After a decade of focused field testing and intensive research at some of Indonesia’s largest business groups, our consultants have developed, expounded, and tested management technology based on proprietary paradigm for aligning and attuning organizations, known as Organizing for Business Excellence.

The paradigm consists of seven interlocking elements that the organizational leader and his/her team need to carefully articulate, deploy and evaluate in order to achieve sustainable profitability.

The paradigm postulates that the ultimate goal of any commercial, profit-seeking enterprise is sustainable profitability, not profitability per se. The only way to achieve sustainable profitability is through sustainable self-transformation.

To be sustainable, self-transformation demands a systematic approach for understanding the past, present and desired future state of the organization and its business or businesses, and then planning, implementing and evaluating the ways and means to move forward.

1. SET BUSINESS DIRECTION

It is the most crucial management decision because the other steps as well as long-term success or failure of the business depend on it. What are the end- and intermediate-states of enterprise development to strive for? What are their key features? What are the challenges and constraints of getting there? What is the purpose of its existence? What do its stakeholders expect? The answers to these vital questions comprise the vision and mission elements of the paradigm.

2. FORMULATE MISSION CONTEXT

Formulate a context for building the technical and social sides of the organization during the current development period. What is the current competitive position and what changes need to be effected to bring the company closer to its end-state? What action programs that need to be carried out? What milestones need to be passed along the way? What do people need to pay attention to during the execution of those actions? The answers cover the strategy and values elements of the paradigm.

3. IMPLEMENT MISSION

Implement the mission as contextualized in the second step. Guide execution during the current development period by answering the following questions:
What congruent goals and standards should be established for all levels of management as well as for the work performing units? What is the most reasonable configuration of people, processes, structures and systems that will support the strategic change agenda defined earlier? What management, leadership and work practices should be prescribed to ensure proper execution of the strategy and consistently reflect the desired values? The answers to these fundamental questions provide understanding of the infrastructure and style elements of the paradigm.

4. EVALUATE RESULTS

Evaluate operating results. Build a database for making the right decision in the next step by answering the following questions:
What do they indicate about the prevailing state of policy alignment and value attunement? Which activities are being performed well? Which are not? Who are the excellent performers, the achievers and the underachievers among the work performing and work coordinating units? Is the organizational climate in a good state of health? Which practices do not bring us closer to the desired end-state? Which ones are not yet being done properly? The answers to these revealing questions clarify the results element of the paradigm.

5. TRANSFORM AS REQUIRED

The fifth step is deciding the what, why, who and when of required change, based on what management already knows or senses. Is it enough to simply retool the implementing mechanisms, considering that strategy and values as defined remain valid? Is it necessary to revitalize the current organizational context, considering that either the currently enforced strategy or values have become dysfunctional? Or has it become compulsory to change company direction because certain developments have altered some very fundamental premises upon which previous decisions were based?