Successfully taking on two often diametrically opposed challenges!
Current tools
There are many tools available for measuring the gap between targeted objectives and the results actually achieved: reporting, management control, project planning, financial dashboards, to name but a few. They can certainly give us an idea of what has taken place and a snapshot of the financial health of the business at a given moment in time (we have the information) but do not provide us with an indicator whereby to fine-tune strategic decisions (the decision) and offer no analysis of the real reasons behind the gap between objectives and outcomes that will emerge in the months ahead (anticipation).
Consequence: information or decision? And where does that leave anticipation?
So what is the consequence? By the light of these tools, the only attitude open to management teams is to recognize that this status/gap exists. They may well decide to action a number of rapid responses in the hope of seeing an improvement in the situation (in the short term) but, in reality, they will have no means of guaranteeing that their actions will have a positive impact on the future (in the medium term) and no means of guaranteeing that the levers they apply are the right ones. Corrective actions need to be precise, sharply honed, and must act upon the root causes of the problems.
Furthermore, putting decisions into action will be all the harder if the members of the Management/Executive Committee remain wedded to operating in silo mode where it is “every man for himself”. For the CEO, caught up in this tangle of individual issues being pursued by each member of the team, decision-making becomes a real headache.
Information about the past is no longer enough; it has never enabled anyone to reach a decision and take actions in the firm conviction that these will give greater control over the future, let alone ensure that the right levers are being applied. The decision-making process lacks key elements to determine and implement the right actions: the CEO will feel greater confidence in making the right decision if the information channeled to him/her is extremely reliable and takes account of all the aspects – client, financial, organizational, process – of successfully IMPLEMENTING the strategy. This is also the best-known role of the Balanced Scorecard approach, which needs no introduction.
Balanced Scorecard and MBO versus SteerVision-Center
Although Ka Mate Strategy is well known for implementing the Balanced Scorecard (Norton and Kaplan) management system, we believe it needs supplementing with two elements of fundamental importance in ensuring that implementation of the strategy proceeds smoothly and in reconciling short-term and medium-term imperatives.
Firstly,
The human consideration, which is all about making members of the management team aware of their responsibilities and of their own performance. Peter Drucker’s MBO (Management by Objectives) approach, for example, has a contribution to make but encourages a silo-based approach that favors short-term performance but offers little scope for working as a team to deal with crosscutting issues that will impact upon medium-term objectives.
We have acquired considerable experience as facilitators at the Management/Executive Committee level and set up Steer’Executive with the aim of developing Management/Executive Committees into highly effective management teams.
Secondly,
Steering the execution of the strategy, a phase much underestimated and never, until know, given proper shape in the form of tools for management teams to employ.
Our response to this need for constant fine-tuning of strategic steering was to create the SteerVision-Centers.
In conclusion
To meet the growing demand from CEOs for better implementation of the strategy whilst guaranteeing that short-term targets are met, we offer a set of services that combine short-term performance with medium-term strategy, while at the same time optimizing the actions and working methods of management teams.
KA MATE Strategy’s expertise lies in having successfully created a unique concept dedicated to management teams, know as the Discipline of Execution of the Strategy.