Mar 07: One to one sessions on the balanced scorecard

Welcome to Phil's March 2007 newsletter.  

 

You are receiving this because you subscribed to one of the Excitant newsletters on either Strategic Performance Management & the Balanced Scorecard, Beyond planning or the NHS specific patient-led NHS websites.

 

As well as my other theme based newsletters, I am introducing a monthly update with news and other information.

 

In this newsletter:

• One to one sessions with Phil Jones, 14th March in London (more...) 
• Recent blogs (more...) 
  • Strategy maps and strategic themes (an evening with Bob Kaplan)
  • Book review: Charles Handy and "The New Philanthropists"...
  • The Balanced Scorecard in small and owner managed businesses...
  • Human Capital: The disenfranchisement of employees...
• Public Sector Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard example (more...) 
• Forthcoming books:  
  • Strategic Performance Management
  • Communicating Strategy
  • (more...)
• Updated Excitant Website (more...)

One to one sessions:  

Having read my newsletters, would you like the chance to ask me some questions directly and chat through your issues, problems and challenges? I am offering a set of 30 minute, one to one sessions for my newsletter subscribers in London.  These will take place at the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall, London on the afternoon of 14th March.  There is no charge for these sessions.

 

To book, simply drop me an email and we'll schedule a time.  First come-first served. 

Email Phil for availability. 

 

If London (or the day) is not convenient, let me know and I will see if we can fit something in around my travels.  Again send me an email.

 

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Recent Blogs: 

Have you found my blog yet?  Go to Phil's Blog   

Strategy maps and strategic themes

"Last night I attended Bob Kaplan's presentation in London on his latest thinking around scorecard development. His talk was entitled communicating strategy and managing the strategy execution process with strategic themes..." More

Charles Handy and "The New Philanthropists"

"This was the second time I had met Charles Handy in person and he is one of the most charming and gentlemanly people I have come across. He is a prolific author of at least 19 books and regarded as Britain's most respected management writer....."  More

The Balanced Scorecard in small and owner managed businesses

"I often get asked about how applicable the balanced scorecard is in small and owner managed (family) businesses. The answer is very, but not primarily as a set of measures: More as a strategic focus, thinking and planning tool...." More

Human Capital: The disenfranchisement of employees

"For a while now, the phrase "Human Capital" has replaced "Human resources" as the buzz phrase to refer to people in an organisation. I suspect the well intentioned people within the "Job-Title and Department naming" department were thinking that it suggested an association with capital and investment. How wrong they were..."  More 

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Public sector Strategy map and Balanced Scorecard example: 

A recent case study posting on the website has been an example of a Balanced Scorecard for a City Council.  It goes all the way from a 15 year view of the future of the city, through a hierarchy of strategy maps and their themes, to a detailed scorecard and the underlying measures.

 

Whether you are in the public sector, or a commercial organisation, it is a great example of how the strategy can be followed from the vision, through parts of the organisation to underlying performance measures.  It is actually work done at Peterborough City Council. 

 

Whilst this example is three years old now, you can follow the themes of the strategy from the top level strategy map through to their business plan on their website.   

 

To download the case study go to the case studies page and scroll down to "The Strategy Focused Council" case study.  The "Joined up working" article also provides some background to the work done there.

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Forthcoming books:  

I have recently signed, not one but two, book contracts with Gower. 

Strategic Performance Management provides insights in to the underlying thinking that makes a strategic performance management approach as opposed to a tactical and operational one that just concentrates on measures and targets.  It will cover how to develop the culture of performance that sits with a Sstrategic Balanced Scorecard approach. It fills a gap that the Norton & Kaplan books leave which explains how to think about scorecards and strategy maps, as opposed to just doing them.

Communicating Strategy.  Picks up a specific aspects of strategy. Research suggests that only 5% of people in an organisation understand the strategy and 45% don't trust what management tells them.  So, is it any wonder that many organisations fail to communicate their strategy and engage their people in it.  If they are not executing your strategy, whose strategy are they following?   Communicating strategy gives practical advice on telling the story of the strategy and aligning the message, the management and the organisation.

 

Both books should be out towards the end of the year.  Meanwhile I am available for talks and presentations on the subjects in advance of their publication.

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Updated Excitant Website  

The Excitant website has recently been updated to concentrate on Strategic Performance Management and the benefits of such an approach. The sister site www.BeyondPlanning.co.uk will also be updated soon to concentrate on the strategic thinking, planning and learning components.

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If you have found this newsletter useful, just tell others.  And remember to book a session early with me as I don't do this very often.

 

Regards

 

Phil Jones

Strategy & Performance Specialist

www.excitant.co.uk to move to Strategic Performance Management...

www.beyondplanning.co.uk to develop a more responsive organisation that learns from its strategy...

 

 

Apr 06: More balanced Scorecard case studies

Excitant Newsletter:  More case studies, easier access to them

Dear Subscriber

We have made some improvements to the site that includes a few more case studies and better access.  People like yourself have subscribed to our newsletter, though many come to the site and just read the case studies.  So we have put the case studes behind a page that requests sign-up. 

Don't worry, you can access them easily.  Just go to http://www.excitant.co.uk/pages/case_studies_access.htm 

and you can access all the papers and case studies.

Either put that page in your favourates ir keep this e-mail so you can easily access them when you need them.  As new ones get added we'll send the link again.  Here are the ones that are now far easier to access:

• Balanced Scorecard in Retail: How examining the strategy map exposed a potential loss of revenue and income for the future.

• Cross organisational synergy: How our approach to strategic analysis management exposed opportunities for improved synergy and resulted in the organisation moving up in its national rankings

• Strategic learning in Management teams meetings: Using strategy maps and strategic learning to improve the effectiveness of management team meetings.

• Changing customer focus and profitability: Using a "Strategy focused Balanced Scorecard" approach in Financial services to re-orientate the organisation towards more profitable customers.

• Simplifying executive reporting: Example of how we dramatically simplified, and at the same time made clearer, management reporting in a large retailer

• Uncovering £40m worth of savings: An example of strategic alignment using the Strategy map to assess strategic initiatives and investments. Resulted in identifying £40m worth of savings from a £100m portfolio of projects.

• Shareholder return and the strategy: An example of where poorly chosen "Strategic goal" lead to unhelpful management behaviour and, long term, was unachievable. However the topic had become un-discussable until we revealed it.

• They don't get the strategy: They do now. An example where the strategy was not being successfully commnicated, until we used our techniques to get the message across in the richest way to all the people.

• Getting the strategy into peoples'heads. Despite there being a lot of communication, "As is" was continuing. Solving two examples where the strategy was not understood.

Any problems, just give me a call

Happy reading

Phil Jones

Excitant Ltd

www.excitant.co.uk

Dec 05: feedback on the newsletter

Dear readers

First of all I'd like to wish you all a great Christmas break (or whatever holiday you are taking) and an entertaining and prosperous new year.

Secondly - a request.  By now you will have read several of our Excitant newsletters with anecdotes, advice and best practice in.  You will also have browsed the site and case studies. http://www.excitant.co.uk/pages/case_studies.cfm I'm sure you have found plenty to think about, haven't you?

So, in return I would welcome some feedback, such as:

• What do you think of the newsletter,
  
  • what do you like?  
  • what don't you like?
  • what would you like more of?
• What do you think of the site site,
  
  • what do you like?  
  • what don't you like?
  • what would you like more of?
• What have you applied or found most useful from the hints and tips? 
  
  • What changes have you made as a result of the newsletter?
  • What have you achieved using this approach?
  • What have you found most useful?

Just drop an email to me at feedback@excitant.co.uk Let us know what is most useful so we learn and improve.

Many thanks

Phil Jones

Excitant Ltd

www.excitant.co.uk

Sep 05: Excitant Newsletter - Introduction

Thanks for signing up to the Excitant newsletter covering Strategy, performance management and the Balanced Scorecard.  Apologies if you got a blank one recently.  As a niche consultancy specialising in this area, our aim with this newsletter is to inform, question and make you think about how you plan, communicate and manage the strategy process.  Because, what is true about life, is true about how you tackle strategy:

"If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got"   

In this edition:

1.       What is not in the books:

New pages highlighting some of the design and implementation issues you will not find in the Balanced Scorecard books.  Having worked for the originators and on dozens of scorecards over nealy 10 years, we have some unique insights into making them work properly.  www.excitant.co.uk/pages/Not_in_the_books.htm

2.       Top tips: Sharing some of our experience

Measure madness:  So many people introduce measures, never explain why and then wonder why dysfunctional behaviour develops.  Here we explain one critical reason you should never use a measure without explaining why.  www.excitant.co.uk/pages/Top_tips_measure_madness.htm

3.       A sideways look: Topics around the edge of strategy.

Leadership with horses.  Recall when you last met a new employee and were introducing them to the team and their tasks.  Now imagine if that person were a horse.  How would you talk to, motivate and gain its respect?  Working with horses can help you understand your underlying leadership style.  Hear about our experiences in this case study: Go to www.excitant.co.uk/pages/case_studies.cfm and select the "Horses and leadership" pdf at the bottom of the page

4.       Excitant news: About our business

We recently raised more that £600 for Research Autism.  Read more here: www.excitant.co.uk/pages/press_releases.htm. 

As you think how these things apply to your organisation, you may start to wonder where best to get help. Just give us a call and we'll be glad to discuss it with you.

Phil Jones, Managing Director
Excitant Ltd