Diamonds in the Rough: Developing leaders through the Group Evaluation Method
Grooming internal talent for senior positions is a surprisingly improvised hit-or-miss proposition at many companies, relying on instinct and biased judgments. A more effective alternative, the Group Evaluation Method, uses a structured and iterative discussion process to assess an individual’s potential for leadership roles and predict which areas need development in order to ensure the candidate’s progress. The nature of group participation means that colleagues … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Randall Cheloha | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Leadership
Mercer Strategic Choice Framework
How Conoco broke the convenience store mold
As the oil industry consolidated in the mid-1990s, Houston-based Conoco faced a major brand challenge. One of the world’s leading energy companies and a prominent petroleum retailer in U.S. markets, Conoco saw an opportunity to accelerate profit growth through the convenience store format. But in order to build a powerful convenience store brand, the company knew that it would have to break away from the … [ Read more ]
Content: Case Study | Authors: Kathryn H. Feakins, Michael Zea | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subject: Marketing / Sales | Industry: Petro / Chemical | Company: Conoco
Risk Continuum
Suzanne Hogan, Eric Almquist, and Simon E. Glynn
Most electronic forms of interactions do not delight customers, but they have a great potential to destroy brand equity if they fail. For example, after 20 years automated teller machines (ATMs) do not please us very much, but they irritate us when they are down for service. While Web sites may provide some delight today, they will probably be the same as ATMs in the … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subjects: Brand, Customer Related
Phyllis Rothschild, Jag Duggal, and Richard Balaban
Many strategic planning processes devolve into sterile budgeting exercises focused on yearly or even quarterly financial minutiae rather than looking at the broader market landscape. This is like driving while looking at the speedometer and odometer, not the road ahead; come the next curve, a crash is inevitable. The company fails to anticipate changes in customer priorities and the competitive landscape, and it ends up … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subject: Strategy
Phyllis Rothschild, Jag Duggal, and Richard Balaban
Most market research, while useful in traditional marketing contexts, is inappropriate and misleading for strategy development; it is the wrong data collected for a different purpose and therefore answers the wrong questions. Traditional market research targets current customers with questions about marketing and tactical issues, usually with the goal of incremental improvements.
If customers could tell us what a strategy should be, there would be little … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subjects: Customer Related, Market Research
First Tennesee National: Tapping the Hidden Value of People
A few pioneering companies have married a perceptual shift with the new tools of human capital management. For First Tennessee National Corporation, it was a natural match. In the late 1990s, First Tennessee, now the 31st largest bank holding company in the United States in asset size and market capitalization, believed there was significant leverage in highly developed human capital management practices. The case study … [ Read more ]
Content: Case Study | Authors: Haig Nalbantian, Tom Love | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subject: Human Resources | Industry: Finance / Banking | Company: First Tennesee National
Randall Cheloha
Developing and promoting internal talent who are already performing successfully within a company’s unique culture is preferable to hit-or-miss recruiting of senior executives from the outside. For one thing, success in senior positions depends on whether a new leader is accepted by his or her peers; so many external candidates fail because the culture rejects them. For another, promotions send a signal that an organization … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior