2004-4-29

When CEO and directors find that excellent strategies cannot be effectively implemented within the organization, they are more and more aware of the importance of execution. But unfortunately, there is no specific method that can be universally applied to solve the execution problems of all companies.

As pointed out in the article "Four Elements of Deconstructing Company DNA" in the 49th-50th issue of IT Times Weekly, the executive power of an organization is closely related to its DNA type, and the executive power of an enterprise is based on four effective operating DNAs: structure, power, information and motivation. In fact, enterprises hope to obtain lasting and benign

Execution needs to be achieved through the coordination of these deep-seated factors. Therefore, in order to improve the execution of enterprises, we must first understand our own organizational types and explore the problems.

Seven manifestations of organizational execution

After years of research, we found that from the perspective of organization type and execution, enterprises can be roughly divided into the following seven categories.

Dynamic enterprises and other institutions can flexibly adapt to changes in the external market, and keep consistent with their business strategies, and can foresee changes and take the initiative to respond. The talents here not only have a passionate working environment, but also have the resources and authority to solve problems effectively. The company is not only strong in execution, but also sustainable in execution, which is of course an ideal company state.

Organizations such as enterprises that respond in time can't always take the initiative to prepare for the upcoming changes, but they can respond effectively when necessary and don't deviate from their own development direction. Although the company can retain outstanding talents, it cannot shorten the gap between Excellence and Excellence, and may miss the opportunity. It can succeed, but this success is always slightly flawed; Although such companies can be in an invincible position, there are inevitably some hidden dangers.

Centralized enterprises are usually carefully managed by a small high-level team and succeed with the willpower of management. Companies can often formulate excellent strategies, but the middle management team is in a state of long-term depression. Potential talents can only learn management through observation rather than experience. Once the company's top management changes, the company's execution will be greatly threatened.

Although there are some hidden dangers in the latter two categories, the above three types of companies can still be classified as one with good execution. The following categories represent several typical obstacles to implementation:

On the surface, organizations such as passive coping enterprises are amiable, and managers can easily acquire knowledge when discussing changes, but once they reach the implementation stage, it becomes difficult. Due to the lack of necessary strength to promote the implementation of changes, grass-roots employees often ignore the instructions from headquarters because they know that these instructions are only a flash in the pan. The executive power of such enterprises is comprehensive. & lt

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Enterprises are fragmented, and such institutions have gathered a lot of smart and capable talents, but they cannot work towards unity at the same time. Perhaps they all have good performances, but the whole organization is fragmented and unable to achieve the established overall strategy.

The scale of over-expanded institutional companies exceeds their organizational model, and the company structure is huge and complex. A small top management team can't manage effectively, but many potential of the company can't be tapped, and the decision-making is slow.

Overmanaged enterprises set up too many management layers, are insensitive to analysis and judgment, and do not act as quickly as their competitors. Managers are busy reviewing each other instead of seeking new development opportunities and discovering potential crises. In such a bureaucratic organization, there is no room for real practical talents to play.

Three factors affecting execution

The lack of executive power of enterprises is manifested in slow decision-making, weak initiative of personnel and complicated workflow. , but these execution problems are rooted in the three basic elements of enterprise structure, but they are reflected in different ways:

If the power allocation is not clear, the enterprise will show the characteristics of passive coping mechanism;

If the incentive mechanism can't make employees' actions consistent with the company's goals, it is easy for employees to do things with enthusiasm, but the result is fragmented and even counterproductive;

If the company is in a period of rapid expansion, without smooth information flow and reasonable information allocation, the management will be beyond the power of many newly established institutions and cannot make effective decisions and management. Therefore, it is reasonable for those companies that have experienced long-term development, fine departmental setup and complicated processes to be bureaucratic and unresponsive.

To improve the execution of enterprises, we need to start from these aspects. The key is to achieve the consistency of individual actions, actions of others and the interests of the company. Management needs to define the boundaries of rights and responsibilities for different people, give them enough information, and promote the consistency of actions through appropriate incentive mechanisms.

solution

Power distribution must first understand how power is distributed within the organization. This will enable management to quickly transcend complex business processes and departmental levels and find out where and how to make decisions. If the decision-making point is unclear or the configuration method is problematic, then when a strategy needs to be implemented, the corresponding strategies and measures at all levels cannot be responded, and the execution will inevitably go wrong. Next, enterprises should consider how to allocate these powers more reasonably, ensure the transmission and distribution efficiency of relevant information, and put decision-making power in the most effective place.

Case 1 IBM Credit Company used to spend an average of 7 days to provide customers with a simple financing service through a series of departments and processes: on-site sales staff-headquarters office staff-credit department-business department-price inspector-service team-express delivery to sales staff. During the seven-day waiting, neither the sales representative nor the customer knew which "dock" the process was sent to, and even the telephone consultation could not explain it. It is precisely because there is no clear decision point or decision maker in this whole process, relying on the containment between departments to ensure the credit audit, which leads to the departments being far away from the effective information routine, the audit efficiency is low, and the service time is seriously delayed.

Solution: After perfecting the "comprehensive clerk" system, this service can be completed in only 4 hours.

Information is the lifeline of modern large-scale enterprises, and it is the key to successful management to always have appropriate information around decision makers at each level. The communication of information is also of great significance for subordinates to understand the decisions of superiors, because correct execution is undoubtedly based on correct understanding. Enterprises often have such a situation: company managers have the strongest will and clear motives, but they lack clear information to make reliable decisions. Enterprises should give full consideration to the effectiveness of information when distributing power. Therefore, after determining the distribution of power, it is an important principle to ensure that decision makers have sufficient information.

Case 2: AES, a global power group in the United States, adopts authorization management mode to promote information flow in an open and equal way. As soon as the manager of the business development department of the company was appointed as the head of Vietnam business and was in charge of a large-scale bidding project, he drafted an e-mail detailing his planned bidding and reasons and sent it to about 300 employees of the company. He received a large number of responses, including leaders of power plants and members of the board of directors, and one of the managers provided a lot of notes on some technical issues. Finally, in the formal bidding, he narrowly won with a price 0.2% lower than the lowest price.

A successful operation mode of incentive mechanism must ensure that the incentive mechanism can give decision makers a clear direction and make their actions consistent with the company's goals. The company can't motivate its employees, so there is no hope. After the enthusiasm of employees is mobilized, there is a lack of unified goal guidance, which is even worse than the former.

The management must understand that the focus of the incentive mechanism is not the amount of rewards, but how to achieve organizational coordination. Ken blanchard, a management guru, pointed out in his book The Manager in One Minute, "In quite a few enterprises, employees actually don't know what the enterprise expects of them, so there is often a kind of' career preference' in their work-that is, they do too many things that leaders don't expect them to do, but they don't do in areas where their superiors expect them to achieve something. This situation is entirely because managers have not set goals for employees or have not clearly communicated them to employees. "

Case 3 Nokia is an impressive legend in the telecommunications industry, and the incentive system is an important factor for its success. Nokia (China) Company established the salary system on the basis of emphasizing the consistency between employees' efforts and enterprise performance. Nokia has launched a project called IIP(Invest In People): it needs to complete high-quality conversations with employees twice a year, on the one hand, it needs to evaluate employees' business performance; On the other hand, it is also necessary to help employees understand their own potential, tell them where their own advantages lie, what level they should reach, and the skills and training needed for a certain position, so as to clearly and effectively communicate each employee's work objectives and development direction.