in this issue
	Leadership Corner: How Do You Create a Culture of Innovation, Excellence, and Commitment in Your Company? Organization Corner: Ten Tips for an Effective Business Assessment

Leadership Corner: How Do You Create a Culture of Innovation, Excellence, and Commitment in Your Company?

Let's start with some definitions that may be helpful: Culture – the atmosphere we create based on conscious or unconscious values, beliefs, and assumptions. Excellence – quality and service. Commitment – the passion and loyalty to achieve the goals. Innovation – the ability to create tomorrow's solutions today. A select few make Fortune's esteemed list of Most Admired Companies year after year: General Electric, Wal-Mart Stores, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Home Depot, Berkshire Hathaway, and Intel. What makes these companies stand out? Their leadership makes excellence a norm. Their commitment to internal and external customers and stakeholders is exceptional. Their ability to adapt and transform with the times demonstrates innovation and reinvention. Recent research based on a 2002 survey of over 12,750 employees worldwide by Watson, Wyatt Worldwide revealed a crisis of confidence between employees and leaders. In most cases, over 50 percent of the employees surveyed lack confidence in their company's leadership. Those surveyed expressed doubt in their leaders' ability to foster trust, manage change, communicate effectively, create of sense of connection between their employee contribution and the corporate goals ("line of vision"), and effectively manage rewards based on productivity. Only 39 percent of employees surveyed trust leadership. Only 43 percent of employees surveyed believe leaders manage business changes effectively. Only 31 percent of employees surveyed believe leaders communicate effectively. Only 52 percent of employees surveyed believe leaders link work contribution and corporate mission, vision, and goals. Only 25 percent of employees surveyed believe leaders effectively manage and reward employees. This is a classic case of perception creating reality. The association between trust and shareholder value creation is simply too strong. Total Return to Shareholders, or TRS, is defined as the appreciation in stock price over three years, plus dividends. The rate of three-year return is almost three times higher at companies with high trust levels than at companies with low trust levels. Companies simply cannot afford to ignore their trust problems. (For this study, data from 1999–2001 was used to determine TRS.) When employees feel they cannot trust their leaders; are not sure of the vision, mission, and goals of the company and what they can do to contribute to it; don't believe change or rewards are handled effectively; and feel communication is unclear, shareholder value is negatively impacted. And that impact hinders a company's ability to create excellence, innovation, and/or garner commitment from the work force. If your company is to excel tomorrow, you must cultivate a culture of: Trust in leadership Vision, mission, goal, and performance alignment Change management Employee Commitment Communication As leaders, how do we create a culture that fosters growth? Make vision, values, mission, goal alignment, and commitment universal in every corner of the organization. Foster the excitement that contributes to the company's success with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Emphasize communication that motivates, recognizes, and gives a compelling call to action and change. Focus on execution and results. Encourage the collective and individual learning, professional development, and innovation that creates commitment. How do you know if you are creating a culture of innovation, commitment, and excellence? There are dozens of questions you can ask yourself to see how you are impacting a culture of excellence, innovation, and commitment. The following ten questions will help you determine your company's ability to create excellence, innovation, and commitment. Can the newest line person articulate the vision and mission of your company? Who is responsible for transferring that vision to the employees? How are your employee performance goals and training tied to the corporate goals? What most inhibits or promotes innovation in your company? If you collected complaints from inside the company what complaints would be foremost? If you went on a sales call with one of your sales people, what would be your current customer's greatest concerns? What have you done in the last quarter to address those concerns? What's your favorite people success story in your company? What's your favorite product success story in your company? What makes people most proud to be part of the team? If you cannot answer two or more of these questions, it is time to retune you company's culture for creating excellence, innovation, and commitment.

Organization Corner: Ten Tips for an Effective Business Assessment

by Peter Schwartz © 2003 A business assessment has been integral in the development of a solid strategic plan, which guides financially strong companies. These assessments quantify company strengths and weaknesses as they relate to the goals of the organization; not only from a sales and marketing perspective in relation to business dynamics, but how each and every department performs their function to contribute (or stymie) the achievement of these goals. In today's economy, senior managers and CEOs are using this vehicle to help them assess the current functioning and then use that to plan a shorter horizon, anywhere from six months to a year. The gravity of the current climate has recently utilized this vehicle for crisis intervention as well as long-term planning. With companies eager to squeeze out every ounce of excess waste, while injecting solid tactical plans, this process can help grow the top line. Oftentimes companies focus on the sales and marketing arenas when top lines are not being achieved. In reality, quality, service, internal communications or lack thereof, stalled product development, or product-to- market expediency can play a significant role in the top line and bottom line. During a recent assessment of a New England-based manufacturer, a clear disconnect was identified between the Company and it's existing and potential customers. Customers (and salespeople alike) were extremely frustrated with how long it would take to satisfy a requirement for product literature. Literature was handled in a traditional fashion, with the company having more than 300 different pieces of collateral material printed outside, but shipped back to the factory, inventoried, then sorted, packaged, and shipped manually through the Company's shipping department. With more than 4,000 requests per year, this proved costly to this small company. It consumed more than 1½ years to support, not to mention countless shipping charges through UPS. The business assessment revealed the waste in the process and enabled them to outsource to a fulfillment house, saving nearly $40,000 per year. Equally important, the clerk who was formerly charged with this responsibility was redirected to perform telemarketing; affecting increased sales for the top line. Ten Tips for a Successful Business Assessment Whether you do the business assessment yourself or outsource it to a consultant, these tips will help you glean the information most essential to making decisions based on the information ascertained. Make sure the assessor is someone who can be objective, maintain neutrality, and gain the trust of those interviewed so that you can get the right information. Interview as many levels as possible in the organization to establish the most objective perspective. Include Key management questions. Interview customers, as they will be key in establishing near-term tactics. Include a summary of the existing business goals. Include a report card covering all departments as they relate to achieving or missing the aforementioned goals. Include a situation assessment; input from as many individuals as possible...in confidence! Include company, market, and customer observations and effects. Include report card covering all departments as they relate to achieving the aforementioned goals. Include key obstacles to growth. Once both the targets and realities are understood in conjunction with each other, short-term goals can be identified and more importantly achieved. And remember, too; use the plan as an operating guideline. Refer to it regularly. Compare your performance and constantly readjust to stay on track. An effective business assessment can get your company back on track for productivity and profitably even in lean times.