TABLE OF CONTENTS Senior managers in many different organizations recognize the need for better planning to deal with increasing competitiveness, calls for more efficiency, pressure on costs, etc., but lack an understanding of how to implement the changes. Total organizational excellence is effected not by focusing on formal structures and systems, but by aligning process management teams. The chapter explains how strategic planning starts with writing the mission statement, analysis of the critical success factors (CSFs) and understanding the core processes.
Some of the obstacles to organizational excellence and resistance to change may be overcome through education, communication, participation, involvement, facilitation, and support. The blitz or rapid change approach should be rejected in favour of a slow, planned purposeful one, starting at the top.
This chapter should help senior management begin the task of process alignment through seven steps to a self-reinforcing cycle of commitment, communication, and culture change:
gain commitment to change;
develop a shared vision and mission of the business or desired change;
develop the mission into its CSFs;
define the key performance indicators and targets;
understand the core processes; break down the core processes into subprocesses, activities and tasks, monitoring and adjusting the process-alignment in response to changes; and
goal translation which then ensures that the whats are converted into hows using a quality function deployment matrix based process to achieve total organization excellence.
I recall the managing director of a large petrochemical company who decided that a major change was required in the...
