1, structure. What class system does the company have? The common structure that hinders the implementation of decision-making is that the management level is too complex, there are too many people at each level, and there are too few job restrictions.
The simplest solution is to reduce levels and expand authority, which can lay off a large number of middle managers and save costs. However, if the basic behavior is not changed, the above practices will still not produce long-term benefits. For example, clear criteria should be set for basic decision-making, so that senior managers don't have to examine every transaction one by one, and the tedious reporting process between different levels needs to be cancelled. The company also needs to strengthen the training of managers and modify the promotion methods.
2. Decision-making power. Who decides what? How many people are involved in the decision-making process? Where is the starting point and end point of individual decision-making power? Clarify these, clarify the personal responsibility, and then reduce the organizational level, thus reducing costs and speeding up implementation.
Bos pointed out that ambiguous decision-making power is more terrible than quicksand, which is often the root cause of poor performance or even no performance. Employees of a financial services company said that they deliberately blurred their responsibilities, so everyone had an excuse to get out.
In addition to the supervisor, the decision-making power of the department also needs to be clearly defined. In a consumer goods company, a large number of executives must meet frequently to resolve conflicts between departments. Business, finance and marketing departments make accurate analysis of new products, new factories and new career opportunities, but they do not communicate with each other. At the marathon meeting, the heads of all departments presented their own independent reports, and then tried to reach an agreed conclusion.
In order to solve this problem, a senior supervisor was assigned to be in charge of an inter-departmental group to strengthen communication. In this way, the company only needs a few executives to make daily decisions, so the number of people who support related affairs can be reduced by 30%.
3. motivation. What are employees' goals, rewards and career choices? What kind of remuneration do they get? Bos believes that employees will not deliberately undermine the company's strategy, but respond rationally according to what they see and hear and how they get paid. If the company's rewards and information circulation make it difficult for employees to understand and implement what they should do, then no matter how grand the vision and strategy are, it is empty talk. Booz takes a consumer goods company he once worked with as an example to show that employees will lose the motivation to work hard. The company's performance appraisal is divided into grades of 1 to 10, and 80% of employees get grades above 9. This is because the company didn't ask the appraiser for strict rating, and the appraiser didn't want to be a bad guy, so everyone was happy. But excellent employees feel that they don't need to make progress, and mediocre employees feel that they are great. Because the company failed to highlight the performance differences of employees through performance evaluation and salary increase, employees did not understand whether their performance needed to be improved, and the implementation of company policies was naturally affected.
4. information. What are the criteria for evaluating performance? How to coordinate activities and transfer knowledge? How to communicate expectations and progress? Who needs to know what? Information is the key to determine whether a company can clearly divide decision-making power, and to motivate and evaluate employees to exercise decision-making power.
Booz pointed out that the most difficult challenge for modern enterprises is to ensure the circulation of high-quality information in departments that must be kept informed at all times, which is also the unsung hero of the company's high performance and competitive advantage. Boss and Ranjay Gul ati, a professor at the School of Management of Northwest University, investigated the management and financial performance of Fortune magazine 1000 companies13 from 1996 to 2000, and found that the companies with the highest shareholder return rate attached great importance to management and strengthened communication with customers, suppliers and employees. Good information circulation not only helps to reduce costs, but also effectively allocates scarce resources.