The Executive Management

Strategic Design Workshop

 

 

Our Vision

 

1. Have We Been Here Before?

  • The Program Is Dedication.
  • We Can Be First, Last or in the Middle.
  • Where Is the Program?

2. Are We Ready to Change Our Life?

  • We Cannot Maintain Current Lifestyle!
  • Priorities must Be Shifted!
  • Who Do We Work For?
  • What Are We Risking?
    • Our Time.
    • Our Money.
    • Our Relationships.
    • Our Career.
  • Do We Really Understand What it Takes?

3. China Is a "Brave New World".

  • What Do You Want from the Company?
  • What Do You Want from the Experience?
  • What Do We Want from Each Other?

4. Why Does the Business World Want to Do This?

5. Why Do We Want to Do This?

6. Why Do My Associates Want to Do This?

7. Why Does the Board Want to Do This?

8. Why Does I/T Want to Do This?

9. What Can I Do for Them?

10. What Can My Group Do for Them?

11. What Can They Do for Me?

12. Who Do I Work For?

13. What Is a Vision?

14. What Is Our Vision?

15. How Do We Form Our Vision?

16. What Is My Vision?

 

Our Team

1. Why Do I Want to Join this Team?

2. How Do I Make the Team a Success?

3. What Do I Expect from Each Team Member?

4. What Are the CSFs of Each Team Member?

5. What Are the Critical Failure Factors - CFFs?

6. How Do I Attain Confidence in the Other?

7. Am I Really Ready to Change My Life Style?

8. What Is My Management Style?

  • Do I Need a MEA?

9. Am I a Good Follower?

  • Do I Need a LEA?

 

We Are Our Best Product

1. Where Are We Today?

2. What Is Our Window of Opportunity?

3. What Is Our Primary Advantage?

4. Who Is Our Primary Competitor?

5. Who Are Our Direct and Indirect Opponents?

6. Who Are Direct and Indirect Proponents?

7. When Can We Do It?

8. Do We Want to Harvest or Do We Want to Grow?

9. Do We Have a Pricing Program with a Great Deal?

10. Is it Real?

  • Is the Need Real?
    • Is There a Need/Want?
    • Can the Personnel Be Trained?
    • Will the Personnel Be Trained?
  • Is the Plan Real?
    • Is There a Program Idea (The Art of the Deal)?
    • Can We Develop It?
    • Will it Meet the Need?

11. Can We Do It?

  • Can Our Plan Be Competitive?
    • on Design and Performance Features?
    • on Promotion to Personnel and Customers?
      • Is the Price Right?
      • Is the Timing Right?
      • Is it Right in Employee and Customer Presentation?
  • Can Our Plan Be Efficient?
    • in Complete Distribution of Plan?
    • in Management Acceptance?
    • in New Product Development?
    • in Marketing and Promotions?
    • in Logistical and Replenishment Cycles?
    • in Other Considerations?
  • Is Our Plan Effective?
    • in Defining the Right I/t Path?
    • in Enabling the Core Business Processes?
    • in Facilitating Management Decision Making?
    • in Growing the Business?
    • in Improving the Bottom Line?

12. Is it Worth It?

  • Will it Be Profitable?
  • Can We Afford It?
    • Is the R.O.I.. And I.R.R. Adequate?
    • Is the Capital Risk Acceptable?
  • Does it Satisfy Other Company Needs?
  • Does it Support Company Objectives?
  • Are External Relations Improved?
    • Is There an Overriding Factor?

13. Have We Defined Our Product Development Environment?

14. Have We Designed Our Corporate Structure:

  • Hierarchical?
  • Horizontal?

 

Our Strategy

1. Can We Define a Systems Strategy for Today's Business Environment?

2. What Is Today's Business Environment for our company?

3. The Old 7-s Model Versus the New?

  • Traditional Business Strategies Are Based on the 7-s Model for Sustaining Competitive Advantage.
  • Today's Modern Business Climate, Characterized by the Dynamic Challenges of an Ever Changing Business Environment, the Forces of Hypercompetition Have Made past Models of Business Competition Outdated.
  • Traditionally, to Sustain Competitive Advantage, Corporations Worked Hard to Mold a Fit Between the Company and the Environment.
  • The SCA Approach Relied of the Fit Between a Company's Strategy and Environment and the Internal Consistency of Seven Important Corporate Aspects:
    • (1) Structure;
    • (2) Strategy;
    • (3) Systems;
    • (4) Style;
    • (5) Skills;
    • (6) Staff, and
    • (7) Superordinate Goals.
  • The Seven Aspects Form the Traditional 7-s Framework for Sustaining Competitive Advantage (SCA).
  • The Hypercompetitive Environment Seeks Disruption.
  • While Disruption Is a Growth Strategy, SCA Is a Harvest Strategy.
  • SCA Attempts to Cement a Fit in Four Domains of Business Competition:
    • (1) Cost/quality;(2) Timing/know-how;
    • (3) Strongholds, and
    • (4) Deep Pockets.
  • The Concept of Fit Is Empowered by a Drive for Permanence.
  • Fit Is Maintenance Oriented and Is Derived from the Steady State Model.
  • Disruption Seeks the Continuous Evolution of New Advantages.
  • While SCA Means Predictability, Disruption Throws out the Rules and Every Day Is a New Opportunity.
  • The Modern Company must Prepare for Hypercompetition Using a Radically Different Approach.
  • The Modern Approach to Competition Is Expressed in the New 7-s Framework:
    • (1) Superior Stakeholder Satisfaction;
    • (2) Strategic Soothsaying;
    • (3) Positioning for Speed;
    • (4) Positioning for Surprise;
    • (5) Shifting the Rules of Competition;
    • (6) Signaling Strategic Intent, and
    • (7) Simultaneous and Sequential Strategic Thrusts.
  • Growth Is a Hypercompetitive Market Can Become Hypergrowth Regardless of the Current Size of Your Company.
  • To Plan for Hypergrowth:
    • (1) Ask the Right Questions;
    • (2) Watch for Windows of Opportunity;
    • (3) Prepare Yourself for Growth;
    • (4) Innovate Then Accelerate, and
    • (5) Rewrite the Rules.
  • 7s Management Alone Is Not Enough; You must Create New Business Models and Apply the Hypergrowth Formula to the New 7-s framework:
    • Anomaly - Find the Overlooked or Missed Opportunity.
    • Metonymy - Define the Context of the Merging Order in Which You Will Be Operating.
    • Inference - Discover the Relationship Between the Anomaly and the Metonymy.
    • Penetration - Expose Your Product to Those Who Influence Product Preference.
    • Trends & Fads - Stay Ahead of the Economic, Social, Political, and Technological Shifts That Forces Rapid Changes in Your industry.
    • Continually Seek out New Anomalies.
    • Anomaly + Metonymy + Inference + Penetration + Trends & Fads = Hypergrowth.
    • Therefore, Hypercompetition + Success = Hypergrowth.
  • SCA Seeks to Place Everyone on Equal Footing, Hypercompetition Does the Opposite.
  • What about Fourth Wave Strategies and Your Company, and Your Group?
  • What View of the World Do You Accept?
  • Theory Without Practice Is Weak; Practice Without Theory Is a Formula for Failure.
  • What Is Your Corporate Strategic Theory?
  • What Will Be Your Mandate for Executive Practice and Management Action?

4. What Is Your Executive Role in Strategy Building? (Please Describe Briefly)

 

Their Expectations

1. Who Do We Work For?

2. Do We Know Our Boss?

3. What Does the Boss Expect?

4. How Do We Protect Our Rights?

5. How Can We Meet Expectations?

6. We Have Only One Chance - Time Waits for No One?

 

Our Road to Success

1. Immediate Versus Deferred Recognition?

2. The "Law of Success"

3. The Hidden Agenda

4. Absolutely No Free Lunch

5. Three Years to Glory

6. How Do You Feel Now?

7. Do You Really Have What it Takes?

8. Software Is Not Hardware!

 

Our Transition from Technical Manager to Executive Leader

1. We Control Our Life by Controlling Our Time.

2. Our Governing Values Are the Foundation of Personal Fulfillment.

3. When Our Daily Activities Reflect Our Governing Values, We Will Experience Inner Peace, and Inner Peace Provides Success.

4. To Reach Any Significant Goal, We must Leave Our Comfort Zone.

5. Daily Planning Means Leveraging Time Through Increased Focus.

6. Our Behavior Is a Reflection of What We Truly Believe.

7. What We Love Is Who We Are.

8. We Satisfy Needs When Our Beliefs Are in Line with Reality.

9. Negative Behaviors Are Overcome by Changing Incorrect Beliefs and Engaging in Redecision.

10. Our Self-esteem must Ultimately Come from Within.

11. If We must Lead, We Never Will.

12. Give More and We Will Have More.

13. The Five Myths of Management:

  • Our Manager Controls the Organization.
  • Messiahs Will Save Our Organization.
  • We Lost the Magic.
  • Technology Will Solve All Our Problems.
  • There Is Only One Way to Manage.

 

Our Program Group

 

"It Is Always the Secure Who Are Humble."

 Ray Newkirk

1. Our Program Can Succeed Only If We Succeed.

  • If One Fails, All Fail.
  • Skills We All must Master:
  • Understanding the Job of Helping Others Succeed.
  • Leading When We Are Not in Charge.
    • How to Influence Change.
  • Expressing Our Wants and Visions of Possible Futures.
  • Learning the Truth about Our Company and Ourselves.
  • Empowering Ourselves from the Inside Out.
    • How to Employ Politics Positively and with Principle.
    • How to Initiate Change.
    • How to Enlist Others in the Change Process.
    • How to Consult with Our Internal Customers.
    • How to Work Well with Cross-functional Teams.
    • How to Build Solid Working Relationships.
  • Learning the Rules for Mastering Success:
    • Grow Through Small Successes.
    • Risk Being Converted.
    • Give Others an Out.
    • Expect Not to Be Appreciated.
    • Accept Their Lack of Knowledge.
    • Focus on What They Know.
    • Never Give Our Expertise Away.
    • Reinvent the Wheel.
  • Ready, Aim, Fire:
    • Put Together Our Best Analysis of What the Company Is Faced With.
    • Lay out the Alternative Actions.
    • Recommend What We Believe Management Should Do.
    • Present Our Recommendation.
    • Participate in a Lively Discussion in Which Each of Us Supplements Our Ideas with Each Other’s.
    • Listen to Each Other’s Decision.
    • Accept Each Other’s Decision.
    • Act in Accordance with What We All Decide.
    • Model What We Want.
    • Respect and Earn the Respect of Each Other.
    • Perform by Priorities.
    • Do More with less.
    • Learn How to Apply Our Vision and Values at Work.
    • Have the Courage to Take Risk.
    • Create Our Own Rewards.
    • Continuously Shape and Reshape Our Role.
    • Develop an Action List for Leading Change.

2. In our Program, We must Become a Master at Working in a Cross-functional Environment:

  • Talk the Talk.
  • Walk the Talk.
  • Recognize and Reward.
  • Focus on Performance.
  • Be a Storyteller.
  • Provide Resources:
    • Training;
    • Space, and
    • Technology.

3. If We Are Seeking Failure in Our Life, Here Are Ten Sure Fire Ways to Get Us There:

  • Don't Listen to Any New Idea or Recommendation.
  • Don't Provide Teams Any Additional Resources to Solve Problem in Their Areas.
  • Treat All Problems as Signs of Failure and Treat All Failures as a Reason to Disband the Team or Downgrade Team Members. (Has anyone Failed Yet)?
  • Create a System That Requires Lots of Reviews and Signatures to Get Approvals for All Changes, Purchases, and New
  • Procedures.
  • Increase Security So People Will Have Trouble Getting Information about Your Company and Products.
  • Assign a Manager to Keep Track of Workers.
  • When You Reorganize or Change Policies and Procedures, Do Not Involve Team Members in the Decision or Give Them Any Advance Warning.
  • Eliminate All Training.
  • Express Your Criticisms Freely While Withholding Your Praise and Recognition.
  • Above All, Remember, You Know Best.

4. Leadership Will Be the Program’s Greatest Asset. Nurture and Develop it with Great Wisdom.

  • Business Is about Leadership: It Requires Understanding, Courage, Single Mindedness, Drive, and an Ability to Persuade and Lead others.
  • "Business Short of Capital Can Borrow Money, but a Business Short on Leadership Has Little Chance for Survival." - Ray Newkirk
  • "Content Delivered Without Emotion Is Soon Forgotten!" Ray Newkirk
  • "Nobody Doubted His Capacity to Rule until He Became Emperor." Tacitus on Galba.
  • "We Learn Only from Those We Love." Goethe
  • "Research Is an Organized Method for Keeping Yourself Reasonably Dissatisfied with What You Have." Charles F. Kettering.
  • "Structure Without Life Is Dead. But Life Without Structure Is Unseen." John Cage.
  • "I Am Always Ready to Learn but I Do Not Always like Being Taught." Winston Churchill.
  • "Development Is Always Self-development. You Cannot Be Responsible for the Development of Others." Ray Newkirk.
  • "I Believe that the Principal Reason Why Some Firms Survive, Prosper and Expand, While Others Dwindle, Perish or Sell Out, must be Sought in the Personalities of the Men and Women Who Manage Them." Charles Wilson
  • "We Should Always and Everywhere Seek to Avoid the Admiral Perry Folly." Ray Newkirk
  • "Guided by a Noble Vision, Leadership Links the Facts of Operational Performance To the Knowledge of Tactical Decisions to Inform Strategic Conceptualization." Dr. Raymond L. Newkirk