StrategyDriven » Karen Juliano

Best Wishes for a StrategyDriven 2012!

Karen Juliano — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:00:23 +0000

As we say farewell and give thanks for a successful 2011, I and the StrategyDriven family wish you and yours all the best for a happy and prosperous 2012. We look forward to the ongoing journey of helping you and your organization to become truly StrategyDriven.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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Merry Christmas from StrategyDriven

Karen Juliano — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 11:38:18 +0000

On behalf of the entire StrategyDriven family, I want to wish you, your family, friends, and colleagues a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year. May you experience all the peace, hope, and joy of the holiday season!

Best Wishes Always,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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Recommended Resources – An Interview with Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan, authors of Leading Outside the Lines

Karen Juliano — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:36:47 +0000

Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results
by Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan

Every enterprise has an informal as well as a formal organization. The formal is the side with which business people are usually most familiar. It consists of analyses, strategies, structures, processes and programs – all codified in memos, charts and Power-Point presentations. These tools are designed to align decisions and actions. The informal is generally less familiar. It consists of emerging ideas, social networks, working norms, values, peer relationships and communities of common interest – the elements that often hide beyond the boundaries of the formal. In Leading Outside the Lines, authors Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan make the compelling case that it is in the less familiar informal world where magic happens… yet one without the other is unlikely to sustain peak performance over time.

Additional Insights… An Interview with Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan, authors of Leading Outside The Lines

StrategyDriven Contributors recently interviewed Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan, authors of Leading Outside the Lines; receiving many invaluable, beyond the scope of the book insights.

SD: Why did you write Leading Outside the Lines?

JK and ZK: To help leaders gain a powerful performance ‘boost’ from their informal organizations. In our years helping leading organizations improve performance, we’ve learned that leaders at all levels have a difficult time with, or don’t realize they need to address, a key avenue to success: balancing two distinct dimensions of human behavior and organizational performance – the formal and the informal elements. Learning how to mobilize the informal elements of an organization to accelerate the formal elements goes a long way in helping leaders fill the gap between intention and results. Further, the recession and slow recovery have forced many organizations to reduce headcount to a bare minimum, and have undermined employee motivation. Without making changes to headcount, systems of performance management and processes, leaders can tap into the informal elements of the organization to realize additional performance potential, and do so ‘for free.’

SD: What is the ‘informal organization?’ And what is the ‘formal?’

JK and ZK: The informal unlocks the emotional side of behavior; the formal is the rational side. The informal organization is a bundle of organizational elements that are often hidden from view, but exert strong influence on people’s decisions and behaviors. The informal includes values that drive decisions, networks that guide personal interactions and the spread of information and emotional feelings about the work that drives the amount of effort and commitment that people put into their jobs. The formal organization, on the other hand, includes the codified elements of organization that are usually disseminated on paper. They include strategies, structures, processes, metrics, etc. In other words, the informal organization is comprised of interpersonal connections, influences and “rituals” that happen beyond, around and beneath the formal rules; they are seldom codified or reference-able. The formal is the structural lines, boxes, rules, measures and processes that describe how things are supposed to work; they are almost always codified and reference-able.

SD: What do you mean by ‘Leading Outside the Lines?’

JK and ZK: Influencing results by using informal mechanisms beyond the hierarchy. The lines represent the formal organization – the usual elements of strategy, structure, hierarchy, metrics, etc. Most effective leaders are well trained in using those elements. However, the best leaders also learn how to mobilize the informal organization – the values, networks, and sources of pride that drive motivation and high performance. These elements are more responsive to leadership outside the lines, so to speak. So, leading outside the lines is really stepping outside of formal roles and responsibilities to influence emotions that accelerate behaviors that determine performance.

SD: Why is the ‘Leading Outside the Lines’ concept and call to action any more important now than it was, say, five years ago?

JK and ZK: The recessionary recovery challenge demands emotional as well as rational leadership capabilities. There are two reasons. First, managing the formal organization has become a widespread and broadly used discipline. In the past, optimized processes and fact-based strategies gave companies an advantage. Now, anyone can buy them off the shelf, so it’s hard to gain a competitive advantage through formal elements alone. The informal organization, however, is mostly uncharted territory. There’s lots of excitement about social networking and the like, but there aren’t many practical frameworks or approaches for using informal elements to gain performance advantages. And the advantages gained from the informal organization are very, very hard to copy. Second, as mentioned before, because of the recession and slow recovery, most companies are in much greater need of leadership capacity that both the formal and informal organizations provide.

SD: You say that if the informal isn’t working for you, it’s working against you. What do you mean by that?

JK and ZK: Informal forces are always at play – you cannot simply turn them on and off by command. The informal is working all the time: It’s not ‘stoppable or start-able;’ it’s only influence-able. It either resists and de-rails what the formal is trying to accomplish, or it supports and accelerates it. It is never ‘in neutral.’ So, the chances that the informal organization is working for you without any deliberate attempt to mobilize it in the right direction are fairly low. In many cases, when left unattended, the informal works against you even if you’re not trying to change anything. In fact, the informal organization can align itself in the opposite direction that leaders want to take the whole company if the informal organization hasn’t bought into the change.

SD: What are the results when leaders successfully balance the informal with the formal?

JK and ZK: Emotional commitment supplants rational compliance to optimize performance results. Overall, leaders can accelerate performance results by combining the best of both the informal and the formal, and do so without having to make trade-offs. They get the efficiency of the formal with the creativity of the informal; the focused execution of the formal with the responsiveness to new opportunities of the informal; the accountability of the formal with the emotional commitment of the informal. In other words, you get behavior change that yields higher performance results or faster results – and often BOTH!

SD: You tell a lot of stories in the book. What’s your favorite one?

JK and ZK: We don’t have a single favorite; it depends on the issue. We like all the stories, and there are different categories. Perhaps our favorite ‘informal miracle’ story is the one about the transformation of Aetna. Early in the decade, Aetna had been on a treadmill to nowhere – even though it had tried three different change programs. It continued to lose $1 million a day. But a new CEO, Dr. John Rowe, had a vision to turn it all around – by bringing the company’s pride back. He engaged all levels of the informal organization and created evangelists for formal change. The core of the program was known informally throughout the company as ‘restoring the pride.’

SD: You mention types of workers call ‘fast zebras.’ Who are they? What do you do with them?

JK and ZK: People who get important stuff done quicker by going down informal as well as formal paths. In the wild, the fast zebra gets to the watering hole quickly and escapes predators who might be waiting. Similarly, in organizations, there are those who can quickly find innovative ways to realize their objectives without getting bogged down by organizational predators like bureaucracy, politics, senseless policies, outdated rules, etc. They have learned how to get things done by using a dynamic variety of formal and informal mechanisms; they know when to follow the rules, when to bend the rules and when to change the rules. The best thing to do with them is to learn from them, and draw on those learnings to make changes to the organization so you can enable potential fast zebras. Give them room to interact, get them together to energize one another and listen to – and act on – their insights.

SD: What kinds of leaders are best at ‘Leading Outside the Lines?’

JK and ZK: Those who have learned the power of the informal through trial and error. They are very open to the informal – and realize they don’t have all the answers. They are willing to take personal risks by drawing on emotional intelligence as much as analytical intelligence. They spend time with people at any level, particularly the frontline, and not just with a select few at headquarters. Most importantly, they believe that while the informal organization may appear to be unruly chaos and resistant to control, they know it can be mobilized to generate real performance results.

SD: What are the biggest mistakes leaders make when trying to manage and maximize the informal organization?

JK and ZK: The biggest mistake is to try and manage the informal like the formal. It can’t be told what to do; it must be convinced, influenced and energized. We tell clients that they must mobilize the informal and manage the formal. Therefore, it’s a big mistake to think that top-down communication will keep the informal interactions positive. It’s also a mistake to believe that broad-based ‘engagement scores’ are indicative of informal support and to underestimate the importance of emotional commitment over rational compliance.

SD: Are you saying that strict ‘traditionalists’ will fail in this environment?

JK and ZK: Only if you define under-performance as failing. They won’t actually fail – and that’s part of the problem. Right now, any leader who can’t use the formal organization has a very short career. So they get weeded out quickly. However, those who don’t use the informal will usually accomplish good enough results, as there aren’t many who know how to use both and who achieve outstanding results. However, we expect that as the discipline of using the informal spreads, the pressure to be versed n it will increase. We do believe that those who only take advantage of one side of the “organizational brain” will fall short of their potential – and end up as mediocre guardians of the status quo.

SD: What happens if a leader backs off from the informal organization and just lets it grow organically?

JK and ZK: He competes with one hand tied behind his back. It would be the same as forgetting about marketing and hoping your customers buy your products by chance. It’s an asset that needs to be used with purpose. It may adapt to support you organically if you have effective and committed leaders down the line, but it can also align against you if you change the status quo to which it has evolved. Remember, the informal organization has a mind of its own, which may not be in sync with your priorities. More often than not, when left to evolve on its own, the informal organization works against you. Put another way, it would be analogous to letting ivy find its own home.

SD: Your book mentions ‘master motivators’ and ‘pride builders.’ Who are they, and what do you do with them?

JK and ZK: They are people in supervisory situations who know how to make others ‘feel good’ about the work that has to get done every day; they instill pride in the work itself. We use these terms inter-changeably. We urge leaders to listen and learn from them, and get them into networks and communities where they can spread motivational skills experientially among peers and colleagues. The people who work for them ‘never want to disappoint them’ and the people who work beside them want to learn their ‘secrets.’

SD: What can leaders do to get better at actively leveraging the informal and balancing it with the formal?

JK and ZK: Keep working at it; if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. The first thing is to get an understanding of your current informal organization – the values, the networks and sources of pride. Front line leaders can seek out peers who are natural pride-builders; leaders at the top can find ways to connect with them, learn from them, and spread their behaviors; leaders in the middle can do both.

About the Authors

Jon Katzenbach is a senior partner at Booz & Company and leads The Katzenbach Center, where promising new approaches in leadership, culture and organization performance are developed for client application. His consulting career has been largely focused in these areas, and spans several decades across several different professional books, including The Wisdom of Teams, Peak Performance, Why Pride Matters More Than Money, and the new Leading Outside the Lines. He received his MBA from Harvard, where he was a Baker Scholar. Jon is a founding partner of Katzenbach Partners. To read Jon’s complete biography, click here.

Zia Khan, co-author of Leading Outside the Lines, is vice president for strategy and evaluation at the Rockefeller Foundation, which supports innovations that help people share globalization’s benefits more equitably and strengthens their resilience to social, economic, health and environmental challenges. Zia also advises leaders on the integration of strategy and organization as a senior fellow of the Katzenbach Center, which he co-founded with Jon Katzenbach, and as an individual consultant. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Zia established and led Katzenbach Partners’ San Francisco office and West Coast Practice and pioneered the firm’s work on the informal organization. Zia hold a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. To read Zia’s complete biography, click here.

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Leadership Inspirations – Commitment

Karen Juliano — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:30:27 +0000

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses.”

Ken Blanchard
management expert and
author of The One Minute Manager

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Leadership Inspirations – Solving Problems

Karen Juliano — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:28:43 +0000

Albert Einstein is arguably one of the greatest problem solvers of all time. Whether examining a physical phenomenon or business challenge his thoughts on problem solving are timelessly applicable. Below are some of these philosophies:

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“It takes a higher order of thinking to fix a problem than that which created it.”

and

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”

Albert Einstein
Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics,
Named Time’s Man of the Century in 1999,
and
Best known for his conception of the theories of special and general relativity

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Celebrating Our Second Year… Continuing a Trend of Innovation

Karen Juliano — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:06:45 +0000

July 1, 2009 marked the second anniversary of the StrategyDriven website and we have experienced considerable growth and innovation! Since July 1, 2008, we have tripled our number of registered members and have grown to a peak of:

1,035 registered members
9,107 unique monthly visitors
22,090 monthly site visits
69,519 monthly page views

Our website has also grown, now offering insights on strategic business planning and tactical execution through:

229 principle, best practice, and warning flag postings – covering 24 management and leadership categories
27 episodes of the StrategyDriven Podcast – ranked in the top three of all business podcasts during the last 12 months and twice voted as the number one business podcast!
20 Interviews
5 whitepapers
8 models and
the monthly edition of the StrategyDriven Newsletter – click here to sign up

As a community, we are fortunate to have had several of our members share their insights with us through posted comments including:

Mark Horstman, Manager Tools (www.Manager-Tools.com)
Todd Watkins, The Immigration Truth (www.TheImmigrationTruth.com)
John Bogard, Fountainhead (www.Fountainhead.org)
Kenneth Sawka, Outward Insights (www.OutwardInsights.com)
John Ringland, New Civilization Network (www.NewCiv.org)

Finally, we have been complimented by many reviewers and websites linking to us including:

examiner.com (www.examiner.com)
Small Business Trends Radio (www.SmBTrendWire.com)
EatonWeb (portal.eatonweb.com)
Cision (baconsblog.typepad.com)
Podcast Alley (www.PodcastAlley.com) – ranked number 1, 2, or 3 of over 2500 business podcasts each month and
over 100 other websites linking to StrategyDriven

Thank You!

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our readers and listeners, for helping to make our second year even more successful than the first! We truly appreciate your time and your insights and we look forward to an exciting year to come.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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Congratulations Jamie Cardenas, Lee’s Make History Winner

Karen Juliano — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:58:54 +0000

“The look in her eyes suggests a sense of urgency and of sadness.”

Jamie Cardenas
Lead Photographer
StrategyDriven

and

Lee’s Make History Winner for
American Girl

The StrategyDriven family congratulates our lead photographer, Jamie Cardenas, for being selected for the first edition of Lee’s Make History photo book publication. Of the 16,109 photo submissions from 90 countries, Jamie’s American Girl was one of only 101 images selected to receive this honor. In addition to being featured in the first edition of Make History, American Girl was placed on display in Milan, Italy and is now on tour throughout Europe.

To learn more about Lee’s Make History photo contest, click here.

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Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #2 Business Podcast in May

Karen Juliano — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:05:03 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2500 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in May!

Each week, co-hosts Lucas Ives, Nathan Ives, and Howard Dickens present a richer and deeper exploration of the principle, best practice, and warning flag posts found on the StrategyDriven website. Their discussions identify benefits, define implementation methods, and provide examples to help leaders increase alignment and heighten accountability within their organizations.

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. With your support, our community of listeners and readers has grown tremendously in the past several months. Please help us continue to grow by recommending the StrategyDriven Podcast to family, friends, and colleagues who you believe will benefit from listening.

Additionally, please consider voting for us monthly on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast improves our monthly ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, grows our community.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

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The Advisor’s Corner – If I Don’t Measure, Can I Manage?

Karen Juliano — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:57:24 +0000

Question:

There are several axioms regarding measurement such as:

What gets measured gets done.
What gets measured and rewarded gets done well.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
What gets measured gets managed.

Is it really true that if something is not measured it is not being managed? Not everything can be measured simply because of resource constraints and I would hesitate to assert that these areas subsequently suffer from management neglect. What are your thoughts?

StrategyDriven Response:

The short answer is no. Not measuring something does not necessarily equate to its not being managed. An organization’s limited resources dictate that only a finite number of activities can be directly measured; just as a manager’s limited available time prevents all activities from being directly monitored. But while these cliches do not represent an absolute truth, managers do need to recognize current realities in terms of defined future goals in order to possess the knowledge necessary to formulate their organization’s activities. Performance measures represent one very effective means of acquiring this knowledge on a routine basis with relatively minimal cost.

Therefore, a key manager responsibility is to identify those few performance measures that will best enable him or her to guide their organization in the achievement of the company’s mission goals in the most efficient manner possible. These measures must necessarily monitor the conduct of ongoing production work and support identification and implementation of improvement opportunities. Because an organization’s circumstances and the market environment change over time, the adopted performance measures will likely be changed and/or replaced over time.

Final Thought…

Since having no performance measures is not an option, the real challenge becomes determining what to measure in order to effectively manages while at the same time remaining within the organization’s constrained resource budget. Several StrategyDriven articles, podcasts, and whitepapers are dedicated to the topic of identifying the right performance measures including:

Articles

Podcasts

Whitepapers

Lastly, it is important to recognize that the reverse is not necessarily true either; having performance measures does not necessarily result in a process or activity being managed or managed well. Performance measures are simply a management tool without which effective management is difficult.

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Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #1 Ranked Business Podcast in April

Karen Juliano — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:19:27 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the first place ranking from among the almost 2500 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in April!

Each week, co-hosts Nathan Ives, Howard Dickens, and Lucas Ives present a richer and deeper exploration of the principle, best practice, and warning flag posts found on the StrategyDriven website. Their discussions identify benefits, define implementation methods, and provide examples to help leaders increase alignment and heighten accountability within their organizations. In addition, our special edition podcasts connect you with the latest in management thinking and practice application from today’s most respected business leaders.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

You just finished reading Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #1 Ranked Business Podcast in April! Consider leaving a comment!

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Recommended Resources – An Interview with Joel Roth, author of The 20% Solution

Karen Juliano — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:04:49 +0000

The 20% Solution: A Practical Guide to Dramatic Cost Reduction in MROP
by Joel Roth

The 20% Solution: A Practical Guide to Dramatic Cost Reduction in MROP by Joel Roth examines how businesses of all sizes can effectively exploit cost-cutting opportunities in times of economic recession, increased global competition, and credit and cash flow distress. Within The 20% Solution, Joel Roth provides actionable advice and real world examples of how businesses can reduce costs and increase productivity throughout their maintenance, repair, operating, and production supply chains.

Additional Insights… An Interview with Joel Roth, author of The 20% Solution

StrategyDriven contributors recently interviewed Joel Roth, author of The 20% Solution; receiving many invaluable, beyond the scope of the book insights.

SD : In The 20% Solution, you reveal that MROP supplies only account for about twenty percent of the average organization’s overall supply budget. Why then should businesses focus their cost savings efforts here?

JR: First, because in most organizations, this represents a fertile area for cost-savings that have never been identified or exploited, while most other areas have been repeatedly mined. Second, this 20% of spend represents a highly disproportionate (about 80%) share of cost, time and effort throughout the supply chain.

SD : Joel, in The 20% Solution, you discuss ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ dollar savings. What is the difference between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ dollar savings and why is it important to distinguish between the two?

JR: Hard savings are those represented by invoiced charges based upon price paid and quantity bought. They are generally variable expenses. Soft dollar savings are everything else including inventory investment and carrying costs, purchasing costs, accounts payable, and other administrative or overhead costs. They are important because they are fixed but hidden from view. Most procurement people tend to discount or scoff at the value of soft dollar savings because they are more difficult to measure.

SD : In The 20% Solution, you present several prerequisites that must be in place prior to moving forward with an MROP cost reduction initiative, one of these being an MROP database. What is the purpose of an MROP database?

JR: The database is the foundation for any effective cost control or cost reduction program. You cannot control or reduce what you cannot measure. Moreover, the database enables you to identify the greatest savings opportunities and set appropriate priorities.

SD : Two other prerequisites you discuss are goal setting and process feedback and control. What are some of the common performance measures organizations pursuing MROP cost reduction use and what target goals do they first establish?

JR: All goals should have these characteristics: 1.) reflect what management seeks to achieve e.g. reduction in costs, transactions, staff, errors, time, inventory, etc. 2.) quantify desired results and relate them to cost drivers e.g. cut maintenance spending by $10,000 per kwh produced 3.) be measurable against the database so that accomplishment can be determined and 4.) be significant enough to justify the time and effort to be invested.

SD : Joel, having met the prerequisites for an MROP cost reduction initiative, what are the critical, high level steps typically taken to execute the project?

JR: Management must back the program; responsibility must be specifically assigned; adequate resources should be allocated; and results should be measured against objectives. I would strongly suggest that key suppliers be made part of the initiative.

SD : You’ve provided readers with a great list of cost savings opportunities to assess in both the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ savings areas within The 20% Solution. As a bonus for our StrategyDriven readers, are there one or two additional areas you would recommend they explore?

JR: In the present economic climate, there are a great deal of assets being made redundant due to cutbacks, closings, bankruptcies, downsizings, etc. I would suggest looking for good used or surplus materials in secondary markets rather than buying new.

SD : Joel, you suggested that an MROP cost reduction initiative could be used as a developmental opportunity for an up and coming manager. Such a project certainly requires a leader to work cross functionally with the business’s many line and support organizations. What other developmental opportunities does an MROP cost reduction initiative afford its project manager?

JR: Most top management does not come from a procurement background and does not realize the significant potential of an innovative/change-driven procurement function to dramatically affect corporate cash flow, investment and earnings, as well as risk/reward relationships. Someone who can learn to identify, dramatize and communicate the benefits of such a program to top management can move much further and faster in the organization than is typical. This is addressed in The 20% Solution.

SD : Joel, your website, www.the20percentsolution.com provides additional resources for those seeking to pursue MROP cost reductions. Would you tell us a bit about the website and its content?

JR: If you click on the Resources Section of the website, you will find substantial additional insights into corollary topics such as innovation, changing the strategic role of purchasing and other examples of cost-savings techniques, as well as my availability to assist those who wish to pursue these programs.

Final Thoughts…

The StrategyDriven team would like to thank Joel Roth not only for sharing his time but also for his beyond the scope of the book insights on streamlining the MROP supply chain process. We found The 20% Solution to be particularly valuable because it provides actionable insights and real world examples for achieving cost reductions and process streamlining, both of which make an organization more effective. Additionally, Mr. Roth’s use of self assessments, performance goals, and feedback and control systems compliment many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website; all of which make The 20% Solution a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Joel Roth, author of The 20% Solution: A Practical Guide to Dramatic Cost Reduction in MROP has owned and operated ten industrial supply chain companies and is the current owner of Fulton Supply Company, an Atlanta based organization providing industrial supplies and MROP cost reduction consulting services. Joel is a former member of the National Association of Purchasing Management, a member of Affiliated Distributors and Industrial Supply Association. To read Joel’s complete biography, click here.

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Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle

Karen Juliano — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:55:10 +0000

Competitive pressures are forcing executives to react faster to changing business conditions and customer requirements. Line managers and decision-makers need to have an efficient and effective system for day-to-day business operation with access to performance metrics that lead to the most appropriate activities.

In July 2008, we were privileged to host Forrest Breyfogle, Founder and CEO of Smarter Solutions and author of The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System series on the StrategyDriven Podcast. During our interview, Forrest shared his insights on using the Integrated Enterprise Excellence System (IEE) to improve business performance beyond that achievable through use of Lean Six Sigma or The Balanced Scorecard alone. IEE combines the best practices of earlier tools and methods, like Lean Six Sigma, with innovative analytical techniques to drive financial and operational success at the enterprise level and achieve the three Rs of business, everyone doing the Right things the Right way at the Right time.

And now Forrest is offering a one-day executive seminar where participants will learn how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System to:

increase productivity and eliminate daily firefighting and non-value add activities from business processes
sustain a consistent, high-performance team environment and culture
improve top- and bottom-line strategies and results in a fierce competitive and global market
improve the measurement criteria and report out of high-level business metrics
achieve and execute repeatable, strategic business plans

Seminar Details

This session is open to the public and complimentary for leading influencers and decision-makers. Please call (512) 918-0280 to determine if you qualify for this complimentary session.

Executive One-Day: Achieving Enterprise Excellence

Date:
April 28, 2009

Time:
8 am to 5 pm

Location:
Smarter Solutions, Inc.
11044 Research Blvd.
Suite B-400
Austin, Texas 78759

Contact:
(512) 918-0280

Pre-Registration:
http://www.smartersolutions.com/registrationform.htm

Additional Resource

Find out more about The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System by listening to StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 3 – An Interview with Forrest Breyfogle, author of Integrated Enterprise Excellence, Volume I – The Basics.

Additional Information

Forrest details how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System in his four book series which can be purchase by clicking on the following links:

Complimenting the outstanding insights contained within The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System series and our special edition StrategyDriven Podcast are the organizational performance improvement materials and resources found on his website, Smarter Solutions (www.SmarterSolutions.com).

Forrest W. Breyfogle III, author of The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System series, is CEO of Smarter Solutions, a global management coaching and consulting firm specializing in the design and application of innovative enterprise-wide performance measures and business solutions. For over 15 years, Forrest has advised company leaders and their teams on how to improve their organization’s performance through the use of his Integrated Enterprise Excellence System. In 2004, Forrest received the prestigious Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality for his earlier book, Implementing Six Sigma. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the University of Texas Center for Performance Excellence. To read Forrest’s full biography, click here.

You just finished reading Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle! Consider leaving a comment!

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Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #2 Business Podcast in March

Karen Juliano — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:10:10 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2400 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in March!

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

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Communications Best Practice 1 – Communicate 7 Times, 7 Different Ways

Karen Juliano — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:42:59 +0000

All too often vital communications go unheard, creating workforce discontent, reducing organizational effectiveness, and alienating clients. Why with today’s advanced communication mechanisms do so many messages go unnoticed? One answer is that people are so overwhelmed with modern society’s messaging that they sometimes don’t recognize the importance of a single announcement; filtering it out as noise. Another reason is that not all people meaningfully receive information in the same way and some important messages are only sent through channels not likely to be received. To overcome both these challenges, managers should consider communicating important messages seven times using seven different media.

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Karen K. Juliano is StrategyDriven‘s Editor-in-Chief and Director of Communications and Marketing. Prior to joining the StrategyDriven team, she helped produce weekly programming for a Public Access Television station and served as a production assistant in the public affairs office at United States Naval Base, Philadelphia. To read Karen’s complete biography, click here.

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Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle

Karen Juliano — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:51:09 +0000

And now Forrest is offering a one-day executive seminar where participants will learn how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System to:

increase productivity and eliminate daily firefighting and non-value add activities from business processes
sustain a consistent, high-performance team environment and culture
improve top- and bottom-line strategies and results in a fierce competitive and global market
improve the measurement criteria and report out of high-level business metrics
achieve and execute repeatable, strategic business plans

Seminar Details

This session is open to the public and complimentary for leading influencers and decision-makers. Please call (512) 918-0280 to determine if you qualify for this complimentary session.

Executive One-Day: Achieving Enterprise Excellence

Date:
March 19, 2009

Time:
8 am to 5 pm

Location:
Smarter Solutions, Inc.
11044 Research Blvd.
Suite B-400
Austin, Texas 78759

Contact:
(512) 918-0280

Pre-Registration:
http://www.smartersolutions.com/registrationform.htm

Additional Resource

Additional Information

Forrest details how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System in his four book series which can be purchase by clicking on the following links:

You just finished reading Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

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Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #2 Business Podcast in February

Karen Juliano — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:58:58 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2400 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in February!

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

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Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #1 Ranked Business Podcast in January

Karen Juliano — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:38:30 +0000

For the first time ever, the StrategyDriven Podcast was ranked as the #1 business podcast of the over 2300 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley! The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our listeners, for the votes that made this honor possible and we hope you will continue to support us with your votes in the coming months.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

You just finished reading Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #1 Ranked Business Podcast in January! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

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StrategyDriven Goes Green

Karen Juliano — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:52:35 +0000

StrategyDriven proudly serves both you, our audience, and our planet by offering our full line of strategic business planning and execution products in electronic form as well as providing a wide-range of electronic information sharing mechanisms including RSS feeds and article email forwarding.

We recognize, however, that many StrategyDriven tools are best used in hardcopy form. Therefore, beginning January 1, 2009, all StrategyDriven originated emails, newsletters, and articles will be embossed with the following request:

Please consider the environment
before and after printing this document.

We hope you’ll join us in the effort to protect our planet.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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Thank You! for Making the StrategyDriven Podcast the #2 Business Podcast in December

Karen Juliano — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:32:37 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank our listeners for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2300 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in December!

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

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Learn How to Exit Your Business and Achieve Your Business and Financial Goals during a One Hour Webinar with John Leonetti

Karen Juliano — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:13:54 +0000

Many small and midsized business owners find the majority of their wealth and income is tied to their illiquid, privately-held business and that the business itself is highly dependent upon their individual efforts for its continued success. These owners built their successful businesses with a plan and now need a new plan to ensure they reap the benefits of their hard work. Whether launching a new business or preparing to transition away from an existing enterprise, business owners need an exit strategy plan to ensure they achieve their ultimate business and personal goals.

In December, we were privileged to host John Leonetti, author of Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth: A Strategic Guide for Owners and Their Advisors and Managing Director of Pinnacle Equity Solutions, in a two-part interview series on the StrategyDriven Podcast. During our interview, John shared his insights on what exit planning is, the five exit options, identification of the best exit option given the business owner’s personal and financial readiness and goals, and the impact of taxes on exit option selection.

And now John is offering a complimentary online webinar where participants will learn more about how to implement these strategies and will be an opportunity to ask specific questions on exit planning.

Webinar Details

This webinar is open to the public and complimentary.

Topic:
Exit Strategy Planning

Date:
Friday, January 23, 2009

Time:
2:00 pm Eastern / 1:00 pm Central / 12:00 pm Mountain / 11:00 am Pacific

Pre-Registration:
www.exitstrategytraining.com/webinar

Additional Resource

Find out more about Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth by listening to the two-part StrategyDriven Podcast interview series:

Additional Information

Complimenting the tremendous insights John shares in Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his website (www.ExitingYourBusiness.com). John’s book, Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth, can be purchased by clicking here.

John Leonetti, author of Exiting Your Business, Protecting Your Wealth, is the owner of Pinnacle Equity Solutions, an exit strategies firm specializing in exit strategy design and execution services for advisors and their privately held business owner clients. He previously served as a Financial Advisor with Smith Barney and was an adjunct professor at Suffolk University where he taught Private Finance to MBA students as well as Certified Financial Planning courses to undergraduates. To read John’s full biography, click here.

You just finished reading Learn How to Exit Your Business and Achieve Your Business and Financial Goals during a One Hour Webinar with John Leonetti! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

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Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle

Karen Juliano — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:25:55 +0000

And now Forrest is offering a one-day executive seminar where participants will learn how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System to:

increase productivity and eliminate daily firefighting and non-value add activities from business processes
sustain a consistent, high-performance team environment and culture
improve top- and bottom-line strategies and results in a fierce competitive and global market
improve the measurement criteria and report out of high-level business metrics
achieve and execute repeatable, strategic business plans

Seminar Details

This session is open to the public and complimentary for leading influencers and decision-makers. Please call (512) 918-0280 to determine if you qualify for this complimentary session.

Executive One-Day: Achieving Enterprise Excellence

Date:
January 23, 2009

Time:
8 am to 5 pm

Location:
Smarter Solutions, Inc.
11044 Research Blvd.
Suite B-400
Austin, Texas 78759

Contact:
(512) 918-0280

Pre-Registration:
http://www.smartersolutions.com/registrationform.htm

Additional Resource

Additional Information

Forrest details how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System in his four book series which can be purchase by clicking on the following links:

You just finished reading Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

Please consider the environment before and after printing this article.

Relate Articles:

Congratulations! The StrategyDriven Podcast Ranked #2 Among Business Podcasts in November

Karen Juliano — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:44:57 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2200 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in November! Your support also propelled us into the Top 100 of the over 50,000 podcasts representing all categories listed on Podcast Alley.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

You just finished reading Congratulations! The StrategyDriven Podcast Ranked #2 Among Business Podcasts in November! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

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Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle

Karen Juliano — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:15:48 +0000

In July, we were privileged to host Forrest Breyfogle, Founder and CEO of Smarter Solutions and author of The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System series on the StrategyDriven Podcast. During our interview, Forrest shared his insights on using the Integrated Enterprise Excellence System (IEE) to improve business performance beyond that achievable through use of Lean Six Sigma or The Balanced Scorecard alone. IEE combines the best practices of earlier tools and methods, like Lean Six Sigma, with innovative analytical techniques to drive financial and operational success at the enterprise level and achieve the three Rs of business, everyone doing the Right things the Right way at the Right time.

And now Forrest is offering a one-day executive seminar where participants will learn how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System to:

increase productivity and eliminate daily firefighting and non-value add activities from business processes
sustain a consistent, high-performance team environment and culture
improve top- and bottom-line strategies and results in a fierce competitive and global market
improve the measurement criteria and report out of high-level business metrics
achieve and execute repeatable, strategic business plans

Seminar Details

Executive One-Day: Achieving Enterprise Excellence

Date:
December 4, 2008

Time:
8 am to 5 pm

Location:
Smarter Solutions, Inc.
11044 Research Blvd.
Suite B-400
Austin, Texas 78759

Contact:
(512) 918-0280

Pre-Registration:
http://www.smartersolutions.com/registrationform.htm

Additional Resource

Additional Information

Forrest details how to implement The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System in his four book series which can be purchase by clicking on the following links:

You just finished reading Learn How to Achieve Enterprise Excellence at an Executive One-Day Seminar with Forrest Breyfogle! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

Please consider the environment before and after printing this article.

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Recommended Resource – Talent Management Magazine

Karen Juliano — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:44:51 +0000

Talent Management Magazine
www.talentmgt.com

About the Reference

StrategyDriven contributors find Talent Management Magazine to be an invaluable source of information on effective talent management practices. Each month, Talent Management Magazine provides readers with the talent acquisition, management, and retention insights of successful executives and managers.

Talent Management Magazine is supported by an accompanying website (www.talentmgt.com). This website contains numerous articles and resources covering topics such as:

Recruitment and Retention
Assessment and Evaluation
Compensation and Benefits
Performance Management
Learning and Development
Succession Planning

Benefits of Using this Reference

Effective acquisition, management, and retention of talent is a critical success factor shared by all organizations. In today’s rapidly changing, hyper competitive marketplace, the loss or churn of key personnel resources can instantly cripple any business attempting to remain competitive.

Talent management is no longer the sole responsibility of the Human Resources Department. The expanding war for talent, brought on by increasing demand for knowledgeable, skilled personnel and a contracting labor pool, demands that executives and managers throughout the organization work together to create a work environment that attracts, retains, and motivates talented individuals.

The practical methods and actions presented in Talent Management Magazine can be implemented immediately to improve an organization’s talent management effectiveness. Additionally, Talent Management Magazine’s recommendations embody StrategyDriven ‘s organizational accountability and alignment philosophies; making it a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Subscribe to Talent Management Magazine for Free!

FREE StrategyDriven Trial Membership

Start your FREE trial membership^* and receive:

FULL ACCESS to StrategyDriven’s premium content for 14 days
FREE COPY of a StrategyDriven Expert Contributor book^†
EVALUATE how StrategyDriven gives you a competitive advantage

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Voting is the Hallmark of Freedom

Karen Juliano — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:30:51 +0000

In the United States, we are privileged to have the right to elect those who represent us in our federal, state, and local governments. This hallmark of our freedom, however, is not without a price. To protect this right, we must give of ourselves and our time by voting in our free elections.

And so on this Election Day, the StrategyDriven contributors and staff encourage all those who can vote to vote. We believe the strength of our country rests with our commitment to freedom. By voting, we honor the sacrifices for freedom made by all those who came before us and pass along the gift of freedom to the next generation of Americans.

All the Best,

StrategyDriven Contributors and Staff

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Congratulations! The StrategyDriven Podcast Ranked #2 Among Business Podcasts in October

Karen Juliano — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:02:38 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank our listeners for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2200 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in October!

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

You just finished reading Congratulations! The StrategyDriven Podcast Ranked #2 Among Business Podcasts in October! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

Please consider the environment before and after printing this article.

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We Need Your Vote! for Podcast of the Year

Karen Juliano — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:43:23 +0000

The entire StrategyDriven team is deeply honored to have received 1 of the 10 nominations for Podcast Awards’ Podcast of the Year in the General category.

And now, we ask for your support to help us further strengthen and grow our community by voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast for Podcast Awards’ 2008 Business Podcast of the Year – General.

To vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast as the 2008 Business Podcast of the Year – General:

Click here to go to the Podcast Awards nomination website (www.PodcastAwards.com).
Scroll down to the “General” category area.
Select the StrategyDriven Podcast.
Enter your name in the Your Details text box labeled Your Full Name located at the bottom of the page.
Enter your email address in the Your Details text box labeled Your E-Mail Address.
Select listener, podcaster, or both as appropriate.
Click Submit.

Please note that you can vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast every day! So please vote for us often.

Again, I’d like to thank you for your ongoing support of the StrategyDriven Podcast and hope you continue to enjoy and benefit from our show.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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You Asked… We Responded! Introducing Reader Choice – StrategyDriven’s New Look

Karen Juliano — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:02:39 +0000

Podcast and website reviewers praised us for our bold Traditional Black look. However, several StrategyDriven readers told us they had difficulty reading white text on a black background.

At StrategyDriven, we did not see our readers’ differing needs as an either/or crossroads, a choice between who to serve. Rather, we viewed this challenge as an opportunity to better serve all of our readers; to more completely fulfill our mission goals by making StrategyDriven articles accessible to a larger audience.

We are proud to offer you a choice. Introducing StrategyDriven ‘s new look, Contemporary White. You, the reader, can now choose between our Traditional Black background with white text or our new Contemporary White background with black text. Both provide you with the same great content formatted to your reading preference. And once chosen, StrategyDriven will ‘remember’ your preference; returning to your selected format every time you visit our website.

To select either Contemporary White or Traditional Black (the default format), scroll down until you see Choose StrategyDriven’s Appearance in the sidebar, then click on the title of the background you prefer. It’s that simple!

I would like to personally thank all those who have helped us better serve our community by providing us with their insights on StrategyDriven ‘s readability. Because it is only through feedback that our community grows larger and stronger, I invite you to share your thoughts with me by email at KarenJuliano@StrategyDriven.com or by voicemail at (678) 810-0892.

Again, I’d like to thank you for your ongoing support of StrategyDriven and hope you continue to enjoy and benefit from our many articles, podcasts, whitepapers, and models.

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief and
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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Introducing the StrategyDriven Newsletter!

Karen Juliano — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:54:07 +0000

As StrategyDriven continues to grow, we are expanding the tools and features available to our registered members. Beginning in October, registered members will receive the StrategyDriven Newsletter. This monthly newsletter will provide you with the Feature of the Month and give you a recap of the articles and podcasts that were released in the previous month. You will learn shortcuts to your favorite features and new ways StrategyDriven can help you and your business grow. Additionally, you will find links to interesting topics in the sidebar and to our Featured Resource.

As a registered member, you’ll also have access to the many StrategyDriven models, whitepapers and members only postings. So, if you haven’t done so already, click here to join the StrategyDriven community and start enjoying the StrategyDriven Newsletter and all the benefits of membership!

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Congratulations! The StrategyDriven Podcast Ranked #2 Among Business Podcasts in September

Karen Juliano — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:02:53 +0000

The StrategyDriven family would like to thank our listeners for helping us achieve the second place ranking from among the over 2200 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in September! Your support also propelled us into the Top 100 of the over 46,000 podcasts representing all categories listed on Podcast Alley.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !

You just finished reading Congratulations! The StrategyDriven Podcast Ranked #2 Among Business Podcasts in September! Consider leaving a comment!

If you enjoyed this article, let us keep you up-to-date on other newly published insights by signing up for our complimentary StrategyDriven Newsletter

Please consider the environment before and after printing this article.