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Organizational leadership can draw on 3 Strategic Thinking Games to master Business Strategy and apply in varied scenarios and organizational structures. The Strategic Thinking Games provide Decision Making models for senior executives to choose from and use as per the situation.
The Strategic Thinking Games are based on mathematics and statistics, particularly Probability Theory, and exhaustive research into the Business Strategy realm. Probability Theory is actually a branch of mathematics that deals with analysis of random phenomena. The basic element of Probability Theory is an experiment that can be at least hypothetically repeated under identical conditions, but may lead to different outcomes on different trials.
Each of the Strategic Thinking Games warrants employing a different mindset and decision-making approach to confront the challenges presented by a particular problem. Executives can apply these Strategic Thinking Models to control their future:
- Planning as Positioning
- Organization Learning
- Constructive Transformation
Let’s discuss these Strategic Thinking Models in detail.
Planning as Positioning
The 1st Strategy game allows the players to make 40 blind draws from a pot holding 25 black and 75 red balls. It costs $10 per draw—which has to be paid beforehand—and it allows the players the opportunity to win $20 on drawing a red ball but naught on drawing a black ball. The game imitates a scenario where managers make informed bets about the future based on data and insights into the level of uncertainty encountered.
The Planning as Positioning Model enables the executives to learn about their industry and competition, gauge ambiguities and uncertainties, and select markets that have the potential to generate a positive Return on Investment (ROI).
A classic example of a company operating on the Planning & Positioning Model was the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT). For 17 years, the company was led by Harold Geneen (from 1960 to 1977). Harold Geneen was unrestricted by any company mission. He expanded in multiple industries, acquired around 350 enterprises from varied industries, including auto parts, cosmetics, hospitality, insurance, and technology. As a formal accountant, Harold considered facts as indisputable, final, and a foundation for making strategic decisions. He would travel to far-flung regions to meet his business unit managers, who were free to make their own strategic decisions but were responsible for their unit’s performance and objectives’ achievement.
Organization Learning
The 2nd Strategy game allows the players to blind draw from a pot containing an unknown mix of red and black balls. This time it costs $5 per draw. Players have to bet on either color before each draw. They can draw up to 50 times, or stop whenever they want, and win $20 if they draw the right ball. This game imitates a scenario for training managers to dynamically respond to upcoming events with unpredictable degree of uncertainty.
Through the pot filled with balls experiment, it was revealed that when people are given complicated choices, they behave in manners conflicting with their beliefs. In his famous Ellsberg Paradox, Ellsberg hypothesized that people make illogical preferences in order to avoid ambiguity. The Organizational Learning Model underlines that in a world full of uncertainties instead of spending too much time predicting the future, planning and positioning, organizations should devise and implement an evolving strategy, take one step at a time, search for viable patterns, and then adjust the course based on results.
An example of successful implementation of the 2nd Strategic Thinking Model is Corning Inc. that embraced Organizational Learning to develop a healthy product pipeline. The company developed Pyrex, TV tubes…..
Interested in learning more about the 3 Strategic Thinking Games? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Strategic Thinking Games here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Business Transformation initiatives are typically undertaken to solve a pressing issue, bring about improved performance, or to serve customers better. A critical element of the success of such initiatives entails transforming the existing behaviors of the employees across the organization. However, this isn’t a straightforward task.
Attitudes and practices get reinforced in people by following established routines day in and day out. Such practices become a part of an Organizational Culture over time. Ingrained organizational behaviors and practices aren’t considered burdening until the organization’s performance starts declining considerably over time. That’s when the leaders start thinking about changing these beliefs and habitual actions.
Psychology and Neuroscience can help enterprises change the deeply embedded attitudes and practices of people and replace those with new beliefs and practices. Leading organizations are using psychology and brain research to induce successful change. Specifically, they focus on the right priorities to enable Organizational and Behavioral Change and take the following 6 steps—or 6 Rs of Behavioral Change:
- Recognize
- Relabel
- Reflect
- Refocus
- Respond
- Revalue
Let’s dive deeper into the first 3 steps critical to render behavioral change.
Step 1 – Recognize
The first step involves the leadership reflecting on the behaviors that are required to be transformed. Leaders are responsible for articulating the future vision of an organization, prioritizing and implementing initiatives to achieve the vision, and take measures to tackle disruption caused by technology and rivals. Self-Reflection on undesired behaviors by role models (including senior leaders) is essential to make other people ponder over their behaviors.
Leadership behaviors inform the workforce about the Transformation required, assist in championing the agenda, and make these behaviors resonate across the board. Individuals, in turn, should contemplate on the alignment of their behaviors with their personal / organizational goals, think of new improved ways of doing things, and dump convenient yet unproductive behaviors.
Step 2 – Relabel
The 2nd step of the 6 Rs to Organizational Change necessitates categorizing and naming the flawed or unfit behaviors. Neuroscience research has revealed that by naming behaviors and understanding that thoughts are merely ideas, persons with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can disregard useless thoughts and behaviors that trigger them to wash their hands again and again.
Relabeling thoughts allows individuals to stop reflecting on useless thoughts. Likewise, in an organizational setting leadership needs to evaluate which shared thoughts don’t work well, categorize them, and communicate the reasons for their unsuitability across the organization.
Step 3 – Reflect
In this step, senior management replaces outdated beliefs and behaviors and outlines the vision or desired objectives and behaviors. The outlined desired objectives and behaviors need to be explicit, translated into daily actions, and attractive to the people. This may warrant training of people to reflect on the desired expectations and behaviors collectively. Effective communication of benefits of altered objectives and behaviors assists in subsiding the unrest associated with change in people and relaxing their mind and thoughts. This must include informing people that uncertainties are part of business and that they should keep their focus on organizational values and what matters most during change. Reflection creates a sense of ownership among employees that is otherwise difficult to be achieved by any cascaded top-to-bottom directives.
Interested in learning more about the other steps or Rs critical to engender Change ? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 6 Rs to Behavioral Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
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– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Business Transformation initiatives are typically undertaken to solve a pressing issue, bring about improved performance, or to serve customers better. A critical element of the success of such initiatives entails transforming the existing behaviors of the employees across the organization. However, this isn’t a straightforward task.
Attitudes and practices get reinforced in people by following established routines day in and day out. Such practices become a part of an Organizational Culture over time. These ingrained behaviors and practices aren’t considered burdening until the organization’s performance keeps declining considerably over time. That’s when the leaders think about changing these beliefs and habitual actions.
Psychology and Neuroscience can help enterprises change the deeply embedded attitudes and practices of people and replace those with new beliefs and practices. Leading organizations are using psychology and brain research to induce successful Organizational Transformation.
The practices that these organizations employ to engender Transformation are based on the following 6 core Principles of Neuroscience:
- The brain is hardwired to hold on to habits, making it difficult to change them.
- Connections in the brain—even deeply embedded thoughts—are quite flexible to transform.
- Concentrating on new ways of thinking can overhaul individuals thinking habits.
- Don’t tell people what is wrong, just focus on drawing their attention to the positives.
- Encourage the ability to reject negative cerebral impulses.
- The competence to focus attention has to be created bit by bit.
Let’s dive deeper into these first 3 principles of Neuroscience.
Principle 1 – The brain is hardwired to hold on to habits, making it difficult to change them.
Our thinking patterns are stored in circuits by brain parts—including the habit center (basal ganglia), amygdala (emotion center), and hypothalamus (which manages hunger, thirst etc.). These brain parts, especially the basal ganglia, process info unconsciously and the activity feels rewarding to the individual. This activity makes stronger neuronal connections with other areas and gets the activity reinforced.
For the desired behaviors and practices to get embedded, the organization need to make stronger connections with the entire workforce’s’ basal ganglia to enable deep rooted neuronal circuits. The practices ingrained this way are difficult to remove.
Principle 2 – Connections in the brain—even deeply embedded thoughts—are quite flexible to transform.
People with obsessive compulsive disorder keep deliberating on their impulse to wash hands to ensure cleanliness. This fortifies brain circuits in the basal ganglia, which takes over their behaviors. However, Neuroscience reveals that even the most well-established notions can be altered. This can be done by making the individuals aware of what they are thinking and where their focus is in a given moment.
Training and directing people to think about their thoughts can make them conscious of their undesired behaviors, disengages brain areas notable for causing distraction, and adopt new behaviors.
Principle 3 – Concentrating on new ways of thinking can overhaul individuals thinking habits.
The 3rd principle highlights that persistent focus on unfamiliar, desired thoughts and objectives activates the habit center of the brain, which turns these desired thoughts into habits. The mechanism according to Neuroscience is such that basal ganglia’s caudate nucleus region processes…
Interested in learning more about the other principles of Behavioral Transformation? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 6 Core Principles of Neuroscience here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Employee behaviors are critical for the success of Business Transformation endeavors. However, transforming the ingrained behaviors and mindsets of the workforce isn’t straightforward, and when tackled cause the enterprise’s emotional state to go down.
Leaders need to identify the components of Culture that are in line with their Corporate Strategy. They have to ascertain and harness the positive elements of culture that can drive the desired Transformation and suppress those that obstruct it.
For the desired Organizational Culture to sustain, leaders should work on gaining acceptance of the transformed behaviors. Leaders who do not give culture its due importance risk ruining their strategic endeavors, as they lack the commitment required from the employees to achieve success.
The real question is why senior leaders fail to use the positive elements of Organizational Culture constructively in the first place. The answer is simple; there are 4 common yet wrong assumptions—or myths—regarding culture change that are deeply established in most businesses that are anything but facts. Paying heed to—and acting on—these 4 myths results in grave consequences:
- Culture is the root cause of all our failures
- Changing our Organizational Culture is beyond us, forget about it
- Let Human Resources deal with Organizational Culture
- Culture is the responsibility of top management
When senior executives devise a strategy to transform the deeply entrenched organizational culture—by putting in place new policies, practices, reward structures, and performance management systems—there is strong resistance that outplays the strategy.
This is primarily due to employees’ reservations and uncertainties regarding the impact of these changes on their work, colleagues, atmosphere, routines, family, and their enterprise’s reputation. Transforming the Organizational Culture using the individual’s actions and conduct necessitates seeking assistance from 7 guiding principles:
- Be Practical
- Reinforce New Behaviors
- Seek Out Role Models
- Identify Cultural Carriers
- Leverage Existing Culture
- Be a Role Model
- Explain Impact of New Behavior
Application of these guiding principles facilitates in transpiring successful culture change. Let’s dive deeper into a few of these guiding principles.
Be Practical
The first guiding principle to changing the culture involves starting rationally and pragmatically. It is not feasible to strive to change every behavior at once. Leaders need to concentrate on the behaviors most critical for the organization. The ones that reverberate with the existing company culture and have a key role in improving the organizational performance. This entails ascertaining groups of employees whose behaviors should be transformed immediately. A clear demonstration of the requisite changes goes a long way in reinforcing the desired behaviors and culture in the organization.
Reinforce New Behaviors
The 2nd principle to changing culture involves emphasizing new behaviors. The desired behaviors should be reinforced using formal and informal mechanisms. Formal reinforcement mechanisms include metrics, processes, appraisals, salary reviews, training, and incentives to reward new behaviors. These formal mechanisms allow people to practice new behaviors repetitively, until they begin to realize their value. Informal reinforcement mechanisms include support networks and associations to nurture sensitivity and devotion needed to cope with uncertainties.
Seek out Role Models
Organizational Culture Transformation necessitates distinguishing role models to demonstrate the desired behaviors. Culture change begins when change practitioners act by modeling the new behaviors. These change practitioners are pride builders for an organization. The examples set by these practitioners assist in inculcating pride in others about embracing the desired behaviors. This action is referred to as “positive deviance” or constructive non-conformity. These pride builders in turn identify and develop more exemplars.
Interested in learning more about the other guiding principles of culture change? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 7 Guiding Principles of Culture Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Research by PwC indicates that leading companies are in a near perpetual state of Reorganization. This upsurge in Organizational Design initiatives is owing to the accelerating pace of strategic change caused by disruption of industries, changing competitor landscape, customer behaviors, and distribution channels.
Companies opt to commence efforts to restructure their organization in the hopes of enhancing efficiency, perpetuating growth, and surviving in future. Some shift their Business Models, few alter their focus from products to customer-centric; whereas others adopt new behaviors, systems, or IT architecture. However, merely a quarter of the Organizational Design initiatives succeed in achieving their anticipated objectives.
The reason for this high failure rate is simple. Reorganization is not about changing a company’s organogram. It’s a methodical processes that necessitates transforming / streamlining the decision-making process, mindsets, talent pipeline, reward structures, reporting lines, and the way responsibilities are assigned.
There is no cookie-cutter approach to Reorganization that can work across all organizations. However, research and management best practices reveal 10 principles that are critical for developing an effective Organizational Design, applicable to any enterprise:
- Don’t get caught in past Reorganization initiatives
- Consider Organizational Design elements
- Transform Organization Chart in the end
- Don’t overlook top talent
- Converge attention towards controllable factors
- Encourage responsibility
- Use best practices with care
- Harmonize organizational hierarchy with Strategic Objectives
- Give due emphasis to intangible elements of organization
- Make efficient use of company culture and practices
Let’s dive deeper into these guiding principles.
1. Don’t Get Caught in Past Reorganization Initiatives
Leaders at most organizations tend to keep discussing and focusing on the old reorganization initiatives. This takes away much of their time and energy which should rather be spent on making the current Organizational Design a success.
Organization Design should be created on the basis of an enterprise’s sense of purpose, strategy, core competencies, products, competitive advantage, and experience offered to customers and employees. Senior leaders need to be able to see the broader perspective, set clear organizational objectives, and steer the workforce to achieve their personal as well as organizational objectives.
2. Consider Organizational Design Elements
Reorganization is a complex undertaking, but a structured approach to Organizational Design assists in identifying and prioritizing key priorities. Organizational Design has 8 fundamental elements that are important for all organizations, Business Models, sectors, or regions. These elements can be categorized into 4 pairs. Each of these 4 pairs constitute a formal (tangible) and an informal (intangible) element:
- Decisions team up with Norms (the way people act).
- Motivators (the way people are influenced to work) pair with Commitments (what affects people’s thoughts about work).
- Information (the way data is processed) pairs with Mindsets (how people process knowledge and meaning).
- Structure (reporting lines) pairs off with Networks (how people collaborate).
Leaders should select fewer, prioritized Organizational Design elements to work on that have the most impact on their organizations.
3. Transform Organization Chart in the End
Most leaders consider Organization Structure to be the most critical element to Business Transformation. In reality, there are other key organizational elements that need to be tackled first to improve effectiveness. Revisiting the organogram does not have much effect on the way business is done—or to improve it. Structure depicts reporting lines and changing it can reduce costs temporary. Changing structure alone—without transforming other organizational elements—allows the redundant reporting lines to reappear and put the organization back to its earlier state of affairs. Instead of changing the organogram, core organizational issues should be prioritized and confronted first. Structure will adjust accordingly once the issues resolve.
4. Don’t Overlook Top Talent
Top talent often go unnoticed when it comes to Reorganization. The skills and traits of the senior leadership has a profound impact on Organizational Design. Mapping of technical capabilities and leadership abilities of top leadership is an important step to Reorganization.
Interested in learning more about the guiding principles critical for Organizational Design?” “You can download an editable PowerPoint on 10 Principles of Organizational Design here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one area considered by many executives to enable Automation and steer positive growth. A couple of years ago, most executives thought that deployment of Artificial Intelligence isn’t a big deal. However, revamping traditional systems, implementing AI, and scaling it, in reality, is not as simple as it seems.
A survey by PwC Research in 2020, which gathered responses of 1062 business leaders, validates that scaling and industrializing AI is not straightforward at all. Only 4% of the respondents asserted that they plan on implementing organization-wide AI in 2020. A year earlier, the same survey revealed 20% of the executives planning to do that. The survey shows a significant decrease in the number of senior leaders thinking of executing AI.
The reason for this dwindling interest in AI deployment is mainly because of the tough prerequisites necessary—contemplation, resources, preparedness, overhauling legacy systems, and integration of technology applications—for enterprise-wide AI implementation.
A robust AI Implementation Strategy needs to be first devised in order to assist the organizations in moving forward with their AI deployment plans. Research reveals 5 key priorities of AI Strategy that businesses should follow to position themselves as AI leaders and reap value from Transformation in future. These priorities not only highlight the key requirements for AI deployment but also pinpoint ways to maximize pay offs associated with the initiative:
- Boring AI
- AI-ready Workforce
- Responsible and Ethical AI
- AI Operationalization
- Business Model Innovation
Let’s delve deeper into a few of these key priorities.
Boring AI
One of the key reasons to employ AI, as cited by PwC research, is to automate routine administrative functions—e.g., using AI to pull information from tax forms, bills of lading, or invoices that can otherwise take up long hours of human effort. 44% of respondents revealed that AI will help them operate more efficiently.
To ensure AI adds value to the business, leaders should develop a strategy to identify the areas where AI can have a much deeper impact; build capabilities to do that; develop AI solutions, govern them, and embed them with existing systems.
AI-ready Workforce
Building or enhancing the capabilities of the workforce to become AI ready is critical today not only for technology enterprises but also for other businesses. Organizations should identify the skills required for AI and train their people to deploy AI solutions.
However, thinking of achieving this through traditional means of offering training sessions isn’t a viable strategy to tap the opportunities offered by AI. In addition to training people, organizations should cross-skill their people in multiple trades and provide them the opportunities to apply and hone in the skills learnt. In fact, organizations should reward people who apply what they learn into real-time problem-solving and productivity enhancement.
Responsible and Ethical AI
AI can be perilous if adequate understanding of its responsible use and necessary procedures to protect against its risks and negative usage are not taken. There are growing apprehensions around AI related risks e.g., biased algorithms, facial recognition tools, and deep fakes. As per PwC survey, a large majority of respondents, using AI routinely, declared readiness in their organizations in terms of taking sufficient measures to protect against AI risks.
However, in reality most organizations are quite far from implementing controls around data and decisions generated using AI. Just about 33% businesses mentioned having the ability to fully tackle risks associated with data powering AI, AI models, outputs, and reporting. It is imperative to have rigorous Risk Management processes in place to effectively use AI in the workplace and address the risks associated with it. AI risks can be mitigated by integrating processes, tools, and controls needed to address AI bias, explainability, security, accountability, and ethics.
Interested in learning more about the other key strategic priorities essential for AI deployment readiness? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Artificial Intelligence Strategy: Top Priorities here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
With most Transformation initiatives people gradually revert back to their old habits of doing things. Sustainable Change Management necessitates 4 key processes:
- Chartering—defining the scope, rationale, and team for the change initiative.
- Learning—testing and refining ideas before a full-blown execution of the initiative.
- Mobilizing—using symbols and metaphors to engage people and gain their buy-in for the change program.
- Realigning—redefining the roles and responsibilities and managing performance of the initiative and the people driving it.
These processes are critical to enable an Organizational Culture which encourages execution of lasting change.
In addition to these key processes, for the change to entrench into the organizational fabric, Leadership needs to put in place the environment necessary for the people to embrace and own the new processes, systems, and desired behaviors.
The 4 critical processes aid in creating the enabling conditions necessary for institutionalizing change in the organization. These enabling conditions for sustainable Change take place in 3 settings:
- Structural Context
- Procedural Context
- Emotional Context
The environment for sustainable change must be put in place way before the actual execution of the Transformation initiative. These enabling conditions encompass making changes to the organization’s structure, procedures, and sentiments / behaviors.
Let’s dive deeper into the 3 conditions critical to enable sustainable change in the institution.
Structural Context
The first element of the enabling environment requires the change leadership to work on reshaping the organizational structure. The 4 key processes have a direct bearing on the organization’s structure. Their effect pervades over:
- The organization’s hierarchy and reporting lines.
- Compensations, benefits, and rewards systems.
- Monitoring and control systems.
The Structural Context significantly affects the way employees’ work and expend their time and their interest in certain types of projects.
The structural context is altered during the Realigning process of Transformation in the way new personnel practices are employed. The Learning process informs the redefinition of linkage between the leadership and field staff. The Mobilizing process informs the changes to be made in the roles and responsibilities of the management and front-line people—through storytelling and metaphors. Whereas, the Chartering process helps instill a reformed, team-building culture in the organization. Together, these changes in the structural context cascade down across the organization.
Procedural Context
The Procedural context pertains to a feeling of objectivity and authenticity of new processes and systems. The Procedural environment involves the perception of people that their views are taken seriously and acted upon while designing and implementing a new initiative.
Procedural authenticity is critical in gaining commitment from the employees on initiatives that were not validated by them earlier. It involves belief of the people that the change initiative integrates well with the philosophies of the organization and the way business should be done. It makes the people feel heard, ensures trustworthiness of the change leadership through positive track records and effective decision making abilities, and alignment of the change initiative with the core values of the organization.
Interested in learning more about the other enabling conditions mandatory for institutionalizing change? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Conditions for Sustainable Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Did You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Accelerated pace of technological disruption has forced organizations to change. It has triggered leaders to think of the ways they must adopt to survive in these challenging times.
Organizations are confronting this scenario by embracing digital technologies. Traditionally, the focus of the organizations in these Transformation initiatives has remained on speed of change. To get the most out of their initiatives, they are making drastic changes, to include:
- Creating Agile Teams
- Introducing Mobile Apps
- Building Big Data and Analytics capabilities
- Experimenting with creative Digital Business Models.
Digital Transformation programs are launched with huge fanfare, see success early on, but fail to keep the momentum going. The issues that plague the sustainability of these initiatives are typically:
- Aging Technology Infrastructure
- Incompatible Operating Models
- Archaic ways of doing business
- Change-agnostic culture.
Drivers of change for the Digital Leadership have changed significantly over the years. There is an increased focus on building scale when executing Digital Transformation. Leaders have realized that quick Decision Making is not the only element required for successful Transformation. To achieve its full potential, they need to create differentiated offerings and scale the most viable initiatives across the organization to create value.
Traditional organizations have started following the footsteps of digital disrupters like Amazon and Tesla. They are implementing new digital services and adjusting their operations. However, typical hurdles—e.g., old enterprise systems, bureaucratic red tape, delayed decision making, and segregation between IT and business units—make them slip back into the outdated ways of doing things.
Sustainable Digital Transformation involves building not only the technology infrastructure but also revisiting the operating model. Successful Digital Transformations essentially involve embracing 4 key strategies to enable an ecosystem that encourages change to stick as well as scale:
- Create a strong Digital Foundation
- Integrate and consolidate the Digital Ecosystem
- Front-end to back-end approach
- Create a new Business Model
Let’s delve deeper into these strategies.
Create a Strong Digital Foundation
Manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries are the major sectors that employ this strategy. The typical state of affairs in organizations implementing this strategy is such that they are in need of developing new digital capabilities from scratch to tackle nimble rivals who are churning out novel value propositions using digital tech. These companies are burdened by dated tech infrastructure, sluggish decision making, and dated business models. The risk of disruption to these businesses is growing but it hasn’t challenged them to transform drastically.
To them, building a digital foundation warrants acquiring novel foundational capabilities. Their approach should be to start implementing and managing small changes one step at a time. For instance, building a smart technology architecture with advanced Big Data, Analytics, and predictive modeling capabilities. This should be followed by testing prototypes of the new model to prove their worth before implementing a full-blown execution.
Integrate and Consolidate the Digital Ecosystem
This strategy has gained traction most in organizations from the Consumer Products industry. These organizations are typically marred by scores of fragmented IT systems running in different parts of the organization. There is a general inability to prioritize the most viable projects and scale them. The need to reform and rapid deployment of Digital Infrastructure is critical for survival.
The approach to Digital Transformation in these organization should be to establish a central management position to manage the initiative and streamline dispersed technology landscape. This entails revising the technology infrastructure and operating model, deploying a unified IT platform for gathering and storing customer data, establishing a common data repository accessible to all units to recognize customers’ needs, and creating a culture that encourages innovation, acts on creative ideas, and refines them through experimentation and advanced tools.
Interested in learning more about the other strategies to enable Digital Transformation? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Sustainable Digital Transformation here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Initiatives aimed at improving performance are often launched with great uproar, costing an organization significant investments. Such initiatives necessitate extensive changes in the Organizational Culture and the way the enterprise systems and processes function.
However, most initiatives fall short of realizing success. Decades of scholarly research on Change Management reveals that the issues that contribute the most to the failure of strategic initiatives are:
- Incompetence in sustaining process improvement.
- Lack of trust on senior leadership.
- Failure to embrace new ways of doing business.
- Performance relapse.
- Inability of the initiative to produce any positive financial returns.
- Skepticism towards the desired behaviors and return of impractical employee behaviors.
Researchers have carried out scores of studies to isolate the drivers of lasting change. Research published in MIT SMR in 2005 discusses how leadership can design and execute Transformation initiatives that bring lasting changes in the organization. The study entailed in-depth analysis of the strategic Customer Service Enhancement (CSE) initiative undertaken by a large clothing retailer, having franchises in multiple geographic locations.
The researchers conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with leaders, in-store operations and support function managers. Detailed notes of the interviews were shared amongst the researchers alongside an exhaustive literature review. A case study of the initiative was prepared using independent research to have an unprejudiced viewpoint, free from any bias. Feedback from the organization’s management was gathered and incorporated throughout the study to seek clarifications or corrections. Data analysis was carried out employing a coding scheme developed using Atlas.ti tool. Comparative analysis was conducted and similarities and differences in conclusions were discussed.
The study brought to light 4 key processes necessary for change to stick in an organization. These key processes assist in laying the foundation for successful institutionalization of change initiatives by creating a company-wide culture that encourages enduring change:
- Chartering
- Learning
- Mobilizing
- Realigning
Let’s delve deeper into the first 2 processes.
Chartering
Chartering is a process through which an enterprise classifies the purpose, scope, and the way people interact with each other on a strategic initiative. Clear delineation of project boundaries, resources, responsibilities, and reporting lines are the elements integral for the success of a change initiative.
The Chartering process entails 2 critical components:
- Boundary Setting
- Team Design
Boundary Setting involves the key steps a team takes for accurate definition of change initiative’s scope.
The project team should clearly outline the problem(s) that the project is, and isn’t, going to tackle. Ideally, while designing and executing a change initiative, the focus of the engagement should be on confronting the most crucial problem area. The leadership should ensure not to confuse the core team by eyeing too many priorities to deal with through the strategic initiative.
The Team Design element of Chartering involves ascertaining the roles, accountabilities, and guiding principles for team’s collaboration. Team design entails creating ground rules for team members to interact, devising mechanisms to manage conflicts. The leadership needs to not only maintain diversity of the project team’s expertise, but also ensure they complement each other, and inculcate a standardized approach to decision making in project teams. There needs to be fostered a culture of positive discourse and testing ideas amongst the team members. Incorporating these guidelines helps spark thinking, learning, and decision making.
Learning
Learning aids in anticipating and dealing with hurdles during implementation of Transformation initiatives. Learning enables the managers to improve the quality of the new processes. it is a process through which managers develop, test, and refine ideas before full-scale implementation. The process entails 2 critical components:
- Discovery
- Experimentation
For more information on Learning and Development and how to elevate your organization into a Learning Organization, check out the frameworks and tools on Flevy here: https://flevy.com/business-toolkit/learning-organization
The discovery element involves gathering data to identify the objectives of the change initiative and outlining ways to achieve those objectives. Before rolling out a complete implementation of a change initiative, testing and refining the individual elements of the initiative immensely assists in the success of the initiative. Gathering adequate information relevant to the initiative, setting up baseline metrics to measure performance, and identifying issues hampering customer satisfactions are the key aspects of this phase. The team should learn from the failures of prior initiatives, introduce change in a systemic fashion rather than piecemeal, and encourage people to change rationally as well as emotionally.
Interested in learning more about the other processes critical for change to stick? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 4 Processes of Sustainable Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Mergers and Acquisitions enable numerous opportunities for growth. Organizations pursue these initiatives for a number of reasons—e.g. to expand further, attract more clients, or to broaden their product / service offerings. Scores of M&A transactions materialize across the globe each year, but not all of them achieve the synergies such deals promise. As a matter of fact, the success ratio is just around 27%.
The M&A Growth Framework is a structured approach to enhance the odds of a successful M&A transaction. This approach is instrumental in helping organizations capitalize on growth opportunities locked in M&A deals. The framework comprises 10 phases scattered across 3 timeframes:
- Pre-deal Preparation
- First 100 Days
- Post-deal Closure
The 10 phases of the M&A Growth Framework organized under the 3 timeframes include:
- PRE-CLOSE PLANNING & PREPARATION
- Growth Opportunities
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Customer Experience Strategy
- FIRST 100 DAYS
- Customer and Partner Readiness
- Cross-sell Strategies
- Pricing Management
- Brand and Digital Presence Building
- POST-DAY 1 ENVIRONMENT
- Product and Service Roadmap
- Sales Force Transformation
- Long-term Revenue Synergies
The M&A Growth Framework facilitates in finding growth opportunities, aligning them with Go-to-Market Strategy, reinforcing Customer Experience, and enabling Organizational Readiness for integration after the M&A.
Let’s dive deeper into the first 3 phases of the M&A Growth Framework for now.
Growth Opportunities
The first step in achieving growth from a Merger or Acquisition deal is to identify and analyze the opportunities essential for growth.
Identification of growth opportunities necessitates:
- Gauging the ability of the new company to enter target markets.
- Conducting one-to-one interviews and Focus Group Discussions with key people from the management and customers to develop points of reference for existing key competencies.
- Identifying and translating growth opportunities into initiatives.
- Quantifying growth with timeline requirements.
- Prioritizing opportunities based on their magnitude, viability, and potential for effective execution.
- Utilizing clean teams to ensure confidentiality of data.
Go-to-Market Strategy
Identification and prioritization of growth opportunities necessitates delineating the Go-to-Market Strategy of the combined entity. This phase assists in achieving the newly-formed company’s stated growth targets, business continuity objectives, and proficient utilization of unified team and resources.
Key steps involved in this phase include:
- Combining the acquired entity’s product/service portfolio with the buyer’s offerings.
- Ascertaining and prioritizing strategic inputs.
- Translating the information and inputs available into prioritized action items.
- Segmenting the customers and their needs.
- Creating Go-to-Market plans.
- Connecting the sales channels with the unified company’s product mix.
- Ensuring resource readiness, sales targets, coverage, and channel mix.
- Finalizing marketing plans: communication, branding, targeting, product mix.
Customer Experience Strategy
As part of integrating the 2 unified companies, it is critical for the senior leadership to develop and deploy a Customer Experience (CE) Strategy. A consistent Customer Experience derives more value from existing customers, aids in the continuation of operations, and boosts customer spending.
Key steps in this phase entail:
- Appraising the existing customer experience, interactions, and customer pain points.
- Developing a customer-focused organization by creating seamless CE “personas” and customer journey maps.
- Identifying and ranking CE improvement initiatives.
- Implementing CE enhancement initiatives, monitoring outcomes, and correcting the course.
- Integrating the customers and Customer Experiences of the acquirer and the target companies.
Interested in learning more about the other phases of the M&A Growth Framework ? You can download an editable PowerPoint on M&A Growth Framework here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
