家驊的部落

From Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2006, p.62-74

Ø          Three kinds of tension:

n          Profitability vs. Growth: business models->its strategy(how to configure its cost to support it)

n          Short Term vs. Long Term: Management models->its targets, process, and routines(how to manage the performance and investment)

n          Whole vs. Parts: Organizational Model->its structure, culture and people

Ø          一個管理者最大的挑戰就是選對the right tension to manage.

Ø          通常在manage one tension的同時，不太可能把兩個目標都設定為最高目標，其中一個的優現順序一定高於另一個。但這麼作的危險就是有可能犧牲其中一個來達到另一個。àHow to resolve this? By strengthening the common bond!

n          Profitability vs. Growth: the common bond is “customer benefit” (the reward customers receive through their experience of choosing and using a product or service)

l          E.g. Focus on increasing the market makes you to focus on the fundamental customer benefit of the category instead of focusing on increasing the market share that lead company to focus on its competitor.

l          Questions to ask:

n           What are the customer benefits of our products and services?

n           How is the project or investment intended to grow customer benefit?

n           What can we do to grow the market size rather than just market share?

n           For which of our assets are our customers most willing to pay?

n           Where are the bad cost (the cost that are unnecessary for improving customer benefit) and low customer benefits in our business?

n          Short Term vs. Long Term: the common bond is “Sustainable earnings” (earnings that are not influenced by borrowing from the future[e.g. cutting long-term investment] or lending between time frames)

l          Long term direction, mid term themes, and short term priorities

l          Questions to ask:

n           What proportions of our current earnings are sustainable?

n           Are we giving a clear line of sight to investors on sustainable earnings?

n           What are our mid-term priorities and how do they like to our shorter- and longer- term priorities?

n          Whole vs. Parts: the common bond is “Diagonal assets” (resources and capabilities that help the company to improve stand-alone business performance and create cooperate synergy at the same time)

l          E.g. Tangible: IT system; Intangible: shared value or purpose, culture

l          Questions to ask:

n           What are our diagonal assets and what are we doing to strengthen them?

n           Where could we standardize rather than centralize?

n           What behavior norms define our identity as a company?

n           Do we have a compelling story about how we are going to win as a company?

n           Can we better pair decentralize with centralization?

n           What company wide processes should we be cultivating?

Ø          Rather than prioritizing objectives, the author suggests to prioritizing the tensions, then focus on strengthening the common bond.