Group50® Insights

En español Fontana, CA – Locally owned Americas Integrated announced today that it will be merging with Group50^®, a consulting company that specializes in strategic execution, manufacturing and distribution, effective October 1, 2013. Americas Integrated president, Jorge Silva, expects this merger to improve current client confidence with broader services and additional world class resources, and widen Group50’s customer base globally. In addition to the already vast number of services offered by Group50^®, the new venture will …Read More

The majority of organizations fail to consistently implement their strategic objectives. As a result, they are “Stopping Short Of Excellence^®“. There are three primary reasons for this:

• A lack of a vision
• Clearly articulated strategies
• Engaged and accountable employees. In the short presentation below, !–more–>Jim Gitney, the CEO of Group50 provides more insight to these issues and reviews how organizations can create an effective strategic implementation process.

Any size company or non-profit is capable of achieving excellence with a little bit of guidance and a few basic approaches. We can present this material to your senior leadership team, provide a one day workshop on creating a roadmap for your company to consistently achieve your objectives or do an audit of your current strategic implementation process. If you would like to find out more about Group50’s process for consistently achieving your strategic objectives go here or contact us at +1 (626) 644-9746.

 

Achieve Excellence with the Business Hierarchy of Needs^®

A Proven Framework for Strategic Execution and Change Management

Why do some organizations achieve sustained success while others “stop short” of excellence? The answer lies in their approach to strategic execution. …Read More

Continuous improvement programs are great for manufacturing but how do they apply to service businesses? The usual answer to this question is that process excellence works across functional silos. It is horizontal, transversal and industry agnostic. Although true, this answer does not always address the concerns of the leaders in service businesses and financial institutions.

In a recent article we …Read More

I was recently speaking with a client about Make vs. Buy. We were discussing when the appropriate time was for doing that kind of analysis. The natural assumption is that world class organizations are doing that kind of analysis whenever a new product program or a major new contract is being worked on. It should be part of every analysis to provide continuous feedback to the Manufacturing organization and the business’s executives. Make vs. Buy analysis will tell you …Read More

Situation Analysis: The cash desk of a Fortune 50 company processed 1,000 cash transfers per day and approximately $170B per year to its customers and vendors. Improperly executed wire transfers resulted in problems for the company and its customers. One such misstep was significant enough to get the attention of senior management. A team was assigned to correct these issues, and upon review, the team found:

• No clearly defined processes
• Low morale affected all team members who felt not recognized despite their constant efforts
• Outdated tools and absence of metrics

Project Approach and Findings: The team had limited time and resources available to do it right first time. The team decided to focus on several key elements: …Read More

• Plant production increased from 7,500 Grilles/day to 22,000 Grilles/day.
• 60+ products were redesigned and implemented with an average 12% cost reduction per unit.
• Units/employee tripled.
• Incident rates per hundred grilles were reduced 85%.
• Sales increased 7% and P&L improved by $30M, a 15% improvement year over year
• Service levels increased from 48% of 96%
• Completed in 11 months

…Read More

Performance Management is a critical part of a company’s business strategy. As shown in Level 2 of the Business Hierarchy of Needs®, performance management is the bridge between strategy and results. As we have spoken to senior executives around the United States, we have found that their perception of performance management is more tactical than strategic.  We have found that functional organizations also see performance management as a check the box activity.

Most companies view “performance management” …Read More

During a recent meeting of 40 M&A professionals, I facilitated a discussion around the results of a 1999 KPMG study on the success of Mergers and Acquisitions in large companies. This study indicated that 83% of mergers and acquisitions fail to increase share holder value. The M&A professionals who participated in this discussion represented middle market mergers and acquisitions. Members of the group were asked three questions: …Read More

Group50 has introduced a new cost effective cloud based performance management and strategic execution tool called Cascade. This system provides clients with the ability to achieve higher levels of employee engagement, monitor key strategy implementation, focus on cultural and performance objectives throughout the organization and institutionalize winning behaviors throughout their company.

Companies who have implemented Cascade have seen significant improvement in their operating performance at all levels.
Read more about utilizing Cascade for:

• Executing Strategy
• Performance Management

About Group50^® specializes in the development and implementation of manufacturing and supply chain strategies. The Group50 team are all former executives with well-known manufacturing and distribution companies who understand what it takes to put together and manage the implementation of a successful strategic plan. Group50 has designed a series of strategic assessments, workshops and strategic execution tools that eliminate the existence of Anti-Strategy^TM. You can reach us at +1 (626) 644-9746, request more information here or send a note to info@group50.com.

For most employees, the yearly ritual of sitting across the table from their boss and receiving feedback on their prior year’s performance is completed. According to a study done by Leadership IQ, only 13% of managers and employees feel that year end reviews have a positive impact on them and only 6% of CEOs thought the performance reviews their organization used were effective. They believe that evaluations don’t impact strategic execution.

So, given these dismal statistics, why do organizations continue to spend so much precious energy and time utilizing a system that is at best distasteful and at worst a waste of corporate resources and good will?

The answer isn’t all that complex. It is what we have been taught to do during our careers and, given the lack of an acceptable alternative, something we continue doing. After all, we must do something to tell our employees how they are performing. Yearly evaluations have become a “check the box” ritual.

This ritual can be retooled into a Strategy Execution Consulting Services process that maximizes the productive input …Read More

Senior Leaders who have performance management and employee engagement as a strategic objective face a conundrum. As we continue to dig into corporate needs, the same message continues to come through. Senior management knows that the economy isn’t going to allow them to resume the upward trajectory of growth like the good old days. As we continue to discuss ways to achieve these objectives, the conversation always comes back to performance management: Doing more with what you have. As any leader knows, …Read More

Successful businesses work. There are many definitions of success in business. One component common to all business success definitions is the generation of positive cash flow in the short-, mid- and long-term. Many variables factor into a business’s ability to generate positive cash flow; from an operations perspective, none are more critical than culture, strategy and execution. In this post we will focus on …Read More

Over the past few years it has been well documented that technology can significantly improve employee engagement and performance management.  We see that networking has significantly increased the ability of people to accelerate their business dealings and personal relationships. Just about everyone in the workforce is familiar …Read More

Large cash positions coupled with historically low interest rates make mergers and acquisitions an obvious strategic choice for companies to significantly improve their performance. As companies increase their Mergers and Acquisitions activity, there is a need for a well thought through program assure the successful integration of new companies with different cultures and business processes. It is reported by KPMG that …Read More

I was just forwarded a study by Mark Murphy, Founder & CEO of Leadership IQ. As I read it, I was fascinated by the results. In a survey of 48,000 CEO’s managers and employees, only 13% of managers and employees and 6% of CEOs thought their year-end reviews were effective. For my entire career, I have not been part of the 13% or the 6%. Why? As the study points out, there are three primary reasons:

1. The first was a lack of differentiation: reviews aren’t synced to performance so there’s no real recognition for being a high performer
2. The second reason why people really dislike performance reviews is because the boss’ feedback isn’t relevant. Employees are walking away from performance reviews shaking their heads and wondering if the boss even knows what they did this year.
3. This is the third big reason why employees don’t like performance reviews. Most managers conduct performance reviews from a boss/employee perspective rather than using it is a coaching and mentoring tool. They sit across the desk from employees and say “this is your ‘grade’ and this is your pay” and they hope employees don’t have too many questions, because there are another dozen more reviews to conduct.

Ever feel this way as either a manager or an employee? Yearly performance appraisals are typically a “check the box activity”, that is done because it is policy, rather than using reviews as a tool to engage employees in open and transparent dialogue on the needs of the company and the employee. Yearly reviews cannot accurately reflect what an employee is being held accountable for, because the objectives of the business change real time, not yearly. Many leaders approach their business on a cyclical basis, but they are fooling themselves, because their business is dynamic and real time. They need to communicate these changes as they occur, and if that impacts the performance objective of an employee, that employee should know about it and begin supporting it. I am in favor of scrapping paper based yearly evaluations as part of an effective organizational development strategy, because I have never seen one work well, and the aforementioned study bears this out. It is truly a shame for a business to expend this much effort on yearly appraisals to achieve these kind of results. If the finance team were to do an ROI on the yearly cost and the obvious lack of benefit, they would recommend scrapping a paper based system all together. I am not against evaluations though. I am in favor of a real time system that allows for employees and managers to have two way discussions about what the business is going to hold them accountable for: clear and concise performance objectives. That is why Group50 has spent so much resource and time supporting our newest product offering Cascade: a low cost, cloud based system that gives employees, managers and senior leaders that ability to all be on the same page, to communicate with each other on how objectives are being met on a real time basis and to instantly change objectives throughout the organization when business conditions require it. You can see a short video on Cascade here. After viewing this, please post a comment, give me a call at +1 (626) 644-9746 or drop me a note at jgitney@group50.com to let me know what you think about ETW, or the study. About Group50 and the author: Group50’s focus is on strategic execution^TM. Jim Gitney, the CEO of Group50 has worked with organizations of every size in support of their movement to a culture of effective strategic execution, and realize their potential in the marketplace. You can request more information here, email info@group50.com, or call +1 (626) 644-9746 for more information. To see the services that Group50 provides, go to our home page

I was talking to several CEOs the other day about the challenges of today’s business climate and the parts of our businesses where we can continue to realize productivity gains. We all agreed that opportunities existed throughout our businesses to improve productivity, but quickly honed in on a discussion around how well our employees were aligned with our Vision, Mission, Values and Corporate Objectives. Everyone squirmed for a moment thinking about organizational alignment and organizational development, …Read More

I was speaking with a client the other day who was expressing frustration with being able to align his organization with the company’s strategies, vision, mission, values and tactics. He felt as if the yearly off site meetings and quarterly communications to employees weren’t causing the company to build a culture and performance mindset around those. He mused that there must be a better way to accelerate behaviors in the organization and create a culture of strategic execution. As we spoke further, we talked about the need for:

• Clear and concise strategies, mission, values and tactics
• Constant communications to all levels of the organization
• Measures that are cascaded down to each level that support the strategic initiatives
• Accountability for all managers and employees
• Full transparency in the company
• The ability to have communications both up and down about what is working and what isn’t
• An understanding of the company’s strategic and operating gaps

We agreed that a significant shift in culture and performance was a difficult objective. We also agreed during our conversation that cultural change isn’t achieved by yearly reviews and occasional communications. The tactics to implement such a change need to be well thought through and executed with rigor. It is one of the single most important set of activities for the company’s leaders and needed to be a daily activity. He would have benefitted from a change management framework such as Group50’s Business Hierarchy of Needs® to guide his organization’s strategic planning, change management and implementation efforts. As we talked further, we agreed to keep a dialogue going and focus on strategic alignment and performance management as part of our on-going work with his organization. Several articles with further information on this topic include:

• Performance Management as a Business Strategy
• Organizational Alignment: The Good and Bad News
• Cascade
• Morphing Evaluations Into Strategic Execution

About the author: Jim Gitney is the CEO of Group50^® and specializes in the development and implementation of manufacturing and supply chain strategies. Jim and the Group50 team are all former executives with well-known manufacturing and distribution companies who understand what it takes to put together and manage the implementation of a successful strategic plan. Group50 has designed a series of strategic assessments, workshops and strategic execution tools that eliminate the existence of Anti-Strategy. You can reach us at +1 (626) 644-9746 or send a note to info@group50.com.

Management of a project, regardless of the specific intent and outcome, can generally be accomplished using fairly universal tools and techniques with a significant amount of focus and discipline.

A team approach has been shown to gain ‘ownership’ in the project and a consistent and uniform means of communication allows participants and stakeholders to stay abreast of the project by providing feedback to the team and the project leader(s). As a business leader, you frequently find yourself faced with the dilemma of having to define, justify, and implement a significant project or program, that at its conception, is generally just a collection of ideas, proposals, ‘back of the envelope’ calculations or benefits.

To bring these together takes the focus of a …Read More

Recently I was asked to comment on the question: Who is or should be responsible for Strategic Planning? Several people responded. Here is my response:
Of course I agree that the CEO is the ultimate decider of the final strategic plan. Strategy is the CEOs primary job and also one of the key areas of attention for the Board. While I agree with the philosophy of the other respondents, I don’t believe the responses take the issue of “who” to a deep enough level.

I respectfully suggest that the CEO get input from many fronts. Unfortunately, too often, the CEO’s executives are telling him/her just what they think the CEO wants to hear …Read More

You are the CEO of a small company that has a retail product with patent rights. A very large department store chain sends one of your company’s products to China and begins buying a knock off from a Chinese manufacturer. When confronted by the company, the buyer tells you: “Your problem is with the Chinese manufacturer, not me, sue them”. How do you protect your rights, against customers or manufacturers who have very deep pockets, without losing all of their business and spending a huge sum of money? …Read More

In preparation for the keynote at the 2010 Confab meeting of professional management consultants, we asked about a thousand global business leaders to respond to an online survey about their use of and experience with management consultants. When over a hundred executives responded within a few hours, I knew I had hit a nerve.

83 respondents out of 107 replied that they hire management consultants. They represent a broad range of industries from healthcare/pharma and financial services to manufacturing, retail and agriculture. Here are some of their comments, minus specific identifiers. They range in size from start-ups to about USD $120 Billion

Ninety three percent said …Read More

Good times, bad times, you know we’ve had our share….  Anytime is a good time to reexamine the principle of “getting Lean” or improving processes by applying a set of tools that will deliver significant reductions in cost and lead time.  Sigma techniques as championed by “blackbelts” is often the rallying cry.

But what about Quality (with or without a big Q)? Is quality or Total Quality now passé, having been supplanted by Lean and/or Six Sigma? Are all of these synonyms? Are they just dressed-up, consultant-speak ways of describing historic “best manufacturing practices?” Do they work together, or do they …Read More

Businesses are just now beginning to wrestle with harmonizing between generations of workers and managers that may be as different as any combinations that have preceded them: the post WWII Boomers and Millennials. Can they get along and how do you create a culture of strategic execution with them?

There continue to be many Boomers still in the work force, partly due to their need to delay retirement in hopes of rebuilding wealth lost during the recent downturn. Millennials, generally viewed as having been born between about 1980 and 2001, are beginning to establish themselves professionally in the throes …Read More

In business, there are four key elements: equipment and technology, processes and systems, information, and people…but people are the active ingredient and coaching and development are critical to success.

The most important work an effective leader can do is to get the most out of his/her people, helping them perform at highest levels today and grow to contribute more tomorrow. The leader who can coax “growth spurts” out of the people in the organization adds the most lasting value to the business, a value that multiplies as others take up the mantle of effective coaching and development.

Yet, giving feedback to employees, particularly formal “review” feedback, is often one of the least-liked tasks for many managers. It can be uncomfortable, particularly if there are disagreements about areas for improvement. But, good coaching should be somewhat uncomfortable, at least for the person being coached. You don’t learn when you are comfortable, but when you are uncomfortable…and coaching is all about …Read More