Measure What Matters and Drive Sustainable Growth
Author:
Dan E. King
ISBN:
9780814434925
Format:
Hardback
Price:
$29.95
Overview
Because you can't fix what you can't see.
Simply "making the numbers? is no longer enough to remain competitive.
In today's high-pressure environment, organizations need to
overachieve. That level of success requires a clear and objective view
of the business—because even the most courageous leader can't
steer a ship in the dark.
Is the enterprise Agile? Resilient? Vulnerable? Or Lagging? The
Scorecard Solution provides the answer. The book introduces a
data-centric tool—the Organizational Prowess Scorecard?—that
precisely measures the capabilities needed for sustainable growth.
Analyzing the dimensions of talent, strategy, and execution produces a baseline
score, and shines a light on the performance gaps that hold a business
back. With the facts in hand, readers then learn how to:
Position the organization to meet ambitious goals • Bring strategies to
life through an execution framework • Design a dashboard to track
progress and flag problems • Foster a winning culture • And more
Organizations that maintain the status quo will be left in the dust. The
Scorecard Solution helps companies chart a course for rapid
change—and outperform the competition every time.
About the Author
DAN E. KING is Founding Principal of CloseReach Consulting. Using his
proprietary Organizational Prowess model, he helps senior management
teams create strategic clarity and execute with speed and precision.
Back to Top
Review Quotes
"…useful tool for leaders who want to shine a light into all the corners
of their business, identify weakness, and try to counteract it.?
--MindTools
"This book has a very simple but practical approach to address a complex
topic of strategic alignment of your plans, execution, and people.?
--PM World Journal
"…must-have tool for executives who want to get an unvarnished,
unemotional view of what is really happening in their company.? -PM
World Journal
Back to Top
Cover Copy
Advance Praise for The Scorecard Solution
"The Scorecard Solution does a superb job of capturing what
it takes to grow a business. Too often, companies grasp at the latest
fad in order to gain market share. This book demonstrates, through great
case studies, how the alignment of strategy, execution, and talent leads
to a sustainable competitive advantage. No fads, just proven
methodology. The Organizational Prowess Scorecard is one of the most
pragmatic measurement tools I have ever seen when it comes to diagnosing
weak areas in a business. A great read with easily adopted principles." --
Steve Ely, CEO, eCredable
"King has tapped into the experiences of his long career as an
operations leader and executive to provide the book we have been waiting
for: The Scorecard Solution . He wrote this gem from the
perspective he has gained as not only the guy who developed the
strategy, but also the one tasked with executing the strategy--in a
hyper-growth environment. The result is a book you will want to read,
read again and share with every leader in your organization." --
Randy Hain, Managing Partner, Bell Oaks Executive Search, and author of Something
More: The Professional's Pursuit of a Meaningful Life
"King's experience in business transformation and hyper-growth
environments brings a level of credibility to his writing that is
refreshing. The pragmatic and straightforward approach, supported by
case studies, helps the reader understand what derails growth and what
it takes for leadership teams to build the requisite capabilities to
outperform their peer group." -- Larry Mohl, CEO, Jamstir, Inc.,
and Founding Principal of Performance Inspired, Inc., coauthor of Wall
Street Journal bestseller Networking is Dead
"Effective leaders constantly search for a competitive edge and an
innovative path to improve their team's odds of winning. This book lays
out a practical and simple framework for improving the soundness and
pace of your decisions and sharpening your organization's strategy. Just
about every page has something worth underlining." -- Jeff
Hughes, President/CEO, BizLab
Back to Top
Jacket Copy
How can you address the most crucial issues in your organization when
you don't know what they are? As a leader, if you don't have access to
current, comprehensive data about your company's true capabilities and
limitations, you'll find yourself making important investment decisions
based merely on opinion, anecdotes, and partial facts. The reality is,
leaders rely on what they are told by subordinates. Yet even the most
approachable leader doesn't get the complete story regarding the health
of the enterprise when relying on verbal updates from those who want to
look good in the eyes of the boss.
Based on extensive research and implementation at large and small
companies, The Scorecard Solution provides you with a practical
tool for maintaining a crystal-clear view of your business that will
enable better decision making, no matter what challenges you face.
Introducing the Organizational Prowess Scorecard?, this book clears a
path for discovering the unvarnished, unemotional facts about what is
really happening in the corners of your company that you can't see every
day.
Reflecting four levels of organizational compe-tence and built on a
scale from 10 to 100, the scorecard provides a benchmark and enables you
to determine objectively whether your organization is:
* Agile (80--100 points)--with an enviable speed to market, a culture of
innovation, and a habit of exceeding financial targets . . .
* Resilient (60--79 points)--typically achieving the revenue target, but
with imperfect capabilities that make stretch goals impossible to
attain, and overachievement elusive . . .
* Vulnerable (30--59 points)--regularly missing financial targets,
suffering from talent erosion, and exhibiting minimal innovation . . .
* Lagging (10--29 points)--with a passionless culture, lack of
innovation . . . and the organization's very survival in doubt.
You'll learn how to use the Scorecard to examine every facet of your
organization in depth, and shine a light on the performance gaps that
are holding your business back. The book provides you with the guidance
you need to create your action plan for strengthening essential
capabilities based around three major components: Strategy Planning
(what are you going to work on?); Execution Framework (how do you get it
done?); and Talent (who will do the work?). Armed with the confidence to
act, you'll identify precisely where your organization's weaknesses lie
and what is required to counteract them.
In today's highly competitive environment, average performance is not
good enough. The Scorecard Solution gives you the tools you need
to start overachieving . . . year after year. Sustainable growth becomes
a reality and competitive advantage is assured.
DAN E. KING is Founding Principal of CloseReach Consulting, through
which he has developed and used his proprietary Organizational Prowess
model to help senior management teams create strategic clarity and
execute with speed and precision. Prior to CloseReach, his 30 years of
business experience included senior-level corporate roles in consumer
service enterprises and leading a consulting firm focused on midmarket
business transformation. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Back to Top
Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
"It drives me crazy when I can't get answers. I see erosion in our
revenue
and no one seems to be able to explain what is happening to cause it.
All I get are opinions and guesswork. How can I address the problem
when I don't even know where or what it is??
Do you share this frustration? A CEO made this comment to me
during my research for this book. She wasn't the only person who said
something similar. What I learned through multiple interviews with
executives
is that business leaders live in fear of two problems: (1) not being
told the truth about the health of the enterprise and (2) having to make
major, strategic decisions with too little information.
Unfortunately, the causes of these problems are usually baked into
the system.
Even the most approachable leaders have subordinates who are reluctant
to disclose looming performance deviations or organizational
weakness. We'd like to believe that the messenger never gets shot, but
there are plenty of messengers in companies across the land who would
rather not test that premise.
As a result, a leader receives sanitized information. This is a dangerous
scenario for a decision maker. Without comprehensive and current data
about the organization's capabilities, the leader is forced to make
investment
decisions and allocate resources based on partial facts.
In addition to not having the facts, leaders may be unaware of their
own mindset, which can add to the dilemma. During my work with
CEOs and senior leadership teams, I've found that they have a bias toward
the belief that "all is good.? They want to believe that their
organization
is rock solid and delivering the best possible results, given market
conditions.
Many leaders also are prone to maintaining the status quo. Because
they are somewhat in the dark regarding the health of the enterprise,
there is no urgency to address weaknesses they don't see, particularly if
the weaknesses have not yet shown up in the numbers. Why fix what
isn't broken? That becomes the mantra. If current performance of the
business is acceptable, why rock the boat? After all, change is tough on
an organization, right? Why be bold for the future and risk your present
success?
The reality is that present success is not self-sustaining. Without
preventive
maintenance, something is always breaking.
The Scorecard Solution will solve these problems by giving you a
practical
tool for maintaining a crystal-clear and constant view of your business
that will enable better decision making. That tool, the
Organizational Prowess Scorecard, delivers the unvarnished, unemotional
facts about what is really happening in areas of the company you can't
see every day. It has three major components:
1. Strategy Planning—what are we going to work on?
2. Execution Framework—how do we get it done?
3. Talent—who will do the work?
In my experience these components all need to be in top form for a
company to thrive. If you have, for instance, a bad plan, you'll
squander op-
portunities. If you have a good plan, but aren't able to execute it
within an
acceptable time frame, you'll lose ground competitively. And if you have
too many "B? players in mission-critical roles, key goals will be missed.
Each component is broken down into measurable subcomponents
that are assessed and given a numerical score, which, when tallied, will
show you how you're doing in a subcomponent, a major component and,
most important, overall.
Back to Top
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
INTRODUCTION
1 ORGANIZATIONAL PROWESS DEFINED
2 WHEN TOUGH TIMES HAPPEN
3 THE ORGANIZATIONAL PROWESS SCORECARD
4 STRATEGY PLANNING: GETTING IT RIGHT
5 BUILDING AN EXECUTION FRAMEWORK
6 TALENT: THE RIGHT LEADERS AND EXPERTS
7 DON'T WAIT FOR THE CRISIS
8 ORGANIZATIONAL PROWESS IN ACTION: A CASE STUDY
9 THE HARMONY BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL PROWESS AND CULTURE
10 NOW IS THE TIME: CREATE YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL PROWESS PLAYBOOK
11 STAY THE COURSE
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Back to Top