Performance Management

How Does Your Game Plan Stack Up?

By Erica Olsen ⋅ June 8, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

When the top "most used" business management tools globally were
announced in Bain’s Management Tools & Trends 2007 study earlier
this year, the results were no surprise to us.

1. Strategic planning
2. Customer relationship management
3. Customer segmentation
4. Benchmarking
5. Core competencies, mission & vision statements (tied).

In fact, when asked to consider both usage and satisfaction with
management tools, the 1200 international executives participating
overall gave strategic planning "above average" rankings.

Another finding that caught our eye was that 9 of 10 executives
believed that “corporate culture is as important as strategy for
business success.” Darrell Rigby, senior Bain & Company partner and
author of the study stated, “Organizational culture and so-called
softer issues are now top of mind. Executives are clearly looking
beyond cost-cutting for success.”

Now
in its 11th edition, the Management Tools & Trends study examines
executive attitudes toward management and industry trends, and it
evaluates the use and satisfaction with management tools. We like to
use it with clients to determine how their organizations compare. Have
you considered where these best practices rank in your organization?

Our Business Report Card
is a guide through each part of the development process on the way to
creating a strategic plan and includes strategic activity benchmarks
for comparison. Benchmarking improves performance by identifying and
applying best practices and can serve as an essential starting point
for creating a strategic plan. The foundational piece of the report is
the Balanced Scorecard (another Bain Top Management Tool) that focuses
on the key areas of any organization and is used by companies
worldwide. In addition to linking strategic objectives to long-term
targets, a Balanced Scorecard can also increase companywide
understanding of the corporate vision and strategy. You see, we’re also
advocates of including a focus on people and culture in your strategic
planning in order to engage your staff and give them ownership in
participating and driving success.

Business owners, CEOs, directors, and department managers can all
benefit from using the Business Report Card. The assessment is intended
to help them better understand activities that will help their
businesses grow and better determine on which of those activities they
should focus. The full Business Report Card is bundled with our online
strategic planning software, but we also offer a complimentary Summary Report Card. Please click here for more information.