To be successful in today's global marketplace, an organization must learn to adapt in order to stay one step ahead of the competition. Mission statements, goal setting, and planning methods alone are simply not enough anymore. Management fads have given way to time-tested management principles that distinguish good companies from truly great companies. Many organizations have found success by utilizing a technique of balancing their core ideology, stimulating progress, and seeking support by aligning company objectives, strategies, and policies. These companies are what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras call "visionary". Built to Last seeks to discover these timeless management principles that make a company truly "visionary" (Collins & …show more content…
In this type of organization, the company itself is its own greatest product. Collins and Porras conclude, "The continual stream of great products and services from highly visionary companies stems from them being outstanding organizations, not the other way around" (Collins & Porras, 2002). For example, to many people, William McKnight is not a household name. However, Mr. McKnight was a top executive of the visionary 3M Corporation for over fifty years.
At the heart of every visionary company lie its core ideology, or those values and beliefs that form the foundation of a company's existence. Seeing how the visionary companies evolved over most of the last century let the authors observe that while the companies were continually changing in response to the market and to their customers, they had an overall set of core values to which they held constant. The comparison companies often lost ground when they changed their focus, swayed by the desire to maximize shareholder wealth. This idea is illustrated by a quote from David Packard, "Profit is not the proper end and aim of management - it is what makes all of the proper ends and aims possible" (Collins & Porras). The visionary companies stood for something more than profits, more than maximizing shareholder wealth. Core ideologies drive visionary companies, not profit alone. This common balancing act among visionary companies is
In analyzing this case study, we looked toward the McKinsey 7-S Model. This model was created and developed by Peters and Waterman of McKinsey and Company. They investigated 43 companies in the US, such as IMB, McDonald’s, TI, HP, etc., all of which were outstanding in their industries, and found common points of success for these organizations. The McKinsey Model is the result of this research. The model consists of 7 elements: Shared Value, Strategy, Structure, Systems, Style, Staff, and Skill. The elements are of crucial importance to the organization and need to be aligned when organizations experience change or challenges. These elements have been outlined below.
In the book titled “Gung Ho!” written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles (1998), a unique management tool was introduced which is the footprint of a successful “Gung Ho” organization. My ultimate vision is to see my organization fully embrace the qualities of a Gung Ho! organization. As we continue to adopt new innovative ideas and technologies, we must also ensure that we have the right management and operational systems in place to achieve full Gung Ho! potential. The path in the right direction would be to create an environment whereby industry best practices, employee accountability, improved work processes, visible and distributed leadership, a clear vision, key priorities, and a well-defined strategic plan is in place. Similar
In today’s highly competitive market, the continuous changes that are occurring in the social, politic and economic environment create serious challenges in the corporate world. Corporations cannot afford to do business as usual if they want to remain in the game and be successful. In order to achieve their goals and objectives, they need to evolve, adapt, learn and apply different new strategies that will help them secure long-run success and performance. Among those strategies, we are going to discuss ten of them and their advantages in connection with corporation’s goals and objectives.
An analysis of all available data obtained from an extensive review of literature, it is apparent that strong leadership plays a key a role in CVS’ success. CVS leadership and management model the way by aligning actions with shared values, envision the future by imagining exciting and enabling possibilities, enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations, search for opportunites by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve , experiment and take risks by consistently generating small
To achieve this goal the organization ought to invest time and money “now”, without affecting its current performance, i.e. innovation requires time and resources which should be planned for in such a way that it doesn’t affect the organization’s current functions. This implies that the company must boast of a very strong core to continue its current operations while focusing on the future.
Jim Collins recognizes seven elements a learning organization (or individual) ‘should’ use to maintain pace on their march. First, you need to have ‘clear performance markers,’ which creates multiple challenging yet attainable short-term milestones that prevents us from deviating from the path. Secondly, we remain disciplined in that we ‘impose self-constraints’ that allows us to refrain from the temptation of going faster and doing more when conditions are good. The third through sixth elements involve the learning organizations (or individuals) ability to keep the goals tailored to the enterprise (or individual), within its own control, having a clear timeframe and making sure the goals aren’t derived from external sources (Collins et al, 2011, p.49). Lastly, we want to emphasize the 20 Mile March must be “achieved with great consistency” (Collins et al, 2011, p.49). These seven characteristics are very important in the achievement of the ultimate goal, but they don’t all have to be included simultaneously. Jim Collins states, “There’s no all-purpose 20 Mile March for all enterprises,” which entails that every march has unique traits geared towards that goal (Collins et al, 2011, p. 48). Michael Jordan’s 20 Mile March to becoming the world’s best basketball player is unlike Southwest Airlines approach. Michael Jordan practiced consistently to be the best. He maintained a competitive edge creating a rigorous routine that didn’t wear him out physically, but kept incrementally challenging him to be better. Southwest Airlines’ approach was completely different using an intelligent and methodical expansion plan that got them profitable for thirty straight years. While both marches were very different, they utilized the same 20 Mile fundamentals in their path to greatness. They may not
Some businesses have seen it as a helpful outline that provides, arguably, the necessary measures for ensuring the long-term effects of related management and leadership approaches. This is includes but is not limited to the continuous quality improvement and systems thinking. The assumption suggested is that organizations that wish to construct actual and meaningful change to their business are better off starting with servant-leadership as the context for understanding their purpose and then being able to build on it through any number of related approaches.
Additionally, business leaders take responsibility for their actions. They don’t make excuses for something that happened instead acknowledge and understand what went wrong to prevent it from happening again. Similarly, in order for the business to reach its goal the owner needs to share the vision with employees. Employees don’t recognize why the plan is important yet which is why leaders to take an enthusiastic approach to motivate them. In fact, aligning the vision, value, and goals of the plan will help employees strategize on how to achieve
In 1989, David Packard, the co-founder of Hewett-Packard put into writing the company’s organizational values which was to be used as the HP’s way and also use as a management tool and as a criteria for daily decision making. These company values have been reinforced by the company’s current CEO, Meg Whitman and they are: 1. Integrating critical opposites- to create an organization that sustain its competitive advantage regardless of the
What are some of the issues you’ve had to face throughout your life? Your crush not replying to your SnapChat? Your phone charger not reaching your bed? I’d like to hope that people would not list some of these things as problems, but people do. There are many individuals in the world today who face hunger, disease, and war while others are only worrying about getting a stain on their shoes.
Employees you have to be visionary, motivating employees under you, by making clear to them
Author John Wessinger believes that organizations must learn to embrace the conditions (quickly evaluate changing markets), adopt a progression-based mindset (continually build new skills), and use risk as a compass (willingly explore risk-driven strategies) to thrive in these new conditions. Business leaders must be more like surfers and approach marketing and selling the same way surfers approach riding waves: by using a set of principles to overcome new challenges and leveraging the natural momentum within changing markets to break through the status quo.
The case study Renovating Home Depot was the case of a leader who joined a successful business only to discover that the company was running out of growth opportunities and also did not have the basic systems needed for increased growth in place. Robert “Bob” Nardelli was chosen as the CEO of Home Depot based on his proven ability to reenergize slow-growth businesses. He was a leader that went all out to achieve his goals and was identified as someone who was “comfortable in his own suit”, and believes in being successful his own way. He made several innovations which were used in General Electric (GE) where he recorded past successes. We see the success demonstrated in the growth of revenue in Home Depot, as well as opening
Little can be said about visionary companies without citing the works of James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras. Collins and Porras dedicated six years to research in an attempt to define a visionary company. Their published work, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (199?), blanketed the world of business with a new perspective. According to Brewer’s (1995) interview, Collins defines a visionary company as follows:
* A sound vision and a visionary CEO can help organizations to sail cohesively through muddy waters. Especially in early or very difficult years of the organizations.