Recommended Resource – The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

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The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
by Thomas L. Friedman

About the Reference

The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman examines the social, political, and technological forces that are bringing the peoples of our world closer together. Within its pages, Mr. Friedman illustrates how the flattening of the world is creating an increasingly interconnected business environment where businesses large and small as well as knowledge workers from the United States to India will compete in the global marketplace.

Benefits of Using this Reference

Globalization of the marketplace presents new opportunities and new challenges to businesses of all sizes and people of all countries. As the speed of communication and transportation increases, so does the ability of a company or a person to deliver products and services anywhere in the world. With billions of highly educated and motivated people entering the marketplace from India and China, competition is increasing exponentially.

While many of us sensed the flattening of the world, The World Is Flat expertly illustrates what and how these forces are shaping our environment. StrategyDriven contributors believe executives and managers armed with this insight will be better able to take advantage of existing flat world opportunities and envision and leverage future changes; enabling their organizations to remain competitive in the ever flattening world.

Organizational Accountability – Increase Opportunities with Accountability

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StrategyDriven Organizational Accountability PrincipleEvery day, executives and managers are presented with opportunities to enhance their organization’s success. Frequently, these opportunities go unrecognized, unexplored, or unexploited because the organization is not prepared for them. Certainly, some opportunities are beyond an organization’s reach because of resource limitations. However, ensuring the organization possesses key attributes will better enable it to take advantage of those opportunities for which it has the resources and that are consistent and aligned with its mission. These attributes include:

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Strategic Planning Whitepaper Introduction – Analysis

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StrategyDriven contributors are pleased to introduce the strategic planning whitepaper: Analysis. This whitepaper outlines and describes the major steps taken to assess the organization’s internal performance and external environment in support of long range activity planning.

Strategic analysis is a critical component of the strategic planning process. An integral part of a company’s evaluation and control program, it provides executives and managers with a comprehensive assessment of the organization’s capabilities and market factors; revealing growth opportunities and vulnerabilities. Armed with this information, managers can more effectively chose from among today’s strategic alternatives to create the greatest future reward potential.

Strategic Analysis Best Practice 3 – Identify the Hidden Drivers (Continued)

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StrategyDriven Strategic Analysis Best PracticeSimply put, people tend to behave in the manner for which they receive reinforcement. There often exists both documented and undocumented performance drivers that exert unintended pressure on individuals to act in ways counter to achieving the organization’s mission goals. As a continuation of Strategic Analysis Best Practice 3 – Identify the Hidden Drivers, this article expounds on several common hidden performance drivers and how they may adversely impact mission achievement.

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In addition to receiving access to Strategic Analysis Best Practice 3 – Identify the Hidden Drivers (Continued), you’ll help advance your career and business programs through anytime, anywhere access to:

  • A sampling of dozens of Premium how-to documents across 7 business functions and 28 associated programs
  • 2,500+ Expert Contributor management and leadership articles
  • Expert advice provided via StrategyDriven’s Advisors Corner

Best of all, it’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Access the Article Now!

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

The Advisor’s Corner – How Do You Sell a Major Change?

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Question:

Feedback indicates my company’s current leadership training program, though inexpensive, yields little to no value. My research shows that an alternative training program has produced superior, measurable results at other organizations. How should I go about selling my manager and the organization on the need to change from our current training program to this alternative one?

StrategyDriven Response:

Decisions to make significant changes are not often made quickly. Rather, these decisions are made after receiving input from affected stakeholders and subjecting each available option to a thoughtful cost versus benefit evaluation. With this in mind, it is easy to understand why organizations often use business cases to facilitate the decision-making process.

Well constructed business cases often require significant personnel and financial resources to develop. Considering the complexity and significance of the circumstance presented, we believe your first step should be to gain authorization to expend the resources necessary to research and develop the business case for the proposed change in the leadership training program. Once developed, your well structured business case, clearly presenting the costs and benefits associated with each alternative, will help you secure the management decision you seek to revise the organization’s leadership and training program.

Final Thought…

We suggest your business case include not only the two options presented in the initial question but also any additional alternatives presented by the responsible manager or other members of the organization. Leveraging their knowledge and experience may help you identify other worthwhile alternatives that would otherwise not be considered.

The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].