STRATEGY:

Core Concepts and

Analytical Approaches
7th Edition (2022-2023)
Arthur A. Thompson
The University of Alabama

Chapter 11
Managing Internal
Operations: Actions
That Promote Good
Strategy Execution

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 Processes underpin business capabilities, and
capabilities underpin strategy execution.
—Pearl Zhu

Winning companies know how to do their work better.

—Michael Hammer and James Champy

Companies that make best practices a priority are

thriving, thirsty, learning organizations. They believe
that everyone should always be searching for a better
way. Those kinds of companies are filled with energy
and curiosity and a spirit of can-do.
—Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–2

 Motivation is the art of getting people to do what
you want them to do because they want to do it.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, thirty-fourth President
of the United States

Pay your people the least possible and you’ll get

the same from them.
—Malcolm Forbes, late Publisher of Forbes Magazine

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–3

 Learning Objectives
1. Learn why resource allocation should always be based on strategic
priorities.

2. Understand why policies and procedures should be designed to

facilitate good strategy execution.

3. Understand why and how benchmarking, best-practices adoption,

and tools for continuously improving the performance of value
chain activities help an organization achieve operating excellence
and superior strategy execution.

4. Understand the role of information and operating systems in

enabling company personnel to carry out their strategic roles
proficiently.

5. Learn how and why the use of well-designed incentives and

rewards can be management’s single most powerful tool for
promoting proficient strategy execution and operating excellence.
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–4
 Chapter 11 Roadmap

• Steering Needed Resources to Execution-Critical

Activities
• Instituting Policies and Procedures that Facilitate
Strategy Execution
• Adopting Best Practices and Striving for
Continuous Improvement
• Installing Information and Operating Systems
• Using Rewards and Incentives to Promote Better
Strategy Execution

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–5

 Allocating Needed Resources
to Execution-Critical Activities
• Good strategy execution requires:
• Top management involvement in directing the proper amounts
of resources to organizational units so that the units can
execute their respective pieces of the strategy effectively and
efficiently .
• Both changes in strategy and efforts to improve execution of
an existing strategy typically entail budget reallocation and
resource shifting.
• Previously important units with a lesser role in a new strategy may need
downsizing.
• Units that now have a bigger strategy-critical role may need more people,
new equipment, additional facilities, and/or above-average increases in
their operating budgets, especially if they need to develop and
strengthen particular resources, competencies, and capabilities.
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–6
 Guidelines for Allocating Resources
to Promote Good Strategy Execution
• Expenditures for operations and capital improvements must be
• Strategy-driven (to amply fund performance of strategy-critical value
chain activities)
• Lean (to operate cost-efficiently).
• Underfunding organizational units and activities pivotal to
strategic success impedes the implementing and executing of
strategy.
• Overfunding of particular organizational units and value chain
activities wastes organizational resources and reduces financial
performance.
• However, merely fine-tuning an existing strategy or approach to
execution seldom requires big shifts of resources from one area to
another

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–7

 Core Concept

Good strategy execution requires steering the

proper kinds and amounts of resources to the
enterprise’s various organization units and
strategy-critical value chain activities.
Visible actions to reallocate operating funds and
increase/decrease the staffing of certain organizational
units give credibility to management’s intent to institute
internal change and signal personnel to exhibit a sense
of urgency in putting the new strategy elements into
place and/or improving the performance of activities
essential to better strategy execution.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–8

 Ensuring That Policies and Procedures
Facilitate Strategy Execution
• When a firm launches efforts to put new strategy elements
in place or improve its strategy execution capabilities, some
changes in work practices and behavior of personnel are
usually called for. Managers are thus well-advised to
examine whether existing policies and procedures fully
support such changes
• Well-conceived policies and procedures facilitate good
strategy execution by:
• Providing top-down guidance regarding how certain things need to be
done
• Helping enforce needed consistency in how execution-critical
activities are performed in geographically scattered operating units
• Promoting the creation of a work climate that facilitates good strategy
execution
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–9
Figure 11.1 How Prescribed Policies and Procedures Facilitate
Strategy Execution

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. Access alternate text for slide image 11–10
 Core Concept

A company’s policies and procedures provide

guidance for conducting particular aspects of the
company’s business and a set of white lines and
routines for steering employee behavior.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–11

 Core Concept

A company’s policies and procedures can either

support or hinder good strategy execution.
Well-conceived policies and procedures aid
strategy execution; out-of-sync ones are barriers.
Instituting effective strategy-facilitating policies
can mean more policies, fewer policies, or
different policies. It can mean policies that
require things to be done a certain way or
policies that give employees some leeway
between the white lines.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–12

 Rigid Policies or Room for
Independent Action?
• One of the big policy-making issues concerns what activities need
to be rigidly prescribed and what activities ought to allow room for
independent action on the part of empowered personnel
• Too much policy can erect as many obstacles as wrong policy or be
as confusing as no policy. There is wisdom in a middle-ground
approach:
Prescribe enough policies to give organization members clear
direction and to place desirable boundaries on their actions,
then empower them to act within these boundaries however
they think makes sense.
Allowing company personnel to act anywhere between the “white
lines” is especially appropriate when individual creativity and
initiative are more essential to good strategy execution than
standardization and strict conformity.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–13

Adopting Best Practices and Employing Process
Management Tools to Improve Execution
• Managers can promote competent strategy execution by pushing
organization units and personnel to identify and adopt the best
practices for performing value chain activities and, further, insisting
on continuous improvement in how internal operations are
conducted

• Benchmarking a firm’s performance of particular activities and

business processes against “best-in-industry” and “best-in-world”
performers is a powerful tool for gauging how well a firm is
executing pieces of its strategy and performing particular value
chain activities

• Benchmarking provides yardsticks for judging the effectiveness and efficiency of

internal operations, and setting performance standards for organization units
to meet or beat

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–14

 Core Concept
A best practice is a means of performing an activity or
process that yields results consistently superior to other
approaches.
A method of performing an activity or process qualifies as
a best practice when at least one enterprise has shown
that it is unusually effective in:
Significantly lowering costs
Improving quality or performance
Shortening time requirements or enhancing safety OR
Delivering other highly positive outcomes
A best practice can evolve over time as improvements are
discovered.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–15

 Strategic Insight

Managerial efforts to identify and adopt best

practices are a powerful tool for promoting
operating excellence and better strategy
execution.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–16

 How the Process of Identifying and
Incorporating Best Practices Works
• The role of benchmarking is to:
• Look outward to find best practices of other firms
• Develop measures of how well a firm’s own performance
of the activity compares to the best-practice standard of
outside enterprises
• Then the firm must
• Adapt each best practice to fit its own circumstances
• Implement its customized version of a best practice
• Continue to try to further improve how each best practice
is performed over time and to compare the firm’s
performance outcomes to those achieved elsewhere
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–17
 Strategic Insight

Implementing use of best practices across a

company’s entire value chain is a powerful way for
managers to push a company along the path to
operating excellence and good strategy execution.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–18

Figure 11.2 From Benchmarking and Best-Practice
Implementation to Operating Excellence

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. Access alternate text for slide image 11–19
 • Three other potent management tools for
improving the performance of certain internal
activities and thereby moving closer to
operating excellence and more competent
strategy execution are:
• Business process reengineering
• Total quality management (TQM) programs
• Six Sigma programs

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–20

 Business Process Reengineering
• When pieces of a strategically relevant activity is
distributed piecemeal across several functional
departments:
• Inefficiencies are created and optimal performance is impeded
• Accountability is lacking since no one functional manager is
responsible for optimum performance of the entire activity
• Solution  Business Process Reengineering
• Involves redesigning and streamlining workflows and work process
steps, with the goal of achieving quantum gains in performance of
the activity
• Often leads to the establishment of process departments and/or
cross-functional work groups that unify performance of the
activity, and thereby improve overall performance of the activity and
lowering its costs
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–21
 Core Concept

Business process reengineering involves

radically redesigning and streamlining how an
activity is performed, with the intent of achieving
quantum improvements in performance.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–22

 Total Quality Management (TQM) Programs
• TQM is a management approach that emphasizes:
• Continuous improvement in all phases of operations
• 100 percent accuracy in performing tasks
• Involvement and empowerment of employees at all levels
• Team-based work design
• Benchmarking
• Total customer satisfaction
TQM entails creating a total quality culture focused on
continuously improving the performance of every task
and value chain activity.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–23

 Core Concept

TQM entails creating a total quality culture bent on

continuously improving the performance of every
task and value chain activity.
TQM stresses ongoing incremental progress,
striving for inch-by-inch gains again and again in a
never-ending stream.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–24

 How TQM Works
• Implementing and executing a TQM program
• Involves reforming the firm’s culture and focusing on a total quality/
continuous improvement philosophy
• Aims to instill enthusiasm and commitment to doing things right from the
top to the bottom of the organization
• Involves an ongoing search for ways to improve
• TQM doctrine
• There is no such thing as “good enough” and everyone has a
responsibility to participate in continuous improvement
• TQM is a race without a finish—success comes from making small steps
forward each day
• TQM takes a long time to show significant results—very little benefit
emerges in the first six months. But TQM programs can deliver
good long-term results if top executives succeed in creating a
culture and work climate where TQM philosophies and practices
can thrive.
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–25
 Six Sigma Programs
• Six Sigma techniques entail the use of advanced
statistical methods to identify and remove the causes of
defects (errors) and undesirable variations in performing an
activity or business process
• When performance of an activity or process reaches “Six
Sigma quality,” there are not more than 3.4 defects/errors
per million iterations (equal to 99.9997% accuracy)
• The statistical thinking underlying Six Sigma is based on
three principles:
1. All work is a process
2. All processes have variability
3. All processes create data that explains variability

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–26

 Core Concept

Six Sigma programs use advanced statistical

methods to enable an activity or process to be
performed with 99.9997 percent accuracy—fewer
than 3.4 defects per million iterations.

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 Two Main Types of Six Sigma Programs

• Type 1
• Using Six Sigma methods to improve existing processes falling
below specification and needing incremental improvement
• Useful for improving performance when there are wide variations
in how well an activity is being performed
• Type 2
• Using Six Sigma techniques to develop new processes or products
at Six Sigma quality levels

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–28

 The Challenges of Successfully Employing
Six Sigma Programs
• An enterprise that systematically applies Six Sigma
methods to its value chain, activity by activity, can make
major strides in improving the proficiency with which its
strategy is executed provided:
• Top management is genuinely committed to employing Six Sigma
programs and methods of operating

• Senior management spends the time it takes to establish and nurture

a Six Sigma-style quality culture

• Management is able to fully involve employees and train adequate

numbers of Six Sigma green belt, black belt, and master black belt
personnel to conduct the Six Sigma programs competently

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 A Drawback of Six Sigma Programs
• Six Sigma techniques can stifle innovation and creativity
• The strength of Six Sigma techniques is developing and improving how
activities and processes are performed, but creative processes such as
R&D and new product development involve (or require):
• Outside-the-box brainstorming
• Trial-and-error experimentation
• Innovative exploration of ideas and approaches, with many being discarded
and those that appear promising going through multiple testing, revisions,
and prototyping to identify what works best

• Six Sigma users are well-advised to back off using strict Six Sigma
procedures for activities where personnel need free rein to discover
new and better ways of doing things

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 The Difference between Business Process Reengineering
and Continuous Improvement Programs

• Business process reengineering aims at one-time

quantum improvement whereas both TQM and Six Sigma
programs aim at ongoing incremental improvements
• Reengineering can be used first to produce a good basic design that
yields quick dramatic improvements in performing a business process
• TQM or Six Sigma programs can then be used as a follow-on to
achieve gradual improvements beyond the one-time quantum gain

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–31

 Capturing the Benefits of Initiatives
to Improve Operations

• Benchmarking, best practices, business process

reengineering, TQM, and Six Sigma techniques help a firm:
• Execute its strategy proficiently
• Improve the performance of value chain activities
• Strengthen organizational capabilities
• Build a culture of operating excellence
While rivals can also implement benchmarking, best practices, and
continuous improvement programs, it is much more difficult and time-
consuming for them to instill a deeply ingrained culture of operating
excellence, thus enabling a successful first-mover to achieve a potentially
sustainable competitive advantage

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–32

 Core Concept

The purpose of using benchmarking, best

practices, business process reengineering, TQM,
and Six Sigma programs is to improve the
performance of all value chain activities, become
ever more proficient in executing the firm’s
strategy, and create a work climate and culture
where personnel constantly strive for operating
excellence.
When a firm’s use of the tools proves successful,
it often gains a competitive advantage over rivals
based on superior strategy execution capabilities.

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 Installing Information and Operating Systems

• Installing information and operating systems that

enable company personnel to better perform
important value chain activities
• Help strengthen a firm operating capabilities and enable
employees to operate the business more proficiently
• Are integral to first-rate strategy execution and achieving
operating excellence
• Can sometimes create a competitive advantage by giving
a firm capabilities that rivals do not have and are unable
to match (without the expenditure of considerable time,
money, and organizational effort)

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 Core Concept

State-of-the-art operating systems and real-time

data are integral to top-notch strategy execution
and the achievement operating excellence. They
give managers a tool for judging how well things
are going and what needs their attention
They can also be a basis for competitive
advantage if they give a firm competitively
valuable capabilities that rivals do not have
or cannot offset with other capabilities they
have developed.

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 Example: Execution-Critical Support Systems
at FedEx
• Internal communication systems that coordinate
200,000 vehicles and 680 aircraft handling an
average of 18 million packages per day
• Leading-edge flight operations systems allow a
single controller to redirect many FedEx aircraft at
once, overriding their flight plans should weather
or other contingencies arise
• E-business logistics management tools allow
customers to ship and track their packages online

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–36

 Other Examples of Execution-Critical
Support Systems
• [Link]
• Global network of warehouses where computers control order-picking
by sending signals to wireless receivers

• Otis Elevator
• Sophisticated support systems for monitoring, maintaining, and
quickly repairing the 2.6 million elevators, escalators, and moving
sidewalks it has installed for customers

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–37

 Why Information Systems and
Performance Tracking Matter
• Information concerning about daily operations is essential
if managers are to gauge how well the strategy execution
process is proceeding.
• Information systems should cover five broad areas:
• Customer data
• Operations data
• Employee data
• Supplier/partner/collaborative ally data
• Financial performance data
• All key strategic performance indicators must be tracked
and reported in real time where possible

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–38

 Why Information Systems and Performance Tracking Matter

Operations
Your title here Your title here Customer data data
Information concerning Information systems Presentations are Presentations are
about daily operations is should cover five broad communication tools that communication tools that
essential if managers are areas: can be used as can be used as
to gauge how well the demonstrations. demonstrations.
strategy execution
process is proceeding.

39
 The Benefits of Real-Time Information and
Performance Tracking
• Real-Time Information Systems
• Permit timely tracking of key performance indicators across all
aspects of the business
• Allow managers to gather and review information rapidly, to quickly
identify and diagnose problems, and to initiate corrective actions
• Enable managers to gauge how well the execution process is
proceeding
• Provide a means for managers to exercise control over operations
• Provide empowered personnel with information essential to
performing their jobs (responding to customer inquiries, providing
personalized customer service)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, a proponent of managing by the numbers, says:
“The trouble with most corporations is that they make judgment-based
decisions when data-based decisions could be made.”

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–40

 Tying Rewards and Incentives Directly to
Achieving Good Execution-Critical Outcomes
• Personnel must be enthusiastically committed to executing
strategy proficiently and achieving performance targets
• Enlisting such organization commitment requires an
assortment of motivational techniques and rewards
• Just talking about how important new operating practices and the
achievement of performance targets are to the firm’s well-being
seldom commands people’s best efforts for very long

An effectively designed system of incentives and rewards

is a very powerful management tool for winning
employee commitment to diligent, competent strategy
execution and operating excellence.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–41

 Tying Rewards and Incentives Directly to
Achieving Good Execution-Critical Outcomes
• Personnel must be enthusiastically committed to executing
strategy proficiently and achieving performance targets
• Enlisting such organization commitment requires an
assortment of motivational techniques and rewards
• Just talking about how important new operating practices and the
achievement of performance targets are to the firm’s well-being
seldom commands people’s best efforts for very long

An effectively designed system of incentives and rewards

is a very powerful management tool for winning
employee commitment to meeting or beating specified
performance targets and promoting
good strategy execution
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–42
 Core Concept

A well designed reward structure is management’s

single most powerful tool for mobilizing
organizational energy and commitment to meeting
or beating specified performance targets.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–43

 Incentives and Motivational Practices That
Facilitate Good Strategy Execution
• Providing attractive financial compensation
• Providing attractive perks and fringe benefits
• Relying on promotion from within whenever possible.
• Inviting and acting on ideas and suggestions from employees.
• Giving awards and public recognition to high performers and
showcasing company successes.
• Creating a work atmosphere in which there is genuine sincerity, caring,
and mutual respect among workers and between management and
employees.
• Stating the strategic vision in inspirational terms that make employees
feel they are doing something worthwhile in a larger social sense.
• Providing an appealing workplace environment.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–44

 Components of an Effective Reward System

• Monetary Incentives • Non-Monetary Incentives

• Base pay increases • Praise/constructive criticism
• Performance bonuses • Special recognition
• Profit sharing plans • More/less job security
• Stock options • Stimulating or dead-end job
assignments
• Retirement packages
• Piecework incentives
• More/less autonomy
• Rapid/slow promotion

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–45

 Striking the Right Balance between
Rewards and Punishment
• There is scant evidence that a no-pressure/no-adverse-
consequences work environment leads to superior
strategy execution or operating excellence. Hence, it is
unwise to:
• Take off the pressure for good individual and group performance
• Play down the adverse consequences of shortfalls in performance
• Nonetheless, it is usually best to emphasize positive rather
than negative approaches
• Too much stress, internal competitiveness, job insecurity, and
unpleasant consequences can have a counterproductive impact
on workforce morale and strategy execution

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–46

 Linking Rewards to Achieving
the Right Outcomes
• A well-designed incentive system emphasizes rewarding
people for accomplishing results, not for dutifully performing
assigned tasks
• Jobholders’ attention must be focused on “what to achieve”, NOT
ON “what to do”
• The purpose of a firm’s incentive system is to reward people for
achieving the right results, NOT for dutifully performing
assigned duties or trying hard
• Diligently showing up for work and attending to one’s job assignment
does not, by itself, guarantee that the intended results/outcomes will
be achieved
Every organization unit, manager, team or work group, and employee
must be held accountable for contributing to meeting or beating
specified performance targets and helping achieve both good
strategy execution and business performance
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–47
 Linking the Reward System to
the Right Outcomes (continued)
• The first and most important rule in designing an effective
reward structure is to make measures of good business
performance and good strategy execution the dominating
basis for evaluating individual and group efforts and for
awarding incentive payments.

• Generously reward people who meet or beat specified

performance targets
• Deny rewards to those who do not
Incentives/rewards must never be awarded for “a commendable effort,”
always staying busy, coming to work on time, or “trying hard”

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–48

 Guidelines for Designing Effective Incentive
Compensation Systems
• Make the performance payoff a major, not minor, piece of the total
compensation package
• Have incentives that extend to all managers and all workers, not just
top management
• Administer the reward system with scrupulous objectivity and fairness
• Make sure that the performance targets each individual or team is
expected to achieve involve outcomes that the individual or team can
personally affect
• Keep the time between achieving the target performance outcome and
the payment of the reward as short as possible
• Absolutely avoid skirting the system to find ways to reward effort rather
than results

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–49

 Core Concept
The unwavering standard for judging whether
individuals, teams, and organizational units
have done a good job must be whether they
meet or beat specified performance targets
that reflect good strategy execution and
good business performance.
Once “good excuses” start to creep into justifying
rewards for subpar results, the door is open to using
all kinds of reasons why actual performance failed to
match targeted performance.
A “no excuses” standard is more evenhanded, easier
to administer, and more conducive to creating a
results-oriented work climate
Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. 11–50
 Questions for Company Co-Managers

• What specific actions has your company taken to manage

internal operations so as to promote good strategy
execution and operating excellence?

• What specific evidence (based on the industry

benchmarking data and other operating statistics) can you
cite that indicates your company is making reasonable
progress toward achieving operating excellence?

• Is there hard evidence (from the industry benchmarking

data and other operating statistics) that your company is
not as close to achieving operating excellence as are one
or more rival companies?

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 Accessibility Content: Text Alternatives for Images

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 Figure 11.1 How Prescribed Policies and Procedures Facilitate Strategy
Execution, Text Alternate
Return to parent slide

Well-conceived policies and procedures:

• Provide top-down guidance about how certain things need to be done.
• Channel individual and group efforts along a strategy-supportive
path.
• Help align the actions and behavior of company personnel with the
requirements for good strategy execution.
• Place limits on independent action and help overcome resistance to
change.
• Help enforce standardization and consistency in how execution-critical
activities are performed in geographically scattered organization units.
• Promote the creation of a work climate that facilitates good strategy
execution.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. Return to parent slide 11–53
 Figure 11.2 From Benchmarking and Best-Practice Implementation
to Operating Excellence, Text Alternate
Return to parent slide

The graphic shows from benchmarking and best-practice

implementation to operating excellence.
1. Engage in benchmarking to identify the “best practice” for performing
an activity.
2. Adapt the “best practice” to fit the company’s situation, then
implement it (and further improve it over time).
3. Continue to benchmark company performance of the activity against
“best-in-industry” or “best-in-world” performers.
4. Move closer to operating excellence in performing the activity.

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur A. Thompson and Glo-Bus Software, Inc. Return to parent slide 11–54