MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The execution of an organization’s supply chain strategy is best managed as part of the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process and meetings. In case an organization should not have an S&OP process, this may be a good time to develop and implement one as part of their integrated supply chain strategy.

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Objectives

01. Responsibility Awareness: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Team Alignment: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Assess Capabilities: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. KPI’s: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Decision Acceptance: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Strategy Flow: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Employee Engagement: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Transformation Program: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Leadership Roles: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Scorecards: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Inclusive Planning: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Middle Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Responsibility Awareness: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Team Alignment: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Assess Capabilities: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. KPI’s: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Decision Acceptance: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Strategy Flow: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Employee Engagement: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Transformation Program: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Leadership Roles: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Scorecards: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Inclusive Planning: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Middle Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Responsibility Awareness.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Team Alignment.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Assess Capabilities.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze KPI’s.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Decision Acceptance.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Strategy Flow.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Employee Engagement.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Transformation Program.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Leadership Roles.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Scorecards.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Inclusive Planning.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Middle Management.

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Introduction

The Keys to Executing a Successful Strategy

In the Global Supply Chain, only solid execution can keep you on the competitive map after a brilliant strategy, blockbuster product, or breakthrough technology has put you there. You must be able to follow through on your promises. Unfortunately, the majority of businesses, by their own admission, aren’t particularly good at it.

Execution is the product of thousands of decisions made every day by personnel acting in their own self-interest and based on the knowledge they have. We’ve identified four essential building blocks executives may use to impact those behaviors : clarifying decision rights, creating information flows, aligning motivators, and implementing structural adjustments. (We’ll refer to them as choice rights, information, motivators, and structure for the purpose of simplicity.)

Most supply chains’ first turn to structural measures to improve performance since changing lines across the org chart appears to be the most obvious option because the changes are visible and tangible. These actions usually produce some short-term efficiency fast, but they simply address the symptoms of dysfunction rather than the core reasons. Companies frequently finish up back where they started after several years. Structural change can and should be a component of the path to better execution, but it’s better to think of it as the apex of any organizational transformation rather than the cornerstone. In fact, our research reveals that activities related to decision rights and information are significantly more important than improvements to the other two building blocks, and are roughly twice as effective. (See the exhibit “Strategy Execution’s Most Important Factors.”)

What Is Most Important in Supply Chain Strategy Execution?

When a corporation fails to carry out its strategy, the first thought that comes to mind is to reorganize.

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Case Study

Consider the situation of a multinational consumer packaged products corporation that went through a major reorganization in the early 1990s. (In this and subsequent situations, we have changed identifying details.) Senior management, dissatisfied with the company’s performance, did what most firms did at the time: They reorganized. They reduced the number of layers of management and expanded the scope of control. The cost of management personnel dropped by 18% in a short period of time. However, eight years later, it was deja vu all over again. The layers had crept back in, and control swaths had shrunk once more. Management had addressed the outward symptoms of bad performance but not the underlying cause—how people made decisions and were held accountable—by focusing solely on structure.

This time, management focused on the mechanics of how work was completed rather than lines and boxes. Rather than looking for methods to decrease expenses, they concentrated on improving execution—and in the process, they found the actual causes of the performance gap. Managers lacked a clear understanding of their duties and responsibilities. They didn’t know which decisions were theirs to make naturally. Furthermore, there was a shaky link between performance and pay. This was a firm that valued micromanagement and second-guessing over accountability. Middle managers spent 40% of their time justifying and reporting upward, or challenging their direct reports’ tactical decisions.

With this knowledge, the organization created a new management model that defined who was responsible for what and established a link between performance and compensation. For example, it was common practice at this organization, and not uncommon in the sector, to promote employees fast, within 18 months to two years, before they had a chance to see their ideas through. As a result, even after being promoted, managers at all levels continued to do their old tasks, gazing over the shoulders of their direct reports who were now in control of their projects and, all too frequently, taking over. People are staying in their jobs longer these days so they may follow through on their own ideas, and they’re still around when the benefits of their labors begin to show. Furthermore, the outcomes of such projects continue to factor into their performance appraisals for some time after they’ve been promoted, compelling managers to live up to the standards they set in earlier employment. As a result, forecasting has improved in accuracy and consistency. The improvements did result in a structure with fewer layers and broader control spans, however this was a side effect rather than the primary goal of the alterations.

The Components of Effective Execution

Our judgments are the result of decades of hands-on experience and extensive investigation. What are the most effective techniques of reorganizing, motivating, improving information flows, and clarifying decision rights? We began by creating a list of 17 traits, each of which corresponded to one or more of the four building blocks we knew were necessary for effective execution—traits such as the free flow of information across Global Supply Chain organizational boundaries or the degree to which senior leaders refrain from intervening in operational decisions.

Organizational Effectiveness: The Fundamental Characteristics

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The importance of decision rights and knowledge to good plan implementation is shown by ranking the attributes. The first eight characteristics correspond to decision-making authority and information. Only three of the 17 qualities have anything to do with structure, and none of them are ranked higher than thirteenth. Here, we’ll go over the top five characteristics.

Everyone Is Aware Of The Decisions And Acts For Which They Are Accountable

In companies that excel at execution, 71 percent of employees agree with this statement; in companies that struggle with execution, only 32 percent agree. As a corporation grows older, decision powers begin to blur. Young companies are often too focused on getting things done to take the time to properly define roles and duties from the outset. Why should they, after all? It’s not difficult to find out what other people are up to in a small organization. So things go well enough for a while. Executives come and go as the company grows, bringing with them and taking away various expectations, and the approval process becomes more confusing and muddy with time. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell where one person’s responsibility ends and another’s begins.

This was discovered the hard way by one major consumer-durables corporation. It was difficult to identify anyone below the CEO who felt truly accountable for profitability since there were so many people making competing and contradicting judgments. The corporation was divided into 16 product divisions, which were then divided into three geographic groups: North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. Each division was responsible for meeting specific performance goals, although functional employees at corporate headquarters were in charge of spending goals, such as how R&D dollars were allocated. Divisional and geographic leaders’ decisions were frequently overruled by functional leaders. As the divisions hired more people to help them build airtight arguments to challenge corporate decisions, overhead expenses began to rise.

While divisions argued with functions, each layer weighed in with queries, decisions stagnated. Because functional leaders were responsible for awards and promotions, functional staffers in the divisions (for example, financial analysts) generally deferred to their higher-ups in corporate rather than their division vice president. The CEO and his executive staff were the only ones who have the authority to settle disagreements. All of these symptoms compounded and delayed execution—until a new CEO was brought in.

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What is the Definition of Global Supply Chain Strategy?

For one thing, it’s not operational efficiency.

By reorganizing the divisions to focus on customers, the new CEO elected to focus less on cost control and more on profitable growth. As part of the new organizational architecture, the CEO clearly delegated profit responsibility to the divisions, as well as the power to rely on functional operations to achieve their objectives (as well as more control of the budget). Corporate functional responsibilities and decision rights were recast to better serve the divisions’ demands as well as to construct the cross-divisional connections needed to improve the business’s overall global capabilities. The functional leaders, for the most part, were aware of market realities, which necessitated some changes to the business’s operating model. It helped that the CEO included them in the organizational redesign process, so the new model wasn’t something they were forced to adopt, but rather something they collaborated on.

Critical Information Regarding The Competitive Landscape Is Rapidly Communicated To Headquarters

In strong-execution firms, 77 percent of employees agree with this statement, whereas just 45 percent of employees in weak-execution businesses do.

Headquarters can play a critical role in spotting patterns and disseminating best practices across company sectors and geographical regions. However, it can only play this coordinating role if it has current and accurate market intelligence. Otherwise, rather than deferring to operations that are much closer to the client, it will tend to push its own agenda and policies.

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