Bristol-Myers and their Executive Strategy Council

Business Week/AP recently reported that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. created an "executive strategy council" amidst a number of other leadership changes. The council, headed by the newly-appointed president, will be responsible for making strategic choices for the company as BMS pursues its “String of Pearls” strategy.

This type of action is not entirely new. Many organizations tap selected councils, or even boards, to help chart or challenge their strategic direction given today's turbulent markets. It's worth considering how well your organization incorporates either formal or ad-hoc structures to help guide strategy.

Read the Business Week/AP article

Not So Great After All…

There's nary a manager that cannot quote at least a buzz phrase or two from Jim Collins' best seller, Good to Great. Organizations are constantly working to determine if they are "hedgehogs or foxes" while they simultaneously try to fill the succession pipeline with "level-five leaders." But before any more employees are asked to get off the bus, managers might want to first take a look at two studies recently published in Academy of Management Perspectives.

The first study, by Bruce Resnick and Timothy Smunt of Wake Forest's Babcock School of Management, analyzes financial performance of the 11 Good to Great companies over subsequent periods and finds that only one of the 11 companies continued to exhibit superior stock performance. The second study, by Bruce Niendorf and Kristine Beck of the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, also finds that the 11 Good to Great firms did not differ significantly in terms of long-term stock performance from the average S&P 500 firm.

The authors note that Collins' most significant error isn't that he found 11 firms with "five principles of greatness" in common, but rather that he concluded—based upon his work—that the five principles he discovered caused the great (or, now, not so great) performance.

Read the Academy of Management Perspectives article

Business Strategy Defined

At some point, every manager has attended a meeting where participants use the exact same word but they have totally different meanings. Words are the symbols of our communications, therefore, their meanings matter quite a lot. Strategy is one of those words often used, but often misused. Some people think of strategy as a plan of action. Others see it as a vision and mission. More still believe it is really little more than a collection of projects.

No matter what you or your team's definitional predisposition is, it's worth agreeing on a common definition of strategy before you begin your strategy development activities. In this month's summary entitled Business Strategy Defined, I provide readers with a succinct definition of business strategy, along with two examples of strategy statements that will help readers jump-start their strategy-making efforts.

View my Business Strategy Defined presentation

Avoid the Four Fatal Flaws of Strategic Planning

Two studies by consultants Bain and McKinsey indicate that nearly 90% of large organizations engage in some form of strategic planning. Over the years, I've studied, researched and worked in a diverse spectrum of organizations with the lens focused on strategy. I found there are common mistakes being consistently made by leadership teams when planning and executing their organization's strategy.

I thank Harvard Business Online for publishing my article, Four Fatal Flaws of Strategic Planning, which highlights four quick and easy changes an organization can make to improve both the planning (and execution) of their strategies.

Read my Harvard Business Online article

I hope you enjoyed the premiere issue of my e-Newsletter, and thanks for reading. As always, keep improving your Planning through Performance! For more on strategy and performance coaching, visit EdBarrows.com.

Come join me at one of my upcoming training events:

April 22-23, 2009
Orlando, Florida

Palladium's Master Class Mastering the Management System

Taught directly by Drs. Kaplan and Norton, creators of the Balanced Scorecard. Includes my Clarifying and Aligning Strategy interactive workshop.

Learn more and register

April 27-29, 2009
Arlington, Virginia

American Management Association's 3-Day Strategic Planning Seminar

Develop the best strategic planning to support your company's goals, led by yours truly!

Learn more and register

Susan Foley!

Executive Director of Research Centers at Babson's Executive Education

During a strained and limiting economy, Susan was able to deliver a highly successful Innovation 2.0 Summit. Speakers included renowned management thinker Bill Taylor, author of Mavericks at Work, consultant Francis Gouillart of the Experience Co-Creation Partnership, and Len Schlesinger, President of Babson College.

Attendees hailed from best-in-class organizations such as BASF, Fidelity, W. L. Gore, Ocean Spray, Irving Oil, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts and a host of others.

Susan will receive a ladies' Vineyard Vines scarf for her Pink Tie Award, (gentlemen Pink Tie Award winners receive a traditional Vineyard Vines men's tie) as well as a big EBBZ (Ed Barrows Bravo Zulu) for a job well done.

Keep your eyes peeled for more future innovation events from Babson Executive Education.