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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Execute Organizational Change with Confidence
by Michael E. Smith
Driving home one day, the CEO of a fast-growing mid-sized company mulled over the just-concluded Board meeting. At $350 million in annual revenues, the company was doing well, building on a strong record of growth and turning out a solid financial performance. The current leadership team had worked together for a long time and knew the industry thoroughly.

Their growth plans were well defined: In five years, the CEO believed the company could be about twice as big, more international, have a more diverse customer base and be offering two to three additional product lines. By all accounts, the company was a success and its future looked rosy.

And yet, a query from an investor and Board member after the meeting nagged at the CEO. The question: Was the organization ready to successfully execute on its ambitious plans?

Pondering it, the CEO came to a critical realization: he didn’t know. He had a solid grasp on what his operation looked like today. And he knew exactly where he wanted to be in five years. However, he had not identified the specific changes that would need to be made in the company’s structure, staff, sales strategy, product development capabilities, etc. in order to realize the planned growth. Clearly, there was work to be done.

The CEO’s quandary was not unique. In our work with hundreds of companies, we frequently find that although the timing for change is right, the path forward is not very clear. Too often in planning for growth, leaders give a lot of thought to moving around names in boxes but overlook other crucial aspects of the company.

A more holistic view of what a company requires to achieve its growth aspiration takes a top-to-bottom look at what needs to change. Typically, this includes developing new capabilities, establishing new management processes, realigning people, refining the organization structure, and strengthening the underlying culture and values – all key components of the operating model.

Done right, this holistic approach to mapping the future helps leaders better understand current capability weaknesses and challenges as well as clarify the vision of the future state. It also results in a highly detailed plan that can be communicated to the Board and down through senior management, giving everyone total clarity as to the strategic goals, the future operating model to which the company is evolving and how they are going to get there.

Consider the CEO in the example above. After realizing he did not have a clear plan to take his company from where it was at the time to where it needed to be in five years, the CEO sat down with his COO, the head of HR, and a team from Blue Ridge Partners (BRP) and said, “Let’s define the future.” In doing so, the most significant change they anticipated was a shift to a more international growth focus.

This understanding prompted the leadership team to begin asking some important questions: What new capabilities would be required to support the company’s growth plans and what type of leadership would be needed to build these capabilities? What new positions should be created on the organizational chart to ensure those growth targets were realized and what would be the qualities of the right candidates to fill those positions?

Those questions were just the beginning. As the CEO and his team worked through each of them, they kept in mind these 10 key principles that lie at the heart of preparing for a successful change in a company’s operating model in order to grow revenues:

  • Focus on the goal of implementing the strategy and delivering on performance commitments – the ultimate objective – not on organizational change, per se.
  • Agree up front on objectives – the “guiding principles” for the operating model – before making hard-to-reverse decisions on structure or people.
  • Consider all dimensions of the operating model (capabilities, decision-making processes, culture, and so on). Avoid excessive focus on structural considerations.
  • Develop and compare, contrast, and evaluate alternative operating models as a way to sharpen decisions. Iterate between options.
  • Develop “ideal” solutions and then move to the “practical” solutions, recognizing likely people, budget or time constraints.
  • Do not compromise on staffing of critical positions. Thorough and hard-nosed assessments ensure the company has the talent in place for the critical roles that will drive future success.
  • Recognize that in the end, the CEO/COO preferences are key as the organizational model must be consistent with their leadership styles. These preferences should trump other design considerations.
  • Carefully consider the project approach, especially the project team composition. Be prepared to make a trade-off between broad organizational involvement/input and project speed.
  • Plan for intensive communication with the executive team during the process and across the company as implementation gets underway.
  • Communicate changes in the context of the “big things” the organization needs to deliver, such as serving customers, introducing new products and meeting growth and profit objectives.

 In all, the process takes two to three months with a focused team. Companies that understand and embrace this holistic approach to managing business transformation and change as part of a larger revenue growth initiative will find the approach to be a very powerful one. It not only positions a company for successful growth, it makes Board relationships more dynamic, drives alignment and transparency and enables everyone to be focused in the same direction on execution of the growth strategy.

With these early pieces in place – including a solid understanding of the desired end goal and an awareness of the myriad dimensions that will impact the future state – the leadership team is ready to take the next step towards successful business transformation and change to drive growth: constructing a detailed plan to bring the organization into the future.

Source: CEO

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TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
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ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros y Ferias de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University Medical Center para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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Friday, August 26, 2016

What is Organizational Culture? And why should we Care?
by Michael Watkins


 If you want to provoke a vigorous debate, start a conversation on organizational culture. While there is universal agreement that:
  1. it exists,
  2. that it plays a crucial role in shaping behavior in organizations, 
there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change.

This is a problem, because without a reasonable definition (or definitions) of culture, we cannot hope to understand its connections to other key elements of the organization, such as structure and incentive systems. Nor can we develop good approaches to analyzing, preserving and transforming cultures. If we can define what organizational culture is, it gives us a handle on how to diagnose problems and even to design and develop better cultures.

Beginning May 1, 2013, I facilitated a discussion around this question on LinkedIn. The more than 300 responses included rich and varied perspectives and opinions on organizational culture, its meaning and importance. I include several distinctive views below, and then I offer my own synthesis of these views:

“Culture is how organizations ‘do things’.” — Robbie Katanga

Culture is consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” This view elevates repeated behavior or habits as the core of culture and deemphasizes what people feel, think or believe. It also focuses our attention on the forces that shape behavior in organizations, and so highlights an important question: are all those forces (including structure, processes, and incentives) “culture” or is culture simply the behavioral outputs?

“In large part, culture is a product of compensation.” — Alec Haverstick

Culture is powerfully shaped by incentives. The best predictor of what people will do is what they are incentivized to do. By incentives, we mean here the full set of incentives — monetary rewards, non-monetary rewards such as status, recognition and advancement, and sanctions — to which members of the organization are subject. But where do incentives come from? As with the previous definition, there are potential chicken-and-egg issues. Are patterns of behavior the product of incentives, or have incentives been shaped in fundamental ways by beliefs and values that underpin the culture?

“Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.” — Bruce Perron

Culture is a process of “sense-making” in organizations. Sense-making has been defined as “a collaborative process of creating shared awareness and understanding out of different individuals’ perspectives and varied interests.” Note that this moves the definition of culture beyond patterns of behavior into the realm of jointly-held beliefs and interpretations about “what is”. It says that a crucial purpose of culture is to help orient its members to “reality” in ways that provide a basis for alignment of purpose and shared action.

“Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.” — Richard Perrin

Culture is a carrier of meaning. Cultures provide not only a shared view of “what is” but also of “why is.” In this view, culture is about “the story” in which people in the organization are embedded, and the values and rituals that reinforce that narrative. It also focuses attention on the importance of symbols and the need to understand them — including the idiosyncratic languages used in organizations — in order to understand culture.

“Organizational culture is civilization in the workplace.” — Alan Adler

Culture is a social control system. Here the focus is the role of culture in promoting and reinforcing “right” thinking and behaving, and sanctioning “wrong” thinking and behaving. Key in this definition of culture is the idea of behavioral “norms” that must be upheld, and associated social sanctions that are imposed on those who don’t “stay within the lines.” This view also focuses attention on how the evolution of the organization shaped the culture. That is, how have the existing norms promoted the survival of the organization in the past? Note: implicit in this evolutionary view is the idea that established cultures can become impediments to survival when there are substantial environmental changes.

“Culture is the organization’s immune system.” — Michael Watkins

Culture is a form of protection that has evolved from situational pressures. It prevents “wrong thinking” and “wrong people” from entering the organization in the first place. It says that organizational culture functions much like the human immune system in preventing viruses and bacteria from taking hold and damaging the body. The problem, of course, is that organizational immune systems also can attack agents of needed change, and this has important implications for on-boarding and integrating people into organizations.
In the discussion, there were also some important observations pushing against the view of culture as something that it is unitary and static, and toward a view that cultures are multiple, overlapping, and dynamic.

“Organizational culture [is shaped by] the main culture of the society we live in, albeit with greater emphasis on particular parts of it.” — Elizabeth Skringar

Organizational culture is shaped by (and overlaps with) other cultures — especially the broader culture of the societies in which it operates. This observation highlights the challenges that global organizations face in establishing and maintaining a unified culture when operating in the context of multiple national, regional and local cultures. How should leaders strike the right balance between promoting “one culture” in the organization, while still allowing for influences of local cultures?

“It over simplifies the situation in large organizations to assume there is only one culture… and it’s risky for new leaders to ignore the sub-cultures.” — Rolf Winkler

The cultures of organizations are never monolithic. There are many factors that drive internal variations in the culture of business functions (e.g. finance vs. marketing) and units (e.g. a fast-moving consumer products division vs. a pharmaceuticals division of a diversified firm). A company’s history of acquisition also figures importantly in defining its culture and sub-cultures. Depending on how acquisition and integration are managed, the legacy cultures of acquired units can persist for surprisingly long periods of time.

“An organization [is] a living culture… that can adapt to the reality as fast as possible.” — Abdi Osman Jama

Finally, cultures are dynamic. They shift, incrementally and constantly, in response to external and internal changes. So, trying to assess organizational culture is complicated by the reality that you are trying to hit a moving target. But it also opens the possibility that culture change can be managed as a continuous process rather than through big shifts (often in response to crises). Likewise, it highlights the idea that a stable “destination” may never — indeed should never — be reached. The culture of the organization should always be learning and developing.

These perspectives provide the kind of holistic view of organizational culture that is needed by leaders in order to truly understand their organizations, and to have any hope of changing them for the better.
Source: Harvard Business Review

Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
de las necesidades de su Organización:


Consultas al mail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros y Ferias de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University Medical Center para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Inversión Extranjera en Argentina: Sectores prioritarios


Durante los últimos 12 años las condiciones económicas y políticas instalaron un escenario incierto para hacer negocios en el país. La política mostró una hostilidad bastante marcada a la participación de empresas extranjeras. Ernst & Young, una de las "Big four", enumera los sectores con mayores oportunidades

El nuevo gobierno del presidente Mauricio Macri intenta avanzar hacia la apertura de la economía a la inversión extranjera para lograr la reactivación necesaria. Promete un clima de negocios menos estatista y más favorable a los emprendimientos para atraer no solo inversión extranjera sino también nacional, que todavía no aparece a pesar de manifestaciones de apoyo a su agenda.

Según la consultora, en un documento preparado especialmente para inversionistas extranjeros, Argentina está implementando un ambicioso plan para fomentar el crecimiento y el desarrollo. Los objetivos de este plan son: mejorar los corredores productivos, desarrollar el mercado aéreo interno, crear nuevas oportunidades, mejorar la calidad del transporte público y diversificar la matriz logística.

Más de US$ 75.000 millones de inversiones se esperan en las siguientes categorías: caminos y autopistas (US$ 25.000 millones); agua corriente y cloacas (US$ 20.000 millones), líneas de ferrocarriles de carga (US$ 15.000 millones), bienes raíces y vivienda (US$ 10.000 millones), redes celulares (US$ 5.000 millones); y aeropuertos y puertos (US$ 2.000 millones).

La administración de Macri ha definido programas específicos como el Plan Belgrano, que se propone crear infraestructura y fomentar el desarrollo industrial en diez provincias del norte, prevé una inversión de US$  16.000 millones en 10 años, un "fondo de reparación histórica" de $ 50.000 millones, vivienda para 250.000 familias y la construcción de 1.400 guarderías infantiles. El Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) lo va a financiar y ayudará al gobierno a cumplir con las metas de mejorar infraestructura y reducir pobreza.

El gobierno anunció también la construcción de túneles en la cordillera de los Andes para aumentar el volumen de las exportaciones de Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay y Uruguay al Pacífico mediante una mejor conexión logística con Chile.

Petróleo y gas

Con independencia de cómo estén los precios internacionales el desarrollo de hidrocarburos sigue viéndose como una gran oportunidad para la economía porque Argentina tiene uno de los reservorios más grandes del mundo en petróleo y gas shale. El descubrimiento de Vaca Muerta y las sociedades entre YPF y empresas extranjeras mejoraron todavía más la base para desarrollar el sector.

El 11 de marzo de 2016 el ministro de energía dijo que los exportadores de petróleo pesado en Argentina recibirán del gobierno un subsidio de US$ 7,5 por barril mientras los precios internacionales se mantengan inferiores a US$ 47,40 por barril. La política fue anunciada porque el gobierno busca inversión argentina para ayudar al despegue de la economía.

Se estima además que las inversiones en energía no convencional superarán los US$ 20.000 millones.

Energía renovable

Con apenas 295 MW de capacidad eólica instalada a fines de 2014 y solo 10 MW de capacidad solar instalada y muy dependiente de los combustibles fósiles de producción nacional cuyo precio fue mantenido artificialmente bajo con subsidios del gobierno, las energías solar y eólica juntas producen menos de 0,5%  del mix energético nacional.

Según una investigación realizada por el Laboratorio de Investigación en Energías Renovables de Estados Unidos, los recursos solares de Argentina podrían  llegar a 7.853 TWh/y, lo cual coloca al país en el puesto número 11 entre los más altos del mundo. Pero la mayor oportunidad está en la energía eólica, pues tiene una de las fuentes más prometedoras del mundo.

En octubre de 2015 el gobierno anterior aprobó la Ley de energía renovable que fija metas de consumo: 8% para finales de 2017 y 4% más cada dos años hasta llegar a 20% en 2025. Según la Cámara Argentina de Energía Renovable (CADER), el país va a necesitar 7 GW de nueva capacidad instalada para 2021. Entre 2 y 3 GW serán  necesarios para llegar a la meta de 8% (lo que necesita una inversión de capital de US$ 5.000 millones y 10GW para llegar a la meta de 20%  (lo que va a necesitar una inversión total de US$ 15 a 20.000 millones).
  
Minería

En febrero de 2014 el presidente Macri eliminó el impuesto de 5% a las exportaciones mineras dispuesto por el gobierno anterior. En Argentina hay alrededor de US$ 14.500 millones en proyectos mineros pendientes y los cambios que Macri está implementando favorecen las inversiones porque mejora el clima en el negocio minero. Las oportunidades son no solo para los metales más tradicionales como el oro, la plata o el cobre. El litio y el potasio también ofrecen enormes oportunidades para desarrollo futuro.

Agribusiness

El agribusiness es considerado un motor fundamental para el país y la recuperación del sector agroindustrial. El gobierno eliminó la tasa de exportación  para todos los productos agrícolas, ganado, pesca y productos industriales con excepción de la soja, cuya tasa fue reducida en 5% para situarse en 30% y la de sus derivados en 27%. La eliminación y reducción de aranceles de exportación, dicen los expertos,  aumentará de 100 a 180 millones de toneladas de granos y soja para 2025. Se proyectan inversiones de US$ 8.000 millones en desarrollo de tierras e irrigación, forestación y pulpa de papel.

Fuente: Mercado

Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
de las necesidades de su Organización:


Consultas al mail: mamc.latam@gmail.com
ó al TE: +5411.3532.0510


.·. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, SMHS .·.
Especialista en Management Estratégico, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones
Representante de The George Washington University en Foros y Ferias de LatAm desde 2001
Representante de The George Washington University Medical Center para los Países de LatAm desde 1996
Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en GWU School of Medicine & Health Sciences (Washington DC)
CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
TE Oficina: ( 0054) 11 - 3532 - 0510
TE Móvil (Local): ( 011 ) 15 - 4420 - 5103
TE Móvil (Int´l): ( 0054) 911 - 4420 - 5103
Skype: medinacasabella


MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
(mamc.latam@gmail.com; +5411-3532-0510)
es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
Management Estratégico,
Gestión del Cambio,
Marketing Estratégico,
Inversiones,
Gestión Educativa,
Capacitación

de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

a) Salud, Farma y Biotech,
b) Industria y Servicios,
c) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
d) Gobierno y ONGs.
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