Strategic Priorities in the 21st Century Organizational Priorities for Market Leaders BA 469

Organizational Factors Critical to Success n Organizational Learning n Promoting Innovation & Experimentation n Constructive Contention n Empowerment n Optimizing Corporate Value Potential n Building the Sustainable Company n Strategic Reframing

1. Organizational Learning n Learning will replace control as the primary responsibility of organizational leadership. n It will require building a learning culture, training that encourages life-long learning, and better performance measurement and benchmarking systems.

2. Promoting Innovation & Experimentation n Constant reevaluation of organizational assumptions n Supportive corporate culture that rewards risk-taking & innovation while having a strong market orientation n Leadership that communicates an inspiring vision of what can be achieved n Clear expectations supported with incentives and rewards

3. Constructive Contention n Acknowledge differences & work towards customer value creating solutions n Build on tensions that emerge and use them to prevent stagnation and complacency

4. Empowerment n Tap the creative energy of each person in the organization n Information technology will increasingly link employees directly serving customers with senior management replacing a major function of many middle level managers

5. Optimizing Corporate Value Potential n Ability to convert available organizational resources into increasing levels of customer perceived value through economies of scope, and by discovering hidden value and opportunity

6. Building the Sustainable Company n Identify and build core competencies n Identify opportunities to build new competitive advantage n Search continuously for threats that could interfere with advantage n Focus on protecting sources of competitive advantage

7. Strategic Reframing n Redefine the rules of the game by rethinking fundamental ways that customer needs are served (i.e. “rule breakers”) n Rather than focusing on the ‘as built’ organization, reframing requires fundamentally redefining organizational processes and business strategy

The Cisco Case n Goal: Build an adaptive system to deal with the speed and turbulence of technological change n Cisco has been at the forefront of business in using technology to transform management practices

The Cisco System –Customer-Focused Leadership & Culture –Fluid, Network-Based Organizational Structures –Network-Based “Personal Touch” Culture –Propensity to Partner –Partner with Key Customers –Acquire Talent, Not Sales Growth –Demand Excellence, Share Success