Achieving Results!

Results:

A 1998 Survey* of 200 Companies from 20 Industries reveals that those companies with strong corporate culture** based on shared values have:

A Common Thread:

When the above data is closely examined and correlated with other related survey information, we find that several factors come into play. Highly successful organizations understand that it is not good enough to simply be the best in their industry, they all aspire to be truly "great." They realize that the rewards associated with being better then the competition by orders of magnitude are highly significant, as evidenced above. They have crisply defined the difference in terms of everyday actions and behaviors. More is expected of employees...and employees like it.

These organizations are clear on where they are going.  They have a stated vision and have implemented clear, concise values as expressed through everyday actions. All members of the organization understand and personally support the vision and share the values of the organization. Decisions on all matters come quickly, are regret-free, and represent the practical articulation of values. Hiring of new employees takes into account that the candidates matches to the corporate culture as well as the skills and experience required to perform the job. Performance and contribution of current employees is also evaluated in the context of the corporate culture.

Building relationships is paramount. Relationships include those that are both internal and external to the organization, such as customers, suppliers, co-workers, the community, investors, and even  the competition. Customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and investor satisfaction are all high. The direct relationship between these elements is well understood and capitalized on. Suppliers are also part of this equation. It is clear that these elements are interdependent;.i.e.,   high customer satisfaction cannot be achieved without high employee satisfaction.

Critical business process, those activities which are vital for success, have been crisply identified, assigned management-level process owners, and have process measurements and continuous improvement objectives in place. Continuous improvement is being realized as evidenced by the process measurements.

The role of everyone in the organization is clear to both themselves and others. This includes the role of leadership. Skills essential for personal and organizational growth and success have been identified and are actively being developed. Organizational learning, team learning, and individual learning is evidenced by results achieved.

The Challenge:

It is a relatively straightforward process to identify one or more of the key components associated with the above successes and actively focus on those areas. Implementation is easy and clear cut, and many organizations have done this and continue to do so  today. In the 80s attempts at achieving improved results was implemented through an emphasis on "quality circles," "quality teams," and a focus on statistical measurements. More recently we see it expressed in terms of training employees in "teamwork," "empowerment," and other related topics. We also see it expressed in the need to develop corporate vision statements.

While these items are all important areas of focus, all too often the tangible results for corporations are disappointing. The 80s showed us that over 80% of corporate "quality" programs were unsuccessful and failed to produce hoped-for achievements. Direct results associated with many teamwork and empowerment programs often seem equally elusive. Often, we have heard  top corporate executives express that although they invested heavily in teamwork, leadership, empowerment, and quality training, most employees seem to go back to the workplace and do the same things that they always did!

Those few organizations that consider themselves successful have viewed skills like process management, teamwork, empowerment, and leadership in the total context of the corporate culture. They attribute their success to their ability to focus across ALL of these areas at the same time...in a very coordinated, interdependent manner. They realize that taking items out of context will not produce the results they require.

ASI - Our Role - The Process:

Our role at ASI is to deliver to you the process required to achieved hoped-for results. We generally begin by understanding "the current reality." This involves determining where you are today in several key areas, like process management effectiveness; leadership strategies; values definition; vision definition and acceptance; mission; and employee/management buy-in on key items. We do this through personal interviews and use of validated measurement instruments (surveys). Based on these results, we make a series of recommendations which identify the high-leverage areas for your organization. We support these recommendations through a series of customized meetings, seminars, workshops, and interactions with management and employees. The objective of these interactions is to develop the skills and behaviors required to achieve organizational objectives. All activities are designed to meet your specific business needs and focus on your specific business issues and problems.

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