Instilling Company-Wide Accountability

According to a 2007 survey of 317 C-level executives conducted by BusinessWeek Research Services, (and published by Joe Mullich for Microsoft's People-Ready Business Insights,) the biggest obstacles to successful execution of performance management are “lack of accountability” and “a culture that does not support measurement.”

"Too many people think of performance management as an exercise in scorecarding,” says Richard T. Roth, formerly chief research officer of The Hackett Group, an Atlanta-based consulting firm. “World-class organizations focus less on performance metrics than on instilling company-wide accountability.”

How can companies overcome those obstacles and develop winning attributes? Researcher's found the following attributes:

• “Organizations achieve a competitive advantage when they develop a culture that fosters improved performance—one that holds a high respect for facts, is customer-centric, competes from a common playbook, makes data-driven decisions, and promotes cross-group collaboration, alignment, and execution.”
• "Firms that possess a performance discipline align objectives with shareholder value and radiate that message from the top through every part of the organization."
• "Performance management is not a big-bang process. It is a continuous improvement process. You are constantly tweaking, so it has to be something that you do in the normal course of business.”

Book Review: Six Disciplines Execution Revolution

Julien Dionne, editor at Incentive, Compensation and Sales Performance Management, has published his review of the new book by Gary Harpst, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution.

An excerpt of his review:

"I was particularly interested by this book because not only does it talk about how a business can achieve excellence, it also focuses a lot on performance management. Throughout the book Gary acknowledges the importance of performance measurement, performance measurement, business intelligence and analytics, and performance management systems. Overall, this book is straight to the point, well-organized, and as the title suggests, focused on execution."

Read the entire review here.

Coming Soon - The Execution Revolution Challenge!

Where is your organization, in terms of strategy vs. execution?

Six Disciplines, developers of the first complete strategy execution program for small and midsized businesses, is developing a free, interactive tool that enables organizations to rate how well they execute their strategies.

The Execution Revolution Challenge only takes one minute to complete, but the results will cause you to begin thinking and acting differently about how you address the biggest challenge in business: execution.

“The purpose of the Execution Revolution Challenge is to prove whether everyone in your organization is on the “same page” or not, in terms of the strategy execution capability of the organization,” said Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines. “Businesses are not alone in their struggle to grow predictably and profitably. Very few businesses have this mastered. Taking the Execution Revolution Challenge is the first step in understanding what you need to do differently to solve the biggest challenge in business.”

“We’re encouraging every person within an organization to take the Challenge. When completed, the tool provides the CEO with a crystal clear view into the level of alignment within their organization. Most come away with a sense of urgency that something needs to be done differently, in order to execute strategy more consistently and predictably,” added Harpst.

The Idea Behind The Execution Revolution Challenge
The idea behind the Execution Revolution Challenge comes from Chapter 1 of the new book Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution – Solving the One Business Problem that Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier,” by CEO and award-winning author, Gary Harpst.

“The Challenge brings the Six Disciplines Business Excellence Model™ to life,” said Harpst. “The model reveals that every organization, during its life cycle, moves around on a four-quadrant matrix, characterized by weak and strong strategy and execution. The breakthrough idea is there is a revolutionary new way for businesses to move to the upper right hand quadrant, where strategy and execution are balanced and predictable, indicated by profitable growth,” added Harpst.

(Check back here soon - we'll let you know when the Execution Revolution Challenge is "live"!)

Management and The Growth Challenge

Robert Bruner, Dean of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, observes:

"Economic indicators suggest that growth of the world economy is slowing. High commodity prices and fear about future conditions are driving investors and customers out of the market. What would it take to restore us to sensible growth?"

His answer? "Probably many things. But among these would certainly be good general management."

Recent research at Darden reinforces this notion in the context of the growing firm. Ed Hess, professor at Darden has been studying the role of general managers in producing long stretches of organic growth within companies.

Hess's research confirms that: ...building a stretch of strong internal growth depends on creating “a seamless, consistent, self-reinforcing alignment across strategy, execution processes, structure, leadership, culture, HR policies, accountability, technology, measurement and rewards. In other words, good growth leaders are able to think in a systems integrative mindset across functions."

Bruner's research shows that "...to be a consistent high performance company, strategy is not enough- you must be a great execution company. And to be a great execution company you need a deep bench of good servant leaders, high employee engagement, customer centricity, and a good technology platform across your company-especially your supply chain."

BOTTOMLINE: "This is the power of integration and alignment. General management is a way of thinking - a mindset which appreciates the integrative complexity of human behavior.”

Barriers To Sustainable Performance

"It may be overly simplistic to say that a company’s success depends on the quality of its communication and internal dialogue. But look at the top and you’ll see that a leader who is authentic is a leader who has inspired clear and honest communication."

So begins the Ivey Business Journal article "The New Leadership Challenge: Removing The Emotional Barriers To Sustainable Performance in a Flat World," by Paul Wieand, Jan Birchfield and M. Carl Johnson III.

Pulling from disparate works such as Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat" and Jim Collins' "Good To Great", the authors summarize effective leadership in a five-step model:

Step 1: Overcoming the Personality: Removing barriers to self-knowledge and authenticity
Step 2: Authentic Leadership: Developing an authentic leadership style and applying it for effective decision-making
Step 3: Collaboration: Communicating to create unity without consensus
Step 4: Culture: Helping the leader create an environment that enhances openness, candor and dissent as essential characteristics of communication
Step 5: Commitment: Committing to a Level 5 environment for sustainably good results

BOTTOMLINE: "We would encourage CEOs and their executive staffs to embrace the 5-step model we describe above and commit to achieving a highly collaborative culture founded on authenticity. With this achievement, we believe that organizations will raise their success odds for delivering sustainably good performance."

The Power of The Two Word Strategy

When it comes to strategy formulation, it's important to be as clear and concise as possible. Brevity is key.

With that in mind, try boiling your strategic position down to two words (or at least two key concepts.)

The two words you choose need to answer the following two questions:

1. What business are you in?
2. What makes you different?

For example: Dell (computers direct); Southwest Airlines (short flights); FedEx (overnight delivery); JiffyLube (quick oilchanges) and so on.

Why?

Long-term business success is rooted in your ability to build and sustain a product or service that is different than your competition - different in ways that are important to customers.

BOTTOMLINE: Getting to this level of clarity is not easy. But, simplifying your strategic position to two words:

• Forces you to make tough choices (you can be all things to all markets)
• Strengthens your focus and direction (use the strength of competitors against them)
• Ensures clarity (so everyone in the organization understands it and aligns activities to it)

Six Secrets of Breakthrough Companies

Author Keith McFarland, a former Inc. 500 CEO, has spent years researching thousands of private companies and interviewing their leaders -- in an attempt to identify the secrets of "breaking through." Here are six of his most surprising findings.

1. Happy employees make successful companies. How employees feel about working in a place is a significant driver of success. A key discovery, driven home in our visits to one breakthrough company after another, was that the task of building a great place to work wasn't delegated to the human resources department alone. The top people in the company thought about it every day.
2. Money doesn't solve everything. You don't always need other people's money. We've all heard the professional investor's elevator pitch, "Sure, you can grow your business, but you can grow it faster with our money." We were shocked by the fact that not one of nine breakthrough companies was funded by venture capital in their start-up years.
3. Many paths lead to success. It's not about where (or even whether) you went to school. The diversity of the people who established and/or are running the nine breakthrough companies is simply astounding.
4. Talent is contagious. Don't look for extraordinary people; build a place where ordinary people can do extraordinary things. While they certainly obsessed about each individual hiring decision, breakthrough companies also focused on creating systems that helped their people grow along with the business.
5. Change matters. Sticking to the knitting won't always get you there. Just as the breakthrough companies ignored the so-called experts when it came to the prospects for their industry, they also kept redefining their businesses.
6. Breakthrough companies are found in unexpected places. The most interesting companies may not operate in the markets that Wall Street and the business press consider interesting or "cool." Many of the breakthrough companies began in market segments experts considered unattractive at the time.

Six Disciplines Client Video - Kellermeyer

Kellermeyer, a leading Midwest supplier of retail janitorial services for home and retail space with offices nationwide, works with Six Disciplines to better align its people for sustaining their business success.

Watch this short video as President Jill Kegler talks about how Six Disciplines helped them to optimize operating efficiencies and to get its workforce to become more engaged and accountable. See how she overcame barriers to drive positive change with this unique strategy execution program.

Get Six Disciplines Execution Revolution - for FREE

It's time to start the Execution Revolution!

As our way of thanking all of the Be Excellent readers, we're offering a complimentary* copy of the new book "Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution" by CEO and award-winning author Gary Harpst.

Get a copy of the new book for yourself - and tell others to get theirs quickly as well.

To get yours, visit www.SixDisciplines.com/START - and enter the Coupon Code: "START"

*Offer valid for U.S. residents only. Limited to the first 5,000 books, one per address. Offer ends June 19, 2008.

Innovation and the Small Business Challenge

This month Inc. Magazine challenged A.G. Lafley (CEO of Procter & Gamble) and Ram Charan (strategy execution guru) to apply the lessons from their new book The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation to a much smaller company - one with only $4 million in revenue and 30 employees.

Lafley and Charan took on the challenge and came up with a seven-step routine for innovation.

The steps include:

1. Select the Strategy (Look for an underserved market)
2. Connect to Customers (Use social networks as an idea collector)
3. Generate Ideas (Brainstorm the right way)
4. Select an Idea (Separate the good ideas from the great)
5. Prototype and Test (Bring on the customers)
6. Go to Market (Even half-baked product ideas can work)
7. Adjust for Growth (Devote resources to innovation)

Change Management - Why Is It So Hard?

A new Economist Intelligence Unit study investigates the state of organizational change programs, and asserts that an unstable economy won't dampen spending on change programs.

In Managing change successfully (March-April 2008), sponsored by Celerant Consulting, the researchers found that business leaders are responding to the economic slowdown by launching more change programs and spending more money on them.

Although change programs in the last year have had cost reduction as their primary goal, the survey found that, over the next year, the goal will be organizational flexibility for operational efficiency -- 57% of companies surveyed put this at the top of their agenda.

The problem?

• In spite of this enthusiasm for change, few companies are consistently successful at it. Although change management, as a business discipline, has been around since the 1940s, most companies still struggle to put theory into practice.
• Of the 607 senior executives polled for this survey, 58% say that, over the past five years, half or fewer of their change initiatives have been successful. The U.S. fares a lot worse, with 75% of respondents stating that half or fewer of their change initiatives have been successful.

Why is change so hard?

• The element of change management that companies have the most difficulty with is "winning hearts and minds" (51%). This was followed, in second place, by "lack of management buy-in" (31%).
• When change management initiatives fail, companies' blame "lack of clearly defined or achievable milestones" (24%). Next on the blame-list is "lack of commitment by senior management" and "poor communication" (both with 19%). In other words, the ingredients that are required to convince people of the case for change.

BOTTOMLINE: Human nature is one of the key barriers to effective change management, (along with economics and expertise) all of which are directly related to executing strategy.

Read Chapter 3, What Is It So Hard? - from the new book by Gary Harpst, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution, for insights into why change is so hard, and a breakthrough way to overcome this ongoing challenge.

Growing Businesses with Execution to Succeed

Six Disciplines Equips Growing Businesses with Execution to Succeed

New, current clients keep the recession where it belongs: external to business operations

Six Disciplines, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, is empowering their clients to manage and build their business for success, no matter what the economic environment holds.

New customers, including Blue & Co., an Indianapolis-based regional CPA firm providing consulting and certified public accounting services, are being taught to build their business from the inside out with the aid of Six Disciplines.

The Six Disciplines® strategy execution program integrates a repeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, ongoing external coaching to ensure accountability, an execution software system to align daily activities of every person, every day, and community learning to accelerate and sustain business excellence.

“While many small businesses tend to pull back, spend less, and wait things out in an uncertain economy, this approach disrupts current business initiatives and profits, as well as the culture and long-term financial success of the company,” said Gary Harpst, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines. “In times of economic uncertainty leaders must focus on what they can control – their internal business’ strategy and overall execution.”

Entrepreneurs remain unmoved by the current economic climate and refuse to be another negative statistic. Nine out of 10 U.S. small business owners reported seeing opportunities for their businesses in the current recession, and more than 75 percent expect growth, based on Intuit's recent "Get Back to Business" survey. Six Disciplines’ customers, as an entrepreneurial segment, are better equipped to deal with an economic downturn or external pressures.

“Incorporating Six Disciplines into our business allowed us to increase our focus and refine our strategy, regardless of outside economic factors,” said Paul Kramer, CEO Kramer Enterprises and two-year Six Disciplines client. “We’re growing and using the supposed economic slowdown as an opportunity to make sure every employee is on the same page and that our goals are well-defined.”

For businesses to stay one step ahead of the economy and successfully build and manage an internally stable business that can withstand external hardship, Six Disciplines leverages the following framework:

• Better understand the competitive landscape. Take the time to research how competitors shift strategies and benchmark the activities for key learnings and to identify areas of opportunity to reach new customers.
• Evaluate the corporate mission and goals. Unexpected and uncontrollable forces will always impact short-term business results. It is important to stay focused on the company’s ultimate mission and goals, regardless of external factors. Outside forces may change, but the mission and goals should remain steadfast.
• Expand your business/revenue stream. Based on the competitive research and corporate mission/goals, identify new ways to reach a broader client base– while everyone else is tightening their business’ belts, leverage the opportunity to expand into new
• Invest in technologies that serve long-term purposes of the organization.
  Because of the cost to integrate any technology, the decision to buy shouldn’t be based on a short-term fix. Look ahead several years to ensure that all technologies purchased complement one another for maximum efficiency and productivity.

Harpst created the Six Disciplines program based on personal experience, in addition to research resulting from professionals with more than 50 years combined business experience. His first company, Solomon Software, went through a recession and Harpst was forced to lay off staff.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” he said. “The worst part was I knew it was preventable if I had only planned and demanded more internally of our operations; I needed to run my business tighter from the inside out and keep environmental forces out of my business.”

After running the business for 20 years, Harpst sold his business to Microsoft, which implemented more than 60,000 business management systems in small and midsized businesses. Upon the sale, he vowed to create a methodology to aid businesses in achieving business success consistently at less cost to the business and staff while providing more value to customers. He founded Six Disciplines in 2000 to help small- and midsize businesses create ongoing strategy and success.

Harpst is the author of the top-rated book, Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last and, scheduled for a July release, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving The One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier.

About Six Disciplines
Six Disciplines, founded in 2000, has developed the first complete strategy execution program, specifically for small and midsized businesses. The Six Disciplines program integrates a repeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, ongoing external coaching to ensure accountability, an execution software system to align daily activities of every stakeholder, and community learning to accelerate and sustain business excellence. The program is offered exclusively through a growing national network of locally-owned Six Disciplines Centers. Businesses that have implemented the Six Disciplines program include those from the Inc. 500, ISO-9000 certified companies, and a 2007 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award recipient. Visit http://www.sixdisciplines.com/ or http://www.garyharpst.com/

The AppGap Reviews Six Disciplines

Bill Ives, a contributing editor to The AppGap, recently interviewed Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst in his review Six Disciplines - Providing Integrated Consulting, Coaching, and Software for Small Businesses

According to Bill, "Six Disciplines offers more than just how to use the new technology, but the concept is the same. There is a significant mind set transformation in play."

Read the entire article here.

Be Excellent Named To Best Blog List

According to Benjamin Jones, editor at entrepreneurial blog Ben-Means-Business:

"There are thousands of small business and entrepreneurship blogs in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, many of them are not at all useful to the experienced or aspiring entrepreneur. We've all seen them. The great majority of which are e-commerce "pros" masquerading as entrepreneurship experts. This makes finding solid, useful information for the traditional small business owner very difficult. Therefore in my frustration, I have decided to create what I like to think of as "The A-List" of entrepreneurship and small business blogs."

At Be Excellent, we're humbled to have made Ben's list.

Check out The 41 Absolute Best Blogs about Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Strategy Execution Expert Gary Harpst Launches An Execution Revolution

In support of the upcoming July release of his newest book, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution, successful serial entrepreneur, CEO, and author Gary Harpst forsees a revolution brewing within America’s small and midsized businesses.

“A revolution is about to start that will provide a leapfrog opportunity for small and midsized businesses in the way they execute their strategy,” said Harpst. “Knowing how to plan and execute, while overcoming today’s inevitable surprises, is the most foundational capability any successful organization can learn. To accelerate this revolution, we’ve established a publishing division and supporting websites designed to educate business leaders on how they transform their businesses and maximize their ability to execute strategy,” added Harpst.

Harpst’s newest book, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving The One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier, is scheduled to be published in July 2008. In Six Disciplines Execution Revolution, Harpst details the elements of a complete strategy execution program, explains why it could only have happened now, and clarifies why such a program will become a mainstream requirement for successful small and midsized businesses. The new book is now available for pre-order from http://www.sixdisciplinespublishing.com/.

Harpst’s first book, the highly-rated Six Disciplines for Excellence, received the 2007 USA Book News Best Books finalist award, and was rated the No. 1 business book for 2007 by The Center for Workplace Excellence. Six Disciplines for Excellence is also consistently ranked in the top ten books of the Organizational Learning category on Amazon, and is also available from Six Disciplines Publishing.

In addition, Harpst’s new website, http://www.garyharpst.com/, offers insights into Gary’s successful background, his companies, his books, videos, podcasts, his newsletter on strategy execution, speaking engagement calendar, and his personal blog on business excellence topics.

About Gary Harpst
Gary Harpst, a highly successful entrepreneur and CEO, spent twenty years as leader of Solomon Software, which implemented more than 60,000 businesses management systems in small and midsized businesses, before it was eventually sold to Microsoft. Today, as founder and CEO of Six Disciplines, Harpst and his team have developed the first complete strategy execution program for small and midsized businesses, which includes a repeatable business-building methodology, local accountability coaching, an innovative execution management software system, and the accelerated advantages of community learning.

Harpst is also the author of two highly-respected business improvement books, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution and Six Disciplines for Excellence. A highly-regarded speaker, Harpst uses his 30 years of business leadership and entrepreneurial experience to provide a fertile inventory of hard-hitting, real-world examples that pepper his presentations and engage his audiences. Visit http://www.garyharpst.com/ and http://www.sixdisciplines.com/.

About Six Disciplines Publishing
Six Disciplines® Publishing, a division of Six Disciplines, LLC, is responsible for the creation and distribution of materials and media covering the broad topic of strategy execution. Headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, Six Disciplines Publishing develops content across a wide variety of media: printed books, audio books, blogs, whitepapers, web sites, podcasts, speeches, presentations, and videos. With integrity, excellence and respect for lasting relationships, Six Disciplines Publishing, in conjunction with its Partners, creates a winning combination of design, publishing, production, distribution, publicity, public relations and marketing services. Visit http://www.sixdisciplinespublishing.com/.

Achieving Business Excellence

In a newly released PDF that you can download for free from ChangeThis, consultant John Spence condenses his years of consulting and research into six strategies that all great companies focus on, entitled Achieving Business Excellence.

The six strategies:

1. Have a vivid vision: A clear and well-thought-out vision of what you are trying to create that is exceptionally well communicated to everyone involved.
2. Hire the best people: Superior talents who are also masters of collaboration.
3. Create a performance-oriented culture: One that demands flawless operational execution, encourages constant improvement and innovation, and completely refuses to tolerate mediocrity or lack of accountability.
4. Encourage robust communication: Open, honest, frank and courageous, both internally and externally.
5. Create a sense of urgency: The strong desire to get the important things done while never wasting time on the trivial.
6. Encourage extreme customer focus: Owning the voice of the customer and delivering what customers consider truly valuable.

Download the Achieving Business Excellence pdf here.

What You Think Is Your Biggest Problem, Isn't

As Karl Albrecht said in his book Corporate Radar, "The majority is not always right, the conventional wisdom is not always wise, and the accepted doctrine could well be flawed. The more fashionable an idea, the more it is likely to be exempt from critical evaluation. Breakthrough thinking sometimes calls for contradicting the most widely held assumptions and beliefs."

Consider what you think is your biggest business challenge. Is it growth? Competition? Innovation? Cost containment?

We'd like to challenge how you think about your biggest business challenge. In fact, what you think is your biggest business problem, isn't.

The foundational challenge - one that transcends all other business problems - is executing strategy. In other words, building an organization that has the ability to plan and execute, while at the same time, overcoming the inevitable surprises - is the biggest and toughest challenge in business.

The good news? This one problem, if solved, will make solving all other problems easier.

That's what the Execution Revolution....is all about!

Small Business Advocate Interviews Gary Harpst

Want to know how to thrive, not just survive during a slow economy?

Listen to this MP3 as author and CEO Gary Harpst speaks with Jim Blasingame at the Small Business Advocate, with some thoughts on what he thinks is the main characteristic of successful organizations, execution.

Gary Harpst - National Leader of The Month

LeaderNetwork.Org conducts interviews with the nation's top leaders. Previous leaders who have been interviewed include: Dr. Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Lou Holtz, John Wooden, and Zig Ziglar.

For May 2008, Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines, has been named "National Leader of the Month" by LeaderNetwork.Org.

Harpst was interviewed by Brian McCormick, and the MP3 podcast is available for downloading here.

The written transcript of the interview can be viewed here.

The Challenge of Innovation? Executing on Strategy

According to findings of a recent survey published by Accenture, business strategy is driven largely by innovation, but corporate responsibility for the innovation process is highly fragmented.

Additional findings from the study:

• Innovation is a top corporate priority, but it also indicates that more senior-level accountability, greater CEO involvement and improved speed-to-market execution can help companies deliver on their promise of innovation and boost their competitiveness.
• 62 percent of respondents said that their organization’s business strategy is either totally or largely dependent on innovation.
• The challenge of innovation for organizations is not commitment and intent but rather execution against the innovation vision.

BOTTOMLINE: "The role of the CEO in the innovation process has grown dramatically in its importance and needs to evolve from vision- and direction-setting to enabling and driving execution,” said Dan Chow, a senior executive in Accenture’s Strategy practice.

“CEOs need to properly align resources and action with the innovation vision and performance goals. However, simply having a vision for innovation and naming an executive to head innovation is not enough to make it work. Senior management must look at innovation as a core process to be actively managed; avoid a quick-fix approach; and focus their energy on execution.”

Enduring Business Excellence

Fortune Magazine recently published an article by management expert Jim Collins entitled "The Secret of Enduring Greatness."

Lessons learned:

• The most significant business innovation of the past 200 years: systematic management development.
• Just because a company stumbles - or gets smacked upside the head by an unexpected event or new challenge - does not mean that it must continue to decline.
• Companies do not fall primarily because of what the world does to them or because of how the world changes around them; they fall first and foremost because of what they do to themselves.
• When you've built an institution with values and a purpose beyond just making money - when you've built a culture that makes a distinctive contribution while delivering exceptional results - why would you surrender to the forces of mediocrity and succumb to irrelevance?

Genuine Curiosity's Review of Execution Revolution

Dwayne Melancon over at Genuine Curiosity, has published his review of Execution Revolution, the new book by Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines.

Here's an excerpt from Dwayne's review:

"This is a book designed to get your business to the next level. I loved this book, and I think the subtitle sums it up quite well: "Solving the one business problem that makes solving all other problems easier." What's the "one problem?" Execution."

"Harpst's book goes beyond platitudes, and his recommendations are meaty and actionable.
This is not a 'getting started' business book. It's a 'getting better' or 'getting results' book that is well-suited for established SMB's who are in the mids of (or in fear of) a plateu or decline in performance. If you want to jump the curve and get better results in leading an SMB, this book is one you should read."

Read Dwayne's entire review here.

Finding and Retaining Top People

In a recent survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) in conjunction with HR.com, the companies responding to the March 2008 Tawere clear about their priorities: in a word - talent.

The top five HR growth issues in 2008, as indicated by survey responses, were all related to talent in one way or another:

• Employee retention (72%)
• Engagement (70%)
• Recruitment (64%)
• Development of high-potentials (64%)
• Succession planning (56%)

BOTTOMLINE: Regardless of economic landscapes, finding, orienting, engaging and retaining top people continues to be a top growth issue for companies of all sizes. Combine the newfound struggle swith cross-generational challenges (Gen X, Y, Millenials, etc.) - and you have a new demand that prior workforce managers have never quite had to deal with.

Executive Coaching Survey Responses Revealed

The good folks at Sherpa Coaching have released data from their 2008 survey on Executive Coaching.

Some of the more interesting findings (responses from executive coaches only):

• 62 percent said their development as a coach was primarily from classroom training and certification as a coach
• 44 percent said they charge between $150 - $299/hour for business coaching
• 77 percent said in-person meetings were the most effective for coaching
• 45 percent said effective coaching is delivered twice a month
• 45 percent said people at all levels within an organization should receive coaching
• 54 percent said people who need leadership development need business coaching the most
• 53 percent said business or consulting experience is the most appropriate background for business or executive coaching

Small Businesses: The Heros of the U.S. Economy

With all of the gloom and doom being spread throughout the major media about the economic sky falling, let's step back a bit and reflect on our strengths - specifically, the strengths contributed by small and midsized businesses.

In helping to celebrate National Small Business Week, consider the following statistics from the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB):

• Small firms account for 39 percent of the country's gross national product
  Small firms create two out of every three new jobs
• Small firms are twice as innovative per employee as larger firms
• Small, innovative firms produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms
• 66 percent of the Americans think that small businesses "exert a positive influence on the way things are going in the country today"
• 91 percent of small business owners contributed to their community in the last year through volunteering, in-kind contributions, and/or direct cash donations

BOTTOMLINE: "Even though small businesses collectively generate $5 trillion in sales in the U.S., the biggest challenge of an individual small business is "survival." At times, the challenges can be daunting, indeed overwhelming. It's encouraging to know that the struggles we encounter every day are normal. ALL small businesses face them. And like other "heroes," we continue the fight because the cause is worth it." (from Six Disciplines for Excellence)

PRO-TEC To Receive Malcolm Baldrige Award This Week

PRO-TEC Coating Company of Leipsic, Ohio, one of only five organizations in the U.S., will receive the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award this week in Washington D.C. The award is the nation’s highest presidential honor awarded annually for quality and organizational performance excellence.

PRO-TEC was the only the only recipient of the 2007 Baldrige award in the “Small Business” category. Criteria for the Baldrige award include: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; human resource focus; process management; and business results.

About PRO-TEC CoatingPRO-TEC Coating Company, Leipsic, Ohio, provides world-class coated sheet steel in coil form primarily to the quality-critical automotive market. PRO-TEC is a 50/50 joint venture partnership of U.S. Steel Corporation (USS) and KOBE Steel, Ltd., of Japan. The company is privately held. PRO-TEC organizational culture blends the strong American steel-making tradition of USS and KOBE’s technical and analytical Japanese style with the strong work ethic and family values of rural Northwest Ohio to produce a superior product. PRO-TEC is certified to stringent ISO-9001, ISO/TS 16949 and ISO 14001 standards. Visit PRO-TEC at http://www.proteccoating.com/

Read the stories "PRO-TEC journey 'has just begun'" and "Pursuit of excellence pays off at PRO-TEC."

(DISCLAIMER: PRO-TEC has been a Six Disciplines client for three years.)

Execution Revolution: Now Available for Pre-Order

The new book by author, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines, entitled "Execution Revolution," is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

About Execution Revolution:

With all of the pressures successful business leaders have today, none is more urgent or challenging than learning the ability to execute strategy.

While larger businesses have the luxury of budgets and resources to meet this challenge, it’s the small and midsized businesses that now have a tremendous opportunity to level the playing field, leapfrog the expensive, outdated approaches of the past, and attack the challenge of execution in a revolutionary way. The key insights are:

• Excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution.
• Planning and executing, while at the same time dealing with the inevitable surprises, is the biggest challenge in business.
• Overcoming this challenge is what we mean by solving the one problem that makes all others easier.
• Failing to solve the problem destines your organization to a reactive, fire-fighting future.

Based on breakthrough research, field testing and proven best-practices, the thought-leading vision described by Gary Harpst in Execution Revolution sets a new course for how small and midsized businesses can finally confront the never-ending challenge of executing strategy.

As a follow-up to the success of Six Disciplines for Excellence, Harpst’s new book, Execution Revolution, details the elements of a complete strategy execution program, clarifies how it could only have happened now, and explains why such a program will soon become a mainstream requirement for your business.

(NOTE: The pub date has been moved up to July 1 -- not September as indicated)

IndustryWeek Reviews New Book: Execution Revolution

IndustryWeek has recently published a review summary of the new book by Gary Harpst, "Execution Revolution."

"What's needed, says author Gary Harpst, is not only the discipline to learn how to develop a good plan, but more importantly the proper use of technology in execution. "

Read the entire review here.

(The new book will soon be available for pre-order on Amazon)

Communicating The Need for Change

If there's one thing that's constant, it's change.

But the one thing that our employees need is a clear explanation of:

• Why are we changing? (what's wrong with what we're doing now?)
• What are the benefits of changing? (how will things be better if we do?)
• What are the consequences of not changing? (what will happen if we don't?)

It's no wonder then, that:

• 70 percent of all change initiatives fail -- due to human nature (people) issues

The reasons? Sometimes it's because of senior leadership's inability to lead or explain the reasons that changes are needed. Other times, it's a lack of understanding, or engagement, or unwillingness to deal with change, and so forth.

BOTTOMLINE: Keep in mind the following eight-steps of change, by John P. Kotter:

1. Establish a Sense of Urgency- Examine market and competitive realities- Identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or major opportunities
2. Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition- Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort- Encourage the group to work as a team
3. Create a Vision- Create a vision to help direct the change effort- Develop strategies for achieving that vision
4. Communicate the Vision- Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies - Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
5. Empower Others to Act on the Vision- Get rid of obstacles to change- Change systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision- Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions
6. Plan for and Create Short-Term Wins- Plan for visible performance improvements- Creating those improvements- Recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements
7. Consolidate Improvements and Produce Still More Change- Use increased credibility to change systems, structures, and policies that don't fit the vision- Hire, promote, and develop employees who can implement the vision- Reinvigorate the process with new projects, themes, and change agents
8. Institutionalize New Approaches- Articulate the connections between the new behaviors and organizational success- Develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession

Twelve Different Ways To Innovate

MIT Sloan Management Review reveals the landscape of "The 12 Different Ways for Companies To Innovate":

But what exactly is innovation?

"Although the subject (or innovation) has risen to the top of the CEO agenda, many companies have a mistakenly narrow view of it. They might see innovation as synonymous with new product development or traditional research and development. But such myopia can lead to the systematic erosion of competitive advantage. As a result, companies in a given industry can come to resemble one another over time."

In actuality, business innovation is far broader in scope than product or technological innovation.
In fact, your company can innovate along any of 12 different dimensions with respect to your:

1. Offerings
2. Platform
3. Solutions
4. Customers
5. Customer experience
6. Value capture
7. Processes
8. Organization
9. Supply chain
10. Presence
11. Networking
12. Brand

BOTTOMLINE: And you thought you could only innovate with regard to products and technology! As discussed in Six Disciplines for Excellence, Discipline V. Innovate Purposefully is not an isolated event, nor is it isolated to just products, R&D and new technologies. It's a organizational learning mindset that permeates the culture of an excellent company.

The ROI of Employee Engagement

It is no surprise to hear that a highly engaged workforce improves an organization's performance.

But as global research has highlighted, the sheer scale of the improvement in bottom-line results can be remarkable.

An employee engagement study by ISR has found:

• A gap of almost 52 percent in the one-year performance improvement in operating income between companies with highly engaged employees versus companies whose employees have low engagement scores.
• High engagement companies improved 19.2 percent while low engagement companies declined 32.7 percent in operating income over the study period.

BOTTOMLINE: "Our research continues to show that a well-substantiated relationship exists between employee engagement - the extent to which employees are committed, believe in the values of the company, feel pride in working for their employer, and are motivated to go the extra mile - and business results," said ISR Global Research Director Patrick Kulesa. "This data reaffirms the remarkable ability of an engaged workforce to impact a company's bottom line."

Six Disciplines Program Streamlines Management Process

The Toledo Business Journal recently published a feature story about Kramer Enterprises, a Findlay, Ohio-based, family-owned business - which is also a Six Disciplines client.

"In order to help strengthen the company as it grows in size, Kramer Enterprises has also used the resources of Six Disciplines, a business excellence program."

According to Rich Kramer , “It (Six Disciplines) has created a lot of opportunities for us. It’s a good selling point to let people know that you’re focused and you have a plan.”

Learn more about Kramer Enterprises continued growth and their use of Six Disciplines here.

How To Thrive In A Down Economy

Gary Harpst, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines, was recently interviewed on WTVG-TV (Toledo - an ABC affiliate) regarding his advice for business leaders during times of economic uncertainty.

Unlocking Your Company's Creativity

Forbes article How To Unlock Your Company's Creativity offers six steps to help unlock the creativity in your company:

1. Let Everyone Contribute. Employees at every level should have a way to share their ideas. Begin by scheduling a group innovation strategy session - brainstorm ideas (no judgement) based on your organization's strengths. (Using innovating tools like the 100 Point Exercise from Six Disciplines helps to get ideas down, and prioritizes them quicker)
2. Cross-Functional Ideas Teams. For the purposes of innovation, organize your company into cross-functional, creative teams with people from different departments, and with varying levels of experience, who meet on a regular basis.
3. Prize Diversity. Sameness--of thought, background and experience--is a creativity killer. This is where multi-generational workforces can contribute.
4. Rethink Assumptions. What has worked in the past may no longer work. And what hasn't worked in the past, may now be the innovative catalyst you are seeking.
5. Identify Your (Truly) Precious Resources And Exploit Them. Conduct a SWOT analysis to determine what your organization's strengths are - and key in on them.
6. Hammer It Home. Reward ideas that solve problems.

BOTTOMLINE: Remember - the point of unlocking creativity needs to be done in a purposeful way. Innovation is simply another name for problem solving. The creativity need to be focused on solving problems that will provide you with competitive advantage. Anything less is just... "ideation." (Thanks, IBM )

Gary Harpst Interviewed on Small Business Guru

Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines was recently interviewed by Kelly Brown of Small Business Guru.

Some takeaways from the podcast interview:

• The best practices of larger organizations can (and should) be incorporated into small business
• Leaders manage for the future - in lean times they’re preparing for growth, in busy times they’re preparing a slow down
• Great managers down focus on firefighting, but they do focus on constantly improving they systems, looking for low hanging fruit.
• With a recession imminent (or already here) the natural inclination will be to pull back and play it safe, but this is really a time of opportunity to:
• Assess your competitive position
• Re-evaluate & recommit to you corporate mission & goals
• Expand your business by creating new products & new revenue stream

Find Gary’s Book on Amazon:Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last.

Gary’s newest book, Execution Revolution, will be available in the coming months.

The podcast is available here.

Fundamental Opportunities During Uncertain Times

Small businesses are poised to weather the current economic downturn and plan to grow despite it, according to Intuit Inc.'s recent "Get Back to Business" survey results.

In a considerable showing of solidarity:

• 90 percent of U.S. small businessowners reported seeing opportunities for their businesses in the current recession
• More than 75 percent still expect growth
• To make this growth a reality, small business owners say they'll rely on their experience and passion.
• 70 percent of small business owners said their personal passion drove them to start their own company, and that the same passion will help them get through a downturn
• Undaunted by the economy, 86 percent of respondents said they remain as passionate as the day they started

BOTTOMLINE: Focus, persistence, passion - all foundational qualities of smart, forward-looking business leaders.

Changing The Way You Think About Strategy Execution

A revolution is coming in the way that small and midsize businesses can solve the oldest and biggest problem in business.

What most business leaders think is their greatest challenge -- really isn’t. All business leaders face new challenges each day and are tempted to think of the latest problem at hand as their “biggest.” No matter what the problems are today, however, they’ll be different tomorrow and they will be bigger.

There is one business problem that, if solved, makes solving all other problems easier.

Knowing how to plan and execute, while overcoming “today’s surprises,” is the most foundational capability any organization can have.

The inability to do this is the problem that business leaders must solve. With the capability to execute continuously, you gain control of your business. Without it, your business will be relegated to a reactive, firefighting existence.

For any business to sustain success, it has to have an clear strategy and the organization must be equipped to execute that strategy. Between the two, execution is always the hardest part of that equation.

In Execution Revolution, the new book by CEO Gary Harpst, he explains the new way that is coming to attack this really old and big problem;a way that has never been accessible to small- and midsize businesses - until now.

(Execution Revolution: available on Amazon in late April!)

Execution: The Great Unaddressed Issue In Business

Ram Charan is one of the leading management consultants in the world. One of his books, co-authored with Larry Bossidy, is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. More than one million copies have been sold and it is one of the best-selling business books of all time.

Stephen Bernhut, the editor of Ivey Business Journal Online, interviewed Ram Charan in Toronto, where he recently spoke at the annual meeting of the Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario.

Some key excerpts from the interview (ED NOTE: italics are mine):

IBJ: It’s now more than five years since you wrote what is considered to be “the” book on execution. Is it still as important as it was when you wrote the book?

RC: Execution is the great unaddressed issue in business today. Too many leaders today still place too great an emphasis on high-level strategy, on intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not enough on implementation. The fact is that the real difference between a company and its competitor is the ability to execute.

***

IBJ: In your book on execution, you say that many people equate execution with tactics. You also say that’s wrong. Why?

RC: Execution is a discipline and a system, it’s not only tactics. It must be built in to a company’s culture, strategy and goals. It’s a leader’s most important job. But many leaders today don’t do that. They spend time learning and deploying the latest management techniques. Execution is a discipline of its own, and today it is the critical discipline for business success.

***

Read the entire interview at Ivey Business Journal here.

Coaching for Total Organizational Engagement

Management-Issues reports that seven out of 10 British employers now use coaching within their organizations, compared with just under two thirds last year.

The reasons?

• Nearly eight out of 10 employers that offered coaching to all their employees used it for "general personal development", with three quarters saying they used it for "helping poor performance".
• More than half of the organizations polled believed that coaching by line managers was the most effective learning and development practice, with nearly half anticipating that even greater responsibility would fall on to line managers in the next five years.

Most significant change?

• More than two fifths of organizations now offered coaching to all employees, with some four out of 10 offering it only to directors and senior management and a third offering it to senior managers and line managers or supervisors.

According to Dr John McGurk, the primary researcher: "Coaching is not just a popular technique but an immensely powerful one for supporting personal development. There is no doubt that coaching is having a significant impact both on individual and organizational performance. As coaching helps people to develop, it's a perfect fit for the fast moving knowledge economy in which we operate," he added.

BOTTOMLINE: "Organizations face significant challenges in drawing up frameworks that ensure value for money and that are aligned with their organization's strategic objectives," says McGurk.

One of the key components of the Six Disciplines strategy execution program is accountability coaching, which is used to improve both individual and organizational performance.

Business Best Sellers - Are They Really That Bad?

So...how many business best-sellers have YOU read?

The April issue of FastCompany has an article by Elizabeth Spears, Library of the Living Dead, in which she warns: "Embrace a business best seller at your brain's peril."

Sure, there's the typical diatribe about business books that feature overused/misplaced metaphors, jargon and so forth.

Then comes the stunner: the "well-intentioned hope that the books will provide a useful framework for solving problems"...and that "they create the illusion of progress simply by adding another layer of busyness."

Well, ideas for business performance improvement have to start somewhere, and business books are one such method. More important than the business book itself, however, is what action you take as a result of reading the best seller.

If you succumb to the widespread practice of MBBS (Management By Best Seller), causing you to continually change direction and focus, then yes, the worst is still ahead.

However, if you understand that books - in and of themselves - are not to be used as a replacement for consistent, repeatable action, then you've already won at least half the battle.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Six Disciplines for Excellence, and the soon-to-be-released Execution Revolution (both written by Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst) are both examples of the business book category.

What makes these business books different is that they're not ends unto themselves - it's how these two books are being used by business leaders.

Execution Revolution sets the stage for business leaders to view their biggest problem (executing strategy) in a breakthrough way. It then reveals the first complete strategy execution program, which consists of a repeatable business-building methodology described in detail in Six Disciplines for Excellence. When combined with local accountability coaching and innovative software tools for real-time activity alignment, the complete program helps companies to build these ideas into performance-changing organizational habits on a daily basis.

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."

Managing More People - With Fewer Managers

"Since the 1930s, business researchers have maintained that bosses optimally should manage about seven to 10 people."

Today's Wall Street Journal, however, included an article "Overseeing More Employees With Fewer Managers" (subscription required) in which it showcases the trend of companies to reconsider the maximum team size.

Most notable, "researchers in Europe suggest that a manager can oversee 30 or more employees, in part, by using technology to communicate and help monitor work."

BOTTOMLINE: By giving frontline workers more responsibility, you need fewer bosses. The research above suggests that technology can help address the challenge.

The Six Disciplines strategy execution program includes a technology component, which we refer to as an execution system. This breakthrough system is optimized to:

• Automate a repeatable business-building methodology
• Address time management
• Enable real-time activity alignment
• Support weekly progress reviews
• Encourage total organizational engagement
• Measure and monitor strategy execution progress for each individual and team

The Six Disciplines execution system directly supports the ability to have fewer managers by "using technology to communicate and help monitor work."

Six Disciplines Becomes Corporate Sponsor of American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE)

Six Disciplines Becomes Corporate Sponsor of American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE)

Six Disciplines Named Titanium Sponsor of 2008 ACCE Convention in Pittsburgh

FINDLAY, Ohio, March 24, 2008 —Six Disciplines, the first complete strategy and execution program for small and midsize businesses, announced today that it has become a corporate sponsor of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). The Six Disciplines program is designed to help small and midsize businesses improve their ability to balance strategy and execution and to accelerate and sustain business excellence.

With the agreement, Six Disciplines plans to become a primary resource for local chambers interested in offering their respective memberships access to tangible and accountable methods to create a strategy and continually execute on it through all levels of an organization. Rooted in research and testing, Six Disciplines executives have a deep background as small-business owners and partners to thousands of rapidly-expanding businesses, a process that has produced a wealth of data about what keeps businesses from achieving business excellence.

“The ACCE and its members are the premier national organization focused on strengthening business in America,” said Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines. “In this era of global competitiveness, it’s vital for the U.S. to accelerate the development of new and better ways of doing business. This is especially true in small and midsized organizations, which are the lifeblood of our economy. Six Disciplines is proud to be a corporate sponsor of ACCE because our goal of revolutionizing business performance aligns with the mission of chambers perfectly.”

“ACCE is delighted to welcome Six Disciplines not only as a corporate sponsor, but also as the lead sponsor of our annual convention taking place this summer in Pittsburgh,” said Mick Fleming, ACCE president. “We look forward to introducing our chamber members to this award-winning company and their business excellence program.”

Six Disciplines also is the titanium sponsor of the ACCE National Convention. The agreement provides for exposure of Six Disciplines through advertisements in the ACCE’s industry magazine, Chamber Executive, as well as via the organization’s Web site and e-newsletters.

The annual ACCE Convention, to be held in Pittsburgh July 30-Aug. 2, will host more than 1,000 Chamber CEOs, CFOs and management staff to keep pace with the latest issues affecting businesses and their communities. Harpst will speak at the ACCE Convention, with a presentation titled “Solving The One Chamber Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier.”

About American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE)
Established in 1914, ACCE serves the professional development needs of chamber executives throughout the United States and Canada. Representing more than 7,000 individuals, ACCE enhances the knowledge, leadership skills, and management effectiveness of chamber executives and their staff through education, benefits programs, trend analysis, benchmarking, and network development. ACCE supports and develops chamber professionals to lead businesses and their communities. Visit http://www.acce.org/.

About Six Disciplines
Six Disciplines, founded in 2000, has developed the first complete strategy execution program, specifically for small- and midsized businesses. The Six Disciplines program integrates a repeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, ongoing external coaching to ensure accountability, an execution software system to align daily activities of every stakeholder, and community learning to accelerate and sustain business excellence. The program is offered exclusively through a growing national network of locally-owned Six Disciplines Centers. Businesses that have implemented the Six Disciplines program include those from the Inc. 500, ISO-9000 certified companies, and a 2007 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award recipient. Visit http://www.sixdisciplines.com/.

Jump-Start Your Plan of Strategy

Eric Kurjan, president of Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio, brings us this article called "Jump-Start Your Plan of Strategy," as published in the Toledo Free Press.

An excerpt of the article:

Clearly, it takes more than an annual meeting to lead a company toward its goals. A 2007 survey by the American Management Association found only 3% of executives said their companies are successful at executing strategy. Over 60% admitted only moderate success - or worse - at strategy execution.

For small and mid-sized organizations, executing strategy is hindered by three primary challenges:

1. Economics. While larger businesses can invest significantly in resources like consultants, coaching, systems and software, small and mid-sized businesses cannot afford these investments.

2. Expertise. Larger enterprises have experts in disciplines like strategic planning, performance management, business intelligence, and balanced scorecards. Small and mid-sized businesses don't have access to this wide array of expertise.

3. Human Factors. All businesses have the same fundamental challenge: they're run by people. We know the right things to do, but we don't always do them. Organizational behavior, attitudes, motivation, habits and resistance to change are just some of the factors that contribute to poor execution.

Read the entire article here.

Balancing Strategy and Execution

Excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution.

Strategy requires choosing what promises to make to all stakeholders and a roadmap for delivering on those promises.

Execution requires getting there, while overcoming unending surprises.

Of the two, execution is far more difficult to achieve, but is fruitless without solid strategy.

Learning how to balance these two is the key to excellence, and excellence is a journey that never ends. It’s an enduring pursuit that requires an enduring approach.

Somehow on this journey we often lose sight of what the real problem is. And surprisingly, it’s not what most business leaders think it is.

Most describe their biggest challenge as the issue(s) they’re facing right now (growth, control, communication, productivity, generational transition, hiring, competitors, and many others.)

Whatever issues an organization faces today, they will be different and bigger tomorrow.

Planning and executing, while at the same time, managing the unknowns of the real world, is the biggest challenge in business. Overcoming this challenge is what we mean by solving the problem that will make solving all other problems easier.

It builds an organization that is preparing for an ever increasing set of future challenges that are the natural result of overcoming today’s challenges.

Given the pace and unpredictability of the business world, we leaders often feel there’s not much that we do control. This book, however, describes the first complete program for a business to take control of the one thing it can, so that it is better equipped to deal with all the things it can’t. It’s my hope that the real-world experience of our team, the investment that’s been made, and the completeness of the program will help you realize this isn’t just another book. It’s the beginning of a revolution – an Execution Revolution.


(Excerpted from EXECUTION REVOLUTION: Solving The One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier, by Gary Harpst)

The Impact of Balanced Scorecards

The balanced scorecard, which is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide, was originated by Harvard professors Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give executives a more ‘balanced’ view of organizational performance.

According to recent survey of more than 1,000 organizations:

• 80 percent of the organizations that regularly use the balanced scorecard (BSC) reported improvements in operating performance.
• 66 percent of them also reported an increase in profits.
• 61 percent, a significant majority, reported improvements in bottom-line financial results.

“Employing the balanced scorecard leads to new business processes that can be used to link long-term strategies to short-term decisions,” concluded Dr. David Norton, the founder and president of Renaissance Solutions, a global consulting organization. “But in order to implement the balanced scorecard successfully, a business unit must effectively communicate the organization’s strategies for increasing shareholder value to all employees. That helps to get everyone behind the overall strategy.”

Engagement Powered By Strengths

In an interview about the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 for the Gallup Management Journal, Tom Rath discussed the strong link between a leader’s focus and employee engagement.

The three powerful conclusions from Gallup’s research on conversation, engagement, and strengths:

1. If your manager primarily ignores you, your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%
2. If your manager focuses on your weaknesses, your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%
3. If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%

BOTTOMLINE: "How could we not be talking to each other, all the time, about our strengths?"


(Thanks to David Zinger, and his great passion and work over at The Employee Engagement Network!)

Gary Harpst Interviewed On WRAL.com

Gary Harpst, CEO founder of Six Disciplines and author of the soon-to-be-published book "Execution Revolution," says execs must balance day-to-day tasks along with planning and execution.

Here is Gary Harpst, being interviewed on Tech Talk: What's Biggest Problem Facing Execs Today? on WRAL Local TechWire.com in Raleigh, NC.

Overcoming The Obstacles To Effective Execution

Formulating strategy is a difficult task. Making strategy work—executing or implementing it throughout the organization—is even more difficult.

Ivey Business Journal has published an article entitled "Making Strategy Work: Overcoming The Obstacles To Effective Execution" featuring Lawrence Hrebiniak, professor in the Strategy Group, Department of Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Hrebiniak's latest work on execution is a book by the same name (Making Strategy Work Wharton School Publishing, 2005.)

Six Disciplines Featured in The Toledo Blade

Eric Kurjan, president of Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio, is shown coaching clients and is featured in the Toledo Blade article "Findlay firm offers ways to improve businesses" written by business reporter Ted Fackler.

In the article, Kurjan and Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst talk about what makes Six Disciplines different:

• The Six Disciplines program advocates action for company strategy, planning, organizing people and processes, execution management, innovation, and organizational learning. It's based on years of field testing and a $20 million investment.
• "The biggest difference between us and other [management services] is that we're execution focused," explained Mr. Harpst. "It's easy to produce a plan. It's not easy to implement it."
• The typical Six Disciplines fee is less than that of a client's single employee pay, and is available long term.
• Within 10 years, Mr. Harpst said, his company will have annual revenues of $250 million to $350 million, employ nearly 700 workers, and be in 70 cities.

Employee Reward Programs of The Most Admired Companies

Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, and FORTUNE magazine, recently released the eleventh annual rankings of The World’s Most Admired Companies list and America’s Most Admired Companies list, prepared in collaboration with FORTUNE.

Hay Group also conducts supplemental research each year to identify business practices that distinguish companies on the lists from all others. This year’s analysis focused on how these companies manage their employee reward programs, and found that they do a much better job of leveraging their reward investments than their peers.

Some of the research findings include:

• 79% regularly provide employees with total reward statements, versus 53% of peer group respondents
• 82% regularly reinforce the company’s reward philosophy in communications with employees, while only 64% of peer companies do the same
• 74% state that their employees understand and appreciate that rewards consist of both tangible and intangible components, compared with 61% of their peers
• 41% say that line managers in their organization create a positive work climate, whereas only 21% of peer companies respond similarly
• 28% state that line managers utilize financial and non-financial recognition programs, compared with 16% of peer companies
• 41% believe that their reward program is internally fair, while only 27% of their peers believe the same
• 48% report that their reward programs support efforts to retain their best talent, versus 28% of their peers
• 45% say that their reward program allows them to attract the talent they need, compared with 25% of their peers

BOTTOMLINE: Companies that make these lists haven’t stumbled on a silver bullet for making employee reward programs work more effectively. They are simply able to execute more successfully on a number of basic HR best practices, and tend to have a cultural understanding and recognition of the value brought to their organizations,” said Hay Group Insight Senior Consultant Mark Royal. “Implementation (execution) is really the primary differentiator between employee reward programs at companies on America’s Most Admired Companies list and their peers – communication, aligning reward programs with business priorities and operationalizing the pay for performance relationship.”

Six Disciplines: A Program For Balanced Strategy Execution During Economic Uncertainty

Six Disciplines Provides Growing Businesses with a Balanced Program for Strategy Execution During Any Economic Environment

New Clients and Continued Market Acceptance Increase Momentum in 2008

FINDLAY, Ohio, Feb. 25, 2008 —Six Disciplines announced today that momentum continues to build nationwide for its breakthrough strategy execution program, evidenced by enrolling new clients from the healthcare, manufacturing and furniture industries. The Six Disciplines program, delivered by a growing network of local centers, consists of a repeatable business-building methodology, local accountability coaching, an execution software system to ensure individual and team activity alignment, and the economic advantages of accelerated community learning.

Based on years of field testing, 100 man-years of research and development and a $20 million investment, the Six Disciplines program provides organizations with a holistic approach toward strategy, planning, organizing people and processes, execution management, innovation and organizational learning.

“What most business leaders think is their greatest challenge really isn’t. There is one business problem that, if solved, makes solving all other problems easier,” said Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines. “Knowing how to plan and execute, while overcoming today’s surprises is the most foundational capability any organization can have. We show our clients how to balance strategy and execution, a key competitive advantage--particularly during times of economic uncertainty.”

Six Disciplines nationwide has seen continued success through the acquisition of new clients, increased staffing hires based on market demand and secured speaking engagements to small and midsized business executives. Leading center initiatives across the country include:

• Six Disciplines North Carolina (Raleigh; Research Triangle Park): Managing partner, Craig Landwehr, recently completed the first year of Six Disciplines program implementation with the global IT organization of Research Triangle Park-based Family Health International, a non-profit organization focused on improving lives around the world through public health research, education, and services. The center has also begun working with several other regional non-profit organizations including Planned Parenthood of Central NC and the Triangle YMCA. Landwehr will be conducting a monthly series of Executive Briefings focused on “Getting the Right Things Done: A Leader’s Guide to Strategy, Planning, and Execution.”
• Six Disciplines Central Indiana (Indianapolis): General Manager John Boomershine recently formalized a client relationship with ADVANTAGE Health Solutions, Inc., an Indianapolis-based provider-owned health plan offering healthcare benefits and solutions to employer groups of all sizes. Additionally, the center recently held executive briefings with 29 local organizations to discuss goal setting for not-for-profits. To support their growing client base, the center hired two new executive coaches, Marianne McLean and Jennifer LeMieux. McLean is responsible for offering strategic advisory services to clients in pursuit of continual business improvement process; she was a founding partner at Advanced Interface Solutions, Inc., previously. LeMieux, an employee of Six Disciplines Central Indiana since 2006, will aid clients in successfully adopting the Six Disciplines program. She will also continue to support the center’s ongoing marketing initiatives.
• Six Disciplines Tampa: President Sean Burke will speak at the St. Petersburg College Business Solutions Showcase on Feb. 29. The center also recently launched a six-part “Business Excellence” podcast series on strategic planning. The series can be found at http://www.ceo-podcast.com/.
• Six Disciplines Ohio: President Eric Kurjan recently formalized relationships in Jan. with Waterville, Ohio-based BioFit, an industry-leading manufacturer of ergonomic seating, tables, and stools; and Total Fleet Solutions, a Toledo, Ohio-based one-stop shop for material handling equipment needs of Fortune 1000 corporations. Additionally, the center has added Jeff Sprague as a coach to support their overall regional growth. Sprague is responsible for offering enduring strategic advising services to organizations that adopt the Six Disciplines methodology. Senior Client Coach Scott Gray will present to entrepreneurs and business owners at both the University of Toledo Center for Family Business and the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce in March, April and May. The center also recently established a partnership with the Ohio Manufacturer’s Association and will be presenting a seminar to members in April.
• Six Disciplines Atlanta: On Jan. 1 a new center office was established at 1755 North Brown Rd. in Lawrenceville, Ga. On Feb. 4 President Riz Shakir was a guest lecturer at the J Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, where he spoke to more than 30 students taking the school’s “Managing the Family Business” class. Of those participating, the majority are part of families that own small or midsized businesses. His presentation, “Ownership of an Enterprise Built to Last,” addressed the importance of strategic planning.

Six Disciplines Books Gain Awareness

Based on recent media exposure, momentum also continues to build for the top-rated handbook Six Disciplines for Excellence, authored by Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst. Six Disciplines for Excellence received the 2007 USA Book News Best Books finalist award, and was rated the No. 1 business book for 2007 by The Center for Workplace Excellence. Six Disciplines for Excellence is also consistently ranked in the top ten books of the Organizational Learning category on Amazon.

As a follow-up to the success of Six Disciplines for Excellence, Harpst has finished a new book, Execution Revolution: Solving The One Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier, which is scheduled to be published in April 2008. In Execution Revolution, Harpst details the elements of a complete strategy execution program, explains why it could only have happened now, and clarifies why such a program will become a mainstream requirement for successful small and midsized businesses.

About Six Disciplines

Six Disciplines Corporation, founded in 2000, has developed the first complete strategy execution program, specifically for small and midsized businesses. The Six Disciplines program integrates a repeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, ongoing external coaching to ensure accountability, an execution software system to align daily activities of every stakeholder, and community learning to accelerate and sustain business excellence. The program is offered exclusively through a growing national network of locally-owned Six Disciplines Centers. Businesses that have implemented the Six Disciplines program include those from the Inc. 500, ISO-9000 certified companies, and a 2007 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award recipient. Visit http://www.sixdisciplines.com/.

Six Disciplines Showcased In Findlay Courier

Six Disciplines was showcased in the Findlay Courier's 2008 Progress Report, "Six Disciplines: Findlay company showing others how to meet goals - Helps businesses define where they want to go, build and execute strategy."

Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio president Eric Kurjan (pictured above) highlights the variety of growing companies that are Six Disciplines clients.


View the PDF of the article here.

Advance Review of Gary Harpst's Execution Revolution

Anita Campbell, the editor and trend watcher over at Small Business Trends has just posted her advance review of "Execution Revolution: Solving The One Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier" authored by Six Disciplines founder and CEO, Gary Harpst.

According to Anita:

"This is not a “how to start a business” book. Execution Revolution is designed for businesses that have been in business at least a few years and made traction already. If you’re purely a startup, say 6 months old, you may find parts of the book helpful, but you won’t be able to put all the lessons into practice. That’s because your business is too new; you’re still figuring out how to get enough customers just to survive.

It’s also not a book for businesses in dire trouble. For that you need turn-around help.

However, if you’ve been in business a few years, gotten your small to midsize business to a steady-state level of success, and are itching to get to the next level, this is the book you need. You will want to read Execution Revolution."

Read the entire review here!

Keeping Yourself Accountable

Finding it tough to keep yourself on track?

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has posted a great article on "Keeping Yourself Accountable."

"There will be times in which it will be impossible for you to do something you said you wanted to do in the initial time you allotted. Business conditions change, emergencies crop up and unexpected challenges will likely cause some goals to be put on hold. But if you are constantly making plans only to leave them halfway completed or not started at all, consider the following suggestions for taking yourself a little more seriously:

1. Write goals down.
2. Use deadlines.
3. Employ the buddy system.
4. Hire a coach.
5. Offer rewards or punishments.

Read the entire article here.

Six Disciplines Client Video - Deborah Wood Associates

Watch this short video "The Road to EXCELLENCE : Deborah Wood Associates - Part One" which showcases how this high growth company decided to enroll in the Six Disciplines strategy execution program.

Strategy, Execution and Organizational Alignment

One of the toughest challenges that a CEO faces is connecting their strategy to execution. It's considered to be the major reason why CEOs fail.

The strategy execution process looks like this:

• Clear strategic planning - mission, vision, values, strategic position
• Crisp 1 year goal setting - financial, customer, production, people goals and measures
• Align resources - processes, policies, measures, technology, people
• Individual plans to execute against the goals - prioritized daily, status updated weekly
• Continual measurement of progress

The strategic planning process begins with an annual strategic planning process that involves reviewing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), as well as internal and external trends. This information helps to update or renew the mission, vision, values and strategic position of the company.

Next, the organization's VFOs (Vital Few Objectives) are decided upon in the 1 year goal setting process. Priorities for each quarter are identified, along with responsibilities assigned and measures established. These VFOs are decomposed into key Initiatives and Projects. Individual Plans for each team member are created that tie directly to these Initiatives and Projects. Each team member is accountable for their quarterly plan, which assures alignment with corporate goals.

Quarterly planning sessions are held to assess held to assess how well the organization has accomplished their priorities. Short monthly team meetings help to stay aligned and to make adjustments early enough to ensure progress. Brief weekly individual status meetings are held to keep progress on track. Any "at risk" items are flagged and addressed immediately.

The combination of all of these activities contribute to organizational alignment. The key driver of organizational alignment is a organizational "fitness." By fitness, we're referring to an organization's ability to be both efficient (doing things right) - and effective (doing the right things). By building accountability within an organization, continual alignment and organizational fitness occurs.

BOTTOMLINE: A clear strategy can only be of value when it is translated into crisp goals, and when a organization's resources are continually aligned toward execution.

Barriers To Goal Setting and Execution

The good folks over at TEC have a very deep and rich set of best practices for a variety of management concerns.

In particular, is their extensive list of suggestions on Goal Setting.

Listed here are 10 Barriers to setting - and executing organizational goals:

1. Lack of clear-cut responsibilities around the goals
2. Lack of a tracking system
3. Lack of an accountability system
4. Lack of commitment
5. Lack of buy-in from people who are expected to fulfill the goals
6. Ineffective communication
7. Lack of time or resources
8. Too many goals are financially driven
9. Focusing on too many or too few goals
10. Goals aren't tied to a longer-term vision

BOTTOMLINE: Get agreement on the appropriate goals for your organization. Write them down. Keep them close by. Get buy in and alignment from those executing the goals. Make them realistic and attainable. See Discipline II - Set Goals That Lead from Six Disciplines for Excellence.