannot be above average!
What makes exceptionally good EPM / CPM systems exceptional?
Rather than try to be a sociologist and psychiatrist to explain the contradictions of executives boasting superiority while anonymously answered surveys reveal inferiority, let’s simply describe the full vision of an effective EPM / CPM system that organizations should aspire to.
“Will this make the boat go faster?” is my new favorite question. I may quickly wear it out with my colleagues, but I suspect I’ll get my point across.
The original context according to Mark De Rond, writing in his excellent book, “There is an I in Team,” is from Rowing Club Manager, Roger Stephens, who when presented with an idea concerning his team would respond, “Will this make the boat go faster?”
Think of the myriad of situations you experience on a daily basis in the name of business performance where this question might serve as a valuable filter. Here are a few from me…please add your own.
Futurists enjoy taking out their crystal ball and projecting future innovations, but they are typically wrong. For example, George Orwell’s book, “1984,” which was published in 1949, did not come close with its projections. And in the 1960s, I recall a Walt Disney television show describing automobiles that required no driver and were guided by a magnet-like strip imbedded in the street’s or highway’s roadbed. Nice try.
In contrast, historians research the past to determine what lessons might be learned and applied today. For example, historians examine the judgments, policies and actions of past U.S. Presidents and international government leaders to assess what actions may best serve citizens today. The recent movie “Lincoln” is an example.
But which group — futurists or historians – provides more useful information?
ERP systems not only collect information about transactions, they also automate processes. The latter includes managing the handoffs between roles and enabling electronic document creation and management associated with that. Indeed, it was the promise of improving process management and process execution that spurred companies to adopt ERP in the 1990s.