Essay About
September 2009
BUILDING A QUALITY-FOCUSED CUL TURE
CHALLENGE A consumer products manufacturer competes in a mature and declining commoditised market with a small number of competitors. As such, the organisation must compete on quality to retain its share of the market. With quality becoming an increasingly important strategic imperative, the organisation wanted to understand how it could execute this strategy more consistently and effectively . RESPONSE Research of high performance companies has shown that one way to improve strategy execution is to build a culture aligned with that strategy Towers Perrin analysed results . from this company’s employee opinion survey to assess how well the current organisational culture supported a quality-focused strategy and then identified how the company might alter its culture to , enable more effective execution of this strategy . RESUL TS Towers Perrin uncovered gaps in specific cultural elements that needed to be addressed to better realise a strategy focused on quality The analysis included a review of the . prior year’s survey data and showed that the company was becoming weaker in critical cultural aspects. This insight helped the company form and conduct a formal process of culture change to improve its strategic focus and retain its market competitiveness.
ALIGNMENT DRIVES STRATEGIC SUCCESS In many years of working with global companies, Towers Perrin has found that for an organisation to be effective in translating its goals into results, there must be alignment between its business strategy and organisation culture. Alignment is achieved when the shared beliefs, values, and ways of working within an organisation drive the realisation of goals and objectives. HOW DOES CULTURE SUPPORT QUALITY? Through research of high-performing organisations that compete on quality, Towers Perrin has uncovered the core cultural characteristics or cultural drivers which contribute to the success of these organisations (see
BUILDING A QUALITY-FOCUSED CUL TURE
CHALLENGE A consumer products manufacturer competes in a mature and declining commoditised market with a small number of competitors. As such, the organisation must compete on quality to retain its share of the market. With quality becoming an increasingly important strategic imperative, the organisation wanted to understand how it could execute this strategy more consistently and effectively . RESPONSE Research of high performance companies has shown that one way to improve strategy execution is to build a culture aligned with that strategy Towers Perrin analysed results . from this company’s employee opinion survey to assess how well the current organisational culture supported a quality-focused strategy and then identified how the company might alter its culture to , enable more effective execution of this strategy . RESUL TS Towers Perrin uncovered gaps in specific cultural elements that needed to be addressed to better realise a strategy focused on quality The analysis included a review of the . prior year’s survey data and showed that the company was becoming weaker in critical cultural aspects. This insight helped the company form and conduct a formal process of culture change to improve its strategic focus and retain its market competitiveness.
ALIGNMENT DRIVES STRATEGIC SUCCESS In many years of working with global companies, Towers Perrin has found that for an organisation to be effective in translating its goals into results, there must be alignment between its business strategy and organisation culture. Alignment is achieved when the shared beliefs, values, and ways of working within an organisation drive the realisation of goals and objectives. HOW DOES CULTURE SUPPORT QUALITY? Through research of high-performing organisations that compete on quality, Towers Perrin has uncovered the core cultural characteristics or cultural drivers which contribute to the success of these organisations (see