Developing a Strategy for World Class Business

World class is a concept that is difficult to define. However, an accepted working definition is that a world class company should be able to compete with any other organization in its chosen markets and that it aspires to world beating standards in everything it does, in every department or division. “World class” also embraces the practice of, and excellence in, techniques such as Total Quality Management, continuous improvement, customer service, international benchmark, flexible working, and training. World class organisations also accept the necessity for continuous change.

1.      Consider outside influences

a.      Identify the factors in the external environment that call for a strategic response from your business. These can be grouped under main headings such as economic factors, demographic trends, environmental factors, technology, suppliers and competition.

2.      Establish the world class vision

a.      Determine the core business of your organisation – that at which organisation should excel. Top management must make a vision of excellence clear in brief statement that is impossible to misinterpret. In addition to helping form this vision, the chief executive′s role is to clarify the message, push forward change, and champion the ideas and capabilities that will beat competitors.

3.      Analyse your current position

a.      Benchmark your organisation against your competitors as far as you can. This can be very difficult, as much of necessary information may not be available. However, organisations do exist to help in this process. Consider the following areas:

             i.     Your product

            ii.     Its price

           iii.     Its availability

           iv.     Your customer services

            v.     Your policy for continuous improvement

           vi.     Your costs

          vii.     Your market share

b.      Do you match your competitors in these areas, or is your organisation well below or considerably superior to them? Don′t limit this measure to competitors in your own country; compare yourself to worldwide competition. Identify which organisations are excellent within these areas and determine what make them the best-in order to beat them! Asses where you stand in customers’ eyes. What is their perception of your status compared to the reputation of your competitors?

4.      Focus on core capabilities

a.      From the analyses of the external environment, the core business of the organisation, and the standing of competitors, draw up a list of the core capabilities of your organisation that will enable you to compete in world market. Core capabilities include:

           i.     Product knowledge/service skills

          ii.     Marketing skills

         iii.     Innovation/research capacity

         iv.     Financial planning and control

          v.     Human resource capability (including motivation as well as skills)

b.      Determine which of these core capabilities need extra focus and resource their development.

5.      Build a corporate strategy

a.      Focus on achieving better products or services, better factories or service operations, better organisation, better management and better information and communication. Ask yourself such as:

          i.     Have the key business processes been defined and understood?

         ii.     Has a quality or customer focus ethic been defined and understood?

        iii.     Has a quality or customer focus ethics been established throughout the organisation?

        iv.     Are quality and reliability of products and services measured?

         v.     Are the key performance measures reviewed? Are they improving?

       vi.     Is everyone in the organisation informed of results and developments?

      vii.     Is customer satisfaction monitored on a regular basis?

     viii.     Are employees multi skilled? Are they flexible and willing to adapt?

       ix.     Do your employees have continuing personal development in place?

        x.     How are creativity and innovation encouraged and nurtured?

       xi.     How well does communication flow?

      xii.     Does it flow in all directions?

6.      Set high targets for the organisation

a.      Set imaginative and ambitious target by identifying where you intend to be in one, three, and five years’ time. If targets are easily achievable that is a danger you will rest on your laurels. Being satisfied with these improvements means never become world class.

b.      Ensure that organisational targets are translated into divisional and departmental goals that are incorporated into individual objectives.

c.      Get staff into the habit of setting their own targets-they will be usually higher than those you would set them yourself.

7.      Develop simple performance measures

a.      Measurement processes, as simple as straight forward as possible, allow you to continuously monitor what is happening and to continuously report on progress. Performance measures must be relevant to your aims: concentrate on customer service, time reduction, and quality, and remember that within a world class company, financial measures are not the most important performance measures in terms of achieving your objectives.

8.      Adopt straightforward reporting procedures

a.      Complex reports require a lot of preparation and take time to understand, and consequently tend to be produced monthly at the best. World class companies must be able to act immediately on the results of performance measurement; if a report takes three weeks to generate, then these three-eek lead time will impact on continuous improvement. Adopt one-page management report rule.

9.      Communicate your progress

a.      Nothing inspires and motivates like success. Employees must be kept fully informed of the organisation’s progress (get your staff to produce their own progress charts if possible). By adopting simple measurement techniques, results can be given to employees on a daily basis via bulletin or notice boards, preferably in a graphic or pictorial form. Progress reports can be an inspirational form of communication; poor communication is responsible for many corporate failures and shortcomings.

10.  Revise your performance targets

a.      As your organisation raises its performance in the areas you have defined, identify new areas to be improved. As areas improve, their reports should reduce to exception reporting (reports showing only those items that deviate from the plan or the established norm), allowing the organisation to focus on new needs.

11.  Asses effectiveness

a.      Becoming a world class, though an achievement, is not the end of the process. To be a world class company you must continue to benchmark yourself against your competitors regularly. If you fail to do this, your organisation will slip from the position it has achieved and be replaced by another. Staying world class is just as hard as becoming world class, if not harder.