Four Paths to a Focused Organization

Unchecked complexity in an organization demoralizes employees, slows innovation and raises costs. We have found that people in many companies spend 25% or more of their time on low-value or inefficient activities. If you could get rid of all that unproductive work, you could gain the equivalent of 10 hours more a week from every employee.

Focus on the Customer

Companies that seek to be the best at something may have to be only average at everything else.

Focused Products

How much value can a company gain by streamlining its portfolio of products or services? Let’s consider the five essential steps.

Focused Processes and IT: Lock in Simplicity

Why do conventional solutions to process and IT issues regularly come up short? The reason is that processes and IT are rarely the main problem. Nearly always, process and IT troubles reflect complexity elsewhere in the company—in strategy, in business and product portfolios, and in the organization itself. The complexity may show up first in process breakdown or system proliferation, but its root causes often … [ Read more ]

Finding the Hidden Costs in Broken Supply Chains

For decades, governments and companies around the world have focused almost exclusively on tariffs as the biggest impediment to global trade. Despite tariffs dropping to a 30-year low, reform efforts have stalled in recent years and international trade remains seriously constrained. A big reason: The inefficiencies and choke-points that hobble the global supply chain turn out to be a much bigger factor than government-imposed tariffs … [ Read more ]

The Focused Company

Complexity is a natural trait of any large organization—“natural” because it is a by-product of business decisions that are sound and rational. Is it any wonder that CEOs in a recent survey identified complexity as the primary challenge they face? Faced with such concerns, most companies try to take action. Teams attack product-line complexity, organizational complexity and complexity in IT systems. They create new structures. … [ Read more ]

The Power of Managing Complexity

Downturns reveal a company’s weaknesses. An organization that seemed nimble and focused during a period of expansion may be sluggish and ineffectual when faced with declining demand. Its very survival may depend on determining which products are making money, what customers really value, and which organizational bottlenecks are getting in the way of effective action.

Four Fundamental Laws for CEOs Racing Against Time

The pressure to perform is familiar to most CEOs these days. Nobody gets much time to show what he or she can do, and achieving performance targets becomes even harder when economic turbulence hits. Despite the intensity of these pressures, the high expectations and the shorter time frames, a number of CEOs turn in truly exceptional results. Leaders of performance breakthroughs start by systematically determining … [ Read more ]

Turnaround Time: Ways to Jump Out of a Slump

The steps needed for rapid performance improvement fall into the category of simple to conceive but not easy to do. Leaders of fast turnarounds first systematically diagnose the business’s current condition. This diagnosis, informed by the four fundamental laws of business discussed below, gives them a deep understanding of their point of departure. They next map out a realistic point of arrival, again using … [ Read more ]

12 Must-Have Facts to Diagnose Your Company

The pressure to perform is familiar to most CEOs these days. Fully 40 percent of new CEOs last less than two years. Leaders of fast turnarounds start by systematically determining the business’s current condition. That diagnosis, typically guided by four fundamental laws of business, enables them to gain a deep understanding of the point of departure. They next map out a realistic point of arrival, … [ Read more ]