Importance of Clear Decision Roles to Enhance Organizational Performance
www.hbrreprints.org
Your organization can become more decisive—and can implement strategy more quickly—if you know where the bottlenecks are and who’s empowered to break through them.
Who Has the D?
How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance by Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko
Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 Who Has the D?: How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance 10 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Reprint R0601D
Who Has the D?
How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance
The Idea in Brief
Decisions are the coin of the realm in business. Every success, every mishap, every opportunity seized or missed stems from a decision someone made—or failed to make. Yet in many firms, decisions routinely stall inside the organization—hurting the entire company’s performance. The culprit? Ambiguity over who’s accountable for which decisions. In one auto manufacturer that was missing milestones for rolling out new models, marketers and product developers each thought they were responsible for deciding new models’ standard features and colors. Result? Conflict over who had final say, endless revisiting of decisions—and missed deadlines that led to lost sales. How to clarify decision accountability? Assign clear roles for the decisions that most affect your firm’s performance—such as which markets to enter, where to allocate capital, and how to drive product innovation. Think “RAPID”: Who should recommend a course of action on a key decision? Who must agree to a recommendation before it can move forward? Who will perform the actions needed to implement the decision? Whose input is needed to determine the proposal’s feasibility? Who decides— brings the decision to closure and commits the
Your organization can become more decisive—and can implement strategy more quickly—if you know where the bottlenecks are and who’s empowered to break through them.
Who Has the D?
How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance by Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko
Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 Who Has the D?: How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance 10 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Reprint R0601D
Who Has the D?
How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance
The Idea in Brief
Decisions are the coin of the realm in business. Every success, every mishap, every opportunity seized or missed stems from a decision someone made—or failed to make. Yet in many firms, decisions routinely stall inside the organization—hurting the entire company’s performance. The culprit? Ambiguity over who’s accountable for which decisions. In one auto manufacturer that was missing milestones for rolling out new models, marketers and product developers each thought they were responsible for deciding new models’ standard features and colors. Result? Conflict over who had final say, endless revisiting of decisions—and missed deadlines that led to lost sales. How to clarify decision accountability? Assign clear roles for the decisions that most affect your firm’s performance—such as which markets to enter, where to allocate capital, and how to drive product innovation. Think “RAPID”: Who should recommend a course of action on a key decision? Who must agree to a recommendation before it can move forward? Who will perform the actions needed to implement the decision? Whose input is needed to determine the proposal’s feasibility? Who decides— brings the decision to closure and commits the