Paul Niven
Performance Management ExpertUnited States | Professional Services - Business Consulting
Do Government "Customers" Have a Choice?
Posted
6 days
ago,
2 comments
In many ways I believe the essence of strategy lies in the choice of a singular value proposition, or determining how you will balance your resources across the spectrum of choices. What is a value proposition? It’s the determination made by any organization of how they propose to create or add value for their customers. It helps answer the question: “Why would people buy from or work with us?” Traditionally, three choices have been available: Low Cost (through operational excellence), Product Leadership (supplying the best product or service through innovation and technological superiority), and Customer Intimacy (best value derived from outstanding service and relationship building).
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To Spark Change, Begin with a Provocative Action
Posted
about 1 month
ago,
0 comments
When working with clients on strategy execution I tell them they’re about to embark on a journey of great change. A change in the way they measure and manage performance, a change in the way they report and analyze results, and a change in how they generate alignment from top to bottom throughout the organization. The speech is intended to be inspiring, lifting them to new heights of organizational achievement, but is just as often met by eye rolling that says, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
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How Well-Intentioned Leaders Can Sabotage a Balanced Scorecard Implementation
Posted
3 months
ago,
0 comments
It’s well documented that organizations struggle with change. In one of many studies on the topic, Michael Beer of Harvard Business School estimates failure rates as high as sixty percent. Of course you don’t need a Harvard professor to tell you what you’ve most likely experienced many times during your working life. So what, or who, is to blame for the high flameout rate of change?
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Unfreezing Your Balanced Scorecard
Posted
4 months
ago,
1 comment
One of the basic tenets of change management is that over time people and institutions tend to become ‘frozen’ in their ways of doing things. Frozen in the way they think about customers and markets, about which products and services to provide, and in how they treat each other (their culture), among many others. Of course it happens in our personal lives too – when was the last time you changed the toothpaste you use or took a different route to work?
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Simplicity - It's Not as Easy as it Sounds
Posted
5 months
ago,
1 comment
If you had one of the top productivity blogs on the web do you think it would be wise to suddenly tell your readers they should “Toss productivity advice out the window?” Seems crazy, or at least counterintuitive, but that’s exactly what Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta did in a recent post. For years he doled out advice on getting more done and being more efficient. But now, based on his own experiences, he’s recommending doing less in order to simplify life; pushing aside the urgent, and freeing up space and time for what’s truly important.
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